Gaming News of The Week

Hello again, folks.  This week, I felt I would start a new feature for the site called Gaming News of the Week.  Yes, not too fancy of a name but it gets the point across!  Each week, I will be sharing with you the gaming news that I thought was exciting.  Now that I am done with this introduction, let's get on to business!

World of Warcraft Subscriber Numbers Drop

Though this shouldn't be too surprising, the number of subscribers for the popular game franchise has dropped to 9.6 million, which is a drop from over 10 million reported subscribers from their quarter three statistics released in 2012.  Again, this shouldn't be too surprising because typically around this length of time, subscribers drop when they start to get bored of the current content and wait for the next tier of content.  Obviously, not the end of the world (of Warcraft.  Old joke is old).

The Witcher Franchise Not to Soon Be Over

Recent statements from Adam Badowski made it seem rather doom and gloom for a future of The Witcher franchise but that is not the case.  According to CD Projekt RED, The Witcher 3 will be a finale for the current trilogy but they are leaving it open for a future for the franchise.

Tiny Tina in Borderlands 2 Might Get a New Personality in Future Content

This past week, people took to twitter to request lead writer Anthony Burch to change Tiny Tina's dialog for fear that it is considered racist.  After much debate among twitter users, Mr. Burch was asked if he would re-write her dialog and he stated "That’s not actually feasible within the technical constraints of the game, but I’d alter her dialog in any future Borderlands 2 stuff."

Guild Wars 2 to Get an Expansion

Korean Investment Firm KDB Daewoo Securities released a report this month that we are to expect to see a Guild Wars 2 expansion in the near future (estimated to be released during the 2nd half of 2013).  The following is an excerpt from this page.

We anticipate NCsoft will also launch a mobile version of Blade & Soul in 1H through one of Japan’s leading mobile-gaming platform operators, DeNA. NCsoft plans to roll out its new title WildStar (currently being developed by US-based Carbine Studios) in 2H using CD packages in the US and Europe. It also intends to launch Guild Wars 2 in China, Taiwan, and Japan. An expansion pack for Guild Wars 2 is slated for a 2H release in the US and Europe. 

So that is the news of the big gaming news of the week for you.  If you like this, please check back next week for some more gaming news.  As always, you can follow me on twitter with @lethrface and you can subscribe to this blogger page for more news and updates as I post them.

Borderlands 2 racism?

Recently, some heat got thrust toward Borderlands 2 has come about.  Mike Sacco, creative developer at Cryptozoic Entertainment sent a tweet to Anthony Burch, the lead writer of Borderlands 2, stating that "Tiny Tina's trope of 'white girl talkin' like them urban folk!!' has got to go." (source)

This lead to many people hitting up twitter with their own opinions regarding the matter as well as Burch himself firing back (you can read his responses in the link above).

This situation reminds me of some rather wise words I was told in the past: "reverse racism is the worst form of racism."  What this means is that people of all races seem to walk on eggshells and make up for years of racism.  It means people being extra friendly to those of different race rather than treating them as equals or calling others racist when they themselves are the only ones who find the racist element of the subject they are speaking of.

On the note of Tiny Tina, I love the character and find her to remind me of most of the females I went to school with (minus the whole being deadly aspect since...you know, nobody I know has killed anyone that I am aware of).  Bringing a character with such a personality into a game however appears to bring in a sense of racial tension from those who appear to be overly sensitive to the issue.

In my opinion (after all, this is a blog), the people being so worried about this are the true racists for making an issue out of something that isn't there.  Here is a tip for my fellow white people: stop.  When the black community get pissed off, take note...but until then, keep your mouth shut about how it is offensive to someone that you are not because more than half of the time, you are wrong.