The Crown Season 4
I was originally just going to reference the latest season of The Crown in a paragraph of The Idiot Box, which is my intermittent summary of what I’ve been watching of late. But there seems to be a bit of a brouhaha in the UK tabloid press regarding season 4 which was released on Netflix on 15th November. Hence I want to write more than just a few lines about this show. Mrs P and I watched it in two sessions and feel it was the most enjoyable season yet. This is mainly due to the fact that the events covered this time round are ones we clearly remember. I became a teenager during the Thatcher administrations and also keenly remember the Princess of Wales being ubiquitous in the UK press throughout the eighties. It would appear that this season of The Crown strays beyond what is usually considered artistic license and digresses clearly from historical fact. Some believe the show has a clear agenda. All of which makes it even more fascinating viewing in my view.
I was originally just going to reference the latest season of The Crown in a paragraph of The Idiot Box, which is my intermittent summary of what I’ve been watching of late. But there seems to be a bit of a brouhaha in the UK tabloid press regarding season 4 which was released on Netflix on 15th November. Hence I want to write more than just a few lines about this show. Mrs P and I watched it in two sessions and feel it was the most enjoyable season yet. This is mainly due to the fact that the events covered this time round are ones we clearly remember. I became a teenager during the Thatcher administrations and also keenly remember the Princess of Wales being ubiquitous in the UK press throughout the eighties. It would appear that this season of The Crown strays beyond what is usually considered artistic license and digresses clearly from historical fact. Some believe the show has a clear agenda. All of which makes it even more fascinating viewing in my view.
It’s an obvious point but it is worse reiterating that The Crown is a drama intended for entertainment and not a documentary designed to relate and analyse history. In fact I would go further and say that this show is a multimillion dollar soap opera as it has all the hallmark features of that genre. However, its extremely high production values and the good standard of writing do much to elevate the show above such a label. Performances are universally excellent. You seldom get a show that provides a platform for so many strong female roles these days. But are historians right to expect a more rigid adherence to the facts. Many argue that this is necessary due to The Crown depicting current history. However, considering the amount of misinformation in the press, politics and public discourse that goes uncorrected, it seems a little pedantic to single out this niche market drama as the worst offender. Furthermore, I suspect that many people who watch The Crown have made their minds up and formed opinions regarding the UK monarchy long beforehand.
I am tempted to conclude that many of those critical of the excess of artistic license seen in this show are ardent Royalists and feel that drama reflects badly upon the Queen and her family. Certainly after four seasons, it is fair to say that the depiction of the royal family has not shown them to be paragons of virtue. The constraints of the monarchy certainly have a human cost and we see that in what I can only describe as a dysfunctional family. But I would argue that this humanises “the Windsors” and makes them relatable and accessible to the audience. Ultimately the show brings scrutiny to the real crown in a positive way. It may only be anecdotal evidence but after 4 years of watching The Crown and discussing the show with a broad spectrum of friends (some royalists, some republicans and those who are broadly indifferent), all have expressed a view that the royal family pay a heavy price for their privileged lives.
Unless I’m watching a documentary from a reputable source or reading a non-fiction book from a known author, then I expect any dramatisation of real events to be spurious to a degree. The primary remit of such material is to entertain and anything else is a secondary consideration. Facts don’t always fit the established three arc, dramatic story structure. Hence I do not expect The Crown to be the same as a documentary presented by Simon Schama. And let us not forget that season 4 deals with one of the most divisive figures in contemporary UK history; Margaret Thatcher. I do wonder if some of those complaining the most at present simply do not like the way the former Prime Minister is depicted. Yet regardless of what stance you may take regarding the factual accuracy of The Crown and its political and moral rectitude, the ongoing debate is not in any way harming the show’s popularity. I suspect that the next season may prove even more controversial and popular.
