It's Not Such A Bad Idea...

But they picked the wrong games:

Civil servants played the graphic video game Grand Theft Auto to explore Britons' 'everyday lives'. Policy Lab, which was founded in 2014 to apply 'design thinking' to government policy, said it was 'crucial' for policymakers to use virtual worlds to learn about British people's 'hopes and dreams'. Popular games including GTA, Fortnite and World of Warcraft were all earmarked as relevant to the policy process.

Why focus on a game that simulates criminals in America when there’s so many other useful games that they could use? 

Researchers said meeting people online could be useful for those working remotely or who struggled to speak face-to-face.

This is undoubtedly true as playing World of Warcraft, and especially Guild runs to bring down bosses helped me immensely when holding Teams meetings with multiple participants. And Jurassic World Evolution would be of benefit to prison officers who have to keep their inmates from causing havoc in the outside world.

Policy Lab is funded by paid commissions and is hosted by the Department for Education, though any government department is able to use it.

I’m suggesting that council planning department train their town planners on SimCity or other type city builder -type games,  which would inform them that building more and more housing is doomed to failure if you don’t also build the underlying infrastructure that houses rely on. 

Policy Lab said it had worked with more than 7,000 civil servants to form policy through practical projects, building skills and knowledge and inspiring new thinking. A government spokesperson said: 'We are reforming the civil service to create a cost-conscious culture that relentlessly roots out waste, drives efficiency, and protects taxpayers' money. We are currently looking into this initiative.'

Its a damn good idea in my opinion if they just choose their games a little more competently. 

I'm Helping The (Future) War Effort!

'What did you do in the war, lady?' 

'I caught a lot of Pidgeys. Oh and trained the drones that beat the Islamic army back!'

An AI model trained on data collected from users of Pokémon Go will potentially help military drones find their location in war zones. Pokémon Go, a 2016 augmented reality mobile game, allowed players to find and catch Pokémon in the real world using the cameras on their mobile phones, and exploded in popularity. In 2018, the company reported having more than 800m downloads worldwide. A 2021 update to the game introduced Pokéstops, which gave players in-game rewards for scanning real locations using their devices. It required users to opt in and upload the recording. Niantic, which created Pokémon in partnership with Nintendo, collected users’ location scan data before the company sold its gaming division in 2025.

And people are concerned about it, because of course they are!  

Tom Sulston, head of policy for tech policy think tank Digital Rights Watch said the use of civilian data for military ends was troubling.“While they may have disclaimers in their Ts&Cs, we know that most people don’t read vast legal documents when they want to play a video game,” he said. “We need regulators to focus on ‘best interests of the user’ or ‘fair and reasonable’ tests to keep users safe from exploitation like this.

Exploitation? 

Here, mate, look that up and use it properly next time! 

Sunday Funnies...

 It's easy to see where real creativity went...

Happy 30th Birthday, Little Japanese Time Sink!

During the first wave of Pokémania in the late 90s, Pokémon was viewed with suspicion by most adults. Now that the first generation of Pokémaniacs have grown up, even becoming parents ourselves, we see it for what it is: an imaginative, challenging and really rather wholesome series of games that rewards every hour that children devote to it.

And even those who didn't grow up with it (as I was never a console kid, but rather a PC gamer), now feel the call and like me, take a day off work and travel to the Excel Centre in London to take part in mega-events like The 2026 EUIC.

Over the three decades since the original Red and Blue (or Green, in Asia) versions of the video game were released in Japan in 1996, Pokémon has earned a place among the greats of children’s fiction. Like Harry Potter, the Famous Five and Narnia, it offers a powerful fantasy of self-determination, set in a world almost totally free of adult supervision. In every game, your mother sends you out into the world with a rucksack and a kiss goodbye; after that, it’s all on you.

 No kidding! 

It was designed from the beginning to be a social game, encouraging (and indeed necessitating) that players traded and battled with each other to complete their collection of virtual creatures and train their teams up into super-squads. Today, the internet has entirely normalised the idea of video games as social activities, but in the late 90s this was a novel idea.

Not for us PC gamers, of course, we had MMORPGs like Ultima Online and Everquest...but for the console kids, hooking up to a fellow player's machine - via physical cable! - to play co-op or evolve a 'mon was revolutionary!

