Gaming is a Sport

Gaming is a sport. Many debate about this and many can have heated debates on things like, should gaming be a part of the X-Games. The biggest debate people bring to why gaming isn’t a sport, is that you aren’t physically moving around. I respond to this with, then why does the International Olympic Committee recognize chess as a sport? If I had to choose one word that made something a sport, it would be skill. A man that has never played football will do poorly, the same goes for gaming. Both high-level gaming and other sports require practice and dedication. A football player may spend 8 hours a day learning plays, working out, and practicing in any way they need too, and the same goes for gamers. In Call of Duty, the players may spend their day learning the map in and out. They may come up with strategies that will help them win the round, and they may harness their skill with a controller or mouse and keyboard. Why does sitting in front of a screen make it not a sport? You can’t say that a ball being thrown around makes it a sport since hockey uses a puck. You can’t say running around makes it a sport, because then swimming is left out. The one thing all sports have is players giving it their all and trying to have fun. There have been Overwatch competitions on Disney Channel and ESPN. Many associate gaming with living in the basement, being overweight, and being socially awkward. While there may be people like that, gaming isn’t what forced them to be like that. Just go to the gaming section on Youtube.com, many of those content creators may make more in their life than you can possibly imagine. Many may have already made more than you ever will. Go to Twitch.tv and see how many people watch other people play the hottest games out there. Some streams can get close to 100,000 viewers. You could claim that gamers are the smart ones, they aren’t breaking bones and getting concussions. Don’t get me wrong, I love football, hockey, and football. There are many other sports that I love too, and as a sports lover I say to include gaming. Stop hating on people just because they feel like playing some games with their friends while you sit and watch tv.

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RIP Core i7

The next generation of Intel CPUs have announced. Many defend them and many hate on them. I personally do not like the path they are taking. I am a gamer so I want great single core performance, while also getting hyperthreading. Intel has now made it required for you to pay $500 for hyperthreading. Looking at this upcoming generation of chips and comparing them to the current generation chips, I see no noticeable differences between them. Let’s compare the 8700k to the 9700k. They have the same base clocks, with the 9700k getting 2ghz higher boost clock. The only other change is the 9700K gets two more cores without hyperthreading. You will not notice a difference between 6 cores and 8 cores in everyday tasks, nor most games. That is why Intel CPUs tend to outperform the Ryzen series chips. The Core i9 chips used to be hated on because they weren’t really useful to the general population. The 8700K was kicking butt and no one wanted to throw away money to a Core i9. Intel must have taken that negatively and decided to make the i7 useless. The new Core i5 will have 6 cores and 6 threads. It is about $100 cheaper than its big brother the i7 which only has two more cores and threads. It used to be the i7 would give you higher clock speeds, hyperthreading, and recently more cores than the i5. This made the i7 worth it as you gained a lot in that extra $100 to $150. Now the i7 is the awkward in-between for the i5 and the i9. Not to mention how similar it is to the 8700K, the new 9700K will most likely be swept under the rug. When you are talking about spending $500 on just a CPU, you are getting into Threadripper territory. The area of the market where you are doing more than just playing games. The content creators who have to render out videos and need more cores to do so efficiently. The main thing that upsets me about this new $500 price tag, is just how every other component is getting price jumps. RAM is already overpriced, GPUs were inflated for how long and gave the idea to GPU companies that people will spend over one grand on a GPU. The only computer component that seems to be getting cheaper is SSDs. You may have spent $2000 before for a top of the line computer, but now we are getting closer and closer to $3000 for a top of the line pc. Spending more money on every component really starts to add up and makes it harder for people to upgrade. Now yes this new i9 will probably be great, but it needs to be cheaper. The main reason they made it an i9 and not an i7 is because they know that no one will accept an i7 at $500. Plus now they can have a neutered i7 that people will spend money on.

