Your November gaming news roundup

After multiple reconnaissance missions, back-alley bribes, and a string of other unmentionable activities, we’ve managed to acquire all gaming intelligence that took place within the month of
November 2017. The list that follows contains all information our Lord Editor has deemed fit for public consumption.

If you feel there is something that needs to be addressed or lacking from this list, please let us know in the comments section below and we’ll be sure to deal with you… I mean, your issue.

Russia uses game screenshot to “prove” connection between US and ISIS

In a seedy attempt to prove that the US is allegedly supporting ISIS troops in Syria, the Russian Ministry of Defence presented a screenshot of mobile game, AC-130 Gunship Simulator: Special Ops Squadron, as their “irrefutable evidence”.

The post was originally made on Facebook and read, in part: “This is the irrefutable evidence that there is no struggle against terrorism as the whole global community believes. The US are actually covering the ISIS combat units to recover their combat capabilities, redeploy, and use them to promote the American interest in the Middle East.”

This tactic might have worked if they didn’t forget to remove the “all content subject to change” note in the right hand corner of the image, a message game developers often use to indicate the
game is still in early stages of its development.

This blatant attempt at propaganda and its connection to the above-mentioned game was discovered by various Twitter users and later dissected in a blog post by researcher Eliot Higgins.

Forbes Reveals their 30 under 30 in gaming 2018

Each year Forbes recognises what they consider to be “the brightest entrepreneurs, innovators and game changers under the age of 30”. Among the twenty featured categories is our dearest and most beloved pastime, “Games”.

The list celebrates a variety of individuals in various gaming-related disciplines. Among the chosen few we can see the likes of voice artist, Ashly Burch, who voiced Chloe in the Life is Strange, Tiny Tina in Borderlands 2, and Aloy in Horizon Zero Dawn. There is also Youtube star Mark Rubach, better known as “Markiplier”, who is being honoured for leveraging his influence to help out various charities.

To see the full list of the award winners, jump the link to this page.

PUBG developers reveal new work-in-progress, Ascent: Infinite Realm

Earlier this month Bluehole, the developers of the global video game phenomenon known as PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, announced their upcoming MMO title Ascent: Infinite Realm.

Abbreviated as A: IR, the developers describe their game as “open-world” and a mashup of a “steampunk setting with high fantasy elements”. Imagine an Elvish woman blasting a colossal crocodile creature with a rotating hand-cannon (a scene featured in the trailer), and you’ll have a good idea of where this game is heading.

Other notable scenes show large-scale battles, monolithic boss battles, base-building, and a range of standard bizarre Steampunk paraphernalia such as flying ships and steam-powered battle mechs.

Check out the trailer to get a feel for the game. Presently, the developers have not yet revealed a release date.

Sexual Harassment Claims in the Game Industry

With the recent string of sexual harassment claims that has surfaced from women all over the globe, many female employees in the gaming industry have come out to speak against some of their male colleagues’ immoral behaviour.

In one case, former IGN editor and current Gamespot associate editor, Kallie Plagge, has alleged that her former colleague and fellow editor, Vincent Ingenito, on multiple occasions sexually harassed her and “one other female employee” while at IGN.

In light of this news, many prominent staff members of IGN walked out the door and refused to work further until the gaming outlet published an official apology. In another case, former Polygon journalist, Megan Farokhmanesh, had to deal with uncomfortable questions from a Naughty Dog employee such as asking her if she “f**ked all her sources like on House of Cards”.

These are but a few drops in a sea of surfacing sexual harassment claims, though. One reoccurring issue is that in many of these cases, the companies in question’s HR department barely tried to lift a finger to deal with these issues, leaving the female employees feeling helpless.

Fortunately, the power of social media has allowed these victims to stand united and voice their concerns. Hopefully this deals a major blow to these immoral practices in the workplace and motivates these HR departments to actually do the right thing.

Star Wars: Battlefront II receives harsh criticism over micro-transaction practices

The recently released Star Wars: Battlefront II received much criticism earlier this month when they revealed their initial “pay-to- win” multiplayer progression system.

When taking part in Battlefront II’s various game modes, you receive in-game credits for your participation and actions. These credits are then used to purchase loot crates and hero characters, such as Darth Vader.

The problem is, to gain a usable amount of credits though, you will have to go through an interminable grind, sinking hours upon hours into gameplay to receive a few measly credits. That is unless you’re willing to throw some of your hard-earned cash EA’s way, allowing you to bypass any form of effort and pay your way to the winning spot.

Of course, this rubbed the gaming community the wrong way, especially after very similar systems were implemented in other recently released titles Middle-Earth: Shadow of War and Forza 7.

When one Reddit user voiced his concern on the Star Wars: Battlefront II Reddit page, a spokesperson from EA gave their response. This response became the most down-voted comment in Reddit history, today boasting over 678 000 downvotes.

The controversy didn’t end there though. This issue quickly found its way into the political limelight, with many prominent political figures concerned about the microtransaction system’s similarities to online gambling.

Currently, the Belgium government is investigating whether this system is illegal in terms of their gambling laws, while the UK Gambling Commission stated that the loot box system does not breach any British gambling laws.