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Consequences of Power: Observations About Batman #44
In Batman #44 it’s not The Joker, Penguin, Bane, or Two-Face that takes a life, it’s a police officer, and the life taken is a young, black boy. This is a mirror image that seems to be reflected more and more in homes all over the nation as stories seep into national attention weekly regarding police brutality against minorities, predominantly black males. In this issue, a fifteen year old boy named Peter Duggio is told to get down on the ground after a fight with a local gang, but before the boy could comprehend the situation, the officer fires his gun and hits Peter in the stomach, ultimately killing him. What does this mean for the character? What is the real message?
Batman has been the poster child for the dispensing of “justice” for decades, but it seems as though that term is being questioned as the writers begin to explore more realistic issues and consequences with newly evolving story arcs.
That face screams JUSTICE!
If you’re not from this planet and aren’t familiar with Batman, just know he is a character that puts people in the hospital if they break the law. Justice is, and has always been, defined by the amount of pain inflicted on a criminal relative to his or her crime. Batman always works on the fine line in between the judicial system and lawlessness by taking the law into his own hands, then passing it back to the proper authorities by having the criminals locked away. Has this ever really worked? In the comics the villains always escape or new villains are birthed to take the old ones’ place. Seeing the world in black and white, while brandishing black and gray, has always seemed to be Batman’s ultimate personal definition. Bad people do bad things, they go to jail (or Arkham), and it’s that simple. Maybe, though, things are not that simple, and, in the new Batman story arc, real American social issues, such as police racism, are called into question and make the caped crusader think what the true solution could be.
Not everyone has gotten their hands on this issue yet, but its very existence sheds light on so many issues, including police brutality, to an artist’s responsibility to society. Art is not only a way to express individuality but is also a way to spread a message. Comics have been used to explore adult themes before. “Adult” doesn’t necessarily mean sexuality or hyper-violent, but rather more complicated issues that aren’t as simple as cause and effect. Comics have long been viewed as an immature form of storytelling. They have been criticized for being childish or lazy because they feature pictures of the scenes rather than simply describing them but, in an age of super-hero movies, more people are jumping on the comic book wagon and they’re becoming more popular than they’ve been in ages. Movies like Nolan’s Batman trilogy as well as The Avengers are sparking the interest of people all over the world who, before, had little to no interest in the medium. With so many people reading these comics, what responsibility do the writers have to the readers in regards to sending a very real message?
Many people may criticize writer Scott Snyder for incorporating real life issues into a medium that is beloved by children. This same issue happens when a celebrity speaks out against injustices in our nation or in other nations around the globe — they are seen as abusing their celebrity. This logic is absolute garbage. If someone knows their voice will be heard and they choose to use that voice for a real purpose, how is that abuse? Especially, how is that abusing a system that the mass created by having such a fascination with celebrities? The fact that this story arc explores a very real topic in modern American times works the same way. The writer took an already popular and well established avenue to express their view on the topic in a way that puts the situation into a narrative perspective, instead of simply an argument for or against an issue.
Critics go as far as to say that this issue has no place in comics and Batman should simply stick to beating up insane clowns and mutant freaks like he always has. Some might attempt to pigeon hole Batman into a category that is devoid of true pain and frustration, but that argument is weak. Gotham City is a real place, not literally, but metaphorically. Gotham represents any major city. Every city has crime, every city has pockets of high risk areas that drown in poverty and desperation and Gotham itself has yet to have been truly explored to its full potential as a talking point for social issues.
Maybe it was time for Batman to hang up the fists for a minute and think about what justice and change truly means. Saving the city isn’t always as simple as slamming a metal door on someone. Saving could be changing everything from the ground up and that’s what this issue is driving at. If his methods have been so flawed, then who are the true heroes?
Batman is forced to really consider the consequences of his actions and what power truly is. He knows he possesses physical power and intellect but Batman is starting to see that these attributes might not be what saves his beloved city. For decades Batman has been “saving” his city by putting on the cowl and laying down some beatings but, much like the head of a hydra, the more you sever, the more appear. When Batman takes a step back to really examine what happened to his city and what drives the citizens to do the things they do, he’s able to see it’s bigger than just the individual.
