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I played the game a lot – everybody always got mad at me for it. And when I got older, I saw, you know, that gaming was becoming an entrepreneurial opportunity. It started with me wanting to throw a Madden tournament, and then we threw something at the Beast Mode store. From there, once COVID hit, we evolved into online facing – really tapping into the streaming world and activating that. So, basically when this country opens back up we can be the online and in-person e-sports experience. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Pen: \u003c/i>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The mindset that it takes to be a gamer: I imagine you have to put in your 10,000 hours to be tight at something. How does that compare to the mindset that it takes to be a professional NFL player?\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Josh: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I think it’s the same, bruh. Honestly, I laugh about it now because some of these games are structured to where you can’t get good at it unless you put time in. Like, literally, you won’t be good. I know as a professional athlete, you gotta become one with the process. Which all we learn in any professional field is kind of the same thing. You gotta just put the time in, get the games in, not always focus on the gratifications. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Pen\u003c/i>\u003cb>\u003ci>: \u003c/i>\u003c/b>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s funny, it made me think about old school Bo Jackson on Tecmo Bowl.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Josh:\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Hell yeah. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Pen: \u003c/i>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Where you can’t play as Bo Jackson, man that’s cheatin’! \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Josh: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Man, that’s how we used to tell people! You can’t play with these teams, because they cheat. But now the game kinda structured it to where you can’t be good unless you put time in.\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Rightnowish is an arts and culture podcast produced at KQED. Listen to it wherever you get your podcasts or click the play button at the top of this page and subscribe to the show on \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/721590300/rightnowish\">NPR One\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://open.spotify.com/show/7kEJuafTzTVan7B78ttz1I\">Spotify\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rightnowish/id1482187648\">Apple Podcasts\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://tunein.com/podcasts/Arts--Culture-Podcasts/Rightnowish-p1258245/\">TuneIn\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/rightnowish\">Stitcher\u003c/a> or wherever you get your podcasts. \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Josh Johnson, NFL quarterback and co-founder of the Ultimate Gaming League, says streaming video games is about more than just trash talking. It's about community and entrepreneurship. Oh, and there's trash talking too. ",
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"title": "Quarterback Josh Johnson Explains There's More to the Game | KQED",
"description": "Oakland's Joshua Johnson knows about the commitment, focus and strategy it takes to compete at a high level. He's a professional NFL quarterback with over ten years of experience in the league. Now, he's taken those same qualities to the world of online gaming. Johnson is a co-founder of the Ultimate Gaming League (UGL), an e-sports platform where gamers compete, create community, and talk trash to one another. Beyond fun and games, Johnson says there are ample entrepreneurial opportunities in the world of digital gaming, especially when it comes to individuals branding themselves. His aim is to make sure folks in his community are taking full advantage of the platforms that are growing more popular by the day.",
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"socialDescription": "Oakland's Joshua Johnson knows about the commitment, focus and strategy it takes to compete at a high level. He's a professional NFL quarterback with over ten years of experience in the league. Now, he's taken those same qualities to the world of online gaming. Johnson is a co-founder of the Ultimate Gaming League (UGL), an e-sports platform where gamers compete, create community, and talk trash to one another. Beyond fun and games, Johnson says there are ample entrepreneurial opportunities in the world of digital gaming, especially when it comes to individuals branding themselves. His aim is to make sure folks in his community are taking full advantage of the platforms that are growing more popular by the day.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Oakland’s Josh Johnson knows about the commitment, focus and strategy it takes to compete at a high level. He’s a professional NFL quarterback with over ten years of experience in the league. And recently, he’s taken those same qualities to the world of online gaming.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Johnson is a co-founder of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.uglworld.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ultimate Gaming League (UGL)\u003c/a>, an e-sports platform where gamers compete, create community, and talk trash to one another.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beyond fun and games, Johnson says there are ample entrepreneurial opportunities in the world of digital gaming, especially when it comes to individuals branding themselves. Johnson’s aim is to make sure folks in his community are taking full advantage of the platforms that are growing more popular by the day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Johnson, who along with professional football stars Marshawn Lynch and Marcus Peters, is a member of \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/fam1stfam/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Fam1st Family.\u003c/a> Johnson leverages his connections with other pro athletes and entertainers to get them involved in UGL events, and now the league is constantly holding gaming competitions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Johnson took a break from physical training and video game playing, to chop it up with me on this episode of\u003cem> Rightnowish\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm?e=KQINC2553904208\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Below are lightly edited excerpts of my conversation with Josh Johnson. \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Pen: \u003c/i>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So, Josh, how did UGL get started?\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Josh: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Just me, being a gamer. I played the game a lot – everybody always got mad at me for it. And when I got older, I saw, you know, that gaming was becoming an entrepreneurial opportunity. It started with me wanting to throw a Madden tournament, and then we threw something at the Beast Mode store. From there, once COVID hit, we evolved into online facing – really tapping into the streaming world and activating that. So, basically when this country opens back up we can be the online and in-person e-sports experience. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Pen: \u003c/i>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The mindset that it takes to be a gamer: I imagine you have to put in your 10,000 hours to be tight at something. How does that compare to the mindset that it takes to be a professional NFL player?\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Josh: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I think it’s the same, bruh. Honestly, I laugh about it now because some of these games are structured to where you can’t get good at it unless you put time in. Like, literally, you won’t be good. I know as a professional athlete, you gotta become one with the process. Which all we learn in any professional field is kind of the same thing. You gotta just put the time in, get the games in, not always focus on the gratifications. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Pen\u003c/i>\u003cb>\u003ci>: \u003c/i>\u003c/b>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s funny, it made me think about old school Bo Jackson on Tecmo Bowl.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Josh:\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Hell yeah. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Pen: \u003c/i>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Where you can’t play as Bo Jackson, man that’s cheatin’! \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Josh: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Man, that’s how we used to tell people! You can’t play with these teams, because they cheat. But now the game kinda structured it to where you can’t be good unless you put time in.\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Rightnowish is an arts and culture podcast produced at KQED. Listen to it wherever you get your podcasts or click the play button at the top of this page and subscribe to the show on \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/721590300/rightnowish\">NPR One\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://open.spotify.com/show/7kEJuafTzTVan7B78ttz1I\">Spotify\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rightnowish/id1482187648\">Apple Podcasts\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://tunein.com/podcasts/Arts--Culture-Podcasts/Rightnowish-p1258245/\">TuneIn\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/rightnowish\">Stitcher\u003c/a> or wherever you get your podcasts. \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "I Thought a Zoo: Simulated Games For Isolated Times",
"headTitle": "I Thought a Zoo: Simulated Games For Isolated Times | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>I’m overwhelmed by so many things right now, not the least of which is that I keep having to build wind turbines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not in my yard, you understand: in my imaginary city. The city I created playing the game \u003cem>Cities: Skylines\u003c/em>. I play it on my Nintendo Switch, but you can play it on your Xbox, or your PlayStation, or your computer. It’s very much like the game \u003cem>Sim City \u003c/em>that I played years ago, and it proceeds in much the same way: You have some land. You build some roads, you create zoning (and really, who \u003cem>doesn’t \u003c/em>get into gaming in order to explore land-use planning?), you supply these areas with water and power, and then people begin to move in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maybe it’s not a surprise that I, as someone who lives alone and finds myself with time to kill in these Pandemic Days, have made a lot more use of my Switch in the last few months than in the last couple of years. Yes, I played \u003cem>Animal Crossing: New Horizons\u003c/em> when it first came out—in fact, I bought a copy for a stranger on Twitter, because she was in a pinch and it had been such a balm to me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But I also play \u003cem>RBI Baseball 20 \u003c/em>(the official MLB-sanctioned baseball game) and \u003cem>Super Mega Baseball 3 \u003c/em>(the funnier, more whimsical baseball game), and I play \u003cem>Paper Mario: The Origami King \u003c/em>(the fact that you throw confetti like Rip Taylor in that game is just the best). I loved \u003cem>Kentucky Route Zero\u003c/em>, which is a moody, melancholy point-and-click storytelling game with musical interludes and all kinds of cool stuff. I’m okay at \u003cem>Breakfast Bar Tycoon\u003c/em>, which requires you to learn how to assemble breakfast sandwiches and serve grumpy customers (though anything where you’re eventually rushing stresses me out), and I’m not even going to list the games I’ve tried at which I’m completely hopeless. (One of my dear friends is a devotee of NBA2K, a game I find as stressful as an ancient version of myself might have found a tiger attack.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But more than anything, I have been playing simulation games. Almost anything can be defined as a simulation of sorts, in that there’s always a reality that you’re living in, even if you’re jumping from platform to platform or shooting at bad guys. But here, I’m referring to the more methodical, world-creating, no-obvious-ending simulations like \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2018/07/18/629760717/put-your-face-in-it-how-gaming-helped-me-understand-my-dog\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the farming game \u003cem>Stardew Valley\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, where you set up your farm and then grow things and sell them and try to make friends. \u003cem>Animal Crossing \u003c/em>is a simulation, too. But it’s unlike most simulations, in that it’s not particularly stressful. Not a lot of really terrible things can happen very easily; it’s more that if you don’t play, you’re not out there earning goodies and catching new bugs. I recently picked it up again after a couple of months off, and my biggest problem was that my animal friends had really missed me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s not the case in some of the other games I’ve been playing. Let me take you on a tour of a few of these imaginary worlds I’ve been building and, in some cases, messing up completely, while I hope that my actual world will steady.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Cities: Skylines\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13884897\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13884897\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/08/citiesskylines_wide-55e580e36d840d545a63f7c83ae1bf61cd4e8d01-800x450.jpe\" alt=\"This is a shot of only one of many very very bad traffic configurations I created in Cities: Skylines. Yes, two houses are on fire.\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/08/citiesskylines_wide-55e580e36d840d545a63f7c83ae1bf61cd4e8d01-800x450.jpe 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/08/citiesskylines_wide-55e580e36d840d545a63f7c83ae1bf61cd4e8d01-1020x574.jpe 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/08/citiesskylines_wide-55e580e36d840d545a63f7c83ae1bf61cd4e8d01-160x90.jpe 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/08/citiesskylines_wide-55e580e36d840d545a63f7c83ae1bf61cd4e8d01-768x432.jpe 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/08/citiesskylines_wide-55e580e36d840d545a63f7c83ae1bf61cd4e8d01.jpe 1278w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This is a shot of only one of many very very bad traffic configurations I created in Cities: Skylines. Yes, two houses are on fire. \u003ccite>(Screenshot via Switch)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>First: back to those wind turbines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When you set up your \u003cem>Cities: Skylines \u003c/em>city, it needs power. Back when I used to play \u003cem>Sim City\u003c/em>, you were boxed into starting with a coal-fired power plant, which you plunked down in some unfortunate part of your city. Coal plants are dirty, but they’ll juice up your town, and they’re what you can afford. In \u003cem>Cities: Skylines\u003c/em>, you can start with coal—or you can put up wind turbines. You have to look at your maps and find a place to put them that’s windy enough, but they come in smaller units, so the initial cost for the power you need to get started is lower.