{"id":18489,"date":"2025-04-14T11:37:21","date_gmt":"2025-04-14T09:37:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/14\/plaything-how-black-mirror-took-on-its-scariest-ever-subject-a-1990s-pc-games-magazine\/"},"modified":"2025-04-14T11:37:21","modified_gmt":"2025-04-14T09:37:21","slug":"plaything-how-black-mirror-took-on-its-scariest-ever-subject-a-1990s-pc-games-magazine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/14\/plaything-how-black-mirror-took-on-its-scariest-ever-subject-a-1990s-pc-games-magazine\/","title":{"rendered":"Plaything \u2013 how Black Mirror took on its scariest ever subject: a 1990s PC games magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

This story from Charlie Brooker\u2019s dystopian series is set at PC Zone magazine and thrillingly close to true events at one dingy London office in the 90s<\/p>\n

Out of all the episodes in the excellent seventh season of Black Mirror<\/a>, it\u2019s Plaything that sticks out to me and I suspect to anyone else who played video games in the 1990s. It\u2019s the story of socially awkward freelance games journalist, Cameron Walker, who steals the code to a new virtual pet sim named Thronglets from the developer he\u2019s meant to be interviewing. When he gets the game home, he realises the cute, intelligent little critters he\u2019s caring for on the screen have a darker ambition than simply to perform for his amusement \u2013 cue nightmarish exploration of AI and our complicity in its rise.<\/p>\n

The episode is interesting to me because \u2026 well, I was a socially awkward games journalist in the mid-1990s. But more importantly, so was Charlie Brooker. He began his writing career penning satirical features and blistering reviews for PC Zone magazine, one of the two permanently warring PC mags of the era (I shared an office with the other, PC Gamer). In Plaything, it\u2019s PC Zone that Cameron Walker writes for, and there are several scenes taking place in its office, which in the programme is depicted as a reasonably grownup office space with tidy computer workstations and huge windows. I do not think the production design team got this vision from Brooker.<\/p>\n

Continue reading…<\/a>
\nThis story from Charlie Brooker\u2019s dystopian series is set at PC Zone magazine and thrillingly close to true events at one dingy London office in the 90s
\nOut of all the episodes in the excellent seventh season of Black Mirror, it\u2019s Plaything that sticks out to me and I suspect to anyone else who played video games in the 1990s. It\u2019s the story of socially awkward freelance games journalist, Cameron Walker, who steals the code to a new virtual pet sim named Thronglets from the developer he\u2019s meant to be interviewing. When he gets the game home, he realises the cute, intelligent little critters he\u2019s caring for on the screen have a darker ambition than simply to perform for his amusement \u2013 cue nightmarish exploration of AI and our complicity in its rise.
\nThe episode is interesting to me because \u2026 well, I was a socially awkward games journalist in the mid-1990s. But more importantly, so was Charlie Brooker. He began his writing career penning satirical features and blistering reviews for PC Zone magazine, one of the two permanently warring PC mags of the era (I shared an office with the other, PC Gamer). In Plaything, it\u2019s PC Zone that Cameron Walker writes for, and there are several scenes taking place in its office, which in the programme is depicted as a reasonably grownup office space with tidy computer workstations and huge windows. I do not think the production design team got this vision from Brooker. Continue reading…Technology | The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This story from Charlie Brooker\u2019s dystopian series is set at PC Zone magazine and thrillingly close to true events at one dingy London office in the 90s Out of all the episodes in the excellent seventh season of Black Mirror, it\u2019s Plaything that sticks out to me and I suspect to anyone else who played …<\/p>\n

Plaything \u2013 how Black Mirror took on its scariest ever subject: a 1990s PC games magazine<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":18490,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18489"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18489\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}