GameDev Breakdown
My Big Stupid Mouth
Trying to leverage LinkedIn and participating in a discussion about parenting, revenue models, and publisher trust may have recently landed me deeper in enemy territory than I intended to go. Get the full story, hear a good rule of thumb for dealing with publishers, and learn a two-word phrase that lets you know to stop listening to anyone immediately.
Show notes
Highs and lows in leveraging LinkedIn
- GaryVee swears by it, but he’s popular everywhere
 - GameDev tags are relatively quiet and full of self-promotion
 - Too many dreamers looking for free labor
 - Engagement/conversion is awful
 
There are decent tips on using it professionally here
Article: The £900 bill from my child’s Roblox gaming
- Rachel Davies - TheTimes.co.uk - https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-900-bill-from-my-childs-roblox-gaming-ccjjkdmrz
 - Most of article behind paywall, intention clear
 - Davies is “generally against online gaming, BUT...”
 - Several children, one or more parents working from home
 - Let 8-year-old play Roblox with insufficient supervision
 - Says child had no idea they were spending real money
 
Discussion from LinkedIn
- Claim: Game designers are seeking insane profits by exploiting players
 - Over 70% of all games revenue comes from IAP (unverified)
 - AI models developed by Ivy League PhDs are preying on you and your children to carefully extract money in-game
 - The industry should ask itself not how to improve models, but whether it should be doing this
 - The industry needs to “self-regulate” in the manner we saw in the 90s and the formation of the ESRB
 
In this episode
- More to consider on the claims and ideas above
 - What parents say to manipulate you
 - Why key executives in games are helping the media create the screen time boogeyman
 - How parents and consumers should look at any publisher
 - Parental responsibility pertaining to software
 
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