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Plus, you’ll start seeing your citizens tweeting—sorry, I meant “chirping,” which is the game’s version of something that looks rather like tweeting—about how much they appreciate your commitment to green energy. (Of course, they also tweet complaints. Every time I see the chirp that gripes that it’s not that hard to create a working power grid, I say out loud something like “It’s harder than you think, jerk, so \u003cem>give \u003c/em>me a \u003cem>minute\u003c/em> if you \u003cem>don’t mind \u003c/em>and I will \u003cem>fix it\u003c/em>.” Then I go build some more power lines.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But then you’ll add clean water, and your city will grow. Little bars at the bottom of the screen tell you how much demand there is for different kinds of zoning, and when you see that orange bar grow, that means your people want some Industrial Zone space. So you lay it out, and businesses move in. And then, before you know it, little lightning bolts start flashing over some of your residential housing. You’re short of power. If you still have money, you maybe build another wind turbine. Or two. Then the industrial buildings start flashing a little symbol that says they don’t have enough workers. So you build more residential areas. The population keeps growing. They begin to want things. They need the garbage collected. They need a medical clinic and a school, they tell you. They need fire trucks, they tell you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They need police.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What is true in \u003cem>Cities: Skylines \u003c/em>is, of course, only what the people who developed it decided would be true. (Although on some platforms, you can download mods created by users that tinker with the programming.) And what’s true here is that you add police stations and you add budgets for them, and that prevents crime. Because, as the in-game explanation says, the more stations and money, the more patrol cars. And patrol cars cut crime in the buildings they drive by. (You can eventually watch your police cars drive around.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Police cars aren’t the only thing that reduces crime: education does too. And police cars don’t do any good if they can’t get around because of traffic or other road issues. But in this game, police presence affects the happiness of your citizens in only one way, which is that they feel safer when there are more patrol cars driving around. If you don’t have enough police—what the game defines as “enough police”—your crime rate goes up. What that looks like is that instead of the lightning bolts that flash on a building without power or the hardhat person who flashes on a building without enough workers, a face in a ski mask flashes on a building where the crime rate is too high. “Save us all from guys in ski masks,” your imaginary citizens are allegedly thinking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There is a small-“c” conservative bent to such a game, of course, because how things have worked is how they must always work. In a year in which even more attention than before has gone to calls to reform police, change how they operate, and potentially give them \u003cem>less \u003c/em>money, a strictly linear relationship between the number of police cars and the amount of happiness seems fanciful, like setting up the game so that adding roads increases a city’s population of red pandas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even these simulated worlds I am trying to build keep bumping into the real one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Two Point Hospital\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13884898\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13884898\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/08/twopointhospital_wide-7f480849e6907b16c3c7f6fd7c98e44637ba50ea-800x450.jpe\" alt=\"In this shot of my hospital, you can see the clown treatment room, a couple of training rooms, a psychiatrist's office, and some vending machines, among other things.\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/08/twopointhospital_wide-7f480849e6907b16c3c7f6fd7c98e44637ba50ea-800x450.jpe 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/08/twopointhospital_wide-7f480849e6907b16c3c7f6fd7c98e44637ba50ea-1020x574.jpe 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/08/twopointhospital_wide-7f480849e6907b16c3c7f6fd7c98e44637ba50ea-160x90.jpe 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/08/twopointhospital_wide-7f480849e6907b16c3c7f6fd7c98e44637ba50ea-768x432.jpe 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/08/twopointhospital_wide-7f480849e6907b16c3c7f6fd7c98e44637ba50ea.jpe 1278w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In this shot of my hospital, you can see the clown treatment room, a couple of training rooms, a psychiatrist’s office, and some vending machines, among other things. \u003ccite>(Screenshot via Switch)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Also on the list of uncomfortable collisions with reality is \u003cem>Two Point Hospital\u003c/em>, one of my favorites. I realize that just as there were people who wanted to watch \u003cem>Contagion \u003c/em>early in the pandemic but I couldn’t imagine it, there are people who would never currently want to play a wacky hospital simulation, even if the people mostly have pretend diseases like “Animal Magnetism” and “Hurty Leg.” One of my favorites, though, is “Night Fever,” and if you zoom in on any of the patients who are afflicted with it, you’ll see every one of them is wearing a white suit and doing John Travolta moves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In this game, you build your GP’s offices and your treatment rooms, you hire doctors and nurses and assistants and janitors, and you install drink machines to try to keep the patients from getting angry. It’s all deeply goofy. You can build a whole treatment room that’s just for sick clowns. It looks like a circus tent. The clown goes into it, whirls around for a while, and is hopefully cured.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The game’s sense of time is either intentionally or unintentionally hilarious: Patients will sometimes storm out of the hospital angry about the time it’s taken for a doctor to see them, and you’ll see in their information that they waited in your hospital for like a year and a half, drinking from your drink machines, eating from your snack machines, and playing your arcade games. That’s just too long for a sick clown to chill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People die in this game. (Side note: They die in \u003cem>Cities: Skylines\u003c/em> too, at which point a skull and crossbones flashes on the house until the body is retrieved by a hearse and taken to a cemetery that—yes, of course—you must build. You do not want to know what happens if you refuse to build a cemetery.) They die of their jokey, made-up ailments, and then they become ghosts, and they float around the hospital scaring the other patients until a janitor, one that carries the special ghost cleanup qualification, sucks them up with a vacuum. It’s so weird that I kind of can’t resist it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The other thing \u003cem>TPH\u003c/em> has going for it is that it doesn’t require you to build too much infrastructure. I become impatient during the phase of games like \u003cem>Cities: Skylines\u003c/em> where you’re mostly connecting pipes in rectangles. In real life, I pride myself on not taking infrastructure for granted, but sitting in front of my TV with a controller, I want to be figuring out where my university will be and how many adorable parks I can have. I don’t especially want to be relocating pipes with pinpoint accuracy or managing traffic patterns by installing roundabouts. (Honestly, what good is building my own city if I can’t ban roundabouts?) \u003cem>Two Point Hospital \u003c/em>does make you place radiators to keep people from freezing, but it does not make you put in the hospital laundry or the transformers or anything else boring. More clowns! Fewer water pumps!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Take note: This game was developed by a British studio, so there is no billing of patients and there are no insurance companies. So that’s a couple of doses of reality you do not have to worry about.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Planet Zoo\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13884902\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13884902\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/08/planet-zoo-is-a-sim-from-the-creators-of-planet-coaster-in-the-style-of-zoo-tycoon-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"'Planet Zoo'\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/08/planet-zoo-is-a-sim-from-the-creators-of-planet-coaster-in-the-style-of-zoo-tycoon-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/08/planet-zoo-is-a-sim-from-the-creators-of-planet-coaster-in-the-style-of-zoo-tycoon-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/08/planet-zoo-is-a-sim-from-the-creators-of-planet-coaster-in-the-style-of-zoo-tycoon-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/08/planet-zoo-is-a-sim-from-the-creators-of-planet-coaster-in-the-style-of-zoo-tycoon-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/08/planet-zoo-is-a-sim-from-the-creators-of-planet-coaster-in-the-style-of-zoo-tycoon-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/08/planet-zoo-is-a-sim-from-the-creators-of-planet-coaster-in-the-style-of-zoo-tycoon.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Planet Zoo’ \u003ccite>(Frontier)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>This one isn’t on Switch (right now), so to play it, I have to sneak up to my office and sequester myself up there to play on my PC. Believe it or not, I’ve spent a number of hours in the tutorial sections and I have yet to start anything from scratch, which might mean that I’m not really cut out for the zoo management business. But I persevere! For the animals, you see.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Your task in this game is to build (or improve) a zoo. You “adopt” animals from various sources, you build habitats, you outfit them with the plants and the terrain that the particular animal needs, and you try to keep them happy. You also, ideally, rehabilitate and release some into the wild and get conservation points. \u003cem>Planet Zoo\u003c/em> has rapidly become the game I use to escape my considerable real-world anxieties. When you get a notice that a couple of your hippos are fighting (in retrospect, I think I mismanaged the population of adult males and they started going after each other [imagine a big eyes emoji here]), it will really get your attention.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the other hand, this is also a game where mistakes are viscerally upsetting. I have not had to mourn a zoo animal yet, but I had a very depressed pair of frogs the other day (I hadn’t adjusted the humidity correctly), and despite the fact that these frogs do not exist, I felt terrible. Sad frogs! My fault! This is also where I admit that I tend to talk to my animals a lot, out loud. “Oh no! Let’s fix your plants,” I will say to some imaginary lizards. It’s possible that isolation is taking a toll on me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the same time, if you learn that your tapirs are bored and you give them some toys, you can watch the bar that represents their well-being slide up through the yellow zone and into the green zone. At least \u003cem>somebody \u003c/em>is having a good time, even if they’re \u003ca href=\"https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/group/tapirs/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">kinda funny-looking pig-elephants\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Roller Coaster Tycoon Adventures\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13884904\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13884904\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/08/rollercoaster-tycoon-adventures-switch-screenshot05-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"'Roller Coaster Tycoon Adventures.'\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/08/rollercoaster-tycoon-adventures-switch-screenshot05-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/08/rollercoaster-tycoon-adventures-switch-screenshot05-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/08/rollercoaster-tycoon-adventures-switch-screenshot05-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/08/rollercoaster-tycoon-adventures-switch-screenshot05-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/08/rollercoaster-tycoon-adventures-switch-screenshot05.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Roller Coaster Tycoon Adventures.’ \u003ccite>(Nintendo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Can I be straight with you? I didn’t know you could even play \u003cem>Roller Coaster Tycoon \u003c/em>anymore. This is another one that dates back to my CD-ROM game days, when mostly what I remember is trying to stop people from eating near the thrill rides, because it would mean I had to clean up after them when they got sick. I spent a lot of time on barf reduction strategies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When I play it on the Switch, it’s richer than it used to be, but it’s still fundamentally the same game. You can still set up your merry-go-round first. Build a little path. Work your way up to arcade games, get some families hanging around, put in a lemonade stand. (I feel like it’s less about the upset tummies than earlier versions, too.) Eventually, you can set up your thrill rides and your big wooden coasters, and you can place a lot of wild topiary stuff for people to look at. This is one of the ones I play that’s the most straightforward. Unlike \u003cem>Cities: Skylines\u003c/em>, where problems can rapidly cascade until everyone in town hates you and you’re broke and everyone is sick and the dead bodies are piling up and no one has electricity (hypothetically this could happen you know maybe), as long as you keep a general eye on the goings-on, it seems like your amusement park does not become some kind of haunted monstrosity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And unlike reality, this world seems to feature fewer unsettled stomachs than I remember.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>No, Thank You: The Ones I Won’t Play\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A final note: Not every imaginary world should be entered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I wasn’t too far into poking around for interesting simulation games when I saw that one exists that’s called \u003cem>Prison Architect\u003c/em>. The reasons I was instinctively grossed out are probably obvious: I don’t find prisons whimsical, even more than I don’t find hospitals whimsical. I was intrigued, however, by a description that suggested that the point of it was that you could play around with rehabilitation options or “punitive” ones, and some part of me thought it might be interesting to explore how they impose consequences of your decisions. So I got it, and I fired it up, and I found that … the tutorial requires you to build an execution chamber with an electric chair. It shows you a graphic animation of your prisoner killing two people. You have to connect the electric chair directly to power, because it needs so much.