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Link to all bad ending threads: https://www.installbaseforum.com/fo...-for-the-video-game-industry.1998/post-228671
I am referencing the title of the novel No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai. I have not read the novel yet, but that is an awesome title. I first heard it from watching the anime adaptation of Bungo Stray Dogs animated by Studio Bones. In this anime there is a port town ruled by a mafia and, there is a private detective agency where the characters have powers that are called upon by saying the title of a novel. One of the strongest characters in the anime is the one with the power named No Longer Human because it nullifies the powers of anyone else when in physical contact. There's currently six seasons of the show and each season has been better than the last so far.
The following is going to be skipping right to the bad ending in the form of a short story as opposed to past threads where I talk about a certain concept and apply it to past/current events.
Bad Ending: No Longer Human
It's the year 20XX, I thought I'd gotten over the hurdles of the nightmare that was automation by AI. Now I sit here on autopilot doing tasks at 100% efficiency for 8 hours straight. I'm physically and mentally drained, how did I end up at this point in my life?
Back then, the majority of white-collar jobs were automated out of existence thanks to AI. Jobs that required a body to move things around and do other tasks in non-linear ways could not be automated as easily. Companies didn't have the money to replace humans with robots because the company would have high expenses from not just the materials required to assemble a robot, but also the maintenance. All it took was one CEO from a gig-economy based company to come up with a solution, "We want the cheap labor of a human, with the productivity of a machine while not having to be responsible for maintaining it. I got it! Human augmentation."
Eventually over time, a private company purchased the military R&D for mechanical exoskeletons and merged it with the technology for implanting CPUs into the brain (referred to as brain CPU implants). Following a few surgical procedures, a human could now be augmented with a chip implanted into their brain and be connected to an upper body exoskeleton that controls the upper limbs and, has cameras and/or sensors along the shoulders and limbs that allow the CPU to perform actions independent of the person it is on.
Trials comparing a regular human and an augmented human working at a warehouse showed that the augmented human outperformed a regular human's tasks by magnitudes. Here we go again, the companies are going to layoff the workers and have one person do the task of ten people because of productivity gains.
We got all these productivity gains, and we still don't have a four-day work week or less. It's as if the business owners don't want that to happen. Keynes is a liar and I want my money back! (He predicted in the 20th century that productivity gains would result in 15-hour work weeks)
It wasn't enough that you needed 5+ years' experience in an Entry-level job that you've never done before. You now had to compete with other augmented workers, your condition of employment now required an agreement with the employer that you would become augmented if you weren't already. The employer would have you take a bank loan to cover the cost of the augmentation, you would be in debt and have to pay back the bank with interest for the augmentation.
Businesses hit a snag when something peculiar happened, their augmented workers were dying because of *checks notes* Karoshi... whatever that means. Businesses had to hire more augmented workers to reduce the instance of Karoshi or else the government might step in (who am I kidding, they'rebribed lobbied not to step in, and manslaughter only results in a fine). Since wages were already non-existent, and the workers were the ones in debt with the bank not the employer, this was trivial for enterprise to solve.
Where was I while all this was happening? I was a video game developer working for a big-name AAA publisher. I finally rose up in the ranks that I ended up as Director of a new AAA IP to work on. A few months into the production phase, some of the c-suite execs visited and had a performance review of the studio. They claimed we weren't being productive enough and that crunch hours wouldn't prevent us from going over budget. They offered us a solution; they would have the key creative staff undergo augmentation and the company would cover the costs. Anyone that didn't agree would be laid off, including me.
I then held a meeting with the key creative staff over what happened, this was hard for them to handle, some staff chose to leave while others reluctantly agreed to the conditions along with me. The staff were annoyed that executives didn't have to augment themselves because they're not the ones doing the work. We signed contracts that were the thickness of a phone book, this meant none of us had the time to read through the conditions for the augmentation.
A few months later, the remaining key creative staff including me had undergone upper body augmentation and adapted to the new work conditions. Some of the staff were complaining that their limbs were doing things on their own without their input. I mentioned to them that the exoskeleton can go on autopilot doing tasks for them, it was something they would get used to while they focused on more creative output. One other staff member complained about their toilet habits changing, I mentioned that the CPU in your brain improves efficiency by controlling the brain to only focus on work, not on going to the toilet.
