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Smart home gadget ends a violent dispute by calling police (updated)
Inadvertent smart speaker commands aren't always bad. New Mexico police report that a smart home device (incorrectly labeled at first as a Google Home) intervened in a domestic violence incident by calling 911. When Eduardo Barros asked "did you call the sheriffs?" as he threatened his girlfriend with a gun during a fight, the device interpreted it as a request to call emergency services. They overheard the altercation and called both negotiators and a SWAT team, who arrested Barros over assault, battery and firearms charges after a stand-off.
How violence in video games changes with the times
Violence is the default mechanic in the video-game world. But as video-game graphics become more realistic and virtual reality headsets make games more immersive, developers are taking greater care with the way they portray murder and gore. The independent scene is a driving factor in this space, with an influx of games that eschew traditional tropes in favor of other forms of tension.
Truly intelligent enemies could change the face of gaming
Live, die, repeat -- the tagline for the 2014 science-fiction film Edge of Tomorrow -- describes its protagonist, who "respawned" every time he died in the real world. Critics noted that the conceit resembled the cyclical experience of playing a video game, in which dying resets a staged arrangement of obstacles. Often these are enemies, and the most common way they're surpassed is by the player violently dispatching them. Some games have kept this as cartoonish as Mario jumping on a Goomba's head, but others strive for vivid action and more-lifelike foes to pit the player against. But we know what enemies look like today -- how will we treat them in the games to come? Put another way: How will violence in gaming change in the future?
Leak reveals Facebook's rules for controversial content
It's no secret that Facebook's judgment calls on risky content are sometimes more than a little problematic. But just what are the rules guiding those decisions? You'll know after today. The Guardian has obtained leaked copies of over 100 internal documents outlining Facebook's rules for handling sensitive content, and it's clear that the social network is struggling to walk a fine line between freedom of expression and protecting users. At least some of it is understandable, but there are areas where its decision-making might rub you the wrong way.
Terror attack victims claim social media enables extremism
Social media has allowed violent extremism to flourish, and the companies involved have done nothing to prevent it. That's the claim being made by relatives of those murdered in the San Bernardino terrorist attack in a Los Angeles court. Reuters is reporting that families of some of the victims have launched a lawsuit against Facebook, Google and Twitter. The trio stand accused of providing "material support" to terror groups through omission, refusing to properly tackle the issue and shut down such online activity.
The Engadget Podcast Ep 37: Modern Things
On this episode senior editor Chris Velazco and social media manager Evan Rodgers join host Terrence O'Brien for the last ever video edition of The Engadget Podcast. From here on out the show is going audio only, which will allow the show to bring you a wider variety of guests from all over the country and the globe. But those aren't the only changes at the site. Engadget has a new editor chief and a renewed focus on doing what it does best: Bringing you the best and most important stories in tech. For example, on this week's show the panel discusses Facebook's ongoing problem with violent videos and livestreamed crimes. They'll even try to figure out who, ultimately, should be responsible for policing such content, if anyone. Then they'll dig deep... real deep on the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus. TL;DR: They're amazing phones that should be on your shortlist and might even make you forget about the Note 7 debacle.
Violence for all: 'Postal' goes open source
Behind the ongoing public debate on violent video games, a few key titles always stand out -- but before the public was freaking out about Grand Theft Auto, it was reeling in shock from Postal. This ridiculous satirical smorgasbord of violence earned the accolade of "digital poison" from Senator Joe Lieberman at launch, but still gathered a cult following. Earlier this year, the game saw a high definition remaster -- but the original game isn't dead yet. Developer Running With Scissors just announced that its making the 1997 original open source -- publishing the code on Bitbucket under the GPL2 license.
Can VR help to reduce police shootings?
VR is already used to help juries understand crime scenes, so it's no surprise it could also be used to better educate police officers. That's the idea behind BEST, a VR police training simulator that's been built to try and reduce police-related violence. The company's Jed Merrill explained that on average, in 2016, close to 2.6 people are shot by officers every single day. His hope is that, with more immersive training, those incidents can be avoided.
