Just as grim, dystopian post-apocalyptic visions of the world have held a lasting place in popular culture, tabletop role-players have woven stories of barren wastelands, burnt-out urban hellscapes and eerie cyberpunk capers. But with living in difficult, turbulent times comes a desire to see more visions of a future where...
Can the act of reviving an obscure game be… art?
Jӧrg Tittel is an interesting guy. Born in Belgium, he studied in New York, and has an indefinable mid-Atlantic accent with hints of American and German. He has written, directed, and produced video games, stage plays, movies, and graphic novels, working on everything from Activision’s Minority Report licensed game to...
Can AI actually write good fanfiction?
Since artificial intelligence-powered text-generation tools were made widely available to the public in the past few months, they’ve been heralded by some as the future of email, internet search, and content generation. But these AI-powered tools also have some clear shortcomings: They tend to be incorrect, and often generate answers...
How content warnings became invaluable in modern games
There’s nothing more frustrating than working your way through a game only to bump up against some barrier — an unbeatable boss, a terrible platforming section, or the sudden appearance of a phobia. As time goes on, games are becoming increasingly sophisticated in how they break these barriers. One tool...
Disguised Toast is expanding beyond streaming, but it’s coming at a cost
Jeremy Wang, known as Disguised Toast on Twitch, has long been known as a shitposter. The streamer got his start doing trick plays and trolling players on the digital card game Hearthstone. In 2017, he joined OfflineTV, a content creation group co-founded by Pokimane and Scarra. Over time, he amassed...
Dragonflight’s first big patch delves into World of Warcraft mysteries
World of Warcraft’s newest expansion, Dragonflight, has a few plotlines and political struggles running through the story of patch 10.1, which debuted Thursday. The Embers of Neltharion patch takes players to the Zaralek Cavern and the Shadowed Crucible, an ancient laboratory where the one-time Neltharion — later corrupted to become...
Unicorn: Warriors Eternal creators on the animated marvel 20 years in the making
Watching Unicorn: Warriors Eternal, the latest creation from acclaimed animator-director Genndy Tartakovsky (Samurai Jack, Primal), in the media landscape of 2023 feels about as miraculous as seeing an actual unicorn grazing in a parking lot. In an era defined by sequels and reboots, spin-offs and reimaginings, Unicorn: Warriors Eternal is...
For Michael B. Jordan, Creed III’s anime influence goes way beyond the fights
Michael B. Jordan has never been shy about his love for Japanese animation, from Naruto and Dragon Ball Z to Bleach and My Hero Academia. A decade’s worth of endearing press appearances spread across his 25-year career attests to that fact. But for the 36-year-old actor-turned-director, the love goes deeper...
Rocket Raccoon was never supposed to be a superhero
The year was 1976. Gerald Ford was in the White House, Wings and Elton John were topping the charts, and in the ramshackle halls of Marvel Comics, a talking raccoon was born. It would be hard to imagine a more unlikely ascent to stardom over the past decade than that...
Worlds Beyond Number is the next big breakout actual play podcast
Actual play experiences — video or audio performances featuring people playing tabletop role-playing games — are extremely popular right now. Look no further than the gang at Critical Role, a group of talented actors who have parlayed their private weekly game of Dungeons & Dragons into a multi-million-dollar entertainment machine....