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Riot Walkout Starts Today

Riot Games (League of Legends) employees are planning to have a Walkout today from 2 – 4 pm regarding forced arbitrations. Arbitrations mean revolving disputes outside the courtroom. Last year, Riot faced 5 different lawsuits by current and former employees that stated the company had violated the California Equal Pay Act and more. Kotaku had written an article regarding interviews with Riot’s work culture of widespread and endemic sexism at the company, manifesting in Riot’s hiring practices, promotion strategies, and wider culture (Kotaku).

In April, Riot filed a notion to block two of lawsuits and have the employees signed arbitration agreements, which waived their rights to a jury trial against them. News of the arbitration was heard amongst the employees. Angered, employees organized a walkout and Riot had a world-wide company meeting to hopefully address the issues. They announced that incoming employees are allowed to opt out of forced arbitration for harassment suits and maybe for current employees as well (Riot).

According to an anonymous employee, 100 employees are expected to walkout. It’s actually the first walkout in the gaming industry. Riot has been slowly making changes to the company culture, such as hiring their first Chief Diversity Office, Angela Roseboro, in March.

Angela Roseboro is the new chief diversity officer at Riot Games. — Angela Roseboro

According to an email from Riot Games’ employees, they are supporting the walkout. He stated:

“We have asked all managers to make every accommodation to allow Rioters to participate during the 2-4pm window, including freeing up meeting times. We respect Rioters who choose to walkout today and will not tolerate retaliation of any kind as a result of participating (or not).” Employees can rest easy knowing they will not be fired for walking out. The walkout is being supported by the Game Workers Union, an organization of game workers who are organizing unions in the gaming industry.

According to some Riot employees, their biggest fear is “leadership does not budge from their current position and continues to maintain that there will be a ‘future commitment’ about current Rioters” (Kotaku).

Hopefully, Riot will be making changes soon for the employees and fix their company culture. I am a fan of League of Legends to this day and I wish the best for all of the employees at Riot. I think it’s important we support the developers and the employees who want a good working environment; especially if you’re a fan of the games they create.

Sources:

Kotaku

Mortal Kombat 11 Krypt Patch Changes

Mortal Kombat 11 released last week. While the gameplay was praised, many fans were complaining about the Krpyt and Tower of Time system. Many players commented about the low reward numbers in-game currency – Koins, Soul Fragments, Hearts. With a low amount, players had to grind accessively to unlock skins, augments, and other goodies. People on Reddit and other gaming forums accused Netherrealms (Mortal Kombat Developer Studio) of forcing players to buy in-game currency with real money.

Netherrealms has released a new patch that addresses the players complaints for PlayStation 4 and will be on all other systems soon. Players will earn 3x more Koin, Soul Fragments, and Hearts for games. Tower of Time has also been adjusted in difficulty, payout, and Konsumables. Players stated the difficulty was too difficult and nearly impossible without using Konsumables. Hopefully with these changes, players can unlock more content on their own accord as Mortal Kombat 11 has a lot of extra credit in the Krypts. Below are more specific changes regarding the Tower of Time. Balance notes are also on the subreddit.

Towers of Time Adjustments

• Adjusted AI difficulty curve

• Further opponent health reductions in higher level Towers

• Performing a Fatal Blow while standing in an active modifier will no longer sometimes cause unexpected behavior or a crash

• Ice based modifiers will no longer attempt to freeze players during invalid states

• Adjusted and removed modifiers from many Daily Towers

• Increased Koin Rewards for kompleting Towers and Tower Platforms

• Increased Dragon Challenge Koin rewards

• Increased post fight Koin rewards

• Increased amount of Hearts earned from Fatalities, Brutalities, and Mercies

• Lowered modifier damage for many modifiers

• Adjusted the lifespan of several modifiers

• Dramatically increased cooldowns on Tag Assist modifiers

• Fixed a missing Reduced Damage modifier in The Gauntlet

• Several Gift/Curse Modifiers are now considered projectiles allowing them to interact with moves that effect projectiles as intended

• Adjusted Gauntlet difficulty and progression requirements

• Disabler Konsumables now work with all intended modifiers

• Improved targeting for several Konsumables

• Sektor Hunter Killer Protocol Modifier is now disabled by the Rocket Disabler Konsumable

• Corrected some multipliers on Augments for some characters which were inconsistent with others

• Fixed incorrect Armor interactions with some Modifiers

• Decreased Konsumable cooldowns for players

Persona 5 S is a Musou: Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers

Everyone was hoping Persona 5 would come to the Nintendo Switch after Joker was announced for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Unfortunately, Persona 5 S didn’t stand for Switch but rater Scramble! Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Striker is the official title and was revealed during the Persona Live Special last night in Japan. The game is another spin-off from Persona 5. It is a Musou/Warriors style game where the Phantom Thieves will fight swarms of enemies using their Personas and weapons. The game is being produced alongside Koei Techmo (Dynasty Warriors series). The game will be for Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 but has no release date.

While fans are understandably disappointed, hopefully, the game will be as good as Hyrule Warriors. (Legend of Zelda muso game) In the trailer, a young girl was showcase so the game may have a unique story for The Phantom Strikers.

Persona 5 The Royal Trailer Breakdown

An official trailer for Persona 5 The Royal was released during the Persona live event in Japan. The trailer showcases many new features in the updated version including a 3rd semester of school, a new classmate/party member, updated combat and dungeons, and more. Persona 5 The Royal will release in Japan on October 31st and worldwide in 2020.

Another semester of school is significant because, in the original title, the game ends in December. In Persona 3 and 4, the game lasted until May while starting around the same month as Persona 5. What the 3rd semester includes remains to be seen but from the trailer, it involves the casts hanging out more which is something I wanted more of. They may spread the dungeons times further apart. An unknown young man will appear during the 3rd semester whose name has not been revealed.

The new party member is Kasumi Yoshizawa. She is a new transfer student that comes to Shujin Academy at the same time as the protagonist. Unlike him, she has outstanding achievements as a rhythmic gymnast since middle school and people think highly of her. She admires the protagonist but dislikes the Phantom Thieves.

There is also a new confidant known as the “Le Consultant.” Takuto Maruki is a part-time student counselor hired after the events in April regarding a certain teacher. With his good looks and listening skills, he is popular among the students. I have suspicions that he is secretly a villain.

Student life is also expanded. You can hang out together and play darts which will unlock new skills for your party member similar to Bike Rides in Persona 4 Golden. There are new dating spots, you can hang out with twins outside of the Velvet room, and a new spot in Kichijouji. The new spot has many conflicting cultures and personalities which leads to many clashes between men and women of all ages.

Combat and dungeons have slight changes. There are more special moves from the party members. Futaba also seems to have a special attack! There are duo attacks but it hasn’t been shown in detail yet. Dungeons have also been expanded. There are new puzzles and treasures to find! There are also new strong enemies called Kyouma which glow with evil purple energy.

There is a lot more but I am excited for Persona 5 The Royal. Hopefully Persona 5 S will be shown tomorrow.