The Anthem Microtransaction drama
I was in the closed Alpha for this game, and I was anticipating this game coming out. Even though Bioware is making the game, I love the Dragon Age series from them, this game was new for them. I can’t say much about the closed Alpha, but I will say that I liked the game for what it was in the closed Alpha, and I wanted to see more of the story of the world. I personally didn’t have many issues while playing the closed Alpha, so I pretty much had a good time playing. As I’ve recently watched some of the VIP Demo streams, bugs aside, the gameplay made me even more interested. I was at a 80%/20% of whether to buy the game on release or not, with 80% being on the buy it side. Then the leak about the microtransactions. Now, I don’t really have a problem with MTs, if they are done in the right way. If they are like say a Warframe, where I would say 85-90% of everything in the store is available to get in the game, and that there is no pay to win aspect, then I have no issue with it, provided that it doesn’t turn into a grindfest in order to gain said items that I want. That being said, I am truly hoping that they adjust the price for the in-game currency because if not, my chances of getting this game will shift to 60%./40% of me waiting for a while before maybe buying this game. I hate naked grinding. What I mean by that is, all RPGs have some form of grind in it, but the grind is usually disguised behind a good story, area quests or something of the like. A naked grind, for me, is when a game tells you, “In order to buy certain items or obtain certain items in a game, I as the player will have to spend hours upon hours redoing the same areas in order to get enough currency to purchase said item, or spend that time killing a god awful amount of trash mobs in order to obtain an item.” It’s a horrible element of time gating, and I hate time gating. Time gating and naked grind are a couple of the major reasons why I’m not playing the World of Warcraft anymore. I’m really hoping that EA adjusts the prices of in-game currency needed to buy items from the store because EA already has a bad rep for forcing microtransactions on players and forcing developers to put that system in their games. With the whole of the gaming community finally waking up to the crappy practices of some companies, one would think that EA would heed the signs and adjust, but so far it’s not looking that way.
Kingdom Hearts III
I have recently been watching CohhCarnage’s playthrough of all the Kingdom Hearts franchise, and I must say I regret not having played this series. I’m sure many know how it is when you’re a kid and you get to choose one game to get for your birthday or Christmas. I got to choose between Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy. I chose Final Fantasy. I don’t regret my choice at all, because the Final Fantasy series and Final Fantasy VII is the reason why I got into RPG games and why I still play and prefer RPGs and MMOs today. Having said that, as an adult, I wish I’d have paid more attention to the Kingdom Hearts series before now. Though the game is a bit on the childish side in terms of tone, the story of this series is far too complex and convoluted for a child to fully comprehend. Hell, it gets crazily confusing for some adults. After watching Cohh’s play through and the story that unfolded, I am fully invested in the story of this series now. This game is the near perfect marriage of Square Enix and Disney, and the cuteness factor, and I daresay life lessons in this story even made this somewhat jaded adult smile and think about how I view certain things. Good job to the devs of this series.
WWE Stars leaving the company
I have been a longtime fan of pro wrestling and the WWE. Though the whole PG era especially, I have seen storylines that were ridiculous. I’ve seen wrestlers having to attempt to put forth promos with dialog that no adult would ever say. I’ve seen wrestlers that were organically getting over or popular with the audience being purposely pushed down in favor of talents that weren’t quite on the same level. I’ve seen top-notch talents in the ring and on the mic, get underutilized in favor of wrestlers who were not nearly up to the task get unbelievable pushes. It was only a matter of time before something would break and I think we are finally seeing the cracks.
I’m not shocked that Dean Ambrose wants to leave the company if this whole storyline isn’t a work. I don’t blame him. He’s been horribly misused in terms of storyline. He is a ready-made badass vicious heel. Why try to make him either a goofy lunatic or make him some stupid heel that doesn’t like the crowd because of dumbass reasons? Why try to downplay good wrestlers like Tye Dillinger and Rusev just because they organically got over with the crowd? If I was a booker or creative, I would have run with that. Rusev Day got over regardless of how creative tried to keep him down. Now they are trying to kill it by making him heel again. Tye Dillinger was so over with the ‘10’ chants. People are still doing it, even though he hasn’t been on TV in months. I know he’s hurt right now, but still, when he’s cleared to wrestle, I don’t see them bringing him back to TV the same. He will probably come back as a heel, which honestly, I feel he can do, but he was so over as the Underdog of Excellence. I’m not surprised that Hideo Itami left the company. When he came into the company, he wasn’t really pushed like he should have been. While he was out with injury, wrestlers were stealing his moves and finishers, and trying to make them their own—garbage. When he came back, he wasn’t really allowed to use the moves that he came up with, and he wasn’t pushed at all, which is sad, because he’s an amazing wrestler.
I get that they treat their talent like chess pieces, but they are losing the match when they don’t allow for radical pieces in the form of running with wrestlers when they are naturally getting over with the crowd. I just don’t understand it.
