#industry insider | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

absolutebl · 10 months

Note

Genuine Question: Given how much people hate problematic topics in BL eg: kp, mame, love syndrome, etc. why is everyone so damn excited about Only Friends? Like we know nothing about the show. It's GMMTV so how sexy is it going to get? you know, like it's GMMTV. I like the cast as much as anyone and particularly FirstKhao but I don't see this 'sexiness' everyone is going so crazy over? Is it some bts thing like I know the director is jojo and he's gay. Is that why everyone so excited? Is it because we just haven't gotten anything really brilliant this year that gets the whole BL fandom together and that's why people are hoping this will, is that what's going on? I like everyone involved well enough but 'sexy', 'crazy', 'problematic', 'high heat'... I don't get it.

Only Friends & Jojo

Genuine answer.

Okay so this question got me invested enough to get off the phone, over to the laptop, and onto hotel wifi, which means typos rather than dictation homophones, but there it is.

I guess what I am saying it...

mistakes will be made

From the tenor of your question methinks you have not watched Friend Zone? It's a 2 part series. Mostly messy hets but...

Also a TON of broad spectrum queer rep (lesbian, bi, ace, demi). Real queers, not sanitized for straight consumption.

Because yeah, GMMTV will get messy and go into higher heat levels in a late night way (not in a KP way).

But actually what has most people excited about Only Friends is it being sourced in this man:

Jojo Tichakorn Phukhaotong

Jojo is a screenwriter (originals) and director, openly gay, multifaceted and a little experimental, naturally talented (on the job trained - he's an archaeologist originally), and he is behind:

The Warp Effect, Friend Zone and MOST importantly (IMHO)...

3 Will Be Free

There are others too, but for the purposes of this post, those are the 3 that count. I think of him a little as the GMMTV director version of Ohm's acting.

Jojo specializes in:

ensemble pieces,

good chemistry (NOT necessarily high heat, so by this I mean actor chemistry with each other all around - couples, cast, team, production)

working with and finding actors within GMMTV's stable who work well together (even if that means busting up a pair),

a queer lens,

queer rep,

and often very messy story (as in he is not invested in the traditional beats of a romance, let alone a BL).

AND he can shoot action (this is a specific skill set for directors and it's NOT easy),

thus he will shoot his sex/intimacy & COMEDY scenes as if they WERE action sequences.

This makes his stuff particularly exciting to watch. It's dynamic, there's a lot of movement, the eye is caught and dragged places. He doesn't use dirty/peekaboo framing or central aperture or manga style (not with INTENT the way trained directors do). In fact he does none of those things I harp on about because I like the romance stuff.

He's not being clever with us. He's being honest, but still applying skill. His stuff not quite raw, but also not really directed. You can tell he gives his actors a script, throws them together and then instructs them to just BE THOSE CHARACTERS. He has a light touch, he trusts them. He's not fussy or nit-picky. He's not doing a million takes to get that sene exactly how he envisions it. His ensemble pieces are just that, group projects.

His eye is wide, even for intimacy, by which I mean: he controls and watches for multiple actors at once when there are a lot of them on screen together, without them feeling stiff.

His style is quite organic but not too gritty.

Struggling to understand what I mean?

For example, watch a Jojo "group of friends chatting" scene where everyone is just standing around then watch the same thing in, say, SCOY. You'll see what I mean. SCOY is also a very queer ensemble piece, but it will feel quite stiff, unnatural, and "planned" (staged) by comparison.

For the giffers out there you might notice that Jojo's stuff is particularly difficult to gif cleanly? This is why.

I find him an exciting director. I didn't cover him in my directors overview because at the time he hadn't done much BL (and frankly, he still hasn't). It's not his focus.

I think Only Friends is actually not likely to be very BL. Queer = yes, BL = NO. He won't hit the tropes and there is no reason to assume it will end happily for all couples (if any). That's not Jojo's point of view.

