Noob Shelter Podcast: Episode 16

NS-0016-2019-10-21-Final.mp3
SHOW INFORMATION:
  Show Notes for October 21, 2019
  Episode: 0016
  Show Title: Beijing Blizzard
  Run Time: 1:04:22
Credits
  Executive Producers: None
  Hosted By: Matt Fugitive, John Rythone & Feyd2Black Mike
  Special Thanks to the following:
  End of Show Song: Halo Theme Unplugged - The Warp Zone
  Dave Jones: Freedom Controller
  Adam Curry / John C. Dvorak: Sound Clips
  John Fletcher: Sound Clips
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TOP SEGMENT:
  China, Hong Kong and the State of Video Games
    SOUND CLIP -> CNN - Blizzard Story.mp3
    What to Know About the Esports Backlash to Blizzard Over Hong Kong | Time
      Link to Article
      Mon, 21 Oct 2019 22:57
      Though video game culture is seldom a quiet, peaceful place, the uproar over Blizzard Entertainment punishing a popular gamer for showing support for Hong Kong protesters has shaken the whole industry.
      Ng Wai Chung, a Hearthstone player from Hong Kong who goes by the name ''Blitzchung,'' championed the pro-democracy protests in his hometown that have raged for the past five months during his appearance on a post-game stream. And Blizzard, the developer and publisher of Hearthstone, quickly responded with blanket punishments for everyone involved. It's the latest example of an American company caught between business interests in China and western-world freedom of speech.
      Outrage over Blizzard's reaction swiftly came from players, industry titans and politicians. It also came at a time when international attention on the protests and wariness over China's response to it has grown. Eventually, Blizzard reduced the punishment, but it doesn't seem like the negative fan sentiment will disappear any time soon'--especially after the video game giant disciplined another group for supporting Hong Kong.
      During a Hearthstone championship match stream on Oct. 8, the day Blizzard announced its ruling on Blitzchung, three American University esports players raised a sign that read ''Free Hong Kong. Boycott Blizz.''
      Blizzard told CNN that it had banned the three students for six months from esports tournament play for ''knowingly breaking the rules.''
      Here's what you need to know about the Blitzchung, Blizzard and the Hong Kong protests:
      Who is Blitzchung? Blitzchung is a professional esports player of the online collectible card game Hearthstone, who hails from Hong Kong. He has played in multiple tournaments and according to the Hearthstone esports player profile, he is currently ranked seventh in the Hearthstone Grandmasters for the Asia-Pacific region in the second season of 2019.
      According to Liquipedia, he has earned more than $20,000 playing in various games and tournaments connected to the game.
      Why did Blizzard punish Blitzchung?On Oct. 6, Blitzchung appeared on the official Taiwan Hearthstone stream after the Grandmasters second season of 2019 ended. During an interview with two streamers, Blitzchung put on a ski mask and gas mask, similar to ones worn by Hong Kong protesters to protect themselves from tear gas and banned by the government earlier this month.
      The streamers, apparently aware of Blitzchung's motivations, ducked down to hide their faces. For his part, Blitzchung reportedly said in Chinese, ''Liberate Hong Kong. Revolution of our age.''
      In a statement to Inven Global later on Oct. 6, Blitzchung defended his message on the stream.
      ''As you know there are serious protests in my country now. My call on stream was just another form of participation of the protest that I wish to grab more attention,'' his statement read. ''I put so much effort in that social movement in the past few months, that I sometimes couldn't focus on preparing my Grandmaster match. I know what my action on stream means. It could cause me lot of trouble, even my personal safety in real life. But I think it's my duty to say something about the issue.''
      Two days later, Blizzard issued a ''ruling'' that Blitzchung's message on the stream violated a section of the Grandmasters' rules that states players would refrain from ''Engaging in any act that, in Blizzard's sole discretion, brings you into public disrepute, offends a portion or group of the public, or otherwise damages Blizzard image'...''
      ''Grandmasters is the highest tier of Hearthstone Esports and we take tournament rule violations very seriously,'' the ruling stated.
      Blizzard punished Blitzchung by taking away any prize money he won in the Grandmasters second 2019 season and banned him from playing in Hearthstone esports professionally for a year.
      In the ruling, Blizzard also said it would cut ties with the two streamers who attempted to hide themselves from Blitzchung's actions, saying ''We will also immediately cease working with both casters.''
      Blizzard is a huge developer and publisher of video games, responsible for some of the most popular titles worldwide like World of Warcraft, Overwatch, the Starcraft series and the Diablo series.
      Besides the cited rule violation, the most obvious reason for Blizzard to punish all those involved is China's enormous, and expanding market. Esports is big business in China, with analyst reports speculating that the sport could be worth $3 billion as the government moves to recognize it as a profession.
      Additionally, the largest gaming investor company in the world, China's Tencent, owns a 5% stake in Blizzard, according to multiple reports. Tencent has also partnered with Activision Blizzard (Blizzard Entertainment's parent company) on projects such as Call of Duty Online for the Chinese market.
      Activision Blizzard is among the largest gaming companies in the world, with revenue of $7.5 billion in 2018.