'Battlefield 1' reminded me that before war was a game, it was hell
The Battlefield games aren't exactly known for having the best single-player modes. In fact, players ignore the series' solo experiences so routinely that this was actually a reason we didn't see a campaign mode in Star Wars: Battlefront last year. "Very few people actually play the single-player on these kinds of games," EA's Peter Moore said at the time. "That's what the data points to." So, naturally, when I picked up a copy of Battlefield 1 earlier this week, I planned to skip directly to online multiplayer -- but the game didn't let me. First, it had to teach me a history lesson. "Battlefield 1 is based upon events that unfolded over one hundred years ago," the game told me immediately after booting up. "What follows is front line combat. You are not expected to survive."
World's largest game expo tightens security following violence
Germany has been hit by a string of mass violence as of late, and the effect of those tragedies is about to spill over to the gaming community. The organizers behind Gamescom, the world's largest gaming trade show, have introduced tighter security measures that will definitely be noticeable if you make it out to Cologne for the event. They're banning not only weapon replicas, but "weapon-like items" -- like it or not, your Deadpool or Harley Quinn cosplay will have to go without armaments. Even exhibitors will have to label any vaguely threatening props to avoid raising alarm bells.
Take a look at how 'No Man's Sky' handles combat
In the almost three years since we first saw No Man's Sky, gameplay videos and previews have focused mostly on its exploration and survival aspects. Now, mere weeks ahead of its PlayStation 4 launch, we're getting a better look at how the game earns its "fantasy violence" descriptor from the Entertainment Software Ratings Board. The clip embedded above focuses on combat not only in outer space against armadas of ships, but also the various procedurally generated (and dangerous) creatures on the planets you'll galavant around.
Why I don't have the stomach for 'Battlefield 1'
Battlefield is a tentpole AAA gaming franchise that has made its name by thrusting players into some of the world's most brutal and deadly combat zones. So while it was a little surprising to learn that Battlefield 1 would be set in World War I (few historical combat games have tackled this particular conflict), it's still in keeping with the series' history. In a more general sense, plenty of movies, games and books use war as a backdrop for storytelling, and plenty of those stories are quite violent. So why did the violence on display in Battlefield 1's trailer bother me so much?
Twitch user allegedly broadcasts assault on significant other
A Twitch user is under fire for purportedly broadcasting an assault on his partner. The account, belonging to "joedaddy505," has been closed on Twitch due to service violations, but at least one YouTube video of the stream contains audio of what sounds like the broadcaster repeatedly hitting a crying woman and insulting her. Viewers have speculated that since there was no video to go with the audio, "Joedaddy505" may have thought his stream had ended. When reached for comment, a Twitch spokesperson said that the company doesn't comment on service violations. We also asked Twitch if law enforcement had been contacted and were given the following response:
'Postal Redux' brings remastered mindless violence to Steam, PS4
When Running With Scissors released Postal in 1997, Senator Joe Lieberman offered a succinct review of the game during a press conference in Washington, D.C: "This is sick stuff. And sadly, it sells." Lieberman and other lawmakers were on a mission to ban or censor many violent, mature games in the United States, and Postal was at the top of the list. It's an action game based entirely on random, mindless killing: Viewing the cartoonish Postal Dude from an elevated perspective, players run through unsuspecting towns, villages and cities, gunning down as many people as possible. Each level ends when the Postal Dude has murdered the required amount of people. It's uncompromising and gruesome, and the gameplay is interspersed with diary entries that read like the religious ramblings of a megalomaniac. It's the kind of game that, even today, would walk a fine line between garnering public praise and open disgust -- and Running With Scissors is ready to see which way the tides turn. Again. Postal Redux, an HD version of the original title, is heading to Steam (for PC, Mac and Linux) this spring and to PlayStation 4 later this year.
