Steam Needs to Balance Freedom with Responsibility

It is pretty clear that Valve, the company in charge of the dominating PC video game retail and distribution system that is Steam, is aiming to keep as far as possible from being responsible about it and plans to allow almost any developer to deliver almost any title on it.

The new policy, announced in a rather long and somewhat confused blog post just before the start of the week of E3 2018, explains that a recent controversy over mature material has convinced the company that is should allow developers to offer video games without any restrictions (other than legal ones linked to the territory where they are made and sold) while relying on the users to vote with their money and to make sure that those who do not deliver any value will be left behind.

The new Valve policy is a boon from a freedom of expression perspective and will allow more niche audiences to get cool content from Steam, a good thing, while also increasing the number of titles available, which is both great and a problem for gamers, given the limited tools for curation that are available.

The decision to tweak what is allowed to arrive on the digital distribution service will also make it easier for the company to defend its decisions, because it can rely on freedom as the core concept, giving it space to dispense largely with moderation and curation. Gamers will have to pick up this responsibility and itțs unclear whether Valve has any new aids for them.

Steam is dominant at the moment but it will be interesting to see whether rivals, from GOG to publisher driven services to itch to others, will make curation one of their own selling points and can use it to eat into the market share of the Valve product.

Until them I am happy that more potentially cool games will be launched but I think that Valve should carry more of the curation and moderation burden, which is possible even while remaining faithful to the idea of free expression in the video game medium.

E3 2018: The Elders Scrolls VI and Cyberpunk 2077

Electronic Arts, Microsoft and Bethesda have already held their press conferences at the 2018 edition of the E3 video game focused event, with a relatively high number of interesting announcements delivered by the three companies and some interesting choices when it comes to short versus long term planning of reveals .

In an industry that has recently focused on quickly delivering announced titles to gamers, preferably in less than 9 months after the official announcement, both Cyberpunk 2077 and The Elder Scrolls VI are bucking the trend and yet both were the most commented on and appreciated games at their press events. Is this a sign that we, as gamers and humans, are more attracted to things that exist in the future, because they offer more possibilities and the potential for more excitement down the line, or that players want to see entirely new mechanics and that is only possible with video games that will probably only arrive on an entirely new hardware generation?

Cyberpunk 2077 was first revealed to the public way back in 2012 and a first trailer arrived in 2013. It only took until E3 2018 for the team at CD Projekt RED to deliver a full trailer, with some hints of gameplay but still mostly cinematic driven, but there was no hint of a release date. There are plenty of rumors about the title, including that it underwent a soft reboot around two years ago, and there are also hints that Microsoft, which used its press event to debut the trailer, has a deal to make it a showcase for its coming hardware, yet announced but widely rumored to be 3 to 4 years away.

For The Elder Scrolls VI Bethesda has delivered a very short teaser that reveals nothing but still closed down their press conference. The company has explicitly talked about next gen in relation to the game, although it is unclear whether they are talking about hardware or only about the engine they are planning to use. Except to see more details before the end of the year, possibly via leaks, and maybe a full trailer at next year’s E3 press conference.

The fact that this two titles are currently getting a lot of attention could be linked entirely history, franchise loyalty or developer renown. My personal take is that The Elder Scrolls VI and Cyberpunk 2077 are currently so popular because they embody the hopes of their fans (and some unaffiliated gamers) that video games can deliver something very different. We have an industry, as seen during the initial three press events, that’s segmented between big budged sameness and low budget surprise (there are exceptions) and love for big titles that are far from their launch date is a way to project that this situation can change and we might get something that’s both high quality and innovative.

Ironia lipsește câmd e vorba de politica din România

Chiar dacă e o zi cu puține știri e absurd cât de multă lume reproduce o replică de pe Facebook a fostului premier Tudose pe care o și evaluează ca ironică, așa cum face News.ro dar nu numai.

Problema e că politicianul nu face decât să încerce ironia, care oricum pare mai degrabă sarcasm, fără să livreze ceva cât de cât capabil sau inteligent, o problemă generală în România chiar și când e vorba de insulte. De fapt aici se întâmplă doar o referință forțată, o încercare de creare de interes prin atașsarea unui gest lipsit de sens clar de o situație care a atras mai multă atenție acum ceva vreme.

Dacă Tudose chiar vrea să fie interesant, indiferent de mediul prin care comunică cu potențialii alegători, trebuie să caute un subiect care are o clară conexiune cu cititorii/alegătorii și să îl abordeze folosind atributele pe care vrea să le promoveze ca politician. Mai mult, poate e o idee bună să tacă mai mult și să nu comunice decât în spațiul pe care partidul/organizația îl definește pentru el.

Ironia și/sau sarcasmul pot să fie puternice dacă sunt mânuite de politiciani foarte inteligenți sau care au echipe de comunicare foarte bune. Pentru cei mai mulți e mai bine să livreze comunicare simplă, directă, care nu ajunge să fie raportate de site-uri de știri.