      How have other gamers responded?In the English-speaking world, backlash to Blizzard's ruling came quickly and loudly from Hearthstone players, as well as other gamers. They blasted the decision, and proudly aligned themselves with Hong Kong protesters.
      Shortly after Blizzard's decision, a moderator from the Hearthstone subreddit (which boasts more than 1 million subscribers), decided to step down from that position saying, ''After four years of being a moderator for the sub and an advocate for this game, I am leaving the moderation team as this is no longer a company I want to support or follow.''
      The Reddit moderator's post received more than 48,000 upvotes and an outpouring of respect for the moderator's decision and remorse for Blizzard's. In the past week, the subreddit has been flooded with posts calling out Blizzard, which have received hundreds of thousands of upvotes. This reaction isn't just seen on reddit.
      A notable esports commentator, Brian Kibler, wrote a long Medium post that tried to understand Blizzard's perspective, but ultimately told the company he would no longer work on Hearthstone Grandmasters finals.
      ''The heavy-handedness of it feels like someone insisted that Blizzard make an example of Blitzchung, not only to discourage others from similar acts in the future but also to appease those upset by the outburst itself,'' Kibler wrote. ''That kind of appeasement is simply not something I can in good conscience be associated with.''
      Fans of one of Blizzard's other huge properties have joined in to protest the company and support Hong Kong. Players of Overwatch, an online multiplayer shooter, have taken to using the ice-gun wielding character Mei as a symbol of protest against the Chinese government and Blizzard.
      The idea took hold with parts of the internet and has inspired a great deal of fan art, all in the service of shaming Blizzard.
      How have Blizzard employees responded?The day after Blizzard's initial punishment, a group of employees at the company walked out in protest, according to a report from The Daily Beast.
      ''I'm disappointed,'' a Blizzard employee told the Daily Beast. ''We want people all over the world to play our games, but no action like this can be made with political neutrality.''
      The Daily Beast's reporting said that up to 30 people gathered at the company's famed orc statue in Irvine, Calif. Later that day, a post on Reddit from someone who claimed to be a Blizzard employee showed a picture of the apparent protest, with employees holding umbrellas, which are a continued symbol of Hong Kong protests.
      How have the video games industry and politicians responded?Blizzard's decision made waves through some of the biggest players in the video games industry, some of whom reacted in opposing ways.
      Riot Games, creator of the another popular esports game, League of Legends, put out a stern reminder to esports competitors to keep their commentary on the game and away from sensitive issues. Last week, Global Head of League of Legends Esports John Needham issued a statement that made that clear to players saying, ''We serve fans from many different countries and cultures, and we believe this opportunity comes with a responsibility to keep personal views on sensitive issues (political, religious or otherwise) separate.''
      Epic Games, the company behind the cultural behemoth Fortnite, took the opposite approach. Founder and CEO Tim Sweeney simply said on Twitter last week, ''Epic supports the rights of Fortnite players and creators to speak about politics and human rights.''
      Blizzard's move against Blitzchung and the ensuing backlash also caused a headache for Nintendo, as the affair came right before the release of Blizzard's Overwatch title for the Nintendo Switch. On Oct. 14, the Twitter account for the Nintendo store in New York City tweeted out the cancellation of an Overwatch event planned for Oct. 16. The tweet put the cause of the cancellation squarely on Blizzard.
      As this whole affair comes on the heels of a very similar recent story that pitted the NBA versus China, politicians from both sides of the aisle have also weighed in on Blizzard's move. Both Sens. Ron Wyden and Marco Rubio tweeted their repudiation of censuring the Hearthstone player.
      How did Blizzard reduce the punishment?After days of silence as the outrage grew louder, Blizzard President J. Allen Brack responded to the criticism with a blog post on Oct. 12.
      In the post he announced that the company would be reducing Blitzchung's punishment and giving him the prize money from the tournament he had competed in, though Brack defended the cause the company initially cited.
      ''In the tournament itself blitzchung *played* fair. We now believe he should receive his prizing,'' the post read. ''But playing fair also includes appropriate pre-and post-match conduct, especially when a player accepts recognition for winning in a broadcast. When we think about the suspension, six months for blitzchung is more appropriate, after which time he can compete in the Hearthstone pro circuit again if he so chooses.''
      Additionally, Brack explicitly denied that any speculation that sensitivities about China was the cause of this decision is false.
      ''The specific views expressed by blitzchung were NOT a factor in the decision we made,'' he wrote. ''I want to be clear: our relationships in China had no influence on our decision.''
      Contact us at editors@time.com.
    Blizzard is banning people in its Hearthstone Twitch chat for spamming pro-Hong Kong statements - The Verge
      Link to Article
      Mon, 21 Oct 2019 23:03
      In February, Blizzard announced a new Hearthstone e-sports program, called the Masters Tour, to pit the game's best players against each other for a chance to win the acclaim of the internet (and potentially a lot of money). A European leg of the tour is currently happening in Bucharest, and you can catch the action over on Twitch.
      But there's a catch: anybody who posts anything pro-Hong Kong seems to be earning an automatic 24-hour chat ban, as reported by Dot Esports. (On Twitch, a chat ban means that you can't post anything in a channel's chat for a certain amount of time; offenses and ban lengths are both specified by moderators.)