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I quit that one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A lot of time has been spent on the ethics of certain kinds of games. First-person shooters, for instance—what does it do to a person to practice shooting people? Or \u003cem>Grand Theft Auto\u003c/em>, which I once dabbled in years ago, only to quit because, of all things, I was a terrible driver. I never even \u003cem>got \u003c/em>to explore the causes of the moral panic; I just kept crashing the car.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But as much as escape appeals at this point, I don’t need to build an electric chair. I have enough qualms about zoning my citizens to improve their land values, demolishing their homes to build police stations, building glass walls in my zoo so people can look at my fighting hippos, and letting clowns die.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At some point, I realized that the key to why these simulations will always be fantasies even when they’re dark fantasies is that you can leave. I managed a city so badly once that practically every house was flashing with some dystopian symbol of failure, so … I made a new one. Moreover, one of the reasons you have to keep your citizens happy is that \u003cem>they \u003c/em>can leave. They can leave your city, they can stop going to your amusement park, they can storm out of the hospital. There’s always an exit to elsewhere. There’s always the X in the upper right-hand corner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Get me out of here. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=I+Thought+A+Zoo%3A+Simulated+Games+For+Isolated+Times&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>I’m overwhelmed by so many things right now, not the least of which is that I keep having to build wind turbines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not in my yard, you understand: in my imaginary city. The city I created playing the game \u003cem>Cities: Skylines\u003c/em>. I play it on my Nintendo Switch, but you can play it on your Xbox, or your PlayStation, or your computer. It’s very much like the game \u003cem>Sim City \u003c/em>that I played years ago, and it proceeds in much the same way: You have some land. You build some roads, you create zoning (and really, who \u003cem>doesn’t \u003c/em>get into gaming in order to explore land-use planning?), you supply these areas with water and power, and then people begin to move in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maybe it’s not a surprise that I, as someone who lives alone and finds myself with time to kill in these Pandemic Days, have made a lot more use of my Switch in the last few months than in the last couple of years. Yes, I played \u003cem>Animal Crossing: New Horizons\u003c/em> when it first came out—in fact, I bought a copy for a stranger on Twitter, because she was in a pinch and it had been such a balm to me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But I also play \u003cem>RBI Baseball 20 \u003c/em>(the official MLB-sanctioned baseball game) and \u003cem>Super Mega Baseball 3 \u003c/em>(the funnier, more whimsical baseball game), and I play \u003cem>Paper Mario: The Origami King \u003c/em>(the fact that you throw confetti like Rip Taylor in that game is just the best). I loved \u003cem>Kentucky Route Zero\u003c/em>, which is a moody, melancholy point-and-click storytelling game with musical interludes and all kinds of cool stuff. I’m okay at \u003cem>Breakfast Bar Tycoon\u003c/em>, which requires you to learn how to assemble breakfast sandwiches and serve grumpy customers (though anything where you’re eventually rushing stresses me out), and I’m not even going to list the games I’ve tried at which I’m completely hopeless. (One of my dear friends is a devotee of NBA2K, a game I find as stressful as an ancient version of myself might have found a tiger attack.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But more than anything, I have been playing simulation games. Almost anything can be defined as a simulation of sorts, in that there’s always a reality that you’re living in, even if you’re jumping from platform to platform or shooting at bad guys. But here, I’m referring to the more methodical, world-creating, no-obvious-ending simulations like \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2018/07/18/629760717/put-your-face-in-it-how-gaming-helped-me-understand-my-dog\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the farming game \u003cem>Stardew Valley\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, where you set up your farm and then grow things and sell them and try to make friends. \u003cem>Animal Crossing \u003c/em>is a simulation, too. But it’s unlike most simulations, in that it’s not particularly stressful. Not a lot of really terrible things can happen very easily; it’s more that if you don’t play, you’re not out there earning goodies and catching new bugs. I recently picked it up again after a couple of months off, and my biggest problem was that my animal friends had really missed me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s not the case in some of the other games I’ve been playing. Let me take you on a tour of a few of these imaginary worlds I’ve been building and, in some cases, messing up completely, while I hope that my actual world will steady.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Cities: Skylines\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13884897\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13884897\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/08/citiesskylines_wide-55e580e36d840d545a63f7c83ae1bf61cd4e8d01-800x450.jpe\" alt=\"This is a shot of only one of many very very bad traffic configurations I created in Cities: Skylines. Yes, two houses are on fire.\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/08/citiesskylines_wide-55e580e36d840d545a63f7c83ae1bf61cd4e8d01-800x450.jpe 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/08/citiesskylines_wide-55e580e36d840d545a63f7c83ae1bf61cd4e8d01-1020x574.jpe 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/08/citiesskylines_wide-55e580e36d840d545a63f7c83ae1bf61cd4e8d01-160x90.jpe 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/08/citiesskylines_wide-55e580e36d840d545a63f7c83ae1bf61cd4e8d01-768x432.jpe 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/08/citiesskylines_wide-55e580e36d840d545a63f7c83ae1bf61cd4e8d01.jpe 1278w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This is a shot of only one of many very very bad traffic configurations I created in Cities: Skylines. Yes, two houses are on fire. \u003ccite>(Screenshot via Switch)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>First: back to those wind turbines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When you set up your \u003cem>Cities: Skylines \u003c/em>city, it needs power. Back when I used to play \u003cem>Sim City\u003c/em>, you were boxed into starting with a coal-fired power plant, which you plunked down in some unfortunate part of your city. Coal plants are dirty, but they’ll juice up your town, and they’re what you can afford. In \u003cem>Cities: Skylines\u003c/em>, you can start with coal—or you can put up wind turbines. You have to look at your maps and find a place to put them that’s windy enough, but they come in smaller units, so the initial cost for the power you need to get started is lower.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Plus, you’ll start seeing your citizens tweeting—sorry, I meant “chirping,” which is the game’s version of something that looks rather like tweeting—about how much they appreciate your commitment to green energy. (Of course, they also tweet complaints. Every time I see the chirp that gripes that it’s not that hard to create a working power grid, I say out loud something like “It’s harder than you think, jerk, so \u003cem>give \u003c/em>me a \u003cem>minute\u003c/em> if you \u003cem>don’t mind \u003c/em>and I will \u003cem>fix it\u003c/em>.” Then I go build some more power lines.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But then you’ll add clean water, and your city will grow. Little bars at the bottom of the screen tell you how much demand there is for different kinds of zoning, and when you see that orange bar grow, that means your people want some Industrial Zone space. So you lay it out, and businesses move in. And then, before you know it, little lightning bolts start flashing over some of your residential housing. You’re short of power. If you still have money, you maybe build another wind turbine. Or two. Then the industrial buildings start flashing a little symbol that says they don’t have enough workers. So you build more residential areas. The population keeps growing. They begin to want things. They need the garbage collected. They need a medical clinic and a school, they tell you. They need fire trucks, they tell you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They need police.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What is true in \u003cem>Cities: Skylines \u003c/em>is, of course, only what the people who developed it decided would be true. (Although on some platforms, you can download mods created by users that tinker with the programming.) And what’s true here is that you add police stations and you add budgets for them, and that prevents crime. Because, as the in-game explanation says, the more stations and money, the more patrol cars. And patrol cars cut crime in the buildings they drive by. (You can eventually watch your police cars drive around.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Police cars aren’t the only thing that reduces crime: education does too. And police cars don’t do any good if they can’t get around because of traffic or other road issues. But in this game, police presence affects the happiness of your citizens in only one way, which is that they feel safer when there are more patrol cars driving around. If you don’t have enough police—what the game defines as “enough police”—your crime rate goes up. What that looks like is that instead of the lightning bolts that flash on a building without power or the hardhat person who flashes on a building without enough workers, a face in a ski mask flashes on a building where the crime rate is too high. “Save us all from guys in ski masks,” your imaginary citizens are allegedly thinking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There is a small-“c” conservative bent to such a game, of course, because how things have worked is how they must always work. In a year in which even more attention than before has gone to calls to reform police, change how they operate, and potentially give them \u003cem>less \u003c/em>money, a strictly linear relationship between the number of police cars and the amount of happiness seems fanciful, like setting up the game so that adding roads increases a city’s population of red pandas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even these simulated worlds I am trying to build keep bumping into the real one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Two Point Hospital\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13884898\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13884898\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/08/twopointhospital_wide-7f480849e6907b16c3c7f6fd7c98e44637ba50ea-800x450.jpe\" alt=\"In this shot of my hospital, you can see the clown treatment room, a couple of training rooms, a psychiatrist's office, and some vending machines, among other things.\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/08/twopointhospital_wide-7f480849e6907b16c3c7f6fd7c98e44637ba50ea-800x450.jpe 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/08/twopointhospital_wide-7f480849e6907b16c3c7f6fd7c98e44637ba50ea-1020x574.jpe 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/08/twopointhospital_wide-7f480849e6907b16c3c7f6fd7c98e44637ba50ea-160x90.jpe 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/08/twopointhospital_wide-7f480849e6907b16c3c7f6fd7c98e44637ba50ea-768x432.jpe 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/08/twopointhospital_wide-7f480849e6907b16c3c7f6fd7c98e44637ba50ea.jpe 1278w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In this shot of my hospital, you can see the clown treatment room, a couple of training rooms, a psychiatrist’s office, and some vending machines, among other things. \u003ccite>(Screenshot via Switch)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Also on the list of uncomfortable collisions with reality is \u003cem>Two Point Hospital\u003c/em>, one of my favorites. I realize that just as there were people who wanted to watch \u003cem>Contagion \u003c/em>early in the pandemic but I couldn’t imagine it, there are people who would never currently want to play a wacky hospital simulation, even if the people mostly have pretend diseases like “Animal Magnetism” and “Hurty Leg.” One of my favorites, though, is “Night Fever,” and if you zoom in on any of the patients who are afflicted with it, you’ll see every one of them is wearing a white suit and doing John Travolta moves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In this game, you build your GP’s offices and your treatment rooms, you hire doctors and nurses and assistants and janitors, and you install drink machines to try to keep the patients from getting angry. It’s all deeply goofy. You can build a whole treatment room that’s just for sick clowns. It looks like a circus tent. The clown goes into it, whirls around for a while, and is hopefully cured.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The game’s sense of time is either intentionally or unintentionally hilarious: Patients will sometimes storm out of the hospital angry about the time it’s taken for a doctor to see them, and you’ll see in their information that they waited in your hospital for like a year and a half, drinking from your drink machines, eating from your snack machines, and playing your arcade games. That’s just too long for a sick clown to chill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People die in this game. (Side note: They die in \u003cem>Cities: Skylines\u003c/em> too, at which point a skull and crossbones flashes on the house until the body is retrieved by a hearse and taken to a cemetery that—yes, of course—you must build. You do not want to know what happens if you refuse to build a cemetery.) They die of their jokey, made-up ailments, and then they become ghosts, and they float around the hospital scaring the other patients until a janitor, one that carries the special ghost cleanup qualification, sucks them up with a vacuum. It’s so weird that I kind of can’t resist it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The other thing \u003cem>TPH\u003c/em> has going for it is that it doesn’t require you to build too much infrastructure. I become impatient during the phase of games like \u003cem>Cities: Skylines\u003c/em> where you’re mostly connecting pipes in rectangles. In real life, I pride myself on not taking infrastructure for granted, but sitting in front of my TV with a controller, I want to be figuring out where my university will be and how many adorable parks I can have. I don’t especially want to be relocating pipes with pinpoint accuracy or managing traffic patterns by installing roundabouts. (Honestly, what good is building my own city if I can’t ban roundabouts?) \u003cem>Two Point Hospital \u003c/em>does make you place radiators to keep people from freezing, but it does not make you put in the hospital laundry or the transformers or anything else boring. More clowns! Fewer water pumps!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Take note: This game was developed by a British studio, so there is no billing of patients and there are no insurance companies. So that’s a couple of doses of reality you do not have to worry about.