In the case of the police officer shooting the young boy in the story, it would appear now that the officer is the antagonist and he should catch an infamous Batman beating and be put behind bars, but what is the point in punishing a crime if you do nothing to prevent it in the future? Maybe Batman isn’t quite the hero Gotham needs, maybe Bruce Wayne can be the real hero. With such a surplus of money at his disposal, wouldn’t it make more sense to provide areas with opportunity instead of buying new wheels for his million dollar car? Who is the real hero at this point in the story? Someone who punishes crime, or someone who has the ability to curve it completely?
Though it’s safe to assume that no one wants to read a story about Bruce Wayne signing documents and allocating his wealth, this story does a great job of causing the reader to think what a true villain is, what a true hero is, and the sometimes thin line between them. By highlighting a social issue in a medium that is read by all ages, races, and genders, it can easily open up the line for discussion and understanding. This story does not force feed an opinion. It doesn’t make the officer a stone cold killer to make the story easier to digest. It’s a real life issue and, in real life, not everyone wears a cape or paints their face with a big red smile.
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5 AAA Games and Their Budgets: How much was spent, how much was made, and was it worth it
5 AAA Games and Their Budgets: How much was spent, how much was made, and was it worth it in the end.
In the videogame community, it’s impossible to have never heard of an AAA game (commonly pronounced Triple-A game), either during the marketing phase or thrown around amongst gamers. At some point in time, you’ve probably picked one up yourself. The term AAA game is commonly used by big publishers and developers simply as a marketing tactic to deem their game as “better” or “innovative,” but most of the differences between AAA games and indie games simply comes down to the budget and production team behind the scenes. While indie games or smaller developments will have much smaller budgets, AAA games can have an average development budget of around $60 million to $80 million, but many have been known to double, triple, or even quadruple that budget. Some of these games required thousands of employees ranging from programmers, developers, artists, composers, writers, and more, with even more extensive marketing campaigns as well.
However, once a game is created and released, many fans don’t consider the budget that went into creation when purchasing, but many will know whether or not it was deemed as an AAA game during its marketing campaign. The question comes in whether or not a game is truly worth being deemed an AAA game. Is it just the budget that deems whether or not a game is AAA? Is it simply just a tool used by big developers to hype their game up? Or is there something more nitty gritty about the details of development that causes a game to become an AAA game. To analyze these questions, here’s a list of 5 AAA games and their budgets–how much might have been spent creating the game, how much was made, and if fans deemed it to be worthy of that praise.
1.) Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla
Budget: Not concretely stated, but Odyssey was reportedly around $500 million
Earnings: Around $1 billion at release
Released in November of 2020, most players seem to have enjoyed this installment in the long-standing Assassin’s Creed franchise. Valhalla takes place in a viking-era Norway, following the main character Eivor who seeks revenge against the man who killed their parents and slaughtered their town. During the narrative, Eivor also deals with the political affairs of enemy kingdoms, prophetic visions, and the titular assassins the franchise is known for. Through Eivor, the player engages in snappy, fast-paced combat and a well-written story. According to Google, players seem to have enjoyed this installment, as 89% of Google users liked AC: Valhalla. Although the budget hasn’t been concretely stated, a similar AC project of this size, Odyssey, reportedly had a budget of around an eye-popping $500 million. While that may seem like an unreasonable budget, upon release, AC: Valhalla sold around 17 million copies at $60. Therefore, at around $1.02 billion, AC: Valhalla broke even on release, even with a potentially enormous budget. According to Ubisoft, Valhalla set a record-breaking number of sales, quickly becoming the company’s top-selling PC launch ever recorded. In this case, both the players and the company agree that this AAA game’s large budget was worth it in the end.