It's not as if I didn't have complaints, the CPU in my brain was forcing me to go to sleep at home at times when I didn't want to, and then wake me up hours into my sleep to answer emails. It felt like my brain was continuously working even while I was asleep.
Two years later, the c-suite execs visited the studio again for a meeting with me. They were happy with the productivity gains and improvement in the budget, unfortunately, they told me the studio was going to be closed down and all the workers laid off. They had borrowed a lot of money back when interest rates were at 0% to afford the budget for the new AAA title and now that interest rates increased to 5%, they couldn't pay the interest. The title was nowhere near completion so we couldn't release the game to keep the studio afloat.
They gave us key creatives a generous severance package, but I was still disappointed that we went through all this and didn't even complete the game in the end. They let us keep our augmentations as the costs were already covered in the contract we signed before. Since I had something that made me more productive, I wanted to make my own game without being bossed around by suits.
Another year later, after forming a one-man indie studio. I ended up creating my dream game and launched it on the PC digital shop. Initial sales were okay, but it was fine. Given enough time the sales would cover the costs. Nothing could go wrong. Later in the week I received an unexpected email. My dream game had been pulled from the digital store because of a copyright claim from my former employer. I felt chills go down my spine, something felt very wrong.
Just as I was about to head out, I received a notification on my phone from one of my former co-workers. He said there was a rumor that our AAA title that we worked on before the studio closed down was going to be revealed. I hastily checked social media for any events happening today, one of the console owners was having a digital event in the next hour.
I had to stop what I was doing and find out if this rumor was true or not. I waited to watch the digital event, twenty minutes into the show I couldn't believe what I was seeing. The CEO of the publisher I worked for was presenting a game, it was our game! They told us it was cancelled! The trailer didn't show who the developer of the game was. The narrator for the event said an additional stream afterward would be showing more gameplay.
I received another notification, the composer from our former studio said one of the songs he created but was never implemented into development was played during the trailer. I asked if the song was left on one of the work computers. He said no, he was creating the composition at home, it was never completed because of the studio shutdown. At this point I was sweating; I waited for the digital event to end and watched the additional stream. A streamer was playing a demo of our game, they were playing a segment that I remember was the last point in our development before the studio got shut down. I remember distinctly the cinematic scene I wanted to create for this segment, but it was never worked on since the studio closed.
The streamer got to the end of the segment and a cinematic scene played, I couldn't believe what I was seeing. The cinematic scene was playing out exactly what I had in my head. What is going on?
I rush outside and travel to my former employer's office building. I walk up to the receptionist and ask to see one of the execs that oversaw the former studio. I can't see them because they're in a meeting!? How predictable! I lose my shit and suddenly everything went dark.
I wake up inside a meeting room seated at one end of the table. At the other end is the CEO. He asks me what the purpose of my visit is. Ignoring how I blacked out; I ask him how the cancelled game ended up being completed. He went on a long exposition dump; he talks to me about how laying off workers is an unfortunate thing. They value us workers but not as much as the IP we produce, "We have to produce value for our shareholders" he said. He goes on about how even though gains were made with the introduction of AI in game production, the biggest fear they have is when someone laid off becomes a talented developer for a competitor, "If only we owned not only the IP our workers made but also the workers themselves". I didn't like where this exposition dump was going. "We were able to complete the game after the studio closed down thanks to your augmentation", he said. I asked how and he explained that the CPU implant I have was wirelessly transferring data to the company's servers. What data? "Your own algorithm" he said as he looked with glee, "The actions that you take, the thoughts that you have, your own ego is turned into machine code and stored on our servers. After the studio closed down, we resumed development by having AI use your personal algorithm continue development of the game".
I couldn't believe what I was hearing, but knowing how the game was revealed, it's hard to deny. "Of course, the game couldn't be completed with just your algorithm. Your co-workers' algorithms helped finish development smoothly", he finished. That explains all the planned works that we never implemented, the cinematic scenes, the music composition. All done by AI using our own algorithms. I yelled, "Why? Why did your company put a copyright claim on my indie game!?". The CEO smiled, "Your game was built using Intellectual Property belonging to us." I looked at him confused, "What are you talking about? I didn't use any assets or tools belonging to the company, no wait..." The CEO remarked, "You catch on well, your algorithm is Intellectual Property and you signed over the rights of your algorithm to us when you agreed to get augmented. Any works you create belong to the company even if you don't work for us. There is no difference between you and your algorithm, if you and your algorithm were tasked to do a brainstorming session, you would both come up with the same ideas."
