MEGACORPORATIONS - Terrible Writing Advice
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 22 ก.ค. 2024
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Corporations doing things for short-term profit that'll hurt them in the long run is actually extremely realistic.
This
I've seen so many terrible business decisions that end up creating inferior products and services because they are relying on the continued ignorance, apathy, and complacency of the consumer. Esp in video game companies. They refuse to realize that making a superior product and being reliable will entice more people to trust their products through word of mouth. Resulting in much greater long term profit.
Or companies that refuse to properly help victims of environment poisoning they caused to avoid looking bad. That is even worser, and not helpful in the long run either when it comes out. They could avoid a lot of laywers being responsible in the first place.
Except making T-viruses and taming xenomorphs isn't profitable in the short-term, either. They're extremely expensive R&D-wise. If they were really motivated by profit, they'd have killed those projects a long time ago.
@@thegodofalldragons I think those cases were a problem of long term planning under delusions that their security and safety precautions would be enough. Also ignoring the inherent dangers and uncontrollable nature of biological weapons.
But can Megacorps stand up against the "May I talk to your manager?" lady?
Nah Karen is Mary Sue
She is a zombie
That woman could turn the Dark Lord himself into a blubbering wreck.
Are you referencing something?
+Merritt Animation It’s basically the idea of a sassy woman (probably a soccer mom) complaining about the smallest inconvenience that a store or restaurant causes her family and being either annoyingly whiny or surprisingly scathing. Also, we like to call this type of woman Karen for some reason.
The most difficult part of writing a cartoonish evil megacorporation is that actual corporations keep stealing all the cartoonishly evil ideas.
Like nestle trying to privatise WATER?
"You can't stop me, Optimus Prime! I've mind-controlled humanity into buying pictures of my visage with fake money, while they destroy the Earth for me!"
It hurts how much this is true
@@tonydanatop4912 how do you privatize what is private
@@luisandrade2254 don't privatize my toilet water please it's all I have
“I mean, we can’t stop trying to weaponize the alien now, we’ve sunk too much money into this project.”
This is actually a pretty realistic corporate mindset at the middle manager level.
True, the sunk cost fallacy is strong in corporations.
"Yeah sure we added cyborg parts to demons,so player will have a big badass cyberdemon to duel with on rocket launchers."
©UAC from Doom
"We at InGen understand that our security system needs mass reform. Therefore, in an effort to improve the lives of our guests and employees, we are proud to announce we're making a Tyrannosaurus-Ankylosaurus-Troodon hybrid! Not only is it a monstrous killing machine, it now has the intelligence of a human toddler. It's also bulletproof!"
metaverse in a nutshell
"I'm so rich I cloned Karl Marx just to shoot him!"
My chest 😂😂
*Capitão Falcão approves of this*
Now that's a successful business model. Who wouldn't pay to shoot Karl Marx?
Christ, I'm a communist and even I laughed at that - it's just cartoonishly evil.
@@Pyreleaf
*Clears throat*
Malditos communas!
*Proceeds to fight hammer and sickle communists with baton*
Max Ceret You have one weapon to my two, and yours is just a shittier version of one of mine. I think I'm in the clear.
"Those zombies who devoured innocents are not in line with our core values."
Sounds like a real corporation to me.
"The zombies who devoured the innocent bystanders have been devoured."
We here at megacorp appreciate diversity and will not discriminate on hires on a basis of being undead.
Therefor we are opening new positions for mortally challenged hires, new anti discrimination measures against said mortally challenged are also something we look forward to.
@@louisduarte8763 we completely denounce the heinous acts of the A.I. that went out of control and killed millions! It's actions are not in line with our work philosophy!
569 likes nice
"We could just make it illegal to post any negative reviews of our products."
Disney in 2019 "We need to lobby government to make it illegal for people to produce 'troll' reviews of our movies."
Source?
Wait did this really happen?
@@professionalfurret not lobbying the government more like lobbying rotten tomatoes.
Why engage in lobbyism when you can assume direct control?
People should know by now that review sites can’t be trusted
And that most disney movies suck
"What we failed to spend on PTSD, we will spend on hi-tech weaponry instead"
That actually sounds like real-life policy of many armies.
*cough* US Army *cough*
What about an episode on breaking the fourth wall?
YES PLEASE
Do it every five seconds because any joke repeated constantly will be as funny as the first time.
The episode we need but don't deserve.
but... but... what about the 5th wall?!
BUT IT'S A LOAD BEARING WALL
Terrible writing advice? Woah there buddy this advice helped me, I want a refund
were you not paying attention? that corporate mega rich super villain would never give you a refund!
Don’t you know that Megacorp doesn’t provide refunds? I mean, if a customer got their money back every time a product turned them into a zombie, they would go out of business.
I mean... the idea that bread and circus is cheaper than military is quite hilarious. Bread and circus is what caused the collapse of the Roman Empire. There was a famine, suddenly Rome couldn't afford bread and circus, they went bankrupt, and shortly thereafter, Rome was sacked.
Military spending is cheap. It just doesn't have a lot of precision when it comes to addressing issues. You have a murder problem? Kill all the murderers. You have a theft problem? Kill all the thieves! You have a large number of j-walkers? Kill all the j-walkers. You have a tariff problem? Kill all the tariffs... oh wait... you can't kill a tariff... but you can kill the people enforcing them in other countries! Did that just start a war? GREAT! Kill all the people fighting a war with you.
You really want a legal and police system so you can resolve problems more precisely. The rest of government is optional.
When he referenced the bread and circus I believe he was referring to the method of which tyrannical militaristic governments run. North Korea is a good example. They drop a lot of money into military to suppress the population, because that is the cheapest and easiest way of maintaining control, in the short term. But you lose out on all the potential profits and money your people would bring in in the long term if you focused on the social aspects, like roads and clean water. Thus while you're costs are down, so is your income.