But it hasn't all been smooth sailing... 

Today, Tajiri is a reclusive figure. Almost everything we know about him comes from a single 1999 interview with Time magazine. The tone of Time’s piece is shockingly dismissive. Declaring the series “a pestilential Ponzi scheme” it describes the “delinquent” and “criminal” behaviour of young Pokémon fans, and the moral bankruptcy of the whole craze – which, it comforts, is likely to peter out soon, like it did for the Power Rangers. Now that Pokémon has become one of the most enduring and successful entertainment properties of all time, this alarmist attitude seems ridiculous. But the scaremongering was very real.

Thankfully I missed all that, as it was 2016's smartphone accessible 'Pokemon Go' that hooked me in, followed by my first ever console (barring a Playstation 2 I bought to play Cabelas's Hunting games and soon ended up using as a DVD player), the Switch, and recently the much more powerful Switch 2. 

Perhaps understandably, given the disrespectful and, presumably, hurtful tone of that Time interview, and the moral panic that Pokémania unwittingly ignited, Satoshi Tajiri has shunned the limelight ever since. Now 60, he remains at Game Freak and is still involved in the creation of each new Pokémon game (as of 2025, there are 38 in total), though he reportedly stepped back from day-to-day development in 2012.

They haven't all been winners, the most recent, 'Pokemon ZA' changing the combat to real time rather than turn based didn't sit too well with older less nimble-fingered players like me, but the upcoming 'Pokopia' (which I got a chance to play a demo of yesterday at EUIC) looks far more my idea of a cosy and relaxing game to pick up after work.

Pokémon’s story speaks to an important truth about video games: they are a powerful vector for connection between people. Millions are united by these imaginary creatures, born from one boy’s love of the natural world.

Indeed so. If any of those 'Time' writers are still around I hope they now realise just how wrong they were. 

Why Don’t They Try Offering Exciting And Absorbing Games Instead?

 

On Tuesday, I spoke to many coders, artists and studio heads who have had games cancelled, staff axed and deals obliterated; several senior developers predicted that the recent savage cuts to staff numbers and game projects will lead to a gaping black hole in the release schedules of many triple-A publishers in late 2026 and 2027. Grand Theft Auto VI was always going to be huge; now it’s looking like the only game in town.

Not for me - that's going to be 'Jurassic World Evolution 3', out on 21st October, and for which I've treated myself to a new gaming laptop! 'Spared no expense' you might say. 😏

An excellent panel discussion entitled Why Cultural Recognition is Crucial to the Future of the Games Industry saw Nick Poole, CEO of the trade body Ukie, welcoming a more positive view of the industry among politicians and policymakers in Westminster. “Three years ago, understanding of games was scant, but just recently there’s been a massive amount of recognition,” he said.

Is this an unqualified good thing? Reader, I say no: 

“Suddenly, politicians are talking to us about the educational reach of games; the power of games for young people as a channel of self-expression; we’ve seen the first games being prescribed on the NHS as a treatment for anxiety and depression – there’s a recognition that the cultural echo of games is far greater than the economic proposition.”

The insidious tentacles of propaganda and wokeism must spread everywhere to bring about the Ptogressives' idea of  future Utopia, and so they set their sights on games: 

On the fears surrounding the use of AI, especially large language models, in game development, Cassia Curran, founder of consulting firm Curran Games Agency, had some positive advice: “The development of AI will mean there’s an abundance of content out there,” she said. “But the way that you can achieve success as a developer will be to lean into the authentic human experience you’ve lived. AI cannot reproduce your feelings or your culture, and these can be reflected in your games. In the era of AI slop, players will be looking for experiences that feel new and deeply human.”

I don’t even want to know the  human experience that the developers of a video game have lived! Why should that matter, anyway? What I’m looking for in a game is; does it work well with few or no bugs? Are the graphics good? Is the subject matter interesting and absorbing?

Lydia Cooke, a PhD researcher specialising in queer game studies, chaired a heartening roundtable discussion entitled Representation in Games: Beyond the Surface. Cooke talked of barriers to representation in mainstream games, where atypical characters are often seen as a commercial risk.

