The Sunday Papers
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Sundays are for watching food in your microwave rotate. Before you stare, let's read this week's best writing about games.
PC Gamer remember their fondest, funniest memories of Skyrim, now that the game's 10th Anniversary edition is out. I've heard there's fishing! I wonder what the 20th Anniversary edition will bring.
Jacob Ridley, Senior Hardware Editor: I was in university when Skyrim came out, and my only real memory of that hazy time was having a 'we bought Skyrim' party. Genuinely remember that more than anything that happened in the game. Still haven't completed it.
Over on Polygon, Yussef Cole wrote about Call Of Duty: Vanguard and how it continues the trend of mythmaking and tokenization.
Yet some things cannot be denied. Activision Blizzard’s workforce hovers at around 80% male and remains majority white. It feels strange to play a game like Vanguard, which wears the diversity of its cast proudly on its sleeve, with this in mind. Vanguard’s story spends a lot of time and energy tackling the unexamined cultural shortcomings that problematize the world’s “Last Good War.” Yet, as is often the case with marginalized narratives that are told by outside voices, there are clear missteps that reveal the developer’s blinkered, if well-meaning, perspective.
For Kotaku, Isaiah Colbert wrote about how deleting their ex's Animal Crossing save data helped him move on from them.
I was greeted by Tom Nook under a single spotlight as he guided me through the process. Despite the game’s candidness about the gravity of deleting a resident’s island data, there was a finality to fireside chat with Nook as I deleted my ex’s save data. In an almost laughable bluntness, Nook told me this decision was one for an adult and not a child. In deleting their data, my original islanders who once doted on our relationship would no longer remember them.
For The Guardian, Rosanna McLaughlin wrote about how NFTs are shaking up the art world.
While those – like Jones – who successfully rode the NFT wave were busy counting their crypto dollars, over the past year the conventional art world has suffered a decline. During the pandemic, with audiences unable to physically attend exhibitions and fairs, art dealers have struggled to make online viewing rooms interesting or lucrative. As a consequence, global sales of art fell by 22%. To rub salt in that wound, millions of crypto dollars were exchanging hands for a natively digital art form. “The technology is designed against the existing art world,” says Noah Davis, a specialist at Christie’s New York. “It’s an art form that doesn’t need a gallery.”
Finally, The New York Times put together a short documentary that goes inside the daily life of a live streaming star in China. It's an exhausting and heartbreaking watch, honestly.
Music this week is A Dream I Have by Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs. Here's the YouTube link and Spotify link. A head-nodder and a mood-raiser.
That's me. Have a solid Sunday everyone!