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Planet Zoo\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13884902\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13884902\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/08/planet-zoo-is-a-sim-from-the-creators-of-planet-coaster-in-the-style-of-zoo-tycoon-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"'Planet Zoo'\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/08/planet-zoo-is-a-sim-from-the-creators-of-planet-coaster-in-the-style-of-zoo-tycoon-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/08/planet-zoo-is-a-sim-from-the-creators-of-planet-coaster-in-the-style-of-zoo-tycoon-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/08/planet-zoo-is-a-sim-from-the-creators-of-planet-coaster-in-the-style-of-zoo-tycoon-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/08/planet-zoo-is-a-sim-from-the-creators-of-planet-coaster-in-the-style-of-zoo-tycoon-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/08/planet-zoo-is-a-sim-from-the-creators-of-planet-coaster-in-the-style-of-zoo-tycoon-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/08/planet-zoo-is-a-sim-from-the-creators-of-planet-coaster-in-the-style-of-zoo-tycoon.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Planet Zoo’ \u003ccite>(Frontier)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>This one isn’t on Switch (right now), so to play it, I have to sneak up to my office and sequester myself up there to play on my PC. Believe it or not, I’ve spent a number of hours in the tutorial sections and I have yet to start anything from scratch, which might mean that I’m not really cut out for the zoo management business. But I persevere! For the animals, you see.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Your task in this game is to build (or improve) a zoo. You “adopt” animals from various sources, you build habitats, you outfit them with the plants and the terrain that the particular animal needs, and you try to keep them happy. You also, ideally, rehabilitate and release some into the wild and get conservation points. \u003cem>Planet Zoo\u003c/em> has rapidly become the game I use to escape my considerable real-world anxieties. When you get a notice that a couple of your hippos are fighting (in retrospect, I think I mismanaged the population of adult males and they started going after each other [imagine a big eyes emoji here]), it will really get your attention.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the other hand, this is also a game where mistakes are viscerally upsetting. I have not had to mourn a zoo animal yet, but I had a very depressed pair of frogs the other day (I hadn’t adjusted the humidity correctly), and despite the fact that these frogs do not exist, I felt terrible. Sad frogs! My fault! This is also where I admit that I tend to talk to my animals a lot, out loud. “Oh no! Let’s fix your plants,” I will say to some imaginary lizards. It’s possible that isolation is taking a toll on me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the same time, if you learn that your tapirs are bored and you give them some toys, you can watch the bar that represents their well-being slide up through the yellow zone and into the green zone. At least \u003cem>somebody \u003c/em>is having a good time, even if they’re \u003ca href=\"https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/group/tapirs/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">kinda funny-looking pig-elephants\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Roller Coaster Tycoon Adventures\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13884904\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13884904\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/08/rollercoaster-tycoon-adventures-switch-screenshot05-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"'Roller Coaster Tycoon Adventures.'\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/08/rollercoaster-tycoon-adventures-switch-screenshot05-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/08/rollercoaster-tycoon-adventures-switch-screenshot05-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/08/rollercoaster-tycoon-adventures-switch-screenshot05-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/08/rollercoaster-tycoon-adventures-switch-screenshot05-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/08/rollercoaster-tycoon-adventures-switch-screenshot05.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Roller Coaster Tycoon Adventures.’ \u003ccite>(Nintendo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Can I be straight with you? I didn’t know you could even play \u003cem>Roller Coaster Tycoon \u003c/em>anymore. This is another one that dates back to my CD-ROM game days, when mostly what I remember is trying to stop people from eating near the thrill rides, because it would mean I had to clean up after them when they got sick. I spent a lot of time on barf reduction strategies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When I play it on the Switch, it’s richer than it used to be, but it’s still fundamentally the same game. You can still set up your merry-go-round first. Build a little path. Work your way up to arcade games, get some families hanging around, put in a lemonade stand. (I feel like it’s less about the upset tummies than earlier versions, too.) Eventually, you can set up your thrill rides and your big wooden coasters, and you can place a lot of wild topiary stuff for people to look at. This is one of the ones I play that’s the most straightforward. Unlike \u003cem>Cities: Skylines\u003c/em>, where problems can rapidly cascade until everyone in town hates you and you’re broke and everyone is sick and the dead bodies are piling up and no one has electricity (hypothetically this could happen you know maybe), as long as you keep a general eye on the goings-on, it seems like your amusement park does not become some kind of haunted monstrosity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And unlike reality, this world seems to feature fewer unsettled stomachs than I remember.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>No, Thank You: The Ones I Won’t Play\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A final note: Not every imaginary world should be entered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I wasn’t too far into poking around for interesting simulation games when I saw that one exists that’s called \u003cem>Prison Architect\u003c/em>. The reasons I was instinctively grossed out are probably obvious: I don’t find prisons whimsical, even more than I don’t find hospitals whimsical. I was intrigued, however, by a description that suggested that the point of it was that you could play around with rehabilitation options or “punitive” ones, and some part of me thought it might be interesting to explore how they impose consequences of your decisions. So I got it, and I fired it up, and I found that … the tutorial requires you to build an execution chamber with an electric chair. It shows you a graphic animation of your prisoner killing two people. You have to connect the electric chair directly to power, because it needs so much.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I quit that one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A lot of time has been spent on the ethics of certain kinds of games. First-person shooters, for instance—what does it do to a person to practice shooting people? Or \u003cem>Grand Theft Auto\u003c/em>, which I once dabbled in years ago, only to quit because, of all things, I was a terrible driver. I never even \u003cem>got \u003c/em>to explore the causes of the moral panic; I just kept crashing the car.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But as much as escape appeals at this point, I don’t need to build an electric chair. I have enough qualms about zoning my citizens to improve their land values, demolishing their homes to build police stations, building glass walls in my zoo so people can look at my fighting hippos, and letting clowns die.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At some point, I realized that the key to why these simulations will always be fantasies even when they’re dark fantasies is that you can leave. I managed a city so badly once that practically every house was flashing with some dystopian symbol of failure, so … I made a new one. Moreover, one of the reasons you have to keep your citizens happy is that \u003cem>they \u003c/em>can leave. They can leave your city, they can stop going to your amusement park, they can storm out of the hospital. There’s always an exit to elsewhere. There’s always the X in the upper right-hand corner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Get me out of here. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=I+Thought+A+Zoo%3A+Simulated+Games+For+Isolated+Times&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "'The Last of Us Part II' is a Gut Punch That Just Keeps Punching",
"headTitle": "‘The Last of Us Part II’ is a Gut Punch That Just Keeps Punching | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>The Last of Us Part II\u003c/em> is a game that punches you in the gut right from the start, and never stops punching.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During a time like this, I honestly didn’t know if I could handle a game like \u003cem>The Last of Us\u003c/em>, either part of it. As a journalist in 2020, a lot of my waking thoughts go to the news (which is usually upsetting). I wasn’t really tempted to escape into an apocalyptic hellscape where 60% of the world’s population is killed by a parasitic fungus that turns you into a zombie.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It wasn’t from a lack of interest. I’ve been looking forward to this game for years. The original \u003cem>Last of Us\u003c/em>, released in 2013, is considered one of the best games of all time. People had extraordinarily high expectations for this new installment—and it’s another masterpiece just like the first.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you’re unfamiliar with the story: The main character, Joel, is a smuggler who lost his daughter during the initial outbreak. He was hired by a group called the Fireflies to transport a 14-year-old girl named Ellie from the Boston quarantine zone to a hospital in Salt Lake City. She is immune to the virus, and the Fireflies want to use that to create a vaccine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Warning: Spoilers ahead for the original game … which you really should have played by now!\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite initially being ice-cold to Ellie, Joel starts seeing her as a daughter during their journey—so when they get to Salt Lake City and he finds out creating the vaccine will kill Ellie, Joel chooses to rescue her, killing everybody in his path.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Players of the first game rationalized Joel’s actions—he had gotten to know and love Ellie, and so did we. Some people (not me) say saving her was the right thing to do! But what about everybody else in the world, who has to live with the effects of decisions like that?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In \u003cem>The Last of Us Part II\u003c/em>, we see what happens when the need for revenge and justice overtakes everything else. We see how the world makes people do desperate things for understandable reasons. The game doesn’t glorify violence—instead, it shows you the awful effects of violence on survivors. But that isn’t apparent until the top-secret second half of the game, when the waterworks really start flowing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ellie is now one of the main playable characters. She’s 19, and noticeably different from the bubbly 14-year-old she was in the previous game. Like everybody else in this universe, Ellie has been traumatized by her experiences, and they have hardened her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13882214\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13882214\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/06/screen_tlou2_teaser_05_1480799632_wide-63166899ac03afdd0ccb96305053d3c09849def6-800x450.png\" alt=\"At the start of Part II, Ellie has found a kind of peace—she enjoys playing guitar, corny jokes and crushing on girls. Naturally it doesn't last.\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">At the start of Part II, Ellie has found a kind of peace—she enjoys playing guitar, corny jokes and crushing on girls. Naturally it doesn’t last. \u003ccite>(Sony Entertainment/Naughty Dog)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Right at the beginning, there’s a glimmer of hope: Joel and Ellie have achieved a new normal, living at a compound in Jackson, Wyo., owned by Joel’s brother Tommy. And at this point, everybody can handle zombies so easily that to Ellie, getting rid of them can be like going on a casual hunting trip.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But she loves playing guitar, comics, and movies. She thinks corny jokes are hilarious and collects trading cards hiding around the map. Her diary is filled with entries about girls she is dating. And she really loves her friends, her crush Dina, and Joel, despite their newly tense relationship.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She also thinks it’s odd to be in a quarantine zone without hearing constant gunfire and explosions—and talks about the first time she killed somebody like she’s talking about the first time she drank a beer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since this is still \u003cem>The Last of Us\u003c/em>, you know the new normal will be ripped away pretty fast. And when that happens, Ellie heads for Seattle to get revenge. That’s right: Revenge. Ellie started as a person willing to sacrifice her life to save the world. But loss has turned her into kind of a heartless monster, willing to sacrifice others for her own goals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And since this is still \u003cem>The Last of Us\u003c/em>, you’ll be admiring the gorgeous, expansive world—full of puzzles, challenges and things to explore—as Ellie travels through it on her awful mission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13882215\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13882215\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/06/2510225ee9c2f1317175.94897258-tloupii_review_screenshot_06_wide-2899990ac0c81d3e4230507e729537d56c8fd114-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"The world of 'Part II' is even bigger, lusher and more engaging than the first game.\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The world of ‘Part II’ is even bigger, lusher and more engaging than the first game. \u003ccite>(Sony Entertainment/Naughty Dog)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Part II \u003c/em>makes you deeply aware of the consequences of your actions. In most video games, you don’t question why you’re killing people, you just assume that everybody in a specific faction is bad. In this game, it’s not so black and white.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And Naughty Dog does a great job of getting players to connect with every character, not just the main characters. You truly feel like you’re experiencing this disturbing journey with Ellie—you feel her fall in love, you feel her grief, her anger, her fears.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But you also feel for your enemies. It’s crushing to hear Ellie’s targets talk about their own hopes, fears, and futures when she may soon have to kill them. I started avoiding combat whenever possible, and spent a lot of time trying to sneak around dangerous humans instead of confronting them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the time I finished this emotional rollercoaster, I was a weeping mess. I did nothing but sob \u003cem>hard\u003c/em> for about an hour. I thought I’d gotten it out of my system. But afterward, I kept bursting into tears every now and then, when my mind wandered to little moments in the game.