Two of the largest videogame controversies I used to be conscious of as a child have been A) the existence of violent video games and B) whether or not or not it was OK for my buddy to all the time tank rush me in Command & Conquer. Each stay unresolved to at the present time, however there are far larger disputes to develop into entangled in now: 2021 was dotted with scandals and insults and protests, and even a congressional listening to.
The gravity of contemporary gaming discourse could make the arguments of the previous really feel fairly quaint, however the yr additionally contained a minor dispute over butts and an enormous argument about tanks, so I would not say that issues have gotten gloomier on the entire. There’s simply extra of the whole lot.
(Whereas we’re again on the subject of tanks: One or two C&C tank rushes are superb, however it’s not enjoyable for those who do it each time. The identical goes for spamming fireballs at me in Avenue Fighter 2 if you know I do not know counter that, man. You already know who you’re.)
Listed here are probably the most controversial choices, incidents, and tank designs of 2021:
Name of Responsibility insults New Zealand
What occurred?
- There is a Name of Responsibility: Vanguard character impressed by New Zealand WW2 hero Charles Upham, besides within the recreation he is Australian.
- “It’s an insult. At finest, it’s ignorance; at worst, it’s an enormous center finger to us all,” said a New Zealand publication.
What have been the implications?
New Zealanders have been mad, however that is about it. It isn’t the primary time Name of Responsibility has angered a nation: Russian gamers pegged the Modern Warfare reboot as American propaganda.
On the subject of Activision, the Mr. Burns principle of immunity appears to return into play, whereby minor controversies are crowded out by larger ones and successfully neutralized. Working example, New Zealand being mad made me overlook all about everybody being mad when Activision promoted Name of Responsibility: Vanguard by inviting conflict photojournalists to capture “the epic intimacy of World War 2” within the recreation. And Activision Blizzard’s different issues, detailed in an entry under, overshadowed the whole lot else.
Twitch, for a dozen causes
What occurred?
What have been the implications?
The hate raids led to the #ADayOffTwitch protest, which made a large dent in Twitch utilization for the day. Twitch has since deployed some new features to assist streamers fend off hate raids, and sued two of the raiders, although the act was considerably symbolic since Twitch would not really know their identities. (It sued “CruzzControl” and “CreatineOverdose.”)
The massive hack turned out to be a short squall, not less than for now. We realized that Twitch had a “do not ban” list (it is extra mundane than it sounds), and received a have a look at how much money top streamers make from advert income and subscriptions. Not probably the most surprising stuff, and Twitch says that no passwords have been uncovered.
Concerning scorching tubs and earlicking, Twitch will certainly proceed to wrestle to determine what’s and is not acceptable on its platform, as each social media platform does. After scorching tub streams, earlicking ASMR in yoga pants, and calling individuals “cracker,” although, attempting to guess what’s subsequent feels not possible. Some type of viral dance, possibly?
New World and mounts
What occurred?
- There are not any mounts in Amazon MMO New World. If you happen to’re not an MMO participant, belief me, they make an enormous deal about this type of factor. There was a fight over it.
- The rationale there are not any mounts, in accordance with New World lore, is that it is not possible to cultivate animals on the magical island. Nicely, I am satisfied.
What have been the implications?
New World gamers have gotten by with out mounts thus far, and the MMO has had a reasonably respectable launch, when you think about how unhealthy on-line recreation launches can go. Amazon itself as soon as launched a recreation that was so poorly acquired it then unlaunched and canceled it.
There was the factor the place individuals mentioned New World was bricking RTX 3090s, however this did not appear to be a widespread downside. Some observers additionally declared that New World is busted as a result of it is “shopper authoritative,” suggesting a foundational flaw within the code, however Amazon says that’s not true.
New World has been buggy, and the servers have been a multitude initially, however that is fairly typical MMO stuff. Last Fantasy 14 is so standard proper now that they stopped selling it. All issues thought-about, the absence of mounts being one of many larger controversies throughout an MMO launch is an indication that it is doing simply superb.
NFTs
What occurred?
- All of a sudden, individuals have been telling us that blockchain tokens known as NFTs have been cool and revolutionary. They’re principally distinctive receipts for digital stuff: photos, principally, however they may symbolize plots of digital land or in-game objects, if it have been helpful for them to.
- However are they helpful? As NFTs turned standard with scammers, nobody might present a passable clarification for what made them so groundbreaking.
- But influential individuals continued to say that NFTs are “the longer term” (EA CEO Andrew Wilson) and a “revolution” (Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot).
- Relatedly, tech firm executives all began speaking about “the metaverse,” a ’90s sci-fi time period that Epic Video games CEO Tim Sweeney likes to make use of.
- Fb even changed its company name to “Meta.”
- Nobody has been capable of clarify why calling VRChat “the metaverse” makes it extra groundbreaking.