      That said, the bans seem inconsistent. On Friday afternoon, over at the @PlayHearthstone Twitch channel, the chat filled up with pro-Hong Kong messages that didn't seem to be getting deleted. That might be because the channel was showing a rerun of an earlier match and the moderators weren't around to see what was happening. (A Blizzard esports spokesperson clarified that the bans were being triggered by spamming phrases in the channel's chat.)
      There have been a series of massive protests in Hong Kong this summer, kicked off by the introduction of an extradition bill. As the summer went on, Hong Kong police escalated their use of force, deploying tear gas, bean bag rounds, and in some cases, live fire. At the same time, a number of US companies with interests in China have tried to discourage employees from speaking out in support of the protestors '-- most notably in the case of the NBA.
      Blizzard, whose games are big business in China, has run into similar issues. On October 8th, the company issued a yearlong ban to Ng ''Blitzchung'' Wai Chung, a prominent professional Hearthstone player from Hong Kong, after he said a pro-Hong Kong slogan in a post-game interview. (They also stripped him of his tournament winnings.) After a public outcry, Blizzard reduced the length of the ban by six months and reinstated his prize money '-- although a week later, the company suspended three college Hearthstone players for six months after they held up a sign that said ''Free Hong Kong, Boycott Blizz'' during an official competition stream.
      At the time, Blizzard released a statement addressing the incident with Chung wherein its president, J. Allen Brack, wrote that the company's decisions weren't influenced by its (significant) business and relationships in China. ''Moving forward, we will continue to apply tournament rules to ensure our official broadcasts remain focused on the game and are not a platform for divisive social or political views,'' Brack wrote. With this latest Twitch policy, it appears that Blizzard is doubling down on its pro-China stance.
      Across the industry, though, corporate reactions have been mixed. Riot Games, which publishes League of Legends, said broadcasters shouldn't talk about ''sensitive topics'' on air, referring to Hong Kong; Epic Games, on the other hand, said it wouldn't ban players or creators for political speech.
      Update October 21st, 11:05AM ET: A Blizzard esports spokesperson clarified that the company is not banning people from its Hearthstone Twitch chat for using pro-Hong Kong speech specifically (or any other political statements); the bans have been triggered by an automated moderating system that catches viewers ''spamming any phrase repeatedly.''
    Blizzard denies banning Twitch viewers for pro-Hong Kong chat - Business Insider
      Link to Article
      Mon, 21 Oct 2019 23:04
      Blizzard denied reports that it was issuing bans for Twitch users who expressed support for the Hong Kong protesters via chat.Twitch viewers complained that they had received 24-hour bans from the "Play Hearthstone" Twitch channel after typing "Free Hong Kong."In a statement to Polygon, Blizzard said it was "not banning people from Twitch chat for specifically using pro Hong Kong speech or any other political statements" but for spamming the chat with the same message.The US games giant has faced widespread public criticism in recent weeks for its bans of several "Hearthstone" players who've expressed support for the protests in Hong Kong.Blizzard did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.Blizzard denied reports that it was issuing bans for Twitch viewers who expressed pro-Hong Kong views via chat.
      The US games firm hit back at reports suggesting that it was censoring viewers who typed "Free Hong Kong" into the chat box for the "Play Hearthstone" Twitch channel.
      Blizzard told Polygon: "We are not banning people from Twitch chat for specifically using pro Hong Kong speech or any other political statements. Bans are being levied by an automated moderating system that's triggered by viewers spamming any phrase repeatedly. We expect to have the issue corrected in the next few hours."
      A Twitch user was banned from a chat after typing "FREE HONG KONG." Reddit/Please_no_copy
      The esports publication Dot Esports first reported that anyone who typed the words "Free Hong Kong" in Twitch's chat area during the "Hearthstone" Masters Tour in Bucharest, Romania, over the weekend saw their message automatically erased and were handed a 24-hour ban.
      But Blizzard said it was barring only people who were spamming the chat with the same message.
      Blizzard did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.
      The explanation seems to make sense. Per The Verge, the chat bans were inconsistent, given that some pro-Hong Kong comments appeared to have been left during reruns of Masters Tour games. And at least one Reddit user claimed that the US games giant also barred Twitch viewers who expressed pro-China views.
      Blizzard has been at the center of a political firestorm in recent weeks after meting out a series of bans to "Hearthstone" players expressing support for the protests in Hong Kong.
      Read more: Blizzard says its 'relationships in China had no influence on our decision' to punish an esports athlete who voiced his support for Hong Kong protesters
      Earlier this month, the firm handed the professional player Chung "Blitzchung" Ng Wai a yearlong ban and confiscated his prize money after he yelled "Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our age!" in Chinese during a postgame interview. Amid public outrage, it reduced the ban to six months and gave back his money.
      More recently, it handed six-month bans to three college-level players who held up a sign that read "Free Hong Kong, Boycott Blizz" during a tournament livestream.
      Blizzard '-- whose parent company, Activision Blizzard, is partly owned by the Chinese tech conglomerate Tencent '-- has denied that China is the driving force behind its bans. In a statement discussing Blitzchung's ban, Blizzard's president, J. Allen Brack, insisted that "our relationships in China had no influence on our decision."
      Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is among the US politicians to have questioned Blizzard's recent actions. ERIN SCOTT / Reuters
      Brack added: "One of our goals at Blizzard is to make sure that every player, everywhere in the world, regardless of political views, religious beliefs, race, gender, or any other consideration always feels safe and welcome both competing in and playing our games."
      But gamers, politicians, and even Blizzard's employees appear unconvinced.
      As many as 30 Activision Blizzard employees reportedly walked out of work in protest on October 8. And on Friday, several US politicians, including Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, signed a letter urging Blizzard to rethink Blitzchung's ban.
      The company has also become the source of widespread mockery on social media, with its "Overwatch" character Mei morphing into an unofficial anti-Blizzard mascot.
    SOUND CLIP -> IGN - Daily FIX - Blizzard Boycot.mp3
    Blizzard Got 'Vibe Checked' by Congress Over Hong Kong | The Mary Sue
      Link to Article
      Mon, 21 Oct 2019 23:05
      In a rare show of bipartisan action, Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. House and Senate united to send a strong rebuke to Activision Blizzard Entertainment. The video game giant has been roundly criticized for what many see as a censorial approach to the ongoing protests and crisis situation in Hong Kong.
      The letter sent by Congress to Blizzard on October 18th was co-signed by Democratic Senator Ron Wyden, Republican Senator Marco Rubio, Democratic Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Tom Malinowski, and Republican Representative Mike Gallagher.
      They begin by highlighting their concern over Blizzard's treatment of Ng Wai Chung, the Hearthstone pro player who was made to forfeit tournament prize money and banned from Blizzard tournaments for a year after his public support of the Hong Kong protest movement. Blizzard's move, and subsequent silence for a week, caused an uproar amongst gamers and reverberated worldwide.
      The members of Congress from the get-go suggest that Blizzard's choices were tied to their business interests in China. Their letter reads:
      We write to express our deep concern about Activision Blizzard's decision to make player Ng Wai Chung forfeit prize money and ban him from participating in tournaments for a year after he voiced support for pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. This decision is particularly concerning in light of the Chinese government's growing appetite for pressuring American businesses to help stifle free speech.
      ['...]
      Activision Blizzard benefits from China's growing market for e-sports, along with an investment from Tencent, one of China's largest technology firms. As you and your company are no doubt aware, the Chinese government uses the size and strength of its economy to suppress opinions with which it disagrees.
      ['...]
      Your company claims to stand by ''one's right to express individual thoughts and opinions,'' yet many of your own employees believe that Activision Blizzard's decision to punish Mr. Chung runs counter to those values. Because your company is such a pillar of the gaming industry, your disappointing decision could have a chilling effect on gamers who seek to use their platform to promote human rights and basic freedoms. Indeed, many gamers around the world have taken notice of your company's actions, understandably calling for boycotts of Activision Blizzard gaming sites.
      The Wyden/Rubio/Ocasio-Cortez/Malinowksi/Gallagher missive ends with a blistering call-out of Blizzard in no uncertain terms:
      As China amplifies its campaign of intimidation, you and your company must decide whether to look beyond the bottom line and promote American values-like freedom of speech and thought-or to give in to Beijing's demands in order to preserve market access. We urge you in the strongest terms to reconsider your decision with respect to Mr. Chung. You have the opportunity to reverse course. We urge you to take it.
      You can read the entire Congressional letter, addressed to Blizzard Entertainment Chief Executive Robert Kotick, in PDF form here via Senator Wyden.
      I first saw this go by in memefied form, a sign of how closely plugged-in Internet communities are tracking Blizzard's activity. ''CONGRESS JUST VIBECHECKED BLIZZARD,'' wrote Tumblr user yourfavisawarcriminal when they posted the letter to the social blogging site. The post took off; support for Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement and the protestors involved is largely universal across disparate online community lines, just as it brought together unlikely allies in Congress.
      Other users on Tumblr added to the original post, having fun with imagining Ocasio-Cortez and Rubio battling together for once, but also underscoring how serious the issue is. That such prominent, often polarized lawmakers are unabashedly excoriating Blizzard together demonstrates how poorly the company has been performing on an international stage.
      Oli Welsh, the editor over at Eurogamer, has an incisive piece about the ''impossible choice'' that Blizzard faces, concluding:
      Battening down the hatches and riding it out is not going to work; this isn't Diablo Immortal. It's not about the account cancellations, which could never hope to tip the scales of risk when there's a nation of 1.4 billion people on the other side. But it is about a battle for Blizzard's values, its identity, its soul. It will lose talent over this. It will lose loyalty. It will lose respect. More incidents like this will inevitably follow and Blizzard will, by increments, become a smaller company, a meaner one, a company that has lost touch with its sense of purpose. Eventually, the games will suffer. They will be less good, and players will desert them not for some ideological cause, but because they won't be as much fun any more. The magic will have gone.
      This is a situation that, as Welsh points out, will no doubt continue to unravel over many incremental incidents and even years for Blizzard, and there may not be easy answers or fixes. But we can take some heart in the knowledge that, at the moment, prominent names in the U.S. government are aware of what's happening, and they have transcended partisanship to repudiate Blizzard's moves thus far. The whole world is watching.
