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CultureKotaku Game DiaryRIP To Outriders‘ Weird Cowboy NPC, A Real One
I’m not sure I’ve ever encountered a character creator as aggressively bland as the one in Outriders. All the faces are minor variations on Beefy Woodsman. Hair colors range from black to dull brown. Every decal is an unobtrusive scar, except for a lone chrome eyebrow implant that may as well be a shiny pimple.…
By Nathan Grayson Published April 15, 2021 -
CultureTwitchLudwig’s Never-Ending Twitch Stream Has Ended
On March 14, Ludwig Ahgren started a stream with no set end date. Last night, an entire month later, it finally ended. For the better part of 31 days, Ahgren played games, worked out, watched movies, and even slept on stream. At night, his moderators took over, podcasting and collaborating with viewers to share videos…
By Nathan Grayson Published April 14, 2021 -
CultureTwitchAfter Nonstop 31-Day Stream, Ludwig Breaks Ninja’s All-Time Twitch Subscriber Record
For 31 days, Ludwig Ahgren’s stream has been up and running all day every day. He hasn’t been awake the entire time, but he and his moderators have ensured that it’s grown to be one of Twitch’s most consistent and comforting presences—albeit one that is probably taking a not-insignificant mental and physical toll on everyone…
By Nathan Grayson Published April 13, 2021 -
CultureDiscord Blocks All iOS Users From Accessing NSFW Servers
If an iPhone is your main window into Discord’s cacophonous void of yelling gamers, your options just got a lot more limited. While many Discord servers include user-created NSFW channels, Discord announced it will begin designating entire servers as NSFW. On desktop and in browser, this means you’ll need to be 18 or older to…
By Nathan Grayson Published April 13, 2021 -
CultureOdds and EndsIt Didn’t Take Kingdom Hearts PC Mods Long To Go Off The Rails
Kingdom Hearts III has been out on PC for less than two weeks. Anyway, here’s Thomas the Tank Engine If you’ve played a Kingdom Hearts game before, you can probably already guess what Thomas’ nightmare visage takes the place of: Yep, the tram in Twilight Town. “I wanted to bring in a bit of that…
By Nathan Grayson Published April 13, 2021 -
CultureSplitscreenIn 2007, Video Game Memes Took A Dark Turn
Memes. These days, they’re everywhere. They are the pillars upon which internet culture—and by extension, pop culture—stands. But once upon a time, memes dwelled in the internet’s dankest sewers, traded in the darkness by geeks, nerds, and outcasts. On this week’s Splitscreen podcast, we examine how video games helped propel memes into the mainstream consciousness—and…
By Nathan Grayson Published April 9, 2021 -
CultureTwitchThe NFT Bubble Might Be Bursting, But Streamers And Esports Orgs Are Still Getting In On It
As of last month, the age of NFTs was officially upon us. As of this month, it might be on its way out. Average prices have declined by as much as 70% since a peak in February, according to Bloomberg. That, however, has not stopped big-name streaming and esports figures from announcing their own NFT…
By Nathan Grayson Published April 9, 2021 -
CultureTop Female Streamer Becomes Part-Owner Of Massive Esports Organization 100 Thieves
The past year has not been kind to, uh, basically anybody, but Rachel “Valkyrae” Hofstetter is one of the (generally wealthy) exceptions that proves the rule. She started 2020 with so-so numbers on her YouTube stream, only to ride the Among Us phenomenon to absurd 100,000-viewer heights from which she has yet to come down. As…
By Nathan Grayson Published April 7, 2021 -
CultureTwitchTwitch Will Now Take Action Against Threats, Violence, And Sexual Assault On Other Platforms
Many Twitch streamers have YouTube channels, and vice versa. They also have Twitter pages, Instagrams, TikToks, SnapChats, and basically every other kind of account under the sun. For years, Twitch has taken activity on other platforms into account when deciding to suspend or ban streamers, albeit inconsistently—and typically only when an infraction had also happened…
By Nathan Grayson Published April 7, 2021 -
Culture#BoycottGenshin Is Tearing The Genshin Impact Community Apart
Last night, Genshin Impact began trending on Twitter for all the wrong reasons. Which ones, exactly? Well, that’s the thing: Nobody can really agree on what lies at the core of the erupting volcano that has sprouted next to developer miHoYo’s cash cow. Currently, the #BoycottGenshin hashtag is composed of legitimate complaints about stereotypes, some…