He doesn't play our game. As a result, some of those excited by the idea of this show (or excited the general enthusiasm & anticipation around it), may be doomed to disappointment.

It's one of the reasons you don't see me getting excited about it.

I'm a fan of specifically the fluffy side of BL, this will NOT be that. And I can appreciate a director without necessarily liking the stories he tells.

I am industry enough to acknowledge Jojo's skill (and I LOVE 3 Will Be Free - just not as a BL), but I don't always like his narratives. No matter how good he is, his stuff is not why I personally watch Thai BL.

It's GMMTV, so how sexy is it going to get?

Again, see Friend Zone. GMMTV has a late night pantheon, mostly for het, but they will get salacious. Lots of cheating and terrible decisions. There will be no archetypes. Characters will exist in grey areas, even the "good" characters. There will be no paladins in this show. No seme/uke.

To answer this frankly?

Only Friends will get soap opera or telenovella sexy but no more. So we will be in Midnight Chicken territory, not Bed Friends.

I think the words being bandied about:

'sexy', 'crazy', 'problematic', 'high heat'

are used here on tumblr (and in fandom) as an attempt to articulate expectations set up by Jojo's style.

Most viewers only react emotionally to the tenor of a director with this set of skills. That's fine, that's what the production company wants: A visceral emotional reaction.

But I hope I've managed to clarify from a film-critic perspective what's bringing this sensation about?

But ALSO seeing a bunch of, essentially, lower heat pure BL pairs, have to push themselves into messy queer spaces? (Notice GMMTV only let the more established actors into this one? No JoongDunk, no GeminiFourth)

This is probably really what everyone is excited about.

They are gonna see their favorites cheat, sleep around, be gay (not BL gay, but actual gay). Some are legitimately excited about this, some are shipper excited, and the BL-stans who don't know Jojo are doomed to disappointment.

I'm mostly excited by how messy this is gonna make the fandom.

Su su na.

(source)

#only friends the series #forthcoming bl #watch ABL eat crow #bl director #bl film ciritc #bl analysis #industry insider #messy gay #bl fandom #upcoming bl #2023 bl #khaotung thanawat #firstkhao #GMMTV #friend zone 2 #3 Will Be Free #The Warp Effect #Jojo Tichakorn Phukhaotong

718 notes · View notes

pressnewsagencyllc · 9 days

Text

Artificial Intelligence to Shape Future of Travel and Tourism

by Lacey Pfalz Last updated: 9:30 AM ET, Thu April 18, 2024 New reports from the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) in partnership with Microsoft showcases how Artificial Intelligence could play a role in the future of the travel and tourism industry. The latest two reports to be published are the last in a series on AI’s implications on the industry. The two, entitled “Responsible…

View On WordPress

#Apple News #Bing News #Destinations #Industry Insider #msn #News #North America #SmartNews #Technology #Travel technology #TravelPulse US #Tronc #United States #World Travel u0026 Tourism Council

0 notes

petnews2day · 26 days

Text

This Morning’s Cat Deeley being eyed up for BBC role

New Post has been published on https://petn.ws/M3REt

This Morning’s Cat Deeley being eyed up for BBC role

Cat Deeley is reportedly being eyed up by BBC bosses weeks after debuting on This Morning credit:Bang Showbiz Cat Deeley is reportedly being eyed up by BBC bosses weeks after debuting on ‘This Morning’. The 47-year-old presenter took the reigns of the ITV programme with Ben Shepard, 49, last month (11.03.24) and it is now […]

See full article at https://petn.ws/M3REt #CatsNews #AlisonHammond, #BenShepard, #CatDeeley, #IndustryInsider, #Itv, #JosieGibson

#Alison Hammond #Ben Shepard #Cat Deeley #industry insider #itv #Josie Gibson #Cats News

0 notes

author-mandi-bean · 7 months

Text

What's the Newest Trend in Publishing?

