Overwatch’s Symmetra mains haven’t had an easy go of it. Any time they play their favorite character, they run the risk of getting harassed or reported. This year offered potential salvation in the form of a huge overhaul to the character. But even after that, things haven’t changed much in Symmetraland. The more things change…
I’m Not A Monster looks like a cool blend of XCOM and deceit-based party games like Werewolf and Mafia It’s a multiplayer turn-based game where everybody’s ostensibly part of a crew trying to save civilians from pulpy space monsters. Two players, however, are monsters in disguise. It’ll be out later this year.
There are heel turns, and then there’s what World of Warcraft’s Sylvanas Windrunner—current leader of the game’s Horde faction—did in a new short released by Blizzard yesterday. She torched the World Tree, a major Alliance landmark, and slaughtered countless innocent night elves in the process. Now Horde players are revolting. If you don’t really follow…
Track: 18 Summers | Artist: Rome Hero Foxes | Album: ‘18 Summers Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.
Earlier this month, one of Twitch’s most popular streamers, Michael “Shroud” Grzesiek, landed himself in hot water by taking a ride with a hacker who had figured out how to Mary Poppins entire cars into the sky. Shroud has since changed his ways. During a stream yesterday, Shroud encountered a notorious car hacker; people claim…
Yesterday, an issue that’s been simmering below the surface of Steam for a few weeks came to a head: Unscrupulous developers were releasing games that contained dummy items masquerading as Team Fortress 2 and DoTA 2 rarities that sell for hundreds of dollars. Now Valve has addressed the issue. Yesterday, Valve removed two different games…
If you followed the Overwatch League’s first season, odds are good that you mostly did it on Twitch. Over the weekend, the grand finals got airtime on television networks, too, and they didn’t exactly draw a Beholder-load of eyeballs. The Nielsen overnight estimates for Overwatch League’s grand finals broadcasts on ESPN and ABC are in,…
For the past couple weeks, players of a PC platformer called Abstractism have suspected that something is amiss. The game has been accused of “cryptojacking” people’s machines, or clandestinely using their resources to mine for cryptocurrency. Today, after sustained outcry over the weekend, Abstractism was removed from Steam. Abstractism appeared on Steam on March 15…
It’s a viable strategy! Even in the Overwatch League. The first match of Overwatch League’s grand finals just wrapped up, with London Spitfire taking a commanding lead after a shaky first map. But on the final map, Volskaya, Philadelphia Fusion gave it their all and then some in an attempt to shoot down a surging…
Fun: riding a guided missile right into some unsuspecting goon’s face. Not fun: being the unsuspecting goon whose face eats said missile. This simple and universal truth handily illustrates the problem with Fortnite’s guided missiles, which were yanked in April. Today, Epic announced that they’re finally coming back. Guided missiles were equal parts beloved and…
World of Warcraft’s community is not exactly overflowing with happy campers (or wildlife punchers-and-looters, as it were) right now. Ever since last week’s Battle For Azeroth pre-patch, the game has been suffering from a slew of issues. Now Blizzard has admitted it doesn’t know exactly what’s causing them. The biggest problem is the game’s leveling…
Most people use Discord to chat with their gaming communities. Some also use it to share anime porn. As Discord has grown in ubiquity and legitimacy, these priorities have come into conflict. This week, the Final Fantasy XIV subreddit’s Discord had its official partner status revoked for issues stemming from its NSFW chat channel. Initially,…
This weekend, Overwatch League’s first season—at times thrilling and at others absolutely grueling—reaches its conclusion. The final showdown pits two inconsistent underdog teams, Philadelphia Fusion and London Spitfire, against each other in a match that just so happens to sum up the vibe of the whole season. Sports are, first and foremost, about competitors throwing…
The game industry is not exactly known for valuing workers. Big studios are rife with soul-destroying crunch and end-of-project layoffs. French studio Motion Twin, developer of the Castlevania-inspired roguelike Dead Cells, is trying something different: Workers own and manage the company. There is no boss. Motion Twin describes itself as an “anarcho-syndical workers cooperative.” What…
Denuvo’s notorious anti-piracy tech used to be seen as uncrackable. It held up against hackers’ best efforts for years, contorting itself into obtuse new shapes every time anybody broke through. In 2016, a Bulgarian hacker calling himself Voksi came along with a breakthrough that revitalized the whole Denuvo cracking scene. He’s been a pillar of…
Ronnie “Oni” Edwards, a member of popular YouTube channel The Game Theorists, has died by suicide. “His loss is one that comes after years of him bravely working to move beyond the trauma of his past, fighting an internal battle every day, a battle that eventually became too much for him,” The Game Theorists’ Matthew…
For many popular streamers, stream snipers are just a fact of life. Streamers can take measures to minimize their impact, but a dedicated handful slip through the cracks and find ways to be annoying as hell. Or, every once in a while, downright endearing. Stream snipers track streamers’ locations by watching their streams and then…
World of Warcraft’s new “communities” feature just launched. These communities are a lot like guilds, except they’re unconstrained by servers, which should be an easy win. Unfortunately, players have found some easily exploited blind spots in the new feature, as well as some drawbacks for marginalized players. WoW communities exist independently of guilds, so you…
The Stinkrot Smasher is a new mace coming to World of Warcraft in upcoming expansion Battle For Azeroth. Dug out of the beta by poster Stan on the forums of Blizzard fan site Icy Veins, it’s a rotten fish with rotten fish physics and rotten fish particle effects and probably a rotten fish soul. It’s perfect.
Cjayride, an American Twitch streamer who’s made a name for himself broadcasting his life in Taiwan, has decided to leave the country in the wake of harassment, doxxing, and his personal life falling apart. Last year, he faced criticism from the Taiwanese news media for a handful of incidents that involved littering and other relatively…
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