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Day: 11 November 2015

Fallowfield ALDI robbed by armed men

Written by Lucy Menage on . Posted in News.

On Tuesday the 10th of November, ALDI, located on Lloyd Street South in Fallowfield, was robbed by men wielding either axes or sledgehammers. The incident took place at 2:15pm and was carried out by four men. Fortunately no one was seriously hurt; however, a security guard required treatment from paramedics at the scene due to having an injured hand.

The four culprits managed to escape with an unknown sum of cash just after staff had raised the alarm. Witnesses who arrived just after the event describe how “the whole store was cordoned off and there was an ambulance outside as well as lots of police. All the staff were still inside and thankfully it looked like none of them had been seriously hurt”.

This is the second time that a local ALDI has been targeted by armed robbers this year. Just five months ago in July at the ALDI store on Wilmslow Road in Didsbury, a robbery was carried out by two men in balaclavas, yet again armed with axes.

Student Parents and Carers Awareness Stall

Written by Miriam Amies on . Posted in News.

The Student Parents and Carers Awareness stall will take place outside University Place next Monday, with the aim of improving the welfare of students who care for a family member or child.

To recognise Carers’ Rights Day on the 20th of November, the stall will offer information and a wide range of support that the University of Manchester Students’ Union has on offer for these students.

They are “calling all students who are parents or carers—if you have a caring responsibility your Students’ Union is here to support you.

“Here in Manchester we’re playing our part in raising awareness about carers, their rights and the obstacles they face in seeking higher education.”

An NUS report in 2013 estimated that 3 – 6 per cent of students have caring responsibilities, usually for an older family member with a physical disability or illness, while The Guardian found that students with parental caring responsibilities is even higher at approximately 10%.

Student parents and carers tend to be incredibly hard working yet have a higher drop-out rate for a multitude of reasons, one being lack of community support.

A new Student Parents and Carers group will hold family friendly events and regular lunch meet-ups, promoted through their new Facebook group. “we’re hoping to create a friendlier university experience for students who are parents or carers,” say the organisers.

If you’re a student parent or carer come to our Student Parents and Carers Awareness Stall, outside University Place on Monday the 16th of November, from 11am – 3pm.

For further information on student parents and carers support contact [email protected], and find useful links here and here.

University funding body mixes up state vs privately educated students statistics

Written by Lina Jfairi on . Posted in News.

In a report released this summer by the university funding body, the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) claimed that state sector students were more likely to obtain a first or an upper-second at university than independent sector students.

It has now been revealed that these statistics were actually the other way around.

The HEFCE has now admitted that the statement released over last summer that 82 per cent of state school graduates are more likely to achieve a first or an upper second classification compared to that of 73 per cent of private school students, were in actual fact in reverse.

HEFCE’s mistake has enraged many independent sector head teachers, including the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference that represented 270 the top independent sector schools and the Girls’ School Association.

Hilary French, the headmistress of the Newcastle High School for Girls specified: “We all want every pupil to reach their full potential but this will only happen if society takes the right actions based on true facts. Pretending that most state school pupils do better at university won’t help them actually do better.”

This mistake was initially found by Professor Alan Smithers, of the Centre for Education and Employment Research (CEER) at Buckingham University. He claims that although HEFCE changed the figures within the report, they did not carry out a public correction on the issue.

He further argues: “So long as these figures out there are uncorrected, they will continue to influence both perceptions of schools and how universities are expected to go about recruiting students.”

He also claims that HEFCE need to straighten out these figures to depict a truer picture. HEFCE corrected this and added, “for all but those with the very highest A-level grades, state school graduates tend to have higher degree outcomes.” They also claim to have reversed the available information on their website and on social media.

Manchester City Council opens its doors to the homeless

Written by Paul Scott on . Posted in News.

After the widely-publicised decision by former Manchester United players Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs to open their city centre property to homeless people in need, Manchester City Council has begun proceedings that will allow squatting in empty council-owned buildings for those sleeping rough.

