#462 Corporate Meddling

Trust me, I've watched Bob Ross

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A few comments on a recent post about RWBY I made got me thinking about something. Basically, I think that Rooster Teeth – and possibly by extension its parent companies – have artificially inflated RWBY as a media project and franchise rather than letting it grow organically. Therefore, it became a bubble that was bound to burst at some point. RWBY might never have been a profitable IP, which might be very relevant for its future.

This is not a problem that arose after Monty Oum‘s passing, I feel like this was already coming before that. Shane Newville‘s open letter (which absolutely comes from an emotional, mentally unwell state of mind, but has had many of its contents confirmed over the years, even beyond being one of the first descriptions of the toxic work environment at Rooster Teeth) makes a few points that support this impression. Whether you agree with the letter or not, you cannot deny that the first two volumes of RWBY, while they also had merch accompanying them and stuff, were not produced following industry standards – starting with the 3D software used, Poser Pro (Monty Oum‘s preferred tool for animation). This led to some really creative animation work that, while not always high-quality by industry-standards, was certainly pushing boundaries. It was creative and it worked for what RWBY was: a passion project created by someone who saw animation as his strongest suit – as his preferred medium to tell a story. I‘ve seen a lot of people claim that Monty Oum wasn‘t a writer, and while that‘s true, I feel like the implication of that statement is always that he couldn‘t tell stories on his own. I don‘t think that‘s true. I think Monty Oum was a great storyteller when it came to expressing certain things through animated action scenes. It‘s just that he wanted to tell a story that included more than just that and a few lines of dialogue – which is where Miles Luna and Kerry Shawcross come in, two at the time very inexperienced writers (who possibly had a fallout with Monty Oum over creative differences later), as well as some talented folks – people like Shane Newville. They were chosen to work on this because Monty Oum acknowledged their potential and liked to work with them, and I feel like that created an environment where they were really allowed to flourish. Volumes 1 and 2 are certainly not flawless, but I feel like I can tell the people making it had fun.

To Rooster Teeth however? I think RWBY (and by extension, Monty Oum as a creator) might have been little more than assets to them. RWBY was first created around a time when RT first tried to be more like, well, an actual company. At least from 2014 onward, but possibly even earlier than that, this included an effort to conform to industry standards more, mostly in order to be able to hire more people – very visibly so in RWBY in the form of the switch to Maya (my opinion about that is, the way they did it didn’t do RWBY any favors at all). I think they saw RWBY and Monty Oum as an opportunity to appear… More important, bigger, than they ever really were.

So what did they do? Again, I kind of have the feeling that they “upscaled” RWBY to a size where it appears like this big thing, but it became far too much to handle. Essentially, they created a mock giant, or a metaphorical quasi-star: something that can appear big from afar, but is actually very small / unstable (and if we go with the quasi-star metaphor, disturbs all of its surroundings). This is what I mean when I say that RWBY was a bubble bound to burst, because no star lives forever – and quasi-stars can only exist under very specific, very unstable conditions (I linked a Kurzgesagt-video in case you’re interested what exactly a quasi-star / black hole star is / was, cosmology is so fascinating IMO). Once these conditions exist no longer, they both fall apart and collapse into the black hole that is their core at the same time.

My main argument for this is that RWBY was essentially a huge money sink for RT (Source: Barbara Dunkelman’s unprofessionalism). They pumped so much money into this… Perhaps even more than they ever made from it. While this isn’t 100% confirmed, it is very much possible (and IMO not exactly unlikely) that RWBY was never profitable — which it might have been if RT hadn’t been so hellbent on creating the illusion of a multi-million-dollar franchise.

This is purely speculative, but this might also be why Volume 10 was never greenlit. We know that Volume 9 was to a significant part funded by Crunchyroll and in fact would not have been possible without them (probably because RT was already out of money at this point). They might have bought into this mock giant, then realized they had pretty much been scammed once Volume 9 aired. This might have led to Crunchyroll’s unwillingness to fund another season for something they knew now was effectively a money sink. Since RT at this point lacked the funds to produce Volume 10 alone and therefore was dependent on investors like Crunchyroll and Warner Brothers… Volume 10 was never greenlit, no matter how hard they attempted to get their fans’ hopes up and start a hashtag campaign on social media (as far as I remember, that was started by Rooster Teeth, not the fans. I don’t have my Twitter account anymore though, so I can’t check). Again though, this is speculation.