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s not easy to understand why I felt like that until you play the second half of the game, the part I can’t tell you about.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I think \u003cem>The Last of Us Part II \u003c/em>has changed me a bit as a person. It made me very aware of the little things in my life that I take for granted, the kinds of things you don’t appreciate until they’re ripped away forever. It’s easy to get lost in the darkness of the world, but it’s necessary to look at the things that bring you light.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I wasn’t expecting it to be a happy game by any means, but I could have never predicted just how intense an emotional experience it was. I don’t think I’m going to be able to look at the original game the same way ever again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Kaity Kline is a columnist for NPR’s \u003c/em>Join the Game\u003cem> and a producer on \u003c/em>1A\u003cem>. She is a native of New Jersey, a lifelong gamer, and a former gaming YouTuber. She tweets at \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/kaitykline?lang=en\">\u003cem>@kaitykline\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=%27The+Last+Of+Us+Part+II%27+Is+A+Gut+Punch+That+Just+Keeps+Punching&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "The pandemic-delayed sequel to 2013 apocalypse game 'The Last of Us' packs all the emotional wallop of the first—and more.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>The Last of Us Part II\u003c/em> is a game that punches you in the gut right from the start, and never stops punching.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During a time like this, I honestly didn’t know if I could handle a game like \u003cem>The Last of Us\u003c/em>, either part of it. As a journalist in 2020, a lot of my waking thoughts go to the news (which is usually upsetting). I wasn’t really tempted to escape into an apocalyptic hellscape where 60% of the world’s population is killed by a parasitic fungus that turns you into a zombie.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It wasn’t from a lack of interest. I’ve been looking forward to this game for years. The original \u003cem>Last of Us\u003c/em>, released in 2013, is considered one of the best games of all time. People had extraordinarily high expectations for this new installment—and it’s another masterpiece just like the first.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you’re unfamiliar with the story: The main character, Joel, is a smuggler who lost his daughter during the initial outbreak. He was hired by a group called the Fireflies to transport a 14-year-old girl named Ellie from the Boston quarantine zone to a hospital in Salt Lake City. She is immune to the virus, and the Fireflies want to use that to create a vaccine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Warning: Spoilers ahead for the original game … which you really should have played by now!\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite initially being ice-cold to Ellie, Joel starts seeing her as a daughter during their journey—so when they get to Salt Lake City and he finds out creating the vaccine will kill Ellie, Joel chooses to rescue her, killing everybody in his path.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Players of the first game rationalized Joel’s actions—he had gotten to know and love Ellie, and so did we. Some people (not me) say saving her was the right thing to do! But what about everybody else in the world, who has to live with the effects of decisions like that?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In \u003cem>The Last of Us Part II\u003c/em>, we see what happens when the need for revenge and justice overtakes everything else. We see how the world makes people do desperate things for understandable reasons. The game doesn’t glorify violence—instead, it shows you the awful effects of violence on survivors. But that isn’t apparent until the top-secret second half of the game, when the waterworks really start flowing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ellie is now one of the main playable characters. She’s 19, and noticeably different from the bubbly 14-year-old she was in the previous game. Like everybody else in this universe, Ellie has been traumatized by her experiences, and they have hardened her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13882214\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13882214\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/06/screen_tlou2_teaser_05_1480799632_wide-63166899ac03afdd0ccb96305053d3c09849def6-800x450.png\" alt=\"At the start of Part II, Ellie has found a kind of peace—she enjoys playing guitar, corny jokes and crushing on girls. Naturally it doesn't last.\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">At the start of Part II, Ellie has found a kind of peace—she enjoys playing guitar, corny jokes and crushing on girls. Naturally it doesn’t last. \u003ccite>(Sony Entertainment/Naughty Dog)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Right at the beginning, there’s a glimmer of hope: Joel and Ellie have achieved a new normal, living at a compound in Jackson, Wyo., owned by Joel’s brother Tommy. And at this point, everybody can handle zombies so easily that to Ellie, getting rid of them can be like going on a casual hunting trip.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But she loves playing guitar, comics, and movies. She thinks corny jokes are hilarious and collects trading cards hiding around the map. Her diary is filled with entries about girls she is dating. And she really loves her friends, her crush Dina, and Joel, despite their newly tense relationship.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She also thinks it’s odd to be in a quarantine zone without hearing constant gunfire and explosions—and talks about the first time she killed somebody like she’s talking about the first time she drank a beer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since this is still \u003cem>The Last of Us\u003c/em>, you know the new normal will be ripped away pretty fast. And when that happens, Ellie heads for Seattle to get revenge. That’s right: Revenge. Ellie started as a person willing to sacrifice her life to save the world. But loss has turned her into kind of a heartless monster, willing to sacrifice others for her own goals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And since this is still \u003cem>The Last of Us\u003c/em>, you’ll be admiring the gorgeous, expansive world—full of puzzles, challenges and things to explore—as Ellie travels through it on her awful mission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13882215\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13882215\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/06/2510225ee9c2f1317175.94897258-tloupii_review_screenshot_06_wide-2899990ac0c81d3e4230507e729537d56c8fd114-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"The world of 'Part II' is even bigger, lusher and more engaging than the first game.\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The world of ‘Part II’ is even bigger, lusher and more engaging than the first game. \u003ccite>(Sony Entertainment/Naughty Dog)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Part II \u003c/em>makes you deeply aware of the consequences of your actions. In most video games, you don’t question why you’re killing people, you just assume that everybody in a specific faction is bad. In this game, it’s not so black and white.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And Naughty Dog does a great job of getting players to connect with every character, not just the main characters. You truly feel like you’re experiencing this disturbing journey with Ellie—you feel her fall in love, you feel her grief, her anger, her fears.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But you also feel for your enemies. It’s crushing to hear Ellie’s targets talk about their own hopes, fears, and futures when she may soon have to kill them. I started avoiding combat whenever possible, and spent a lot of time trying to sneak around dangerous humans instead of confronting them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the time I finished this emotional rollercoaster, I was a weeping mess. I did nothing but sob \u003cem>hard\u003c/em> for about an hour. I thought I’d gotten it out of my system. But afterward, I kept bursting into tears every now and then, when my mind wandered to little moments in the game.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s not easy to understand why I felt like that until you play the second half of the game, the part I can’t tell you about.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I think \u003cem>The Last of Us Part II \u003c/em>has changed me a bit as a person. It made me very aware of the little things in my life that I take for granted, the kinds of things you don’t appreciate until they’re ripped away forever. It’s easy to get lost in the darkness of the world, but it’s necessary to look at the things that bring you light.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I wasn’t expecting it to be a happy game by any means, but I could have never predicted just how intense an emotional experience it was. I don’t think I’m going to be able to look at the original game the same way ever again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Kaity Kline is a columnist for NPR’s \u003c/em>Join the Game\u003cem> and a producer on \u003c/em>1A\u003cem>. She is a native of New Jersey, a lifelong gamer, and a former gaming YouTuber. She tweets at \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/kaitykline?lang=en\">\u003cem>@kaitykline\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=%27The+Last+Of+Us+Part+II%27+Is+A+Gut+Punch+That+Just+Keeps+Punching&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Neither Flood, Nor Fire, Nor Virus Shakes the Virtual Calm of 'Minecraft'",
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"content": "\u003cp>“Honey, I’m going out for an adventure!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>E. closes the door behind him and steps out into the world. I stay put, cooking up ideas for home improvement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We’ve only known each other for a few months, but once the pandemic threw our lives off balance, we decided to move in together. In a house we built. In \u003cem>Minecraft\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The house is modest—a pixelated, underground starter home made of dirt and cobblestone. In one corner is a large chest for storing our inventory. Nearby, a crafting table and a stove convert raw materials into something useful. There’s a bed for our re-spawn location, which means I won’t get lost the next time I drown or get blown up by a creeper—a recurring issue early on. And on the opposite wall, there’s a pen of clucking chickens. On second thought, not the best place for the chickens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Later, we’ll upgrade to a multi-story castle atop a mountain—but for now, it’s home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Downloading\u003cem> Minecraft\u003c/em> wasn’t my first instinct when I stopped going to my office and everywhere else. I’ve never self-identified as a gamer in my adult life, and I certainly didn’t think the antidote to screen fatigue could be more screen time. Plus, video games always struck me as chaotic, and I was maxed out on chaos.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As kids, my older brother and I would settle into an afternoon of \u003cem>Tekken 4\u003c/em> or \u003cem>James Bond 007: Nightfire\u003c/em>, battling enemies and each other on an otherwise calm day. It was thrilling, and I’d ride that anxious buzz of trying to survive until it was time for something else. It’s strange how much you can learn about yourself as a child when your avatar is a buxom woman named Pussy Galore. I discovered I only really had fun when my brother and I were on the same team, and friendly fire was turned off. I noticed that random civilian casualties made me feel sick. I questioned why lady avatars were scantily clad while dude avatars often weren’t. And I loved getting to sight-see. [aside postid='arts_13879036']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sightseeing is why \u003cem>Minecraft\u003c/em> has had such an impact. Right now, my life’s parameters are my bedroom, my ambitions are the size of 80 bedrooms, and my \u003cem>Minecraft\u003c/em> realm is the size of a zillion bedrooms. The game offers endless virtual space to roam when real-life space feels like a rare commodity. And relocation is the literal click of a button. When I tire of the mines, I try the mountains. When I’m done with the mountains, I go to the jungle. And when I’ve had it with the jungle, I hop in a boat that I made with oak from the jungle and find a new island to inhabit. Then I can do it all over again. The game’s natural world is artificial, but there’s something kind of enchanting about that block-shaped moon overhead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Offline, my weeks have been punctuated with worry about the strain I’m putting on my household’s resources. But \u003cem>Minecraft\u003c/em> promises a retreat where raw materials are always plentiful and useful—water for putting out lava, iron for swords and pickaxes, cobwebs for string, animals for food. Neither climate change nor a pandemic can threaten this virtual cornucopia. Lately, I’ve discovered an affinity for running through open fields and punching grass. The satisfying crunching sound leads me to five-minute punching sprees from time to time, but this isn’t nihilism. It’s practical. Every few squares of freshly punched grass unearth little seeds that keep my chickens procreating and my farm plentiful. It’s a blissed-out vision of sustainability.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Let’s be clear, though: \u003cem>Minecraft\u003c/em> is not a utopia. Days whiz by, and when that 32-bit block of sun starts to set, monsters are coming for me. In the mines, too. Exploding creepers, arrow-toting skeletons, mumbling zombies, nimble spiders, and mystifying enderman you can’t make eye contact with. I’m not very good at fighting these yet, but at least I can count on the game’s sonic and visual cues to let me know danger is afoot. Plus, I’m armed for battle. There are rules and boundaries within which I can almost guarantee safety. And if all else fails, I’ll come back to life in the same place I started: My bed, in my simple underground house, out of harm’s way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I can’t say the same of the coronavirus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These days, I’m clinging to structure. Time is passing quickly, and if I’m honest, I don’t always yearn to make days feel longer or fuller. But when I close my bedroom door and open up a virtual world, I can feel the therapy of making things up as I go. Of itching for daylight so I can return to feeding chickens and building a castle on a mountain. Of experiencing something—making actual memories—when togetherness feels out of reach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Kathryn Fink is a producer for\u003c/em> 1A. \u003cem>She’s a native of Virginia, a new gamer, and an unapologetic lit nerd. She tweets at\u003c/em> @\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/finkcommakath\">finkcommakath\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Neither+Flood%2C+Nor+Fire%2C+Nor+Virus+Shakes+The+Virtual+Calm+Of+%27Minecraft%27&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sightseeing is why \u003cem>Minecraft\u003c/em> has had such an impact. Right now, my life’s parameters are my bedroom, my ambitions are the size of 80 bedrooms, and my \u003cem>Minecraft\u003c/em> realm is the size of a zillion bedrooms. The game offers endless virtual space to roam when real-life space feels like a rare commodity. And relocation is the literal click of a button. When I tire of the mines, I try the mountains. When I’m done with the mountains, I go to the jungle. And when I’ve had it with the jungle, I hop in a boat that I made with oak from the jungle and find a new island to inhabit. Then I can do it all over again. The game’s natural world is artificial, but there’s something kind of enchanting about that block-shaped moon overhead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Offline, my weeks have been punctuated with worry about the strain I’m putting on my household’s resources. But \u003cem>Minecraft\u003c/em> promises a retreat where raw materials are always plentiful and useful—water for putting out lava, iron for swords and pickaxes, cobwebs for string, animals for food. Neither climate change nor a pandemic can threaten this virtual cornucopia. Lately, I’ve discovered an affinity for running through open fields and punching grass. The satisfying crunching sound leads me to five-minute punching sprees from time to time, but this isn’t nihilism. It’s practical. Every few squares of freshly punched grass unearth little seeds that keep my chickens procreating and my farm plentiful. It’s a blissed-out vision of sustainability.