An investigation into how Spartans do their business

What comes next.

The gamification of the energy sector has been bad enough for employees; now, games are being used to recruit kids into the industry.

What comes next.

The entire code base leaked online. Now what?

Nvidia’s GeForce Now service lets any PC run Crysis.

Once considered niche, fringe, and the hobby of only outsiders or loners, video games have rapidly become one of the most popular and influential artistic forms of this century. Their imagery is near ubiquitous--children, adults, and even professional athletes know what a Fortnite dance is without having played the game, and every conversation about violence in media eventually turns toward Grand Theft Auto. We've reached a point where, through streaming platforms like Twitch, games don't even need to be played to be enjoyed, as whole robust communities form around watching others play. Games have grown into more than just products; they're touchstones, meaning that they've become popular enough for something radical to have happened: even while culture shapes our games, games have simultaneously begun shaping our culture. In Story Mode, video games critic and host of the No Cartridge podcast Trevor Strunk traces how some of the most popular and influential game series have changed over years and even decades of their continued existence and growth. We see how the Call of Duty games--once historical simulators that valorized conflicts like World War II--went "modern," complete with endless conflicts, false flag murders of civilians, and hyperadvanced technology. It can be said that Fortnite's runaway popularity hinges on a competition for finite resources in an era of horrific inequality. Strunk reveals how these shifts occurred as direct reflections of the culture in which games were produced, thus offering us a uniquely clear window into society's evolving morals on a mass scale. Story Mode asks the question, Why do video games have a uniquely powerful ability to impact culture? Strunk argues that the participatory nature of games themselves not only provides players with a sense of ownership of the narratives within, but also allows for the consumption of games to be a revelatory experience as the meaning of a game is oftentimes derived by the manner in which they are played. Combining sharp criticism of our most beloved and well-known video game series with a fascinating discussion of how our cultural values form, Story Mode is a truly original examination of the unique space games now occupy, from one of the sharpest games critics working today.

Twitch streamers are building tools to combat hate raids.

How the company behind “Call of Duty” and “World of Warcraft” became a haven for ex-Republican officials—and a hotbed of sexual harassment.

Beauty and solace in the abandoned worlds of Roblox.

My guest on today's episode is Devine Lu Linvega . How to begin describing Devine. In videogame terms he has created some wonderful games like Hivesaires , Donsol or the Proteus remix Purgateus. He currently lives with his girlfriend on a sail boat , where they run their floating studio 100r

This year's E3 didn't exactly live up to the conference's big history. But there was still plenty of hype to be found.

Cook faced surprisingly tough questions about the App Store.

A silly and dated new attempt to transport the classic fighting game to the big screen is a late-night drunk watch at best

An important tool.

Twitch’s Makers & Crafting category is a warm, welcoming place.

Despite being terrible at sports, I have been a sports fan my whole life. And for most of that time, I have wondered what it is about sports that makes them so appealing to so many people. At the h…

From timeouts to bans, Twitch’s Transparency Report shows how aggressive its moderation is getting. But users still have plenty of unanswered questions.

Support for the legacy version of Edge is ending soon

From freemium products to open-source projects to marketplaces to UGC platforms, free-to-play games are already everywhere.

The Ringed City, while a beautiful way to conclude Dark Souls, mostly left us with nothing but questions. As time went on, more and more…

It all started three years ago — with YouTube

Not a bad year for games.

Discord's founders just wanted to create a way to talk to their gamer friends. They created something much bigger.

Streaming is part of our current and future, so here’s where the services rank.