Category: video-games

Why Video Games still do not have respect in our Western culture

The Video Game industry is at a crossroads, especially in the West. China’s video game industry after about a decade and a half of hibernating under government regulations, is now spreading its wings. However, the video game industry in America and the rest of the West is very weak and stuck mostly on franchises instead of new ideas. Is it really a sign of healthy industry when we have video games that are on multiple installments? We need to have a healthy mix but anything new tends to lack any media coverage which causes them to be under the radar and have little influence on the people who are making the games.

Video games began quite successfully under the leadership of Atari in California, but the bubble would burst under the weight of too many mediocre games. Nintendo would save it and then competition would blossom between them and Sega. Other companies would join but it would take until the release of the Xbox for an American company to come back into the console market in a significant way which would actually have some presence.

However, the video game industry probably peaked in 2007 and the increasing popularity of mobile games on smartphones has made the video game industry a more brittle industry which is causing issues.

The video game industry has a lack of quality control in this age.

Many games are coming out which are not meeting expectations.

Increasingly, video game journalists seem to be trying to prop up mediocre or horrible games just to make political points. Such attitudes can only come from a culture of entitlement that comes in such circles. Video game reviewers should be focused on advancing the medium through careful analysis of games. They are simply becoming mouthpieces of ancient newspapers and television shows. Video Games have become a medium which become attached in a sense to the establishment, which makes them tools of government power. Instead of emphasizing the uniqueness of video games that make them stand out, they are being made into symbols of the degenerate nature of the youth. It is within the realm of video games where creativity is still allowed to flourish in some ways.

Video Games are not seen as art but as something that has to be manipulated in order to gain political power.

Video Games need to return to the realm of being pure art not just Panem, or bread and circuses. Only then, will video games be given the respect which the medium needs in order to change and grow.

Is Tainted Grail the Next Skyrim? A Gamer’s Perspective

Screenshot of Beautiful Liliana in the Chamber of Ecstasy in Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon.
Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon is a modern Arthurian Sword and Sorcery Role-playing Game.

Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon is an interesting video game that has come to my attention recently. ESO, an RPG YouTuber has begun covering this game. In one particular section of the video, he uncovers a book called Beautiful Liliana in the Chamber of Ecstasy. In the video here, you can clearly see a drawn image of a sultry woman. She has barely any clothes on her. Such depictions of women are rare now in American media. The culture has become incredibly prudish in a secular sense, not in a sacred one.

Poland rises to the occasion: The Witcher teaches.

I looked up information on the developer of this game. It is made by a Polish company known as Questline and a Polish publisher called Awaken Realms. When I saw that the developers and the developers were Polish, I became more confident in the game. In the area of depicting attractive women, this company has already achieved greatness. This company made a game that has the potential to surpass the Witcher.

While the game is not officially out yet, Tainted Grail will be on my radar. One must keep hype in check and have realistic view of the game. ESO’s video seems to indicate a game that is very similar to The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. This game is a bestselling role-playing game by Bethesda Softworks. Gamers have been eagerly awaiting The Elder Scrolls VI for many years. The hype is just building. We hope Bethesda is able to deliver upon their promises.

In this transition era in Video Games, some independent companies are trying to take up the mantle. They aspire to be the next Skyrim. Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon may just be that game.

The Dark remaking of Arthurian Legends will give this game an upper hand in how it appeals to the gamers.

Tainted Grail is a game that will not hold your hand but teach you.

There is a need for a serious story once again in the Video Gaming space. Unlike many video games that come out now, Tainted Grail does not aim to hold your hand. It won’t make you comfortable, but it will challenge you to better your skills in the game.

Additionally, we need to have more depictions of women in this way in games. Some may complain that it is applying masculinity in a rather lusty way towards women. However, this comes with the territory. People who make video games should stop complaining. They should appreciate that this game is shaming the AAA video game developers. These developers can’t make interesting games now.

Sword and Sorcery is generally speaking, a very masculine genre. While women are welcome to enjoy it, this game is clearly aimed at people who are mature men.

King Arthur’s story is a masculine story at its heart and people have to understand what that means.

