Zooey Zephyr, a trans woman herself, vows to continue to fight the ‘hateful and harmful’ laws passed by Montana’s Legislature which target trans teens.
Zooey Zephyr, a trans woman herself, vows to continue to fight the ‘hateful and harmful’ laws passed by Montana’s Legislature which target trans teens.
Moderators from popular Reddit communities say they plan to extend their blackout protests indefinitely. Many of the subreddits protesting the company’s API changes were initially scheduled to participate only from Monday to Wednesday this week. But the vow to extend the demonstration came after CEO Steve Huffman reportedly sent a memo to staff saying Reddit would “get through it” while opining that “like all blowups on Reddit, this one will pass as well.” In response to Huffman doubling down, a user wrote, “Let them fuck around and find out.”
Moderators from well-trafficked subreddits, including r/awww, r/music, r/videos, r/futurology, r/apple and r/NBA (among many others) chimed in to commit to an indefinite protest. The blackout is in response to Reddit taking a page from Elon Musk’s Twitter playbook, hiking API prices to astronomical levels ahead of its planned IPO. The move essentially kills all third-party Reddit clients — including the popular Apollo iOS app — leaving Reddit’s own app as users’ only option. In a moderators’ thread (spotted byThe Verge) promoting the extension, u/SpicyThunder335 described Reddit’s app as “widely regarded as poor quality, not [accessible], and very difficult to use for moderation.”
Volunteer mods responded to the proposed extension with enthusiasm. For example, u/britinsb commented, “The 48 hours was just the ‘proof of concept.’ The fact [Huffman] is so dismissive of coordinated action by 20,000+ mods and 10,000 subreddits just shows how badly out of touch he is. Now for the real pain.”
Meanwhile, u/strolls suggested taking more drastic measures. “I’ve been thinking that maybe we should stop moderating — remove only NSFW images, but allow spammers and shitposters to turn Reddit to trash.” When another user pointed out that Reddit could use that as justification for removing those mods and replacing them with lackeys, a now-deleted user replied, “Let them do it then honestly. They currently have roughly 30k mods protesting that have been doing free labor for them [for] decades, keeping these subreddits usable. It’s not that simple and will only further affect the site’s image with any possible IPO attempt. Twitter fucked around with their paid staff and dropped to a third of pre-purchase valuation. Reddit can learn as well.”
In the same thread, u/SpicyThunder335 suggested common-sense measures for communities with a more urgent need to stay online. “For example, r/StopDrinking represents a valuable resource for communities in need, and the urgency of getting the news of the ongoing war out to r/Ukraine obviously outweighs any of these concerns.” They suggested subtler protests for those forums, including a stickied announcement or weekly gesture of support.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/popular-subreddits-plan-to-extend-blackouts-indefinitely-205005565.html?src=rss
Phasmophobia, like Among Us and Animal Crossing, was a staple of pandemic-era gaming — the co-op ghost hunts were a way to connect when real-life meetings were much scarier. If you missed out or just have fond memories, then, you’ll be glad to hear that Kinetic Games is releasing the title on PlayStation 5, PlayStation VR2 and Xbox Series X/S in early access this August. The living room version has cross-platform support, so you shouldn’t have to venture into spooky houses without some help.
The premise remains the same. You and up to three other players are tasked with producing evidence of ghosts using familiar pseudoscience tools like thermometers, EMF readers and Ouija boards. The more you discover, the more you can sell to ghost removal teams. The catch, of course, is that these aren’t friendly apparitions. They may go on the hunt and kill players, especially as your team’s sanity declines. It’s not uncommon to see the last surviving player make a panicked run for the exit.
The console launch is coming almost three years after the PC debut. As with Among Us, its heyday has passed. There’s still a sizeable fan base, though (over 10,800 average daily players on Steam as of this writing), and the availability on other platforms could both expand the audience and give PC gamers more help with their paranormal investigations.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/pandemic-era-hit-phasmophobia-is-coming-to-consoles-this-august-210215700.html?src=rss
During the Xbox Games Extended Showcase, it emerged that several more indie titles are bound for Game Pass. One of them is Neon White, which was one of Engadget’s favorite games of 2022. It debuted on PC and Nintendo Switch last June before landing on PlayStation in December. There’s no Xbox release date as yet, but as soon as Neon White lands on Microsoft’s consoles, Game Pass subscribers can try it at no extra cost.
Neon White is a fast-paced platformer that could help you to live out whatever dreams you have of being a speedrunner. You’ll need to take out every demon on a level before you can reach the exit. Chances are you’ll want to do that as quickly as possible to achieve the best time possible and beat your friends on the leaderboard. Oh, there are dating sim elements too. It’s a strange, stylish game, but what else would you really expect from publisher Annapurna Interactive?