The worst part? This refusal of RT to just… Downscale RWBY again, this determination that it had to be this huge franchise… Was all put on the backs of the creatives working on it. We know at this point, from multiple sources, that RWBY and other RT productions have had an incredible amount of crunchtime, working overtime, employee abuse, … going on behind the scenes, which seems to only have gotten worse after Monty Oum’s passing. At the end of the day, all RT does and has ever done is blame others for their incompetence. Like, no shit, I’ve seen fans claim that it’s the FNDM’s job to “keep the show alive” (particularly in the light of #GreenlightVolume10), which… No, that’s not the fans’ job. It’s the job of the company who has been entrusted with this beloved IP, and said company has proven to be utterly incompetent on multiple occasions, which is unfortunate, but a sad reality for all those who love RWBY. And while Rooster Teeth has never directly said such a thing, they have certainly implied it and taken advantage of the existing sentiment within their fanbase, as well as their parasocial relationship with it (again, see #GreenlightVolume10 for reference).

To clarify, I’m not saying none of this would have happened if RT didn’t insist on making RWBY this big franchise (and biting off far more than they could chew in the process) – again, RT was far too notoriously incompetent at everything a company should manage – but I do think it might have played a role. It also isn’t an excuse for all the employee abuse. Again, what they should have done is downsizing the project, not inflating it further and further.

If I’m not somehow completely in the wrong (because IMO this just makes way too much sense to not be at least partially true – but let’s face it, a lot of this is just me connecting dots, and there is always a chance I’m connecting them wrong, even though I don‘t think so), then it kinda blows my mind that there are still people who believe in this scam. Though I will say, emotional attachment can do that to anyone. If anything, I’m honestly sorry that those folks lose something that means so much to them, and that false promises were made to them.

At the end of the day, the story of RWBY (the “franchise”) is twofold. It’s a story about an incredibly talented creator who passed away far too early, who was given the incredible opportunity to make his dream come true. It’s a story of people he trusted taking up his torch, and maybe getting lost in the dark along the way. It’s an inspiring story regardless, and I hope to see it continued at a downsized scale so it can grow organically, preferably in the hands of an indie animation studio like Dillon Goo (🤞)

But it is also a cautionary tale to both creatives and companies who employ them, a tale about false promises, abuse of both employees and fans, as well as how to not run a project. Don’t blow your thing out of proportion too early, don’t create a mock giant / metaphorical quasi-star. Let your ideas and projects grow and flourish organically and sincerely.

Do you ever feel bad messaging the Sandbox people all the time?

Everytime I message them, yeah XD

They're probably very annoyed at this point.

BUT! everytime I feel bad, I have to remind myself that they are the ones responsible for ruining this franchise, and they don't deserve any slack for that.

I mean, even the original Poptropica creators acknowledge how terrible Sandbox messed everything up. Sandbox doesn't deserve any slack.

Suicide Squad Kill The Justice League should NOT be canon to the Arkhamverse.

I know my opinion won't be a very popular one and that no one cares as much as I do, but the very thought of this game being canon to the Arkhamverse makes me want to burn down an orphanage.

My grievances with this game are more complicated than disliking the playstyle. It may appear that I'm being too hasty in my judgment of an unreleased game, but I have a powerful feeling of foreboding I've experienced about famously "bad" games in the past. It's a stubborn feeling that won't relent and continues to gnaw at me despite my attempts to allay concerns.

From what I've seen of the game, I can tell you that this game should not be in any way connected to the Arkhamverse. There's objectively no reason for this game to be set in the Arkhamverse other than Rocksteady's hope of using the brand to sell a stillborn game that should be its own thing. I would petition Rocksteady to decide against making SSKTJL canon but I doubt anyone cares as much as me.

It's painfully obvious that this game is based more on the Suicide Squad movies than the Arkham series. Arkhamverse Deadshot was a white man, not a black man. Before anyone accuses me of racism, I'm merely pointing out that the movie Deadshot was played by Will Smith, a black man and now Arkhamverse Deadshot, a white man was race changed to black to imitate the movie. King Shark is canonically dead in the Arkhamverse. So is Captain Boomerang. The tonal dissonance between the two is neck-breaking levels of jarring. I'm begging Rocksteady to reconsider connecting this steaming pile to the Arkhamverse as despite what people have said to me, bad storytelling, terrible retcons, and cop-out excuses do have extremely negative effects on a brand's image.

Folks out there really blaming Big Red Button for the failure of Sonic Boom...

“Oh, remember teh LAST TIME SEGA OUTSOURCED A SONIC GAEM!? HUH!?!!!1!?”

Yeah. We do. Sega did what Sega does, and fucking Meddled. REPEATEDLY. AD INFINITUM.

I want to see what a third party can do with a Sonic title, with Sega having little to no fucking involvement, save for possible design choices.

“We’re developing for PLATFORM_X”

LET THEM STICK TO PLATFORM X, DON’T MAKE THEM PLAY HOPSCOTCH AND CHANGE EVERYTHING AT THE LAST GODDAMN MOMENT BECAUSE “OH, THIS NEW CONSOLE IS COMING OUT!! PROFIT??”

1. for the choose violence ask game?

