Nate Viramontes

Oh boy here we go, I’ve been waiting all week to see if this was going to die down or not, and I feel it isn’t going to. I really feel the need to not only present some facts but also present my opinion on this week’s events on “violent” video games. I happen to be one of the biggest gamers around, ask anyone.

I feel like I really shouldn’t have to come to the defense of gaming at all, the facts themselves prove that gaming is a very positive hobby. In fact, multiple studies showed that gaming doesn’t cause violence in people’s behavior. A group of German researchers did a study on 15 different males who play violent video games such as, Call of Duty and Counter-Strike for 4 years while playing at least 2 hours a day and showed no evidence of desensitization due to playing violent games.

Even crazier, there are more studies including, Winy Decamp’s who happens to be an associate professor of sociology, who did a study on over 6,000 8th graders and what did he find? You’ll be shocked to know that he found no link between violent video games causing humans to act out in such a violent and aggressive manner.

The fact of the matter here is, I’ve come across people who say there should be a way to control and regulate what we as gamers see and play have some sort of rating system. Which of course again shocking we already have one called the ERSB rating that ranges from E for everyone, to T for teen, to M for mature, all of these have the age range available to see on the game itself and also explains like movie rating why it received that particular rating. I believe if parents are that concerned, then they should be doing the research themselves. There are ways to stay informed by just looking at the case itself. Even your console can have child locks on it.

There are plenty of ways to be aware of what your kids are playing. Now the other thing and oh boy here we go. I do not think the president should be blaming gaming for the real issue at hand. There is an actual issue at hand here, for example, the whole world has access to gaming consoles roughly 211 million people play video games across the world, but only one country has this major of an issue so it is not the video games themselves, it is, unfortunately, the guns. That is all I’m going to say on the subject because I believe the evidence is very clear on its own, moving on.

McCarthy, a California republican came out and said that video games “dehumanize” us individuals even though all the evidence I just showed you said the exact opposite. Gaming does not dehumanize us; in fact, I think it brings us closer together. The gaming community gives us all a place to call home outside of everyday life, it makes us all if anything more human. I feel as if I see the world differently after being a gamer for as long as I have been. It doesn’t make me violent it makes me care more for people around, because of games themselves, they teach us so much.

There are games like Outer wilds, that focuses on exploring a galaxy in space and discovering what happens to an ancient race of aliens. You don’t kill anyone you just explore and meet people and try and solve the mystery.A game like What Remains of Edith Fitch deals with death and loss of loved ones and how people handle depression at times. Games like That Dragon Cancer deal with a family whose baby is dying of cancer and how they enjoyed the last years of their child’s life and what it was like to lose their baby.

Games like Mass Effect contains violence but also teaches gamers how to build bonds with others and treat them with love and how to be loyal to one another. A game like Skyrim gives everyone this great big fantasy sandbox to play in and do whatever your heart desire, you want to be a giant cat ninja man go for it, werewolf? They got those too, Skyrim allows our imagination and sense of discovery to run free.  Minecraft is one of the most creative games around you can build and make whatever you want your limit is your own mind.

Video Games such as  Halo 3 and Call of Duty give me nothing but the most beautiful memories of my friends and I playing together all-night laughing and eating pizza and drinking soda. I don’t look at games that contain violence and death, I look at them and think of how to become the top player in the game or hear an amazing story while also being the best that there ever was.

Again, gaming doesn’t dehumanize us. Gaming to me celebrates the human spirit and shows the strength of all humans. Gaming is not to blame here, it is a tool to help battle mental disabilities such as depression or anger, possibly even ADD (ADHD).  For myself, It helps me battle my inner demons. In my life, I’ve felt alone at times, but then I had these amazing stories and incredible games to help me realize how great life can be and how fulfilling it truly is.

While gaming may always be the easiest thing to blame here, this gamer will not stand to see it be critiqued and made into a monster. While real monsters such as all the mass murders hurt, kill and destroy lives. Gaming is and always will be an incredible art form, and possibly be one of the greatest forms of media on this planet.

Currently playing: Uncharted 4

Fortnite is the type of game that can be summed up into two different categorizes either you hate it or you love it. I don’t have any issue with the game it’s just not something I play at all. While the game has brought a lot of problems mostly with it pretty insane level of microtransactions and kids dropping out of school to play full time and oh yea the flossing can’t forget about how great that is. (Note my sarcasm). Fortnite actually did bring some positive things to the gaming community. I thought that while most bashed on the game it be nice to talk about a few things it brought to the table.