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Scummy Business Practices

I know I talked about how bad Ubisoft is at listening to their players, but there are many other companies out there that are just as bad, if not worse. The first ones that come to mind are EA and Activision. Both companies love to profit on a little thing called microtransactions. I don’t think there is a single sane gamer that enjoys microtransactions. Many have the philosophy, I just paid $60 for this game so give me what I paid for. They have the right to think like that, you wouldn’t pay $20 for a movie only for it to then stop halfway through and then demand another $10 to finish it! There was a time when you could buy a game and that’s what you get. It then developed into a company releasing DLC a year or two after release, as players enjoyed that specific game and didn’t want to start over on a new one. Then games came along where DLC was required for them to finish the game, games like Destiny where some paid near $200 in the end. Now companies have become so greedy, that the onetime charge for the DLC isn’t enough. Banking on kids and gambling addicts to try and open loot boxes so they can enjoy the game to the fullest. The practices used in the gaming industry have become dirty and toxic. Very few companies remain loyal to their fans and speak out against the scams other companies use. The only company that can come to mind for me in CD Project Red. The company that brought the world The Witcher trilogy. They speak out against DRM and microtransactions. Now they do still sell DLC and expansion passes, but it does not hinder your ability to enjoy the game and to finish it fully. They also deliver quality DLC, having some expansions taking more time to finish than other full games. Now, why are microtransactions still around if they are hated so much? It’s because gamers only push so far. Many have come to accept them as long as they are cosmetic items only. That the game won’t be changed just because one person spent $10 and another didn’t. EA has been especially guilty of this with the release of Star Wars Battlefront 2. The game was essentially paid to win as the loot boxes would make the game easier for you. Even after gamers hated on that game and said no to buying it just cause of the microtransactions, EA didn’t change their business practices. They left them in the Need for Speed games and they also include microtransactions in their sports games, such as FIFA and Madden. I think all gamers would like to go back to the time where you paid the $60 and that was it. Sure, there could be the occasional DLC for big popular games but that’s it.

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The Problems with Siege

I have said that Rainbow Six: Siege is one of my favorite games, but it suffers from the same problem as many other games and that is the developers not listening to the players. I have put over 1,000 hours into the game and have been placed highly in ranked, being only a few wins away from diamond. I have stuck with this game for around 2 years now and I have seen it rise, fall slightly, and rise again. In that time though, I don’t think I have actually seen the developers do something for the players and fans of this game. Sure there have been buffs and nerfs of characters, some of which we have liked, but I don’t think you can say they did that purely based on the players wishes. Many of the things they do, is just for the Pro League. One example is how IQ was being picked too much in the Pro League, so they nerfed her. I hardly saw her in casual or ranked so that nerf was completely unneeded. They also gave her grenades to Finka to even our her nerf. While she did need a nerf, giving her nades does not make me want to play her. The problem with Finka and Lion is that they go completely against the skill-based game of Siege. Those two will either be underpowered or ridiculously overpowered. One gives you no recoil and the other gives you wallhacks, removing the need to learn recoils and using the sounds around you to find the enemy. Why Ubisoft added operators that gave hack like abilities, who knows. I know there were many people that were vocal about their hate for those two operators, including me. Not to mention Blitz also became insanely annoying and somewhat overpowered at the same time. They could have just had Finka heal and revive people and a speed boost. There was no need for a no-recoil feature. An alternative ability for Lion is to have the sonic waves mess up the defender’s field of view or to shake their screen as it would prevent them from killing the attackers. Many have asked for Tachanka to get a buff; Ubisoft responded with “We wouldn’t want to stop the Tachanka memes”. The latest outcry for change, was a forgive system with teamkilling. Ubisoft recently made it where you get instantly banned after killing two teammates. I personally hate this change as I have been in games where we play ten or eleven rounds and I will accidentally teamkill because of things out of my control. I have also been in games where I am playing with friends, and jokingly kill one of them. I would not want to be banned from joking around with friends. I would love to have the forgive system, as it would prevent bogus bans because someone killed two people while Fuze. Many claim that it will help get rid of griefers in the game, but I don’t think I have really been in a game where griefers have ruined it for me. In ranked, it has always been teammates doing poorly that cause us to lose. Sure they may teamkill but it is because Ubisoft put a Copper 4 in my Gold 1 game and that person doesn’t have enough skill to prevent it. Most of my ranked games have been ruined because of Ubisoft not perfecting the ranked mode. The game is on its third year and the ranked mode is still in beta. Okay, not everyone plays ranked and so what about griefing in casual. Well I will usually not care, kill them back, and then leave and find a new game with my friends. You can’t take casual seriously because you will not have fun then. People will be toxic, people will throw, people are low ranks, or the other team is full of diamond players. I recommend you watch this Youtube video as it goes through many things wrong with Siege. While I do disagree on a few things, mainly that secure area is bad, but I completely back it for the most part.

