Lay offs.

By Mogrok, in Star Wars: Armada

11 minutes ago, Bravo Null said:

Kamala Harris, Nancy Pelosi. They're the big ones.

You know Nancy Pelosi is a huge real estate mogul who is part of the capitalist class right? She very obviously supports capitalism.

Kamala Harris has made a career out of helping the state enforce the classism that is necessary to maintain capitalism

This started as a sympathy for the fired thread.

Now it's a dumpster fire.

Gotta love the internet 😍

Edited by Green Knight
1 minute ago, Green Knight said:

Gotta love the internet 😍

IKR? Though I must admit to contributing... 😟

13 minutes ago, Green Knight said:

This started as a sympathy for the fired thread.

Now it's a dumpster fire.

Gotta love the internet 😍

Sympathy is a myth, hence selfish capitalism

1 hour ago, Bravo Null said:

Kamala Harris, Nancy Pelosi. They're the big ones.

They aren’t really even close to Socialists. Far too moderate. America desperately needs real Democratic Socialists, and we don’t actually have any. At least, none that have enough influence to get anything done. Bernie comes close. And maybe once the Boomers leave the electorate, we’ll see some. But it may be far too late at that point.

1 hour ago, Ginkapo said:

Sympathy is a myth, hence selfish capitalism

Actually, it‘s the other way around. Capitalism is inherently selfish, so for the system to be legitimized sympathy must be declared a myth. Which is ridiculous, since humans even just from a biological standpoint are totally dependant on social interactions, we are literally herd animals.

23 minutes ago, >kkj said:

Actually, it‘s the other way around. Capitalism is inherently selfish, so for the system to be legitimized sympathy must be declared a myth. Which is ridiculous, since humans even just from a biological standpoint are totally dependant on social interactions, we are literally herd animals.

Social animals, not herd animals. But yes. We need each other. “Sympathy is a myth” is bullshite. That’s just selfish people telling everyone they’re suckers. It’s part of the marketing machine that makes the bad behavior which capitalism encourages sound okay and normal.

46 minutes ago, Cpt ObVus said:

Social animals, not herd animals. But yes. We need each other. “Sympathy is a myth” is bullshite. That’s just selfish people telling everyone they’re suckers. It’s part of the marketing machine that makes the bad behavior which capitalism encourages sound okay and normal.

We live in herds though. Not physically anymore obviously, since many of us live in cities with up to millions of indivuals and humans historically are only really suited for herds up to about 150 beings (after that it gets hard for society to just be organized through personal bonds). But our friends and aquitances pretty much make up our modern herd that we choose to live in. There a 2 kinds of animals, those who live alone (mostly predators lol) and herd animals. I just meant that we definately fall in the second category and not the first.

Edited by >kkj
On 11/20/2020 at 2:43 AM, ninclouse2000 said:

Tell that to Switzerland, Sweden and Denmark.

All of which are very capitalist countries. Switzerland is no5 on the economic freedom index, denmark in no8. And all three of those are very very different to the usa. Stuff that works in one place doesn't necessarily work elsewhere

9 hours ago, Green Knight said:

This started as a sympathy for the fired thread.

Now it's a dumpster fire.

Gotta love the internet 😍

Theres a good reason why politics is banned in most forums like this 😂

12 hours ago, ExplosiveTooka said:

It's a bit more complicated here than that.

After the '56 revolution and a short retalitory period in Hungary there had been a 30 years of mild socialism "Goulash Communism"

People generally felt better and similar to other post-soviet countries the systemchange and privatization left many on the streets and started to grow the gap between the richest and poorest.

Unfortunately people here still have low understanding of general economics and especially the lower class, who relied on the wealthcare system and the unsustainable "everyone has to work" policy feels its status is lower than before.

However I wouldn't say people want it back, they just have a strange nostalgic view on it.

Ah yes, in a global population of 7,800,000,000, protectionism of a "herd of 150 ish" is not selfish in any way.

Got it. The maths checks out on that one. No us vs them mentality at all.

1 hour ago, Jabby said:

All of which are very capitalist countries. Switzerland is no5 on the economic freedom index, denmark in no8. And all three of those are very very different to the usa. Stuff that works in one place doesn't necessarily work elsewhere

If you stop and look, though, most of the European countries that have been thriving and happy and peaceful pretty much since the end of World War II are Social Democracies. And despite this, America (which hasn’t been thriving, happy, or peaceful for a very long time) is loathe to give Social Democratic policies an honest go. Why? Because if adopted, such policies probably WOULD work (for the people), but not the wealthy, the corporations, the insurance companies, the military-industrial complex, or the Right.

So you’re right. The things that work in Sweden don’t work here, because we don’t ever try them.

4 minutes ago, Cpt ObVus said:

If you stop and look, though, most of the European countries that have been thriving and happy and peaceful pretty much since the end of World War II are Social Democracies.