The move appears to acknowledge both the vulnerability of Manchester’s homeless as winter approaches and the apparent futility of current infrastructure in dealing with an overwhelming and growing homeless population. The Town Hall’s decision comes barely two weeks after the heavily criticised eviction of The Ark homeless shelter on Oxford Road, jointly forced through by the council and Manchester Metropolitan University.

The opening of Giggs and Neville’s grade two listed property, to the amazement and jubilation of its inhabitants, seems to have acted as a catalyst for action on the homeless crisis and has ignited public debate. The council is set to co-operate with charities and volunteering organisations to establish functioning homeless shelters in the disused buildings, although there has been no date set for completion and no indication on which buildings have been earmarked for temporary conversion.

The original squat, the footballers’ former stock exchange building has, after receiving intense media attention as a success story, experienced difficulties; prominent Manchester activist Wesley Hall who was central in negotiations with Gary Neville, was asked to leave in an unexpected development.

Hall, who seemed to briefly become the unofficial leader of Manchester’s homeless after appearing in multiple interviews with national media, came under intense criticism by aggrieved residents for “running a dictatorship.” He was accused of refusing entry to homeless who were entitled refuge and forcing out existing residents in an arbitrary fashion.

The so-called ‘sock exchange’ under his leadership “failed to offer shelter to those in need and to fulfil its intended purpose” according to one homeless campaigner. The homeless camp on Market Street underneath the Arndale shopping centre was reportedly established by individuals prevented from entering the building.

Homelessness in Manchester has been thrown under the spotlight over the past few months as greater numbers of rough sleepers seek to establish some form of residence in the city, often in defiance of the law. Critics of the government say such social issues faced by Manchester, and other British cities, reflect a national housing crisis in the wake of Tory austerity measures that harshly attack the nation’s poorest and most vulnerable.

Since David Cameron’s government came to power in 2010, the numbers of rough sleepers in Manchester has surged sixfold and by almost half nationally.

Multiple campaigns have responded to these “alarming” figures; Manchester-based Student Action in Solidarity with the Homeless (SASH), who were unsuccessful in their initial aim of protecting The Ark, have continued to campaign after its removal. The space it formerly occupied now bears metal fencing to prevent any access to the shelter provided by Mancunian Way, although groups of homeless still gather at the site.

SASH are currently holding negotiations with MMU and pressuring the university to raise funding for a homeless support initiative designed by students. Their aim is to provide alternative shelter in response to the forced removal of the Ark—an act SASH has called “social cleansing.”

While the council is taking steps to address the issue, the seemingly contradicting actions of both evicting and opening doors to the homeless is, some say, symptomatic of a city struggling to find a viable, let alone sustainable solution to soaring homeless numbers.

However, the decision to open the doors of vacant buildings to the city’s most vulnerable will represent progress for the homeless and for activists, even if there is not yet a long-term answer to this difficult problem.

Oxford University accept £75 million donation from oligarch

Written by Elena Losavio on . Posted in News.

The University of Oxford has been accused of “selling its reputation and prestige to Putin’s associates,” after having accepted Leonid Blavatnik’s £75 million donation.

Pavel Litvinov, the Soviet dissident leader, and others, including former Oxford academics and human rights activists, wrote a letter to The Guardian denouncing this. They assert that the university has failed to examine Blavatnik’s involvement with the state-sponsored harassment campaign against British Petroleum (BP) in Russia.

The letter said that Blavatnik and other Russian billionaires are members of a consortium called Access-Alfa-Renova (AAR), which was accused of being behind the harassment campaign, when western managers “were forced out of Russia” in 2008 and 2009.

Andrew Garfield, Blavatnik’s spokesman, said: “I don’t think we are going to comment. The allegations are primarily directed at Oxford.”

The university commented that they did not examine the quarrel between BP and AAR.

A spokesman for the university said: “Oxford University has a thorough and robust scrutiny process in place with regard to philanthropic giving. The Committee to Review Donations conducts appropriate due diligence based on publicly available information. The university is confident in this process and in its outcomes.

“The university is a world leader for research and education at a time of growing global competition. Generous philanthropic donations help make this possible, supporting outstanding teaching and research discoveries of worldwide benefit.”

