Part of the Problem

The topic of complacency is something I've often seen discussed in regards to quite heavy subjects, and the struggle with heavy subjects is just that, they're heavy.

They're laced with nuances often ignored not even out of ignorance or bigotry, but just time, and the eternal challenge of communicating a convincing argument about a topic in seconds of speech.

It's also just something that even the most committed and hardworking activists can't have a raging hate-boner for at all hours of the day. Sometimes we just want to kick back, relax, and play a video-game.

Which is one of the things I actually like about the gaming industry.

There's a whole lot in the space that shares many concepts with some of the most divided, toxic, and difficult topics to breach in our culture, that can be discussed in just the context of making better games.

Complacency then.

The immediate trouble with complacency, is how the word carries with it a lot of presumed guilt. You could say "Raycevick is complacent in the current-state of YouTube" and it's not wrong, and it sounds really goddamn bad, and I assume it's because we're just programmed to auto-complete "Person X is ______" as the end all be all.

Subconsciously, it feels more like someone is saying "Raycevick is the reason YouTube sucks," and I'll leave you to decide the validity of that statement. However true or untrue it may be however, the truth is the original statement, while it reads as an accusation, is more just an observation.

YouTube is my current living, half of my income stems from Ad-Revenue on videos, hosted on a platform that for all my criticisms of, I keep using, and are more familiar with its entire feature-set than the average user without ever voicing an intent to change, either my trajectory, or place on the site.

I am complacent in the current-state of YouTube…

Which brings me to this headline I stood on the Twitter Apple box Shout Button for.

In-truth, the headline irritated me, as it very obviously gives a false impression of where Shawn Layden is coming from. In-fact, it was almost kind of surreal to read the full article, and see all of his quotes almost be word for word, what I've said in videos for years now.

From over hyping AI in the industry that's been using AI almost since its origin, to the endless expansion of studios, and in-turn, the absurd increases in budget just for a single AAA game release, I'm with this guy's word almost beat for beat.

Except… I'm a Gaming Youtuber who's most influential actions amount to convincing a few people that Alpha Protocol's a worthwhile investment, and this was formally, one of the most major executives at Sony, who during his tenor, had the widest reaching hand in the realm of home-console gaming.

What's more likely? That this man single-handedly fought this industry from the brick wall it's speeding towards at every opportunity, or did he just nudge the needle a little bit when nobody in the office was looking too closely?

It's not that Shawn is himself directly responsible for all that wrongs that go on in the gaming industry, not even 10% of the wrongs, maybe less than 1%, it's not on the shoulders of any individual CEO, but it's a collective; to now be saying what everyone else was saying ten years ago would be a problem, is a problem, things you didn't impact when you perhaps could've?

This is what people mean by those at the top being complacent.

It's an observation that Shawn was a part of the actions he's criticizing; not only can I not really blame the guy, I'm glad that at least somebody in a former position of power is saying something.

Yet, at the same time, I think the reason these comments also bugged me is that, if these people are aware of the shit sandwich they're putting together, and if the only time they can ever acknowledge this sandwich is indeed shit, is when they no longer have any control over it, then what hope is there for things to change?

I've heard these executives with far more power put the onus on activists and consumers with little to no power. The corporate equivalent of "David has power over Goliath."

…And yeah, sure, David did defeat Goliath.

You know what Goliath didn't have?

Money.