You paid for bad advice?
Why can't we have a megacorporation in fiction where everyone knows how evil it is, but instead of being on the protagonist's side, "WE HAVE TO STOP IT!" they're just looking at the one person who wants to stop it like they're crazy throughout the whole thing due to the corporation being *entrenched* ACME/Disney - style into everyone's lives?
And by entrenched, I mean, the name has become literally a noun used in lexicon.
Will Smith's iRobot
3:30: This literally happened with Covid, so Part 2 to this video here may be 'Covid vs Capitalism' by "Some More News".
... just like in real life?
Evilcorp from Mr robot fits this
This doesn't seem very realistic. Do you have any examples I could Google?
Wait...
*This video brought to you by MegaCorp.*
"MegaCorp, building a better future, today."
(MegaCorp reserves the right to build a better future)
"Creating a better galaxy today, tomorrow, FOREVER!"
Better future® is a registered trademark of megacorp.
666 LIKES :-))))
*MegaCorp™...building a better tomorrow by forcing you to pay for it today*
Sound like Weyland yutani motto " Weyland yutani corporate building better world "
The irony of making a video about MegaCorporationa that is sponsored by a huge company that sponsors hundreds, maybe thousands, of TH-camrs
Medium D Speaks he knows this
WOW HUNDREDS? MAYBE THOUSANDS!?!?!?!? MY GOD, THEY ARE SO HUGE THEY MAY AS WELL BE GOD
Well the channel is literally based on irony after all, and skillshare is not exactly a textbook megacorp
MegaCorporation =/= Evil MegaCorporation. Someone wasn't paying attention to the video.
@@lerquian1970 Implying not all corps are evil
Why research the actual nature of conglomerates like United Fruit Company and neocolonialism and how they actually operated and their historical impacts. But that requires effort and distracts from the love triangles that the readers invariably focus on instead.
What we need to get people to pay attention to the United Fruit Company is to frame their actions as love triangle. It's the perfect compromise!
Cannonfodder43
I don’t know nothing about no congobongomerites or neocongobotabobalism, but you right
United Fruit Company was an arm of CIA. Its monopolistic practices were in fact betrayal of capitalism.
@@merrittanimation7721 UFC, GE, and Boeing is what I'm thinking.
The fat old white CEO must be part of the love triangle.
TWA: There's No Way a Corporation Can Take Over a Country
East India Company: Laughs In Spices
The oddest thing is after EIC there is no more overpowered Megacorporation anymore.
@@explosivemodesonicmauricet1597 Dole and Old Chiquita: Allow us to introduce ourselves
Dole and Chiquita in the 1960's after taking over 6 fucking countries in Central America and borderline monopolizing the banana industry there: *¡JAJAJAJAJA!*
You do realize the East Indian Trading Company was given governmental power by the crown of England.
@@thecosmichiroshi That was the US government. Not Chiquita.
And Resident Evil got the evil corporation’s zombie weapons right.
In the fourth game, entire company went bankrupt from lawsuit and federal liquidiation after Racoon City incident.
You mean "before the fourth game", as it happened off-screen unfortunatly.
Before. That's why Wesker wanted The Plaga parasite, to rebuild Umbrella
@@cristhianramirez6939 well thats what he says but in reality in both the movie and the games umbrella was never really ment to be mega corp for profit it was really just to fund there real goal A EUGENIST PROGRAM wesker and his mentor both just want create the master wace hence why they dont care about human life the planet or sustanability.
and just endless create new mutagenic viruses and bioweapons to basically speed up evoultion however they can but only wesker and his sister and the Lady marando and the giant vampire lady actually got to "evolve" in a way that didnt make them mindless or maddend monsters.
@@cristhianramirez6939 i think that was for his work with Tricell
The Communist Manifesto is $3.99.
And comes in multiple editions so you have to BUY THEM ALL
Free PDF copies exist
It's free online. Along with everything else Marx wrote
Plus shipping and handling.
Marxist.org says otherwise
I smell a love triangle between the dark lord, the ceo and evil empire lord
That's how you get the Wolf
Don't forget the Ancient Conspiracy and the Cthulhu Cult.
Just as planned....
I'm envisioning The ceo and dl like saddam and satan from south park, and The evil emperor likes to watch...
But we need an orgy to show how evil and hedonistic they are. Thats where the cult and the conpiracy can party in the background doing some suggetive scenes while partying.
Actually, multinational corporations are pretty much like this in reality... but then again, truth is stranger than fiction.
Look, it's not writers' faults that actual, real-world corporations are cartoonishly, 2-dimensionally evil
Go Nagai’s original version of Dr Hell is cat smiling wickedly in skeleton form deep in the underground.
I cannot watch this without thinking about Rachet and Clank 2
The evil Mega Corporation in that game was literally called "MegaCorp"
Same.
Little robot girl: "Mommy, where does protopets come from?"
Corporate voiceover: "They come from MegaCorp!"
“Thugs 4 Less: if it ain’t broke, we’ll break it”
Do they sell megas
"We all know real life corporations are just the textbook definition of brave and will fight to the bitter end and will never just instantly fold when faced with a small vocal minority of negative opinions."
My god that burn
A little off topic, but, isn’t it really weird that mega corp villains in movies are created by mega corps irl? The likes of Disney and Marvel, and probably lots more that I don’t know of. Hell, simple motifs like _Money = Bad_ in movies and series’s is weird when they’re streamed on fucking Netflix, literally made for profit! How does this make any sense?