Microsoft revealed during its second showcase of the week that nine more indies are coming to Game Pass on their respective launch days through the ID@Xbox program. Little Kitty Big City, an adorable narrative puzzle game in which you’ll help a lost cat get home, is coming to Xbox, Switch and PC early next year (a demo will be available during Steam Next Fest later this month). Another Crab’s Treasure, a charming Soulslike, is also coming to those three platforms early next year.
Techtonica is a first-person factory automation game, while The Wandering Village is a city-building sim that plays out on the back of an enormous, roaming creature. The other indies that Microsoft said are bound for Game Pass are the turn-based RPG Sea of Stars, social simulation adventure Mineko’s Night Market, handmade narrative title Harold Halibut, hospital management game Galacticare and narrative adventure The Bookwalker.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/fast-paced-platformer-neon-white-is-coming-to-xbox-212556461.html?src=rss
Google has a long history of building in easter eggs into its search engine, whether that’s minigames or animations when searching specific keywords. The company is continuing the fun with a built-in minigame when you search for “Katamari” (via Kotaku), a game series that originally launched on the PlayStation 2. The minigame lets you roll everything on the page into a virtual ball. To start, you click on the Katamari ball icon on the right side of your screen. You play the game by using your keyboard’s arrow keys if on a desktop or laptop or with your finger if on a mobile device.
The easter egg is likely referencing the recent remaster of We Love Katamari earlier this month. The game, which was originally released on PlayStation 2 in 2005, got a remaster titled: We Love Katamari Reroll+ Royal Reverie. The title was made available on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and on Steam.
The Katamari series is developed by Bandai Namco and revolves around a series of puzzle-action games where you play as the Prince of All Cosmos. In the surreal series, you’re tasked with rolling up a ball of random things such as cats, cars and more – those balls replace the stars in the sky that were destroyed by your father, The King of the Cosmos.
Thankfully, Google’s version is a little less stress-inducing. There’s no goal or time limit per-se, you just roll a Katamari ball till your heart’s content (or if you have nothing left to catch). I spent more time than I’m willing to admit “testing” the game on my computer and it runs pretty well in my experience. Mobile, on the other hand, is a bit rough. The game seems to have a decent amount of input lag which makes the experience less than desirable. But as a little easter egg, Katamari fans should still get a laugh out of this.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/googles-katamari-damacy-easter-egg-lets-you-roll-up-your-search-results-220033724.html?src=rss
For ‘British Vogue’s July 2023 issue, ‘The Last of Us’ star, Bella Ramsey, opened up about their sexuality in addition to sharing updates on their pronouns.
For ‘British Vogue’s July 2023 issue, ‘The Last of Us’ star, Bella Ramsey, opened up about their sexuality in addition to sharing updates on their pronouns.
Kroy Biermann and Kim Zolciak were married for 11 years before filing for divorce this spring. They share four minor children.
Kroy Biermann and Kim Zolciak were married for 11 years before filing for divorce this spring. They share four minor children.
Stassi Schroeder announced she is expecting a baby boy with her husband, Beau Clark, in March 2023.
Stassi Schroeder announced she is expecting a baby boy with her husband, Beau Clark, in March 2023.
OpenAI warned Microsoft early this year about rushing the integration of GPT-4 into Bing without further training, according to The Wall Street Journal. Although Microsoft forged ahead anyway, the alert proved prescient as early users noticed “unhinged” behavior in the Bing AI tool. (The most memorable examples included arguing, plotting ways to break out of its restrictions and trying to convince a New York Times tech columnist to leave his marriage and elope with Bing instead.) In addition, the new report details “conflict and confusion” behind the curtains of the companies’ convenient but potentially fragile alliance.
Rather than buying OpenAI outright, Microsoft invested in a 49-percent stake in the artificial intelligence startup, a strategy designed to help it avoid antitrust scrutiny. The arrangement gave Microsoft early access to OpenAI’s ChatGPT and DALL-E 2 to boost its Bing search engine. In addition, it’s adding OpenAI-powered CoPilot to Office and other software products as rival Google scrambles to catch up. Meanwhile, OpenAI gets the financial investment and Microsoft’s servers for hosting.
The WSJ describes the arrangement as an “open relationship” where Microsoft maintains significant influence without complete control. For example, although the agreement limits OpenAI’s search-engine customers, it’s still free to work with Microsoft’s rivals. That can place the two companies in precarious situations like their sales teams making overlapping pitches to the same customers. In addition, Microsoft employees have reportedly complained about diminished in-house AI spending and a lack of direct access to OpenAI’s models for its researchers and engineers.