Oh god, make it stop! 

This is not just an industry controlled by CEOs and shareholders, it is a culture and an art form, and it will continue.

It won't continue to sell if games developers keep hiring bloody 'specialists in queer games studies' that's for sure... 

If You Aren't Already 'Uncomfortable' As A Grown Adult Playing This....

...then trust the march of woke practices to swoop in to save you!

Critics have slammed the newest installment of the Dungeons and Dragons rulebook for 'going woke.'

Is it just a PR stunt, though?

In the game's 2024 Player's Handbook, 'races' are now 'species' and some character traits have been separated from biological identity, according to The New York Times. 'A mountain dwarf is no longer inherently brawny and durable, a high elf no longer intelligent and dexterous by definition,' the newspaper explained.

Mustn't forget the snowflakes!  

Wizards of the Coast, the Dungeons and Dragons publisher owned by Hasbro, implemented a trend that allows players to stop the game when they feel uncomfortable.

'The signal shouldn't trigger a debate or a discussion: thank the player for being honest about their needs, set the scene right, and move on,' the book said.

How can a group play a game if one or more of them can stop complying with the rules at any point? It's like playing 'Monopoly' when someone can exempt themselves from paying when they land on a hotel!  

The foreword of the book shared online said the original game excluded and disrespected women as well as and portrayed slavery 'not as a human tragedy but as a commercial transaction.'

The buying and selling of human beings was a commecial transaction. Still is, in some parts of the world where the practice never ended. 

Of course, the snowflakes are ecstatic:

Others have embraced the changes claiming they make the game more inclusive for players. 'What they're trying to do here is put up a signal flare, to not only current players but potential future players, that this game is a safe, inclusive, thoughtful and sensitive approach to fantasy storytelling,'

Ryan Lessard, a writer and frequent Dungeons & Dragons dungeon master told the Times. 'Wanting all your players to be comfortable and have fun is good actually,' one social media user said.

But you don't want that. You don't want those happy with the way the game has been played for years to have fun, simply because you want to dictate what counts as 'fun' in the first place. 

Yesterday's Unexpected But Very Welcome News...

So there I was yesterday afternoon, having caught up with work as court wasn't sitting, relaxing and browsing Twitter, when some monumental news, long awaited but never sure if it would ever happen, suddenly dropped to gladden the heart of your host...

What? No! Not that news!

This news! 

Finally, an Indian map, and the chance to hunt the biggest of big game. 

I know how Kier Starmer must feel this morning...

Sunday Funnies...

I'm amazed I've only played one of these..!

I Feel Your Pain, Tanya...

One day in 2014, Tanya DePass was feeling the rage. She had been playing games for most of her life, since the time of Pong, ColecoVision, and the glory days of the arcade. And yet she still saw very few people like her in the games she played. A queer black woman...

Oh, I know, sweetie! It's terrible! Like you, I stuggle to find a game with a playable character that's a 50+ white middle-class training professional from London!

But...you know what? That's not stopped me from having such great fun in gaming at all! I've been an elven druid, a Yankee redneck stalking the wood with trusty 30.06 and dog, a pilot in another galaxy, a detective in New Orleans, and a monster hunter in Eastern Europe.

I've run a hospital, planned a city, am currently running a zoo and a dinosaur park, all without need of 'representation' of any kind. And I've had a blast.

Maybe that's because I see gaming for what it is, and not simply as an extension of a lifetime of grift:

...when she lost her day job, in higher education, Tanya decided she’d give it six months and see if she could make it work. It’s fair to say that she succeeded. Now 49, Tanya still runs I Need Diverse Games; she streams and plays Dungeons and Dragons on Twitch, going by CypherofTyr; in the summer of 2020 she raised nearly $200,000 for charity The Bail Project. She has spoken on diversity, feminism and intersectionality at video game events around the world; a short film, Game Changer, has been made about her life and work, and she is working on her own afrofuturist roleplaying game, Into the Mother Lands. Later this month she will receive the Gayming Icon award at the Gayming Awards in London, an LGBTQ+ video game awards show that’s now in its second year, for her efforts towards better representation in video games.

Now, they say you should find a job that matches your interests and then you'll never 'work' a day in your life. But does it really sound to you, Reader, as if she had fun...? 