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Upcoming Games

It’s October which means a huge wave of video game releases is coming as we near the holiday season. You can follow this link if you would like the full list of video games, but I will go down and point out any that stand out to me. I still encourage you to look though, as there are some games and genres that don’t interest me in the slightest. The first game I am excited for is Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. I have always been a big Assassin’s Creed fan, with Brotherhood and Black Flag probably being my favorites. The first Assassin’s Creed, Syndicate, and Origins have been the only ones that I haven’t really enjoyed. I haven’t played Unity yet so I can’t say how I personally would rate it but I know it is disliked by many. I know many enjoyed Origins, but I just miss the old Assassin’s Creed combat style and don’t like how they are changing it. With that being said, I still am excited for Odyssey as I have always enjoyed Greek mythology and I am interested to see the direction they take with the game. Next is the new Call of Duty. I have already talked about my feelings towards this game, and don’t plan to talk about it for long. It will come down to the reviews that come out for the game. I will also see how my friends feel about it but for now, I don’t think it is worth $60. If it gets down to $40 or less than I would consider buying it. I am also taking into account how they will charge $50 for a season pass and all the DLC they will drop for the game. We got Dark Souls: Remastered coming to the Nintendo Switch, which I mean who doesn’t want a reason to rage. The last noticeable game that I see coming in October, is Red Dead Redemption 2. I have never played Red Dead Redemption 1, but I have heard great things about it and I got a feeling the sequel will be good. Moving onto November, we have Fallout 76 coming out. I have played Fallout 4 and New Vegas and while I didn’t hate them, I didn’t love them either. I don’t see myself picking it up though as there are just so many other games releasing and games that are already out that I would like to purchase first. After Fallout, comes Battlefield which I have no excitement for. When I played the beta, all it reminded me of was Battlefield 1. It reminds me too much of Battlefield 1, except with a dumb revive system. I have been 1 meter away from a squad mate and not getting revived. They let you hold a button where you can die faster, but you still sit there for 5 seconds and that is 5 seconds of not getting to play. I will still play Battlefield 4 over another Battlefield and I am disappointed EA hasn’t been able to impress me with Battlefield 5.

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iPhone or Android?