I wouldn't go that far. The grass is not that green here either.

That shouldn't stop you from wishing change, just that it has it's own problems too. (Also comparing hapiness is not too wise imo, it's too subjective)

Peaceful is also debatable.

Edited by Rimsen
7 minutes ago, Ginkapo said:

Ah yes, in a global population of 7,800,000,000, protectionism of a "herd of 150 ish" is not selfish in any way.

Got it. The maths checks out on that one. No us vs them mentality at all.

I don’t think you’re understanding what @>kkj is saying. I don’t think he was advocating for small group protectionism. I think he was just saying that people tend to organize themselves into abstract “herds” of around 150 people. Which, just anecdotally, seems true. I mean, if I had a party, and invited all the people who really meant a lot to me personally, it’d probably end up at 150 or so guests.

1 minute ago, Rimsen said:

I wouldn't go that far. The grass is not that green here either.

That shouldn't stop you from wishing change, just that it has it's own problems too. (Also comparing hapiness is not too wise imo, it's too subjective)

Peaceful is also debatable.

Eh, they often have these “Happiness Index Studies” that measure things like job satisfaction, relative stress levels, economic freedom, etc. and countries like Iceland and Sweden and Norway always do well in them. I can tell you first-hand that America is a very stressful place, with lots of very unhappy people, and a good deal of fear and uncertainty (even before Covid). I live in a rural area, and many, many people here are working long hours with no retirement plans, no health care, and little disposable income. And it’s the same story with different details in the cities.

It’s very difficult to argue that most people wouldn’t be happier to have guaranteed housing and health care. But America has never tried this. Most of the industrialized nations of the world have found a way to provide free guaranteed health care to their citizens, but America just can’t seem to figure out how that would work. In fact, it would work just great, but it might require slightly less military spending. Might also require taxing the very wealthy at higher rates than the next-to-nothing they pay now. Might even involve cutting into the profits of health insurance companies. And this is why the Right won’t let it happen.

I admit, I was shocked at first about the move to Atomic Mass.

But then I remember the 2 years of suffering from incompetence, bad cummunity treatment, desasterous product availability which caused people buying squadron packs at incredible prices.

Therefore it is not a question of the capitalism or socialism but if FFG did a good job overall for Armada.

No, they did not.

So, next one has a try. The owner can decide. No Matter what kind of economical System is behind.

If the designers would be clever, they put them in foreground, to make them more visible and also connected to the community. To be honest. I don't know the names of the Developers or the logistic person who stepped up. Most of us don't know them.

If you go to other Board games and say Martin Wallace... the game is sold by itself.

They missed the chance to connect with the community, so they easily become replaceable.

Edited by medaloffairness
2 hours ago, Cpt ObVus said:

I don’t think you’re understanding what @>kkj is saying. I don’t think he was advocating for small group protectionism. I think he was just saying that people tend to organize themselves into abstract “herds” of around 150 people. Which, just anecdotally, seems true. I mean, if I had a party, and invited all the people who really meant a lot to me personally, it’d probably end up at 150 or so guests.

He argued we are tribal. Protection of our herd. Us vs them. Competition, nationalism, patriotism, conflict, wars and so on

In the scale of the world it no longer makes any difference whether we consider ourselves as a individual or a member of a 150 strong herd. The difference is neglibile. It still breeds selfishness.

2 hours ago, medaloffairness said:

I admit, I was shocked at first about the move to Atomic Mass.

But then I remember the 2 years of suffering from incompetence, bad cummunity treatment, desasterous product availability which caused people buying squadron packs at incredible prices.

Therefore it is not a question of the capitalism or socialism but if FFG did a good job overall for Armada.

No, they did not.

So, next one has a try. The owner can decide. No Matter what kind of economical System is behind.

If the designers would be clever, they put them in foreground, to make them more visible and also connected to the community. To be honest. I don't know the names of the Developers or the logistic person who stepped up. Most of us don't know them.

If you go to other Board games and say Martin Wallace... the game is sold by itself.

They missed the chance to connect with the community, so they easily become replaceable.

So much this

ffg's biggest issue is that they don't interact with the community enough

look at GW. GW does tons of stuff to reach out to the community and that's why people stick to them

Tbh, this entire argument would never occur under communism.

because Armada would never have been made 🤣

2 hours ago, Jabby said:

Tbh, this entire argument would never occur under communism.

because Armada would never have been made 🤣

Oh, JFC. It’s like talking to walls.

I’m gonna say this one more time, because maybe you didn’t read the whole thread: There is a massive difference between Social Democracy and Communism. Communism, as practiced by the Soviet Union and various other countries around the world in the 20th century, was awful. It aggrandized the State and the ruling class at the expense of the worker, and personal freedoms. It basically never even truly attempted to be what Marxism advocated for, which is a place where all people were truly equal. It was, instead, a bastardized half-measure that was worse than Capitalism, and eliminated all semblance of democracy.