There might be something very exciting on the horizon, according to an industry insider… Recently, I received yet another rejection for representation for my completed manuscript, Lightning Strikes. But I’m handling it well (or at least better than expected) for two main reasons: That Lit Hub article by Emily Temple that I wrote about last week clearly states: “If you’re a writer, here’s an…

View On WordPress

0 notes

winterthebeau · 7 months

Text

american auto industry be like

#auto industry #cars #pedestrians #suvs #suv #stellantis #jeep #dodge #ram #pedestrian safety #meme #196 #r196 #r/196 #muscle twink #(last one is an inside joke)

1K notes · View notes

remash · 3 months

Text

ramirez rez ~ norman millar + judith sheine | photos © ema peter

#architecture #interiors #interior design #industrial #board formed #concrete #plywood #sea ranch #corten #serge mouille #living #kitchens #outside inside

424 notes · View notes

drchucktingle · 5 months

Note

doctor chuck! i'm pretty sure this question was asked before but i don't remember the answer - in terms of pre-ordering bury your gays, what venue (amazon, b&n, etc) would provide the most benefit to you to order through?

this HAS been asked but i never hesitate to answer. you can enjoy however you would like on ebook or other way (chuck likes audiobooks) however THE BEST WAY TO BUY A BOOK TO SUPPORT AND AUTHOR FROM A TECHNICAL BUSINESS PERSPECTIVE IS THIS:

a hardcover preorder from an indie bookstore

thank you for supporting autistic bi non-dysphoric trans buckaroo art and making that order count. if you have another preferred way of enjoying books THAT IS OKAY TOO but to answer your question and give a little inside publishing industry baseball this is the top way

#inside publishing industry baseball

323 notes · View notes

if-you-fan-a-fire · 25 days

Text

""That's right, pal," says Number Seven. "And take it in these shops. If they'd even teach a guy a trade - make him learn a trade you wouldn't mind. Then a guy would have something to fall back on if he felt like hitting the straight and narrow. But what do they do? They put you to work making automobile plates, or something that's only done in prisons; stuff you couldn't get a job at outside if you wanted to; and the machinery is all twenty years out of date; and the instructors don't know anything about up-to-date methods; and the materials you get to work with are so lousy that you can't learn to do decent work even if you want to. Here I am. I've been working in the shoeshop for five years. What good will that do me? In the first place, the work I'm doing is done by women and children outside; it don't pay any- thing; and if I tried to get away with the lousy kind of work I've been taught to do, I wouldn't last two hours in an outside shop. The print shop is the only shop in here where a guy could learn a decent trade; but Christ, there's only room for forty guys in that shop, and you have to be a high-school graduate to get in there. That don't do the rest of us any good. There's a thousand men here, and only room for forty or so over in the print shop. And not only that, but So-and-So was always threatening to close the print shop because it didn't show enough profits. That's all they think about here. They damn about us learning a trade; all they is having the industries show a profit!"

"And take a guy when he gets out of here," says Number Ten. "Times are lousy outside. Even guys who know their trades, guys that can get swell references, can't get a job nowadays. And if they can't get work, how in the name of Christ are we going to get it even if we want it? And the jobs you can get don't pay anything - not enough to live on. A guy might better be in here than out there starving to death. How the hell is a guy going to live on twenty-five or thirty bucks a week, especially if he's married?"

- Victor F. Nelson, Prison Days and Nights. Second edition. With an introduction by Abraham Myerson, M.D. Garden City: Garden City Publishing Co., 1936. p. 213-214.

#words from the inside #prisoner autobiography #prison industries #released from prison #prison labor #failure of rehabilitation #american prison system #prison routine #prison days and nights #victor nelson #history of crime and punishment #convict labour #reading 2024

72 notes · View notes

absolutebl · 1 year

Text

BL & Critical Analysis

Pop culture critique & a how to do it... or something

This meaty question came from the lovely @huachengeye Thank you!

Codicil: I do not get paid for pop culture critique (although I once wrote book reviews professionally, long story). So I’m entirely a dilettante.