2.) The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Budget: $100 million
Earnings: $620 million
Released in 2011, Skyrim was the fifth installment in the long-standing and well-known Elder Scrolls series. While the previous installment, Oblivion, also had an impressive revenue count of around $280 million, Skyrim more than doubles that at around $620 million. Set in a nordic inspired fantasy country called Skyrim, 200 years after the events of Oblivion, the player takes on the role as the dragonborn, a mythical human with the ability to learn shouts. The player takes on the quest to defeat Alduin, a dragon that is prophesied to end the world. With an open-world and a heavy emphasis on adventure and roleplay, Skyrim follows the theme of playing the game the way you want, the same way all the installments of the Elder Scrolls series seem to play out. Although the game reportedly cost around $100 million to develop, it seems the fans believe it was worth it. According to Google, around 96% of Google users liked the game and upon release the game received critical acclaim. Years later, Skyrim still remains relevant primarily due to the thanks of modders and DLC content that remasters the game and keeps it fun years after release. Despite the impressive success and revenue, fans are still waiting for the sixth installment in the Elder Scrolls series ten years later, primarily due to the fact that Bethesda seems to be focusing on Elder Scrolls: Online in the meantime. As of right now, the only hope fans have seen for Elder Scrolls VI was a small teaser trailer released in 2018.
3.) Cyberpunk 2077
Budget: Roughly $316 million
Earnings: $563 million
Although Cyberpunk 2077’s launch was widely regarded, in the kindest terms, as a shitshow, CD Projekt Red still managed to pull in around $563 in sales revenue after spending around $316 million in budget. The largest concern around Cyberpunk 2077 was the marketing. At first, the game was marketed as an innovative, open-world RPG set in a mature and futuristic cyberpunk world, with the player’s main stomping ground Night City. However, somewhere during the development of the game, the genre was changed from RPG to action-adventure, leaving many fans scratching their heads. Upon release, the game was riddled with hilarious game-breaking bugs, the main-story campaign was ridiculously short, and the graphics and gameplay was optimized only for new-gen consoles, leaving those with older consoles playing on choppy, low-quality graphics. According to Google, however, around 71% of Google users liked the game. While that may seem like a pretty decent average when considering the launch the game had, in comparison to other averages on this list the game performed very poorly. With media and reviews also displaying player dissatisfaction, in this case the Triple-A eye-popping budget was not worth it for most. However, it can be easy to blame the developers when it comes to Cyberpunk 2077’s downfall. However, the amount of times the game’s release was delayed, along with the pandemic happening at the time, it was clear that the development team was crunching hours on a game that just simply needed more time to be developed. But that wasn’t the team’s fault, per se. The truth of the matter is that due to the budget and due to the marketing and hype surrounding the game, those at the corporate level likely pushed the game to be released when it wasn’t ready. Many gamers can vouch, though, that most would like a game to be bug-free and optimized before release, and with a well-paid, well-rested, and no-crunch studio behind it, too.
4.) Red Dead Redemption 2
Budget: $80 to $100 million, while some sources reporting as high as $300-$500 million
Earnings: Around $1 billion
The long awaited prequel and second installment to Red Dead Redemption was released in 2018 and received universal acclaim from critics and fans alike, making it an extremely well-received sequel. Although it had expectations to live up to, both as the prequel to the first game and with a budget of up to $100 million, RDR 2 seemed to live up to the hype. Set in a fictional recreation of the Old West in 1899, RDR 2 centers around the story of Arthur Morgan and the notorious Van der Linde gang. After a robbery goes wrong, the gang is thrown into turmoil and decline as they deal with lawmen, rival gangs, and… swamp zombies. With a stunning open-world and an immersive, well-crafted story, Red Dead Redemption 2 was worth both the wait and the budget, for Rockstar Games and fans alike. According to Google, 96% of Google users liked the game. For a Triple-A game, this one seemed to be worth both the marketing and budget.
5.) The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Budget: $81 million
Earnings: $200 million
Are AAA games worth it in the end?
