Games

While playing Uncharted 4, a big concern I've had is how the treasure hunter trope affects the places he visits. At one point in the game, Nate practically demolishes a cathedral and centuries-old architecture to get to a clue – not the full treasure, just a clue. He exits to see hundreds of locals going about their business, unaware that their local monument was just destroyed by a greedy visitor.

What does the genre say about cultural imperialism? What do we do about the first-world explorer venturing to exotic locales to plunder, leaving nothing but rubble in his wake?

Pre-order bonuses have always been a topic of heavy debate. When the rewards for pre-ordering Deus-Ex: Mankind Divided were announced, there was an uproar. The concept of locking off content until a certain amount of people pre-ordered was certainly appalling, but could this ever happen again? Are there any benefits to the consumer with this system?

Farcry is a game that is known for following a pattern of doing the exact same thing in everyone of its games. Primal was another one of these examples, it was a game where the developers promised more from what gamers had previously experienced but what they buyers seemed to get was a better and bigger map. Analyze and explain what the developers could have done to actually achieve what they promised.

Examine the rise in popularity of hyper critical video game reviewers and whether or not they are simply contributing to public discourse or if they are hurting the medium as a whole by always taking an aggressively antagonistic role in their reviews. Also, if a controversial review leads to more views, does that give the reviewer a higher incentive to always release hyper critical reviews.

It's a recurring trend in games that clearly touch upon very important issues such as racism, religious discrimination, etc. for them to obfuscate their commentary by having humans in general being racist towards an invented race or group, such as in Dragon Age: Origins where humans are racist towards elves. It creates a situation where the writers want to say "Look! Here's racism! Isn't it terrible?", without actually tackling the issue in a helpful or interesting way. Given that games are an interactive medium, where the player has choice, has agency, there is a lot of opportunity for engaging the player in the issue in a way that non-interactive media cannot.

As an example, in Fallout: New Vegas, the player can choose the gender of their character. There is a particularly sexist faction in the game called Caesar's Legion, and if you chose to play as a female character, they react negatively towards you. Even a minor part of their camp is restricted from you on the basis of your gender. I personally found this to be a very powerful way to make a statement about sexism, but things like this are all but unheard of in games. Why is this? How can it be avoided? How do we talk about these issues using the strengths of the medium?

Ubisoft has it's own gaming platform for computer gaming called UPlay. In order to play Ubisoft's games this software is required. Take a look at what Ubisoft is trying to do with this and whether or not it's doing well. Compare it to other software like steam. Is Ubisoft on to something or is it just a pain for players?

There was a massive overhaul to League of Legends' "Rift" after Riot's mid-season patch. Every new patch usually comes with some controversy but this one takes the cake. Players are complaining about "RNG" being added to the game with new random elemental spawning dragons. People feel that changes to the Rift Herald which now gives a twenty minute long buff (which in some cases is essentially the entire game) to one player that cannot be lost during death is unfair. And of course, there's the running saying that any newly released champion is overpowered (which marketing-wise is probably intentional, it gives people incentive to buy the character right away since it will be nerfed later).

Many players have access to the PBE and some youtubers make a living off of releasing the newest PBE content before it hits the game. With so much potential feedback it leaves me wondering how some obviously un-liked and controversial updates come to fruition. Though it need not focus on Riot I think it would be great to see an article focusing on the process of decision making that happens behind the scenes. What is the company structure? I'm sure gamers would like to know how much of their input goes into certain gaming companies' decisions. Perhaps it could even serve to relieve some tension from between the two parties. Are more direct and preemptive quality feedback strategies necessary for any variety of gaming companies; are PBEs enough?

Hatoful Boyfriend is a visual novel with a twist — you are the last human on earth, and you attend a school for gifted birds. The goal in the game: get a bird lover. Hatoful Boyfriend seems, at first, gimmicky. It subverts the typical storyline of dating sims by adding talking birds. However, the game can quickly become emotional, mysterious, and even heart wrenching. Hatoful Boyfriend, with its amusing surface, can introduce the genre of visual novel to those previously unfamiliar with it. It has also set a precedent in the visual novel genre to create stories that expand on and add oddity to the typical high school setting.