What is this about?As you may have heard, an unidentified leaker has leaked that the Supreme Court plans to overturn Roe v. Wade. This has sparked a slew of meltdowns by the Radical Left, who seek to protect the murder of the unborn also known as abortion. Many people are bringing attention to this issue which has proven to be very divisive for the last fifty years, with Americans being greatly divided by the rights of the unborn. What has Bungie done and why is it so controversial?After Politico leaked the decision, Bungie attacked it by calling it an attack on human rights. Many people who play Bungie's games view this as an overstep of the company's bounds as a game design company. For example, one Twitter user stated that it is not their role to get involved into politics. Bungie then responded by mocking the user's avatar in an act of stubborn defiance. In short...
Works CitedGach, Ethan. “Bungie Defends Abortion Rights Even as People Urge It to Stick to Games.” Kotaku, Kotaku, 5 May 2022, https://kotaku.com/destiny-2-witch-queen-bungie-abortion-scotus-leak-roe-w-1848885920.
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What is going on?Over the last four decades, video games have grown from arcade games to console games to PC games. As a result of this growth, there is increased competition amongst players to be the best at what they do. As a result, E-Sport leagues were formed to allow players to put their video game skills to the test. For example, Supercell regularly hosts E-sport tournaments which have been massive successes. With the success of e-sports, people have come to watch them online and in person to get a taste of the action, which made many areas realize that this could be a massive opportunity to make money. Why Milwaukee?With the city's reputation on the line, Milwaukee decided to host the new Wisconsin E-Sports Summit. The goal was to build a gaming presence in the Milwaukee area in hopes of attracting jobs. What is even more surprising than this idea is that e-sport leagues are looking more and more like sports leagues with coaches leading the teams. In short...
References“Milwaukee Hosts Inaugural Wisconsin E-Sports Summit as Video Game Industry Drives Interest in pro Gaming.” The Milwaukee Independent, 13 Mar. 2022, https://www.milwaukeeindependent.com/articles/milwaukee-hosts-inaugural-wisconsin-e-sports-summit-video-game-industry-drives-interest-pro-gaming/.
Why does this conflict have an impact on the game industry?As many already know, Russia has conducted a special military operation in the Ukraine, a former Soviet republic, in order to "denazify" and "demilitarize" the nation. This move has been met with heated opposition by many companies, which pledge to move assets out of Russia to protest her recent actions. Many of these companies are major players in the tech industry, such as Adobe which is used by professionals to create digital artwork. Without this software, it is much more difficult for Russian companies to conduct their affairs. Which companies are participating and what are the impacts?While most major tech companies are refusing to do business in the Russian Federation, there are many video game companies that are moving away from the great power. For example, Epic Games, the company which released the game Fortnite in 2017, stated "Epic is stopping commerce with Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine.". They refused to give much of an explanation to their actions, instead deciding to go along with the trend. This could lead to Chinese companies such as Tencent becoming more popular without a Western alternative. In short...
ReferencesRosenberg, Adam. “Video Game Publishers and Developers Are Cutting off Russia, Too.” Mashable, Mashable, 7 Mar. 2022, https://mashable.com/article/video-game-developers-publishers-russia-ukraine-war-sanctions.
Why are they linked?Well there are really no concrete reasons for this. Perhaps people in Congress are very interested in video games and want them to get more popular, but that seems kind of far-fetched. I do have a theory though. With video games being a fast-growing market, it is highly likely that they are doing this to gain more influence in the industry. Since many in the government want their claws on daily life, by getting involved in video games, they can influence our lives more. By doing this, the government develops more control over our lives, making us more palpable which isn't good. What are the possible effects?To examine the possible effects, we should look at a nation where the government has full control over gaming, China. In China, the government has such control over video games that it can even control how much time you play on them. It also has a much larger role for the government in daily lives. Because of this, this is a very slippery slope for video game companies to head down. In short
References“What's Wrong with the Video Game Industry? 10 Stocks to Watch.” Yahoo! Finance, Yahoo!, https://finance.yahoo.com/news/wrong-video-game-industry-10-154016912.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall.
Rulison, Larry. “Schumer Urges Microsoft to Invest in Capital Region Gaming Industry.” Times Union, Times Union, 17 Feb. 2022, https://www.timesunion.com/business/article/Schumer-urges-Microsoft-to-invest-in-Capital-16923948.php. How are video game stocks?Video game stocks are some of the fastest growing stocks out there on the market. On this blog, I have heavily discussed the economic impact of the digital revolution. As a result, it should be no surprise to you that video games are becoming highly profitable, however that doesn't mean they don't face setbacks from time to time. One of these setbacks is the slowdown of video game stocks. Today I will discuss why this is happening? What is the cause?One such reason for the decline of video game stocks is the new policies China has enacted regarding video game usage. Through its social credit system, China has set national limits on the amount of time kids can spend on playing video games. With less time to play video games, less people are buying them. This has an impact on global stocks because China is one of the largest consumers of electronic goods. It could also be due to the reopening of the world to the state of 2019 which means less time to play games. In short
References“What's Wrong with the Video Game Industry? 10 Stocks to Watch.” Yahoo! Finance, Yahoo!, https://finance.yahoo.com/news/wrong-video-game-industry-10-154016912.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall.