The Question!

Q1: Can you can shed some light on your process (of critical analysis)

This is a little like training your eye to edit a document (I bet you can tell that's not one my strong points). Or training your mind to look at data and data collection in terms of the results it may yield and what the initial survey says about the questioner's bias (or can bias results).

First, I have to ask...

Do you really want to train your eye to critique?

Because it will become a lot harder to immerse yourself in a piece of media if you constantly feel obligated to step back mentally and think about it from various perspectives.

In other words, you may enjoy BL, or all live action dramas, LESS if you try to think about them critically.

I have an intimate who is a pretty well known writer. She mostly writes humorous fiction. She's open about the fact that this means every time she laughs, she stops and thinks about why that happened and whether is could be used in her prose. She never gets to be fully absorbed by narrative ever anymore because her critical eye is always turned on, especially for the written word.

What you may sacrifice for critique, is a certain level of childish wonder.

I’m not sure i would necessarily advise doing this.

My Process

My process is essentially now visible in this blog. As I watch a show I take a few notes on it (which show up in the weeklies) and then at the end I go through those notes, consolidate, try to be witty about it, and write up a review.

The review usually has something about:

characters, tropes, plot

narrative & story structure & pace

how this BL fits in with the greater BL genre & history

any thoughts I have on the quality of the production, acting, and/or directing

my own personal feelings about the show

Thus my reviews tend to take into account several criteria.

For #1-2 I have a background in lit crit as an undergrad (and, like I said, I did once review books for a living) so these are kinda ingrained in me. I’m working on seeing the influence of soap operas, fan fic, and non-western story structures as critically valid, so these are the things I’m actively learning more about the most these days.

For #3: How does this fit into the history of BL? Since I’ve made it point to watch pretty much all BLs, I feel like I’m set up to think and talk about this. AKA the spreadsheet made me do it. But since I also have anthropology in my academic history, I’m very interested in how a BL represents for its country’s BL oeuvre. I try to judge KBLs against other KBLs (and Kdramas) and look for patterns and trends in how that country’s interpretation of what it “means to be BL” shift over time.

For #4: my IRL job is tangential to the entertainment industry so that’s accidentally trained my eye for film. I don’t know that I like this part about myself, but it’s happened whether I like it or not. And I don’t have a proper background in film critique.

Final #5: will discuss further in a bit.

Suggestion? Establish A Rating System

Come up with your own personal 10 star (or 5 star) rating system.

Write it down. Don’t be afraid to modify or adjust it. It’s yours, your tastes change, nothing is set in stone.

Pick one ideal example BL for each category that you’re very familiar with for your reference point. Then you can ask yourself, after you’ve watched a new one, whether you liked it more, less, or about the same as that show. (relative rating, similar to grading on a curve)

I change my examples regularly as my taste changes and as new BLs are added. The bar gets shifted, so to speak.

My Rating System

Your reasoning for rating a BL will be different from mine, but here’s mine as an example.

(Also I never feel bound by this, sometimes I give a show a 8/10 just because it feels like that’s what it deserves.)

10/10 - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED - my favorite precious squee!, faithful to tropes, happy ending, good chemistry, few flaws, high rewatch potential, makes me happy, examples: Semantic Error, Until We Meet Again

9/10 ABSOLUTELY RECOMMENDED - loved it and good rewatch potential but probably a few pacing issues or one big flaw, still made me feel good/comforted, examples: Cherry Magic, Bad Buddy

8/10 - RECOMMENDED - some concerns around tropes (like dub con) or story structure/filming but still satisfies as BL, moved me emotionally, rewatchable in parts or not rewatchable but important, examples: Love By Chance, Between Us

7/10 - RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS - i.e. isn’t quite BL, convoluted, not strictly HEA, too short/long, and/or chemistry issues, may have impact on other BL fans but not me (or on me but not others) examples: Make it Right, KinnPorsche

