I had to go to the post office to mail something (have had a check stolen from my mailbox, so I don’t mail out from here), and it was really weird. In the past three months, I’ve gone to the pharmacy twice (once before lockdown started and twice since), and that’s it. The post office isn’t far, maybe a mile, but it might as well have been in Timbuktu. I had the windows rolled down, and I was singing along to the radio. In other words, it was like the before times, and it felt strange. There were people jogging with or without their dogs. The sun was shining. I had to remind myself that there was a pandemic raging on.
Side Note: Even before the protests, it was getting hard to hold onto the idea that there’s a pandemic. Intellectually, I know it’s true. Emotionally, it’s hard to accept that it’s still going on. I don’t know anyone close to me who has been affected by it. If I expand that circle, then, yes, I do. But it’s remote enough to not really kick me in the teeth with it. I keep up with the news, but I’m not checking daily. And, right now, it’s been pushed to the back burner, obviously, because of the protests and the awful behavior of the president.
Pivoting swiftly to video games, I’m still keeping it light. I haven’t played any more BL3, and I’ve stayed away from the Souls games as well. I will say I’m proud of myself for figuring out why I couldn’t get Good Pizza, Great Pizza to work (something about Microsoft redistributables being missing) and fixing it. I still don’t know how it went missing or what exactly I did to fix it, but it works now! It’s funny because it’s not a good game, but there’s something addictive about it. It started as a mobile game, and it shows. That doesn’t stop me from compulsively clicking, though.
Anyway, I picked up Warhammer 40K: Inquisitor–Martyr (what’s up with the name, by the way?) because it was on steep sale and because Ian had gotten it. I’m interested in the Warhammer universe to a degree, but more the fantasy lands than the space ones. Still. I was looking for a Diablo-esque hack-and-slash because sometimes, all you want is meaningless fun. Does this scratch that itch? Yes…and no.
I started as the Psyker because I’m a mage at heart. I always do a magic run the first time I play a game, and this was no different. I chose the…Scryer? I did Google the classes and the subclasses because the game’s tutorial is shit. Look. I’m willing to go into a FromSoft game knowing as little as possible, but this is a fucking hack-and-slash. It’s not meant to be taxing. Anyway, Once I got my Psyker kitted out, I started the game. I was underwhelmed to say the least. First of all, there was a cutscene every three seconds or so. I hate cutscenes. I understand when they’re introducing a big boss or maybe there’s an important storybeat that needs to be explained. However, this game does it to introduce an enemy that is not a boss, but isn’t just a scrub, either. Also, for entering important rooms and other such things. I don’t care! Let me kill things, please.
Secondly, the UI is not user-friendly. It’s hard to tell what can be equipped where. One thing I like is that you have two armor/weapon sets, and you can use Tab to flip back and forth between the two. Thirdly, everything just feels so clunky. Ian had warn me of that, but I had forgotten by the time I started playing. Also, and maybe I just need to up my gamma again, everything kind of blends together, so I have a hard time seeing where the enemies are.
I was really dissatisfied with the Psyker, so I stared another character–the Assassin. The Psyker is male, which bothers me (also, there aren’t enough women in the Warhammer universe. I don’t care if it’s canon. It’s a game. It can be changed), and the Assassin is the only female. Of course, she has skimpy armor–it can hardly be called armor, actually. I hate that this is still a thing, by the way. She’s a hottie, whereas the dude characters are not. All the women in this game are tits and ass, which is really bothersome. But her skills are bad fucking ass, and I felt powerful as I slashed and dashed my way through the enemies. It might be because I played her second, but I had no trouble doing the first two chapters with her whereas I died twice as the Psyker and struggled through it all.
Is the Psyker underpowered? Dunno. I went back to him to play the next few chapters, and I was about to give up when I got a blue-colored (white/gray, green, blue, purple I think it goes?) pyrotechnic staff. Now, anyone who knows me knows that fire is my jam. I scooped up that two-handed staff and gave it a whirl. I also got better armor, and I leveled up a few powers. Don’t know what they did (some of them), but I’m bumping up all my psychic powers. I’ll probably still play as both, but right, now, I’m grooving as the Psyker. Which proves that equipment makes a big difference in this game. I haven’t died once since picking up the pyrotechnic staff.
Pivoting sharply, I watch a bunch of British gameplay channels, and all of them have voice support for Black Lives Matter. All are donating to relevant causes/had streams to donate to relevant causes, and it really hit me hard. I’ve been really emotionally in the last week for more than one reason, and the fact that there was such an outpouring of support from people across the pond was amazing.
But, and here’s where the cynical part of me rears her head–it’s not enough. I’ve written in the past about how UK gaming outlets have a race problem–at least visually. They are doing better with regards to gender, but it’s very rare to see PoC on their video teams. I’m glad that everyone is up in arms over the actions of the police against black people, but will this mean a systemic change in how the whole field of games journalism/let’s play is run? Will it mean more black people and other PoC in positions of importance and on the video teams, which are the visual representations of the outlets? Will there be more PoC writers on staff? Or editors-in-chief?
It’s good and right to stand up when you see injustices being perpetuated. It’s even better–and infinitely harder–to take a long look at the inequalities that occur on a daily basis and work to change those. Otherwise, the former is uncomfortably akin to trotting out the five PoC at work when it’s time to show how diverse the company is in a carefully-edited photo, and it’s not the way to enact permanent change.