Do We Want To Get 'Back To Normal' Or Not?

The developer of Pokémon Go is facing a player revolt after rolling back safety measures implemented at the onset of the pandemic last year.

Yes, and disclosure time: I play. I've really been impressed with the speed with which they changed the gameplay, and it's been very useful during the pandemic. 

But it's not how the game was meant to be played, so surely a reversion to normal is to be welcomed? 

Niantic, the Google subsidiary which released the smash hit mobile game in 2016, had reacted to the onset of the pandemic by tweaking how its games work. The introduction of social distancing and stay-at-home orders around the world made it hard to play the company’s augmented reality (AR) games as intended, since they task players with leaving their homes and visiting local landmarks to catch Pokémon, gather items, and fight for regional dominance. The company doubled the distance required to interact with key landmarks in the game, which enabled players to access them in-game without needing to physically cluster around the same spot in the real world. It also handed out free items to players, including “incense”, which makes Pokémon show up without needing to leave your house.

So why the angst? Well, it seems players have become complacent about the changes. And want to keep them. 

The news prompted dismay among the player base, particularly for American users, for whom a new wave of the pandemic is starting as the Delta variant establishes itself in the US. A petition on Change.org has gained almost 150,000 signatures from users calling on the company to keep the changes.

And they've found what they think is an unassailable lever to help them persuade the company to think again: 

As well as pandemic safety, the changes had been praised for making the game more available for disabled players: increased interaction distance meant that pokestops that were once physically inaccessible for wheelchair users, for instance, were suddenly available.

What will Niantic do? Watch this space.  

They Just Want To Rub Your Face In It....

 ...even when you try to leave the real world behind: 

It isn’t just developers who are resistant to the idea of politics infiltrating their escapist fantasy worlds; many players are, too. Adelle was told on Twitter that: ‘This is just a game, it isn’t a tool for protest,’ and Ebonix says she often encounters Sims players who want to keep politics out of the game. Although, as Ebonix says: “BLM isn’t politics. It’s human rights.”

“Animal Crossing and other platforms like it serve as forms of escapism, which is great, except when real human life and dignity are at stake,” says Kat*, who organised another virtual BLM protest on her island. “Human beings suffering from systemic racism and violence don’t get the privilege of escaping from this reality, and neither should anyone else.”

If you think movements like BLM have anything to do with 'human life and dignity' then I've got a virtual copy of a bridge to sell you for in-game credits... 

I Guess The Only Winning Move Isn't 'Not To Play' After All...

An increasing number of prominent board game industry and community members have pulled out of an upcoming show over The Game Manufacturers Association’s (GAMA)...

Prices? Unsafe venue? Demand for contributors' first born child to sacrifice to Beelzebub to ensure success of the venture?

...continued silence over Black Lives Matter.

 Oh. *rolls eyes*

...those listed, and loads more, have withdrawn from the show over GAMA’s inability, when even the least sanctimonious corporations and sporting leagues on the planet have managed some kind of message, to make even the most basic statement of support for the Black Lives Matter protests that have been sweeping the United States since the beginning of the month.

Because no-one can fail to genuflect in front of these activists' demands, or it might make some of the others wonder why they did.

You, like some people reacting to this news in the board game scene already have, might wonder why the absence of a statement would constitute such actions.

Well, yes, most of us would, if we hadn't seen corporation after corporation cowering before the mob...

But their silence is more than silence. It’s a refusal to support some of their most important and vulnerable members, who have long had to deal with all kinds of shit just for existing in the board game space, which as you might imagine has (and is still having) more than its fair share of problems with bigoted and hateful community members.

Because it's made of of people.

And people are good, hateful, kind, funny, bitter, peaceful, aggressive, shy, and obsequious. Games reflect life, and there's bigots and haters in games just as sure as they are in life. Of all races. Not just one.

But of course, in today's climate, no corporation or venture will stand against them for long:

UPDATE 6:53am, June 11: GAMA has since released a statement on their Facebook page, cancelled Origins Online and offered to “match, dollar for dollar, any exhibitor, sponsor, advertiser, or vendor who donates the amounts they are owed for Origins Online” to a number of listed organisations.