Social Democracy is not Communism. It’s not even really close. Social Democracy is basically a capitalist democracy (like America, more or less) where we make sure everyone is taken care of. America could be a place like this. We’re one of the richest nations on earth. The problem is that as time has gone on, our wealth has been concentrated at the top, because money has an outsized influence on our politics. We basically have one whole party (the Republicans) doing really nothing except working to give the rich and privileged massive tax breaks and other business-friendly laws and regulations, no matter what it means for the rest of us. And when someone comes by and says, “Hey, maybe we should spread the wealth out a bit, because it’s grossly unfair that people who make millions of dollars in a year, maybe HUNDREDS of millions in a year, working for corporate banks that which were given bailouts by the government so they didn’t fail, are paying a pittance in taxes while we literally have people homeless and starving in the street,” the Republicans call them a Communist and everyone freaks out.

So no. This game would not have been made in Soviet Russia. In any number of Social Democracies such as exist in Western Europe and Canada and elsewhere, this game could easily have been made.

This country is So F’ed. We really are. People didn’t pay any attention to how their government works in school, and now they vote against their own interests, because they have no idea how their system works, or how other systems work, and they believe it when they get lied to. And that’s how this whole thing is just gonna grind to a halt, under the weight of its own ignorance and injustice and inefficiency. And people are convinced there is no better way, because of clever marketing to an electorate that doesn’t know any better.

This discussion is not, and has never been, about Communism.

I brought this up because people are sitting here saying it really sucks that good people at FFG lost their jobs because people who know nothing about games and don’t care about anything but the bottom line shuffled some things around, and the real problem is that we have a callous, money-matters system which doesn’t take people into account, and, true to programming, people point and yell “Communist! You’re trying to dismantle America!” No. I’m trying to point out some of the flaws in the larger global capitalist system, and to point out that America could be much better than it is.

Anyway, I gotta be done with this. Go ahead and stand around and feel bad for the guys at FFG, and then pretend “that sucks, but there’s nothing we can do, that’s just business,” when in fact we could stop propping up a lousy system, and demand one which treats people better.

I'm with Capt Obvus here: the system could be improved, a lot.

I'm in the UK - which has it's own issues, most self-inflicted - but compared to the US it's so 'socialist' that even the Democrat Party would disown it.

4 hours ago, Ginkapo said:

He argued we are tribal. Protection of our herd. Us vs them. Competition, nationalism, patriotism, conflict, wars and so on

In the scale of the world it no longer makes any difference whether we consider ourselves as a individual or a member of a 150 strong herd. The difference is neglibile. It still breeds selfishness.

No i did NOT argue for all those things you mention. You are deliberately misunderstanding me to suit your world view. I was saying, humans are inherently social beings and thus the whole capitalistic lie of "everyone is just out for himself" ("There is not society", like Margaret Thatcher said...) is just complete BS. Ofc humans have empathy, thats exactly why capitalism tries to hide all its atrocious aspects from the public because they knew it would motivate people for a change.

Edited by >kkj

Simplest answer...

Asmodee wanted to increase business. Asmodee brought on a separate miniatures group to run with a Marvel license. Covid hit, and sales went down across the board. Asmodee had to consolidate, and decided that two groups making miniatures did not make sense in the current market.

This is not about socialist democracy. These decisions happen with large companies in Europe as well when they've expanded too large to support financially or have groups with similar products.

9 minutes ago, BigPoppaPalpatine said:

Simplest answer...

Asmodee wanted to increase business. Asmodee brought on a separate miniatures group to run with a Marvel license. Covid hit, and sales went down across the board. Asmodee had to consolidate, and decided that two groups making miniatures did not make sense in the current market.

This is not about socialist democracy. These decisions happen with large companies in Europe as well when they've expanded too large to support financially or have groups with similar products.

See, this is an open question: Did they really *need* to fire a bunch of people? How much money was Asmodee losing exactly? Will this move actually save them money? Were the shareholders at the holding company which owns Asmodee just maybe unhappy that they weren’t making money as quickly as they were last year?

I’m not saying this is unique to the gaming industry. That’s the problem. The global system *should* encounter something like Covid, and hunker down, protect its people, and hold tight, with the understanding that nobody but Zoom and Amazon are making money right now. Instead, profits decrease slightly, shareholders panic, and you get mass layoffs, because this system prioritizes money over people.

And part of the problem is that it’s all too big. Multinational corporations don’t care about people, and don’t have to look them in the eye when they fire them. When a small business owner lays off a worker, he’s laying off a neighbor. Maybe a friend. He has incentive to do everything he can to protect that guy’s job, because he lives in the same town as that guy he’s firing. Corporate layoffs? Just numbers. No remorse, no moral dilemmas. People become devalued.