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Let’s be clear, though: \u003cem>Minecraft\u003c/em> is not a utopia. Days whiz by, and when that 32-bit block of sun starts to set, monsters are coming for me. In the mines, too. Exploding creepers, arrow-toting skeletons, mumbling zombies, nimble spiders, and mystifying enderman you can’t make eye contact with. I’m not very good at fighting these yet, but at least I can count on the game’s sonic and visual cues to let me know danger is afoot. Plus, I’m armed for battle. There are rules and boundaries within which I can almost guarantee safety. And if all else fails, I’ll come back to life in the same place I started: My bed, in my simple underground house, out of harm’s way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I can’t say the same of the coronavirus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These days, I’m clinging to structure. Time is passing quickly, and if I’m honest, I don’t always yearn to make days feel longer or fuller. But when I close my bedroom door and open up a virtual world, I can feel the therapy of making things up as I go. Of itching for daylight so I can return to feeding chickens and building a castle on a mountain. Of experiencing something—making actual memories—when togetherness feels out of reach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Kathryn Fink is a producer for\u003c/em> 1A. \u003cem>She’s a native of Virginia, a new gamer, and an unapologetic lit nerd. She tweets at\u003c/em> @\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/finkcommakath\">finkcommakath\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Neither+Flood%2C+Nor+Fire%2C+Nor+Virus+Shakes+The+Virtual+Calm+Of+%27Minecraft%27&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>I remember, I was sitting on the floor of my friend’s bedroom, staring up at his tiny silver box of a TV. It was 2003, and I was in the second grade. He was playing a game—piloting a cute little character through a bubbly, dreamy cartoon town filled with randomly selected animal villagers, flowers and fruit trees (that occasionally yielded money bags). That was my first encounter with Nintendo’s \u003cem>Animal Crossing. \u003c/em>I went home and begged my parents for the game.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It might seem like a strange time to be talking about video games. But right now, a lot of us are stuck indoors, scared and uncertain about the future. A lot of our normal coping mechanisms are cut off—but video games can bring us joy, escape, and connection.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And very few games are as well-equipped for joy, escape and connection as \u003cem>Animal Crossing\u003c/em>—the latest edition of which, \u003cem>New Horizons\u003c/em>, is out this month. Like every \u003cem>AC\u003c/em> game, it starts you off as the sole human in a community of extremely cute animals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You have no money or possessions, only a tent and some camping supplies that you get from the game’s eternal entrepreneur Tom Nook—along with a debt to pay off. The main goal of the game, if there is one, is to fully upgrade your house and pay off your debt for each upgrade—but how you get there is up to you. You can catch fish and bugs to sell, dig fossils, make friends with the local animals, unlock new characters and features—or just wander around enjoying the scenery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That part of \u003cem>Animal Crossing \u003c/em>has never changed. Back in second grade, I spent endless hours playing; my little town was a way to calm down and escape to another reality, a place to go when I felt alone and needed a mood boost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And that still applies today, no matter how dark reality gets. I’m in the at-risk group for COVID-19 because of my bad asthma. As a precaution, I haven’t been going outside my apartment at all. But playing \u003cem>New Horizons\u003c/em> this weekend was the first time in months that I didn’t think about the coronavirus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3YNL0OWio0\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After a particularly tough day in the land of self isolation, I opened the game for the first time. The stress immediately melted away from my chest as I was greeted by Tom Nook’s twin nephews, the big eyed Timmy and Tommy, perched behind a travel counter. They were there to help me jet off to a new life on Nook’s dime, and part of my goal on top of paying my debt was to develop a deserted island into a thriving community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After I landed on the island, I was happily kept busy by all the small, simple tasks the Nooks assigned me: Finding the perfect spot for everybody’s tents, gathering twigs and rocks to make a fishing rod, net, and axe, and harvesting fruit for an island-warming bonfire party.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As I hunted for materials, there were soothing sounds coming from all around. I heard the sand crunching under my feet on the beach, shifting to a pattering sound as I stepped onto the grass. The sound of the wind and the waves going back and forth were constantly present, and every action made a satisfying \u003cem>bloop\u003c/em>, click, or whistle. Whimsical jazz music played in the background, with a lot of soft piano and acoustic guitar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The game runs in real time—6pm in the real world is 6pm on your island—so there’s a slow progression day by day as your town grows. And that slow, day to day life is part of the reason \u003cem>Animal Crossing\u003c/em> is so beloved; the repetitive, satisfying tasks of digging a hole, chopping down wood, and fishing, against the amazing sonic backdrop. And everybody on your island is just so \u003cem>nice\u003c/em> to you. Letters and gifts from neighbors are constantly flooding your home’s mailbox.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I went around talking to the villagers on my island in my cute new sweatshirt dress and matching boots. Mira, my rabbit villager, said she had a great hat to go with my outfit. It matched perfectly! Yes, she’s a cartoon rabbit on a tiny screen, but I was legitimately touched.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are some negatives. \u003cem>Animal Crossing: New Horizons\u003c/em> only gives players one island per console. It’s one island even if there are two accounts and two separate copies of the game. A family shouldn’t buy the game expecting to use one console and get their own island. And for now, at least, you can’t transfer your island from one console to another.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also, while multiplayer allows up to eight people, it’s a bit tedious to get set up for large groups at first. Everybody has to join the island one by one or the connection will fail.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that multiplayer aspect lets me and my boyfriend hang out with our friends in the game, and still maintain proper social distance. I’ve spoken to friends that I haven’t heard from in years because they wanted to visit my island—and when you’re cooped up in your apartment, hanging out on an island and taking pictures together wearing funny outfits is a relief.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m going to be coming back to this game a lot over the next few months to bring myself some peace and joy. It’s a great way to stay connected with others. I highly recommend picking up a copy (digitally!) and disappearing into it for the weekend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Kaity Kline is a columnist for NPR’s \u003c/em>Join the Game\u003cem> and a producer on \u003c/em>1A\u003cem>. She is a native of New Jersey, a lifelong gamer, and a former gaming YouTuber. She tweets at \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/kaitykline?lang=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@kaitykline\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Tom+Nook%2C+Take+Me+Away%21+%27Animal+Crossing%3A+New+Horizons%27+Is+A+Perfect+Escape&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>I remember, I was sitting on the floor of my friend’s bedroom, staring up at his tiny silver box of a TV. It was 2003, and I was in the second grade. He was playing a game—piloting a cute little character through a bubbly, dreamy cartoon town filled with randomly selected animal villagers, flowers and fruit trees (that occasionally yielded money bags). That was my first encounter with Nintendo’s \u003cem>Animal Crossing. \u003c/em>I went home and begged my parents for the game.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It might seem like a strange time to be talking about video games. But right now, a lot of us are stuck indoors, scared and uncertain about the future. A lot of our normal coping mechanisms are cut off—but video games can bring us joy, escape, and connection.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And very few games are as well-equipped for joy, escape and connection as \u003cem>Animal Crossing\u003c/em>—the latest edition of which, \u003cem>New Horizons\u003c/em>, is out this month. Like every \u003cem>AC\u003c/em> game, it starts you off as the sole human in a community of extremely cute animals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You have no money or possessions, only a tent and some camping supplies that you get from the game’s eternal entrepreneur Tom Nook—along with a debt to pay off. The main goal of the game, if there is one, is to fully upgrade your house and pay off your debt for each upgrade—but how you get there is up to you. You can catch fish and bugs to sell, dig fossils, make friends with the local animals, unlock new characters and features—or just wander around enjoying the scenery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That part of \u003cem>Animal Crossing \u003c/em>has never changed. Back in second grade, I spent endless hours playing; my little town was a way to calm down and escape to another reality, a place to go when I felt alone and needed a mood boost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And that still applies today, no matter how dark reality gets. I’m in the at-risk group for COVID-19 because of my bad asthma. As a precaution, I haven’t been going outside my apartment at all. But playing \u003cem>New Horizons\u003c/em> this weekend was the first time in months that I didn’t think about the coronavirus.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/_3YNL0OWio0'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/_3YNL0OWio0'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>After a particularly tough day in the land of self isolation, I opened the game for the first time. The stress immediately melted away from my chest as I was greeted by Tom Nook’s twin nephews, the big eyed Timmy and Tommy, perched behind a travel counter. They were there to help me jet off to a new life on Nook’s dime, and part of my goal on top of paying my debt was to develop a deserted island into a thriving community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After I landed on the island, I was happily kept busy by all the small, simple tasks the Nooks assigned me: Finding the perfect spot for everybody’s tents, gathering twigs and rocks to make a fishing rod, net, and axe, and harvesting fruit for an island-warming bonfire party.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As I hunted for materials, there were soothing sounds coming from all around. I heard the sand crunching under my feet on the beach, shifting to a pattering sound as I stepped onto the grass. The sound of the wind and the waves going back and forth were constantly present, and every action made a satisfying \u003cem>bloop\u003c/em>, click, or whistle. Whimsical jazz music played in the background, with a lot of soft piano and acoustic guitar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The game runs in real time—6pm in the real world is 6pm on your island—so there’s a slow progression day by day as your town grows. And that slow, day to day life is part of the reason \u003cem>Animal Crossing\u003c/em> is so beloved; the repetitive, satisfying tasks of digging a hole, chopping down wood, and fishing, against the amazing sonic backdrop. And everybody on your island is just so \u003cem>nice\u003c/em> to you. Letters and gifts from neighbors are constantly flooding your home’s mailbox.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I went around talking to the villagers on my island in my cute new sweatshirt dress and matching boots. Mira, my rabbit villager, said she had a great hat to go with my outfit. It matched perfectly! Yes, she’s a cartoon rabbit on a tiny screen, but I was legitimately touched.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are some negatives. \u003cem>Animal Crossing: New Horizons\u003c/em> only gives players one island per console. It’s one island even if there are two accounts and two separate copies of the game. A family shouldn’t buy the game expecting to use one console and get their own island. And for now, at least, you can’t transfer your island from one console to another.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also, while multiplayer allows up to eight people, it’s a bit tedious to get set up for large groups at first. Everybody has to join the island one by one or the connection will fail.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that multiplayer aspect lets me and my boyfriend hang out with our friends in the game, and still maintain proper social distance. I’ve spoken to friends that I haven’t heard from in years because they wanted to visit my island—and when you’re cooped up in your apartment, hanging out on an island and taking pictures together wearing funny outfits is a relief.