Culture!

Okay, it's culture time!

With the still ongoing lockdown, we have to keep being careful and so on...

To make the time pass a bit faster many play games or binge TV shows, read books etc. All good choices, but how about going to a museum?

Yeah, I know you can't actually go, but a few world class museums have virtual tours available for free!

All you need is the internet browser you are reading this on to visit:

The Smithsonian: https://naturalhistory.si.edu/visit/virtual-tour

The Anne Frank House: https://www.annefrank.org/en/anne-frank/secret-annex/

The Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum: https://www.museothyssen.org/en/thyssenmultimedia/virtual-tours

The Vatican Museums: http://www.museivaticani.va/content/museivaticani/en/collezioni/musei/tour-virtuali-elenco.html

The National Gallery, London: https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/visiting/virtual-tours

There are probably many other museums around the world offering the same thing, but here is a small sample to get on with.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go see some art. Join me again next time and until then stay safe and have a great week!

Big changes

During the last few weeks I've been playing some World of Warcraft, mostly to pass a bit of time during the whole Corona debacle. It helps keep my mind off things and to be honest, it is fun again.

I used to play from vanilla through the Cataclysm expansion, but ultimately quit due to boredom. I popped back a couple of times, but never for more than a week, until now. With the new policy of making the entire game available for just a subscription apart from the newest expansion, I have a ton of stuff to do even without the Battle for Azeroth expansion, which I'll get as soon as the Shadowlands expansion hits in Q4 this year.

Then a lot of interesting news and rumors started surfacing about the upcoming changes in Shadowlands that will transform the entire game from the bottom up. I've been watching quite a few videos on the subject, and I'll link the channels below, but I thought it could be fun to talk about a couple of these changes.

Important Notice: All the information below is Alpha Test info, and or data mined info, which means it can all change. Do not assume this is set in stone, even though I personally believe these changes will happen.

The level squish. Characters that are currently level 120 (max) will be reduced to 50. New level cap is 60.

The 280% flying speed will be scrapped. Basic flying is upgradable to 310%.

Flying will be automatically available in Draenor and Legion areas. Flying in BfA areas will still require unlocking.

Allied races will no longer require reputation. All you need to do to unlock them is to play the required missions and get the achievements.

Apparently all new characters will share a new starting zone until they are level 10. Then they can choose between the regular world, and any expansion areas to level to 50 in. Then it is off to Shadowlands areas to level to 60. I feel like there is something we're missing about this, but time will tell.

A major overhaul is coming to all classes to make them more fun to play. Blizzard has admitted they over-simplified each class and spec which made some too specialized. It's a gigantic list, but it seems to be a very good change.

Tons of new options for making new characters. It seems trolls and orcs will be able to stand up straight. Perhaps this will also affect the Forsaken (undead). The Forsaken will be able to be whole, that is, not have all their bones sticking out. Lots of new eye colors, hairstyles, warpaint, skin colors, face shapes and more.

New profession changes are coming. To be fair there is not a lot of info right now, and what there is makes no sense to me. Keep an eye out if you're interested.

Maybe this is enough for now. Here are couple of good links:

Class changes: https://www.wowhead.com/guides/class-changes-in-shadowlands-covenant-abilities-the-unpruning

Wowcrendors channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/wowcrendor/videos

Hazelnutty's channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/Hazelnuttygames/videos

These two are where I get a lot of my news. Enjoy if you like.

Here is a dressing room feature on Wowhead where you can preview some of these cosmetic changes.

That's that for this week. Until next time, stay safe, wash your hands and have a fantastic week!

Really? Really! Okay then.

Last week I talked about how studio Naughty Dog and their publisher Sony has been abusing the DMCA to falsely copyright strike Youtube channels talking about the big leak concerning The Last of Us 2. The good news in the follow up is that some channels have gotten their videos back, but some have received new strikes and some have gotten strikes for merely talking about others getting strikes.