Edit: Nvm, it’s not off topic
I could be wrong about this, but I seem to remember reading somewhere that studies indicated that people's urge to resist the status quo can sometimes be squelched somewhat, rather than emboldened, with fictional narratives that play into those urges. Basically, if there is some general unease about distrusting the government or about the power of large, poorly regulated conglomerates, the people who have those uneasy feelings will be attracted to watching a movie that depicts a hero overthrowing a corrupt government or bringing low an evil mega-corporation, and then, very importantly, they will leave the theater feeling satisfied. Subconsciously, seeing the fictional victory can make them, in general, feel more like they have won an _actual_ victory, like they have _vicariously_ done their part to resist the status quo by watching the movie, thus ironically leading to people being more _accepting_ of the status quo.
Also, a lot of times, big corporations or governments know that they can make money off of media that makes fun of themselves, simply because people like that media, without worrying about people actually _doing_ anything about it, because they still wield all of the _real_ power (e.g. monopolies on vital goods and the use of force) that makes such resistance unfeasible for the large majority of people.
TLDR: MegaCorp: "Oh, you hate the evil MegaCorp? I know! Pay us some money to watch this fun adventure film about a superhero defeating the evil MegaCorp! There! Now, don't you feel better having seen that? Good for you! Now get back to work."
Films do not generally push the personal agendas of the puplishers, they just show off what the consumers want to see and if they want to see evil corporations then the only logical thing for the puplisher to do is to show this concept off in order to maximize the appeal of the product and thereby maximize gains. If people really like seeing evil corporations they would otherwise go watch the films of rival companies who do include them, so as ceo of disney you really have no other choice even if your products then indirectly attack you yourself.
It's not weird. It's intentional and it makes sense. They do their own research after all. I can boggle it down to capitalist knows that unhappiness in proletariat masses would lead to replacement of the capitalist or capitalism, so they hijack culture and subcultures. A lot of people are either unaware of the class struggles so they don't care or other people don't care enough to do anything so they indulge in it too to feel good.
Americans are the largest consumer base and public education is always spreading pro capitalism propaganda. So people go into movies with a bias for capitalism imo. Being anti capitalist is effort.
This would make a lot more sense if people would stop strawmanning anti-corporate as anti-capitalism. "Megacorps" are functionally governments, but with none of the democracy, limitations on power or checks and balances. The mistake people are making here is assuming authoritarian dictators and assholes sitting at the top of massive corporations are somehow different. They aren't. Not in fiction, and especially not in real life.
Given this, it's not hard to see why someone in the biz would so willingly write a piece of fiction that vilifies corporations and the people who own them. It's because they've probably got one squatting over their head and shitting on them, just like the rest of us.
Yeah Lindsay Ellis talked out it in her video on Marx theory
its a form of propaganda
every notice theres always a "good" counterpart, often the US military
>When you start a megacorp that runs society and start charging people for living in your territory but the payments aren't called taxes and you aren't called a state
Oh look, anarcho-capitalism!
Charging for rent is not taxation. You voluntarily pay for the service you subscribed to, rather than being forcefully extorted money for whatever projects bureaucrats may have in mind. You may not even use them, but you still have to pay for them with your money, and yeah, the difference between Corp and government is monopoly on violence.
@@tastethecock5203 oh, you almost saw the forest for all these stupid trees in the way.
Sure, you could decide not to pay rent. You could live off the land and be a libertarian. You could be homeless and get by on the kindness of strangers...except for all these vagrancy laws and that all the land has been purchased already by real estate syndicates. And the fact that costs are going up while wages remain stagnant due to labor cuts totally won't make a populace of desperate people who would rather go to jail for rioting than spend one more night on a park bench that was designed so you can't sleep on it, then retaliate with disproportionate force to test their new mil-surp toys on them.
Face it, a corrupt government at least has to pander for votes, a CEO is chosen in a beauty contest by the majority shareholder and is beholden to no-one. They pick their own pay, they pick their own tax rate and you, my working-class friend get to pick up their share of the taxes all while they convince you that they need more tax cuts despite the fact the only way their corporation can grow is by exterminating the competition that would make this a true capitalist system and not a giant stay-rich-quick scheme that walks like an economy.
HR department head: Imagine how much easier it would be to find willing and competent employees if we didn't shoot everyone who ever worked for us.
CEO: Great suggestion! *BANG* thunk
I’ll tell ya what megacorporations need: a megacorp love triangle. Just imagine it. Three mega corps, one future. Or even a love hexagon.
Friday Kirb perhaps the main mega Corp wants to preform a merger but can only pick one
lord money bags69 Or, the megacorp wants to take over another mega corp, but it’s quantity of mercs only allows it to attack one
@@generalmclovin7104 The BechelorCorp
Military-Science-Consumer
TRI¤PTIMUM CORPORATION
isnt that called a triumvirate or something like that?
I like how in the FNAF universe it’s well known that the companies have been sued to insolvency multiple times. Yet, this is hilariously ignored by the next company to come along and say, “this property attracts the undead, pedophiles, and terrorists; while requiring expensive robots and enormous power bills. Perfect, what could go wrong?!”
My megacorps aren't so much evil as they are incompetent. The characters who are wageslaves to these massive conglomerate empires learn first hand that what the public views as greed is in fact idiocy as nobody in the company has any idea what they are doing and it's a miracle that the whole thing doesn't implode on itself each and every day; and that the whole thing is sustained not through political maneuvering or corporate sleaze but by people still buying their overpriced junk out of convenience.
You just described government (basically a security and public works firm).
Honestly, part of the reasons greed runs as fast around society as it does today is that there is a taboo about talking about people’s money. If more people talked about money, we could actually discuss more on the issues on how to manage where that money is distributed and what to do about it. If we just knew how much people were earning more often, the more we could do something about it. Someone talks about how little they’re earning? People can support the person for a raise, especially if they’re being discriminated against. Someone talks about having a lot of money and using it to buy a lot of useless stuff as the company slaves over things? Activists can fight against that. But boohoo, not enough people actually think it’s okay to talk about something as “selfish” as money. You cannot solve problems you’re not aware of, and stories that think rich = bad and poor = good is oversimplifying things. It is just encouraging the idea that the poor should remain poor, with how it romantacizes how good you are to be poor. No, we want the poor to be richer, and the richer to be poorer - until things settle around middle income. Some rich people are good and some poor people are bad. It’s not that simple. Rich students can bully other rich students, and poor students can bully other poor students.
