A new game from Valve appears to be on the horizon. Thousands of players have received invites to a game called Deadlock, a team-based shooter with multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) elements. While Valve has yet to formally announce it, screenshots, gameplay, and even playtimes are already popping up online. …
Read More »The Hacker Who Hunts Video Game Speedrunning Cheaters
Speedrunning video games, the competitive field of playing through digital games as quickly as possible, has in recent years been elevated into something between a virtuosic form of fingers-and-thumbs athletics and a highly technical science. The best speedruns reduce epic games meant to take dozens of hours to single-digit minutes …
Read More »‘Crush House’ Is a Game For People Who Love Drama
Recently, while stuck inside sick with Covid-19’s new FLiRT variant, I honored its ridiculous name with a binge-watch of Love Island USA. I dabble in reality TV, especially when sick; a single season graciously offered 36 hours of no-brain-cells-required entertainment. It was my first time watching the show, and one …
Read More »LCD, IPS, OLED, and Quantum Dots: All the Confusing Display Terms, Explained
Shopping for a monitor can be overwhelming if you’re not already familiar with the cornucopia of acronyms used to describe different display types: LCD, IPS, OLED, QD-OLED, Mini-LED, OCD, BPD, QED, BBQ. It’s … a lot. The type of screen you get can have a huge impact on the quality …
Read More »Dating Apps Are Dehumanizing. Let’s Try Something New
If the idea of going on a date makes you anxious, and all you’d really rather do with your evening is stay home and play video games, well, have we got the app for you. Date Like Goblins, a new dating platform that debuted on Kickstarter this week and will …
Read More »How 'World of Warcraft' Devs Launched One of the Biggest Unions in Video Games
They started with fliers. The group of World of Warcraft developers at Activision Blizzard, determined to unionize, were testing the waters after Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition. Microsoft had pledged to honor a labor neutrality agreement, active 60 days after the deal’s close, that would allow workers to explore collective bargaining …
Read More »How Telegram Game 'Hamster Kombat' Got 300 Million Users—and the Ire of Iran’s Military
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 »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 »AI Is Already Taking Jobs in the Video Game Industry
When Noah saw the email, a wave of anxiety hit. It was spring 2023, and the Activision artist was reading a message from the company's then chief technology officer, Michael Vance, about how artificial intelligence was “top of mind” at the video game publisher. Systems were still being tested, Vance …
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