So… how about them games, eh? Yes, this week was full of some massive, global events that we need not discuss here. That isn’t why you are here. No, you want to know about the things that were swept under the rug, the stories that might have been forgotten otherwise, and the small things that might bring tears of all kinds to your eye that are typically ignored. Welcome to another In Case You Missed It!
In Case You Forgot Battleborn was a Thing…
Good ol’ Randy Pitchford is here to remind you that not only does Battleborn still exist (despite having fewer than 1000 people online at any given moment) but it can compete with Overwatch in yet another aspect: porn. Last Monday, Pitchford tried to call attention to something else that was a thing, a Reddit thread titled “r/BattleBornRule34.”
https://twitter.com/bebopanapolis/status/821148907367448576
As one might expect considering Pitchford is a fellow known for making bold promises and singing songs about GamerGate, the gaming community at large decided to take a look at what was actually going on and then proceeded to show off where their loyalties actually lie.
In Case You Were Wondering If That POTG Was By a Girl…
It probably was. We often hear that half of gamers (and half the world’s population) are female. But the eternal question of “But where are they?” pops up from time to time. Quantic Foundry, a game analytics company, decided to survey 270,000 gamers and figure out where the ladies are. Specifically, Quantic wanted to know what genres of games women played most and how that differed from game to game in that genre. The results are… well, about what you’d expect. Women play a lot of different genres of games, just like men, and there are some games that appeal more to different people than others. For example, roughly 36% of those who played Fantasy MMORPGs were female, but that number drops to 23% when it comes to World of Warcraft specifically. I recommend giving this one a read.
In Case You Missed Hearing About Video Games and Science…
It’s ya boy, scholarly journals! Back in 2012, a paper titled “‘Boom, Headshot!”: Effect of Video Game Play and Controller Type on Firing Aim and Accuracy” was published through Communication Research, but it has now been retracted by that same journal. The reason? No one can seem to replicate the findings or find the original research records of the experiment, and there were notable issues in the data itself. Luckily, the paper has only been cited twice academically, but this does mean that other projects might be based on faulty data. Let’s hope science moves a bit faster!
In Case You Also Dropped Super Mario Run After Five Minutes…
It turns out that Super Mario Run is also dropping. Nintendo’s foray into mobile gaming has now dropped from the top 50 grossing U.S. iOS apps. As of this post, the game is sitting at #51. If you’re wondering why it’s so low, let me fill you in. Unlike other mobile titles that are chock-full of microtransactions, Super Mario Run lets you play for free for a while. Then you run into a $10 paywall where the rest of the game is. When you’re used to only seeing things cost $0.99, it can be a bit steep.
In Case You Are In It for the Long Haul
Time to get back into the Long War. The famous XCOM mod “Long War” has now been made for XCOM 2 as “Long War 2.” For those who’ve never heard of Long War (or just got the game on Humble Bundle for $12), this mod is a total rework/conversion/overhaul of XCOM 2‘s gameplay designed around, well, a long war. Pavonis Interactive (the former Long War Studios) worked tirelessly to get this monster of a mod out, and it is nice to see that Firaxis itself has given the mod the thumbs-up. If you want to feel like you’ve been fighting off alien invaders for years, give this one a go.
That’s all for In Case You Missed It this week. See you all next time!