If only more stories with depth could do this, more greed would actually be solved.
I know your comment is old but a megacorp (like a dictatorship) wouldn't be incompetent just because. These systems are bad because it's built into their structure. th-cam.com/video/rStL7niR7gs/w-d-xo.html
if something stupid is happening it's probably because of some background politicking to keep some keys of power.
ok people i need some adivce im building a stellaris {4x space game} civilization that is a unique form of human empire it is a megacorp blended with a libertarian freehold idealogy as in its a megacorp that owns everything but dosent run everything directly instead owning hundreds of thousands of specialized companies under them that constaly compete with each other as the citizens are those who choose to hire who for the job but the Corp als heavily belives in "ethical bussiness" in every ascpect of life treating everything like bartering with the belif it is this process that pushes innovation and progress.
to insure this is not disrupted due to shear greed it has empowerd a supreme court to issue and enforce HARSH punishments for normal RL greedy progress sabotaging acts like using inferior materials to rush construction at cost of safety or false advertising or uncaring pollution dumping or forced coercion aboses of power.
now i need adivce to flesh this out as it is quite odd of a idea a megacorp that avoids the pitfalls of one company having to run everything while still technially owning everything threw franchising and it has a powerfull court to conteract corruption with again SUPER harse punishments for corruption and immoral bussiness along side normal common sense laws like no murder no wape no child abose while also blended with a technically totally free market as the people choose who to hire etc etc.
I swear I heard Dio when the CEO said DL.
DUDE ME TOO SKSKSKS
_wryyyyy_
Is that a freaking *JOJO REFERENCE!!!!*
most of us did
CatholicDragoon IT WAS ME
Can you do a video on character deaths? It would be to DIE for. ;)
Jayton S. I'd recommend Overly Sarcastic Productions video on character deaths.
If pretty good.
@@cadunkus thank you
Jayton S. *Shut*
=>_>=
This!
*?????* :
This is getting out of hand. There are simply too many opponents in the Terrible Writing Advice universe. If I am to ever have a chance at achieving my mysterious plans, I'm gonna need to do away with all these evil empires, ancient conspiracies, and megacorps. Luckily, I have captured and controlled 4 of the most powerful villains the writer could be bothered to think of. Now, as is villain conduct, I will release them one at a time with the weakest one going first. Now, let's see the first one.....
Arise Notzilla!!!!
Notzilla, the prince of monsters. 50 stories high, yet the square cube law doesn't care. He can shoot nuclear energy out of his mouth and yet somehow not give himself cancer. (How does he even shoot the energy anyway?)
Now, Notzilla has a knack for destroying cities, so I shall send him after Megacorp first! Go Notzilla! Go and...... hey, Notzilla! Megacorp is an American company, stop heading towards Japan! Uh, what is it with him and Japan?
*TO BE CONTINUED....... Next time on Terrible Writing Advice*
"I sure hope that unstoppable super soldier we engineered using DNA from an ancient eldritch alien being doesn't somehow come back to life and try to become a god using the magic life force from the center of the planet that we've been conveniently mining to fuel our global energy monopoly. That would really suck."
Man, it would also suck if he somehow took control of any mass of that eldritch alien being. Like that chunk we have just a floor below our president's main office. But hey, what are the odds of THAT happening?
I remmember FinalFantasyAbridged pointing out how stupid SHINRA actually is,one of its guys tried buying real estate around the moon by burning money.
That clearly explains the conception of Final Fantasy’s Sephiroth!
The Skillshare sponsor got me thinking, there should be a strategy game where the factions are evil organization stereotypes, like the Dark Lord and his forces, the Secret Society, the Evil Empire, the MegaCorp, etc. Has anyone made that?
^This needs to happen^
I thought you meant multiple evil megacorporations fighting for dominance, and that was the premise for the first Syndicate game.
Sounds like a humorous game
What other factions can be added?
Dark Lord lead by the Shade.
Evil Empire lead by the Emperor.
Secret Society lead by the Chosen.
MegaCorp lead by the CFO.
Alien Invasion lead by the Queen.
Artificial Intelligence lead by AM.
Lovecraftian Cult lead by Hastur.
Hive Mind lead by hive leader.
Deranged Creations lead by Doctor Bloodgrave.
Draconic Lineage lead by Draco.
Anthropomorphic Creatures lead by the Wicked Witch.
Alpha Centauri
are we not going to talk about how a corporate CEO just apprehended an ancient all mighty dark lord without breaking a sweat
6:08-6:24- That made me think of all the times a business changed something or an organization cancelled an event because "someone complained". I always wonder what's so intimidating about that one person that organizations try so hard to please them.
MEGACORPORATIONS come in 4 varieties: Wal-Mart, Google, Amazon, & Disney
Don't forget Comcast.
...care to define each one?
~~other then Disney being the ultimate power of megacorps~~
I don't really see much variety in that list other than venues and a couple different customer bases.
Apple
Walmart: The one that’s not good or evil because they really just want to sell you stuff
Google: The megacorp that does a lot of “good will” projects to endear themselves to the populace, but is really evil under the hood, trying to use their power to manipulate the populace
Amazon: The Good megacorp that really just wants to make money while offering a needed service but everyone hates them despite their good will and thinks them evil.
Disney: the megacorp that is REALLY an evil empire, and doesn’t try to hide it.
Be evil even when it doesn’t benefit them...