iPhone Vs Android. This is a battle where I don’t think I can choose a winner. I have personally used iPhones more than Android, so if I don’t do Androids justice then comment below and I’ll take it into account. If I had to choose one of the new flagship phones out there right now, I would probably choose Android. The main reason being that I don’t like Apple removing the home button, I don’t like them removing the headphone jack, and I don’t like their prices. Granted, I would miss plenty about the iPhones I have grown to enjoy. I really enjoy the operating system on the iPhone. I find it easy and pleasing to use, and I think anyone could pick up an iPhone and would be comfortable with it in a small amount of time. I like the app store and the wide variety of apps it allows you to download. The main thing I like about iPhones is the security they bring. You are a lot less likely to get a virus with an iPhone than with an Android. I just like the safe feeling that iPhones bring and the easy to use operating system. At the same time, there is plenty wrong with iPhones. For one, bring back my headphone jack! If Apple wants to claim that they needed to remove it in order to make their phones waterproof, then why is Samsung able to make phones that are waterproof but still have a headphone jack. I don’t like how I get very little hard drive space on my phone with no way to upgrade it. I would love to be able to insert a micro SD card and get plenty of room for my movies, songs, and tv shows. Samsung is able to do it and the phone is still waterproof, so I don’t see why Apple can’t. I do not wish to spend $1,000 on a phone just so I can have enough storage. I know that Samsung charges you at least $600 for their phone, but that plus a micro-SD card is still cheaper than an iPhone. Apple seems to make their ideal phone, jack that phone’s price up, and then make obsolete versions of it just so they can lower the price slightly for people to afford. That’s the way I feel at least, seeing how they have announced three different iPhone X’s and only one is under a grand. How do you guys feel? What makes or breaks a phone purchase for you? Are you one to buy a new phone once they are announced, or do you wait until your current phone no longer functions well?

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Apple Computers

Ahhhh the premium Apple throws on their products. Many Youtubers and tech enthusiast have proven that iMacs and MacBooks will not deliver what they are promised to do. The cooling will be insufficient and will cause throttling with your product. You cannot open up your Mac and exchange parts, or fix it if something is broken. These are advertised as pro-grade products, even though the IT department will not be able to fix the company’s Macs. Many have shown that you can build a computer, spec for spec, and it will perform better than the iMac. They have also shown that you can build a better system for less than an iMac. I personally don’t see why someone would take a mac over a PC. I figured the best way for us to see both sides of the argument would be to find a website that supports the iMac and see what they say about it. One person said “Macs are actually cheaper in the long run” which I believe to be false. They claim that while PCs are cheaper up front, its true value should also take into account the resale value. That looking at people selling their three-year-old Mac or PC, you will see that the person selling the Mac will make more money back. The reason a Mac will have a high resale price when compared to other PCs, is because Macs can’t be upgraded. The thing with PCs is that you don’t have to sell your whole computer when you are looking to upgrade. You just go out and buy a new part and swap it out with the old part. You can then sell that part for a decent price when compared to what that part is worth new. With iMacs, you have to buy a whole new iMac when you want to upgrade. Apple doesn’t allow you to upgrade your computer without voiding warranties, and even then it is still limited with what you can upgrade. Another thing this article mentions, is how Macs aren’t as big in the IT world because Macs have an easier interface where you don’t need to be tech-savvy to understand. I very much disagree with this as I remember when I was a young boy and I was able to use the family PC with ease. I was also able to use the Mac at school with ease. I feel that if a kid can use a software, then it can be used by everyone. I don’t remember having any problems with Windows when I was younger and so I don’t feel that you have to be a genius to use a PC. The last reason I thought worthy to mention, is that you can run Windows on a Mac so why not just get the best of both worlds. My response to this is that you can also install Mac OS on a PC as well. Many people have done this and these hybrid PCs have been called Hackintosh’s. So why not build a more capable PC that will be cheaper than a Mac, and then put the Mac OS on it?