By Nathan Grayson Published April 6, 2021 -
CultureDiscord Deleted Thousands Of Violent Extremist And Criminal Servers In 2020
Thanks to the endlessly depressing extent to which covid has kept everybody trapped inside, Discord is more relevant than ever. But as the company revealed in its latest transparency report, that has led to new challenges—and improved efforts to confront other challenges it probably should have put more effort into sooner. Discord, which is reportedly…
By Nathan Grayson Published April 5, 2021 -
CultureDisco Elysium: The Final Cut, As Told By Steam Reviews
A free update to a masterpiece? That adds full voice acting, new quests, and a slew other of bonus features? Gee, I’m sure Steam users are hating that. I joke because Disco Elysium’s new Final Cut version might be the surest possible layup in Steam history. The original, released in 2019, was a role-playing masterpiece…
By Nathan Grayson Published April 5, 2021 -
CultureSplitscreenSingle-Player Games Are Finally Making A Comeback, Sort Of
Once upon a time, Shigeru Miyamoto famously said, “A delayed game is eventually good. A bad game is bad forever.” It’s a statement that felt like it would never fall out of fashion, until it did. Modern games are never finished. Bad games become good. Good games become bad. Games of all stripes add social…
By Nathan Grayson Published April 2, 2021 -
CultureTwitchTwitch’s ‘Hot Tub Meta’ Has Sparked Off Yet Another Debate About Women’s Attire
Twitch trends come and go, but one thing remains constant: the endless debate around what women should be allowed to wear on the platform. Now it comes in a summery new flavor: hot tub streams. Recently, streamers have declared these broadcasts the new “meta,” outraging the usual suspects—but also leading some female streamers to voice…
By Nathan Grayson Published April 2, 2021 -
CultureTwitchDifferent Millionaire Fights Refrigerator
Sometimes, you just decide that you’ve gotta fix something, and you’re not going to rest until you’ve won a battle of wits and wills against a piece of plastic. Most of the time, though, you don’t have 80,000 people watching you do it. Today, Twitch star Ludwig Ahgren, trapped in the purgatorial “final” hour of…
By Nathan Grayson Published March 31, 2021 -
CultureTwitchMillionaire Forgets To Pay Electric Bill
Today, the top streamer on Twitch was forced to quit mid-stream because, he says, he forgot to pay his power bill. He is a millionaire. You hate to see it. These days, Félix “xQc” Lengyel is notably more mature than the guy who got booted from an Overwatch League team in 2018 after a string…
By Nathan Grayson Published March 31, 2021 -
CultureKotaku Game DiaryI Wish Genshin Impact Cared About My Time As Much As Its Story Seems To
Reused NPCs. An environment you’ve already spent dozens of hours in. Contrived progress gating based on time. On paper, Genshin Impact’s current event, the Windblume Festival, sounds like it’s scraping the bottom of the barrel. In reality it’s a chill yet inventive exercise in making an in-game holiday feel like, well, an event. But it…
By Nathan Grayson Published March 30, 2021 -
CultureActivision Blizzard Hires Former Trump Administration Member Once Decried As ‘Bully’
Today, Activision Blizzard announced the promotion of Blizzard chief commercial officer and the chief operating officer Armin Zerza to CFO of the whole company. What it did not announce to the public is that it has also hired a new chief administrative officer: former Donald Trump administration member Brian Bulatao. Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick…
By Nathan Grayson Published March 29, 2021 -
CultureSplitscreenWhere Did Gamer Snacks Come From, Anyway?
There are snacks, and then there are snacks for gamers. Through chalky chemical combinations of dubious repute, they will somehow make you aim better in Fortnite. How did we reach the point where snacks for a hobby that takes place primarily on the couch are basically workout supplements? On this week’s food-focused episode of Splitscreen,…
By Nathan Grayson Published March 26, 2021 -
CultureTwitchTwitch Stop Sign Stream Temporarily Stops After Address Leaks, Neighbors Receive Pizzas
This week on Twitch, a stop sign became a saga. Stopsigncam, a 24/7 stream of a single intersection in Salem, Massachusetts where drivers regularly blow through a stop with no concern for their lives or others, blew up thanks to a viral TikTok. But at the peak of its popularity, it went offline. Since Wednesday…
By Nathan Grayson Published March 26, 2021
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