Let’s start the new year with some gaming news from PC Gamer.
“We also intend to be aggressive in applying AI and other cutting-edge technologies to both our content development and our publishing functions. In the short term, our goal will be to enhance our development productivity and achieve greater sophistication in our marketing efforts. In the longer term, we hope to leverage those technologies to create new forms of content for consumers.”
That’s the kind of framing that fills me with exhaustion. There’s a repeated pattern I’ve seen among AI’s biggest advocates—they’ll get very excited about the new technology, make something that’s over-reliant on it, and then be very confused when no-one’s amazed. Square Enix did this with NFTs—the company’s arguably still doing it.
Here’s some nice news to wash out the first story.
A 13-year-old streamer, Blue Scuti, became the first ever human to beat the classic game of Tetris on NES. Blue Scuti broke 3 world records in total — including that monumental accomplishment — during a semifinal match for the 2023 Classic Tetris World Championship (CTWC).
Since Tetris (or Classic Tetris) was released on the NES it was genuinely considered unbeatable. Players would play for as long as they could, until reaching the 29th level, at which point pieces would fall so fast it seemed impossible to keep up. Only an AI had ever beat it — until Blue Scuti came on the scene.
OK, I skimmed the video, and it is super impressive. I can’t imagine working that fast. And the Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy is playing the whole time…
Here’s PC Gamer griping about a little-known social media site.
I know what you’re thinking: Why does any of this rolling clownshow matter to PC Gamer dot com? You come here to read reviews and get your Gorbachevs ranked, dammit, not to hear about what happened with some rinky-dink and eternally collapsing social media website in 2023.
Well, it matters because Twitter is important. To gaming too. Yes, I hate to say it as much as you hate to hear it, but the fact is the site is still my go-to for breaking news, to follow journalists and academics, and to see the funniest and smartest people in the world be funny and smart for free . For games in particular, it’s still the first place I check in the morning to see what the day’s news is, it’s where devs congregate and journos network, it’s where studios post their templated apologies and where modders post about their creations.
So even though the site is losing users under Musk, most of us are still strapped in. Simple inertia means none of us want to leap overboard until all of us do, which means even as the floodwaters rise and our mentions become filled with cryptofascists and crypto fascists, we’re still in our seats.
Let’s hope he either goes through with it or sells the site, because I’m pretty sure we’re all going to end up sticking around like frogs in boiling water unless some kind of hard, concrete barrier is actually put in front of us at this point, just letting every new awful thing crust into place around us while we focus on whatever’s left that’s still interesting or funny or true.
Don’t know what to tell you, man. I dropped Twitter a while ago and my life has continued just fine.
Despite everyone wailing and gnashing their teeth about Elon Musk, I’ve found a good rhythm with Twitter over the last year. My feed is all NBA and NFL highlights and I recently followed Dominic Tarason for his off-beat game discussion. I hated it for years when it was hip. Now that everyone hates it, I can limit it to only the things I care about. YMMV.
The only reason I’m still on Twitter is that in all the conversations here about it, no one has ever once suggested we all log off. It’s honestly surprising!
I’ve followed Stephen Totilo from place to place over the years, I enjoy his writing and insights as he went from MTV to Kotaku to Axios, and now is no longer there but at a new place. Great article to start off the new year.