"Bullshit!", I yelled. "Oh, it's really not. Just like a movie studio can own the likeness of an actor, we can own your very essence. The most interesting thing when using your algorithm with AI is how it can also create new works when interacting with other algorithms. We have obtained 300 algorithms so far, they are interacting with each other, discovering new ideas, and creating new works that get stored on our servers. All without needing food or sleep. Your algorithm was the steppingstone to creating new AAA titles at 1/1000 of the cost and with the fastest production times ever for a AAA title. We no longer need to license out our IP to a third-party studio and we no longer need to hire new developers either. Our algorithms have made your role obsolete", the CEO exposition dumped.
"It was nice talking to you, but I have another meeting to attend.", those were the last words I heard from the CEO before I blacked out again. I woke up back in my own home, I still remember what happened, it definitely wasn't a dream. I go to check my indie game and I find out it's been relisted but, it's now owned by my former employer. This is bullshit!
I can no longer support myself by developing games and, I can't join a game dev studio because my former employer owns my algorithm. I can't get this damn CPU implant out of my brain. My only choice is to find work that doesn't require me to create IP.
Back to the present, my exoskeleton has my life on autopilot. I don't have control over my actions, working this low-skilled, low-wage job that is in a different industry than what I used to work at. I'm spending 8 hours each day being braindead while a computer does the work for me, I'm working harder than any normal person can, but it feels so alienating. These actions are not my own, what's being done is not my work, there's nothing to enjoy, nothing to look forward to. What reason is there to live when my former employer is releasing game after game that is using my own algorithm and making money off of it? I can't even play video games anymore knowing how I have been robbed of everything. Every time I think about doing something to fight back, I end up blacking out, so I've had to stop thinking about ways to get back what is mine. I complain to my new boss about how much this job sucks; he brushes it off and tells me to "Sigma Grindset" or some shit. I tried to stop eating, but my exoskeleton keeps finding food and water to feed me. The food is forced into me, and I have no control over it. If my augmentation is keeping me alive, then there must be some "Asimov Laws of Robotics" in the code, was this implemented after the Karoshi incidents? If so, then the augmented people before me were the lucky ones. I am bound not only to my wages, not only to my former employer, but also to this damn robot.
I blacked out again and woke up in my home.
I am referencing the title of the novel No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai. I have not read the novel yet, but that is an awesome title. I first heard it from watching the anime adaptation of Bungo Stray Dogs animated by Studio Bones. In this anime there is a port town ruled by a mafia and, there is a private detective agency where the characters have powers that are called upon by saying the title of a novel. One of the strongest characters in the anime is the one with the power named No Longer Human because it nullifies the powers of anyone else when in physical contact. There's currently six seasons of the show and each season has been better than the last so far.
The following is going to be skipping right to the bad ending in the form of a short story as opposed to past threads where I talk about a certain concept and apply it to past/current events.
Bad Ending: No Longer Human
It's the year 20XX, I thought I'd gotten over the hurdles of the nightmare that was automation by AI. Now I sit here on autopilot doing tasks at 100% efficiency for 8 hours straight. I'm physically and mentally drained, how did I end up at this point in my life?
Back then, the majority of white-collar jobs were automated out of existence thanks to AI. Jobs that required a body to move things around and do other tasks in non-linear ways could not be automated as easily. Companies didn't have the money to replace humans with robots because the company would have high expenses from not just the materials required to assemble a robot, but also the maintenance. All it took was one CEO from a gig-economy based company to come up with a solution, "We want the cheap labor of a human, with the productivity of a machine while not having to be responsible for maintaining it. I got it! Human augmentation."
Eventually over time, a private company purchased the military R&D for mechanical exoskeletons and merged it with the technology for implanting CPUs into the brain (referred to as brain CPU implants). Following a few surgical procedures, a human could now be augmented with a chip implanted into their brain and be connected to an upper body exoskeleton that controls the upper limbs and, has cameras and/or sensors along the shoulders and limbs that allow the CPU to perform actions independent of the person it is on.
Trials comparing a regular human and an augmented human working at a warehouse showed that the augmented human outperformed a regular human's tasks by magnitudes. Here we go again, the companies are going to layoff the workers and have one person do the task of ten people because of productivity gains.