- Somebody bought a $650,000 NFT yacht for a recreation that does not even exist, although, so persons are shopping for in.
What have been the implications?
That is nonetheless enjoying out, but when NFTs actually are a transformative know-how and never a quickly helpful option to obscure pyramid schemes, then the detractors may have no alternative however to simply accept them after they develop into the mannequin for digital possession. Within the meantime, “play-to-earn” video games and promotional NFTs are being met with scorn all over the place they’re introduced. As a French commerce union put it: “You want dividends, subprimes, monetary derivatives, crises, hypothesis, quick buying and selling, cash laundering, and so on? That is the assured and unstated promise of NFT. We’re removed from the enjoyment of videogames.”
Plans to public sale off Stalker 2 NFTs have been completely abandoned a day after they have been introduced. Discord additionally walked again NFT plans after a destructive response. Ubisoft went forward with its plans, nonetheless, and added NFT collectibles to Tom Clancy’s Breakpoint. It is arduous to think about anybody caring about any type of collectible in Breakpoint, however there you go: NFTs are in mainstream video games.
I am with Wes: All of it sounds like a bunch of bullshit to me.
Discord’s mainstream march
What occurred?
What have been the implications?
The NFT factor made quite a lot of eyes roll, however Discord wasn’t practically as controversial as Twitch when it comes to particular 2021 incidents. What we actually felt was a normal unease concerning the firm’s progress and the platform’s future, which Morgan summed up with the sentence: “Please enjoy Discord while it’s still good.”
The Activision Blizzard lawsuit
What occurred?
- In July, a California company filed a lawsuit against Activision Blizzard that alleged years of sexual harassment and discrimination.
- Activision Blizzard initially mentioned that the lawsuit offered a distorted view of the corporate.
- Quite a few staff staged a walkout in protest, demanding particular modifications.
- The corporate later mentioned its response had been “tone deaf.”
- Throughout a number of months, Activision Blizzard launched new HR investigations, expanded its ethics and compliance group, and adopted new insurance policies, together with some concessions to worker calls for.
What have been the implications?
There have been in-game protests, World of Warcraft subscriptions have been cancelled, and hashtags trended on Twitter. The WoW and Overwatch groups eliminated references to staff who have been implicated by the lawsuit and inside investigations. Most notably, Overwatch cowboy Jesse McCree was renamed. He is now Cole Cassidy.
Activision Blizzard fired over 20 staff on account of new HR investigations, and says it disciplined over 20 extra. CEO Bobby Kotick took a symbolic pay minimize, the top of HR was changed, and Blizzard president J Allen Brack stepped down, changed by Jen Oneal and Mike Ybarra. Just a few months lanter, nonetheless, Oneal resigned, reportedly because she felt she’d been “tokenized, marginalized, and discriminated towards.”
The California lawsuit hit a snag when the company that filed it objected to an $18 million settlement settlement between Activision Blizzard and a federal company that had been operating the same investigation. It was comparable partially as a result of two of the identical legal professionals had been concerned in each investigations, which might be an issue for California’s case. The lawsuit is ongoing, although, and a non-public lawyer additionally lately began laying the groundwork for a class action.
Some present Activision Blizzard staff are contemplating unionizing with the Communications Employees of America.
Steam vs “pornography” and crypto
What occurred?
- Steam rejected a VR sex game known as Holodexxx on the premise that it would not allow “pornography.” Steam completely does allow animated pornography, so the difficulty right here appears to be a seemingly new rule towards “sexually express photos of actual individuals,” which it applied to Super Seducer 3 in March.
- Steam also announced that it will not approve video games that embrace strategies for buying and selling cryptocurrency or NFTs.
What have been the implications?
Holodexxx is on itch.io, as a substitute.
Steam’s “something goes” coverage is firmly an “nearly something goes” coverage now. Clearly, Valve would not need to get into the regulated enterprise of internet hosting pornographic imagery of actual individuals, and it would not need crypto speculators to contain its platform of their schemes. Solely Valve’s schemes are allowed!
Epic Video games CEO Tim Sweeney mentioned in response to Steam’s cryptocurrency buying and selling ban that the Epic Video games Retailer will “welcome video games that make use of blockchain tech,” however I am not satisfied there’s any actual distinction between Steam and Epic on the matter. Not many “blockchain video games” exist as greater than concepts, and not one of the video games that received the boot from Steam have proven up on the Epic Video games Retailer so far as I can inform.
Battlefield 2042
What occurred?
- Loads of Battlefield followers didn’t like Battlefield 2042 for lots of causes. The brand new specialist characters who changed the standard courses, the larger maps, and the shortage of a singleplayer marketing campaign have been among the many larger complaints.
- The gun tuning was fairly wonky at launch, too, which wasn’t standard. And, in fact, it was fairly buggy, like Battlefield video games are.