ULGROTHA racism is an understandable motive
Not a good one but the point is that megacorps don’t have to be evil
@ULGROTHA I won't say he's evil, but he's not a saint.
THIS COMMENT SPONSORS THE REBELS AT WORK BLOG FOR MORE ETHICAL AND CREATIVITY ENCOURAGING WORKPLACES.
insert donald trump bad because evil racist
@ULGROTHA Trump being evil for evil sake?
Nah, he's just evil for his own profit sake.
I think we are missing the obvious solution to this problem. The Dark Lord kills the CEO of the Mega Corporation and takes his position. Thereby BECOMING THE DARK LORD CEO of Mega Dark Empire Incorporated!
"Because what we fail to spend on PTSD treatment for our mercenaries we spend on high tech robotics instead."
...
So...basically the defense industry as it currently stands...
Welcome to the Military-Industrial Complex! Watch your step, our cost-risk analysis indicates the blood on the ground should only be cleaned up when it's PR-friendly, the rest of the time it's not profitable to worry about the collateral damage.
One thing that many people don’t seem to mess around with (and I don’t see why not) are the mega corps actually suing people or taking them to trial (unlike the one that JP presents here where the megacorp just owns everything so they can do whatever they want). For example in a story writing, demons in Hell are super bureaucratic and very very particular on how things are done. Like if you wanted to summon a demon, you have to do paperwork, all sorts of stuff for the pentagram to summon them (symbols, other items to amplify its power, etc), and a bit of blood to truly seal the deal (think of it as like a signature but using your genetic code instead of your penmanship). In the story, one of the characters ends up messing up and doing an illegal soul bonding thing, which eventually leads to her having to be taken down to hell to be tried for breaking the law.
Corporate killbots are a cool idea.
The EVIL Megacorporations using robot death legions would actually reinforce the faceless monolithic image they have. Having the heroes battle killbots would reinforce the hopeless atmosphere in cyberpunk stories as everyone knows how easy is it to replace machines, and how futile struggle is.
It also solves the Soldier PTSD issue when every single enemy is a robot.
It also makes it totally OK for the plucky young heroes to slaughter hundreds of the Evil MegaCorp's minions, cus they're just machines! Hooray!
Did you mean: Hyperion Corporation?
@@apassmore6573 "The Hyperion Corporation wishes to infrom you that your yearly medicine shipment has [doubled]! Congratulations on your [second] bottle of aspirin!"
And on a kids cartoon, is perfectly OK to slash and shoot and destroy lifeless robots.
If it's good enough for a cartoon, it's good enough for literally any genre!
at this point in history this feels more like reality than writing advice
This is why I can't stop harping on why Princess Mononoke is a great step up from "baby's first environmental message" in that neither the "trees" or the "industry" are seen as all good or all bad, and finding a balance between them is the way to go
Man, thank goodness we don't live in a world where single corporations can holy majority shares over entire industries, have enough money and power to influence governments more than votes, keep their own private military corporations to defend their assets, can keep staying profitable despite being well-hated and don't make short-sighted decisions, and have slowly been given control over more and more traditionally public industries like healthcare and education...
I can't wait to live in the cyberpunk future, I really hope our corporate overlords give us robo-limbs soon.
Pretentious Elizabeth Thankfully there's *very* little money to made in actively oppressing hundreds of millions of people.
In all seriousness though, it used to be *way* worse. America at the end of the 19th century is the closest we've ever come to a full-blown capitalist dystopia.
"Trastionally public industries like healthcare and education" the two things America is known for doing best.
Seriously, though, I don't get why people freak out over allowing individuals to choose between different schools, or over their own health care plans. We've never had a "capitalist dystopia". Could you elaborate on that?
Actually they already have
@@owlblocksdavid4955 in what universe is the US best at education and healthcare. I haven't even found a list where the US is in the top 20 on either. In healthcare the US spends more per person than any other country on earth but has an average life expectancy equal to Cuba. And in education the too 10 spots are consistently dominated by European and Asian countries, with the top three switching between Japan, korea and the scandinavians.
Owlblocks David I never said it was a capitalist dystopia. I said it's the closest we've ever had to reaching that point. People working long hours in dangerous, often deadly conditions just to break even, mercenaries open firing on workers' protests, anti-trust laws not existing yet, mining towns where workers were payed with special money that was only worth anything where they worked effectively forcing the workers into slavery with extra steps.
1:41 "What we fail to spend on PTSD treatment for our mercenaries we spend on high-tech robotic weapons instead."
Doesn’t sound familiar at all...
What a waste, in the Galactic Empire, we just shoot any Stormtroopers with PTSD
Hm... I see videos of robot dogs from Boston Dynamics about as regularly as reports about veterans being used up and forgotten by the system.
This video is full of failed irony.
Aka something that could trigger ptsd even more
sounds realistic sadly
Well to be fair Mega-Corps making extremely short sided decisions that harm them in the long run is extremely common IRL. Just look at AAA game companies or Energy Companies.
How much is corp, and how much is man.
@@horserage all of a corp is soulless and none of it is human.
I don’t think that applies to AAA game companies because from what I have seen their short sided decisions still make them millions.
@@leileyaravencroft Yeah but they aren’t sustainable. Eventually these practices are going to catch up to them and bite them in the ass majorly.
That zombie plague thing gave me an idea:
The Megacorp did indeed release the plague to the public but it was just one guy who wanted to be CEO. The board of directors are panicking and are scrambling to find a cure while the bad guy already has one. They're just waiting for the "rigth moment" to distribute it. After all, becoming a hero will discredit the current CEO and him being so competent will be a surefire way to get the job.
Mega..... Megacorperations
**T Series intensify**
In order to beat T-Series we must... SUBSCRIBE TO PEWDIEPIE
Trash series
considering T-Series is basically the largest internet media company in India producing movies and putting out trailers, and producing music and music videos...that is surprisingly and scaringly accurate
Ok, now I really want to see an actual argument between an ancient dark lord type and the corrupt CEO of a megacorporation.
