Bizarre Gaming Stories You Missed In August 2019
There were a lot of major video game news stories this August. Sony bought Insomniac. We got our first look at Marvel's Avengers gameplay. Fortnite was all, "We're not nerfing the mechs!" And then it nerfed the mechs. But a lot of very weird things happened in August, too. Very weird things.
Let's travel back in time and look at some of the more bizarre stories that took place during August 2019.
To say Chinese streamer Qiaobiluo Dianxia had an interesting month would be an understatement. Qiaobiluo, who uses the name "Your Highness Qiaobiluo" on Chinese streaming service DouYu, built up a massive audience of fans who presumably believed she was a younger woman. Qiaobiluo's live streams obscured her face — which in hindsight, should have been a hint — but the images she shared online backed up her claim, and fans believed it. Unfortunately, things went awry. A glitch during one of Qiabiluo's streams caused the graphic covering her face to disappear, revealing her actual face for all the world to see. And it turns out that she was not at all who she claimed, but rather, a 58-year-old who'd been cleverly soliciting donations using photos of another woman. Many fans disappeared upon finding out the truth, but some stayed. Now Qiaobiluo is referred to affectionately as "Granny," and she's thinking about pursuing a career in rap. Okay then.
August didn't start off with its best foot forward, given that several mass shootings took place in U.S. cities like Dayton, Ohio and El Paso, Texas. The shootings renewed calls for gun reform legislation in the country, leading to countless debates between users on social media sites like Twitter. One such user, William McNabb, asked the following (apparently serious) question: "How do I kill the 30-50 feral hogs that run into my yard within 3-5 mins while my small kids play?" We suppose McNabb wanted to illustrate why he might need a semi-automatic weapon. What he did instead, however, was create a meme and inspire players to kill 30 to 50 feral hogs in games like Far Cry 3 and Total War, just to see if it was possible. For the record, a herd of 30 hogs would be highly unusual, much less 50. And the U.S. Department of Agriculture does not recommend you lock and load if you're having a hog problem. You'll probably do more damage to your property than the hogs would.
Have you ever found $20 in your jacket? It feels like you've won the lottery. We imagine the gamer who traded in a copy of Nintendo World Championships at a local game shop felt the same way. The super-rare NES cartridge — awarded to winners of the 1990 Nintendo World Championships event — was reportedly sitting in a box full of other Nintendo gear that the gamer wanted to trade in. And they had no idea what kind of gold mine they were sitting on. Fortunately for this customer, the game shop was honest about the situation and offered a fair price for the Nintendo World Championships trade-in. But we really have to wonder: if the owner of the box was told about the value of the Nintendo World Championships cartridge, why on Earth didn't they sell it elsewhere? They could've made far more money! Squeeze those rare gems for every penny they're worth, people. Come on.
The Nintendo 64 is once again the hottest console around, thanks to a mod from a clearly crazed individual who decided that what the console was missing was fire. Real fire, shooting up from gas valves, making the N64 look less like the system you played Ocarina of Time on as a kid, and more like a pyrotechnics machine from a heavy metal concert. And in case the two blowtorches on the front of the machine weren't enough for you, there's even an amber glow emanating from inside the modded Nintendo 64, drawing attention to a metal N64 logo that, we kid you not, spins around on its own. Does it look cool? Sure. Is it something you'd feel safe turning on when you're in the mood for some Mario Kart 64? Probably not.
These have been your bizarre stories for August 2019. We're sure some wild stuff will happen in September, too, so stay tuned.