Common Loot

It was 2002 and everyone in high school played guitar. When all I saw was a place filled with folks who only wanted to play guitar and nothing else, I decided to pick up other instruments. It was the first of many lessons in musical “supply and demand” I learned, but I digress. I obtained my first bass, a blue Ibanez Gio, from my friend’s then girlfriend for about $100. Since then, I have been playing out, doing my best to make sure I matched whatever the drummer was doing while attempting to look cool. I wasn’t Geddy Lee or Les Claypool, so trying to appear cool was just never going to happen.

Between playing out at various Long Island dive bars and practicing in run-down studios, I practiced. It took a while to get to a specific point in my “music career” but after a while I ended up supporting various bands and groups. From opening the MTV Headbanger reality TV show band to Andrew W.K., I ended up playing a ton of gigs. Unfortunately, I never got paid for any of them. When I did get some scratch, the frontman argued that he should get paid more because he was singing (poorly) while also playing guitar. It is fair to say that I was paid in “exposure” most of the time. While not great, it was just something I accepted as normal. 

Till this day, I spend what little free time I have working with various websites for free. It isn’t as cool as playing music and some might look at it with an odd perspective, but there are a couple of elements that are beneficial to me. I work a full time job where if I don’t write my think pieces and reviews, I still get paid. Writing for various outlets pro-bono keeps me grounded and it only helps me over time. If it wasn’t for me pursing these volunteer positions, I don’t think the doors would open as wide as they are. I’m wondering if the folks who worked on The Day Before over at Fntastic can say the same. I really hope so.

We all saw the news that after only four days from launch, the studio behind The Day Before is closing down. I’m not going to do a deep dive into the semantics behind it all, I’ll leave that to the YouTbers. But there is one thing I really want to bring to light and that is the use of volunteers within this gaming industry.

I’m not a game dev by any means. If anything, I am an almost-40-year-old-man who hopes to one day create a story worth exploring. I spent my 20’s and most of my 30’s (at this point) living a life where I haven’t really created anything beyond the words you see here and a poorly made album you can find on Spotify. I’m equally driven and tired. Yet, I am finding time to create a narrative design profile in the hopes that a game studio could use my talents for their next property. I’m currently typing this on my commute home, sitting uncomfortably on a packed train. 

I can only imagine what it was like for those who volunteered their time and effort to work on The Day Before. Most people either skipped over this fact or were outright ignorant to this fact. Yes, Fntastic leveraged free help to get the game shipped only to make some money and shutter. With this closing, we can’t blame those who didn’t know better. Information is often compartmentalized and who really knows how well they were treated. Who knows the true scope of this game and their involvement in the project. To be clear, this was absolutely a management issue and shouldn’t reflect the work of those who offered their time in exchange for nothing. 

Oddly enough, this isn’t the first time something like this has occurred and it won’t be the last. On one hand, I am absolutely livid at the fact that these unpaid freelance developers (sounds better than volunteer) were dragged; but I have benefited from the good will and hours of others who have yet to see a dime themselves. 

Almost every Bethesda game can be expanded upon thanks to the skills of modders. Because of them, I was able to wear my immersion breaking Warhammer Space Marine armor in Skyrim, dress up as Link and wield the Master Sword, or even expand the amount of blood that would splatter across the ground when I sliced my way through various towns. All of this for the low, low price of free.

Hell, one of my favorite games ever, Baldur’s Gate 3, has some really amazing mods that allow me to wear my shield on my back, level my character quicker, and make my penis much bigger than it has any right to be. So many different elements that made my immersion deep and gratifying; especially the penis one. 

Nexus Mods, a home for many modifications for a slew of titles, offers something for everyone when it comes to enhancing your games. You can subscribe to them if you feel like supporting the host site. You can support a single creator by going to their Patreon page. You can also buy dedicated currency for Bethesda’s games to install mods without effecting your achievement process. 

If you decide to support Bethesda’s Creation Club though the purchased currency, it turns out that the modders do see some of that money. How much exactly is beyond me, but they get some sort of payment. If they just so happen to make a few good mods that people don’t mind buying up, they could land a job at Bethesda Studios itself. I’m kinda upset at my past self for not realizing how beneficial this was to aspiring devs who saw modding as a stepping stone into a career.

But… all of this is weird. Something doesn’t seem right about any of this. There is a ton of “dress for the job you want, not the job you have” going on around here. On the developer side, I can see why something like this is so appealing. Getting paid for your work is more than just a dream, it is how this should properly operate. 

I’m not saying that these individuals have to work for free before getting a job in the industry, but there is a sense of familiarity going on here. I had to learn to play bass and play with a band before getting the chance to sign to a small label. Bands have to tour and show that they are capable of committing to the most basic needs that a record label wants. If you know how to do many tasks, then there is little they have to worry about. 

A producer, Mike Watts, told me that there are many bands out there that got signed not because their music was necessarily good, but because they had fans and they knew how to perform these most basic tasks. They practiced, knew how to listen to producers, and were easy to work with. Jer, a great musician from SkaTune Network stated that he got a job he wasn’t fully qualified for over someone else who was simply because he was eager to learn, knew his basics, and was easy to work with in a professional setting.

So, when it comes to the folks who worked for Fntastic in exchange for exposure, I hope they can find someone who is able to pick them up. As I said before, this situation revolving around The Day Before wasn’t their fault. It was an unmitigated mess and that shouldn’t fall upon them. I believe they deserve more chances to unleash their creative sides with companies who are willing to invest into their futures. After all, the studio head burned his bridge; everyone else deserves to cross theirs.