It's no secret that YouTube does everything in their power to not have to do anything, but they really need to start doing something about this. I get that telling Sony off is a scary thing, but it has gone too far. It seems that no major game news outlet has even mentioned this scandal, and this coupled with YouTube’s “hands-off and let the algorithm handle it” attitude, means that companies like Sony can just do whatever they want to private citizens. Or can they? Some of the afflicted content creators have contacted lawyers and according to at least one, this is the kind of situation Sony would not want to go to court for.

As I also mentioned last week, the Streisand Effect, or the more you try to hide it - the more people talk about it, is in full swing. The cat is out of the bag and there is no stuffing it back.

In other news Bethesda, publisher of Id Software's Doom Eternal has royally ticked off the community. Doom Eternal, which released on March 20th this year garnered good critique. It seemed most if not all aspects of the game were well met, until now.

Just a few days ago, Bethesda updated the game to now include Denuvo, a widely hated DRM program that is supposed to protect against piracy and cheating.

The problem is, that hackers have always cracked Denuvo within days of a games release, rendering the point of the program moot. To make it worse, many players (and payers) have reported through the years how Denuvo makes their games unplayable, which means that it punishes the legit customers, while leaving the pirates unaffected.

To make it even - even worse, this version of Denuvo goes CPU deep. It goes to the root of your PC and grabs hold with ADMIN RIGHTS! Meaning that if a hacker sneaks in through Denuvo, he has your entire system at his fingertips. If Denuvo crashes, it can take your machine with it. This is not okay. No one can think this is okay. Not even Bethesda who has chosen to implement this over a month after release as they must have known it would hurt sales if it happened at launch. As I'm not a lawyer I can't say whether this is legal, but if it is, it shouldn't be!

Finally, on a more amusing note than tragic, have you heard of a game called The Culling? Well, it was one of the first Battle Royale games in modern gaming. However, it wasn't very popular and as soon as PubG came along it pretty much died. Sad, but these thing happen. It isn't always the first version of a new thing that becomes the biggest. It did however put the idea of the Battle Royale games out there.

Now it is back with The Culling: Origins. If you own the previous version, you have to new one. Xbox now and PC later. Otherwise about $6 to buy new and... how do I say this nicely? In a courageous move they charge per match. In a Battle Royale game where you can be out in seconds of starting! One match free per day and you can win more matches or just pay and pay and pay.... Come on. This isn't even scummy, it's insane!

Well, that me done. Join me again next time and until then, stay safe, wash your hands (covid-19 isn't over yet) and have a fantastic week!

Can you believe it?

Last week a leak concerning The Last of Us 2 caused a a major controversy. The highly anticipated sequel to the 2013 hit by studio Naughty Dog and publisher Sony has been eagerly awaited, but now people are angry and rightly so.

I can't say with any certainty who the leaker is, whether it's a disgruntled employee or a hacker or someone else, but the content leak instantly became a hot topic. Naughty Dog and Sony however did the worst thing possible: they started abusing the Youtube copyright system and striking down channels left and right, even ones just talking about the leak without showing any footage.

In case you don't know, if your Youtube channel gets three copyright strikes in a short period, your channel is terminated and for someone who is depending on the ad revenue to survive, this is very serious.

Yes, the channels can protest and they will get their videos back, but this kind of misuse of the Digital Millennium Protection Act is not exactly legal. Legality aside, it is absolutely reprehensible for a company to act in this way not to mention ineffective. It's a perfect example of the Streisand Effect in play.

I for one am getting pretty sick of gaming companies who bully and intimidate people as if they are some kind of mafia. I could say something about boycotting the game here, but in all honesty I wasn't about to buy a Playstation anyway... Still a really sick thing to do though.

The above mentioned story as well as recent rumors and leaks about a new Batman game (debunked) got me thinking. As a side effect of the Covid-19 crisis, practically every game studio has had to delay their upcoming games. All the gaming conventions like E3 and PAX are canceled and in this vacuum of information, the stage is set for click-baiters and rumor-mongers to profit on false and misleading information. It is up to us to keep a cool head and not trust rumors. Unless it is a statement by the companies themselves, there is no reason to believe it, no matter how tantalizing and exciting it may seem. You will only be disappointed in the end.

