Gaming
Developers Create the NCGP to Self-Regulate the Industry
The whole microtransaction and Loot Box fiasco has created a lot of concern from a lot of entities. We’ve seen government organizations from Australia, Belgium, England and France showing their concern about these issues. Some developers noticed this and took matters into their own hands, as such, we see the foundation of the National Committee for Games Policy or NCGP.
https://twitter.com/TheNCGP/status/935347938020040705
The NCGP call themselves “the world’s first public policy think tank associated with the videogames and interactive entertainment industry.”
They differentiate themselves from the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) in that they are not a group of developers advocating developers’ rights. Their focus is on better outcomes for consumers, rather than more competitive industrial policy.
The NCGP comes with two expert groups backing them up: the ITK, a think tank seeking to inform and educate legislators, and the SRO, the “industry’s first, and de facto, self-regulatory organisation.”
The SRO is the most important of the two because it aims to protect consumers from unscrupulous practices by “investigating and bringing legal action against those companies that have damaged the public consciousness in some way.”
It’s important to note that the current Committee’s memberships is not exactly that impactful. The biggest name is Bryan Haskell, a project manager at the ESL and former live operations lead on Call of Duty Elite. And some of the members have ties to an indie organization named Incuvation Games, which isn’t exactly impactful.
The steering committee also includes Daniel Doan, founder of Black Shell Games. According to PCGamesN this is an indie publisher with a less than spotless reputation. But the company has since changed their ways according to their own statements.
The NCGP doesn’t have any association to any government organization, either. The Committee will be funded independently and it also won’t accept any donations from any political party. So at least we’ll have a fully independent organism which will look at these predatory microtransaction systems in more detail.
I have a lot of questions about the NCGP, but I have to save them up and watch until I actually see more developments from the NCGP and their actions. This thing seems to be very rushed and there isn’t any transparency in certain aspects. And that has me very concerned because some things feel off, especially with the vagueness on their promises.
Since the excellent Baldur’s Gate 3 has been out in the wild for a while, interesting data can be gleaned, such as how players choose to play an innovative new RPG from home. Stats from developer Larian Studios and posted on the PlayStation Blog show that most people want to play as a stealthy archer like in Skyrim when given nearly limitless options.
According to a fascinating graph, Rogue/Ranger is the most popular multiclass build, with over 175,000 players using it to snipe unsuspecting enemies from range. The next two builds reveal similarly. 150,000 played Barbarian/Fighter because they loved pummeling things, and 109,00 played Barbarian/Paladin, which lets players talk to their victims before beatings.
More sense emerges as you descend. If the Paladin/Warlock/Sorcerer/Bard has high Charisma, any combination can be interesting. Charisma helps these classes cast spells and abilities and interact with NPCs outside of combat.
Playing a single class through Baldur’s Gate 3 feels great, which is what most players do. A pure Fighter or Wizard becomes so powerful by game’s end that we don’t blame you for not mixing things up!
Play as a Tiefling Oathbreaker Paladin, Dark Urge Origin (which you must resist), or Bard for real moral dilemmas. You could also play pseudo-Aragorn again.
Techland is continuing to release Dying Light 2 content as part of its long-term support. This is surprising since the meaty Good Night, Good Luck update was released a few months ago. It’s nice to know what’s coming, but no timeline was given.
IGN-exclusive roadmap trailers reveal more co-op missions, board quests, a tower raid, and replayable GRE anomalies. Executions and finishers may be added to the April Gut Feeling update, which overhauled melee mechanics. Graphical options, weapon repair, gear, and mod dismantling are always welcome.
Knives, polearms, and more enemy variants are coming, including a Nightmare difficulty. Changes to NG+ include firearms. Players can finally dress to their hearts’ content with new cosmetic options.
Has Techland’s Dying Light 2 support lured you back? Would you rather focus on something new?
Epic Games expanded the Fortnite V-Buck “pricing alignment” after laying off almost 900 employees, citing “inflation and currency fluctuations”. Fortnite’s premium currency will rise in international markets, including the largest.
Epic Games will raise the price of V-Bucks and real money content packs in the Czech Republic, Denmark, Eurozone countries, Hungary, Japan, Norway, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Turkey, and the US (including all US Dollar storefronts) on October 27.
Raising the price of this fictitious currency was successful when the company trialed it in the UK, Canada, and Mexico, so it was decided to announce it worldwide now. These USD increases range from $1 (1000 V-Bucks, previous $7.99) to $10 (13,500 V-Bucks, previous $79.99).
How do you view Epic’s timing and pricing increase?
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