      (via PCGamesN, Eurogamer, Tumblr, images: Blizzard/Alex Wroblewski/Getty Images)
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      '--The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.'--
      Have a tip we should know? tips@themarysue.com
    SOUND CLIP -> Oliver - NBA China 1.mp3
Other Stories and/or Quick Shots:
  Toxic Twitch chat was one reason Fortnite star Ninja moved to Microsoft Mixer - CNET
    Link to Article
    Thu, 03 Oct 2019 16:39
    Ninja's jump to Mixer is making more sense.
    Sean Zanni/Getty Images Jessica Blevins, the manager and wife of Tyler "Ninja" Blevins, has given some insight as to why the Fortnite gamer made the jump from Twitch to Microsoft's Mixer platform on Aug. 1. The combination of a long contract negotiation and toxic chat reportedly led Ninja to move to another streaming platform after growing his fame on Twitch.
    In an interview with Business Insider published on Wednesday, Blevins says Twitch didn't make things easy for the pro gamer, who amassed more than 14 million followers on the platform. A contract with Twitch would limit the licensing deals Ninja could sign, Blevins said, and there was also the growing problem of Twitch chat.
    "I could tell, as his wife, the last few months on Twitch, he just didn't seem like the Ninja that I knew," Blevins told Business Insider. "He didn't seem as enthusiastic, as loud, as hyped up about wins and motivated to stream. It really seemed like he was kind of losing himself and his love for streaming."
    Since his move to Mixer, Ninja's channel has attracted more than 2.3 million subscribers. Twitch decided to keep Ninja's channel up after the move and used it to promote other Fortnite streamers. On Aug. 11, however, a renegade stream on Twitch said it was playing Fortnite but in reality was showing pornography. Ninja took to Twitter to say he was "disgusted" over what happened. Twitch has since removed his channel from the platform.
    Twitch didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
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    1:22
  Nintendo's Brain Age series makes its return on Switch - VG247
    Link to Article
    Thu, 03 Oct 2019 16:42
    By Emily Gera,Monday, 30 September 2019 15:49 GMT
    Nintendo's Brain Age series, once a staple of its handheld DS device, is making a return later this year exclusively on Switch.
    A new version of Brain Age '' which you may know as Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training, depending on your whereabouts in the world '' is coming to Japan this year, Nintendo announced by way of YouTube video.
    Its title when translated reads: ''Nintendo Switch Training for Adults with Brain Training Supervised by Prof. Ryuta Kawashima, Research Institute for Aging Medicine, Tohoku University''. Like the original series, the upcoming release challenges the player with daily maths puzzles, memory tests, and pattern recognition tests to ''train'' the brain. The new Switch release will also include support support for two players and a number of battle modes.
    As shown in the video, the new game makes specific use of some of Switch features for its puzzles including its built-in gyroscope and infrared camera. For instance, the camera is used to record and interpret hand and finger movements on the device. A Switch-compatible stylus will also release the same day in Japan, for those fully nostalgic DS feels.
    The first Brain Age game launched for Nintendo DS way back in 2005. By 2012 the series was up to its fourth entry, this time on Nintendo 3DS. But that was the last we'd seen on the franchise until now.
    Brain Age releases December 27 in Japan. So far there's no word on when it will see a release elsewhere, but we've reached out to Nintendo for comment.
  Actual Space Mission Picks Sonic The Hedgehog As An Official Mascot
    Link to Article
    Thu, 03 Oct 2019 16:38
    In June 2022, a rocket will launch carrying the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, a spacecraft made by the European Space Agency and Airbus. And as it hurtles through the cosmos on its mission to study Jupiter's moons, it will carry with it the blessing of...Sonic the Hedgehog.
    One of the instruments onboard was developed in Japan by Tohoku University , who wanted Sonic as the mascot for one of the mission's principal tests'--a Radio & Plasma Wave Investigation, or RPWI'--and got Sega's blessing.
    I'm going to assume that this test involves some kind of probe that wiggles, otherwise that logo is going to take some explaining.
    The Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, or JUICE, is scheduled to arrive at Jupiter in 2029, where it will perform tests on three of the planet's moons'--Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa'--to see if any of them are habitable, since they're believed to each contain large bodies of water.
    Once JUICE is out of fuel, it's designed to ''deorbit'' and crash into the surface of Ganymede in 2034.
  Free streaming-TV startup Locast accuses media giants of antitrust conspiracy - CNET
    Link to Article
    Fri, 27 Sep 2019 17:17
    Getty Images Locast -- a nonprofit startup that grabs over-the-air channels and streams them free over the internet -- said late Thursday that the four giant US broadcasters' "sham litigation" against it is an antitrust conspiracy to drive it out of business and threaten its supporters. Locast's first official answer to the copyright suit goes beyond simply rejecting the companies' accusations of copyright infringement to accuse them of collusion.
    And it's bringing Google's YouTube into the fight. Locast said executives at YouTubeTV -- a paid service that streams live TV channels -- met with the Big Four broadcasters suing Locast in April. According to Locast, the YouTube executives were told that if YouTubeTV provided access to Locast, then YouTubeTV would be "punished" by the media giants when YouTube renegotiated the licensing deals allowing its streaming service to carry media giants' cable networks.
