New York Times: Chess (Yes, Chess) Is Now a Streaming Obsession. “The coronavirus pandemic and stay-at-home orders have crowned a host of unlikely winners catering to bored audiences. But watching livestreams of chess games? Could one of the world’s oldest and most cerebral games really rebrand itself as a lively enough pastime to capture the interest of the masses on Twitch? Turns out, it already has.”
games
Input Magazine: ‘Airplane Mode’ simulates a 6-hour flight in coach because that’s how grim reality is now
Input Magazine: ‘Airplane Mode’ simulates a 6-hour flight in coach because that’s how grim reality is now. “Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 is having such a moment right now that people are apparently buying up all the supply of flight stick controllers, leaving plebes to use a keyboard and mouse or — *gasp* — gamepad like some kind of monster. Screw that hoity-toity front-of-the-plane-you’re-a-captain simulation because Airplane Mode is clearly the more realistic flying experience. The One True Flight Simulator.”
PC Invasion: Microsoft Flight Simulator quickly gets a freeware add-on site
PC Invasion: Microsoft Flight Simulator quickly gets a freeware add-on site. “There must be a new Flight Simulator in town, because a shiny new add-on website to host freeware content is already on the scene. Indeed, less than a week since its release, the talent within the flight sim community has already risen up to produce some new content for Microsoft Flight Simulator.”
Phys .org: Researchers launch video game exploring the effects of confinement
Phys .org: Researchers launch video game exploring the effects of confinement. “An interactive video game created by researchers and students in the EPFL College of Humanities (CDH) and UNIL Gamelab, in collaboration with the Initiative for Media Innovation (IMI) and Le Temps, allows users to explore a series of digital narratives that bear witness to the period of pandemic-induced isolation. Would you let your children play in the park? How can you stay focused during your distance-learning course? Who are you going to call to pass the time while semi-confined? People across the world are dealing with these questions, and many more, as social distancing and confinement have become key strategies for fighting the coronavirus pandemic.”
Fortnite Fallout: Epic Games’ War Against Apple & Google Explained (The Quint)
The Quint: Fortnite Fallout: Epic Games’ War Against Apple & Google Explained. “American video games and software developer Epic Games has sued Apple and Google for their monopolistic and anti-competitive policies and removing its highly-rated multiplayer game Fortnite from their respective app stores. The game was first removed by Apple citing Epic Games’ violation of Apple’s App Store guidelines. Google followed suit.”
Science Blog: Video Game Teaches Productive Civil Discourse And Overcoming Tribalism
Science Blog: Video Game Teaches Productive Civil Discourse And Overcoming Tribalism. “A Carnegie Mellon University researcher is proposing that students can learn to make their civil discourse more productive through an video game powered by artificial intelligence. The educational system targeted toward high schoolers adapts to students’ specific values and can be used to measure — and in some cases reduce — the impact of bias.”
CNN: Twitch is aiming to build an esports league specifically for Historically Black Colleges and Universities
CNN: Twitch is aiming to build an esports league specifically for Historically Black Colleges and Universities. “Streaming giant Twitch is partnering with Cxmmunity — an Atlanta-based non-profit focused on increasing minority participation in esports and the gaming industry — to offer the first-ever esports leagues geared specifically for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU).”
EurekAlert: New smartphone game lets you solve real-world ecological puzzles
EurekAlert: New smartphone game lets you solve real-world ecological puzzles. “EcoBuilder lets players build their own ecosystem of plants and animals. They throw together a bunch of species of different shapes and sizes, decide who eats who within the confines of the game, and depending on their decisions species will either survive or go extinct. The in-game processes that decide extinction and survival are modelled using the same equations used by scientists to study real world ecosystems. This means that natural phenomena can be reproduced inside the game, creating ecosystems that behave in realistic ways to provide real-world answers.”
Carnegie Mellon University: Live-Streamed Game Collects Sounds To Help Train Home-Based Artificial Intelligence
Carnegie Mellon University: Live-Streamed Game Collects Sounds To Help Train Home-Based Artificial Intelligence . “From yawning to closing the fridge door, a lot of sounds occur within the home. Such sounds could be useful for home-based artificial intelligence applications, but training that AI requires a robust and diverse set of samples. A video game developed by Carnegie Mellon University researchers leverages live streaming to collect sound donations from players that will populate an open-source database.”
Google Blog: The Indie Game Festival announces its nine winners
Google Blog: The Indie Game Festival announces its nine winners. “The talent of independent and small game developers shines this year at Google Play’s Indie Games Festival, a celebration of the creativity of game developers. We received hundreds of submissions for the three competitions in Europe, Japan and South Korea. This year’s winning games have something for everyone, from a food-themed puzzle game with cats to a Mars Survival Project.”
Kotaku: Hundreds Of Unreleased Prototype Games Are Playable For Free
Kotaku: Hundreds Of Unreleased Prototype Games Are Playable For Free. “Hundreds of prototypes of some of the most iconic games — Double Dragon, Street Fighter 2, Mega Man 3, AKIRA, Prince of Persia, Dr. Mario, NBA JAM, Killer Instinct and much more — have been uploaded to the Internet Archive and are now accessible to all.”
Pixelkin: Family Video Game Database Includes Information on Hundreds of Games
Pixelkin: Family Video Game Database Includes Information on Hundreds of Games. “Parent Zone and AskAboutGames have launched an informative gaming website aimed at parents and guardians. The Family Video Game Database includes details on nearly 600 games, including ESRB ratings, microtransactions, and multiplayer.”
Pride Month: The Sims to host virtual Pride Parade on Twitch (CNET)
CNET: Pride Month: The Sims to host virtual Pride Parade on Twitch. “June marks the 50th anniversary of LGBTQI Pride Month, and during a global pandemic, many traditional in-person celebrations are moving online. In honor of Pride Month, YouTuber EnglishSimmer will host a Virtual Pride Parade livestream on The Sims’ Twitch channel. Players can submit their best Sims from the life simulation game styled for Pride to potentially be featured in the parade.”
Arizona State University: ASU psychology researcher creates game to promote understanding of how COVID-19 spreads
Arizona State University: ASU psychology researcher creates game to promote understanding of how COVID-19 spreads. “The COVID-19 pandemic has led to widespread unemployment, remote working, school closures, business closures and overwhelmed health care systems. Mina Johnson-Glenberg, a research scientist in the Arizona State University Department of Psychology, created a web-based and augmented reality COVID-19 Modeling Simulation to create an engaging way to teach people how the virus spreads and ways to reduce transmission.” The game is currently available in alpha.
MakeUseOf: 5 Free Multi-Game Apps and Websites to Play With Friends Online
MakeUseOf: 5 Free Multi-Game Apps and Websites to Play With Friends Online. “There’s nothing like challenging a buddy to a game to get your competitive juices flowing. Here are some of the best multi-game apps and websites to play with friends online. Instead of downloading several different apps or signing up for lots of websites, the simpler way is to use apps that already have multiple games in them. One account, many games, and the ability to play with friends—what’s not to like about that? From playing card games online with friends to recreating tabletop games, strap in for some player vs. player action.”