6/10 - WORTH WATCHING BUT FLAWED - probably around the ending or in narrative structure/cohesion or censorship, disappointed expectations, unlikely to rewatch, examples: My Gear and Your Gown, Love Mechanics

5/10 - WATCH IF YOU HAVE NOTHING BETTER TO DO - but don’t expect much, it’s a total hot mess interesting only because it's BL and I'm probubly pretty conflicted about it, examples: Advance Bravely, Even Sun

4/10 - FATALLY FLAWED - but still basically BL, however... do we want to support this kind of behaviour? examples: Precise Shot, Work from Heart

3/10 - I DON'T KNOW WHAT I AM WATCHING AND NEITHER DOES IT, just seriously why did this get made? examples: Blue of Winter, Physical Therapy

2/10 - IT'S DEPRESSING - they killed/tortured/etc the gay, save yourself, examples: The Effect, HIStory 3: Make Our Days Count

1/10 - IT'S AWFUL, I WATCHED IT SO YOU DON'T HAVE TO, has all the flaws of 4-3 plus something even more egregious, personally triggering, example: My Bromance series, Round Trip to Love

dnf - self explanatory, but usually I drop because I feel like the narrative is already a #3 and/or headed for a #2 or #1 and then I’m told later that is went there, example: My Tempo

I hand out the fewest 1s & 10s. The most 8s and 7s. Everything else is pretty much on the bell curve you’d expect.

Q2: What resources do you use to build your reviews?

I listen to a lot of pop culture review critiques in podcast form, often about stuff I'd never watch. But I like the way professionals talk about these things, even if they aren't MY things or don't jive with my personal opinions.

Mark Kermode is my favorite film critic and we like the opposite stuff, but the way he talks about film is very interesting to me. His podcast mini series on the "business of film" is probably one of my must listens. For his main podcast (Kermode & May’s Take), I always skip over all the interviews, people talking about their own films bore me to death (especially if they are actors on the promo junket, save me please). His rants are some of my favorites of all time (try Pirates 3 or Iron Man 2). Someone else’s list.

I also like Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR because it brings in multiple perspectives and varied cast of critics who often disagree and the "things making me happy" is a grab bag of fun.

The Bechdel Cast is a feminist critique podcast from Hollywood insiders and they do recaps as well as critique, and it's always fascinating to me to hear what people latch onto in a narrative. However, I only listen if I am already familiar with the film they are discussing.

My background is in anthropology and I've lived all over the world so that helps train me to think in terms on culture's impact on narrative as well as linguistics and so forth. As a personality I’m also quite reserved and deadpan, grumpy, stiff, strict, and kinda cold. I think I gravitate to being an observer and an outsider which helps if you want to analysis stuff. Which is not a claim to objectivity, I don't think there can be objective analysis of pop culture.

But it does make me pause to think, "that made me FEEEL something" why? What am I feeling? How did the actor do that? The script? The direction?

These shows are meant to entertain, whether they are successful or not, for me (and what "successful entertainment" means to me) and how they are doing it is the first question I always ask myself.

Q3: What are the things you look out for when watching a BL?

I ask myself a lot of things I would when looking at any piece of art. Or even when shopping for clothing or a new car or reading a book.

Did I like it? Why did I like it?

Did it move me? Why did it move me?

Did I react? How did I react? To which bits? Why?

What tropes and narrative beats was it using to manipulate me and my expectations? Did it meet those expectations? The promises it set up at the start? Did it fulfill the watcher-contract during the course of the narrative?

Did the filming successfully telegraphy the journey I was meant to take? Did the actors?

But also... would I rewatch it? Am I tempted to do so the moment it ends? For which bits?

The statistician in me wants to point out that these questions say a lot more about me and my relationship to art than it does about the art itself.

