Games Journalism 2018: We're taking it back!

Lets’ start the year with something bittersweet. A good article for a terrible loss for gamers.

Umm, did we know about this? If not, I think the topic is going to quickly outgrow the games journalism thread!

Yeah:

https://forum.quartertothree.com/t/rebel-galaxy/76843/1526?u=profanicus

Travis also shows some stuff from their new game earlier in that thread.

We did, because we’re special and have a direct line to the developer ;)

And I totally would have loved Travis getting to make the full thing, because it looks exactly like something I would want.

The massive gaming website IGN has fired its editor-in-chief, Steve Butts, for workplace misconduct, the company said today.

“IGN initiated an investigation into alleged misconduct involving Steve Butts. As a result of the investigation, the Company has appropriately determined to part ways with Mr. Butts,” said IGN general manager Mitch Galbraith in a statement to Kotaku.

Nice. Off to a good start.

Ha ha. Butts.

I thought Dan was EIC there. Too lazy to look it up.

I believe he’s the reviews editor.

The industry is definitely growing up from the days when I worked at Compute! Magazine and Bob Guccione was publisher… (Penthouse models in our CES booth…) Or the general environment of GOD Games parking lots and some of the parties at E3 in the 90s, etc.

A lot of sexist BS was tolerated by the corporate levels when I was in the game press. (15 years ago now!) Good to see signs of change.

So the Cree are not happy to be added as a playable civilization in Civ VI. The game is too imperialistic.

It’s funny how they mention Europa Universalis in that article but are not critical of it in the slightest. Why is there all this hate for Civ in the last few years but Paradox gets a pass on making a whole series of games founded on ethnocentrism?

That’s a fair complaint, but EU games do have substantially different play styles for different nations. I’d argue EU4 is less ethnocentric than Civilization games and actively working to make playing different nations almost feel like playing a different game.

Unrelated: I think historical strategy games being inherently political is a large part of why they’re interesting. More games from more diverse perspectives is a great way to give more lenses to the same history. This feels like something that’s very actively happening in the board game space. Hopefully more of that will trickle into video games.

It is an interesting argument though. I mean if you are not going to make a sandbox game* and you want victory conditions then how do you have non traditional (call it colonial, call it ethnocentric) gaming wins?

At some point the facts on the ground are going to make your pacifist win seem silly. Like if you were the victim of genocide and get wiped out? Do you win if you just kept in harmony with nature as you were erased from the planet by a bunch of higher tech aggressors? Seems tough.

It is pretty hard to look at world history and say that societies who are completely focused on living in tune with their tradional tribal lands and do not develop technology for war and peace end up on the winning side of the ledger. No matter how hard one tries to redefine winning.

I wanted to squeeze in an Asimov Foundation reference here but I really couldnt. So I just put it here in the hope someone else can :)

*and I think this would be a very interesting approach

I’m not certain what the Cree objection is. They and the Assiniboine controlled the fur trade and access to the Hudson Bay Company (and hence valuable European goods) and fought other tribes to maintain that control because of the obvious benefits to them. They also fought other tribes for access to the buffalo herds.

Man, that’s disheartening to hear. No idea about the allegations, but if they’re true it’s disheartening, and if they’re not true, it’s disheartening, for different reasons.

I’d like to see some games that are more about how different cultures cooperate with each other than how they compete. If someone could actually make that fun, I would love it. But I’m not going to feel bad about liking Civilization too.

Rebellion has purchased Radiant Worlds.

It always amazes me that Rebellion is still chugging along. Aliens vs Predator from 1999 is still one of the best games of all time, and that studio has kept creating enough work for themselves and presumably selling enough to stay in business. Kudos.