Something all gamers can more than likely agree to is we all have that game that multiplayer game that you and all of your friends spend your whole weekend playing together. For me and my group of friends, it was Halo 3 we used to all get-together and have all day land parties playing whatever weird maps we downloaded off of custom maps. To me, Fortnite brings that feeling back of playing not only with your friends but also playing with a bunch of random people and working together to win the match. It feels like when the mode first came out, we all came together and played something new and enjoy getting the old band back together and playing all night with your friends.

I started hearing stories people would have about all the crazy things they would do with their friends in the game in order to win and I just couldn’t help but feeling I was listening to me talk about what Halo 3 did for me and my friends when the game first came out. I feel like while other games like Call of Duty and Overwatch will always capture that feeling as well. It seems like everyone and their mother plays Fortnite, and I can see why the game runs smoothly the guns feel awesome that cartoony vibe it gives off is fun to see and, in a world, full of a lot dark and gritty games brought Color to its game in a way that works really well.

While PUBG may have started the whole Battle royal craze I think that Fortnite did put it on the map and while the community for the game may not be the greatest. The game itself is still really fun to play and brought me and my friends for a good while back together in one game as I know it brought back a lot of people together to game with their friends. That’s something I can respect in any given game that it may have taking an Idea from PUBG it most definitely made itself its own thing and took the crown away.

I may sound like I play this game a lot. I don’t play it all anymore and I do think it is a very fun game. I just feel that this game does receive a lot of hate and even though it may have a toxic community the game itself is really fun and solid to play and has brought back a lot of fun memories and made new ones for all gamers. 

Currently Playing: Uncharted 2 Among Thieves  

On the July 23rd of this week GTA online release a new update that gave the online play a whole new section and a new building that is a casino. Now, this is all well and good but you have to understand this is also kind of concerning. Because the game now gives you actual means to gamble in a game the game may be rated M for 17 and older but that’s not stopping tons of younger kids from getting introduced to literal gambling at such an early age.

You take your in-game currency to the casino and buy chips and you start to gamble now this doesn’t sound all bad at first because you’re using the money you earn in-game so what’s the big deal? Well, the big deal is you can buy something called a shark card with real-world currency to get tons of in-game money to then use to buy the more expensive vehicles, houses, guns, and clothes. To me, that’s not a big deal people who don’t have to the time to grind and have money to spend can buy the items they want to play with it.

This issue being is that Rockstar has now added something to their game that literally feels like playing with fire in the real world considering how the world is feeling towards loots boxes and gambling be used in games. But this is you using real money if you so please to buy chips and gamble at the casino. You earn more cash in the game and all kinds of prizes. So, yes there is a point to it but there also a point to Loots boxes and what they allow you to do and earn in the other games.

This update has already been banned in 50 countries because they have strict laws against gambling. So, this makes me wonder was Rockstar doing this to make some controversy as they have before? Or were they simply adding new mechanics to the game for people to play and for them to make even more money out of GTA online?

Something else also begs the question was Rockstar adding just for fun because of is going in the real world with gambling and loot boxes in gaming. Rockstar has always been the studio to make all kinds of controversial decision in their games. So, of course it makes total sense that this casino could also just be Rockstar showing another side of the gaming world. But more likely its just money who knows.

Currently playing: Marvel ultimate alliance 3

So, as you know EA, for the most part, is the worst publisher on the face of this earth. Something I have not shied away from saying before mind you. A few days ago, they went to Congress to discuss what good old loot boxes were.

Kerry Hopkins Vice President of legal and government affairs at EA told Congress that loot boxes are a “Surprise Mechanic” instead of being the gambling mechanic they truly are.  So, for those, you not in the know, for the last few years governments of the world have been trying to figure out if loot boxes are in fact gambling. The reason being is whenever you buy said item with your real money you have no idea what you’re going to receive it’s literally a gamble to figure out if you’ll even get what you want out of it.

EA is synonymous for doing this with games like Star Wars Battlefront 2 and mainly the FIFA games where a few players have run the numbers and you can spend upwards of $27,000 to even get a great team to play Ultimate Teams. It safe to say that EA business practices at this point depend on Loot Boxes.

