News
& Views
5/14/16-5/20/16
This week has been pretty incredible. I still can’t believe I got to
play, and finish, Uncharted 4. What a
game. Expect a review here next Tuesday. And there’s so much more! Survivor’s
finale, warm weather, and the promise of summer fun has me feeling great. Now
onto the real meat of the post.
News & Views collects the week’s best gaming editorials, opinions,
and more into one convenient place. This week I found stories about the woman
who invented cosplay, the grief of finishing a great video game (I’m feeling it
with Uncharted 4), and the ever
changing role of a game’s publisher in major eSports scenes. You should give
them all a look and let me know which ones resonated with you!
And of course please 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
Keith Stuart, The Guardian
Worth
Reading
Andrew Reiner, GameInformer
Sam Greszes, Kill Screen
Jennifer Culp, Racked
Patrick Miller, Giantbomb
Bryce Blum, ESPN
With
Comments
Anthony Burch, Destructoid
Burch
spotlights a problem not a lot of us think about – leveling systems. Visualizations
of progression can be an extremely powerful hook in gaming, so much so that
they can often impact how you play a game. Leveling in multiplayer modes
specifically can create this terrible mind space, where you only are playing to
level up. In certain games (RPGs) I quite enjoy leveling systems, but not every
game needs gear you can strengthen, or player levels to increase. Great
thoughts.
Nathan Ingraham, Engadget
Shortly
after watching the high-octane trailer for Battlefield 1, I started to ponder the implications of what
a World War I shooter would actually be. WWI was a terrible, brutal, bloody,
inglorious and awful war. Battlefield
is known for cartoonifying war so it felt odd that their team
would try to depict WWI. I certainly “have the stomach” for Battlefield 1, but there is a lot to think about here.
Katherine Cross, Gamasutra
It might
seem strange for me to spotlight Cross’s article here since The Impact Factor uses
review scores, but I totally agree with the points she makes. Review scores,
overall, are useless. Not only do they often say nothing, more often than not
they stifle the conversation surrounding games (oh, it’s only a 7.5? Not worth
my time). Scores can be helpful in establishing a certain kind of quality to a
game, but they should not be the be all end all. I also went with a 5 star
system here as to not play into the other terrible aspect of review scores –
their inclusion in score aggregate sites. There is a lot to chew on here.
John Walker, RockPaperShotgun
John
Walker’s article about whether or not you need to be good at games stimulated a
lot of discussions online. On one hand, I agree with his title. You do not have
to be good at games to enjoy them. But then again, I do think a certain level
of competency is essential in reviewing games. Walker conflates this “GIT GUD”
mentality for reviewers versus fans, but overall I quite liked the piece.
People should never use skill at
gaming to make someone feel like they don’t deserve to be playing.