Another CD Projekt Red game for the list, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt had a much better reception than Cyberpunk 2077. The Witcher series is the game franchise that threw CD Projekt Red into becoming a major league development studio. Originating as a book series written by Andrzej Sapkowski, The Witcher franchise follows the story of Geralt of Rivia, a white-haired legendary witcher who is thrown into a story of fate, family, magic, and lots and lots of monster-fighting. Marketed as an action role-playing game, the third installment in the series, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt follows the story of Geralt as he aims to protect his adopted daughter, Ciri, who is running from a mythological Wild Hunt. With dynamic environments and advanced artificial intelligence, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was a game that set the expectations for CD Projekt Red. However, this game performed much better than Cyberpunk 2077, according to Google around 95% of Google users liked The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, making its impressive budget seem worth it in the end. With the success of The Witcher 3 and the fail of Cyberpunk 2077, it calls into question the validity of marketing a game as AAA. While both had impressive budgets, one was clearly more polished and ready for release than the other, but both had the expectation of being a well-developed, well-funded game.
With this list in mind, we can see that there are some games with high budgets that tend to perform better than others. However, all are marketed as Triple-A games, leaving consumers to decide whether or not the game is worth purchasing in the end. However, with such large budgets and strategic marketing, AAA games tend to be pricier than indie games and many will even take some form of pre-ordering into account. For some games, this pre-order works out if the released, final product lives up to consumers’ expectations. However, in the case of Cyberpunk 2077, many felt duped that this AAA game was marketed to be amazing, innovative, open-world, immersive and ended up pre-ordering a game that did not live up to their expectations. With Cyberpunk, the case is more severe than other disappointing games, since some bugs upon release were entirely game-breaking. Still, as I personally had finished playing the main campaign in all of ten to twelve hours while still playing side missions and roaming around, I felt that the game’s steep price just simply wasn’t worth it.
For me, this makes the culture and hype surrounding AAA games a bit trickier. While the marketing and budget are there to back the hype up, these games tend to have a harmful environment surrounding them both with consumers and developers. While consumers may be duped into pre-ordering an expensive game that doesn’t live up to the hype, developers, artists, writers, and programmers are forced to work overtime and “crunch” to make these games presentable for release. With such steep budgets, one would think that these developers would be able to sustain a reasonable work schedule, but many are overworked, underappreciated, and underpaid. This leaves one to wonder if AAA means anything at all when labeling a game, or if it’s simply a way for big videogame corporations to market their game as “innovative” and “better,” while mistreating their development team to get there. As is commonly the case, a bigger budget does not necessarily mean a better game, as many critically acclaimed indie games such as Stardew Valley or OneShot were created with little to no budget. Therefore, it’s important to take a look at the culture and expectations surrounding AAA games. What really makes an AAA game different from the others? Is it marketing, budget, or the development team behind it? More importantly, we should analyze the culture behind AAA games to realize that, sometimes, the pressure and the hype of creating an amazing game can leave unfair expectations on the team behind the scenes, leaving many developers underappreciated and overworked. If bigger budget games means mistreating workers to the point of exhaustion, AAA games might simply just not be worth it in the end.
From the very beginning of esports, games have commonly been dominated by men on the competitive scene, a trend that has continued through time to the present day. And yet, as we see a shift for inclusivity on a global scale, the gaming community is also marching toward more inclusivity for women and marginalized genders.
But not without the help from the community.
In the recently released and increasingly popular game VALORANT, one of these community-run organizations is Galorants–something that started as a Discord server, but grew to be far more important.
Beginning as a looking-for-group Discord server spawned from the VALORANT subreddit, Galorants grew at a pace that no one could have predicted. What began as a safe space for women to support each other away from the toxicity they often face in gaming communities, the server had grown to be much more. Within the first week, the server had grown to 600 members. By the second week, 1,000. And now, a server that is less than a year old, they are close to reaching 10,000 members, a quick and massive expansion for a Discover server–all consisting of women or marginalized genders.
“We knew by the second week of creation that this server would be huge and we wanted to make sure we made a lasting impact on the female-gaming community.” – Nicci Barker, Owner of Galorants
And with this power in numbers comes the ability to support. The amazing staff behind Galorants and the owner, Nicci, have taken advantage of their growth to provide opportunities and support for women and marginalized genders within the gaming community. Whether that be providing a platform to make friends and support each other, to help women grow in esports, or by hosting women-centered esports tournaments, Galorants looks to change the game for women and marginalized genders in the VALORANT community.
To support Galorants and their endeavors, consider following them on Twitter here.
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