Fast Travel Through the Week: October 20th Edition

by Jordan Love | Oct 20, 2017 | News, News Section, Videogames, weekly

Fast Travel Through the Week: October 20th Edition

by Jordan Love | Oct 20, 2017 | News, News Section, Videogames, weekly

Each week, Fast Travel helps you get caught up on everything going on in the gaming industry. We start by highlighting a few of the week’s biggest news pieces. Then it’s on to a little dollop of indie news. Followed by a helping of “The Best Thing on the Internet, This Week.” And finally, we gather up all the week’s headlines and smash them into a TL;DR pie for you to enjoy.

This Weeks Headlines

Activision Develop Match-Making System to Sell Items

In 2015 Activision filed for a patent that most of the world ignored, but now that patent has cleared and it could mean bad news for gamers. Activision now holds the rights to a technology which could use match-making not to give players the best experience, but to give Activision the best profit.

Though the patent outlines many functions there are a few that are especially worrisome. Chief among them is the ability to team up less skilled players with highly skilled players in a manner that aims to entice the newer player into purchases. The system may even evaluate the play style or profile of players to intuit how best to market to them.

IGN Buys Humble Bundle

UK Government Forced to Weigh in on Loot Boxes

A recent UK petition has just passed the 10K signature mark, meaning the UK government is now obliged to make an official statement regarding the legality of or attitude towards loot boxes as a form of gambling.

It may seem odd that the loot box issue has gone this far, but video games still exist mostly in a state of self-regulation. The ESRB and the little power they have are one of the only governing bodies in the world of video games. With this latest interest in unscrupulous behavior from developers, as well as children getting into gaming at ever younger stages, steps are now being actively sought to better control an environment that has been largely chaotic and which some claim borders on gambling.

Sony Bringing Games to Switch with New Publishing Label

Sony recently announced their new “Unties” label, which it will use to publish mostly indie and small titles to the PS4, Switch and PC.

The new publishing label is already set up to release its first game. Tiny Metal was first teased years ago and now it’ll officially become the first game published under Sony’s new label. After that, Unties will likely turn its attention to the next few games on its docket. Last Standard and Merkava Avalanche are both slated to release under the label, though no release dates have been announced for either game.

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The Best Thing on the Internet, This Week

A Mod for Left 4 Dead 2 That Changes All the Graffiti to Jaden Smith Tweets

Son of the freshest of princes, Jaden Smith is a pretty weird kid. No where is that more evident than in his Twitter feed. Over the years he’s hit us with such moving quotes as “Once You Go In You Always Come Out Alive” and “Most Trees Are Blue.” Truly moving words, Jaden.

Now you can enjoy all the glory that is Jaden Smith’s Tweets in Left 4 Dead 2. As pointed out by Reddit user splityoassintwo, there is now a Steam mod that “Replaces almost all the safehouse graffiti with the musings of Twitter-Philosopher Jaden Smith,” according to creator Molkifier.

You can find the mod on its Steam Workshop page. And remember, “If Newborn Babies Could Speak They Would Be The Most Intelligent Beings On Planet Earth.”