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As of my freshman year, I will be posting content centered around a certain topic. You can expect my blog posts to feature well-written sentences.
Brady Bryan
Earlier today, the latest installment of the main series Pokemon games, Pokemon Sword and Shield, released. Both games have been the subject of much conversation (especially on social media) for the last few months after The Pokemon Company released several game trailers showing off some of the new features and mechanics of the games. As the games are the newest generation of the main series games ("Generation 8"), fans came to expect the game to look vastly different from the older handheld games as these two would be released on the Nintendo Switch. Due to the technological innovations of the Switch, fans expected the games to have high quality graphics and textures. However, certain 3D models within the game appear to have low-resolution textures and lacked shadows where necessary. One model that the community has used as the front runner for Game Freak's laziness is this infamous tree. Due to the extremely low quality of the tree from one of the trailers, numerous memes revolving the tree have spawned such as this one. This is the result of a larger issue taken with the two games: Game Freak, the company that created the Pokemon franchise, has been heavily neglecting the quality of their games in recent years. While this sounds typical of most fanbases of video games, this takes the cake for the most divisive topic, especially on Twitter. It's borderline dangerous how this topic has divided Twitter with such hashtags such as #GameFreakLied which stems from a statement from Game Freak in which they claimed to not reuse any old 3D Pokemon models in Sword and Shield, but was proved by dataminers to be false as the wireframes and models appeared to be one-to-one. Another hashtag that trended on Twitter for the last few months was #Dexit (referencing Brexit) or #BringNationalDexBack. Both are a result of the most troubling and polarizing feat of the controversies. As many who grew up with Pokemon may recognize, the main catchphrase of the series is "Gotta catch 'em all!" which is also the goal of each Pokemon game: gathering every Pokemon in existence. However, Game Freak decided to reduce the number of available Pokemon in Sword and Shield to 400 as opposed to the grand total of 890. The other 590 existing Pokemon do not appear at all, regardless of any attempt to transfer them. It is easy to see why this would raise many eyebrows. Despite people of Twitter going on a tweeting rampage to coerce others to boycott the game to send a message to Game Freak about how the game is incomplete, it still sold with much eagerness. Based on the general reception two hours after the game released in North America. people still seem to thoroughly enjoy the games. Although it is still too early to definitively gauge where the game lies in terms of quality, if the reception continues to be the same as it is right now (albeit with two hours of personal experience), then the game will still sell successfully regardless of backlash. Recap:
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Brady Bryan
Ever since Fortnite and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG) have gained a lot of traction, other companies are rushing to hop on the "battle royale trend" and produce more games like them. They seem to be taking over a large chunk of the video game society as they are becoming more and more commonplace. This is evident when viewing the app store on your mobile device as it will automatically recommend you a slew of battle royale games regardless of what you frequently view and/or download on the store since that's what a fair amount of players are interested in. Only a few battle royale games such as Radical Heights and Realm Royale seem to gain the interest of many. Even larger franchises such as Call of Duty are submitting to the battle royale craze by getting rid of the typical "Campaign" mode featured in most Call of Duty games and replacing it with it's own battle royale mode: Blackout. Some players prefer the "Campaign" mode over "Blackout" despite the campaigns in each game drastically ranging in quality, being below subpar on average. Others are in favor of the change, praising "Blackout" as a fun game mode. While this is only one franchise, who's to say that another large franchise won't give in to the craze, and another franchise after that? This raises concerns such as quality assurance and creativity being put at risk as each company will just try to outdo one another by doing the same thing but adding a slight detail to make it somewhat distinct. Eventually, people will just get tired of playing the same game mode repeatedly and will crave something else, but as for when that will happen has yet to be seen. Most battle royale games are intended for younger audiences as they are typically more interested in entering the heat of battle against 99 other people and get a rush from their clearly competitive nature. While it is not inherently a negative thing to capitalize on current trends and is a rather smart move in terms of making money, it's almost manipulative how certain companies may try to do so by creating a clearly flawed game and slapping the words "Battle Royale" onto it just to attract attention. This is why so many YouTubers make videos on such games. It's easy to create and act enthused and surprised at whatever is currently happening and make money off of it due to the younger audiences' interest in seeing people play video games and winning against such a large group of people. In short, this trend needs to stop as it's unimaginative, lame, and is overall a very uninspired genre that people get fired up over. Citations:
Brady Bryan
Chances are, if you play video games at all (especially if you love doing so), you are more than acquainted with the general video game community. Of course, the communities in which you interact with depend on the type of game that you are playing. Different video game communities function differently than others, and tend to have different interests and attitudes because of it. Generally, each community has certain types of groups within it, which affects the popularity of said community. Some groups are good, some are bad, or typically referred to as "toxic," and some are either both or neither, making them unclassifiable to an extent. I'll start off by describing the good groups of a video game community. These are the type of people that encourage one another, and will lend their help to a fellow member of their community. They are the good influences, and are the highlight of their community. If you ever need assistance on a mission or are seeking advice about what to do, they will become your compass. The most common video games that have a prominent positive group are Pokemon and Monster Hunter. In Pokemon, other players are willing to share team comps, ways to raise your Pokemon, and many different strategies on how to overcome your opponent. In Monster Hunter (a game about hunting monsters surprisingly), you can hunt with three other people so you won't have to tackle a tough monster alone. Furthermore, Monster Hunter veterans can teach you about the behaviors of monsters that were in the original game, along with which parts to break. With the good, you have the bad, and unfortunately, the bad outweighs the good when it comes to the entire video game community as a whole. Even if you don't play video games, you might be able to tell which franchises are home to the toxic players, as well as their "mannerisms." These players get tilted at every little detail and feel the need to express their dismay in the game chat. They'll use every profane word known to man to state how they shouldn't have died, and how the person accused was cheating. You can find these people while playing Call of Duty, Overwatch, Rainbow Six Siege, or pretty much any shooter game with a multiplayer mode. If you even think about having fun, they will be the ones to shut you down. They expect everyone around them to play the way they (the toxic person) want instead of playing the game in their preferred game. This deters everyone around them from enjoying the game, which is the primary goal is playing video games. They are so stuck-up, self-centered, and inconsiderate, and can ruin anyone's day just by spreading the misery. Then you have the people in between. These people can be a mix of both based on the situation, or they can just not be an active member of a community. There isn't much to say about these guys as most of the things previously stated can apply. They can be just as common as the bad groups, and can also be a facade of a toxic player before they reveal their true colors. These guys can be found across multiple genres and franchises. Knowing the types of gamers in a community can help you understand what defines them. While it seems as though there is more bad than good, there are various sites and applications designed towards interacting with a specific community. Two great examples include Discord, which features voice chat and is largely used nowadays, and Amino App, which caters to a specific community and is home to some of the most supportive people you will ever meet (I speak from experience). Whatever may be the case, don't let others get in the way of enjoying the game. Recap:
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AuthorBrady Bryan is quite familiar with blogs since he had to frequently post on his blog in 6th grade. Although its been a long time since then, he still knows what a proper blog should look like. Archives
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