This leads to Hopkins calling them a “Surprise Mechanic” in no way are they actually like that at all. Basically, what happens was an old woman went up to a bunch of older people and lied to them about what they were doing because of course! Why not.

If anyone is going to be defending something, we as gamers are trying to actively get rid of its EA. It’s been making them roughly $800 million dollars a year. That’s mainly because of ultimate teams. So of course, they are coming to the defense. The fact that they think this is what Loot Boxes are is completely insane to me. In no world is that how it works. The best question I have now is if Loot Boxes are banned what will happen to the gaming Economy without one of its biggest sources of income? Will game prices go up only time will tell really?

Currently playing: Dead by Daylight

So, over the next few articles will be breaking down a ton of different stuff from the E3 conferences but I figured for the first one we talk about some of the awesome high lights from the conferences at E3.

 Microsoft

Starting off with Microsoft we had some really great games and one announcement that we all saw coming Project Scarlet the brand-new Xbox generation begins next year during the holidays and will be coming out with Halo Infinite as its first official launch title. We got to see some awesome footage of Master Chief I lost my mind when I saw Spartan 117, he looks a lot like the version of him from Halo Legends. It looks so kickass.

The console from the little we got told about it sounds like it is going to be a monster and focuses a lot more on gaming as it should be. The one big thing that I am happy about is that we will be able to play all of the games available in the Xbox one’s library from hopefully the get-go. Will be getting more info soon from Microsoft, because they really didn’t say all too much.  And probably the coolest thing about all of E3 is Keanu Reeves is going to be in Cyberpunk 2077 and him being there was so freakin awesome! He is just really the best.

Bethesda

So here begins the studios really not showing to much gameplay but making some really awesome announcements. They did, however, announce two brand new IP, one being a game called Death Loop, and the other being Ghost Wire Tokyo. Ghost Wire Tokyo is a new horror game from the same studio that made The Evil Within so I think there is a really great idea here I can’t wait to see it come to life.

Death Loop is made by Arkane Studios they are the people who made Prey and Dishonored two of my favorite games. They have one of my favorite art styles ever, all the games they have made have been incredible so I’m excited to see their signature style of choice and playing the game the way you want to play it in this new game.

Ubisoft

This one gave very little to be excited about in my opinion minus Jon Bernthal bringing his dog out when he was talking about Ghost Recon Breakpoint. That game looks great in every way I love the Ghost Recon series so much and I can’t wait to see this games world will work and play.

They also announced a new game called Gods and Monsters and from the little clip, we saw I got really excited it looks a lot like a more cartoony Greek mythology game in the same vein as Assassins creed odyssey.  The big showpiece I feel was Watch Dogs legion with the new concept of playing anyone and everyone set a near future London I think this game has so much potential. I’m a little nervous because of Watch Dog has had a habit of not living up to expectations but who knows maybe this could be their big break.

SquareEnix

So, the two major announcements for Square were Final Fantasy 7 remake which I should add is only the Midgard section of the game. However, Sqaurenix has said it is basically its whole own game! This is more of reimagining then a remake.  I can’t wait to play this next year. It’s one of those games like Residents Evil 2 remake that just screams game of the year worthy.

The other major announcement was Marvels the Avengers; this game is my jam right here. We have a brand-new story set in San Francisco and we get to start off with playing Iron Man, Captain America, The Hulk, Black widow, and Thor. We’re missing Hawkeye unfortunately but the devs did talk about how they’ll be adding new heroes and content all the time to this game for free. This game could be really incredible and with an all-star team of voice actors, I can’t wait to see what they do.

Nintendo

One thing I have to say and that’s its Legend of Zelda breath of the Wild sequel! I can’t wait to play this game I adore the first one it is so much fun and truly a runner for the greatest game of all time. So, the fact Nintendo is going double down with another one is insane and I can’t wait to see what they have an in store next.

Super smash bros also announced the Dragon Quest hero will be a new fighter alongside one of the greats of platform gaming Banjo- Kazooie! If you can’t tell who I’m excited to play as I love Banjo – Kazooie I just want to play as them already again. This is been the first game they have appeared in years. It’s great to see some RAREs best in a new game even as just fighters their legacy gets to live on.

And that’s it for the roundup we’re going to be diving deeper into each of the conferences and talking about what other games got announced and what we can be expecting soon from the gaming industry. Game on everyone!

Currently playing: Asura Wrath