You realize it's not devs that make those decisions, right? It's publishers and execs. You know, the guys who make the actual money in all this. Stop blaming devs for stupid exec decisions.
Meh, it depends on which of the issues you're flagging. Games are large for understandable reasons, both technical and practical. The optimization problem is... complicated, and my thoughts on it get really into the weeds, but it's not as simple as people would think. And I'm trying not to pay too much attention to the "can't fix our game" panel, because at best it makes no sense.
The always-online thing is maybe the most controversial, and you'd definitely find the most developers who agree with you on that unconditionally. But also, tons of offline games get made on all types of scopes.
Also, devs stick around for it. They aren't providing an essential service, like sticking around as a nurse in a poorly run hospital...they are creating a novelty.
They are technical knowledge workers and hold very privileged credentials in western markets.
To be clear I'm not excusing corporate policy and such, but the same way technical engineers at oil companies are complicit in accelerated climate change, devs at shitty companies are complicit in shitty game products.
I never worked for big bad companies but even the "green, progressive" ones wore me down eventually, there just aren't any companies in the modern world over a certain size that aren't scummy one way or another. That's why I only work for myself now.
I almost worked in NGO but it didn't work out in the end, I could still be curious to check that out at some point.
No, it's a fucking stupid comparison, man. One thing leads to dead people, the other thing leads to slightly less convenient entertainment software. Can you figure out the rest for yourself? Fuck all the way off with your "questionable orders".
I expressed how your comparison is stupid. I'm sorry if you perceive that as hostile and think you need to get a point in by making up an equally stupid scenario about my marriage. Obviously I hit a nerve. Can't say the same about your shitty attempt at an insult.