The Impact Factor

News & Views

8/15/15-8/21/15

The Impact Factor is back again with some more News & Views goodness! As you all know, each and every Friday I post a compilation of the best stories, editorials and essays from around the web each week. There’s never a slow week for excellent video game content, so let’s get right into it! Check out below for pieces about entitlement and privilege in Final Fantasy Tactics, an unpopular architectural aesthetic finding its new home within Minecraft, and how piracy can provide a future.

And of course you can check out the brand new episode of The Impact Factor podcast that was posted today! You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, or if you prefer other methods, check out our SoundCloud. We’re on YouTube too!

Spotlight

How "oldschool" graphics worked

The iBook Guy, YouTube

Worth Reading

Brutalism has found a second life in Minecraft

David Rudin, KillScreen

Final Fantasy Tactics, entitlement, and recognizing privilege

Nate Ewert-Krocker, Medium

Videogames are afraid of the female body

Ashley Barry, KillScreen

Piracy gave me a future

Daniel Starkey, Offworld

Let the nostalgia die: C.S. Lewis and the Final Fantasy VII Remake

Chris Casberg, Gamechurch

With Comments

Bodies, I Have In Mind

Robert Yang, Medium

Yang covers an immense breadth of topics in this extraordinary piece, weaving them together in a way that’s interesting and thoroughly unique. Yang brings his perspective as a gay game developer and educator and applies them to thinking about the language of bodies in games. Check out the link for great thoughts about what bodies mean, what they represent and to whom, and “performing” bodies in games. It’s fascinating.

Lost in Game Space

Sande Chen, Gamasutra

Chen argues that game developers should not leave narrative game design choices to chance. Often times more inexperienced game designers get caught up in open and expansive worlds. Chen makes it clear that openness should not go hand-in-hand with unguided gameplay. Chen’s perspective as a game designer and member of the IGDA make for an excellent piece.

Sony never competed with Xbox Live, and that's how it won

Ben Kuchera, Polygon

Sony has been pretty smartly playing their cards ever since the humbling experience that was the launch (and first couple years) of the PS3. PlayStation Plus is a phenomenal service. Up to 6 free games a month alone is great, but with the PS4 comes access to a lot of other great features. I regret not buying in earlier. Kuchera writes about the uphill and potentially unwinnable battle Sony would have faced in trying to copy Xbox Live, and how Sony has achieved success on its own terms.

Your target audience doesn't exist

Sergey Galyonkin, Medium

This is a piece every game designer and games writer should read. Seriously. Stop what you’re doing and read this right now. Through insights provided by his SteamSpy tech, Galyonkin identifies a key issue with how we think and write about games. There are no “target audiences,” per se. In most cases, individuals are fans of an IP or series and less so about genres. It’s stunning that 1% of Steam users account for 33% of total owned games, and 20% own 88%. When releasing a game on Steam, you should not be targeting its 135M active users, but rather the 1.3M that buy several games a year. Crazy. I’m the 1%?

What It's Like To Be The Community Manager For The 'Worst PS4 Game Ever'

Emma S., Kotaku

Community managing is something I don’t quite understand, but man oh man is it fascinating. Outwardly, you usually see them promoting game release and sales, or sharing positive feedback. Dealing with criticism is certainly a huge part of the job. Handling the scorn of the internet for releasing ‘the worst PS4 game ever’ is something I cannot even fathom. Emma S. writes about her experiences as CM for Wander, how she has no regrets, and her thoughts during the trying times. It’s a great look into something many of us don’t think about enough.