There was talk that E3 would host an online convention, but this too has been canceled. However, despair not, as Game Awards host Geoff Keighley has apparently organized a Summer Game Fest with most of the big publishers and they will stream their trailers and other info across the summer of 2020. There is a techradar.com article here:

https://www.techradar.com/news/e3-2020-what-to-expect-from-the-years-biggest-gaming-expo

So were are going to get some news soon and that's good. Until then, keep a cool head, wash your hands and join me again next time for more Eccentric Spheres! Have a great week!

The Adventures of Grundorn

Well, it looks like corona is keeping us all inside a bit longer, so to pass the time, I have some entertainment for you.

A little over a month ago, my wife found this chap on Youtube called Frithgar. He makes gaming videos. He plays different games but it seems the Farming Simulator games are some of his favorites. Not that I really know as I don't care about the farming franchise.

No, what we've been watching is the adventures of Grundorn the Paladin. Another of Frithgar's passions is World of Warcraft and the idea is that in Episode 1, he creates Grundorn and then he starts leveling up until he is 120. For all the faults and sins of Blizzard these days, wow is still a great game and it's been a blast watching the (mis)adventures of Grundorn the Insane.

I have tried to watch different people play wow through the years and this is the first time it has worked for me. Probably because Frithgar is so nice. He's charming in a natural and relaxed way and he's not cocky and he doesn't brag. Not even when he has pulled seven enemies at once and he managed to kill them all. No, he celebrates with genuine happiness and pride but never arrogance.

I have seen others (who shall remain nameless) who sit there on camera and go “I'm the best F-ing tank on the server. Did you see my timing? Pure art, I'm that awesome!”

Not Frithgar. This doesn't mean he is perfect however. If you play wow or similar games and you are fastidious in keeping your inventory clean and organized, well, content warning for you my friend. Grundorn's bags are eternally messy and he loves to carry around a lot of stuff that belongs in his bank. It can be infuriating but it is still worth it!

So if you need something to watch and relax with, I highly recommend this series. The adventures of Grundorn are complete and he has just recently started a new series with a dwarf hunter, but I know nothing about that. I'm somewhere in the 80's in this 319 episode series, so there is much left to enjoy.

Episode 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=um0yo9jbYI4&list=PLqoVoLidYTf0OpqEGJw7wwscut2egiYoU

Join me again next time, and until we meet again, stay safe, wash your hands and have a great week!

Too messy to really function

During the last year and a half that Fallout 76 has been live, I have covered its multiple... difficulties. A couple of days ago, I found a great video by Youtuber LegacyKillaHD, that summarizes the games troubled existence very nicely. I'll link it below, and I do recommend it, it's really good.

While I watched it, I was struck by a realization: The game Bethesda wanted to make and the game their parent company Zenimax Media wanted them to make is not the same game. The game the players wanted is also not the same as the aforementioned people wanted either. In essence, Fallout 76 could never work.

When they announced that all humans in the game would be players and that it was basically a PVP game, I and many others screamed in horror. To their credit, Bethesda listened and made the most toothless PVP system ever. Player 1 shoots Player 2 and does a tiny amount of damage, no matter which weapon he uses. If Player 2 returns fire, both players start doing full damage. If 2 walks away, 1 can keep nibbling away wasting all his ammunition, not harming but still annoying 2.

In short, most diehard PVP players hate the system. Most PVE players hate it as well, because they dislike all PVP, and all this because... well the jury is out on that one. If you're feeling conspiratorial, it's because Zenimax wanted to cash in on the battle royal genre that was going strong at the time. Games like PubG and Fortnite were (and still are) raking in the money and a battle royale game is cheap to make.

The problem is, Fallout is not a battle royale game, and the fans don't want that from a Fallout title. Add on the live service model that makes all the AAA game publishers drool, and you don't have a game so much as you have a complete mess. It is a collection of pieces that don't fit together- like putting monster truck tires on a Ferrari and trying to cram a huge back seat in as well. Most people won't want that car, and 76 can't really work.

