As I rushed to an interview at BlizzCon this morning, I found my path blocked by a procession of murlocs. There were at least 30 of them—likely more. They were walking from the show floor to the convention center’s doors. For what purpose, we will probably never know.
At first glance, the upcoming mobile game Diablo Immortal looks a lot like Diablo III. Similar classes, similar environments, similar art, similar abilities. In the demo I played at BlizzCon, however, much of the resemblance was only skin deep. After a brief tutorial hosted by the one and only Deckard Cain, the 15-minute multiplayer demo…
Behold, BlizzCon’s giant Lego D.Va statue. Yes, she’s made of Lego bricks. No, you probably won’t be able to buy this one in the near future
This is a Doom II mod. Yes, it’s for that Doom II—the one that came out in 1994. Total Chaos is a survival horror “mod” that upgrades the game’s engine to the point that it’s basically unrecognizable. After nearly a decade of development, it’s finally been fully released
There’s a new game out with direct connections to Undertale. You know what that means: it’s time for the whole internet to turn into that one meme of Charlie Day Yesterday, Undertale creator Toby Fox surprise-released a new game called Deltarune. The free RPG is the first chapter of a new story seemingly set in…
Track: Werewolf Bar Mitzvah | Artist: Apparently Donald Glover Doing An Impression Of Tracy Morgan | Album: An Evening With Tracy Jordan (Fictional) Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.
Cowardice, I have learned in my many years of being a video game coward, comes in many forms. Games often try to scare players, and I’m usually as spooked as anybody else. The greatest dread of all, though, emerges from that potent cocktail of fear and embarrassment from those moments I go ghost-white over something…
Good plans are born after hours, days, or even months of meticulous planning, but the best plans emerge from dumb jokes. One day, Twitch streamer Xmiramira was doing her thing when a rando came into chat spewing what she remembered as “racist crap.” “Oh,” Xmiramira said in reply, “a wild cock has appeared.” Now her…
I don’t just like karaoke; I love it. On average, I go out and sing at least twice a week, sometimes three times a week. Singing in bars in front of people helps me conquer my ever-present fear of doing literally anything in front of people. It’s a strange sort of therapy. Twitch and Harmonix’s…
The chants rang out all day, every day of TwitchCon. “Check out! Check out! What do we want? A new contract! When do we want it? Now!” As Twitch’s massive convention spilled out into the streets of downtown San Jose, California last weekend, it was impossible to miss the workers on strike in front of…
Other games have booths at TwitchCon, but Fortnite has an entire hall. I mean, of course it does. It’s Fortnite. At TwitchCon. Still quite a sight, though.
TwitchCon, I have learned from attendee and streamer Impactedpiko, has three Bob Ross cosplayers. They are trying to converge, but they haven’t succeeded yet. When it does happen, though, I think we’ll just kind of know, you know? And then somebody can immortalize the moment with a giant painting
“Pay us. Or do work. Be moderators. Or just, like, when people are shitty or transphobic or homophobic in your life, call them out. Put some of that labor on your shoulders so that we can keep working on surviving every day. And then we can thrive and travel into the brilliant gay future together,”…
“I actually worry about that sometimes—whether or not the fact that I’m disabled causes potential viewers to shy away. You have to take that thought and just fold it up and put it in your back pocket and literally stream like there’s nobody watching,” said streamer AccessibleGamer during TwitchCon’s “Streaming With Disabilities” panel. You can…
“Self care. Especially as a person of color, because there’s not a lot of us out here. Again: most brown folks I’ve seen at TwitchCon in my two years of coming, in this room. We cannot burn out. We cannot burn each other out,” said streamer and I Need Diverse Games director Tanya DePass at…
TwitchCon is letting Friday badge holders come back on Saturday and opening more entry points to make up for how bad the lines were today. Crisscrossing lines wrapped around the convention center. I heard horror stories of people waiting in line for four hours. One made it to the front, only to find out they’d…
Some emotes have been used to cause significantly more trouble than others, but there’s no denying that they are a pillar of Twitch culture. As part of this year’s TwitchCon in San Jose, California, Twitch has enshrined them in a faux-museum display. To my knowledge, this is the first museum to ever require a meme…
“When you introduce yourself as a small streamer or label yourself that way, you’re pointing out something that’s not a strong suit,” streamer MegKaylee said during TwitchCon’s “Things Not To Say” panel, referencing the popular #supportsmallstreamers movement in which people on Twitch position themselves as “small” first and sometimes foremost. “It makes it seem like…
It began with a joke. Twitch streamer Johnny_now resolved to make a mad dash toward his fitness goals ahead of his 30th birthday, but he kept stumbling. He got into a good exercise routine, but couldn’t quit overeating. Then he injured his back and fell headlong back into his vices. “I joked around,” he told…
Earlier this week, one of the most followed streamers on Twitch, Pokimane, surprised viewers by kicking off her stream sans makeup. On Monday, the Fortnite player, podcaster, and IRL streamer decided she’d walk her fans through what it takes to do her makeup for one of those streams. It ended up touching off a wide…
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