We got all these productivity gains, and we still don't have a four-day work week or less. It's as if the business owners don't want that to happen. Keynes is a liar and I want my money back! (He predicted in the 20th century that productivity gains would result in 15-hour work weeks)
It wasn't enough that you needed 5+ years' experience in an Entry-level job that you've never done before. You now had to compete with other augmented workers, your condition of employment now required an agreement with the employer that you would become augmented if you weren't already. The employer would have you take a bank loan to cover the cost of the augmentation, you would be in debt and have to pay back the bank with interest for the augmentation.
Businesses hit a snag when something peculiar happened, their augmented workers were dying because of *checks notes* Karoshi... whatever that means. Businesses had to hire more augmented workers to reduce the instance of Karoshi or else the government might step in (who am I kidding, they're
Where was I while all this was happening? I was a video game developer working for a big-name AAA publisher. I finally rose up in the ranks that I ended up as Director of a new AAA IP to work on. A few months into the production phase, some of the c-suite execs visited and had a performance review of the studio. They claimed we weren't being productive enough and that crunch hours wouldn't prevent us from going over budget. They offered us a solution; they would have the key creative staff undergo augmentation and the company would cover the costs. Anyone that didn't agree would be laid off, including me.
I then held a meeting with the key creative staff over what happened, this was hard for them to handle, some staff chose to leave while others reluctantly agreed to the conditions along with me. The staff were annoyed that executives didn't have to augment themselves because they're not the ones doing the work. We signed contracts that were the thickness of a phone book, this meant none of us had the time to read through the conditions for the augmentation.
A few months later, the remaining key creative staff including me had undergone upper body augmentation and adapted to the new work conditions. Some of the staff were complaining that their limbs were doing things on their own without their input. I mentioned to them that the exoskeleton can go on autopilot doing tasks for them, it was something they would get used to while they focused on more creative output. One other staff member complained about their toilet habits changing, I mentioned that the CPU in your brain improves efficiency by controlling the brain to only focus on work, not on going to the toilet.
It's not as if I didn't have complaints, the CPU in my brain was forcing me to go to sleep at home at times when I didn't want to, and then wake me up hours into my sleep to answer emails. It felt like my brain was continuously working even while I was asleep.
Two years later, the c-suite execs visited the studio again for a meeting with me. They were happy with the productivity gains and improvement in the budget, unfortunately, they told me the studio was going to be closed down and all the workers laid off. They had borrowed a lot of money back when interest rates were at 0% to afford the budget for the new AAA title and now that interest rates increased to 5%, they couldn't pay the interest. The title was nowhere near completion so we couldn't release the game to keep the studio afloat.
They gave us key creatives a generous severance package, but I was still disappointed that we went through all this and didn't even complete the game in the end. They let us keep our augmentations as the costs were already covered in the contract we signed before. Since I had something that made me more productive, I wanted to make my own game without being bossed around by suits.
Another year later, after forming a one-man indie studio. I ended up creating my dream game and launched it on the PC digital shop. Initial sales were okay, but it was fine. Given enough time the sales would cover the costs. Nothing could go wrong. Later in the week I received an unexpected email. My dream game had been pulled from the digital store because of a copyright claim from my former employer. I felt chills go down my spine, something felt very wrong.
Just as I was about to head out, I received a notification on my phone from one of my former co-workers. He said there was a rumor that our AAA title that we worked on before the studio closed down was going to be revealed. I hastily checked social media for any events happening today, one of the console owners was having a digital event in the next hour.
I had to stop what I was doing and find out if this rumor was true or not. I waited to watch the digital event, twenty minutes into the show I couldn't believe what I was seeing. The CEO of the publisher I worked for was presenting a game, it was our game! They told us it was cancelled! The trailer didn't show who the developer of the game was. The narrator for the event said an additional stream afterward would be showing more gameplay.
I received another notification, the composer from our former studio said one of the songs he created but was never implemented into development was played during the trailer. I asked if the song was left on one of the work computers. He said no, he was creating the composition at home, it was never completed because of the studio shutdown. At this point I was sweating; I waited for the digital event to end and watched the additional stream. A streamer was playing a demo of our game, they were playing a segment that I remember was the last point in our development before the studio got shut down. I remember distinctly the cinematic scene I wanted to create for this segment, but it was never worked on since the studio closed.
The streamer got to the end of the segment and a cinematic scene played, I couldn't believe what I was seeing. The cinematic scene was playing out exactly what I had in my head. What is going on?
