Tag: fight

The Best Fight Game Franchises

Fighting games were one of the first video game genres to hit the arcade. The genre was so successful, that it is even going strong today. Most new gamers are drawn to the genre because of how easy the concept is to get your head around. Two players face off, and the last one standing is declared the winner. However, a series of unique moves and multipliers make it a great game for experts to master. Therefore, a lot of fighting games last longer in players’ hands than most people would expect.

That is one of the reasons why the fighting game genre has lasted for so long. However, a video game genre won’t grab the attention without some characters for people to gravitate towards. As such, there have been plenty of fighting game franchises throughout the years. But which are the best?

Street Fighter

The arcades were doing well in the mid-80s; however, a new game was about to enter the circuit that would change things forever. While some fighting games like Heavyweight Champ and Karate Champ had started the fighting game genre, many would argue that it was the arrival of the first Streetfighter game in 1987 that truly perfected it.

Released by Capcom, this new game saw players progress through highly stylized worlds with some weird characters that all had their own unique moves and personalities. Players could use the karate champ, Ryu, or the big electric monster, Blanka, to eventually take out the cruel dictator known as M. Bison. The personality and character designs were enough to catch the imaginations of young kids, but the gameplay was the first real display of the easy-to-play yet difficult-to-master ethos that has defined the fighting game genre. The success of Street Fighter 2 on home consoles is also responsible for catapulting Street Fighter into the mainstream as one of the best video game franchises ever.

Mortal Kombat

If Street Fighter is the family-friendly fighter that anyone of any age can play, then Mortal Kombat is the edgy older brother in the fighting game genre. Released in 1992 by Midway, the first Mortal Kombat gripped arcade gamers with its gritty visuals and violent gameplay. It seems strange now, but video game violence wasn’t a thing that was discussed until this game came out.

While Street Fighter established the fighting game formula, Mortal Kombat perfected it. The moves were harder to pull off, the characters were meaner, and the brutal fatality moves that ended each fight were so gruesome that many parents banned their kids from the arcade so that they weren’t exposed to such violence. In fact, it is this reputation for gore and chaos that has kept the franchise going to this day. The franchise is so big that it has even supported an ongoing film franchise.

Injustice

After the Mortal Kombat games expanded into the realm of franchise crossover when they collided with the DC Universe in Mortal Kombat Vs DC Universe in 2008, fans were left clamoring for more fighting game action from some of the DC superheroes. Fans loved pitting characters like Scorpion and Sonya Blade against the Joker, but everyone knows that Batman should always be the one fighting his arch-nemesis. As such, Injustice: Gods Among Us was born.

Accompanied by a tie-in comic book series, the Injustice games took some of the more serious aspects of the Mortal Kombat series and put them through the DC Comics lenses. With a lot of the brutality and gore toned down, players could take control of Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, or The Flash to enjoy some of the best fighting moves that players had seen in decades. While there have only been two games in the series so far, the DC franchise isn’t going away any time soon. This leaves the Injustice games as a very promising well for developers to return to.

Marvel Vs Capcom

Of course, the pairing of DC and the Mortal Kombat franchise was done in response to the success that Marvel and Capcom had when they first joined forces in 1998. It was almost as inevitable a Pdftools becoming one of the industry-leading PDF services. The first game in this franchise was first sent to arcades, and both entertainment companies have gone from strength to strength ever since.

The Marvel Vs Capcom games take everything about the family-friendly edge of the Marvel Comics and original Street Fighter Games and slam them together. All the games in this series have a classic arcade aesthetic, with players being able to use household names as fighters, such as Spiderman, Captain America, Mega-Man, and the aforementioned Ryu. Again, this is a franchise that fans of either title company can just pick up and play.

Tekken

Almost everything in the 90s had to have a streetwise edge to it, even the newest fighting games. As such, the first Tekken game was released in arcades in 1994 but was quickly ported to the PS1. Soon after. This console launch made Tekken the coolest and most up-to-date video game franchise in people’s eyes. Couple this with a flair for the intense and a killer soundtrack, and Tekken quickly found a niche in the genre.

