You are a hamster, you want to get rich, and you’re also the CEO of a crypto exchange. This is the premise of Hamster Kombat, the new Telegram “mini-game” that claims to have more than 300 million players. It’s become so popular that in June, an Iranian military leader accused …
Read More »'Date Like Goblins' Thinks Playing Games Can Fix Dating Apps
Swiping apps have gamified dating. Date Like Goblins wants to solve that by turning first dates into gaming sessions. The app, which launched today via Kickstarter, gets users in the dating game through rather traditional means. They set up a profile, answer prompts, upload a photo (only if they want …
Read More »The Untold Story of How Ridley Scott Saw 'Star Wars'—and Ended Up Making 'Alien'
In 1977, still smarting from the box office failure of his first film, The Duellists, Ridley Scott, ever the steely Northumberland pragmatist, decided that he needed to pick himself up and do what he’d always done throughout his career: He would put his head down and barrel forward with work. …
Read More »The Week of Brat Summer Will Go Down in Internet History
Jake Tapper looked as flummoxed as everyone else. After a week spent trying to figure out the whys and hows of the assassination attempt against former US president Donald Trump, the CNN anchor was now facing something far more perplexing: why a British pop singer was calling Vice President Kamala …
Read More »Drew Afualo Will Never Stop Making Fun of Misogynist Men
Drew Afualo is never at a loss for words. On the topic of idiot men who get a rise out of shaming women online—nitpicking them over their weight, their dress, or their body count (when it comes to sexual partners)—she, in fact, won’t shut up. It is why her fans, …
Read More »Video Game Performers Are Going on Strike Over AI
Actors in the video game industry are going on strike. On Thursday, the union representing voice and motion-capture performers announced they would be walking off the job after talks with major video game companies broke down over concerns regarding AI protections. The work stoppage is set to begin Friday. “We’re …
Read More »'Deadpool & Wolverine' Scales New Heights of Cinematic Self-Awareness
On February 11, 2024, over 123 million viewers tuned in to Super Bowl LVIII. The team at New Rockstars, a YouTube channel that analyzes and dissects geek culture, were among those glued to their TVs. Their attention was not on the football game, or even on Taylor Swift’s highly publicized …
Read More »Eminem’s New Album Prompted Gen X to Declare a TikTok ‘War’ on Gen Z
In the past week, a somewhat one-sided argument has taken over TikTok. Gen X, it seems, is “declaring war” on Gen Z, going viral with shitposts about what they see as Gen Z’s overreaction to Eminem’s new album The Death of Slim Shady. While it may be hard to work …
Read More »The 2024 Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony Will Be Unlike Any Before It
This story originally appeared in WIRED Italia. It has been translated from Italian. The opening ceremony for the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics is designed to be unlike any in years past. For starters, the festivities kicking off the 33rd edition of the Games won't be held in a stadium—they'll take …
Read More »This Is the Year Comic-Con Bounces Back
It’s been a long time since Comic-Con International attendees have encountered the convention they once knew. The excitement. The lines. The smell (IYKYK). In 2020 the event was canceled because of Covid-19. The following year there were some special virtual events, but no throngs of fans in cosplay delighted to …
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