#fallthings

[bosses-stay-flawless]

Finally,

Autumn is here, it’s the time of the season!

No matter how many years go by, and how much I grow, I’m always such a “November” baby!!! Something about the colorful, crackling leaves, and pumpkin scents, and things always represent a divine revert and reset for me. 🧡🍂🎃Happy Fall!!! #finally #novemberbirthdayclub #Scorpio #fallthings

[dare-to-dm]

Xbox Research

Okay, someone just asked me if my research into xbox games from both the 360 and xbox one era revealed any changes in demographic trends between those two generations.  So now I get to rant about my results!

First!  I will describe the data I was tracking.  I made a list of all the games officially released for both of those systems at the time I started the research.  This came out to about 2000 games for the Xbox 360 and about 4500 games for the Xbox One.

Then I started categorizing each game based on the following factors.

Genre: I chose 27 genres for this project, and allowed each game to get a maximum of 3

Mode: Each game was designated as Single Player, Multiplayer, or Both

Protagonist Gender: Classified as Male, Female, Player’s Choice, Unknown, or Not Applicable

Protagonist Race: Classified as White, Person of Color, Player’s Choice, Unknown, or Not Applicable

I’m going to put the rest of this under a Read More, because there is A LOT

I say I “started” categorizing them, because I will be honest and admit that I did not fully complete all this data for every game in the data set.  I prioritized my research by which games were the most popular, ranked by how many players in my data set had played them.  I did get all of this information for every game played by at least one person in my data set, which comes out to about 3100 games fully categorized.

As for my player data, I took 90 players (45 self identified men and 45 self identified women) and used their achievement data to track which games they played.  This differentiates my data from a lot of stuff that’s widely available because rather than tracking sales, I was tracking what people actually played.  If there’s anything I’ve learned in my years as a gamer, it’s that there’s a big difference between what people buy and what they play.

Anyway, on to the trends!

Genres Rise, Genres Fall

The top genres between to the two systems were fairly consistent.  Top 5 for the 360 were Shooters, Sports Games, Action Adventure, Brawler/Hack’n’Slash, and Racing/Driving Games, in that order.

For the Xbox One, the top genres were Shooters, Action Adventure Games, Platformers, Roleplaying Games, and Sports Games, in that order.

The biggest difference between the two system generations is that producing indie games for console became a lot easier in recent years.  So, not only do we have a lot more games overall for the Xbox One, but many of those are from smaller studios.  I believe this is why platformers crack the top 5 in the One era, and why sports game fell from the 2 spot to the 5 spot.

Some genres did have a dramatic shift in popularity between the 2 systems.  Walking Sims functionally didn’t exist in the 360 era, but there are a full 32 of them in my data set for the One (and they continue to grow in popularity - I believe the number/ranking would be higher if I had continued to track this to the current day).

Party Games (defined as more casual games meant to be played with local multiplayer for short sessions) dropped massively in popularity.  This is no surprise given the shift to online gaming and many franchises dropping split screen capabilities.

Music/Rhythm games also had a massive drop in popularity.  Again, no surprise.  Guitar Hero, Rock Band and Dance Central were once huge franchises, but now there aren’t really any equivalent major releases.

Classic Adventure Games (defined as character/choice driven games with stories but no or little action) have risen in popularity.  Again, this is largely driven by the expansion of indie titles in the space.

Simulation games, survival games and visual novels have also become more popular.  I would argue that survival wasn’t really an established genre in the 360 days, but it definitely is now.

ALSO: The prevalence of game modes has shifted greatly!  In the 360 era, games largely needed to have both single player and multiplayer modes, with fully 71% of games falling into this category.  That has shifted over the years, with only 37% of games for the XBox One era having both.  Numerically and percentage wise, exclusively single player games are on the rise.  That being said, only one exclusively single player game (Fallout 4) cracked the top 20 most played list.  The 360 era had 3 single players games in the top 20 (Hexic HD, The Walking Dead and Assassin’s Creed).  So those publishers who claim that single player titles just don’t sell as well anymore?  You might not like it, but they aren’t lying.

The Glass Ceiling For Women Was Raised a Few Inches

When it comes to gender representation in games, my results largely speak for themselves.

360 Games With

Male Protagonists: 46%

Female Protagonists: 4%

Player Choice: 36%

Not Applicable: 9%

Unknown: 5%

Xbox One Games With

Male Protagonists: 33%

Female Protagonists: 11%

Player Choice: 32%

Not Applicable: 17%

Unknown: 7%

So, women are getting a bigger market share of protagonists these days, but it’s still only a small percentage.