    Disney 's ABC, CBS, Fox and Comcast's NBCUniversal sued Locast in July. Representatives for the broadcast networks didn't immediate respond to a message seeking comment. (Note: CBS is the parent company of CNET.)
    The Locast service is available in 13 cities, including New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
    The suit was the first attack against a company that many see as a successor to Aereo, a for-profit streaming service that five years ago offered consumers livestreams of broadcast channels for a monthly subscription. That came at the height of broadcasters' anxiety about cord-cutting and consumers forsaking them for streaming services, and in 2014 the Supreme Court ruled that Aereo was illegal , leading to its demise.
    One difference between the cases, however, is Locast's nonprofit status. US copyright law has allowed certain nonprofit institutions to grab over-the-air TV signals and retransmit them to nonpaying viewers, such as a university setting up an antenna that can retransmit to students in its dorms. Aereo, as a for-profit company, used a different, technological loophole when it argued its service was legal.
    Other corporate giants had been bolstering Locast before the suit. AT&T, which owns major pay-TV distributor DirecTV, donated $500,000 to Locast and planned to add Locast to its DirecTV and U-Verse set-top boxes. Dish, meanwhile, is making Locast a default app suggested on its new AirTV players.
    AT&T has also recommended that its customers use Locast while CBS is dark on its services earlier this year.
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    2:38
  The PlayStation 5 dev kit leaked and it looks like a very vexing video (game) vessel - VideoGamer.com
    Link to Article
    Mon, 21 Oct 2019 23:57
    A PlayStation 5 dev kit seems to have leaked and it does look like an evil spaceship (via games radar).
    The leak comes from a source for ZoneOfTech and it matches up with the supposed PS5 patents that have swirled. Earlier this month, Sony officially announced the next-generation console and provided a release window of the end of 2020. CEO Jim Ryan sat down with Wired and revealed a precious few scraps of information about the new hardware. Now, we might actually have our first proper look at it.
    NEW ðŸ--¥VIDEOðŸ--¥Playstation 5 - EXCLUSIVE First Look at Prototype 1https://t.co/9jNvFw20Zt#PS5 #Playstation5 #Exclusive #ZONEofTECH pic.twitter.com/YgEIRuFauE
    '-- Daniel (@ZONEofTECH) October 18, 2019Or, it could be codswallop, so let's all settle down. Right, if this is a real image of the PS5, there are interesting features that imply Sony's priorities and ambitions for the next-generation. There's the usual power, eject, and reset buttons shown on the front, nothing to write home about there. Six USB ports are featured, and it's got a chunk cut out of it like a slice of chocolate cake. It may be there for ventilation and cooling when the PS5 gets hot under the collar playing souped up games.
    It may also be there because 'V' is the Roman numeral for five and a designer felt the lightbulb ping delightfully above their head. It's probably the former. And, there are two INIT ports on the left side of the 'V': 'System' and 'Network'. This adds credibility to the image, because this is usually seen on PlayStation dev kits as the INIT ports let developers and media use the retail or internal software in the hardware. An intriguing circle on the right of the 'V' looks like a camera, which was touted as a feature from a leak a few weeks ago.
    Also, there's a lot of time between now and late 2020. All of this could change, if it is a real image of the new console. Sony's announcement of the PS5's pitched release window coincides with that of Project Scarlett's, but we still have no clue what Microsoft's console will look like. We do know that Project Scarlett will be backwards-compatible with all three generations of the Xbox, though.
  Hearthstone Trophy Falls Apart In Winner's Hands [Update]
    Link to Article
    Tue, 22 Oct 2019 04:39
    During this weekend's Hearthstone Championship tournament, Canadian player Eddie ''Eddie'' Lui triumphed over Hong Kong's Lo ''kin0531" Tsz Kin, winning nearly $95,000 and the title of Bucharest Master Tour Champion. He also got a lovely trophy that immediately fell apart. Update 1:25 pm ET: Blizzard says it was meant to do that
    I would like to think that the trophy, which was presented to Lui at around the one hour and 53 minute mark in the video below, fell apart in protest to Blizzard's recent treatment of Hong Kong player Wai Chung ''Blitzchung'' Ng, who was suspended and had his winnings withheld (the winnings were eventually restored ) for delivering a pro-Hong Kong message during a stream. ''No!'' the trophy in my imagination shouted. ''This cannot go on!'' it continued, before bravely popping its top, letting it clatter to the floor of the stage.
    In reality, there is no higher meaning here. (Probably.) We've asked the tournament organizers if they intend to replace the broken trophy and haven't yet heard back. This isn't the first time something like this has happened, though. We've seen trophies break during Pok(C)mon tournaments . We've seen them dropped by commentators . Maybe this Hearthstone trophy got dropped a few times before making it into Lui's hands. I mean, look at these guys. They look like they're trying to walk into each other.
    Make better trophies, people.
    Update 1:20 PM: Blizzard PR coordinator Eric Elliott responded to our inquiry, explaining the trophies come in two parts for easy travel.