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m going to be coming back to this game a lot over the next few months to bring myself some peace and joy. It’s a great way to stay connected with others. I highly recommend picking up a copy (digitally!) and disappearing into it for the weekend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Kaity Kline is a columnist for NPR’s \u003c/em>Join the Game\u003cem> and a producer on \u003c/em>1A\u003cem>. She is a native of New Jersey, a lifelong gamer, and a former gaming YouTuber. She tweets at \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/kaitykline?lang=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@kaitykline\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Tom+Nook%2C+Take+Me+Away%21+%27Animal+Crossing%3A+New+Horizons%27+Is+A+Perfect+Escape&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Live streamers could be forgiven for wondering if the Oscars had moved to the Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino Monday morning, because there were so many big Hollywood stars on stage. Steven Spielberg, Steve Carrell, J.J. Abrams, Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Aniston, and… why am I burying the lede?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Oprah!\u003c/em> Why is \u003cem>she\u003c/em> working with Apple to deliver two documentaries and a book club? “Because they’re in a billion pockets, y’all! A billion pockets!” she roared to an adoring crowd.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a reveal that lasted almost two hours, Apple announced major new forays into the worlds of news, gaming and entertainment. All three are mature industries with a lot of competition. But perhaps the tech giant’s gutsiest move is into entertainment. It’s hard to imagine how Apple TV+ — due to arrive sometime this fall — will be qualitatively different from the wide range of content already on offer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>See the “sizzle reel” from the Apple presentation.[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bt5k5Ix_wS8]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That said, Apple has been late to a game before, and still redefined the field of play. \u003ca href=\"https://www.cnet.com/profiles/iansherr/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ian Sherr\u003c/a>, editor at large at CNET News, has seen it happen several times: with the personal computer, the tablet, and the smart phone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s one of the fascinating things about Apple. They always wait to see what works and what doesn’t, and then they come in and they do their own version of it, and it tends to be really successful,” Sherr said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Apple’s relationship with customers has started to wane over the past few years as the company has seen the role of its hardware diminish in people’s lives,” said \u003ca href=\"https://www.forrester.com/James-L.-McQuivey\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">James McQuivey\u003c/a>, an analyst at Forrester tracking digital disruption. “Focusing on more media and entertainment experiences that are exclusive to the Apple experience will revivify Apple’s relationship with its customers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.blockandtackle.biz/home\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Alex Ben Block\u003c/a>, who writes about the business of entertainment for a variety of media outlets, is more skeptical. “While it is hard to underestimate Apple, this moves them into an area where there is much greater competition. Entertainment is widely available at little or no cost, and competitors led by Netfilx and Amazon are already offering more than Apple, even with the star names involved,” Ben Block wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He added, “The lesson of Amazon is that they had to offer a lot more than entertainment to get people to sign up for Prime, and they floundered until they had a hit series with \u003cem>Mrs. Maisel\u003c/em> which got people to sign up and continue. Apple needs to find its \u003cem>Mrs. Maisel\u003c/em> quickly or it could lose a ton of money.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Sherr believes Apple has the wherewithal to go up against the biggest names in streaming entertainment: Netflix, Amazon, and Disney. Notice how two of the three names on that list are also digital natives?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='arts_13850292,arts_13836539,arts_13852981' label='Related Coverage']The biggest threat, if it ever materializes, would be from federal antitrust regulators. “The tech industry broadly has been going towards this trend of what’s called verticalization, where they own every bit of what I’m buying,” Sherr said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One last thing: Apple is one of the most highly valued companies on the planet. And like its biggest rivals in Silicon Valley, Apple has the capacity to run at a massive loss. Maybe not indefinitely, but for longer than most Hollywood old-timers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There is always room for disruption,” Sherr said. “If Apple does it right.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Live streamers could be forgiven for wondering if the Oscars had moved to the Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino Monday morning, because there were so many big Hollywood stars on stage. Steven Spielberg, Steve Carrell, J.J. Abrams, Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Aniston, and… why am I burying the lede?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Oprah!\u003c/em> Why is \u003cem>she\u003c/em> working with Apple to deliver two documentaries and a book club? “Because they’re in a billion pockets, y’all! A billion pockets!” she roared to an adoring crowd.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a reveal that lasted almost two hours, Apple announced major new forays into the worlds of news, gaming and entertainment. All three are mature industries with a lot of competition. But perhaps the tech giant’s gutsiest move is into entertainment. It’s hard to imagine how Apple TV+ — due to arrive sometime this fall — will be qualitatively different from the wide range of content already on offer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>See the “sizzle reel” from the Apple presentation.\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/Bt5k5Ix_wS8'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/Bt5k5Ix_wS8'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That said, Apple has been late to a game before, and still redefined the field of play. \u003ca href=\"https://www.cnet.com/profiles/iansherr/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ian Sherr\u003c/a>, editor at large at CNET News, has seen it happen several times: with the personal computer, the tablet, and the smart phone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s one of the fascinating things about Apple. They always wait to see what works and what doesn’t, and then they come in and they do their own version of it, and it tends to be really successful,” Sherr said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Apple’s relationship with customers has started to wane over the past few years as the company has seen the role of its hardware diminish in people’s lives,” said \u003ca href=\"https://www.forrester.com/James-L.-McQuivey\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">James McQuivey\u003c/a>, an analyst at Forrester tracking digital disruption. “Focusing on more media and entertainment experiences that are exclusive to the Apple experience will revivify Apple’s relationship with its customers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.blockandtackle.biz/home\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Alex Ben Block\u003c/a>, who writes about the business of entertainment for a variety of media outlets, is more skeptical. “While it is hard to underestimate Apple, this moves them into an area where there is much greater competition. Entertainment is widely available at little or no cost, and competitors led by Netfilx and Amazon are already offering more than Apple, even with the star names involved,” Ben Block wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He added, “The lesson of Amazon is that they had to offer a lot more than entertainment to get people to sign up for Prime, and they floundered until they had a hit series with \u003cem>Mrs. Maisel\u003c/em> which got people to sign up and continue. Apple needs to find its \u003cem>Mrs. Maisel\u003c/em> quickly or it could lose a ton of money.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Sherr believes Apple has the wherewithal to go up against the biggest names in streaming entertainment: Netflix, Amazon, and Disney. Notice how two of the three names on that list are also digital natives?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The biggest threat, if it ever materializes, would be from federal antitrust regulators. “The tech industry broadly has been going towards this trend of what’s called verticalization, where they own every bit of what I’m buying,” Sherr said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One last thing: Apple is one of the most highly valued companies on the planet. And like its biggest rivals in Silicon Valley, Apple has the capacity to run at a massive loss. Maybe not indefinitely, but for longer than most Hollywood old-timers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There is always room for disruption,” Sherr said. “If Apple does it right.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>An estimated 28,000 gamers and industry insiders have descended on San Francisco this week for this year’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.gdconf.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Game Developers Conference\u003c/a> (GDC). But despite the fact millions of women worldwide \u003ci>play\u003c/i> games, there’s still a giant gender divide on the development side.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='arts_13827545,arts_13843649' label='Related Coverage']Every year, conference organizers conduct a survey of attendees. This year, the split is roughly 80/20; as in, 77 percent male attendees, 19 percent female, two percent “other” and two percent declined to answer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a small but noticeable shift from last year, when 80 percent of survey respondents identified as ‘male’ and just 17 percent identified as ‘female,’” wrote GDC spokesperson Chrissy Kelleher.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In other words, the gaming workforce looks quite similar to the tech workforce in general, from a gender perspective.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That was the topic du jour at this week’s Microsoft Women in Gaming Rally, a GDC-adjacent mixer in San Francisco with about 1,000 attendees, mostly women, who gathered to mingle and enjoy the feeling of dominating a room for a few hours.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13853441\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13853441\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/03/Screen-Shot-2019-03-21-at-10.04.11-AM-800x476.png\" alt=\"Male avatars, like Octavio Silva from EA's "Apex Legend Season 1," still outnumber females avatars by a wide margin. Female gamers say they want more female avatars, with a wider variety of back stories.\" width=\"800\" height=\"476\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/03/Screen-Shot-2019-03-21-at-10.04.11-AM-800x476.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/03/Screen-Shot-2019-03-21-at-10.04.11-AM-160x95.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/03/Screen-Shot-2019-03-21-at-10.04.11-AM-768x457.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/03/Screen-Shot-2019-03-21-at-10.04.11-AM-1020x606.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/03/Screen-Shot-2019-03-21-at-10.04.11-AM-1200x714.png 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/03/Screen-Shot-2019-03-21-at-10.04.11-AM.png 1480w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Male avatars, like Octavio Silva from EA’s ‘Apex Legend Season 1,’ still outnumber female avatars by a wide margin. Females gamers say they want more female avatars, with a wider variety of back stories. \u003ccite>(Photo: Courtesy of Electronic Arts)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I’m not alone, and there are so many powerful women out here. It’s fantastic,” said Kristie Ramirez, a program manager at \u003ca href=\"https://www.ea.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Electronic Arts\u003c/a>, who’s been in gaming for seven years now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to addressing gender disparities, gaming could also be a lot more welcoming to people of color, going beyond mixers and \u003ca href=\"https://www.xbox.com/en-US/developers/gaming-for-everyone/communities/women\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">community groups\u003c/a> to attract, hire and retain talent. Ramirez suggested the industry make an effort to get the word out to generations coming up, starting in middle school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can be a lawyer here [in gaming]. You can be an accountant. You can be a marketer. You don’t just have to be a developer. Just get in here. We want you. We want your perspective!” Ramirez said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, many women want to develop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Laura Dell first realized she wanted to when she was 14 years old. “I got into games because of \u003ca href=\"https://www.ea.com/games/the-sims\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>The Sims\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, which is my favorite all-time game. They released a developer diary, and [watching it] I suddenly had this epiphany that people make games. They don’t just exist!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13853447\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13853447 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/03/Screen-Shot-2019-03-19-at-3.40.02-PM-800x651.png\" alt=\"Microsoft publicly posts its diversity statistics. Gender-wise in tech, the split is roughly 80/20 male to female.\" width=\"800\" height=\"651\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/03/Screen-Shot-2019-03-19-at-3.40.02-PM-800x651.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/03/Screen-Shot-2019-03-19-at-3.40.02-PM-160x130.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/03/Screen-Shot-2019-03-19-at-3.40.02-PM-768x625.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/03/Screen-Shot-2019-03-19-at-3.40.02-PM-1020x830.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/03/Screen-Shot-2019-03-19-at-3.40.02-PM-1200x976.png 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/03/Screen-Shot-2019-03-19-at-3.40.02-PM.png 1716w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Microsoft publicly posts its diversity statistics. Gender-wise in tech, the split is roughly 80/20 male to female. \u003ccite>(Photo: Courtesy of Microsoft)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Naomi McArthur, a game designer for \u003ca href=\"https://www.riotgames.com/en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Riot Games,\u003c/a> used to be an academic studying applied neuroscience. “I was given a lot of opportunities, and I had a lot of mentorship. I feel really lucky for that, because it let me grow into the game designer I am today,” McArthur said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Women at the Microsoft event reported their experiences varied greatly from one company to another. “How can we be really intentional about including all different types of gamers, making sure inclusion is a part of the narrative from the very beginning?” asked Katy Jo Wright, director of \u003ca href=\"https://www.xbox.com/en-US/developers/gaming-for-everyone\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Gaming for Everyone\u003c/a> at Xbox.