Well at least you all have the Weekly Link Round Up to keep you entertained. A gathering of the best, worst, and weirdest gaming news on the internet this week!
- Video games don't know how to handle current events, according to a Vulture video. If you take half a second to look at the comments (I know, it's YouTube. That's dangerous territory), you'll see that the video is nothing more then click bait. To ask games to be more into current events is kind of dumb. Games take YEARS to make. Not days. Not months. Years. Unless you're doing one of those coding marathons. Even then, that's probably not a piece you are proud to release to the public for retail. By the time social or political movements affect current events, game developers are already 2-3 years into their project. They can't completely abandon all that they've worked on and start on something new. That's not how it works. Games are a business and need to make a profit. It's not profitable to have to ditch idea every 2 years in order to follow trends.
- Have you ever wondered what it would be like to hold a round table with video game characters based on their movie adaptations? No? Well, too bad. The Ringer thought it would be a fun topic to test. TLDR: It's weird.
- Fortnite has officially surpassed PUBG as the most played game right now. Though the article seems more impressed that the game has higher user logins than Minecraft, since the game released a free-to-play battle mode, interest has surged. Epic Games announced that there are over 45 million users for Fortnite. Crazy. But it's easy to see why. It doesn't require the same heavy hardware specs as PUBG, no upfront costs, it's free to play for the battle mode, and it's softer on the graphics giving it a more cartoonish appearance - which has a broader appeal for audiences.
- Musical artist Drake played Fortnite on Twitch the other day, and it became one of the most watched streams in the company's history. Here's the Washington Post's "dummies guide" on why that's a good thing.
- Need more proof that video game violence doesn't affect us? Check out this study from the Max Planck Institute for Human Development and Germany's University Clinic Hamburg-Eppendorf. Using 52 participants, playing Grand Theft Auto V daily for 2 months for a minimum of 30 minutes, over 8 weeks, they found that there was no behavioral changes between the control group and the GTA5 group. Granted the study group needs to be larger to get a better result, but these initial findings are in favor of gaming. Daily game play is rarely tested. To have a study that incorporates this is vital in our future research of media's influence on the human brain.
- The NCAA tournament is going on now. As people fill up their brackets, it's near impossible to determine who will win at the end of the day. Video games may help. While I'm not a big fan of these bracket contests, I do find it interesting how a game is making predictions.
- Finally, here's a tongue-in-cheek article from GameSpew about all the things that video games teach us. Because if games are simulations for teaching children how to use a gun, then games are also perfect for teaching us how to parkour! Or hack. Or building! Or driving. Pretty sure you won't find gamers parkouring off of rooftops anytime soon.
- Musical artist Drake played Fortnite on Twitch the other day, and it became one of the most watched streams in the company's history. Here's the Washington Post's "dummies guide" on why that's a good thing.
- Need more proof that video game violence doesn't affect us? Check out this study from the Max Planck Institute for Human Development and Germany's University Clinic Hamburg-Eppendorf. Using 52 participants, playing Grand Theft Auto V daily for 2 months for a minimum of 30 minutes, over 8 weeks, they found that there was no behavioral changes between the control group and the GTA5 group. Granted the study group needs to be larger to get a better result, but these initial findings are in favor of gaming. Daily game play is rarely tested. To have a study that incorporates this is vital in our future research of media's influence on the human brain.
- The NCAA tournament is going on now. As people fill up their brackets, it's near impossible to determine who will win at the end of the day. Video games may help. While I'm not a big fan of these bracket contests, I do find it interesting how a game is making predictions.
- Finally, here's a tongue-in-cheek article from GameSpew about all the things that video games teach us. Because if games are simulations for teaching children how to use a gun, then games are also perfect for teaching us how to parkour! Or hack. Or building! Or driving. Pretty sure you won't find gamers parkouring off of rooftops anytime soon.
\