Lack of Clarity from Microsoft Will Hurt New Offensive Language Policy for Xbox One

Microsoft has revealed, buried inside a longer statement about updates to its terms of service, that the company actively prohibiting the use of offensive terms when it comes to Xbox based services on both the One console and the PC. Those who violate the new terms can be suspended and banned from their accounts and can lose access to licenses and devices.

The section of the wider update that’s most relevant for gamers reads: “In the Code of Conduct section, we’ve clarified that use of offensive language and fraudulent activity is prohibited. We’ve also clarified that violation of the Code of Conduct through Xbox Services may result in suspensions or bans from participation in Xbox Services, including forfeiture of content licences, Xbox Gold Membership time and Microsoft account balances associated with the account.”

It is commendable that Microsoft is working to limit the impact of offensive language on the gaming platforms that it manages but the company is doing a very poor job communicating about its efforts. The above statement is vague enough that the community has taken it both to mean that bans and moderation will be increased and to say that nothing will change in the actual policy and that the company is only updating the terms to make them clearer for those who might have misinterpreted before.

Toxicity, mostly related to voice and text chat and the deluge of offensive terms that some use, is a major issue for the gaming industry and many gamers claim that multiplayer experiences cannot improve it moderation, including suspensions and bans, is not improved significantly.

But before it can act Microsoft needs to become much better at communicating with those who bought and use the Xbox One or associated services on the PC. This means offering clear statements about their intentions, a list of terms that can trigger moderation and a clear goal that it wants to reach when it comes to creating a welcoming platforms for gamers to express themselves without offending others.

Comisia Naţională de fundamentare a planului naţional de adoptare a monedei euro

Un nume scurt, clar, bine definit, cum sunt probabil și planurile României de aderare la euro. “Comisia pentru adoptarea euro” e, probabil, prea simplu pentru guvernul condus de Partidul Social Democrat, care are nevoie de complexitate generatoare de confuzie în toate.

Mai interesant e că prim-ministrul Dăncilă, citată de news.ro, vrea ca liderii comisiei să fie cel sau cea care ocupă postul de lider al guvernului și președintele Academiei Române, în timp ce șeful Băncii Naționale e doar vice-președinte, alături de vice-premierul pe probleme economice. E destul de clar că cineva nu înțelege foarte clar despre ce e vorba în procesul de adoptare a euro.

Academia Română este acum condusă de Cristian Hera, specializat pe științe agricole, iar în prezidiu nu e nici un specialist în economie. E drept că o comisie și liderii ei nu reprezintă întreg efortul relevant pentru aderarea la zona euro dar modul în care un efort este structurat la început are un efect asupra modului în care evoluează.

“Comisia Naţională de fundamentare a planului naţional de adoptare a monedei euro” e dominată de executiv și nu oferă o poziție relevantă pentru BNR. E un alt exemplu de dominație a politicului și a simbolicului asupra competenței. Și un exemplu de apreciere a numelor lungi și care nu spun foarte multe lucruri.

Videogames Can Educate About Violence, Public Needs to Be Educated About Them

Violence is an inescapable element of human existence. Violent crimes, especially those involving firearms, are an inescapable fact of modern life. Videogames are becoming one of the most popular forms of entertainment of those who life this modern life. And there are plenty of people who see a direct link between titles like Call of Duty or The Evil Within and people who pick up a gun and decide to kill.

We can and we should work to reduce their impact and the incidence of violent acts in our societies but we cannot do that by finding scapegoats or by working against entire industries because of links that have not been conclusively proven by science.

The so called Videogame Summit that president Donald J. Trump conducted last week was, as reported by the Washington Post, a solid if limited attempt to see how video games developers and the people who represent their interests can interact with the political establishment in order to maybe reduce the propensity towards violence that exists in society. The meeting might have kicked off with a montage of context free shocking moments from modern titles but it’s a good sign that there was no tone of incrimination that emerged from the main participants.

There are no solid studies that show causation between violence videogames and violence in the real world but there are some, disputed but used by certain groups, showing some correlation between the two. Banning sales of titles and limiting access has already been tried and seems like a non-starter on legal grounds but the ESA, the ESRB and governments can work in order to find a way to make it easier to educate individuals about what they play, how they approach their experiences and monitor how their understanding of the world and even behavior is affected.

Panic and recrimination are not the responses that can solve a crisis but they can help stakeholders find ways to reconcile positions and find new ways to work together. In the case of violent videogames and violent acts the best idea is to educate those who create them, those who market them and those who consume them.

On its own Call of Duty (to use a name that means something even to non-gamers) will not drive someone to acquire a weapon and do something criminal. But the game coupled with conspiracy theories, limited support networks, ideologies that degrade fellow humans, unrestricted access to firepower and other factors can lead to very different and violent outcomes.

The videogame industry cannot on its own work to make sure that every player is grounded and understands that virtual violence should not be translated to the real world. But it can share information and data with the government and other groups to try and make sure that information and education is available to players and that they can make a clear distinction between what they do in Call of Duty and how they go about their lives once their exit their favorite shooter or horror title.