Another company, probably one in Canada or America would have butchered such a story. Many game companies are filled with employees who are unable to write a story about anything that rises above mediocrity. So many role-playing games are failing.

They are trying to fill quotas imposed onto them by investors. Other predatory organizations also impose these quotas.

Kingdom Come Deliverance II, while a great game in its own right, fell victim to such machinations in some areas. This game should be made with passion and duty. The Polish developers have a duty to make this game as beautiful rendition of the Arthurian Legends and stories.

This style of story is my favorite in Sword and Sorcery, and we need to have beautiful stories again. American culture has been stagnant and obsessed with its own contradictions. Instead of emphasizing such contradictions, why can’t they focus on stories that are uplifting? These stories should include warts and all. They should also respect the diversity of human experience. The nature of art is what inspires all humans to achieve greatness in their nations.

This is tough for any developer in this age. A human experience that was once obscure now becomes the dominant view with little rhyme or reason in a culture. It is time to move beyond myopic perspectives and approach such stories with a holistic view.

Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon will be an interesting entry in the canon of video games.

Civilization VII does not get it audience.

Civilization 7 is a game that seems to forget what made the previous games, in spite of their changes, worthwhile to play. By making us switch our civilizations in three mini games, the game no longer has the same gameplay loop which has gave rise to the phrase, “One More Turn”. It is this phrase which gave Civilization such staying power that many other games do not have. This is why Civilization has been so successful for so long and yet it seems failure has finally overtaken the mighty Civilization series.

Civilization VII’s peak Steam player count has stagnated under 100,000 while Civilization VI was around 162,000. This is a clear sign that Civilization VI was in better shape than Civilization VII at the same time of its release.

We also have to understand that Steam had a smaller userbase in 2016. While it was much bigger than in 2010, when Civilization V was released, it was still before the Coronavirus hit the industry and would be affecting many work flows in companies. Such delays were causing quality dips in many games, and we can clearly see that with Civilization VII.

However, it seems that in this time, companies are more willing to hide the incompetent nature of their jobs on a game. Firaxis Games, which used to be making incredible games, were now spending their time trying to make a political instrument, which one could see creeping in since Civilization V.

However, in Civilization V, this political activism is largely kept to the sidelines, largely in its manual, which talks about environmentalism.

By Civilization VI, it seemed that they decided to hide activism in more subtle ways, such as warmongering penalties, but Civ 6 seemed to be more of a return to form as the game did not explicitly attempt to demean European civilization.

Civilization 7 basically has India and China have three civilizations for each of the three mini games. England wasn’t even added until the latest patch and they did not even have the right leader for it. Choosing Ada Lovelace is not the right approach as he was not even a political leader in England at that time. Victoria was used in Civilization VI so another leader that could have been used could have been King Edward VII or King George V, however, they chose a woman wasn’t even influencing political events in the country in that age.

Civilization VII does not understand that its audience is largely male and is highly engaged in learning about history. Casual fans are not who make this franchise profitable in the eyes of the corporate people. It is the hardcore fans, who are a tough group but are the ones who support the series in a way that casual fans are not interested in the same way; they view Civilization as a means of recreation but do not have the same ties to it. The Civilization Revolution games, are a

This is one of the reasons why Civilization VI seemed like a return to form but Civilization VII saw the series return to the mobile game and console centric gameplay. This game was released on more consoles on release than any other title which is not actually helping it. By releasing it on so many platforms, the game is not polished on the platform which actually matters, the PC platform.

It is clear that Firaxis Games does not understand its own audience.

The need for game companies to grow beyond their fanbases is a double-edged sword in actual practice. We have an issue here where the video game industry is going through a cultural change. The game industry is more influenced by what they see on the app store than anything that one would have seen at the legendary conferences of the 1980s and 1990s.

The video game industry at this time is more about pleasing an invisible audience than anything sustainable. This is why many post-Covid games are flopping. Many companies simply have no passion and are throwing the sink at the wall in order to gain the biggest possible audience. They have forgotten the artistry and as a result many games are suffering because of it. Civilization VII is one such game and will be considered the “Dark Ages” of the series.