Monday, March 31, 2014

Gaming Round-Up: March 31, 2014

Get em Minion! by Chad Woodward


News: If you’re one of the many who have experienced past frustration on Xbox Live due to gamers with poor attitudes, Microsoft is stepping up to the plate. A new Xbox One reputation system targets and penalizes players who receive repeated negative reviews from their peers.

News:  Noted anti-video game senator Leland Yee was indicted this week on bribery and corruption charges.  Oh Yee of little integrity.

According to game developer extraordinaire Ken Levine, the future of storytelling in gaming lies in video game plots and characters that change and evolve with each playthrough.  This sounds amazing, but obviously presents some logistical challenges.

Andrei Filote proposes an analogue for the Bechdel Test pertaining specifically to worldbuilding at Ontological Geek: is your game’s world rich enough to foster the existence of a novelist?  I can see it now.  The scale will run from Hans Augusto Rey and Margret Rey to George R.R. Martin, with J.R.R. Tolkien being the obligatory "11." 

On Digital Love Child, Reid McCarter decries Infamous Second Son‘s choice to use a real-world location but with completely fictionalized Native Americans, as “cultural cowardice.”

Edward Smith pens a short but sweet piece contending that there is no real controversy in game violence: "Violence in games is only legitimate if committed against discernible individuals, whose deaths have a traceable, adverse affect on either the fictional world or the narrative. In Grand Theft Auto, neither of these metrics apply. Your victims are cartoon characters and their deaths feel less like tragedy, or drama, and more like housework."

If you enjoyed the Burial At Sea DLC for BioShock Infinite, you can download some of the songs from it for free at Irrational Games.

If you’re interested in working in the gaming, check out what industry recruiters had to say about preparing yourself at GDC last week.


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