In this week’s newsletter: When the New York Times removed the word ‘fetus’ from the game out of fear of making a political statement, they did just that
The New York Times’s acquisition of viral word game Wordle has not been without its controversies: some players are convinced that the words have become more obscure (remember CAULK? I’m still not over it), and the solutions less satisfying. I’ve felt a vague sense of dissatisfaction with it myself since late February, though I’m not sure how much of that is a natural drop-off from the times of Wordle mania, and how much has anything to do with the game itself. This week, though, there was a genuine controversy when the NYT decided to remove the word “fetus” as a solution to one of last week’s puzzles. However, the change didn’t roll out properly, so some players got it anyway.
The NYT wanted to change the solution – which would have been set way ahead of time, because Wordle’s algorithm picks from a preset list – because of the word’s sudden news relevance. We’re talking, of course, about the leaked supreme court draft that puts the US on the brink of rolling back abortion rights for millions of women. A NYT Games statement explained the technical difficulties involved in making the change, and said that the paper “[takes] our role seriously as a place to entertain and escape, and we want Wordle to remain distinct from the news.”
EA is back into making Lord of the Rings games, it seems, with a free-to-play mobile game called Heroes of Middle-Earth that will have players collecting and battling characters from the Tolkien’s world. It’ll be out this summer.
In 2009, as part of a marketing stunt, 2K Games made a solid gold Wii to present to the Queen. People Make Games decided to track it down for a documentary a while back – it’s a fun watch. Anyway, the Queen’s Golden Wii is now up for auction, if you fancy massively overpaying for a strange piece of gaming history.
As mentioned in a previous edition, there’s no E3 this year, but that doesn’t mean no game announcements. The Game Awards host and seasoned industry hype man Geoff Keighley is hosting a live showcase on 9 June as part of his Summer Games Fest event, and he usually has no trouble getting gaming’s big players on board. This might sate the desire for one of those bombastic EA press conferences.
For GamesIndustry.biz, veteran journalist Colin Campbell delves into the autobiography of Reggie Fils-Aime, the former president of Nintendo of America, to see what can be learned from the big man and his time at gaming’s most resilient purveyors of fun. Spoiler: it appears that Reggie is not a man who lacks self-belief.
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In this week’s newsletter: When the New York Times removed the word ‘fetus’ from the game out of fear of making a political statement, they did just that
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The New York Times’s acquisition of viral word game Wordle has not been without its controversies: some players are convinced that the words have become more obscure (remember CAULK? I’m still not over it), and the solutions less satisfying. I’ve felt a vague sense of dissatisfaction with it myself since late February, though I’m not sure how much of that is a natural drop-off from the times of Wordle mania, and how much has anything to do with the game itself. This week, though, there was a genuine controversy when the NYT decided to remove the word “fetus” as a solution to one of last week’s puzzles. However, the change didn’t roll out properly, so some players got it anyway.
The NYT wanted to change the solution – which would have been set way ahead of time, because Wordle’s algorithm picks from a preset list – because of the word’s sudden news relevance. We’re talking, of course, about the leaked supreme court draft that puts the US on the brink of rolling back abortion rights for millions of women. A NYT Games statement explained the technical difficulties involved in making the change, and said that the paper “[takes] our role seriously as a place to entertain and escape, and we want Wordle to remain distinct from the news.”
EA is back into making Lord of the Rings games, it seems, with a free-to-play mobile game called Heroes of Middle-Earth that will have players collecting and battling characters from the Tolkien’s world. It’ll be out this summer.
In 2009, as part of a marketing stunt, 2K Games made a solid gold Wii to present to the Queen. People Make Games decided to track it down for a documentary a while back – it’s a fun watch. Anyway, the Queen’s Golden Wii is now up for auction, if you fancy massively overpaying for a strange piece of gaming history.
As mentioned in a previous edition, there’s no E3 this year, but that doesn’t mean no game announcements. The Game Awards host and seasoned industry hype man Geoff Keighley is hosting a live showcase on 9 June as part of his Summer Games Fest event, and he usually has no trouble getting gaming’s big players on board. This might sate the desire for one of those bombastic EA press conferences.
For GamesIndustry.biz, veteran journalist Colin Campbell delves into the autobiography of Reggie Fils-Aime, the former president of Nintendo of America, to see what can be learned from the big man and his time at gaming’s most resilient purveyors of fun. Spoiler: it appears that Reggie is not a man who lacks self-belief. Continue reading…Technology | The Guardian