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RTX Cards

RTX cards. They sure aren’t as impressive as what Nvidia said they would be. Heck, the 2080 is outperformed by the 1080Ti in some instances. When the RTX series was announced, I expected that with ray-tracing on, that it still should have outperformed or been equal with the GTX cards. That we would have the option to choose higher performance and GTX graphics, or better looking and GTX performance. Now we are seeing that without ray-tracing, that the GTX cards are still outperforming RTX cards at times. They then throw on a hefty price tag. The 2080 is $200 more than the 1080Ti but they have less than a 10% performance difference. They are even asking for $1200 for their flagship model, the 2080Ti. The same price as a new iPhone, another topic that we will have to bring up on another day ;). There are only a handful of titles that will support ray-tracing, and we haven’t seen any performance numbers in those titles. VR had a more successful start when compared to this, but like VR I am predicting this will die out. I just don’t think we have the technology to support ray-tracing. Just because we have the ability to climb Everest, doesn’t mean we should. We should wait until it is a guaranteed success and we will get the desired results. I think the same is with ray-tracing. Just to clear things up, we are not getting true ray-tracing with these RTX cards. That is how complex ray-tracing is. With 4 Nvidia Quadros, we still can’t get decent fps if we use true ray-tracing. While the RTX cards to look and sound amazing, it is just a gimmick at this point in time. I would love to see where this technology goes though. I think it could be amazing in the end and worth the effort. I brought up VR earlier, and I feel ray-tracing could help bring VR to a new level. I feel the thing that holds VR back is that it is not realistic enough yet. One step to making it more realistic is getting the lighting and shadows that look like the real thing. When the technology we have improves, when the price goes down, and the number of games that support it go up, then I think ray-tracing will be the next big thing that everyone can embrace.

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Black Ops 4

In just over two weeks, Call of Duty – Black Ops 4 will be released. I have seen many different views on this game, and I would say for the most part that most people are excited for this game. I, however, am not one of them. I was able to participate in both the multiplayer and Blackout beta on PC. This game may be completely different on consoles, but I have heard that people tend to prefer the PC version of the game. The main reason I am not excited for this Call of Duty, is that I don’t get the feeling that this is a Call of Duty game. I know that sounds weird but it feels like Treyarch saw what other companies were doing successfully and wanted to incorporate that into their game. On the multiplayer side, it seems like they took Black Ops 3, Rainbow Six, and Battlefield and just turned them all into one game. You have deployable gadgets like Rainbow Six, a slower time to kill like Battlefield, and then some of the same characters have been recycled from Black Ops 3. It seems like all of this effort was to make it into a more competitive FPS, but that is not why I play Call of Duty. The deployable gadgets are kind of cool to use but are pointless in certain game modes like Team Deathmatch. The longer time to kill is terrible as I no longer want to just play solo. You can no longer win 1 vs 2 fights as you take so long just to kill one guy. Call of Duty has always just been that game where you just go around shooting the other team with not much thought or strategy, and incorporating this time to kill takes that away. I think the only reason this game will sell plenty of copies and make millions of dollars, is because of Blackout. Zombies has always helped Treyarch games as there are plenty of zombies fans out there, but Blackout will be the key selling point. Did I enjoy Blackout? Yes, I thought it was fun and I could see myself putting in around 100 hours of gameplay. I say 100 hours as I only put 110 hours into PUBG and I enjoyed that much more than Blackout. Blackout is in this weird little niche. I don’t think Blackout will ever surpass Fortnite or PUBG. Fortnite is free, kid-friendly, and the least demanding out of the three titles. PUBG is the definition of a battle royale and is the most tactile and intense out of the three. Blackout is the most expensive out of the three. The one positive thing that Blackout has going for it that neither of the other two do have, is the neat little gadgets you get to use. Getting to use motion sensors and little RC cars is new to a battle royale. Getting to use helicopters is also new, but the map is too small so I didn’t need a vehicle for most of the time. You also have to land where pretty much everyone else does, otherwise you won’t get enough gear that is decent enough to win you a gun fight. I think after a month or two, everyone will go back to PUBG or Fortnite. Even though I think Blackout is more enjoyable than Fortnite, people will return to it as that is just the popular thing to be playing right now. I think people will go back to PUBG as it is more tactile and realistic when compared to Blackout.

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How’s it Going?

This will be a gaming blog. It will involve talk of new video games coming out, the next generation of consoles, and also any new computer technology that will be coming out. My audience will be anyone that just enjoys talking about different topics in the gaming community. We will be touching on a variety of topics, from the Battlefield controversies and if the new RTX cards are worth it. My goal is to just see what views you guys have about the topics I mention in this blog, and just seeing if you agree or disagree with me.

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