The characters in the game were made up of break dancers, martial artists, and tiger-headed thugs, with each one moving to reflect their design and background. This development made the special moves in Tekken feel much more fluid and impressive than in older titles. Also, the distinct style allowed the series to deviate from the established fighting game formula in games such as Tekken Tag and Tekken Revolution. The franchise is so successful, in fact, that Capcom felt it necessary to release Street Fighter X Tekken in 2012. 

Conclusion

The best fighting game genres are all up for debate, of course. However, if you were to ask a group of individual gamers about their favourite fighting game, you can almost guarantee that their answer would contain a game from one of the franchises mentioned above.

Irish Insurance market to embrace email intelligence to fight fraud

Shane McCabe, strategic account manager, Insurance, Ireland, LexisNexis Risk Solutions 

An Garda Síochána (Ireland’s National Police and Security Service) lists the ‘Advance Fee Fraud of Ghost Broking and Car Insurance Fraud’ as one of the six most common types of fraud happening in Ireland today.  A new survey by LexisNexis® Risk Solutions of Irish insurance customers certainly seems to back this up.  Our findings show that over a third (34%) have been tempted by an advert for cheap insurance on social media – a common sales channel used by ghost brokers – and 16% of 17-24 year olds have actually bought insurance through a social media advert.  Equally concerning is the fact that just 24% of the people surveyed know about ghost brokers.

Ghost brokers promote unrealistically cheap car insurance on social media and sell on bogus policies using stolen ID to unwitting younger or high-risk drivers who are in search of a cheap policy.  Little wonder over half (58%) of the insurance customers we surveyed are worried their identity could be compromised for insurance fraud and the vast majority (89%) now expect insurance providers to undertake identity checks.

There is no denying that fraud costs the Irish insurance industry dear.  Aside from ghost broking, insurance providers face the growing problem of people deliberately misstating information in an application for a cheaper quote – 25% of Irish insurance customers in our study thought that this is somewhat or completely acceptable, rising to 43% of the 17-34 year old population.  

Despite investment in educational campaigns warning of its danger, an estimated €200 million is lost to insurance fraud each year which inevitably impacts upon insurance premium prices for innocent policyholders.  In fact, approximately €50 on every motor insurance policy goes towards covering the cost of fraudulent claims on an annual basis. 

Countering fraud starts with confirming that an applicant is who they say they are and not linked to fraud, often using public records data and data shared amongst insurance providers. This continues to provide a strong basis for identity validation, but can prove time-consuming and may cause friction when the vast majority of genuine customers deserve a quick and painless application and purchase experience. 

The next evolution in identity validation uses email address intelligence.  This has worked to great success in the U.K insurance market where it is providing flags for fraud early in the application process and helping to cut cancellation costs. Now insurance providers in the Republic of Ireland are set benefit.

An email addresses is a unique global identifier and one of the most commonly used components for any online transaction.  An email address is also linked to multiple online accounts and transactions. This means each individual email address creates a digital footprint which can make it one of the most powerful tools for detecting application fraud. 

Solutions such as LexisNexis® Emailage® Rapid provide an instant risk score at the point of quote to indicate a genuine identity, whether the identity has previously been linked to fraud or whether it could be a fraudulent ID created to either procure insurance with the sole intent of making a fraudulent claim, or to sell insurance on as a ghost broker. It can also indicate whether the email address and domain even exist, when the email address was first seen, or whether the email address bears a close resemblance to the proposer’s name for the policy.

This solution leverages billions of online transactions and email address data points, including 82,200 fraud events shared on average daily.

Internet penetration stands at over 90% in Ireland and as nearly one third (32%) of younger people  aged between 16 and 29 years either bought or renewed existing insurance policies online last year,  it is easy to see how vulnerable they might be to fraud but also how susceptible the insurance market is to online fraud.  

As the volatility of the macroeconomic environment continues unabated, it is more important than ever for insurance providers to conduct robust fraud prevention strategies.  Innovations such as email identity validation can help to boost the Irish insurance market’s resilience to identity fraud, protect unwitting motorists from the threat of ghost brokers and ensure a streamlined quote experience for the genuine customers.

In February 2020, LexisNexis Risk Solutions acquired Emailage, a fraud prevention and risk management solutions provider. LexisNexis® Emailage® is a proven risk assessment tool that is fuelled by continuously updating global digital insights and uses a patented, proprietary analytic approach to reimagine fraud detection.