News
& Views
4/18/15-4/24/15
I hope you all enjoyed Souls week
here on TheImpactFactor! Time sure flies. As I am writing this, we are less
than two months away from E3 2015. We’re already starting to get news about it.
SquareEnix’s newly announced press conference now puts the total up to six. E3 aside, a lot was going on in
video games this past week. From the huge Star
Wars: Battlefront announcement to new exciting media partnerships. I’ve
also found some great written pieces about the muting of Japanese culture as
games get ported over to the states, lies adults tell kids about violent video
games, and the extremeness of the human body in games. I hope there is
something for everyone here! See you all soon.
Spotlight
Susana Polo, Polygon
Worth
Reading
Daniel
Sims, PC Gamer
Paolo
Pedericini, La Molle Industria
Ed Smith,
Vice
Patrick
Klepek, Kotaku
Bob Mackey,
US Gamer
And the
rest!
Nick
Wanserski, A.V. Club
I’ve been loving Wanserski’s
articles. In this piece Wanserski skewers Final Fantasy’s
proclivity for dressing up their characters in the most ridiculous outfits. I
have to agree with him, Tidus’ clothing is just terrible. Each leg of his
shorts are a different length? Why?
Erik Kain,
Forbes
Pre-ordering is a huge part of the
video game industry. Publishers and developers offer exclusive content, early
access to downloadable expansions, and more. Unfortunately, games are often
buggy, unfinished messes when they are first released. All consumers need to be
wary of pre-ordering any game, but especially in the case of an online title
like Star Wars:
Battlefront. EA / DICE’s track record
with Battlefield 4 adds extra unease.
Richard
Lewis, Daily Dot
I hate the term esports. Why can’t
competitive gaming just be that—a competition? Why need to define it as a ‘sport’?
Calling competitive gaming a sport brings up all sorts of legal headaches too,
like the one Lewis writes about here. As ‘esports’ gets bigger and bigger,
issues like this are going to need to be addressed.
Jamin
Warren, PBS Game/Show YouTube
Warren does a great job covering the
depiction of the human form in games. I appreciated the added emphasis about
how the depiction of female characters is more problematic than that of their
male counterparts. The discussion of overweight characters was nice too.
Telltale
Games
I love Telltale Games recently.
Justine and I eagerly await each new episode of Tales from the Borderlands and Game of Thrones. I can’t say I wouldn’t be interested in playing Telltale’s take on
something like the New Avengers or Spider-Man.
Steam
Workshop
This was perhaps the most
controversial topic this week in games. Monetizing mods is anti-consumer and,
as I found out, counter to what so many modders would like. Issues have, and
will continue to, arise with mod creators not wanting to sell their product,
but will be forced to in order to prevent others from copying & selling it
on Steam. Valve has earned a lot of goodwill from the gaming community at
large, but this seems to be a fairly transparent attempt to skim off the top of
the modding community.
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