Also, I will note that Player Choice is not always as equitable as it sounds.  In addition to games where you get to create your character, any game with multiple playable characters and even one female option was put into this category.  So, for example, a Dragon Ball Z fighting game with 20 characters would count even if only one of them was a woman.  This type of thing was (and still is) pretty common.

And this probably goes without saying, but for all my gender neutral folks, nonbinary options were not purposefully excluded from this study.  Rather, there were so few relevant examples that any few that could count got lumped in the Not Applicable Category (which also included protagonists of species with alternative gender dynamics).

Things Not Getting Much Better for People of Color

The numbers here are bleak.

Xbox 360 Games With

White Protagonists: 35%

POC Protagonists: 4%

Player Choice Protagonists: 37%

Not Applicable Protagonists: 18%

Unknown Protagonists: 5%

Xbox One Games With

White Protagonists: 35%

POC Protagonists: 4%

Player Choice Protagonists: 26%

Not Applicable Protagonists: 27%

Unknown Protagonists: 8%

As you can see, by market share, people of color have not made any gains.  In fact, if you look at games that give you a choice, there has been a backslide!  I will note that I think this number can largely be explained by the rise of indie games on the platform, however.  Character creation clearly comes with a higher development cost than many indies can afford.  And, well, frankly a lot of stuff indie studios are producing isn’t more progressive in this aspect anyway. 

While these numbers are not promising, there is one area in which things are not as bad as they look.  Namely, popular and triple AAA games are getting more diverse, at least through the avenue of letting your create your own protagonist.

In the 360 era, 7 of the top 10 games features canonically white male protagonists.  You don’t get to a canonically nonwhite protagonist until number 14 on the list (Lee, from the Walking Dead).

In the X Box One era, only 3 of the top 10 games features canonically white male protagonists.  The rest let you choose.  (Lee from Walking Dead is still the most played canonical nonwhite protagonist, followed by Kait Diaz in Gears 5 and Beatrix LeBeaux in Slime Rancher).

This category was particularly fraught because race can be subjective.  For example, can we really say that Kait Diaz qualifies as a person of color?  We’re talking about a franchise that takes place in a fictional earthlike setting, so we don’t have any real history to pull from.  Her skin tone is ambiguous and her voice actress is white.  But I feel her name and design puts her in the category of latino coded, and after a discussion with someone who actually played the game, that’s where I put her.

There were a lot of cases like this in this category, so do look at these numbers with a grain of salt knowing that I often had to make a judgement call as to how to classify a character, and other people may have made different judgement calls.

ANYWAY if anyone has any questions about any of the data I collected, please let me know because I could talk about this all day.

[sameaslastnight]

I keep thinking all the leaves blowing across the road are little critters and swerve out the way. Other drivers probably think I'm insane. #Fallthings? What is wrong with me 😭😭😭

[poetyca]

Rialzarsi - Getting up

🌸Rialzarsi🌸Dopo la caduta giunge il tempo di rialzarsi per dare significatoe colore ad ogni giorno.16.07.2024 Poetyca 🌸🌿🌸#Poetycamente🌸Getting upAfter the fallthe time comes to get upto give meaningand color to every day.16.07.2024 Poetyca

[playitvison]

All Will Fall is a Frostpunk game set by the sea

The world has gone to hell Everyone will fallThe tides have risen to the point where you need a ship to survive. Fortunately, we had one. Unfortunately, it somehow ran aground on what appeared to be the top of a skyscraper. It’s good to find solid ground, because all this slow moving wasn’t doing anyone any good, but our ship is out of commission, and we have to find a way to survive on the few…

[ladyerynn]

Trick or treat

Happy Halloween! Remember to check your candy. #Writingcommunity #poetrycommunity #Halloween2024 #originalpoem

The kids are high on candyThey're running down the hallsI hear their peals of laughterIt's bouncing off the wallsThe moonlight is compellingI love this time of FallThe wind around us whispersBlessed Samhain to all!

[philgennuso]

Choices #Nature #Poetry #Quotes

Photo At Nature Conservatory Cornwall Hudson NY by Phil Gennuso Arts The dark browns and soft oranges   of a New York FallThe scent of the earth   sweet yet pugent   from the fallen leaves This is my home my sacred temple   where I choose to live and pray   for these too brief days of Autumn Public Domain Photo and Quote Clarice Lispector (1920-1977), Ukrainian born, Brazilian author, well…

[danbusler]

God, Who Created You?