What have been the implications?
Offended Reddit posts, a “principally destructive” Steam person evaluation common, a number of YouTube movies, and a few spicy letters about my positive review. (It is enjoyable!)
DICE responded with some large patches—large enough that you just suspect they have been getting ready them earlier than launch—and mentioned that it will consider bringing back a few of the parts followers are lacking, just like the original-style scoreboard. Individuals briefly received mad about some Santa skins for some reason, however in any other case, the hate practice appears to be slowing down for now. When the subsequent one comes out, I absolutely count on individuals to say that it sucks as a result of it is not sufficient like Battlefield 2042—it’s just tradition.
Doorways
What occurred?
- The idea of doorways exists, and recreation builders really feel obligated to place them into videogames. Nonetheless, they hate doors.
What have been the implications?
For doorways, none. They proceed to torment recreation builders fully unchecked.
Halo Infinite’s battle move
What occurred?
- Halo Infinite’s free-to-play multiplayer was effectively favored, however the gradual tempo and mundane unlocks in its battle move were not.
What have been the implications?
343 Industries has acknowledged that the battle move is flawed, and has been tweaking it since launch. It stays a contentious subject—I’ve seen some body it as an argument between younger and outdated gamers, the latter of whom supposedly care much less about cosmetics—however Halo Infinite has gotten by superb attributable to the truth that individuals take pleasure in enjoying Halo Infinite. And these $10 cat ear outfits appear to have briefly distracted everybody.
Mass Impact butts
What occurred?
- For Mass Impact: Legendary Version, BioWare chose to replace a few of the extra gratuitous butt pictures with much less cheeky camerawork.
What have been the implications?
I’ve included this principally as a result of it feels important that it wasn’t a lot of an issue. 5 – 6 years in the past, any comparable butt-related choice would’ve resulted in 2,000 YouTube movies titled “SJWs CENSOR Mass Impact,” or one thing to that impact. I might solely discover, like, 5 movies with titles like that. Mass Impact: Legendary Version launched to “mixed” user reviews on Steam, however butts had little to nothing to do with it.
I suppose most individuals agreed that, yeah, aiming the digicam at Miranda’s butt whereas she was having a heart-to-heart with Shepard was a bit a lot, not less than for those who’re enjoying Mass Impact for greater than butts. Nonetheless, a modder who as soon as eliminated butt pictures from the unique model of Mass Impact 2 returned them to the Legendary Version model. Somebody needed to.
GameStop brief squeeze
What occurred?
- Even the man who began it is not certain what occurred (and he said that to Congress).
- However basically, a person investor really helpful GameStop on the r/wallstreetbets subreddit, and the concept of shopping for shares within the US video games retailer took off.
- In the meantime, Wall Avenue fund managers had shorted the inventory, that means they’d borrowed shares and offered them on the assumption that they may rebuy them at a cheaper price sooner or later.
- Due to Reddit, the worth did not go decrease as anticipated. It skyrocketed from $4 in July 2020 to $325 on the finish of January 2021. When it got here time for the hedge funds to return the shares they’d borrowed and offered, they have been compelled to purchase them again on the ultra-inflated worth. That is the “brief squeeze.”
- At one level through the incident, standard buying and selling app Robinhood quickly paused purchases of GameStop inventory as a result of it did not have sufficient capital available.
- Discord additionally temporarily banned the WallStreetBets server over hate speech.
What have been the implications?
On the time, many framed the incident as little guys banding collectively to tackle monetary establishments, fueled, maybe, by resentment over the subprime mortgage disaster and normal inequality. Nonetheless, it wasn’t simply particular person traders from Reddit behind the “brief squeeze” that induced billions in losses for sure Wall Avenue hedge funds—different large funds have been able to profit off the surprising market habits.
Robinhood’s pause on GameStop purchases received scrutiny throughout a congressional listening to, and a category motion lawsuit was filed. The SEC launched some steerage about disclosures, however no new regulation has been created.
A number of movies concerning the incident are within the works. On the time of writing, GameStop shares are buying and selling at $150. The corporate’s executives have made some huge cash by promoting off shares. The corporate is at present engaged on some kind of NFT thing.
A tank
What occurred?
- Some gamers assume the Challenger 2 tank in Battle Thunder is barely inaccurate.
What have been the implications?
To show that Battle Thunder’s model of the tank is inaccurate, a participant posted an image of a categorised UK army doc on the Battle Thunder discussion board. The picture was eliminated, and the poster was warned that the offense can carry “as much as a 14-year jail sentence.”
In October, the exact same thing happened again.
If we’re judging the importance of an issue by how far an individual will go to show themselves proper, violating the UK’s Official Secrets and techniques Act actually places Battle Thunder tank accuracy amongst 2021’s most controversial videogame issues.