As a result of Blavatnik’s £75 million donation in 2010, this autumn the Blavatnik School of Government will move into a brand new building at the University of Oxford. This donation has been said to be one of the biggest donations received by the university for 900 years.

Nevertheless, signatories of the letter to The Guardian, calling for transparency on Oxford donation procedures, state: “It is time to open a cleaner chapter in UK-Russia relations.”

Sturgeon has created a “debt mountain” for Scottish students

Written by Georgie Hines on . Posted in News.

Kezia Dugdale, the Scottish Labour leader, speaking about the SNP pledge made in 2007 that stated that they would eradicate student debt in Scotland before the impending election, asked: “Did the First Minister ever have any intention of keeping that promise?”

The accusations come after a report, published by the Student Awards Agency for Scotland, showed that under the current SNP government the average bursary or grant had been cut by almost 30 per cent. Figures also show that borrowing had rocketed to £467 million, nearly doubling in the two years after state grants were cut back in 2012.

Nicola Sturgeon argued back, highlighting to her opposition that, “when you look at average student loan debt, what you find is the figure for Scotland is significantly lower than any other part of the United Kingdom.”

She said that current figures tell us that the average debt for England stands at £21,180, with Wales and Northern Ireland at £19,010 and £18,160 respectively. Student debt in Scotland is significantly below these at £9,440.

The First Minister continued, saying: “We live in tough financial times, everyone knows that, and tough choices always have to be made, but we will continue to make sure we are providing good support for our students, so that more of our students from the most deprived parts of our country can take the opportunity to go to university.”

She also noted that at a time when the UK is taking steps to cut bursaries all together, the Scottish government are acting to increase the bursary element of the support package.

NUS Scotland president Vonnie Sandlan also hit out against the Scottish government’s decision to increase student borrowing, whilst all the while keeping to its free university tuition policy.

“Without access to the necessary financial support, students are forced to turn to commercial debt, take on unreasonable amounts of part-time work, or even drop out of education all together.”

Poorer undergraduate students are said to borrow 30 per cent more a year on average, around £5,900, than their more well-off counterparts.

She advised that other parties look to tackle these issues before the upcoming Holyrood elections next May. She added: “We need to look at the wider cost of studying, and how students are supported in education.”

Speaking further on the matter, Ms Sandlan said that it is “simply a huge waste of some of our brightest potential, and a huge waste for our country.”

MMU lecturer creates Haçienda clubbing experience exhibition

Written by Merle Streck on . Posted in News.

Dr. Beate Peter, a lecturer in the School of Humanities, Languages and Social Sciences at Manchester Metropolitan University, has created a new art exhibition entitled ‘The Lapsed Clubber’, inspired by her old clubbing days in the iconic Haçienda.

Explaining her inspiration, Peter said: “I used to think that there is no better feeling than getting lost in music, dancing all night long, and leaving the club with the sun shining on my face. I wanted to find out if there was more to it than just growing old. The stories are to show how clubbing has never been just about going out to get wrecked, it is part of people’s history and their lives. Clubbing has become so ingrained in contemporary culture and our modern experience of being young, that it is no longer just a hedonistic indulgence, but an important marker for identity formation.”

As part of the research before creating the exhibition, around 50 of Peter’s friends were asked to send in photos of their clubbing days in the 80s and 90s and a further photo of what they look like today.

An example of one of the exhibition pieces is Andy, who submitted the photo entitled “dancing and sharing the love. Herbal Tea Party, Manchester, Summer 1994”. The shot taken from Andy today is of him and his wife dancing at their wedding in Bangkok. Commenting on this idea, Peter said: “It’s remarkable to see which direction people went after leaving the nightclub one wonderful morning, never to return.”

The exhibition is part of the ESRC Festival of Social Sciences and will be featured at Twenty Twenty Two in Manchester’s Northern Quarter from the 7th of November until the 13th of November. Visitors will also be encouraged to share the memories of their clubbing days by taking part in an anonymous interview by a computer called ‘Voice Box’. Furthermore, a panel discussion will take place on Saturday, 7th November at 4pm featuring Herbal Tea Party organizer, Rob Fletcher and former Haçienda DJ Dave Haslam.

