Gita Jackson

After Owner’s Bizarre Meltdown, HQ Trivia Has A Wild Night

Last night’s HQ Trivia was a little tense. Not only were there over a hundred thousand players—the most I’ve ever seen—but the chat was filled with comments about a Daily Beast article where host Scott Rogowsky’s boss threatened to fire him. Even Rogoswky couldn’t avoid addressing it, making veiled references to the online shitshow that…

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Is Charming But Sleazy

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp is a perfectly serviceable entry into the series, until the new mobile game reminds you that could be spending money on it. When you open up Pocket Camp it’s unsettling how much it looks and feels like the other Animal Crossing games. You’re first greeted by K.K. Slider, then Isabelle, two…

A Guide To The Endless, Confusing Star Wars Battlefront II Controversy

When 2017’s Star Wars Battlefront II was first previewed at E3 this year, people were cautiously optimistic. Its predecessor was slammed for being thin on content, but initial showings of the game looked promising and it seemed like EA had added the things fans wanted out of the game’s sequel, like a single-player campaign. Now,…

Underneath His Cloak, The Sims 4‘s Grim Reaper is Pretty Cute

Once you get over the whole “harbinger of death thing,” The Sims’s the Grim Reaper is kinda hot. Over on the r/Sims subreddit, the simmer Corveaux said she was able to add the Grim Reaper to her family and remove his hood. The screencap she posted was of a young adult sim who was pretty…

Why Women Don’t Report Sexual Harassment

In March 2015, at a party at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Megan Farokhmanesh met a developer from the respected studio Naughty Dog. As they were talking, she says, he asked if she “fucked all her sources like on House of Cards.” Farokhmanesh, who had been working at Polygon since 2012, had just…

Meet The Comedian Who Has A Problem With Apu

In the middle of talking to me about his upcoming documentary on The Simpsons, comic Hari Kondabolu described watching the show with his brother. It was a Treehouse of Horror episode, a Halloween-themed series of vignettes that The Simpsons does every year. In this episode, parodying The Most Dangerous Game, Mr. Burns hunts humans and…

Anime Fans Are Making Their Favorite Characters Out Of Emojis

This is art. Twitter has built in stickers that you can add to photos before you post them. It’s one of those things that I have seen people use—adding a crown to their selfie or something—but never really used myself. Over the past week, Twitter users have been recreating anime and video game characters out…

Twitch Plays Pokémon’s Creator Says He Is Stepping Down Following Alleged Doxing

Over 3 years ago, one developer started a whole new genre of streaming with Twitch Plays Pokémon. In these streams, the chat took control and played the game, rather than the streamer. The resulting craze had views in the millions. Yesterday, the creator of Twitch Plays Pokémon, referred to as “Streamer” by the TPP community,…

This is a clip of rapper Lil Yachty streaming Call of Duty and farting into his mic. You’re welcome.

British Soccer Writer Is Baffled By The Prospect Of Gamers Humping

In an article titled “Are eSports Going To Replace The Beautiful Game?” British GQ contributor Andy Mitten spins a yarn about going somewhere where there are no Manchester United fans. Where are all the sports-hungry young men, he wonders? This is where the esports hook comes in, a full twelve paragraphs after the article has…

Snipperclips DLC Makes The Switch’s Most Surprising Launch Game Worth Revisiting

After not playing Snipperclips for months, I had more or less written the game off as being easy and filler-y. But after last week’s DLC, Snipperclips Plus, I was wrong. As is the case with a lot of cute co-op games I buy to play with friends, I ended up not finding anyone who wanted…

Sims Players’ New Pets Are Just The Worst

The latest expansion for the Sims 4, Cats & Dogs, hit last Friday and players have already found a way to shitpost with it. The Create A Pet options for Cats & Dogs are truly incredible. Touchingly, some players are using it to create their own pets, and others are being extremely self indulgent and…

Steph Curry Is Amazing At Basketball, Needs Help With Voiceover

Steph and Ayesha Curry are starring in their own cooking game for mobile. It’s not much fun to play, but oh boy do I love listening to Steph Curry’s not-very-good voice work. Chef Curry is not all that engaging or entertaining to play. It’s a rote restaurant management sim, where you tap things on the…

The Joy Of Twitter Nonsense

On today’s episode of Fave This, I’m joined by special guest Danika Harrod from Waypoint. In between talking about how to be good at Twitter, we discussed the greatest Vine of all time. (Get the MP3 here.) Harrod is Waypoint’s social editor, which means that, among other things, she runs the site’s irreverent Twitter account.…

A Celebrity Sims Fan Had A Request For Me

Jessica Williams was asking me about Sims mods. Earlier this week, I was chatting with her on the phone about The Sims. The game’s publisher had set up the call to help hype The Sims 4, and the latest expansion, Cats & Dogs. I would be talking to the former Daily Show correspondent and star…

The Sims 4 Now Has Good Dogs, Brent

The Sims 4 expansion Cats & Dogs comes out tomorrow. When you check out the new town, Brindleton Bay, you may notice a family that seems a little familiar. Dog Rates is an incredibly wholesome Twitter account that tweets out pictures of dogs, and then gives them a rating. Every dog is a great dog,…

The Sims Finally Has Great Curly Hair

I have been waiting with bated breath for The Sims 4’s Cats & Dogs expansion since it was announced in September. I didn’t realize that it would give me something else I’ve been waiting for: curly hair. If I’m making a sim that’s black, I usually have to compromise on their hair. If I’m loading…

People Are Creating Nightmares With The Sonic Forces Character Creator

Some of the original characters people are making with Sonic Forces’s character creator are downright adorable. Others are using it to shitpost. Guess which one this post is about. Yesterday, Heather Alexandra and I made a Sonic Forces original character for Kotaku (do not steal). We opted to go the cute route and gave her…

Sims Will No Longer Weed Chess Tables, And Other Great Sims 4 Patch Notes

In anticipation of Friday’s Cats & Dogs expansion, The Sims 4 got a new patch today. Some of these fixed bugs are hilarious. This patch is a doozy. Not only does it add new Build and Buy options—including new roofs and being able to make objects smaller—it fixes a considerable amount of bugs. Some of…

Overwatch’s New Character Leads To A Surprising Ship

Overwatch has a new character, Moira O’Deorain, a support who’s a member of the antagonistic Talon organization. While some players wonder how this new character will shake up gameplay, other fans want to know who to ship her with. Moira is basically a mad scientist. A geneticist who discovered how to alter DNA at a…