The Pirates Of The Caribbean sequels?
@@ConnanTheCivilizedPerversion talking to Pensuke intensifies
All I hear is Umbrella corp, Umbrella corp, Umbrella corp. Great game tho.
Amazon in 20 years:
Sunlight? We purchased that a few years ago! Great investment!
This is how the vampire apocalypse starts.
The Shinra Electric Company remains one of the better defined megacrops to this day. They're surprisingly well worked out, and the leadership is never nebulous.
Don't forget the hints of internal politics and interdepartmental rivalry!
@@nihilvox And reasonable executives took over by the end of the game, right after entire executives, the board of directors, and most of the science department under a crazy Professor's influence, and their crazy god were killed.
And it's also well explained how can they afford to be jerks and not lose profits: they sell electricity. They have a monopoly on it. If you want to boycott Shinra products, well, welcome to the Middle Ages.
It's unclear how Shinra managed to erase any trace of authority besides themselves, though. No one could pull that off in real life.
@@avrorik369 is it every outright said there is no other source of power? like shinra seems pretty advanced tech wise so does like solar power exist? if its all mako only then the whole planet is dead anyway as mako seemingly is only replinished by life so one astriod causing a mass extinction would probably kill of the entire mako supply aka kill the planet entirly down to the core meaning life could never evolve again like mars
Nice reference to Roman Empire with the bread and circuses.
It's actually a pretty common idiom.
I understood that reference. 👉
Oddly enough, my story's villain is a CEO of a megacorp who pours billions of dollars into a huge supersoldier project, even though his company specializes in genetically-engineered crops. His subordinates question his judgement, but he browbeats them into going along, telling them to grow the balls to take big risks. Needless to say, his project fails hard, his company's once-immense value tanks, and the CEO flees abroad to make leather shoes while his daughter cleans up his mess.
"Never blunder, only plunder" is gonna be my new motto
Hey, could we get a video on betrayals and the like?
I feel like bad ones are either completely obvious or come out of nowhere.
Betrayals were gone over in Intrigue Plots and Noble Houses.
Lysanderoth, why would you do this?!
@@commentmanwhoeatsgahbage3022 "You think that was bad? My evil plans have just beGUN!"
(Archibald glares from beyond the grave)
@@commentmanwhoeatsgahbage3022 yes it is I, my machinations lay undetected for years for I am a master of deceptio-
@@AegixDrakan Ayy ProZD
I almost choked at the buying sunlight part. Oh, and love the special Style of this episode.
Now I wanna write a book where the hero goes against the Megacorp but ends up doing nothing while the mercs unionize and team up with lawyers to bring the company to the ground
*And the the heroes were foiled by a nihilistic anarchist clown?*
Which Terra are you writing for again?
must be Terra Branford
Cegorach?
@@approximateCognition Nope, Kefka; Cegorach would _ally_ with the heroes.
And now I'm thinking about Terra saving Terra. : )
You can't have a story without an evil corporation in the mix.
"Rose from Marie, a romantic novel" takes place in a cyberpunk future past where everything is owned by Nestlé. In that world, two protagonists find roses for the first time and fall in love and whatever, but will they take over Nestlé with their love?.
And so it came to pass, at the beginning of the third age, the dark lord placed a patent on magical rings and made an initial public offering.
Megacorporation VS Karen 'May I speak to your manager?' O'Takenkids
*Top 10 anime battles*
"What we fail to spend on ptsd treatment we spend on high tech robotic weapons" that hits a little too close to home
“Never blunder always plunder”
new favorite slogan
Hello. My name is Inner Critic and I'm here to ask you a question: Is a story good because of its writing?
"No" says the man at Megacorp, "it's because of profitability".
"No", says the man in the Rand novel, "it's because of its politics".
"No", says the man on Terrible Writing Advice, "it's because of love triangles".
I rejected those answers; instead I chose something different. I chose the impossible. I chose... A writing class on Skillshare!
Fun fact: The bananna republics exsisted, which means for a time megacorp did exsist
I know right this why I lost my faith in capitalism
3:09 is my favorite part
I "love" how the only idea of fiction big corps using aliens as weapons is basically throwing a bunch of them against the enemy lines.
Medicine based on their biology? Armor based on their skins? Drones made after some of their physical abilities, like the real life tiger robots?
Nah.
Anything that references Alpha Centauri in 2019 gets my upvote.
I loved that game.
Corps wouldn't kill off their own clientele, you say? The tobacco industry says hello.
(My point isn't that this vid is wrong, but that real life--unlike fiction--has no obligation to make rational sense.)
Tobacco doesn't kill in a week.
It can give cancer after years and years when the consumer is old.
Anyway it was the choice of the consumer to smoke every day no one obliged him to do so.
@@AlexiusRedwood Sounds like something an evil megacorp would say ;-)
EDIT: But you're right; tobacco doesn't kill you in a week. Neither do fossil fuel emissions, or CFCs, or corn syrup, or gambling, or tainted food, or slave labor, or the side-effects of literally hundreds of now-recalled medications. So long as it's a slow death that allows you to maintain plausible deniability, it will remain profitable, and capitalist institutions will recklessly pursue it.
Also, nice victim blaming, you unsympathetic dip.
Funny thing is I do not doubt the sincerity of Alcohol about "drink responsibly": unlike Tobacco that needs to get them young with robust immune systems because there is only a limited time to milk them, alcohol can be consumed for decades with no ill effects if done in moderation. You get drunk and wind up in prison or dead you can't buy any more, ruin your liver you can't buy any more you do so many dumb things when drunk you give up the booze you won't buy any more. Drink responsibly so you can buy from 21-ish until 121!
