The Sunday Papers

Sundays are for curling a mic away from your mouth, so your friends don't hear you crunching down on some Pringles. Before you bend, let's read this week's best writing about games (and game related things).

Over on Dazed, Günseli Yalcinkaya wrote about how E-girl influencers are trying to get Gen Z into the military. How cosplay commandos and post nationalist thirst traps are the latest weapon in a government's recruitment drive, and what it all means for us.

“The targeted attempt (by the US Army specifically) to recruit Gen Z has led to several online gaffes, but social media remains one of their most powerful recruitment tools,” says David Noel, an internet researcher and former army vet. “The open-secret nature of these influencers is part of the intrigue. Other militaries use E-girls influencers who deny any official connection, whereas someone like Lunchbaglujan capitalises on the speculation. While people debate what’s real and what’s fake, the real psy-op is the normalisation of military recruitment through social media. E-girl army influencers undermine the reality and history of the US military while changing our conception of what it means to be a soldier.”

Andy Chalk wrote a post on how the first "Bored Ape" NFT game is literally about chasing shit for PC Gamer. If you can read this without experiencing brain-leakage or folding your face into your hands and sobbing quietly, you'll receive a single, soft clap on the back from me.

Not quite that simple. Access to Dookey Dash is limited to people with a "sewer pass," which can only be claimed by owners of a Bored Ape or Mutant Ape NFT. But anyone with a pass can play, even if they don't own one of the ape NFTs, and you can probably see where this is going: Sewer passes are being offered for sale for absolutely absurd amounts of money.

On Epilogue Gaming, Flora Merigold celebrates Vampire Survivors and the glory of floor chicken. I genuinely hadn't realised quite how significant floor chicken could be! I won't take it for granted ever again.

Lacking this context, I initially thought little of the Floor Chicken present in Vampire Survivors. Floor Chicken is an item that you can collect, as the name suggests, off the ground when running around in the various levels of Vampire Survivors. It functions as a consumable item that replenishes 30 health – one of the rare sources of health restoration for your chosen character in the game. With the exception of the health recovery powerup, you either have to rely on your ability to avoid and prevent damage, or else suffer a fatal end as the infinite hordes of Vampire Survivors’ enemies overtake you. The presence of Floor Chicken partially alleviates that health dynamic.

For NME, Andy Brown wrote about how farming in Old School Runescape fixed his morning misery. The joys of developing a routine for that sweet, sweet me time. I wouldn't recommend a quick dip into Dark Souls every morning, though.

With my mind set on finally hitting level 70, I eased back into things by traveling the land with a handful of willow tree saplings. Willows take a reasonable four hours to grow, yet when I started throwing some fruit trees into the mix, I found myself looking at 16-hour wait times to get my hands on a bounty of pineapples. It sounds daunting, but it’s not: once they’re planted and you’ve roped a local gardener into watching for disease, it’s a case of leaving to do something else, either in-game or (heaven forbid) the real world.

Music this week is Homesmaker by beachtown. Here's the Spotify link and YouTube link. Dreamy.

That's it for this week folks, have a great weekend!