Backlog: The Embiggening – December, 2019
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 11/24/19 at 02:49 PM CT
December is upon us, as the Twenty-Teens prepare to give way to the Boring ‘20s. Shockingly, Publishers seem to have caught on – finally – that releasing games late in December is an exercise in futility. The result is a month with few releases, but all of them crammed in the first 10 days or so. It doesn’t really matter, though, as the continued dominance of ports means there’s not much to get excited about, regardless.
We can mostly lean on our shovels like Department of Roads employees, as there are only two pieces of trash-disguised-as-games releasing in December, and both fall into the super-casual non-game variety. We’ve got “Avicii Invector,” a Rhythm game based on some Electronic Dance Music DJ’s portfolio of ‘work;’ and “Waku Waku Sweets,” a spiritual successor to the ‘Cooking Mama’ series of motion-controlled Home Economics simulators.
In spite of the lack of releases overall coming in December, we’ve still got 5 ports, remasters, …
“Received Knowledge” and Criticism
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 11/17/19 at 04:29 PM CT
Recently, I read a videogame review on another site and dared to delve into the dark underbelly that is the typical Internet comment section. Actually, I read comment sections with regularity, as they are a great way to keep in touch with the zeitgeist of the Mob at any given point in time. However, in this particular instance, I actually learned something new. No, I didn’t actually learn it directly from an Internet comment section remark, but the comment spurred me to do some online research, which yielded results both from the expected Well of All Knowledge that is Wikipedia as well as some American universities.
The topic at hand was how we know game criticism is good, and the comment that spurred me on my latest quest for knowledge spoke directly to my own prejudices by pointing out that people today just accept the established view that certain pieces of media are “good” without applying any critical thinking of their own – such as the fact that Shakespeare is …
China Being China
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 11/10/19 at 03:20 PM CT
This week, news broke that China will be implementing strict new regulations on videogame playing for minors. These regulations include a 90 minute/day gaming quota on schooldays, an online gaming curfew of 10:00PM every night, and a micro/macro-transaction budget of $57USD equivalent/month, as relayed by the New York Times. Allegedly, the Chinese government is worried about an uptick in so-called game addiction and an epidemic of nearsightedness amongst its younger citizens, while at least some older Chinese citizens have kibitzed that videogaming is drawing young people away from sports, and that China should focus on building more stadiums. Clearly these thoughts are the products of fevered minds that somehow think that playing sportsball is less of a waste of time than playing videogames (likely out of an archaic belief that dominating at the Olympic games actually means anything), and are willing to deny the fact that being Han Chinese causes nearsightedness.
However, strict …
Reports of Kotaku’s Demise are (Unfortunately) Greatly Exaggerated
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 11/03/19 at 02:54 PM CT
This week, all gamers who place themselves further Right on the socio-political spectrum than ‘Woke Black Gay Trans-Woman’ were treated to a string of rumors and speculation that Kotaku, the formerly-Gawker Media-owned, formerly beating-heart of online games journalism, recently fringe-Left-wing propaganda mill, was in the midst of crisis, with staff being fired or quitting in solidarity in the wake of Word-of-God decisions handed-down by the site’s new holding company owner, G/O Media. Unfortunately, those rumors were mostly driven by Tweet-divination and wholly false.
The whole thing started earlier this week with Deputy Editor, Barry Petchesky, being fired by the overlords at G/O Media for not sticking to the subject matter of his journalism blog. Petchesky didn’t work for Kotaku, though, but its sister site, Deadspin, which is to sportsball as Kotaku is to gaming. G/O allegedly told the head of Deadspin to “stick to sports,” rather than focus on political …
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