Student to set fire to loan in capitalism protest

Written by George Ball on . Posted in News.

An art student plans to set fire to his entire student loan in a protest against capitalism. The controversial statement by Brooke Purvis, a student at Central Saint Martins, a prestigious art school in London, is part of a project entitled ‘Everything Burns’.

In an interview with Vice, Purvis stated that the exercise was to show that money “holds absolutely no value whatsoever.” He claimed that money is not based on anything substantial and lamented the fact that “banks can create it out of nothing.”

The reasoning he gives behind burning the money is that it would release “the bondages that society and our own minds have placed upon us all.” He acknowledged the publicity that the project is generated and argued, “in this day and age, how do you get people interested in a subject that’s important?”

Although the 24-year-old mature student sees it as an artistic statement, it has not been well received by some people, in a time when many people are struggling financially. When it was suggested that the money could have gone to a charity, he was defiant in his response: “Charity is capitalism’s solution to the problem it creates. But it’s my money; I choose to do what I want with it.” In addition to his full-time studies, he works a full time job, so it seems that he is not as dependent on the funding as some students.

The protest follows a similar act by Chilean artist Francisco Tapia last year. He set alight to documents to represent the student debt at Universidad de Mar, some $500 million (£326 million). When doing so he made a similar claim to Purvis, that the students at the university had been “freed.”

The project will culminate in the burning next year, around the time of Purvis’ graduation.

So what is ‘Love Juice’?

Written by Helena Maxwell-Jackson on . Posted in News.

Love Juice is situated in a quiet corner of South Manchester’s Chorlton. Packed to the brim with independent businesses and cute residential roads, Chorlton is renowned for it’s free-spirited artistic vibe. Love Juice takes this neighbourhood to a new level of quirky, and, if you know your crystals, possibly to a new dimension.

Love Juice might not be everyone’s cup of tea, especially if your cup of tea is a syrup-laden chai latte with extra whip. But, if you like healthy vegetarian food in an imaginative environment, Love Juice may be one to check out.

Love Juice is a very small café. If you peer behind the counter of delicious raw treats and vegan bakes, you can look right through to the back of the kitchen.

I ordered the raw beetroot wrap. The wait for the food was long, but I entertained myself by reading the flyers that were perched around the café.

Where else in Manchester would you find an advert for a Shaman drumming course? In the time it took to make a beetroot wrap, I had already planned my future as a shamanistic healer.

When I asked for a glass of water I was guided toward a large glass keg, filled with filtered water and, surprisingly, large pieces of rose quartz. I poured myself a glass and sipped cautiously, looking out to see what effect the rose quartz might take.

Would my tongue start to tingle and sprout wings? Would my skin start to glow a luminous pink?

In reality it was tinged slightly blue—the café could do with some central heating.

Alas, I decided I wasn’t yet spiritually sophisticated enough to feel the effects of the quartz, and made a mental note to return after my Shaman class. Let the rose quartz do its worse then, I thought to myself.

Just as I was considering looking up the effects of rose quartz in the book of crystals lying on the table next to me, I was saved by the arrival of my beetroot wrap.

The wrap was one of their raw vegan options. It was presented on a long rectangular plate, which always adds anticipation to the dish.

Luckily my anticipation was well placed, the dish was a triumph of textures. Crisp, fresh cucumber mingled nicely with the grated carrot. The wrap oozed with a sweet nutty dressing. The dehydrated beetroot bread was unusual, but not unpleasant. It was slightly chewy, and had just a note of sweetness.

The salad served with the wrap might seem a little scary to some raw food novices. There really isn’t much to say about a raw, undressed, unseasoned vegetable salad. All I can say is that, after the water, I was just glad that it was sprinkled with sunflower seeds and not little chunks of haematite.

Love Juice is definitely an experience. It’s a chance to let out your inner hippy and get a pretty good meal as you do so. I left Love Juice in high spirits, and while I can’t say for sure if this was down to the rose quartz water, or the raw wrap, I can say I’ll be back soon to find out.