One of Japan's lovable store robots was drunkenly punted
Just one month after Hitchbot was brutally attacked in Philadelphia, a shop assistant robot in Japan has also suffered the wrath of angry humans with a grudge. According to Japan Times, a drunken 60-year-old entered a Softbank store and, after an angry exchange, punted one of the company's cute Pepper robots. The kick-happy individual may not have thought too hard about the unit's humanity (or otherwise) but it's another in a growing list of anti-robot acts. A recent Wired piece points out that people's fears about futuristic AI stealing our jobs might be unfounded, since more people will be required to maintain our new overlords. As for the victim in this incident, Pepper's family have asked for privacy, but Japan Times believes that the robot is currently moving slower than normal, and may have suffered damage to its internals. Aww.
'Mortal Kombat X' and the comedy of violence
Mortal Kombat is synonymous with violence -- hell, it's baked into the franchise's name. But despite how increasingly gruesome the series has become with each successive release throughout its 23-year history, it hasn't lost sight of keeping the tone light as a counterbalance. Whether that's a head popping up saying, "Toasty!" in falsetto after a particularly brutal uppercut, or turning an opponent into a crying baby that slips on a puddle of frozen urine at the end of a match, humor is just as intrinsic to the game as its bloodshed. What the series delivers is cartoony, over-the-top violence akin to the B-movie horror of something like Peter Jackson's Dead Alive. Fatalities, Mortal Kombat's signature, end-of-match moves, are shockingly gory, for sure, but somehow developer NetherRealm keeps the game from feeling like torture porn. "We're not out trying to make Saw or a horror film," says NetherRealm Lead Designer John Edwards. "We don't take ourselves too seriously."
ISIS threatens Twitter employees after account was blocked
Middle Eastern terror group ISIS has apparently threatened the lives of Twitter's employees, as well as that of its chairman, Jack Dorsey. The threat was reportedly made as a response to the service's policy of blocking accounts that directly encourage acts of violence or illegal activities such as terrorism. BuzzFeed has translated portions of the message, part of which reads "when our lions come and take your breath, you will never come back to life."
London police raise privacy hackles with gang violence software
London's Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) has completed a 20-week study in a bid to more accurately predict whether specific gang members are likely to commit violence. The software, developed by Accenture, pulls data together from systems already used by the MPS and runs it through an analytics engine. It's looking at geography, past offenses, associations with other criminal and even social media postings. An MPS spokesman told the BBC that the system would record and analyze threats or negative comments made by gang members on social media, for example.
Offended by the 'Hatred' trailer? You're a hypocrite (and that's a good thing)
This week, a game about a genocidal maniac was announced. There's a video trailer for the game that depicts ultraviolent bedlam: a murder spree of innocent victims, many begging for their lives. So it's basically another week in video games, then? Not quite. Okay, okay -- let's rewind and unpack. An unknown development studio from Poland (Destructive Creations) released an announcement trailer (with extremely violent gameplay and sociopathic dialog) for its upcoming PC game, Hatred. The video's around 90 seconds long and, if you're like me, you'll likely find it difficult to sit through. Before the very, very angry main character begins his murder spree, he declares, "My genocide crusade begins here." He's a tall, muscular, white guy with long black hair -- he sort of looks like Glenn Danzig -- and he's about to kill a lot of people. But isn't that what you do in loads of other games? Yes! But also no.
Gaming culture critic Sarkeesian cancels speech after school shooting threats (update)
Following threats of extreme violence at Utah State University, feminist culture-critic Anita Sarkeesian has cancelled her speech at the school scheduled for Wednesday. This morning, someone claiming to be a student at the university emailed staff members, saying that he or she would commit "the deadliest school shooting in American history" if the event wasn't cancelled, according to Utah newspaper The Standard Examiner. The email's author says that feminists have ruined their life and promised a "Montreal Massacre-style attack," stating that he or she possesses a variety of firearms and explosives and that no one in attendance or at the campus' Women's Center would be able to defend themselves should the lecture take place. This isn't the first time Sarkeesian has come under threat, either -- let alone the first time this year.
