Ten years ago, a flood of gamers attacked developers Zoë Quinn and Brianna Wu and media critic Anita Sarkeesian. The three were part of a growing chorus of people calling for a more inclusive culture within video games. The attackers doxxed and harassed their targets, doing all they could to …
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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. …
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Back in August 2014, the misogynistic online campaign that became known as Gamergate was something that bubbled up in the anonymous, dark corners of the internet that only a select few even knew existed. Ten years later, the tactics used against Gamergate targets like Zoë Quinn and Anita Sarkeesian—boosting lies, …
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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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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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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