Miscellaneous
Become a Patron! In general, we enjoy our games because it allows us to escape from daily issues. We do our best to keep those issues out of our video games, especially politics. However, that is not always ascertainable. There are times when politics and video games intersect in ways we don't expect and can not ignore. The most recent example of this is the Hong Kong Hearthstone player vs. Blizzard. Geek News Batwoman - Lowest Debuted Rated CW Show The marketing for Batwoman has been terrible from the get-go. It came off as manhating and came off as subpar to the other CW shows. Whether it is merely poor marketing or the show quality is lacking, Batwoman has officially made history as the CW's worst Debuted series. Flash, CW's highest debut viewership, launched with 6.83 million viewers and Supergirl, CW's lowest debut viewership before Batwoman, began with 3.06 million viewers. Batwoman claims the title at 1.8 million viewers. Will Batwoman numbers improve over time, or will the CW drow the show? Video Game News Reportedly Google Stadia Will Be Fater Than Consoles We have serious doubts here at AM: Game Zone about the technical challenges and date caps the Google Stadia will have to address. However, the marketing and engineering teams continue to confidentially boast that Stadia will be able to tackle these issues. The Stadia team recently talked about how they are going to handle the potential latency issues. Their solution, Negative Latency. The concept is that cloud computing will be able to predict the player's potential moves and send the correct sequence to the player. What if you, the player, had a different move set in my mind? Well, to our knowledge, the servers will generate multiple different scenarios and send the one the player chooses. The technology sounds like an impressive feat; the Stadia team state that they are still a couple of years from having this perfected. Will Stadia be able to stand on its own till Negative Latency is perfected? The Google Stadia Annonces Current Game List The Google Stadia list of games is limited to mostly big AAA games. However, the list is an excellent collection of games. The following is a shortlist of games: Assassin's Creed Odyssey, Baldur's Gate 3, Borderlands 3, Cyberpunk 2077, Destroy All Humans, Doom Eternal, Orcs Must Die 3, Watch Dogs Legion, and Tom Clancy's: The Division 2. If you want to see a complete list, then go to Google Store. Nintendo Switch Discounts on First-Party Games If you've wanted to pick up a first-party Nintendo game, then this might be a perfect time. A few of the games have a fifteen dollar discount applied to them. We'll leave affiliate links for your convenience and a way for you to support the show at no cost to yourself. Amazon: The Legend Of Zelda: Link's Awakening Super Smash Bros. Mario Kart 8 Super Mario Maker 2 Yoshi's Crafted World Nintendo Switch Reaches 10 Million Sales in Europe Nintendo has done an incredible job in moving Switch units throughout the world. The most recent mile marker Nintendo hit was in Europe. Nintendo has sold 10 million units. They were able to move 30% more units in 2019 compared to 2018 and 40% more compared to 2017. Showstopper Hearthstone Grandmaster Suspended By Blizzard Hearthstone Grandmaster player "blitzchung" made significant waves while streaming on the official Taiwanese Hearthstone stream. After winning the match, "blitzchung" made a bold statement during the stream, "Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times." Blizzard's action that not only felt harsh, but politically motivated. Their responses were in line with their policies. Blizzard utilizes the 2019 Heathstone Grandmasters Offical Competition Rules v1.4 pg.12, Section 6.1 which states the following: "Engaging in any act that, in Blizzard's sole discretion, brings you into public disrepute, offends a portion or group of the public, or otherwise damages Blizzard image will result in removal from Grandmasters and reduction of the player's prize total to $0 USD, in addition to other remedies which may be provided for under the Handbook and Blizzard's Website Terms." Blizzard is within their rights to do so since it is their game and competition. Their response is because they want to keep good relations with the authoritarian government of China. As a United States company and as a company that has benefited from western civilization privileges, Blizzard made the following deplorable statement to China: "We express our strong indignation and condemnation of the events that occurred in the Hearthstone Asia Pacific competition last weekend and absolutely oppose the dissemination of personal political ideas during any events . The players involved will be banned, and the commentators involved will be immediately terminated from any official business. Also, we will protect our national dignity." Blizzard's employees were livid about the company's response. The employee's walked out on to the campus with umbrellas since umbrellas have been one of the unique items in the Hong Kong riots. The employees covered up the company's two key values that are displayed on the campus, which are "Think Globally" and "Every Voice Matters." There is a growing aversion to Blizzard, and this aversion is growing vocal. The American University Hearthstone team made its statement while streaming. The held up a sign that said, "Free Hong Kong, Boycott Blizz." As soon as they raised the sign, the broadcast quickly cut away. There are growing talks about creating a protest outside BlizzCon and showing their displeasure inside BlizzCon as well. Two Senators, Ron Wyden (D) of Oregon and Marco Rubio (R) of Florida, condemned Blizzard for placating kowtowing to China. Ron Wyden stated: "Blizzard shows it is willing to humiliate itself to please the Chinese Communist Party. No American company should censor calls for freedom to make a quick buck." Marco Rubio stated: "Recognize what's happening here. People who don't live in #China must either self-censor or face dismissal & suspensions. China using access to market as leverage to crush free speech globally. Implications of this will be felt long after everyone in U.S. politics today is gone." Will Blizzard be able to recover from this PR disaster? Has Blizzard crossed the line too far for your support? Let us know what you think! Thank You For Listening! If you have an idea for an episode or a person of note in the video game industry, i.e., a developer, influencer, illustrator, etc. then let us know! Email us at: contactus.armstrongsmusings@gmail.com Connect with us on social media: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ArmstrongsMusingsGameZone Twitter: https://twitter.com/ArmstrongsMusi1 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/armstrongs_musings_game_zone/ We appreciate you listening and hope to hear from you. Stay Strong! We have the transcriptions of the show done by Otter for your convenience. It is done by machine so excuse errors, please. Episode 12Download