Love Juice
93 Beech Road
M21 9EQ

Manchester Science Festival Explores the Funny Side of Dark Matter

Written by Rossy Natale on . Posted in News, Science & Tech.

An episode of BBC Radio Four’s The Infinite Monkey Cage was recorded at the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry last week as part of the Manchester Science Festival.

In the hour long show, Professor Brian Cox and comedian Robin Ince were joined by University of Manchester Professors Tim O’Brien and Sarah Bridle, along with comedian Jon Culshaw, to tackle the question “what kind of shovel would we need to dig into dark matter?”

“We only know what five per cent of the universe is made of,” O’Brien explains. “The search for the missing 95 per cent—the dark matter and the mysterious dark energy—is definitely one of the most important topics in modern astrophysics.”

O’Brien works alongside Sarah Bridle at the University of Manchester’s Jodrell Bank Observatory in Macclesfield. Researchers at the centre, O’Brien explains, work on a huge range of projects “from understanding the Sun to the origins of the Universe.”

These types of topics are incredibly complex, and the programme tackles them with a unique approach: Humour.

Dark matter is an especially complex topic to grasp as it is both unknown and invisible. If you have a box of dark energy in a box and expand it, Bridle describes to the audience, you will end up with more dark energy then when you began.

Discussing the topic at hand, Ince jokes, “will take about five minutes because it turns out scientists haven’t got very far.

“Some solution would be great,” he continues, “that’s what I think we should put above the door of every laboratory.” This statement was followed by a “Cox off” in which all of the panel members took turns impersonating their fellow panel member.

References to Henry VIII, speculation over the existence of ghosts, and Carl Sagan impressions were all interspersed throughout the one hour show.  Using humour such as this is key to attracting listeners and developing interest in complex scientific questions.

“Science is part of our culture,” O’Brien tells The Mancunion, “just as much as reading a book, going to the cinema or theatre, or listening to a great piece of music—it should be discussed widely.”

“There was a good mix of information and some light-hearted banter,” said Vicky Rosin, the programme director for the European City of Science Open Forum. “I have to confess that I didn’t understand it all!

“Although researchers are well-trained in research methodology and tools, they often do not receive the training to communicate their findings in terms that non specialists can understand. This is why events like these are helpful; they decrease the barriers to science and provide a fun and interactive platform where people can get excited and inform themselves about the day-to-day implications of science.”

The Infinite Monkey Cage will continue recording this autumn in the United States.

Are ‘smart’ drugs slowing down our development?

Written by Alex Pigott on . Posted in Opinion.

As essay deadlines approach and exam pressures rise, increasingly large numbers of students have begun to resort to ‘smart’ drugs. Drugs like Ritalin and Modafinil, used to treat ADHD and narcolepsy respectively, have seen a huge rise in use. Often shipped in bulk from India, the effect of the pills is the drastic short-term increase in concentration levels focused on a particular task. The effectiveness has a lot of anecdotal support, although the focus of concentration is occasionally misplaced. I have heard many stories of essays that have started from scratch and have been completed in a day, but with these, stories of lost time spent engrossed in a seven-hour construction of a Lego castle.

There are many factors potentially to blame for this recent rise, one of them being the ease of availability. The other, I suspect, is a combination of the pressure of competitive employment and the rise in tuition fees. These two factors have served to make our degrees even more valuable and not something to be damaged by a bad grade. The effects of these drugs are not widely known, but University of Oxford and Harvard University, scientists have recently confirmed Modafinil to be the first ‘smart’ drug to produce no harmful effects in the short-term. Although long-term effects are still unknown, it is not health that is the issue here. It is the effects on our attitudes towards education that we have to question.

In an ideal world, a degree would be purely valuable for the education alone, but sadly it is valuable for where it places us in the increasingly ruthless employment market. It is a competition and, although it is true that many people attend university for the education alone, the majority of us want a degree because we hope it places us in a better position than others competing for similar jobs. Therefore, taking ‘smart’ pills to get a better grade gives people an unfair advantage over those that don’t—not just in what degree we get, but also in a substantial part of the rest of our lives. As this is so valuable to us—this may give rise to an attitude similar to how ‘doping’ was perceived in cycling; if everyone else is doing it, if you are disadvantaged by not doing it, then more people will be enticed into doing it and the problem increase.

