Well that is another week of summer down and we’re all still here, so we’ve got that going for us. And to those of you south of the equator, we hope you are enjoying your temped winter months.
This week’s Big Four starts with a disturbing look into the daily harassment of women in the gaming industry, as recounted from Brianna Wu’s personal experience and those around her. In lighter news, Google has dropped One Billion with a B dollars on acquiring online streaming site Twitch. What does this mean for the future of esports and games? Probably a lot. Next we’ll be taking a look at a few Kickstarted games who have obtained more money than they know what to do with - moderation is the key to life after all. And finally we’ll be shoveling more praise and hype onto Sid Meier’s Civilization: Beyond Earth - because, hey we love games and more specifically those games.
While we try to not just focus on the larger videogame publications, this week we are featuring two articles from Polygon and felt that was unavoidable. We hope you enjoy those that have been selected and don’t neglect the Extra Study Material at the bottom - there’s some good stuff!
And as always, here’s to another good week. Cheers!
The Big Four
No skin thick enough: The daily harassment of women in the game industry
Warning there is a bit of graphic language and could raise issues of insecurity in men who are threatened by female gamers.
It doesn’t take a master detective to notice the amount of hate spewing forth from the internet, but often over looked is the amount of hate that women receive. Numbers suggest that there are more women playing games now than there are men, yet their majority is not reflected in marketing, design, or conversation. Oftentimes when this is pointed out, as was the case during Ubisofts E3 Assassin’s Creed Unity Demo, it is met with backlash or down right hostility – with comments often turning personal against those who speak out against the unbalanced nature of games. Those who do speak out are often women.
Usually these comments are done anonymously by men who are well aware that they shouldn’t be saying these things in a public forum, but are compelled to anyways. Giant Spacekat lead developer and Isometric Podcast host Brianna Wu has shared some of her experience with online harassment, and it’s a horrifying read. It is one thing to sit and talk about the sexism and hate that women experience on an almost daily basis online, but it is another thing to read the exact words and hear the emotions they invoke.
We highly recommend that you read her piece, and please do without judgment, because as she points out: “If you are a woman in the industry with a critical opinion, you will get a disproportional amount of criticism, hostility, and scrutiny compared to men.” Not that we are accusing you in particular, but hey its better to play it safe. Her article on Polygon takes a look at four different women and their experience with online hate, complete with examples and a disturbing video reading of a string of tweets.
Remember: this is not about attacking men or anyone else; it is about raising awareness of the compounding daily experiences that women go through. One small comment builds of another comment and eventually a really bad one will come along and threaten to derail someone’s life in ways that the person clearly never thought of.
This direct comment to Brianna Wu should never happen, under any circumstance: “If you killed yourself, I wouldn’t even fuck the corpse.”
Google Bets a Billion Dollars on Twitch
Surely by now you’ve heard the big news, Google purchased Twitch for around $1 bil (USD) and videogames as a watchable form of entertainment has officially hit it big. Need more proof? Well perhaps you caught the Dota 2 International final match live on ESPN 2 last week? Oh yeah that totally happened, and ESPN’s name has been floating around the esports scene ever since MLG and Barcraft hit it big during the last few years.
In past Well, That Was Interesting posts, we have been rather vocal about the rise of Video-Journalism and considering streamers as a viable source of news and entertainment. Videogame developers are now designing new games with an audience in mind and the well has gone largely untapped, but clearly Google sees the potential. This is a big step in the direction of esports entering the larger cultural narrative of the internet, and the more money that gets behind it the more visible it will become.
Twitch, and by extension YouTube, have grown incredibly large in a short amount of time, large enough to threaten traditional providers of broadcast television:
Last year, it (Twitch) reported an average of forty-five million viewers per month, making it the largest site of its kind on the Internet by a sizable margin. It accounted for forty-three per cent of all live-streaming Web traffic by volume, exceeding that of ESPN, W.W.E., and MLB.com combined. Its audience consists primarily of teenagers, and they are highly engaged: in 2013, fifty per cent of users spent more than twenty hours per week on the site, an average of a hundred and six minutes per day for each user.