Microsoft employees were also reportedly surprised at how quickly OpenAI launched ChatGPT. The startup opened its chatbot to the public last November on its way to setting the record for the fastest-growing app user base. Microsoft didn’t launch Bing GPT integration until February — after ChatGPT was already well on its way to becoming a household name.
Even with Bing’s shaky AI launch, it’s hard to argue Microsoft hasn’t benefited immensely from the partnership. The search engine saw an early 15-percent traffic boost after adding GPT integration, while the Bing mobile app was downloaded 750,000 times, including a peak of 150,000 daily installs, during its first week. The fact that Bing has become a buzzed-about product — after years of being mocked as Google’s also-ran competitor — is quite an accomplishment in itself. “When we grow, it helps [OpenAI], and when they grow, it helps us,” Microsoft CFO Amy Hood said in April.
Still, some analysts view the partnership as potentially problematic over time. “What puts them in more of a collision course is both sides need to make money,” said Oren Etzioni, board member and CEO of the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence. “The conflict is they’ll both be trying to make money with similar products.”
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/openai-reportedly-warned-microsoft-about-rushing-gpt-4-integration-into-bing-182044458.html?src=rss
“Basically, we’re not planning a distinct sequel at all.”
Dan Greenawalt, GM of the Forza series, has been working on Motorsport games for two decades, but his remarks in a post-Xbox Showcase briefing on Sunday suggest this next release could be the last in the series. Forza Motorsport is the eighth title in Turn 10 Studios’ driving sim franchise, and the first new entry in almost half a decade.
Forza has been one of Microsoft’s most reliable first-party properties. Ignoring Playground Games’ spinoff Horizon series, the original Xbox had one Forza title, the Xbox 360 had three, and the Xbox One had three. Barring a few launch hiccups, every title has been well-reviewed and the franchise as a whole has sold millions. We’re now in the third year of this console generation, and there’s been no Motorsport game for fans to play.
A lot’s changed since Forza Motorsport 7 arrived in September 2017. The “day one with Game Pass” paradigm shift started with Sea Of Thieves in 2018, and has since become Microsoft’s entire business model. Now, Microsoft measures success more like a social network (or a tech news publication), focusing on monthly active users and playtime, rather than sales.
It should come as no surprise, then, that Forza Motorsport is set up more like a service game than a traditional AAA title.
While many of the modes that Forza players expect, especially the online multiplayer component, are being reworked and improved, Turn 10 is betting that its new career mode will keep players coming back week after week. At Summer Game Fest, the game’s creative director Chris Esaki talked a group of journalists through this new career-mode loop and the shift in philosophy for the series.
Esaki described Forza Horizon as “a whole new take on falling in love with cars.” We saw a career mode event called the Builders Cup, which began with a narrated showcase of a trio of cars. After picking one to roll with, you then head into “open practice,” where you get to know the car. These sessions are packed full of stats and challenges; you earn Car Experience Points (CXP) for every corner you take, and the closer to perfection you are the more CXP you’ll get. CXP is specific to each car, and is used to upgrade parts and customize vehicle performance.
After open practice, you head into a race, where there’s a new “challenge the grid” system that lets you essentially bet against your racing talent. You choose where on the grid to start and how fast your AI opponents are, with higher rewards as the difficulty scales up. After competing in the race itself, you’ll earn money for new vehicles as well as more of the car-specific CXP. Then it’s onto the next open practice, more tuning and customization, and more races.
Esaki calls this loop “level, build, dominate.” He sees it as a way to get players interested in a broad swathe of cars, rather than having them head straight to a Ferrari or Bugatti. That might sound like the ethos of another popular racing sim, but while there are definitely elements of Gran Turismo 7’s cups and café challenges in here, the Builders Cup feels both more contained and more repeatable. It’s all by design: Similar to recent Forza Horizon games, players can expect a big content update monthly, which then rolls out week-by-week.
We’ll likely hear much more about Forza Motorsport in the lead up to its release on October 10th, and I’m interested to try out the new simulation features, like a massively overhauled physics system and improved opponent AI. For now, though, the pitch seems solid. I’m a huge fan of Gran Turismo 7, but if you don’t enjoy online sim racing and the toxicity that comes with it, its single-player experience is fairly threadbare. In contrast, Turn 10 seems to have developed Forza Motorsport as a game that will last forever, with new experiences every week designed to satiate gamers’ desire for fresh races and Microsoft’s desire for monthly active users.
Catch up on all of the news from Summer Game Fest right here!
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/forza-motorsport-wants-you-to-drive-forever-183033371.html?src=rss
