politics
UK study says over 1 in 10 young gamers go into debt due to lootbox spending habits
The pushback against lockboxes in gaming in the UK continues in spite of the matter not exactly making non-stop headlines. A new study from...
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is seemingly cracking down on orgs and ‘politics’ in-game
Back in October, we reported on a move by Joe Biden's presidential campaign to create an island in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which was...
Judge enforces a Dutch government order for EA to remove FIFA lockboxes or face over $11M in fines
This has been a long and drawn-out battle, so let us review: Back in 2017 when the outrage against lockboxes was at its highest...
Presidential nominee Joe Biden has his own Animal Crossing: New Horizons island
As a US presidential hopeful, you want to make sure you have your message spread to as many corners of the country as possible....
Fallout 76 roleplay group had its Facebook account terminated for being mistakenly flagged as a hate group
Politically, things in the US are... charged, to say the least, and the impact of misinformation efforts across social media platforms is more in...
Second Life bans all in-game advertisements that are ‘political in nature’
Launching into political rants in global chat or hijacking the guild discussion to make everyone uncomfortable with views on election candidates is seen as...
New executive order could ban US transactions with Tencent – potentially bad news for gaming [Updated]
File this one under "I was about to go to sleep when the internet erupted in an absolute panic over Tencent": Late this evening,...
Riot Games canceled its League of Legends esports partnership with Saudia Arabia after massive backlash
The League of Legends esports community was set on fire and then partially doused this week thanks to a decision - now rescinded -...
Fortnite is hosting the We the People panel on race in America for the Fourth of July
Fortnite is a dance floor, a murder simulator, a concert hall, a movie theater, and now, a home for serious discussion: Epic Games is...
Gaming companies from Blizzard to Daybreak stand in solidarity with Black Lives Matter
Update: We've been updating the end of this piece with all the online gaming studio statements we can find this week.
Sony has apparently decided...
Popular Chinese MMO JX3 Online will close in Taiwan following COVID-19 protest
This article needs a quick bit of backstory: Chinese doctor Li Wenliang was one of the first whistleblowers for the current COVID-19 epidemic; he...
Lawful Neutral: Examining the infamous MMO lockbox, 2020 edition
I have a soft spot for paranormal horror. I love movies about demons, ghosts, hauntings, possessions. There's one particular movie from the early aughts...
Blitzchung: No regrets for speaking up for Hong Kong despite Hearthstone suspension
Chung Ng Wai, better known as Blitzchung, took a big risk when he spoke out in support of Hong Kong on an official Hearthstone stream....
Presidential hopeful Joe Biden calls out Silicon Valley game devs as ‘creeps’
It would appear that US presidential hopeful and former vice president Joe Biden has an unkind view of most Silicon Valley tech companies and...
SEED polls its community to find out how personal politics will affect their play choices
Whether we like it or not, the politics of the real world can inform much of what happens in-game, even if people want the...
Activision-Blizzard’s Bobby Kotick downplays the role of politics in games
Activision-Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick clearly doesn't fear the Blizzard boycott that is still technically ongoing following Blizzard's October decision to penalize a Hearthstone esports...
US politician shades Blizzard over World of Warcraft toxicity
Last week, the gaming world was a tad busy running Halloween events and watching BlizzCon, so it passed almost without notice that a US...
UK’s children’s commissioner calls for tighter legislation on lootboxes
A report from UK children's commissioner Anne Longfield is calling for stricter laws on lootboxes and to amend current gambling laws to include lootboxes,...
Riot Games expresses ’empathy’ for Blizzard after its Hong Kong fiasco
One might wonder why, possessed as it was of a pretty good week of announcements, Riot Games would willingly put Blizzard's One Ring on...
How Pokemon Go company Niantic is collecting (and using) your life’s data
We probably don't need to tell our audience this, given that while yes, you all have phones, you're also typically not obsessive about gaming...