Google’s acquisition is also a good thing as they are on the right side of the Net Neutrality issue, which would directly impact the decision to purchase Twitch. Depending on which side the court’s gavel lands on the streaming of online entertainment could become much more expensive than it currently is, and would make this acquisition less valuable for Google. The added cost will then be pushed onto the consumer and that could severely dampen access to content, and the revolution has only just begun.
When too much is not enough
There is always such a thing as too much, and this applies to anything really but more importantly videogames. When a small, inexperienced development team is suddenly awash with more cash than they ever expected when they went to Kickstarter, what should they do with it? The recent public collapse of Yogventures and developer Winterkewl has drawn attention to the notion that it is possible to raise too much.
The bigger things get, the more out of hand they become and can quickly spiral out of control. A once tightly woven idea will slowly become bloated in an effort to spend the extra cash. People are quickly hired to help take on the new development ideas and further stretch goals are added. Who would turn down more money? Nobody would, and a stretch goal funding cycle starts.
Now we’re not saying to never back a Kickstarter campaign, it is a great tool and has free many small developers from older and more restrictive production models. But we are saying that you should donate your money wisely, and research who and what you are giving that hard earned cash too. Star Citizen never asked for $50 mil but they’ve sure as hell got it now. Not that we’re calling them out, but at some point donations should be turned away and development should be kicked into high gear, especially one that has been on the slow side.
If you are interested hearing more about the Kickstart process, and what happens when teams are flushed with extra cash then we recommend checking out Dan Whitehead piece linked above. It is insightful to say the least.
Launching Civilization: Beyond Earth
Finally, we come to a game that seems to encompass the thing that most AAA titles seem to forgotten about: dreaming. Indeed, the Civilization franchise has always dreamed big, but has been confined to the terrestrial realms of our familiar lands. Sid Meier and Firaxis Games are clearly invoking old notions of frontier exploration and a childlike dream to experience space and the unknown. Since they personally may never go to space and beyond they have instead brought their dreams to us in Civilization: Beyond Earth.
But how has a team that has spent the better part of the last decade on games set in history shift gears to the imaginative and speculative realm of the unknown? Russ Pitts has an amazing and detailed recount of the game spanning from its inception to now, a few short months before it launches off into our homes. Indeed Russ Pitt’s piece reads like a grand epic as he interviews Lena Brenk, Dave McDonough, and Will Miller on how the project came together:
I want to make a game that people remember,” says McDonough. “I feel like this could be it. … The thing that would make my career would be to meet Pete’s son or my own son or some kid, 10 years old, who gets to play Beyond Earth and grows up to love it the way I grew up to love the old Civ games, the ones that are in my permanent canon. If it could go into a hallowed slot in some kid’s mind, that would be all the fame and glory I think I would need.”
The Civilization games have always been that, games – and often ones that will stand the test of time. We are looking forward to experiencing this ambitious first hand and we hope you are too, because too many games have lost their way in an effort to go all Hollywood on us.
Cheers
Visual Stimulation
Is Bloodborne good enough to stand in Dark Souls’ shoes?
Pulp Fiction – Sin City Styled Trailer
Why Do Japanese Games Tell You Characters’ Blood Types?
The Poison of Pre-Order Culture
Extra Study Material
Star Wars fans have been abuzz with the amount of news pertaining to the extended lore of the universe, with new comic books, novels, and of course movies announced for future release. What about all the old extended lore? Where do you start? Fear not as Sonia Saraiya has compiled an great guide to the getting started. “Your guide to the Star Wars Expanded Universe”
“That is one big pile of shit” Is one of the more famous lines from Jurassic Park, whose portrayal of dinosaurs had been considered one of our most accurate best guesses. But recent fossil evidence has lead the scientific community to question everything we currently think about dinosaurs, that they all might have been covered in feathers – because you know, birds. Check out Russell Brandon’s “A new fossil suggests ‘all dinosaurs’ may have had feathers” for more.
Dota 2 is a daunting game for new players, one that is filled with a level of depth and complexity that isn’t readily apparent when you start your first match. Educate yourself on the different aspects of the game before you start and you’ll have a much more enjoyable experience over those poor ignorant fools, and be prepared to be humbled. “Dota 2: A quick look at the laning phase” by DerekGtz is a great start.
Brian Kale
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