More generally, it is typically makers of addictive substances that don't care about not killing their clientele. But for some reason, badly written fictional mega-corps kill off clientele faster than the birth rate and typically through sales of seemingly innocuous devices, poorly thought out project gone awry, or simply because they are so big they can (last one comes in "silencing dissenters", "demolishing occupied buildings for reasons", and "killing people is fun" flavors).
@@AlexiusRedwood so because the consumer chose to start the addiction its not the producers fault for selling it? That is ignoring how education, addiction and societal pressure works.
@@AlexiusRedwood victim blaming is not a good look man.
My favorite use of a megacorp was more or less for a joke where only one company ran all the cafes in the world, but used different names for all of them.
TIME TRAVEL- Terrible Writing Advice. Pls.
Make sure there are no consequenses whatever with time travel. Unless you are a really zany comedy.
We can improve the Mega Corporation by having a love triangle between 3 of them.
CEO is probably my favorite character so far.
Do you think you could do video on "smart" characters not clearly written you understand but the character themselves are smart
Mega Corps might be all mighty and powerful, but Karen will certainly still want to speak to the manager...
Question: The Empire or The Mega Corp? Difference?
which one would you want to deal with the most?
have The empire be the main villain until the last arc and then have the mega corp take their place
Why not both?
While were at it...
Let's make it a love triangle! Both fighting over who gets to fight the protagonist!
Why not both?
Why not both? Dune had both the Empire of the Known Universe and the Guild.
Differences:
Megacorp is capitalistic, while the Evil Empire is Fascist, Communist, or both (it depends on whether or not the writer looked up the difference between the 2)
Megacorp would try to sell their stuff to the military for further profit despite owning practically everything. The Evil Empire IS the military, so they spend less time worrying about costs and more time worrying about what planet to blow up.
I think for a megacorp to own a nation/planet properly they gotta operate with no profit, or at least accept breaking even, focusing more on efficiency as their value. Might try writing for myself with that angle.
Profit won't be an issue once you own enough of the production and resources that you can decide the prices. That includes the prices that you would pay for those things as well as what you would charge anyone else. There's also the fact that straight up money isn't necessarily the end goal. If you own everything you want, and have the power to make/take more, and eliminate your competition, then you're all good.
I you do that you are already an evil empire, not a megacorp.
@@jonsnor4313 One could say that creating a megacorp is just a "legal" way to create an evil empire. Whether or not that company continues to wear the facade of a legitimate business or reveal their true intentions is up to the individual company.
@Maintenance Renegade Shhh...Don't say that out loud. You'll offend all the "communism is bad but unregulated free market is good" crowd by suggesting that they're just as naive about human nature and doomed to authoritarian corruption. :D
The megacorp doesn't need to own a nation or a planet. It only needs to own the government.
i think the main problem with megacorporations is that whenever a corporation tries to deversify it's products it tends to fail
like when colgate tried to sell tv diner meals
you can however become realy powerful with one type of thing tough,
like media *cough* disney *cough*
Disney might have failed if they didn’t go into theme parks. This isn’t even to mention the importance of lawyers and international bribery to let them get away with stealing IPs. I do understand your line of reasoning.
@@ConnanTheCivilized Disney would have went bankrupt if the US Military didn't bail them out.
In the TWA EU, The Dark Lord is my favorite character. Though this mega corporation CEO guy seems fun.
Let’s see how this plays out.
Also I bet $5 he’s gonna make a video eventually about Expanded universes.
I thought you already did one on Cyberpunk?
This one has some overlap with that one, Environmentalism, Dystopias, Intrigue Plots, and the one about Alien Biology. Is there an episode about Zombies, too?
Yes, concept of megacorp was popularized during 80-90's as part of cyberpunk. But concepts itself is way older trading back to West India Company and United Fruit Company. But the thing is what many people forget that those weren't real companies, but militarized branches of government what realized economical interests of those. During age of consumption we see rise in power of private corporations what cause fear that they can replace government in style of previously mentioned. Something what nowadays was proved to be false, as corporations without oligarchic (Trump-Putin style) support of government suck outside shielded environment of free market, as much as those pseudo-companies are cancerous for it.
TheRezro,
Honestly, I think that the East India Company is more megacorp West India.
Best comment yet
@@beatthegreat7020 even had their own PMC
Bob Page: Your appointment to FEMA should be finalized within the week. I've already discussed the matter with the Senator.
Walton Simons: I take it he was agreeable?
Page: He didn't really have a choice.
Simons: Has he been infected?
Page: Ah yes, most certainly. When I mentioned we could put him on the priority list for the Ambrosia vaccine, he was so willing it was almost pathetic.
Simons: This plague - the rioting is intensifying to the point where we may not be able to contain it.
Page: Why contain it? Let it spill over into the schools and churches. Let the bodies pile up in the streets. In the end, they'll beg us to save them.
Simons: I've received reports of armed attacks on shipments. There's not enough vaccine to go around, and the underclasses are starting to get desperate.
Page: Of course they're desperate. They can smell their deaths, and the sound they'll make rattling their cages will serve as a warning to the rest.
Simons: Hmm. I hope you're not underestimating the problem. The others may not go as quietly as you think. Intelligence indicates they're behind the problems in Paris.
Page: A bunch of pretentious old men playing at running the world, but the world left them behind long ago. We are the future!
Simons: We have other problems.
Page: UNATCO?
Simons: Formed by executive order after the terrorist strike on the Statue. I have someone in place though. I'm more concerned about Savage. He's relocated to Vandenberg.
Page: Our biochem corpus is far in advance of theirs, as is our electronic sentience, and their... ethical inflexibility has allowed us to make progress in areas they refuse to consider.
Simons: The augmentation project?
Page: Among other things, but I must admit that I've been somewhat disappointed with the performance of the primary unit.
