Miscellaneous
Become a Patron! This week has been an exciting week for AM: Game Zone. We have published our website, and now we can be found at https://armstrongsmusings.com. We will still be on different directories, i.e., Stitcher, TuneIn, Google Play, Deezer, Spotify, etc.; however, having a platform we control gives us the ability to take our show where ever we want to go. We also upgraded to the Rodecaster Pro for the recording seasons. We are thrilled by the hardware and are looking forward to interviewing future guests with this fantastic tool. This week turned out to be a robust week for news! Starting, we touch base on Total War: Warhammer 2 Hunter and the Beast DLC, the incredible World of Warcraft Classic response, and the allegations against Chucklefish exploiting young developers. Amazingly, Electronic Arts received a Guinness World Record. Except, it was not the type of record you would ever want to receive. The record EA broke was that they received the most downvotes, 863,000 votes, on any comment in Reddit history! In response, they then offer up to 75% discount on Select EA Games. The 04SEP19 Nintendo Direct dropped a truckload of information! There were updates for things we were expecting and some pleasant surprises! We touch base on Animal Crossing, Pokemon Sword and Shield, Luigi's Mansion 3, Assassin's Creed: The Rebel Collection, and Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. Overwatch's release to the Nintendo Switch is a great addition but is a shame that Blizzard did not create cross-save between platforms. This cross-save ability with the PC is possibly due, as shown by Divinity: Original Sin 2. If you don't have a Nintendo Online access and you are a Twitch Prime member, then you can get 12 months free. Nintendo released the new SNES app, and it is a great way to play many of the classic SNES games on the Switch. Banjo Kazooie is released, and Terry Bogard is announced to join the fight on Smash Brothers. Our Showstopper for this Episode is the egregious and ridiculous implementation of gambling mechanics in NBA 2K20. The game looks like it is a gambling game with some basketball sprinkled throughout the rest. The game implements card packs, a roulette wheel, pachinko, and a slot machine. On top of it all, the ESRB and PEGI are doing a disservice to the consumer. By their standards, the game should be rated T for ESRB or 12 for PEGI due to the simulated gambling. Though I believe it to be gambling, these mechanics do not meet the legal definition of gambling because you are unable to cash out the in-game currency. However, ESRB has this game rated as E and PEGI has it rated 3. These ratings show a blatant attempt at manipulation of the consumer. The mechanics are not acceptable and are unwanted. 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/ Visit us on our website: https://armstrongsmusings.com. We appreciate you listening and hope to hear from you. Stay Strong!