For example

Did I like it? Means... I'm motivated by pure taste and personal preference and complete subjectivity. This is in part formed by a person's background, life state, whole experience with culture and pop culture and society, family, friends. Taste is also just "that" bit. You know, that bit? Likes lemon deserts over chocolate ones, gravities to spicy food, favorite color is green, decorates with potted plants. Just my taste is my taste. I like what I like.

Yes I have some criteria that subconsciously come into play: I look for clever story structure, subversion or manipulation of tropes, parody, not hitting any of my dislikes (like dub con). But also I have other biases impacting whether I like it (like physical appearance) which I can try to check but usually can't fix. (For example GMMTV's Gawin/Fluke looks so much like an ex of mine I really struggle with his screen presence.)

Did I like it?

The fact that this is the first question I ask myself also should tell you I'm motivated by the emotion these narratives engender. I want them to transport me and move me. I my case I want to feel comforted and satisfied and happy. The ones the make me feel discomfort, especially for too long in the narrative, I am simply going to like less. Sometimes less than I feel like I should (see my struggles with masterworks like ITSAY, YNEH, or The 8th Sense). The very BLs that most professional critics would tout as the best examples of the genre for a wider audience often turn out to be the ones I struggle with the most. (They are also, fortunately for me, the least representative of the bulk of the genre.)

In other words there is ALSO a part of me that genuinely likes and enjoys the trashy stuff. Even the trash I trash watch.

So I would advise you to come up with your own questions. Ask yourself what you want from these shows when you watch them.

What motivates you?

Why are you watching them at all?

What brings you joy from an art or entertainment experience?

What do you want them to do for you? To you?

You are going to experience them (and therefore analyze them) from this perspective whether you like it or not. So understand yourself is paramount. It's about your relationship to the art, not the art itself.

If I were to give you an assignment I would say start with one BL you really enjoyed, perhaps not your favorite but one level down. And then do one you really did not enjoy. And think about why...

Happy analyzing!

(source)

114 notes · View notes

terranometry · 1 year

Text

*rewatches El Camino*

Anyways thinking about how even though Jesse Pinkman escaped to Alaska his experiences still come back to haunt him when he least expects it.

(also tagging u @kylejsugarman because u talked about the pizza scene and that’s what inspired this specifically lol)

#*grinds my teeth* jesse sopping wet sad little meow meow #that goddamn scene #I am actually insane #also #learned while drawing this that morley cigarettes are a film industry inside joke #el camimo #brba #brba art #breaking bad #breaking bad fanart #jesse pinkman fanart #jesse pinkman #my art

503 notes · View notes

pressnewsagencyllc · 1 month

Text

Travel Advisors Evaluate What’s Hot in 2024

With the prospect of 2024 being one of the best—if not the best—years for travel ever, advisors say cruises, destinations such as Italy, Greece, and the UK, and all-inclusive resort vacations are selling briskly. “Everything cruise and Europe is hot right now,” said Crafty Getaways Chief Executive Officer Sam Yaffe. “Italy and Greece are our biggest sellers, and customers are loving it when we…

View On WordPress

#Agents #Apple News #Bing News #Destinations #Features u0026 Advice #Industry Insider #msn #News #North America #SmartNews #Travel Advisors #TravelPulse US #Tronc #United States

0 notes

idk-bruh-20 · 1 year

Text

Irondad fic ideas #114

Tony has many different nicknames for Peter, and he has programmed FRIDAY to use all of them

Peter is also prone to getting stopped by security and various other employees due to the fact that he looks completely grown up and like he belongs there thank you very much

This leads to a situation in which the many different corners of Stark Industries - after inquiring of FRIDAY their own versions of "who tf is this kid?" - all know him by different names

On one floor he's Roo. On another, Crockett. Mr. Parker. Bambino. Kid. Junior...the list goes on

This only becomes a problem when employees attempt to talk about their strange new...cryptid? boss? intern?... to each other

189 notes · View notes

flamejob · 2 days

Text

i love when tattoo drama goes viral and you just have to tell people that yeah that's unfortunately what like 70% of all tattoo artists and piercers on this earth are doing and what their clients are experiencing, just wildly untrained with minimal knowledge of sanitation and art theft