Call of Duty Warzone Season 4 and Battle.net Patch Servers
Setting aside the debate regarding the rectitude of the Battle Pass system in Call of Duty Modern Warfare, I certainly enjoyed Season 3. I managed to find multiplayer games that suit my ability along with loadouts that allow me to hit something every once in a while. It was very much a learning process but from April 12th to June10th, I slowly improved my performance and re-acquainted myself with the fact that the FPS genre can be fun. I finally got to try a Battle Royale game and was pleasantly surprised by how accessible they are. However, (and there’s always a however) Activision Blizzard seem to be hell bent on losing the good will they seemed to have gained in recent months. Today’s release of Season 4 has been blighted by major performance issues with the patch servers. Furthermore, the developers still insist in removing certain maps and game modes to promote new ones. This “lottery” which results in a lack of choice for many players is especially galling when you’ve just bought the new Battle Pass.
Setting aside the debate regarding the rectitude of the Battle Pass system in Call of Duty Modern Warfare, I certainly enjoyed Season 3. I managed to find multiplayer games that suit my ability along with loadouts that allow me to hit something every once in a while. It was very much a learning process but from April 12th to June10th, I slowly improved my performance and re-acquainted myself with the fact that the FPS genre can be fun. I finally got to try a Battle Royale game and was pleasantly surprised by how accessible they are. However, (and there’s always a however) Activision Blizzard seem to be hell bent on losing the good will they seemed to have gained in recent months. Today’s release of Season 4 has been blighted by major performance issues with the patch servers. Furthermore, the developers still insist in removing certain maps and game modes to promote new ones. This “lottery” which results in a lack of choice for many players is especially galling when you’ve just bought the new Battle Pass.
Season 4 which was originally due to be released on June 3rd, was delayed for 8 days due to the ongoing protests regarding George Floyd and other issues currently monopolising the news cycle. The patch servers became available at 7:00 AM BST today and I started updating my installation of the game at about 9:00 AM. The patch is 45GB in size but a lot of the files are replacing existing ones. It quickly became apparent that there was an issue as the download rate soon dropped to 200 KB/s. Changing region within the Battle.bet launcher had no effect. Blizzard’s Twitter Customer Service account was conspicuously silent, despite the EU forums being rife with comments from frustrated gamers with similar issues. The unofficial solution was to install a VPN service and select a US or French server to ensure a faster download. I initially installed Proton VPN as they offer a week’s free trial and this did indeed help at first. But as other players did the same, the capacity of the free service that Proton offers dropped accordingly. I eventually had to renew my subscription to IPVanish at a cost of $10 to finish installing the patch. This fiasco took about 11 hours plus to resolve.
It is very easy to say “gamers are their own worst enemies” and glibly advise us to vote with our wallets. I’m guilty of doing so myself on occasions. But living outside of the US, I am used to having access to decent customer services when things go wrong. If matters cannot be resolved via such channels I rely on EU consumer regulations and legislation to ensure I’m protected and not given the shitty end of the stick by sociopathic corporations. Hence I was angry that not one of the various social media accounts associated with CoD MW/WZ made any attempt at an apology for today’s shambolic update. I also resent, greatly, the arbitrary way the Infinity Ward removes on a whim, specific game modes leaving me with a greatly reduced choice. I wish to continue to play Clean Up on Aisle 9 and Shipment via 6 versus 6 players. There’s also a lot of balance issues that are not getting addressed. The new Warzone Rumble mode as well as the classic MW2 map Scrapyard, are great in principle but are effectively usurped by snipers. The ubiquity of these plays means that game play is constrained, with everyone camping and not pushing forward.
I spent £16.49 on a Battle Pass Bundle today. My mistake was purchasing it before the game had finished patching, as I didn’t know in advance what changes had been made to the various game modes. It really does feel like Activision Blizzard don’t care about the playerbase beyond securing their payments. As a 52 year old man I don’t feel comfortable dealing in simplistic stereotypes regarding “greedy” companies and binary arguments about corporate culture. But when I look at the way that Activision Blizzard behaves, I struggle to see any justification for their actions other than the obvious. There have been thousands of forum and reddit posts regarding game balance, map rotations and play modes as well as bugs in the game that still persist months after launch. To just ignore such feedback because you simply have such an enormous customer base is lazy and cynical. If Call of Duty Modern Warfare/Warzone wants to sustain its current success, it would be wise to listen to it’s players and ensure at the very least, that choice is not limited. The majority of players are not high end achievers but distinctly average. You need to keep them engaged. And sort out your patch servers. Much smaller games manage to this process, why can’t you. If these problems persist into Season 5, then I’m done.