What did I learn?This week, I learned the importance of thoroughness in schoolwork. For one, because I did not do a satisfactory job going through the Alan Thorne course before. I then used the skills in creating some basic scripts like an OnTriggerEnter script. I also proceeded to make some changes to the pipe, making it more natural.
What did I do this week?This week, I completed my portfolio for my PBM. It was actually pretty simple given that I was focused and locked in at all times.. I used the Principles of Design to try and make my page more interesting by making it more compact and easier to navigate. We have not worked on our group game yet as we are still working on our parkour levels.
What is this burnout?On this blog I have often detailed the stress of crunch time, which in other words is a state that a video game company goes into once the game is close to the deadline where all of the employees must work for no extra pay but must still work for extra hours. This is done to ensure that the game gets onto the shelfs on time and thus maximizes profit. This process has often led to calls for change which I have also detailed in this blog in the past. What are other causes of stress besides crunch?While crunch may be a big factor in why many people in the game industry are very stressed, there are many other causes of stress that are also important. One example of this is the fact that game industry workers often have to move every two years which creates the additional stress of moving in addition to the very tough job of designing video games. Another shocking reason as to why people are so stressed out working in the game industry is due to employees never being able to see their families due to the incredibly long hours that they work which in turn creates burnout. In short...
ReferencesLiao, Shannon. “Bloomberg's Jason Schreier Discusses His New Book, 'Press Reset,' on Video Game Studio Layoffs, Closures.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 11 May 2021, www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2021/05/11/jason-schreier-press-reset/.
So what could be causing the setback in the game industry?On this blog I have talked almost exclusively about the game industry for the last two years, partially because I am trying to chronicle its growth since January 2019 when the first of these types of posts came out if I recall correctly. As such, almost all of my posts have been centered around the game industry as a fast-growing industry with its many flaws such as in-app purchases and microtransactions. This post is a little different though in that I am chronicling a prediction which states the game industry is going to lose revenue this year. This could be for a variety of reasons such as a growing emphasis on privatization by companies such as apple and a growing microchip shortage. The microchip shortage could have been caused by the influx in the demand for new computers as more people are staying home to work and are buying a new computer which leads to an influx in demand. While this may have caused a boom for several tech companies like Intel in 2020, these companies are going to struggle with the demand for a little while in 2021 which will result in less computers being purchased and thus less games. Privatization could hurt these companies because game companies often rely on targeted advertisements and without those they may lose some potential customers In short...
ReferencesTakahashi, Dean. “Newzoo: Global Game Market Will Shrink in 2021 for First Time in Many Years.” VentureBeat, VentureBeat, 6 May 2021, venturebeat.com/2021/05/06/newzoo-global-game-market-will-shrink-in-2021-for-first-time-in-many-years/.
So what will be coming for the rest of 2021?Let us first look back at 2020 in order to predict what might happen in the mobile game industry in 2021. First of all, it is important to note that the mobile gaming industry is very large, grossing over a billion dollars. This is partially because mobile games are typically easy to access, usually being free or having a very low cost attached to them. How they make their money is through more deceptive means than many PC games which involve large upfront costs. They do this through in-app purchases, which allow the user to buy in-game products with real currency. This is spreading into the PC industry as companies seek to find ways to earn more money. With that context out of the way, there is another reason why the amount of players and revenue has increased from 2019. One such reason is due to the Wuhan coronavirus which spread all over the world in 2020 and early 2021 contributing to the deaths of millions of people. With more people inside and having more free time, it allows for more people to play mobile games. For example, the amount of players rose 12 percent from 2019 for mobile games. With more players playing the games, they buy more products which is used to buy advertisements which is shown by the fact that mobile game ads were the most popular mobile advertisements on apps. In short
References“Mobile Gaming Industry Statistics and Trends for 2021.” Business of Apps, Socialpeta, 24 Mar. 2021, www.businessofapps.com/insights/mobile-gaming-industry-statistics-and-trends-for-2021/.
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AuthorHello my name is Owen Howard. I am a junior currently enrolled at Durham School of the Arts and this blog will document my experiences in this class. Categories
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