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
If you enjoy GameDev Breakdown
- Subscribe on the platform of your choice
- Drop a rating/review or hit the Follow button
- Check show notes and articles here at CodeWritePlay
- Join us on Discord!
- Follow us over on Facebook!
Todd Mitchell is a US Midwest-based comedy writer and game developer with bylines at Weekly Humorist, Fanbyte, Slackjaw, End of the Bench Sports, and more. He’s the author of Inside Video Game Creation, the founder of CodeWritePlay, and host of the GameDev Breakdown podcast. Follow him on Twitter @Mechatodzilla.