I rush outside and travel to my former employer's office building. I walk up to the receptionist and ask to see one of the execs that oversaw the former studio. I can't see them because they're in a meeting!? How predictable! I lose my shit and suddenly everything went dark.
I wake up inside a meeting room seated at one end of the table. At the other end is the CEO. He asks me what the purpose of my visit is. Ignoring how I blacked out; I ask him how the cancelled game ended up being completed. He went on a long exposition dump; he talks to me about how laying off workers is an unfortunate thing. They value us workers but not as much as the IP we produce, "We have to produce value for our shareholders" he said. He goes on about how even though gains were made with the introduction of AI in game production, the biggest fear they have is when someone laid off becomes a talented developer for a competitor, "If only we owned not only the IP our workers made but also the workers themselves". I didn't like where this exposition dump was going. "We were able to complete the game after the studio closed down thanks to your augmentation", he said. I asked how and he explained that the CPU implant I have was wirelessly transferring data to the company's servers. What data? "Your own algorithm" he said as he looked with glee, "The actions that you take, the thoughts that you have, your own ego is turned into machine code and stored on our servers. After the studio closed down, we resumed development by having AI use your personal algorithm continue development of the game".
I couldn't believe what I was hearing, but knowing how the game was revealed, it's hard to deny. "Of course, the game couldn't be completed with just your algorithm. Your co-workers' algorithms helped finish development smoothly", he finished. That explains all the planned works that we never implemented, the cinematic scenes, the music composition. All done by AI using our own algorithms. I yelled, "Why? Why did your company put a copyright claim on my indie game!?". The CEO smiled, "Your game was built using Intellectual Property belonging to us." I looked at him confused, "What are you talking about? I didn't use any assets or tools belonging to the company, no wait..." The CEO remarked, "You catch on well, your algorithm is Intellectual Property and you signed over the rights of your algorithm to us when you agreed to get augmented. Any works you create belong to the company even if you don't work for us. There is no difference between you and your algorithm, if you and your algorithm were tasked to do a brainstorming session, you would both come up with the same ideas."
"Bullshit!", I yelled. "Oh, it's really not. Just like a movie studio can own the likeness of an actor, we can own your very essence. The most interesting thing when using your algorithm with AI is how it can also create new works when interacting with other algorithms. We have obtained 300 algorithms so far, they are interacting with each other, discovering new ideas, and creating new works that get stored on our servers. All without needing food or sleep. Your algorithm was the steppingstone to creating new AAA titles at 1/1000 of the cost and with the fastest production times ever for a AAA title. We no longer need to license out our IP to a third-party studio and we no longer need to hire new developers either. Our algorithms have made your role obsolete", the CEO exposition dumped.
"It was nice talking to you, but I have another meeting to attend.", those were the last words I heard from the CEO before I blacked out again. I woke up back in my own home, I still remember what happened, it definitely wasn't a dream. I go to check my indie game and I find out it's been relisted but, it's now owned by my former employer. This is bullshit!
I can no longer support myself by developing games and, I can't join a game dev studio because my former employer owns my algorithm. I can't get this damn CPU implant out of my brain. My only choice is to find work that doesn't require me to create IP.
Back to the present, my exoskeleton has my life on autopilot. I don't have control over my actions, working this low-skilled, low-wage job that is in a different industry than what I used to work at. I'm spending 8 hours each day being braindead while a computer does the work for me, I'm working harder than any normal person can, but it feels so alienating. These actions are not my own, what's being done is not my work, there's nothing to enjoy, nothing to look forward to. What reason is there to live when my former employer is releasing game after game that is using my own algorithm and making money off of it? I can't even play video games anymore knowing how I have been robbed of everything. Every time I think about doing something to fight back, I end up blacking out, so I've had to stop thinking about ways to get back what is mine. I complain to my new boss about how much this job sucks; he brushes it off and tells me to "Sigma Grindset" or some shit. I tried to stop eating, but my exoskeleton keeps finding food and water to feed me. The food is forced into me, and I have no control over it. If my augmentation is keeping me alive, then there must be some "Asimov Laws of Robotics" in the code, was this implemented after the Karoshi incidents? If so, then the augmented people before me were the lucky ones. I am bound not only to my wages, not only to my former employer, but also to this damn robot.
I blacked out again and woke up in my home.
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