Welcome back! It’s August and of course that means that the media cycle has hit its yearly summer slow burn as many take vacations or enjoy the weather [Unless you're in the East of England, where it's been throwing down with rain the last few days - Dale].
But fear not as there is always something interesting to talk about in gaming or otherwise. For instance, Twitch changed their stance on music copyright claims for their archived videos this week, and many users are understandably upset. There is also Liana Kerzner’s firsthand account of this year’s E3 and her experiences there as a woman; which of course leads right into character avatars and who you like to play as when you play a game - a topic which doesn’t look as though it’s going to go away anytime soon. And, of course, there’s the simply matter of the impeding robot apocalypse to contend with.
As always, here’s to another good week. Cheers!
The Big Four
Twitch audio copyright changes are terrible, poorly implemented and absolutely necessary
“As many Twitch broadcasters and YouTube personalities have noted over the past few days, recordings of video games, with or without commentary, have always existed in a legal grey area.”
That about sums up the changes to Twtich’s stance on music copyright, and Philip Kollar - writing for Polygon - points out that there is a huge disconnect between the music industry and the gaming one. Previously I’ve stated that the more “established” sectors of our society are still unclear as how they should react to the streaming of content. Many, like the music industry, have embraced the streaming of their content for a small fee and appear to be thriving while other sectors have been slower to adjust.
However, even though the music industry has embraced the new ways that people enjoy content, they have seen the purchase of older forms of content distribution (cds, Blu-ray, movie tickets) shrink rapidly. They’ve not yet figured out how to properly monetize streaming and needless to say they’re still panicking about this.
By contrast, the videogame industry has largely left streamers and broadcasters alone in regards to copyright claims. There have of course been a few cases – such as Nintendo – of companies filing claims, but most are happy to allow Twitch and YouTube content creators to continue their practices. Perhaps this is because the videogame industry is still relatively new with many of its members flying by the seat of their pants when it comes to making decisions. Or because many have grown up in the “hacker” culture, and if you look at how mainstream that word has become that might have some credence to it. Or, perhaps, it’s because they view the likes of Let’s Play videos as easy advertising, something which we discussed here last week.
While Twitch is acting in accordance with the laws on the books about copyrighted music, it still represents a backwards-thinking mindset about how users engage with it. It is an incredibly complex issue, and I’m not going to sit here and pretend that I have the answers needed to fix it.
Educate yourself, because if you don’t they’ll change the world in their favor while you aren’t looking.
Why The Term ‘Girl Gamer’ Still Isn’t Helping
Kicking off a firestorm on the internet, a this year’s E3 Ubisoft shot themselves in the foot with the lack of women in the Assassin’s Creed Unity multiplayer demo, and then stated that it would be “too expensive” for them to have two different models. Journalist and regular people clashed online over this topic with many condemning Ubisoft and their backwards thinking on the topic of women in games. And we all know what I’m talking about when I say that the argument got heated, with many female critics taking more flack than their male counterparts.
By and large, woman in public are over scrutinized and live in a world that many men can know of, but not fully understand. Liana Kerzner gives her firsthand experience of this year’s E3 as a woman going solo to the show, shedding light on the difference between worlds. She states that in many aspects of the videogame industry there still exist a “frat house” culture, and that even the most understanding of male can easily overlook this.
Give her insightful post a read, and please do so from an objective stance as we all know that for whatever reason this topic is polarizing. Remember calling females ‘gamer girls’ is still saying that they are different from the normal ‘gamer,’ and that separation creates a passive distinction within the industry that leads many to think it will not be “cost-effective” to add female character models to their games.
Cheers.
Why Would I Want to Play as Myself in a Game When I Can Play as Someone Cool Instead?
On the whole, I really don’t like to customize any character avatar should I be given the option; instead I go with the default setting or the “best” preset one. Certainly I would never spend any amount of time to make a character that looks like me so I can fly around Saint’s Row IV fighting off aliens in the Matrix. I’m here to play the character’s story, not mine.
I have largely noticed this in the many Bioware games that have strong lead characters that are still open to your interpretation with choice. How would a character like Shepard from Mass Effect react to this situation? But that’s the thing isn’t it? Everyone has a different Shepard in their mind, with only about 60% of the population choosing between the default models. I didn’t start the franchise until ME2 hit PlayStation 3 and by then the years of promotional material featuring the voice and face of the Male Shepard had probably skewed my choice to pick him.
On the other hand, in Dragon Age Hawke is a woman to me. One who is quiet and calculating as she judges the situation around her before taking action, never brash or quick to anger. I absolutely love her, and I couldn’t play the game as anyone else. Despite how the games are marketed, players have different ideas of who Commander Shepard and Hawke are, and that is a testament to Bioware and the voice actors of both sexes.
Bioware put time into creating a viable choice between the two genders, and it wasn’t “too expensive” for them.
Tony Polanco raises some good points over at Dualshockers about how people experience videogames when they are given the choice to alter the player avatar. Who do you play as?
When Robots Take All the Work, What’ll Be Left for Us to Do?
“Robots won’t just be taking our jobs; they’ll be forcing us to confront a major existential dilemma: if we didn’t have to work anymore, what would we do?”
This may sound surprising to you, but I think about this question almost on a daily basis as someone who believes that our current notions of “work” will become obsolete within my own lifetime. That, like many bosses, we’ll delegate ourselves out of a job and reap the benefits of years of hard work and labor put in to doing so. That we’ll free up valuable, and finite, time for our own personal computers, our minds. If we’re able to stay motivated and fight the natural law of “an object at rest will stay at rest,” then think of what we’ll be able to accomplish.
Name a job, any job and I will argue that with a sufficient amount of time a robot will be doing it better and cheaper than you ever could. Of course the term “robot” is a generalized term that is used for computers, programs, and machines; but doesn’t necessarily have to exist in the physical world. Which is important as more and more of our world is quickly becoming digital.
No, this isn’t my imagination running wild or anyone else’s for that matter, as many of the greatest minds have been pondering this ever since they dreamed of machines. The lines between science fiction and reality have long since started to blur, but most of the general public is unaware or not paying attention to this.
What will happen to our economy in a world without a paid labor force? It will break down, it’s as simple as that. Give it some thought and let me know, I would love to hear what you have to say. Be sure to read up on Marcus Wohlsen’s piece for Wired for some ideas. Hopefully it doesn’t keep you up at night.
Visual Stimulation
The Sun Also Rises
Yoko Kanno & The Seatbelts - The Real Folk Blues Live
Globalization - Good or Bad?
Extra Study Material
As someone who was present for Huk’s defeat of MC at the historic MLG Orlando 2011, I know how the feeling of watching eSports is comparable to regular sports. And with the Dota 2 International 2014 in the books, the discussion over whether or not eSports are sports has moved from a slight simmer to a full on boil. Jessica Conditt of Joystiq has a great back and forth debate session with Mike Suszek over the topic of eSports, a great read for anyone on the fence. “Co-Opinion: How sporty are eSports?”
There is a lot of “space” in the space around earth, so much room that we’ve populated the skies with man-made satellites. However, the longer we stay in space, the more we leave in space. How much longer before there is so much “stuff” up there that it becomes hazardous to our better interest? For a quick debriefing comic strip take a look at The Atlantic’s, “Our Favorite Orbits Are Getting Crowded With Space Junk”
Brian Kale
@brianwkale
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