However, not everyone begins with an equal natural ability to concentrate. These pills weren’t created to give extreme levels of concentration to anyone; they were created for medical purposes. People with ADHD struggle to concentrate naturally, requiring such pills to push them up towards the average level. But if people without a natural deficiency also use these pills, the levels will be far higher than average, recreating the gap at a higher level and leaving the naturally disadvantaged still disadvantaged. Doctor Barbara Sahakian, a professor of neuropsychology at Cambridge University has said: “Universities should have policies on the use of these drugs, guidance on what is acceptable and what is not.” Although I agree that students without a legitimate need for artificial stimulants shouldn’t take them, a policy would be too difficult to enforce—what is needed is education on the impacts on the equality of opportunity.

A second point is the potential effects that ‘smart’ drugs may have on us. Although there are potentially negative long-term effects on our health, the use of these may change our attitudes to education as a whole. Our educational system should not just about being able to pass exams—it incorporates far more than that. How we approach to learning what is needed to pass these exams is also very important. This includes self-motivation and concentration—the natural cultivation of which is partially bypassed when taking ‘smart’ drugs.

Throughout the educational system, from first year to the completion of a degree, our concentration naturally grows due to practice. But with the availability of a shortcut, many will prevent the natural growth of these skills—the importance of which needs no explaining. Although it may only be used occasionally when a deadline has crept up too fast, or the exam is harder than you first thought, it is easy to see how one could become so reliant on these pills knowing they are there as a last resort. But it also raises the question as to what wouldn’t be okay to shortcut—for example, would it be okay to take a pill to temporarily gain the knowledge needed for the exam? Hopefully, most would agree that it wouldn’t. If it is wrong to take the second pill, what makes it okay to take the first one, despite both acting as a temporary aid to exams?

While the principle of equality of opportunity remains a strong one, a university degree is extremely valuable these days, making it understandable that many people will struggle to sacrifice a potential grade increase, based on a principle that they can’t be sure others won’t follow. Knowing the possibility of a first class degree could be higher if you study with ‘smart’ drugs is a hard possibility to turn down. Though it may be difficult to convince many people that using these aids unnecessarily is unfair, educating students on the effects it has on equality in education is a worthy debate.

Bloodborne – how to tell a story through lore

Written by Stephen Lewis on . Posted in Games.

Fear what you do not understand.

This is one of the main themes of Bloodborne, the latest game from FromSoftware, released in March of this year. And this theme can very easily be applied to both the world of Yarnham and to first time players of this style of game. Bloodborne was the first FromSoftware game that I played, having much faster combat and—based upon trailers and reviews alone—a much more interesting world than their previous series of games: Demon Souls and Dark Souls.

The Souls series has become a big name in gaming, and Bloodborne is almost a spiritual successor to it, bearing many of the elements that made the Souls series so popular. Despite gaining a band of incredibly loyal followers, there are also those who actively avoid the games. This could be because the games are perceived as punishingly difficult or incredibly vague in their narrative, with very few cut-scenes and no strong objectives apart from the bare minimum: Ring the Bells (Dark Souls), Find the King (Dark Souls 2) and Seek Paleblood to Transcend the Hunt (Bloodborne). However, I would strongly argue that with these sorts of games, the criticisms listed above are actually some of their strongest features, and are not easy things to pull off in this medium.

The high level of difficulty was perhaps the most polarising aspect of the original Demons Souls, and this is the most well-known feature of the series, but the games should not be viewed as incredibly hard; rather, they should be viewed as unforgiving. To most of you, that might not sound better. It might even be worse, but stay with me. When you first begin any of these games, there is essentially no hand-holding. You are on your own and you have to work out how to play, where to go, how to fight, etc. Timing is key, and once you have this down, and start improving with the basics, you can get pretty far into the games. YOU have improved, the game hasn’t simply given you better gear and made the game easier, and learning from your mistakes is one of the best ways to learn.

