Month: January 2021

Valve is looking for a psychologist to join their team and help develop future games and its storefront, Steam. A new listing has been posted to their official site looking for someone to join the studio out of its Bellevue office in Washington state.

“We hire people with broad skill sets who also exhibit deep expertise,” the listing reads. “Psychologists at Valve contribute to a wide variety of initiatives across the company and are trusted to prioritize their work in collaboration with their peers.”

The studio known for Half Life: Alyx, Team Fortress 2, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has employed a number of psychologists over the years. Valve conducts all sorts of experiments, like one that measures the player’s sweat and level of arousal, to learn about player behavior in order to improve their games. The studio even created a version of Portal 2 that players could control with their eyes after it found that players could move their eyes faster than their hands.

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Wonder Woman 1984 is finally here. Let’s break down the ending, post-credits scene, and what it all might mean for the DCEU moving forward.

Have you fantasized about becoming a trainer in Pokemon? Well here’s your chance: Niantic wants to cast players’ Trainer avatars as Trainer NPCs during the Pokemon Go Tour: Kanto event. If selected, other players will be able to challenge and battle your Trainer.

Niantic will choose candidates through a competition. You can enter by posting on Twitter before January 11, 11:59 PM PT. The post must include the following elements: a Trainer profile screenshot showing the avatar’s full name and outfit, a list of three Pokemon you’d want on your team, and the hashtag #PokemonGOTourContest. There are restrictions on which Pokemon you can include: They must be originally from the Kanto region and cannot include Ditto, or any Legendary or Mythical Pokemon.

Niantic will evaluate submissions based on “creativity of avatar outfit, general theme, Pokemon team composition.” Each person can only enter the competition once, and eight winners will be selected. Niantic will inform winners through Twitter DMs around January 18.

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A handful of DSiWare games are no longer available on the Nintendo 3DS eShop. The games, including ones that have been published by Nintendo, have a “This software is currently unavailable” disclaimer posted on their store page.

“All DSiWare games released before mid-May 2011 have been deactivated on the eShop, including the classic Shantae Risky’s Revenge,” reads a tweet from a user who first discovered the removals. “Luckily I got it on my DSi before that shop shut down. Grab from those still for sale while you can!”

Some of the games that have been removed include Shantae: Risky’s Revenge, Dr. Mario Express, Mr. Driller: Drill Till You Drop, and many others. Players can still access their copies of these games and redownload them from the eShop. However, those who haven’t purchased these titles are unable to purchase or download them.

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A new month has begun, which means a new set of Field Research tasks and rewards are now live in Pokemon Go. That’s not all; a new Research Breakthrough encounter is also available this month, giving you a chance to catch another rare Pokemon in the game.

Each Research Breakthrough you achieve in January 2021 will lead to an encounter with Chansey. You’ll achieve a Research Breakthrough once you’ve amassed seven stamps. As a refresher, one stamp is doled out for the first Field Research task you complete each day, so you’ll need complete at least one task daily for a full week to encounter Chansey.

If you don’t manage to achieve a Research Breakthrough before the month ends, don’t worry; any stamps you’ve earned will carry over, so your progress will go toward next month’s Research Breakthrough.

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After multiple instances of collective action and demonstrations against management decisions, employees at Google have formed a minority union called the Alphabet Workers Union with the help of organizers from the Communication Workers of America, a union group that works with telecommunications and media workers.

Traditionally, when employees come together to unionize in the United States they have to recruit enough employees to petition their state or federal labor board (usually the National Labor Relations Board or NLRB) to hold an election. If employee organizers win the vote in this election, they are recognized by the board and company and can come to the table to negotiate a contract. The Alphabet Workers Union, named for Google’s parent company, has taken a slightly different approach to make their organizing more feasible in the generally union-hostile tech industry.

Instead of focusing on being able to negotiate, the Alphabet Workers Union isn’t even currently looking to be officially recognized by Google. Contracts are not their priority; instead the union is meant to serve as a more solid foundation for the activism employees have already been engaging in. In the past two years, Google employees have staged protests and demonstrations against Google’s policies on sexual harassment, contractor benefits, and working with US Immigration agency ICE. Additionally, by becoming a minority union, Google’s contract workers (who currently outnumber their regular employees) can join as well. Workers who have opted to join the union are being provided with protections and resources, and pay 1% of their income in union dues to support their paid organizing staff, and are technically part of CWA local 1400.

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2021 is a big year for Halo and Xbox, as Microsoft will finally release Halo Infinite after years of development and a late delay last year. We still don’t know much about the game’s story, apart from the fact that it is a direct sequel to Halo 5 and takes place on Zeta Halo. Plenty of questions remain unanswered, one of which is whether the Arbiter will make an appearance.

The Arbiter, an alien who befriends Master Chief and appears in Halo 2, Halo 3, and Halo 5, is voiced by actor Keith David. He recently had some time on his hands and asked people to submit questions to him on Twitter. One person asked if David had a role in Halo Infinite, and the actor gave an intriguing response.

Asked if he could say if he’s going to be in Halo Infinite, David said, “I’d have to kill you.”

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The Sims is all about character customization and hilarious death traps, but mostly the character customization. Now EA has partnered with the cosmetics company MAC to create a line of Sims-themed eyeshadows, so you can look like your Sim that looks like you that looks like your Sim.

Input Mag reports that the product is called the Sims Eye Shadow x9 Palette Starring The Sims. The pan includes nine shades including smoky brown and shimmer shadows, all in a Sims-themed box. You can purchase the palette for $32 USD through the Mac Cosmetics site.

“Many gamers stream live and understand the power of the slightest gesture of makeup,” Romero Jennings, MAC director of make-up artistry said. “They understand the impact it can make on themselves and their followers. Makeup and video games are the perfect escape to bring your perfect virtual world to the real life. Both definitely enhance our day-to-day lives.”

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