    ''The trophy is in two parts to make transportation for the champion much easier. This way they don't have to plan on a larger suitcase in case they win, and to help avoid risks of it breaking during travel,'' says Elliott, adding ''If the trophy were to break then we would fix it for the champions.''
  We Discuss HBO's Unsettling New Watchmen TV Show
    Link to Article
    Tue, 22 Oct 2019 05:05
    Like the graphic novel did over 30 years ago, HBO's adaptation of Watchmen immediately surprises viewers with one of the most arresting takes on a comic book in years. As fans of good television and good comic books, Kotaku's Michael Fahey, Gita Jackson, and Joshua Rivera gathered around the digital water cooler to talk about this new rendition of the world envisioned in Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' seminal comic.
    Joshua Rivera: HBO's take on Watchmen is a sequel that doesn't assume you've read the comic or seen the film; instead it tells a story about an alternate 2019 that's different in ways that spin out of what happened in Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' graphic novel. Like that comic, the show has a surprise in store for people expecting something superhero-y. A big one: the prologue is set during the Tulsa, Oklahoma race riot in 1921. How did you all feel with the show throwing all that at us right out of the gate?
    Gita Jackson: When I finished the episode, I collapsed into uncontrollable laughter at trying to parse what it would be like to being a normal human being in that world. That said, I think I liked it?
    Michael Fahey: I started up the episode with absolutely no foreknowledge. I had read nothing. I had seen nothing but the early teaser trailers. I kinda sat and stared through the first 20 minutes or so. My wife, who had read ahead, laughed at me.
    It was a place I did not expect a comic book-inspired piece of entertainment, even one as dark as Watchmen, to go. I liken it to the first X-Men movie opening in a concentration camp.
    Joshua: That's a great comparison! I was pretty gutted and immediately felt awful'--like Gita says, this seems like an incredibly grim world to just exist in. But I also could not look away. It worked for me.
    Are either of you Watchmen fans? I'm a little hazy on the book, but know most of the important stuff.
    Gita: I read Watchmen at age like, 13, and it really informed a lot of my later tastes in comics. One thing I will say in this show's favor, is that it's finally a piece of superhero media that manages to be as fucking weird as the comics are.
    Fahey: I collected the comics when they first came out, left my carded and bagged set at a roommate's place I had to bolt from in 2001. Still own the trade, hated the squid-less ending of the movie. I LOVED the squid rain. Such a weird scene, sirens go off, little squidlets fall from the sky, but immediately I know as a comic fan that this is the world I remember, just several decades later.
    Joshua: Yeah! It's extremely clever in how it nods to anyone who read the comics. The squid rain is VERY good.
    Gita: Yes! It does truly, and meaningfully, build on the result of the ending of the comics. I feel like I'm only at the hysterical laughter place because there is so much that is yet to be explained.
    Fahey: As an aside, if you want weird-as-comics, Gita, watch Doom Patrol.
    Gita: You keep telling me to watch it, and I will finally relent.
    Joshua: Also, as an aside, I am vehemently nodding.
    Gita: Bless you both. But also: Robert Redford has been president for THIRTY YEARS???
    Joshua: Hahaha yes! I think this follows Nixon's 16-or-so year term that was happening during the comics.
    Fahey: Yeah, there is a scene in the show where the girl recites the presidents and it was something, Nixon, Redford.
    Joshua: And that Vietnam is the 51st state! Something I thought they made up in the show, but nope'--it's in a corner of the first issue! (I have been reading A LOT since last night.)
    Fahey: Ah, it's President Eisenhower, President Nixon, President Ford, President Redford. I wonder how long Ford made it.
    Either way, this world is pretty fucking grim.
    Joshua: Extremely grim! And it's leaning into the grimmest parts of the real world, going extremely topical with a fictional white supremacist group that has taken to wearing Rorschach masks, and a masked police force (cops wear masks now. It's weird) trying to bring them down. It's all incredibly well done, but incredibly hard to watch, and you'd be justified for being skeptical over how it's all going to play out. What stood out most to you two?
    Gita: I just have to wonder if any crimes are committed that are not a result of white supremacy.
    Fahey: It was hard not to constantly think about those masks. The yellow ones worn by patrolmen, the fancy reflective one worn by the interrogator, Looking Glass, and of course Sister Midnight's outstanding hood, mask, and makeup combo. This is a world where masked vigilantes are outlawed, but now the police wear masks for the very same reasons.
    I want a game journalist mask.
    Gita: In this show, the police in Tulsa are masked as a reaction to a previous ''war'' with the white supremacist, Rorschach-inspired Seventh Kavalry. You don't see them do anything but deal with the Kavalry. I'm not sure it's even necessary for the show to get into, but you have to wonder how people respond to a noise complaint violation being dealt with by a person in a mask.
    Fahey: They do seem to be of singular purpose. I want to see Sister Midnight deal with kids shooting off firecrackers. Would they be racially charged firecrackers?
    Joshua: Yeah, I like how uncomfortable I am seeing literally any mask in this show. Which is extremely Watchmen'--taking iconography you like, tilting it sideways, and making you very uncomfortable with how it plays out.