Photo: FromSoftware, Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc.

One of the best features of the Souls games—even more so for Bloodborne—is the use of atmosphere and light storytelling through lore and trying to piece things together for yourself. The story is not entirely set in stone; it can be left entirely up to your interpretation if you want, and Hidetaka Miyazaki (the creator of the series) encourages this, saying that each new interpretation just adds more depth to the world.

In an exclusive interview with FuturePress, the writers of the Collector’s Edition Guide for the game, Miyazaki discusses topics such as the use of dream worlds and reality in Bloodborne, with the main three being the Hunter’s Dream, the city Yharnam and the Nightmare of Mensis. The city at first seems to be the most realistic, but as the game progresses, what at once seemed to be the most real place in the game world starts to twist. The nightmare continues until it purely becomes interpretation as to what is real and what is not. Perhaps all of these worlds are dreams, but each is interconnected by some larger thread of the Great Ones—the mythical beings whom you encounter from time to time. Some of these worlds are even hidden away, and you could get all the way to one of the game’s three endings without ever experiencing these locations, such as Castle Cainhurst and the Nightmare Plain.

There is one strong example, though, of how an attempt at this kind of storytelling can be a very bad decision on the creator’s part, and might backfire upon them greatly. Destiny is the game that I am talking about. The original Destiny experience launched in September 2014, and whilst it sold phenomenally well, it was not the story that had been promised. Stating to have a quantity of lore similar to The Lord of the Rings or Star Wars, Destiny simply did not deliver such depth. All of the backstory is hidden away in cards, which you have to find in the game and then go to the Bungie website to read. The story here is set in stone but is placed apart from the game, thus breaking the immersion achieved so well in Bloodborne. Bungie have begun to rectify this issue in the latest expansion, The Taken King, but by reverting to the type of storytelling that they best used in the Halo franchise—giving a solid story presented to the player through cut-scenes and deliberate continuity, with those wanting extra backstory able to read up on it through ‘Terminals’ and books. The Taken King added a much more interesting, direct, plot, plus meaningful characterisation compared with that given in the base game.

Photo: FromSoftware, Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc.

At this year’s Tokyo Game Show, Sony announced the first and apparently only expansion for Bloodborne, titled ‘The Old Hunters’. According to Masaaki Yamagiwa, two expansions were originally planned, but as FromSoftware are currently working up to the release of Dark Souls 3 (announced at E3 this year), they decided to merge the two downloadable content packs into a single, larger expansion. This will include many new weapons and armour sets but, perhaps more importantly, myriad new areas and bosses with the new lore being based around hunters mentioned previously in the game’s lore, such as Ludwig, the First Hunter and now one of the bosses (as shown at TGS). Partway through the main game, players will now be able to enter a “nightmare world where hunters from the past are trapped forever,” and this will only add to the speculation of the narrative.

What is important to know is that, with the previous games in the Souls series, the ending ultimately does not matter. It is clichéd to say that the journey is more important than the destination, but that really is the case, I believe. It is your own story within these worlds that keeps bringing players back and uncovering further the layers of lore waiting to be found and analysed anew. As far as I am aware, though, Bloodborne is the only one to buck this trend through one of its three endings.

*SPOILER WARNING: I shall be talking about all of Bloodborne’s three endings in the paragraph below. Please skip to the end of the article if you wish to avoid spoilers*

In the third, ‘secret’ ending of the game, you can ‘ascend’ to become a Great One and “lift humanity into its next childhood.” This is the only ending that breaks the cyclical nature of these games. If you instead choose the first ending, you will be released from the dream and will move on. With the second ending, you will become the Watcher of the dream and will guide other hunters through it. In both Dark Souls games, you either let the fire die out or you give your life to let it burn a little longer (but it will still die out eventually).

*END SPOILERS*

Hopefully, this new expansion will further improve the world of Bloodborne and maybe even attract a host of new players to the great experiences one can discover in the fantastical world of Yharnam, such as the beasts that now dwell there.

And so, the hunt begins again…