1. the character everyone gets wrong

ONE THOUSAND YEARS JAIL FOR TCW WRITERS for getting that absolutely GOLDEN layup in AotC and then NOT doing jack fuck with Dooku. They looked right at Christopher Lee's deliberately nuanced portrayal in that movie (within the script's and direction's limitations which were indeed very limiting. Have I ever mentioned that George wasn't too good at writing Dooku either?) and did NOTHING. They made him a Saturday evening cartoon guy in the Saturday evening cartoon and I am inconsolable

I cannot get over how they squandered his potential!! And Asajj's by extension, too. And why do I have to cling to CW 03 for any screentime of them both even just existing in the same room? Like genuinely do we ever see them physically next to each other? They're supposed to be master and apprentice bro something went terribly wrong here!!

Also to bend this back to the fandom and to beat a dead bloated decomposing horse: Obi-Wan. Novels have been written about his fanon alter-ego so I'll just say that most people actually write him just fine until any type of relationship emerges! Ppl want to swaddle this spiritual master and veteran shock formation leader in a blanket so bad they gotta nerf him to hell so someone can take loving care of the shadow of his former self lmao

The duet between the main hero and villain in Disney’s Wish sounds like a love song out of context and I hope to god someone makes a Jack Frost X Toothiana or Jelsa or Jackunzel AMV.

Hearing about Volition's abrupt shuttering has left me in a weird empty, mourning mood tonight.

When I first started playing Saints Row: The Third almost exactly ten years ago, little would I know how much it'd end up changing my life. I found my best friends through Saints Row's Tumblr community, friends I keep up with daily even though all of us have since moved on to different fandoms. I got to know many other amazing people in the community, through all the shared art and headcanons and roleplays. And I got deeply invested in the creation and development of my OCs, these silly and badass and tragic imaginary people who shared my headspace almost every waking moment of my life for several years.

All this I got from a game series its studio had clearly poured their hearts and souls into, even through all the constant corporate meddling in the development processes over what must have been the last fifteen years, and now finally, a sudden death knell. Volition the studio is no more, its staff laid off without warning or fanfare. And it's just so unfair to everyone who'd worked on the games, and I hate that it's yet more proof (as if we didn't have enough already) that the current system of giant game publisher oligopolies gobbling up everyone they can get their hands on and then taking them behind the shed to be shot when they don't immediately return a double of their investment just shouldn't. fucking. exist.

It sucks. I don't have much more to say except that I hope the now ex-Volition game developers all end up finding new and maybe even better employers soon. And just maybe there'll be some new studio rising from the core of the Volition creative team. We'll see.

Whether or not corporate meddling was involved in giving us the marketable plushie we got in “Wish” instead of Starboy, I think Disney kinda dodged a bullet given that Starboy was originally supposed to be Asha’s grandfather reincarnate and any hints of “romance” would’ve probably have had some unfortunate implications.

can i be honest and say that the idea of danganronpa being a tv show where the tv actors are legit murdered on live television, and thats just that, never made sense to me.

i know we get vagueries of the world being all rotten and fucked up and its not like i deny this! but i think a big corrupt tv company that has a death grip on the worlds attention would want its actors around after the season ends for contracting shit, merch ads, interviews, etc etc etc.

it just makes more sense to me then actually killing off popular characters and basically never being able to do anything w them again bc you fucking killed the actor playing them. VR au just makes so much sense yknow

So I finally watched Wish and wow.

You guys were really getting worked up over nothing.

The movie is ok. It’s simple and cute. It is not the worst thing Disney has ever made. Not by a long shot.

Is it a worthy celebration of 100 years of Disney? Not really.

Would I have preferred the Starboy love story and evil villain couple? Yes.

But as is, it’s fine. Not groundbreaking, but not awful either.

Y’all are just haters.

Voting accomplished ✌️ I was #36 at my polling location. By contrast, during statewide elections, I'm often in the 200s.

Turn out for your tiny local elections...the smaller the election, the more weight your vote has.

As I look deeper into Forspoken and its reception, I’m discovering more and more loud criticisms that, when pressed, the person making them admits that they’ve never actually even played the game. “I watched a trailer” does not make you an expert on something. How can you be sitting here going on about how Frey is a horrible and annoying protagonist, that she “acts like a Marvel character” when you HAVENT EVEN PLAYED THE GAME?? It makes me so damn mad. I was fully prepared for this game to be a “guilty pleasure” game that was objectively bad. But it ISN’T bad! It’s so unfair and such a disservice to all the love that very clearly went into this game

my spoiler free review for barbie is that i wish they had gone over the script one less time than they did

“This has to have been written by AI”

“That doesn’t sound like a real person, must be AI”

No guys, sometimes there are just bad writers/actors

A Court of Thorns and Roses Fan Trailer

source: castleinthesky