Perhaps they never devised a game where you paid the Danegeld and found you never got rid of the Dane? They might have learned something...

More Woke Gaming...

Which word? 'Planet'? 'Journey'?

It ain’t perfect, but it’s got heart. It’s a succinct and loving throwback to the Metroid Prime series that fills a pretty specific niche in a sea full of service games that want to become your part-time job. But I have to be honest, I hate seeing the word “savage” in a game about exploration.

Oh. Of course.

My eyes rolled right the fuck out of my head when I read the title of this game at its reveal at the 2018 Game Awards. I know I sound like a wet blanket, but just… hear me out.

I have to admin, the tem 'wet blanket' wasn't the first to spring to mind. But this is a family blog...

The word savage has a long history being used to justify violent behaviour by colonisers.

*sighs*

I’m not asking for Journey to the Savage Planet to have some super poignant message at every turn, but according to Hutchinson, the game is meant to have a “tone of sort of early science-fiction of hopefulness.” But it’s worth asking whose hope it is we’re talking about.

The hope of gamers that this will be a game with few bugs and a sensible XP system?

I’m not going to die because of the title of this game or its story’s lack of conviction. Like I said, this ain’t new. I even thought the game was pretty fun! But that “emotional purchase” Hutchinson talks about hits a little differently when history paints some of us as savages – Columbus Day is still a national holiday.

And always will be.

You're Asking Them To Parent...

...and for an increasing number, that's just too much like hard work.

Video game trade body Ukie has launched a campaign to encourage more parents and carers to use parental controls, teaming up with ex-footballer Rio Ferdinand.

The organisation wants to raise awareness that everything from screen time to in-game purchases can be monitored and controlled.

Yes, it can. If you're prepared to put in the time and effort.

But given so many so-called 'parents' can't be bothered to teach their children to read and write, or use a knife and fork, what are the odds they'll bother with this?

In my experience, many parents both dread and disdain video games. I’ve seen parents at my talks despair at being asked to engage with an Xbox or PlayStation console – it’s a totally alien environment for some, and one they occasionally feel aggressive antipathy for.But simply succumbing to technophobia is not acceptable today.

It shouldn't be, but I fear it is...

It’s not enough to wave it away, or just to take notice when the latest moral panic hits the tabloids. We teach our kids to cross the road, to swim and ride a bike, to be wary of strangers – these are considered vital stages in learning to navigate the lived environment. But the digital environment is as much a part of our kids’ lives.

Sadly, a lot of people out there have children for the wrong reasons. And will never put one iota of effort needed into this.

I’ve no idea how successful Ukie’s campaign will be. At every talk, I recommend two things: that parents play video games with their kids so they understand what’s going on, and that they visit Ukie’s excellent website AskAbout Games, which has information for parents about new titles. But I often observe expressions of indifference and uncertainty on their faces.

I suspect you'd observe that were you trying to get them to toilet train their children, or prevent them from going out at night stabbing other people's children...

It surprises me, a gamer since the late 70s, that in 2020 we’re still having to point out that parental controls exist. But figuring games and games consoles out is not only an important part of parenting, it can actually be a really fun part of being a parent.

You're preaching, far too often, to the non-converted. Because this isn't just about games, is it?

Well, This Is Refreshing!

To many in an older generation, the rise of esports rings alarm bells. Reports of children spending an unhealthy amount of time and money on games have become commonplace. Even Prince Harry offered rare public criticism earlier this year. “That game [Fornite] shouldn’t be allowed,” he said. “It’s created to addict, an addiction to keep you in front of a computer for as long as possible. It’s so irresponsible.”

Oh, great! Another demonising of gaming coming up, courtesy of the dear old Grauniad...

But wait!

Yet while fears around the rise of esports abound, in bedrooms and internet cafes around the world games such as League of Legends, Dota 2 and Fortnite have become a cultural phenomenon, bringing young people from different regions and religions together and bridging divides. Slang, inside jokes and dance moves flow out of them as if they were a proto-society.

...

Their popularity may be about to eclipse traditional sports, but they actually perform a surprisingly similar function, for a younger age group, to the one fulfilled by football terraces for their parents and grandparents. Because what draws us to these games isn’t the need to feed a compulsion. In most cases, it’s kinship – a very ancient and tribal desire to be part of a group, and one that forms the basis of any team sport.

