It’s called land-use planning. It can be done well or poorly! There is no contradiction here, a city can invest in beautiful, walkable recreational space without compromising the ability for industry and commercial entities to operate in that city.

Some cities have issues today because of a lack of long term planning. Or financial needs/constraints. But many are simply dealing with the slow march of time, and how decisions that made sense 20, 50, or 100 years ago don’t make as much sense today.

For example: it should be obvious that greenhouse gas emissions are a larger concern now than they were 100 years ago. Individuals can’t realistically act on environmental concerns if the place they live doesn’t facilitate their action.

Uppercut, Unwinnable, and Into the Spine sound to me like what you’re looking for. Paste has quietly raised up a lot of great games writers, too.

I also recommend reading lots of reviews for games you’re interested in. Listen to spoilercasts about them. Pay attention to the bylines, and when a critic says something that gets your mind going, try checking out what else they’ve written. Most critics are active on social somewhere, and if you like what they have to say, they’ll probably share other writing that’s similar.

Yep, SAG-AFTRA. The problem is that certain game studios refuse to work with the union (for a variety of reasons, from minor stipulations of the union contract that can’t be guaranteed, to simple staunch opposition).

Unfortunately the field is fraught enough that there are plenty of folks that need to work non-union sometimes, too. It’s not the kind of job where you can just get hired once and show up for 40 hours for a paycheck. Projects are often short commitments - maybe a few hours at a time. More if you’re lucky. And that’s only after you throw your name into a million buckets, audition for as many as will have you, and hopefully get cast.

If you’re real lucky, you get to do something like Genshin that will invite you back regularly to do voices for events, and you can show up for the work without needing to audition again and again like for everything else. Well. At least until they decide not to pay you for months, that is.