Simons: The secondary unit should be online soon. It's currently undergoing preparations and should be operational within six months. My people will continue to report on its progress. If necessary, the primary will be terminated.
Page: We've had to endure much, you and I, but soon there will be order again - a new age. Aquinas spoke of the mythical City on the Hill. Soon that city will be a reality, and we will be crowned its kings, or better than kings: Gods!
IIRC, in Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Sarif Industries was pretty good in that game, as far as Megacorps go. Tai-Yong Medical in Hengsha, China was bad, as well as Belltower Associates (the mandatory PMC).
Altered Carbons sequel - Broken Angels does a pretty good job with the Mandrake Corporation.
@@louisduarte8763 David Sarif himself was a pretty nice guy. Sure, he ordered to implant Adam with much more stuff, than he actually needed, but, given the pro-aug philosophy of Sarif, he clearly thought of it as a gift to Jensen, especially since he chose the highest-end stuff for it. Also, on the Panchaea, when Adam encounters Sarif, David asks him to help with evacuating wounded ones first and, again, is visibly ready to help with it himself.
"The same corporation that makes Ambrosia also manufactures the virus. Quite convenient."
Well, the Illuminati, mostly Everett's faction, did managed to subvert that.
First thing they did was quickly distribute the cure after destroying the Majestic 12, who staged a coup against the leadership and started the plague. Though his group still get to call the shots in return though...at least in their ending, in contrast to canon where the entire world went to crap after entire world's communication was knocked out.
So there also goes nebulous corporation leadership.
Jeez, I'm glad corporations don't control things in real life. I love McDonald's! You should buy there products! Put money into this corporation. Give them money. Give them money. Give them money. Give them money.
Lately in anime, mega corporations and church is often portrayed cartoonishly evil.
Do Alternate History please!
Obviously all changes to history must somehow be "what if the nazis won" or "what if the south won". Is not like the are other interesting changes we could make to history like exploring a world where the seven years war ended in favor of the french.
Adam Billman The Civil War and World War II are the only parts of history Americans know much about. Maybe you could add the American Revolution. That’s about it
Adam Billman exactly! Because the Nazis totally, easily could’ve won WW2!
Liam Paiva Acosta and that’s what makes it incredibly easy to do!
@@kayseek1248 And I'm pretty sure that, even if the Nazi's did win WW2, they still wouldn't wind up ruling the world. Heck, they'd probably be lucky to conquer all of Europe.
0:57 Mr Weyland is most displeased.
"I'm so rich that I cloned Karl Marx just so I can shoot him"
Tvis has to be my favorite line in the Terrible writing advice saga
I Love that you can change the word "MegaCop" to "Hyperion Corporarion" and get a very accurate summary of first Bordelands games... exept for....
HANDSOME JACK
I'm calling it right now, there's gonna be a love triangle between our brave and perfect and too pure and totally has character flaws heroine, the Rich CEO and the bad boy rebel...
EDIT; well there was that one love triangle at the end of the legal disclaimer telling you to buy his book.
7:44 Hey! They only sent me a tutorial boss!
*Knock at the door
"Sir we Mega-corp representatives, and totally not really a mercenary force, have come discuss the boss mix up"
“Sunlight? We purchased that years ago! Great investment.”
At least it’s not trademarking the word “React”.
one of the good ''megacorp'' settings in my opinion is shadowrun.
i mean yes, the police is a corporation, but it's several corporations competing against each other to make goverments want to hire them, and pretty much evrything is like that.
plus it's magical cyberpunk.
The boss's ex-wife disliked Terrible Writing Advice, and that is why she is in the ground.
In my story I have a bunch of mini-corporations, bandits, and mercenaries warring against the protagonists' country, which is a bunch of anarchist co-ops, communes, and small villages working together. This idea is Different and Original
You mean *French Revolution?*
Liberté, égalité, fraternité
Gearbox wants to know your location
NoOne InParticular don’t for get Catalonia in the Spanish civil war
@@user-bj5ki6sr6c Not to act too much like a commie, but the French Revolution was the uprising of the bourgeois, the middle-class, against the dying feudal lords.
You know, you can make a megacorporation be needlessly evil and at the same time grossly incompetent while still having a realistic justification: Make it be run by a committee.
It's not like corporations own brands to fool the customers into thinking they're picking from a free market, nor manipulate government behind the scenes in a way that won't risk their own financial interest, nor would they pretend to protect business while actually doing everything in their power to crush innovation and squeeze every dime of passive customers, teaching other corporations to do the same. Nor would they... Okay, this sarcasm has gotten far enough
Kekekekeke
Yeah, but that's a pretty boring antagonist for most stories.
@@thegodofalldragons I don't think that's the deal breaker. Corporate crime was seamlessly implemented in GTA 5 where you're payed to kill stockholders. In retrospect, I've never heard of a good guy in a corporation or a good corporation fighting against a bad corporation. Maybe there's a contrast in leadership style that distinguishes them. And an exciting way to do it is maybe like a mafia-ish thriller, or how about a political drama like house of cards, ooh, why not magic or technology throw their worry of getting caught out the window. It's possible that half the drama will happen in the courtroom with high stakes on the line, maybe two big corporations are trying to manipulate the jury, then hijinx ensues. There are so many options here
and yet none of that stuff seems to make it into cyberpunk/scifi movies, books, and video games. almost like, the writers wanted to seem edgy by being "socialist" without actually being that at all.
MOAR TWA! Please make a video about first person perspective writing.
You talk about externalizing medical costs and mechanizing the labor force as if they are ideologically inconsistent.
I really want a book with ALL the tropes you have talked about in this series.
or even a book on the TWA extended universe.
6:55 Contrivium gag broke me! This is too good!
Thank God! I almost went to sleep without seeing this notification.