Well, well, well!

There are detractors, usually of the 'waah! big corporations!' type, but mostly, it's overall a positive article. I guess every blind squirrel does find an acorn...

Sunday Funnies...

Ah, PR departments, providing more entertainment than the games...

"Thorin sits down and starts to sing about gold..."

'...for 45 minutes every Monday in 22 episodes, soon on Prime!'

A JRR Tolkien expert working on Amazon’s forthcoming multi-series adaptation of The Lord of the Rings has claimed that the retail and streaming giant has been refused permission by the estate to use the bulk of the book’s plot.

Eh...?

Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey, who is supervising the show’s development, told German fansite Deutsche Tolkien that the estate has refused to allow the series to be set during any period other than the Second Age of Middle-earth.

This means Amazon’s adaptation will not cross over at all with events from the Third Age, which were dramatised in Peter Jackson’s Oscar-winning trilogy and sees hobbit Frodo Baggins destroy the One Ring.

So, it's a prequel? You know, I think fans and viewers will still tune in, somehow.

A Better Question Is 'Who Cares?'...

Despite the growing popularity of professional gaming throughout the world – the audience figures for competitive gaming have reached 450m this year – female competitors remain scarce.

*shrugs*

There certainly are high-profile examples of female pros – trans woman Sasha “Scarlett” Hostyn is one of the most successful Starcraft II players in the world...

I rather think you've just devalued your argument there, Keith...

...figures collected by Nielsen suggest that almost a quarter of the pro gaming audience is female, and in some parts of the world it’s much higher. So why aren’t we seeing that reflected in the Fortnite World Cup?

Because watching isn't the same as doing? But maybe there were reasons for it - barriers women couldn't...

Oh!

The easy answer is because no women qualified. The heats were entirely open and held online over 10 weeks – more than 40m players competed with no restrictions on age or gender.

Keith's convinced it's the 'toxic atmosphere' and 'hostility to females' that the males are guilty of (which you'd think would be evident to the watching female audience too)....

And because 'diversity' is all, this must change! Keith said so!

Though esports revenues are set to hit $1bn this year, it remains a young and immature industry. Working out best practices in terms of encouraging gender diversity is a challenge that will affect every publisher and event organiser in the world over the coming years...

They are making millions, and - presumably - will still make millions even if women don't compete. Why should they feel a need to 'tackle this'..?

Sunday Funnies...

RogueLeader23 really bears watching - is he a serial killer now?

How Dare You Talk To The Pariahs!

Earlier today, THQ Nordic announced an AMA on its Twitter account. That wouldn't have been a big deal, but unlike most 'ask me anything' sessions, which take place on Reddit, this one was hosted on anonymous imageboard 8chan.

People not into games are probably looking baffled at this point!

Let the SJWs disguised as games journalists tell you why this is a very, very bad thing indeed:

If you're unfamiliar with 8chan, Google once delisted it and warned users of "suspected child abuse content." It has included boards dedicated to pedophilia and fascism, and is known generally for racism, misogyny, and coordinated harassment.

Oh noes!

In an apology statement sent to PC Gamer and posted after the session, THQ Nordic PR and marketing director Philipp Brock said he didn't "understand the history and the controversy" of the site before agreeing to and participating in the AMA.

That's hard to completely believe. The official THQ Nordic Twitter account promised that someone would "take care of the nasty stuff" in the AMA thread, and it's unclear what "nasty stuff" THQ Nordic could've been referring to if not the stuff the site is best known for.

So what terrible, awful things did this exercise throw up?

...in response to being asked not to "censor any games nor appeal to the SocJus crowd" because the company is "doing fine as is," Brock said that THQ Nordic will "try to stay that way."

Hmmm....

While it's possible to impersonate others on 8chan—which also makes it a bad place for an AMA—these posts are specially tagged to indicate that they come from Brock. The official THQ Nordic account also 'liked' a tweet defending the AMA and calling those who had a problem with it "sensitive simons."

Seems you rather proved the point they're trying to make, eh? You grabbed that tar baby with both hands, didn't you?

More popcorn, anyone?