Gamestonks Aftermath, Overwatch 2, and Snake Oil Sales
The Gamestop Stock price finally drops and some investor got burned, Blizzard won't be dropping any big games this year, and an Ori dev drops some fire about overpromising studios....
Jarret and Nick are joined by Katie from The Tauren & The Goblin who is here to talk all the latest gaming news with the guys. Katie has been busy playing as much WoW as she can cram into her schedule. Nick has been playing WoW and Hearthstone. Jarret finally has time to play Cyberpunk 2077.
The big news of the week has been the hedgefund assault by redditors using Gamespot stock. After Gamestop stock was discovered to be overextended, several redditors began buying up the stock and driving its price up to push at least one hedgefund to the brink of bankruptcy. Now there are calls for increased regulation and the market is in turmoil. The trio breaks down the subject and then talks about their experiences with Gamestop and if they think it deserves to survive the event.
Next, they talk about Ninja’s recent comments that he doesn’t feel that he needs to teach kids about racism. Nick and Katie argue that he needs to step up and claim responsibility, with Nick pointing out that Ninja’s still relatively young and naive. Jarret argues that Ninja’s right and just answered the question poorly. They talk about how much influence an influencer truly has and what remedies he could be using, if he isn’t already, to mitigate racism and sexism in his chat. Jarret then suggests that Twitch implement a global community banlist.
Activision-Blizzard is also in the news because they said an attempt to implement a company wide “Rooney Rule” would be unworkable. Jarret points out that it is hard for a company to hire diversely, especially at higher levels. Nick mentions that the Rooney Rule itself is flawed and has not had the intended effect on NFL head coaching. He and Katie point out that Blizzard in particular has been very strong in representing and supporting minorities
Cyberpunk 2077 will allow for modding soon, and Jarret and Katie are excited. Jarret wants to see mods to improve the inventory, quest tracking, gps when driving, and the requisite Macho Man mod that rewrites enemy sound files. Oooh yeah!
Hosts
Jarret Redding
Jarret is Executive Director as well as one of the founding members of Mash Those Buttons. He plays all types of games, but tends to lean more toward FPS, Stealth, and Combat games.
Nick Zielenkievicz
Host of WoW! Talk! and The Tauren & The Goblin. Sometimes known as the Video Games Public Defender. Wants to play more Destiny and Marvel Heroes but WoW is all-consuming. Decent F2P Hearthstone player. Sad that he lost the Wii that had Wrecking Crew on it. Would be happy if the only game ever made was M.U.L.E. Gragtharr on Skywall-US. Garresque on Ravencrest-US.
