GYGO: Body Pillows, Subreddits, and My Love for Skyrim Grandma

Hello, and welcome to GYGO! I’m Kael, your local summer child, and I for one am ecstatic that we’ve defeated Winter’s specter for one more year! It’s kind of embarrassing, but recently I’ve been making my way through Skyrim again. It’s hard to believe the game is almost a decade old now. By this point, I honestly just use it as a “build a house and collect flowers simulator,” like The Sims with swords, if you will. Anyway, when I’m not trying to purposefully contract vampirism for the aesthetic, I’m collecting news from all around the web to share with y’all!

Back at it Again with the From Software Speedruns

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, which was only released on March 22, already has a thriving speedrun community. It’s common for the early days of any speedrun ecosystem to make huge leaps, but as of this week, people are already beating the massively hard game in about 40 minutes.

The Only Pillow I Own

Yes, it’s been seven years since we’ve seen him in a game, but BioWare has finally made good on their April Fool’s prank of years past and put Garrus Vakarian on a body pillow. Or rather, a body pillow case, ostensibly so you can customize his firmness to your liking. The question remains though, despite his winning personality and that goofy/broody charm thing he has going, is it physically safe to cuddle with a Turian?

/r/Gaming’s April Fools Prank Is… Doing Better?

While it may be strange timing, I’m glad to see /r/games, the subreddit dedicated to discussing all things gaming, is taking the rampant hate speech on the forum seriously. On April 1st, the subreddit shut down for the day, posting a message condemning the vitriol of the community and pointing out the effect the toxicity has on the moderators. As someone who avoids /r/games for these exact reasons, I hope that the move works, or at the very least gives them time to put in place more effective consequences on hate speech.

Microsoft Removes that Unsightly Notch from Minecraft

While not for everybody, I don’t think it’s particularly divisive to say that Minecraft is a good and fun game. Its simple premise and execution make it pretty difficult for its offline play to land it in too much trouble. Its creator and former owner, however, more than makes up for that. Markus Persson, or “Notch,” is known most recently for denying white privilege exists and getting in Twitter fights over supporting heterosexual pride day.

Luckily those who enjoy Minecraft need no longer be reminded about the game’s creator when they boot it up. Microsoft, the current owner, is removing all mentions of Notch from the main menu and loading screens. While it’s not going to fix the problem of people saying stupid things online, it will at least wash that vaguely bitter taste from my mouth when I decide to play.

Researcher Shoots Warning to Video Games Industry

Andrew Przybylski, a games researcher at Oxford University, has issued a warning to the video games industry, and the ESA in particular. Przybylski points to biased research and misinformation on the part of industry giants as a contributing factor to sensationalized panic about games. Przybylski remains unimpressed by a large body of the research on games’ impact on health and wellbeing and calls on big companies to work with researchers on subjects like gaming addiction for the sake of the industry’s future.

Magic: The Gathering Tournament Cuts Pro Player

Following up on a story I covered a couple of weeks ago, it seems that Magic: The Gathering is standing by its goals to make the Magic community a more inclusive place. Owen Turtenwald was dropped from the roster of the $1 million tournament held at PAX East. While Magic: The Gathering executives and tournament staff are very tight-lipped as to why, it was reported at Kotaku that it may have to do with “a pattern of predatory behavior towards female Magic players that spans several years.” Multiple women in the Magic scene spoke to Kotaku about Turtenwald making them feel uncomfortable in the community, and if the reason for his exclusion from the tournament is indeed due to this behavior, it does speak volumes about how seriously Magic is taking their inclusivity initiative.

Skyrim Grandma to be Immortalized in Polygons

Shirley Curry, the YouTuber better known to me as “Skyrim Grandma,” has been confirmed to be included in The Elder Scrolls VI as an NPC. The game, using face capture technology, is set to create a character based on her likeness. I absolutely love her videos, so I’m as excited as she is to be able to play together in the (distantly) upcoming game.

In Other News

• Unheard sounds really cool.
• Summer Games Done Quick 2019 lineup is out.
• The Matrix code is sushi.
• Sega to release games based off Tokyo’s 2020 Olympics.
• Borderlands 3 trailer launched at PAX East 2019.