#i hate the tattoo industry sm but i want to change it from the inside eventually hopefully #and don't get me wrong i'm all for diy anything but it's serious when you're working with someone's body #you are literally permanently altering the body and dealing with bloodborne pathogens and mersa and shit #you need to be practicing in a sterile environment with sterile tools and at least some medical knowledge #even if you are handpoking and teaching yourself

24 notes · View notes

mbangelofdeath · 8 months

Text

Armed & Dangerous

Some simple Halo Infinite screenshots I’ve taken last week. Enjoy

67 notes · View notes

zvaigzdelasas · 6 months

Note

Which do you think will collapse first, Israel or the United Stabes?

Israel without a doubt, much less stable material basis for statehood.

#just even in terms of the settler regimes #& the relation between settlers & neighboring sovereign states is incomparable #theres no sovereign indigenous states inside or around the US that have any significant purchase w geopolitics #or formalized armed forces comparable to those of the settler regime #which isnt to say one might not emerge #just current situation #plus factors of economic purchase & domestic resources #if organized labor in the US starts to gain more purchase across industries instead of being largely relegated to craft unionism #or if a vanguard party starts to actually gain purchase w the masses #then that could change #but even tho that can happen quickly it doesn't happen immediately #imo the more intereting question is what happens to the US global monopolist capital-imperialist regime without an israel

41 notes · View notes

askagamedev · 5 months

Note

On the issue of external versus internal promotions, why do you think game developers (and many other kinds of companies in general) are so reluctant to promote an internal person they know but hand it out freely to some outsider they don’t?

There are some various theories on this floating around and they seem like they could be reasonable, but I am genuinely not sure.

Theory A: Hiring Entry Level is more of a gamble

When you promote someone, you leave a lower-level position empty that needs filling. Hiring for entry level is often a much bigger gamble than hiring mid- or senior-level with a proven track record and work history, and it takes significantly longer to see whether the gamble on an entry level hire pays off.

Theory B: Promoting internally means two (or more) employees need training, instead of one

When you promote someone internally, they will probably need some training and ramp-up time for their new responsibilities. The new person hired to replace the promoted dev will also need ramp up time. This can take longer and can cost significant overall productivity, and that's not a luxury a lot of studios can afford.

Theory C: Tech doesn't relax hiring standards until after internal candidates have been rejected already

One thing tech companies tends to favor when hiring (game dev being no exception) is trying to find the "perfect" candidate - someone who hits every job requirement and has experience doing it all. Unfortunately, most candidates (internal or external) won't have 100% qualifications for any given job. The unfortunate thing is that internal candidates get considered first and none pass, then external candidates get considered and none pass, and only then do the requirements get loosened. When this happens, however, all of those who were already rejected don't get re-considered. Thus we've DQed most internal candidates for being imperfect, leaving only the hunt for external candidates.

Theory D: The game industry is volatile and there's a lot of attrition

The game industry is pretty rough. Crunch, lower pay compared to other kinds of tech, rough working conditions, and historic employer volatility churns out a lot of our experienced devs. We have a huge number of entry level dev hopefuls but most of them will leave the industry within five years. Promoting internally might not be feasible because there's just too much history of promoting people only for them to quit or get laid off anyway.

Overall, I think that there's probably some complex multi-variate reason why internal promotions are generally more difficult to source than external ones. It's probably some combination of all of these and more. As always, it also varies with the studio, the leadership, the culture, and the financial situation. I wish there was a simple and easy answer but, if one exists, I sure as heck don't know it.

[Join us on Discord] and/or [Support us on Patreon]

Got a burning question you want answered?

Short questions: Ask a Game Dev on Twitter

Long questions: Ask a Game Dev on Tumblr

Frequent Questions: The FAQ

#game career advice #working in the game industry #observations from the inside

32 notes · View notes