In other news this post is number 400. I've been at this for 400 week with no gaps, and I'm really proud of that. If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go and celebrate that a bit. Until next time, stay safe and have a great week!

Direct link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9xoNN453gM

Good Agency

Video games differ from other kinds of media like books, film and TV due to one major thing: agency. That's what we're talking about today.

When I say agency, I obviously don't mean the FBI or something like that but your ability as the player to make decisions and play the game. This may sound like a small thing but it is one of the fundamental foundations of what makes games fun. 95% of the time this is a non-issue but occasionally developers really screw up.

The line between setting up a mission/quest and stealing agency can be hair thin. Good games give you the objective and let you figure out what to do. There can be several solutions or just one, but the important part is that you have to figure it out and you have to do it. Bad games tell you what to do in minute detail or don't let you do anything at all, they essentially play the game for you.

Many games like, for example, racing games don't really have a problem here as the act of racing is agency. It's your skill versus the AI or other players. Rubber-banding, or when the AI gets to cheat by snapping loosing racers up close to you is perhaps borderline agency loss, but it's done to keep you challenged throughout. It's cheap but not too bad.

So lets take a look at some examples of bad agency loss, shall we? Mild spoiler warning for World of Warcraft Cataclysm, Red Dead Redemption 2 and Fallout 3.

The MMORPG giant World of Warcraft is almost always really good at preserving your freedom, but in the Cataclysm expansion there is a quest chain that spoofs Indiana Jones. Here he is called Harrison Jones, and you get to help him delve in to ancient tombs. This chain is bad when it comes to agency loss, very bad.

Most of the chain is Jones giving you quests and you doing them which is obviously fine, but at one point the bad guy decides you have screwed him and takes you out in the desert to shoot you. You can do nothing but watch as your character walks out there and cowers in fear until Jones swings in and saves the day. Really now? At this point in the game you have fought giant monsters of every flavor and defied death a thousand times, but they thought you should meekly follow along and stand there shaking in your boots with no say so? Bad agency loss.

In the end segment of the quest chain, you do nothing at all. The bad guy and his two dragons show up and then another NPC comes along and saves the day in a cut-scene. You have 0% input while the game smugly tells its story and shows how cool the NPC's are. Bad agency loss again!

Another game that repeatedly steals agency is Red Dead Redemption 2 by Rockstar. To be fair and above board, I must tell you that I haven't played RDR2 myself, but I watched a live streamer play it for a couple of weeks, and I saw these things first hand.

One example is when Arthur has to clear out some bad guys from a ruined fort. The game demands that you kill them with a double barreled shotgun that has lousy range. You may well have a long rifle, but if you use it, the mission fails and you are reset. Bad agency loss.

Another example is when the gang you belong to is staying in an abandoned mansion and raiders attack. The game explicitly orders you up on the balcony for a bit, then orders you to run down and stand exactly next to a window and then to jump through the window to go help a friend. If you walk through the door that is right next to you, you fail! An exciting combat scenario ruined by being micro managed to hell and back. Very bad agency loss.

Fallout 3 is a really great game, but the last part contains a crazy bad agency loss. At one point you have to walk through a door. If and when you do, you are hit by a stun grenade and kidnapped by a faction. It doesn't matter what you do, or what your skills are, you will be taken. I tried having maxed out sneak and using a stealth field, but the scene still triggers and you go down. Lousy agency loss. One could argue that the story couldn't continue without this event happening, but I call BS on that. The story could have been written in any way they wanted, and they chose to take agency away from you.

With other forms of entertainment, your only agency is whether you consume it or not. Read the book or put it down. Watch the movie or turn it off. In games, it is all about what you do and how you do it. It infuriates me to no end when developers forget this and start playing the game for you or start telling their own story that has got nothing to do with you. It's bad design and should be shunned and avoided.

Perhaps I have ranted enough here, so I'll head out. Join me again next time and until then have a great week! Stay safe and play games with good agency!