Recommend Everyone Block Ubisoft

[Zorlond]

https://youtu.be/pYJGIUHNKBQ

TL;DW? Ubisoft has long been acused of both excessive crunch on it's developers, and on top of that there have been many reports of abuses of power and relentless sexual assault on their workers. That came to light months ago, and right now, other than three (ish) higher-ups at the company leaving, nothing has changed. The worst of the offenders are still there and still unchanged in their behavior. On top of that the CEO of Ubisoft directly said that he doesn't care about the toxicity of his company, as long as the results happen. Add to that the entire HR department have told complaints that 'this is just how it is, deal with it or leave', concerned only with maintaining their own jobs than representing the humans at their company. There is no 'game developer union', all publishers actively seek out and crush any attempt to form one, Ubisoft is especially zealous in this regard.

All doors have been closed for the workers of Ubisoft. If you buy or play Ubisoft games you are actively condoning the behavior of their upper management. They are the ones getting 90% of your money. You are paying them to continue tormenting their workers.

My recommendation? If you have UPlay, uninstall it and drop all of those games like the tainted garbage they are. And then block their entire roster here on Steam. Go to this page:
https://store.steampowered.com/publisher/ubisoft
Click on the little gear icon below the Beta tab, and select 'Ignore this creator'. It's hard to read because it's grey text on white background, if you see 'Ignored' show up next to the Follow button, you did it correctly. With this one click their entire roster of games here on Steam will NEVER show up in the store front for you. No alerts, no ads, no rankings, nothing.

The workers tried to have their company fixed, and the upper management threw useless paper around and actively ignored them. Clearly, the customer base has to step in and show them that this is not to be tolerated.

[Mad Scientist]

Well, if we're to follow this, Microsoft, facebook, youtube, twitter, reddit, steam, netflix, amazon etc. would all need to be within these kinds of blocks or scrutiny to stop using them for various reasons you mention about ubisoft, let alone all the other things the other places do.

I don't really like using ubisoft anyway, and I don't even recall buying anything from them.

If it's so bad, they should all walk out on the same day, let the business fail, and forever be blamed for its failure to resolve issues as the reason it closes.

[Falsus Te Deum]

Op, no.
If you have problem with Ubisoft, YOU ignore them. You do not speak for me.
And yet again someone on lietube said something, so that is true.

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

Escrito originalmente por Mr. Gentlebot:

Well, if we're to follow this, Microsoft, facebook, youtube, twitter, reddit, steam, netflix, amazon etc. would all need to be within these kinds of blocks or scrutiny to stop using them for various reasons you mention about ubisoft, let alone all the other things the other places do.

Frankly speaking, avoiding using things made by those companies to various extents is a useful idea for other reasons too -- specifically, making it harder for them to profile you (for advertising or other purposes), supporting smaller and more local businesses, reducing the tendency of such mega-corporations to get to the point of becoming "too big to fail", and so on. Protesting how they (at least some of them) treat their employees is but one reason.

That said, given their size and the reach of their products, it's hard to actually avoid them -- for example, Windows has a near-monopoly on operating systems as far as ability to run various programs (games especially) is concerned, not to mention all the games that only Steam sells or all the videos only on YouTube (though at least you can browse YT without a login).

[Drab]

It's funny when people blame their employer for not quitting a job they don't like.

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

Escrito originalmente por Drab:

It's funny when people blame their employer for not quitting a job they don't like.

The power balance is not necessarily equal in all circumstances. In fact, it often is not.

[Yzal]

Don't need it, they couldn't pay me to buy a Ubisoft game.

[Hennix]

ubi is far the best

[Crazy Tiger]

Most of their games aren't of interest to me, the ones that are I will buy and play.

[Mad Scientist]

Escrito originalmente por Quint the Alligator Snapper:

Frankly speaking, avoiding using things made by those companies to various extents is a useful idea for other reasons too -- specifically, making it harder for them to profile you (for advertising or other purposes), supporting smaller and more local businesses, reducing the tendency of such mega-corporations to get to the point of becoming "too big to fail", and so on. Protesting how they (at least some of them) treat their employees is but one reason.

Overall, I strongly support your statement and entirely agree with it; with all considerations as to all the reasons behind it that you, myself, and others mention or are otherwise aware of. They don't exist for the users, they exist to make the users the product.

