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A few days ago the creative director at Stadia Games & Entertainment Montreal Studio tweeted that video game streamers should have to pay a licensing fee for the games they stream. I believe that most of the initial anger from gamers stemming from Hutchinson’s comment is due to the history of mutual respect that the games industry seems to have with its players, in general. Games are meant to be fun. Anger is anathema to the idea of gaming, and despite the industry being massive and a lot of developer workplace environments being lousy with unfairness and harassment, publishers still very much market games as fun above all else. And gamers have supported the industry since the beginning, helping the collective “community” through all the non-fun parts, through the crash in the early eighties, through the media demonizing of arcades, through the government demonizing games that depict violence, so to see “one of our own” like Alex Hutchinson say something seemingly anti-gamer feels traitorous. But legally speaking, are streamers doing something illegal when they stream games? The short answer is, probably.Category Archives Video
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I had a lot going on in October 2020. In this video I recap what went on regarding my channel and regarding my video gaming life. Get ready for a video roundup, podcast roundup, “what I’m playing” roundup, and “what I’m reading”...also a roundup.[su_button icon="icon: gamepad" background="#e52d27" size="10" animate delay="3" inline="yes" url="https://www.youtube.com/user/calebjross?sub_confirmation=1"] Subscribe on YouTube [/su_button]
The demo of the new Zelda game, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, was just released on the Nintendo Switch eShop. I jumped in to play the video game not expecting much. However, I was happily impressed by this entry in the Legend of Zelda game.[su_button icon="icon: gamepad" background="#e52d27" size="10" animate delay="3" inline="yes" url="https://www.youtube.com/user/calebjross?sub_confirmation=1"] Subscribe on YouTube [/su_button]
To vote with your wallet simply means to buy products from companies that align with your personal ethics or needs while not buying products from those companies that don’t. It’s easier said than done, for sure. Not everyone has the luxury of choice when it comes to some essential products. If you don’t make enough money to shop elsewhere, it doesn’t matter how many hobos Walmart kills, or how staunchly you are against hobo murder, you’ve got to shop at Walmart and risk getting hobo blood on your shoes. So even the very idea of voting with one’s wallet implies a level of privilege and elitism that many, maybe even most, people simply do not have. But sometimes, for some people, there are non-essential products and services that are “on the ballot” so to speak, and I would argue that for all people video games are firmly non-essential. And Ubisoft is one of those companies that is doing something I don’t like. Do your own research on the company, this article isn’t about taking a stance against Ubisoft. All you need to know is that I will not be giving them any of my money ever again. Again, this article isn’t about condemning a single company, so please don’t click away yet. I'm not asking anyone to do the same as me. Buy what you want. I only mention Ubisoft as an example, one that I’m personally passionate about, so I can explore how changes in video game sales channels affect my ability to vote with my wallet.[su_button icon="icon: gamepad" background="#e52d27" size="10" animate delay="3" inline="yes" url="https://www.youtube.com/user/calebjross?sub_confirmation=1"] Subscribe on YouTube [/su_button]
People who hate Stadia used to bother me. I like Stadia. But I also like Playstation, Xbox, Nintendo and any other company that wants to contribute to this wonderful world of video games that I love so much. My annoyance wasn’t so much due to an affinity for Stadia specifically. I was annoyed because this new thing, Stadia in this case, resurfaced armies of closed-minded dorks. And those close-minded dorks would inevitably stir up blind supporters and their bickering would bring forth a brand new war fought mostly by the uninformed while disinterested or semi-interested bystanders avoided the warring factions like trying to side-step around a person asking for your signature to support some cause you realize is probably important but not more important than avoiding talking to a stranger about that cause. Basically, what I’m saying is that when Google arrived with Stadia, some full on embraced the new technology, some fought vehemently against the new technology, and some took a sideline to see what would happen. I’m here to tell you, all three stances are important. That’s right. Stadia haters are needed. Blind devotees are needed. Passive onlookers are needed.[su_button icon="icon: gamepad" background="#e52d27" size="10" animate delay="3" inline="yes" url="https://www.youtube.com/user/calebjross?sub_confirmation=1"] Subscribe on YouTube [/su_button]
I just found out that Cyberpunk 2077 will release on Google Stadia on the same day as it will release on consoles and PC. So of course I pre-ordered it! Wait, why did I do that. That actually seems kinda dumb. Look, Cyberpunk 2077 looks like it will be amazing. I don’t question my excitement for the game nor my desire to play it as soon as possible. That’s not the dumb part. But when it comes to pre-ordering a game on a streaming service, from a consumer standpoint, from a gamer standpoint, from a not developer or publisher standpoint, pre-ordering a game from a streaming service is pretty dumb. Again, I did this, so I did the dumb thing, and if you also did this dumb thing, funny defend your dumb act. Let’s be friends, bonded by our dumbness. Friends who get to play Cyberpunk 2077 on launch day at...2:00 am? Hey, we’re dumb, remember. Let’s do it.[su_button icon="icon: gamepad" background="#e52d27" size="10" animate delay="3" inline="yes" url="https://www.youtube.com/user/calebjross?sub_confirmation=1"] Subscribe on YouTube [/su_button]
Maps, as a concept, are very helpful when nativating video game worlds. Modern exploration games almost always provide an in-game map, so the player can check their position and waypoints with just a click of a button. But when video games come packaged with physical, paper maps, I get confused. Physical video game maps may have served their purpose in the past. There’s an argument to be made that retro video games lacked the on-board memory required for full in-game maps, especially detailed ones, so physical maps could actually be useful. But modern games? Why do they sometimes come with paper video game maps?