    Fahey: I got very uneasy during the traffic stop towards the beginning. It's very much a scenario that feels like an extension of the real world. A patrolman stops someone, suspects they might be violent, and has to call in to have his gun unlocked. The mechanism jams, and the patrolman gets shot up. I mean, fucking hell, guys.
    Sorry to cuss so much, but that's what I did throughout the episode. When I wasn't going, ''Oh Trent, your music is so dramatic.''
    Gita: Listening to Trent doing dance music again made me want to hit up the goth club.
    Fahey: I felt young and dangerous.
    Joshua: The score rules so much. I love a good goth groove.
    Gita: But Fahey, I'm with you, though I couldn't help but read it through the lens of race. We hear a lot about those kinds of patrol stops in the real world, but with the races reversed. So much of this first episode is centered around race'--we open with the death of Black Wall Street, then that traffic stop with the black cop and white driver, and then lead right into a child saying something racist to woman of color. Sometimes it felt like the show was doing a lot of work to make me root for a cop.
    I am more than happy to root for Sister Night, but also, uuhhhhhhhh...
    Fahey: For all the cops! This is a very pro-cops show so far. Of course, it's only the first episode, and if I know anything about Watchmen, shit is going to change. But most of this episode is a revenge arc, cops getting back at the white supremacists for taking down one of their own, then celebrating with a dinner party.
    Joshua: Right! Do you guys suspect that Sister Night will slowly start to uncover something amiss with the police? Everything's unsettling about this show, but the scenes in the precinct all feel...bad. Ominous. I think something's up!
    (I mean, the obvious thing folks bring up in criticism of this show is that we have news reports about how some cops are white supremacists, and I feel like if the show isn't aware of this....that's incredibly tone deaf.)
    Image: HBOFahey: I dunno, Chief Judd, played by Don Johnson, felt a little bit off himself, didn't he? Good old boy, little bit of a cokehead. Felt a little greasy. Considering the way the episode ends...
    Gita: Yeah, it does seem like we're about to uncover something unsavory about the police. And at the very least, I trust Lindelof to push the narrative as far as he can.
    Joshua: Same!
    So, before we wrap up, I want to ask you guys about my favorite totally off-kilter touch (and hear if you have any we haven't talked about yet): Jeremy Irons in the castle.
    Fahey: ''Oh boy, it's Jeremy Irons! Eat that scenery, Jeremy, nom nom nom,'' is exactly what I said when he came on the screen.
    Joshua: Genuinely laughed out loud when you said that, Fahey.
    Gita: ''That is a horseshoe.''
    Fahey: He's been my hero since the Dungeons & Dragons movie.
    Gita: I just love the fact that acclaimed actor Jeremy Irons will clearly do... anything. Looking forward to whatever nonsense he gets up to in this show.
    Fahey: He's Ozymandias here, though, right?
    Joshua: Right!
    Fahey: I bet his servants are robots.
    Gita: Oh they've gotta be.
    Fahey: And whatever he gets up to, he did it two episodes ago.
    Joshua: There's a newspaper headline you can peep for a second that says he's dead, but if you look online, HBO has ancillary articles you can read where it's clear no one found a body, he's just been missing seven years. So there's something weird going on there.
    Fahey: He was a bright spot in a grim tale, I will say. I agree with what Gita has been saying. They're painting a very interesting world and I wish I could see what was going on around the periphery.
    I hope I don't come away at the end of the series wishing they'd told some other story in this disturbing setting. Like, what's home life like for the white kid who asked about reparations in the classroom?
    Joshua: Oh man what did he call them? Redfordations?
    Like ''Obamacare.''
    Fahey: YES!
    Joshua: Extremely smart! Taking a social program meant to help those in need and turning it into a derogatory term.
    It's amazing how close to home this stuff all hits and yet I'm still entertained? But like you Fahey, I want this to feel worth it, you know? Not grim for grim's sake, which is the wrong lesson everyone learned from Watchmen the first time around.
    Fahey: Oh man, that post-Watchmen dark and gritty phase was BRUTAL.
    I just hope that when all is said and done, the true Watchmen were inside us all along.
  'Sonic the Hedgehog' Movie Character Redesign Leak | HYPEBEAST
    Link to Article
    Tue, 22 Oct 2019 05:05
    Oct 17, 2019
    122,484 Hypes Following major fan backlash, director Jeff Fowler and Paramount Pictures look to have completed the character redesign for the upcoming live-action Sonic the Hedgehog film.
    The major issue fans had were with the human elements that were used to create a realistic depiction of the iconic game character. Leaked images reveal that the revised look follows the cartoon look of Sonic closer than before. The redesign notably is devoid of teeth and sports a brighter tone of blue paired with more bulbous gloves and footwear.
    Take a look at the Sonic the Hedgehog character redesign for the upcoming movie below.
    For more entertainment news, Zo Kravitz has been cast as Selina Kyle in The Batman.
    pic.twitter.com/PuM2RHW6vc
    '-- ; (@BestInTheGalaxy) October 14, 2019
    What to Read Next Equipped with C-CAP cushioning technology.
    With cryptic Instagram posts.
    Tigerstripe through-and-through.
    Seth Rogen may be taking up the role instead.
    Featuring a plethora of mid-layers, a down vest, and more.
    Potentially looking at surgery.
    More '–¾