Escrito originalmente por Quint the Alligator Snapper:

That said, given their size and the reach of their products, it's hard to actually avoid them -- for example, Windows has a near-monopoly on operating systems as far as ability to run various programs (games especially) is concerned, not to mention all the games that only Steam sells or all the videos only on YouTube (though at least you can browse YT without a login).

At least eventually they did the free upgrade to win10 bit, though it would be nice to have a new OS that's a lot more reliable & less bloatware attached to itself, of which can still launch EXEs, among work like any regular computer/workstation depending on the H/W inside of it.

I'd love to have something as user friendly (for the most part) as Windows, but with the ability to do more like IoT / small device capability / scaling etc like R-Pis; an ability to select a lower install stripped down version to the full thing based upon intended use.

Can browse most w/o a YT login, but there's sites that allow you to without it, which is also neat.

[wuddih]

a boycott thread.
cute.
does not work.

[nullable]

Developers are highly skilled, they aren't trapped at ubisoft. Game development has always been a rough gig. If you're fussing over crunch time or toxic environments, stop playing video games. Telling yourself ubisoft is the worst is really just a lazy way to ignore industry wide issues.

[Start_Running]

Escrito originalmente por Zorlond:

The workers tried to have their company fixed, and the upper management threw useless paper around and actively ignored them. Clearly, the customer base has to step in and show them that this is not to be tolerated.

Have you considered that any drop in revenue at Ubisoft is apt to see those self same workers you're fighting for getting downsized?

"THINK MAN! THINK!"

I mean things go south those executives leave with golden parachutes.
The workers are at the mercy of momentum and gravity.

This is the problem wioth activism. Too often it is either unhelpful or actively harmful to the people /cause the activists are trying to help.

The workers are free to leave Ubisoft and work for someone else, or start their own studios (thats what quite a few do). Which is better for us as consumers since more outlets, more IP's and more competition.

Escrito originalmente por Snakub Plissken:

Developers are highly skilled, they aren't trapped at ubisoft. Game development has always been a rough gig. If you're fussing over crunch time or toxic environments, stop playing video games. Telling yourself ubisoft is the worst is really just a lazy way to ignore industry wide issues.

This is actually the truth for the entertainment industry in general. You think developer crunch is bad. Go work in animation or video editing. You'll long for the halcyon days of developer crunch.

And this goes waaaay back. Go read up on the development of classic games like, Zelda Super Mario brothers, Metroid, or Kid Icarus.

[flobefall]

So should we boycott all companies that send their workers into a crunchtime?
Cool, no AAA-titles anymore as it's a standard in every huge company - the whole industry is plagued by the consequences of pressure so yelling at Ubi only is just another form of cherrypicking.
Funfact, the customers are the reason why does crunchtimes exist as way too much of us are way too excentric when it's about delayed releases. Just take a look at Cyberpunk when there were huge ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ when they delayed it over and over again... A lot of potential players won't even buy a game if it's release got delayed.
Those two situations are important reasons why crunchtimes exist - cuz of the toxicty of the playerbase.

And about the allegations of sexual assault... No need to boycott an entire company just because some single workers did bad stuff - that's a job for law enforcement.

[Start_Running]

Escrito originalmente por ƒℓσ.яуαη𝟡𝟙𝟙:

So should we boycott all companies that send their workers into a crunchtime?
Cool, no AAA-titles anymore as they're a standard in every huge company.

And about the allegations of sexual assault... No need to boycott an entire company just because some single workers did bad stuff - that's a job for law enforcement.

And remember these are allegations. Note that there are seldom ever any criminal convictions with these things. Sexual Assault is a very easy allegation to make since it boils down to two people telling different accounts of the same events.

One person's 'Clap on the back' is another person's 'Sexual assault'.

[flobefall]

Escrito originalmente por Start_Running:

And remember these are allegations. Note that there are seldom ever any criminal convictions with these things. Sexual Assault is a very easy allegation to make since it boils down to two people telling different accounts of the same events.

One person's 'Clap on the back' is another person's 'Sexual assault'.

Sure... I just didn't want to mention it as some snowflake will accuse me of "victim shaming" 😅