This week, we focused on games such as Call of Duty. Call of Duty is almost exactly what the name is, it is a game about war, military, and everything else that comes with it. For those of us who aren’t on the real life battlefield, they can get a glimpse into a semi-realistic version of it. I almost think these games should be made to not contain real history in them due to their graphic nature, new games with less gruesome portrayal seem to be the move. However, they prove to be popular every year but that seems to be due to a somewhat stale time in the FPS ecosystem. It is true that every year one can count on call of duty to come out with a new title, however it may be a copy of the year before, people still run for the shelves. Moreover games are leading to be on steam. This week during discussion we spoke mainly about steam as a platform and how several large companies are cutting their own margins just to be on steam and gain more traction. Having said that, steam is becoming more diverse. In a year where the majority of the world is locked inside, steam has come out to shine. Steam is having sales just about every day to take advantage of this very strange time in history. Within this marketplace, there are rising genres such as female fighters. This is definitely a stride in a different direction than before, female fighters seem out of place in the current ecosystem. I think change in the area may be warranted. For too long have fighting games revolved around the masculine identity. Female fighters bring in a new crowd, females. This is definitely a time where the marketplace is expanding ever so fast, just about anyone can hop on their laptop, launch steam, and try one of these games. Also, in class, we discussed other fighting games including super smash. Games such as super smash have been extremely popular. This might be in part of their simplicity along with how long Nintendo has been out and evolved. Super smash is one of the games that can oftentimes be seen in the esports world. Having said that, I think it may be time to shift the space and head towards something mixed. Instead of Mario always being a main character in the game, we can try to have a character like Peach be the leader, maybe even a mix of both.

This is definitely a shifting time in the world, why can we not shift the tides in the gaming industry too. In my opinion, the more the merrier. Certainly, there will be people lining up to beckon if something is changed and not to their liking, yet, this should not stop the new innovation from happening. I think change is good and warranted in this landscape, we have seen Mario for several decades leading the tides in the Nintendo franchise, maybe it’s time for Peach.