I was not created, for I am

“If God created me .. then who created God?” I asked They replied … you just have to believe. (not a sufficient answer!) So I asked God “Who created you?” And God said“I was here before there was timeand before there was “creation”. I was not “created” for I am. The sunlight shinesThe rains fallThe flowers and love blooms And life goes on for as long as it doesBut God is … just is

[supatainmentbuzz]

🌟💍👸🕺💃🎥 You can now rent the chalet where the Oscar-nominated 'Anatomy of a Fall' was filmed Good news for lovers of film tourism. The fans of Anatomy of a fallthe movie of Justine Triet nominated for five Oscarscan stay in the main location of the story: the f...... 🎶🏆💔📸🎉

[peachymee]

KC Pumpkin Patch

https://peachymee.blogspot.com/2023/10/kc-pumpkin-patch.html#google_vignette #lifeinmissouri #fallthings #fallbucketlist #kansascity #kcmo

[chorusfm]

Albums in Stores – Oct 13th, 2023

If you hit read more you can see all the releases we have in our calendar for the week. Hit the comments to access our forums and talk about what came out today, what albums you picked up, and to make mention of anything we may have missed. +++ (Crosses) – Goodnight, God Bless, I Love U, Delete.A Mourning Star – A Reminder Of The Wound UnhealedAbove Oceans FR – Sadness PrevailsAgainst The Sun – SilhouetteAiko – Fortune’s ChildAir Drawn Dagger – Songs To Fight The Gods ToAmorphis – Queen Of Time (Live At Tavastia 2021)Bambie Thug – CATHEXISBeartooth – The SurfaceBlush – SupercrushBody Void – Atrocity MachineBoygenius – The RestBridge Left To Burn – Bitter EndingsCMAT – Crazymad, For MeCatafalque – DybbukCreeper – SanguivoreDeadmouth – Death Of OneDetachment – LackDream Nails – Doom LoopDriveways – EpiloguesFalse Fed – Let Them Eat FakeFlamingods – Head Of PomegranateFree Throw – Lessons That We Swear To KeepGlasser – cruxGoat – MedicineHolly Humberstone – Paint My Bedroom BlackJackson Rose – Things Have Gotten WorseJamila Woods – Water Made UsL’Rain – I Killed Your DogLP – Love LinesLand of Talk – PerformancesMargo Price – Strays IIMetric – Formentera IIMilliseconds – So This Is How It HappensMuriel – MurielNailwound – An Ode To MiseryNightlives – Insomniac NationONI – The Silver LineOf Origins – Everything, SuddenlyOffset – Set It OffOn Thorns I Lay – On Thorns I LayPinkshift – SurakshaPrivate Mind – The Truth You SeeProvoker – Demon CompassREWS – MeridiansRick Astley – Are We There Yet?Scouting For Girls – The Place We Used To MeetSource – EmergenceSpencer Krug – I Just Drew This KnifeSquirrel Flower – Tomorrow’s FireState Of Deceit – Stalked By DaemonsSufjan Stevens – JavelinTerra Lightfoot – Healing PowerTethra – EndureThe Dollyrots – Night OwlsThe Drums – JonnyThe Funeral Portrait – Sounds From Beyond The Abyss (Vol. 1)The Menzingers – Some Of It Was TruediscussThe Rural Alberta Advantage – The Rise & The FallThe Static Wake – Sea Of Fractured DreamsThe Vintage Caravan – The Monuments Tour (Live)The Voynich Code – InsomniaThetan – Grand Ole AgonyTroye Sivan – Something To Give Each OtherTwin Temple – God Is DeadTwo Sides Of Me – Those Who Dream Of NothingVCTMS – Vol. V: The Hurt CollectionVarg – Ewige WachtVenera – VeneraWhat Lies Below – Darker Coloursdead nice – ObscenceAllah-Las – Zuma 85 --- Thanks to helloiamzach for providing additional contributions to this week’s list. You can check out and support his weekly music podcast It’s Not A Phase or follow him on his socials. --- Please consider becoming a member so we can keep bringing you stories like this one. ◎ https://chorus.fm/albums-in-stores-today/albums-in-stores-oct-13th-2023/