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2018-12-05-playgroundz-women-now-make-up-22-percent-of-esports-teams\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">recent study\u003c/a> from the gaming company \u003ca href=\"https://www.playgroundz.io\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Playgroundz\u003c/a> found that most women stick to the mobile gaming world these days: \u003ca href=\"https://www.pokemongo.com/en-us/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>Pokémon Go\u003c/em>\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.angrybirds.com/games/angry-birds-match/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>Angry Birds Match\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, as opposed to games popular on \u003ca href=\"https://www.twitch.tv\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Twitch\u003c/a> and esports, like \u003cem>Fortnite\u003c/em>. Today, women make up only 30% of gamers on YouTube, 22% of esports team members, and 19.5% of gamers on Twitch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In part, it’s a question of continuing evidence of toxicity in the culture (recent news that \u003ca href=\"https://steamcommunity.com/games/593110/announcements/detail/1808664240304050758\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the game \u003cem>Rape Day\u003c/em> will not ship on Steam\u003c/a> notwithstanding).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it’s also a question of representation. It was literally days ago that Chiquita Evans (a.k.a. Chiquitae126) became the first woman ever drafted into the \u003ca href=\"https://2kleague.nba.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">NBA 2K League\u003c/a>. It’s a milestone, but one that leaves people wondering why progress is coming so slowly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Z4SvZW8fYU]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ashley Columbo of \u003ca href=\"https://www.ubisoft.com/en-us/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ubisoft\u003c/a> would like to see a change-up in the story lines. “This rugged-dude-going-on-an-adventure kind of thing is the main image you see in the industry. So while it’s moving in the right direction, I feel that’s what needs to change: the stories we’re seeing,” Columbo said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Maria Ramos, who runs the YouTube channel \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJQxPvs-Xsy-chtX9KdCuvw/featured\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Grown Women Gaming\u003c/a>, more and better female avatars would help change gaming culture. Ramos plays everything: \u003ca href=\"https://www.cyberpunk.net/en/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>Cyperpunk 2077\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, Tom Clancy’s \u003ca href=\"https://tomclancy-thedivision.ubisoft.com/game/en-us/the-division-2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>The Division 2\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.guerrilla-games.com/play/horizon\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>Horizon Zero Dawn\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, you name it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s how I decompress. That’s my glass of beer, you know, at the end of the day,” Ramos said. When I ask what she wants to see more of, she replied, “More women lead roles in video games. I don’t want the cliche ‘sexy girl,’ or the ‘damsel in distress,’ or anything of that nature.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Hannah Wolf, director of digital operations at Ubisoft, argued women don’t necessarily want avatars that look like them; and for that matter, neither do men. Her own 16 year-old son, for example, likes to play female characters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are far more constructive ways to engage in personalities and personas that are different from who they are in real life,” Wolf said.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Every year, conference organizers conduct a survey of attendees. This year, the split is roughly 80/20; as in, 77 percent male attendees, 19 percent female, two percent “other” and two percent declined to answer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a small but noticeable shift from last year, when 80 percent of survey respondents identified as ‘male’ and just 17 percent identified as ‘female,’” wrote GDC spokesperson Chrissy Kelleher.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In other words, the gaming workforce looks quite similar to the tech workforce in general, from a gender perspective.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That was the topic du jour at this week’s Microsoft Women in Gaming Rally, a GDC-adjacent mixer in San Francisco with about 1,000 attendees, mostly women, who gathered to mingle and enjoy the feeling of dominating a room for a few hours.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13853441\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13853441\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/03/Screen-Shot-2019-03-21-at-10.04.11-AM-800x476.png\" alt=\"Male avatars, like Octavio Silva from EA's "Apex Legend Season 1," still outnumber females avatars by a wide margin. Female gamers say they want more female avatars, with a wider variety of back stories.\" width=\"800\" height=\"476\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/03/Screen-Shot-2019-03-21-at-10.04.11-AM-800x476.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/03/Screen-Shot-2019-03-21-at-10.04.11-AM-160x95.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/03/Screen-Shot-2019-03-21-at-10.04.11-AM-768x457.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/03/Screen-Shot-2019-03-21-at-10.04.11-AM-1020x606.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/03/Screen-Shot-2019-03-21-at-10.04.11-AM-1200x714.png 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/03/Screen-Shot-2019-03-21-at-10.04.11-AM.png 1480w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Male avatars, like Octavio Silva from EA’s ‘Apex Legend Season 1,’ still outnumber female avatars by a wide margin. Females gamers say they want more female avatars, with a wider variety of back stories. \u003ccite>(Photo: Courtesy of Electronic Arts)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I’m not alone, and there are so many powerful women out here. It’s fantastic,” said Kristie Ramirez, a program manager at \u003ca href=\"https://www.ea.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Electronic Arts\u003c/a>, who’s been in gaming for seven years now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to addressing gender disparities, gaming could also be a lot more welcoming to people of color, going beyond mixers and \u003ca href=\"https://www.xbox.com/en-US/developers/gaming-for-everyone/communities/women\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">community groups\u003c/a> to attract, hire and retain talent. Ramirez suggested the industry make an effort to get the word out to generations coming up, starting in middle school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can be a lawyer here [in gaming]. You can be an accountant. You can be a marketer. You don’t just have to be a developer. Just get in here. We want you. We want your perspective!” Ramirez said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, many women want to develop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Laura Dell first realized she wanted to when she was 14 years old. “I got into games because of \u003ca href=\"https://www.ea.com/games/the-sims\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>The Sims\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, which is my favorite all-time game. They released a developer diary, and [watching it] I suddenly had this epiphany that people make games. They don’t just exist!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13853447\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13853447 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/03/Screen-Shot-2019-03-19-at-3.40.02-PM-800x651.png\" alt=\"Microsoft publicly posts its diversity statistics. Gender-wise in tech, the split is roughly 80/20 male to female.\" width=\"800\" height=\"651\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/03/Screen-Shot-2019-03-19-at-3.40.02-PM-800x651.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/03/Screen-Shot-2019-03-19-at-3.40.02-PM-160x130.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/03/Screen-Shot-2019-03-19-at-3.40.02-PM-768x625.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/03/Screen-Shot-2019-03-19-at-3.40.02-PM-1020x830.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/03/Screen-Shot-2019-03-19-at-3.40.02-PM-1200x976.png 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/03/Screen-Shot-2019-03-19-at-3.40.02-PM.png 1716w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Microsoft publicly posts its diversity statistics. Gender-wise in tech, the split is roughly 80/20 male to female. \u003ccite>(Photo: Courtesy of Microsoft)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Naomi McArthur, a game designer for \u003ca href=\"https://www.riotgames.com/en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Riot Games,\u003c/a> used to be an academic studying applied neuroscience. “I was given a lot of opportunities, and I had a lot of mentorship. I feel really lucky for that, because it let me grow into the game designer I am today,” McArthur said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Women at the Microsoft event reported their experiences varied greatly from one company to another. “How can we be really intentional about including all different types of gamers, making sure inclusion is a part of the narrative from the very beginning?” asked Katy Jo Wright, director of \u003ca href=\"https://www.xbox.com/en-US/developers/gaming-for-everyone\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Gaming for Everyone\u003c/a> at Xbox.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2018-12-05-playgroundz-women-now-make-up-22-percent-of-esports-teams\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">recent study\u003c/a> from the gaming company \u003ca href=\"https://www.playgroundz.io\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Playgroundz\u003c/a> found that most women stick to the mobile gaming world these days: \u003ca href=\"https://www.pokemongo.com/en-us/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>Pokémon Go\u003c/em>\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.angrybirds.com/games/angry-birds-match/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>Angry Birds Match\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, as opposed to games popular on \u003ca href=\"https://www.twitch.tv\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Twitch\u003c/a> and esports, like \u003cem>Fortnite\u003c/em>. Today, women make up only 30% of gamers on YouTube, 22% of esports team members, and 19.5% of gamers on Twitch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In part, it’s a question of continuing evidence of toxicity in the culture (recent news that \u003ca href=\"https://steamcommunity.com/games/593110/announcements/detail/1808664240304050758\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the game \u003cem>Rape Day\u003c/em> will not ship on Steam\u003c/a> notwithstanding).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it’s also a question of representation. It was literally days ago that Chiquita Evans (a.k.a. Chiquitae126) became the first woman ever drafted into the \u003ca href=\"https://2kleague.nba.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">NBA 2K League\u003c/a>. It’s a milestone, but one that leaves people wondering why progress is coming so slowly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/7Z4SvZW8fYU'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/7Z4SvZW8fYU'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ashley Columbo of \u003ca href=\"https://www.ubisoft.com/en-us/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ubisoft\u003c/a> would like to see a change-up in the story lines. “This rugged-dude-going-on-an-adventure kind of thing is the main image you see in the industry. So while it’s moving in the right direction, I feel that’s what needs to change: the stories we’re seeing,” Columbo said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Maria Ramos, who runs the YouTube channel \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJQxPvs-Xsy-chtX9KdCuvw/featured\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Grown Women Gaming\u003c/a>, more and better female avatars would help change gaming culture. Ramos plays everything: \u003ca href=\"https://www.cyberpunk.net/en/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>Cyperpunk 2077\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, Tom Clancy’s \u003ca href=\"https://tomclancy-thedivision.ubisoft.com/game/en-us/the-division-2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>The Division 2\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.guerrilla-games.com/play/horizon\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>Horizon Zero Dawn\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, you name it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s how I decompress. That’s my glass of beer, you know, at the end of the day,” Ramos said. When I ask what she wants to see more of, she replied, “More women lead roles in video games. I don’t want the cliche ‘sexy girl,’ or the ‘damsel in distress,’ or anything of that nature.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Hannah Wolf, director of digital operations at Ubisoft, argued women don’t necessarily want avatars that look like them; and for that matter, neither do men. Her own 16 year-old son, for example, likes to play female characters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are far more constructive ways to engage in personalities and personas that are different from who they are in real life,” Wolf said.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://telltale.com/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Telltale Games\u003c/a>, an independent game developer based in San Rafael, announced Wednesday that it has made a deal with Netflix to produce a video game based on the hit show, \u003ci>Stranger Things.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Telltale Games revealed few details about the game, announcing the news while also announcing that Netflix would be streaming an interactive version of Telltale’s game \u003ci>Minecraft: Story Mode.\u003c/i> Telltale had little to say about either project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our partnership with Netflix is something we’re incredibly proud of, and while we don’t have anything more to share right now, we’re excited to reveal details on these projects later in the year,” Telltale \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/telltalegames/status/1006996305082630144\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">posted on Twitter \u003c/a>Wednesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Three former LucasArts employees — Dan Connors, Kevin Bruner and Troy Molander — founded Telltale in 2004, following LucasArts’s cancellation of a game they worked on together called \u003ci>Sam & Max Hit the Road.\u003c/i> The company went on to create games for movies such as \u003cem>Back to the Future\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Jurassic Park\u003c/em>. But Telltale saw its first big success with the episodic game it created based on \u003ci>The Walking Dead\u003c/i> comic and television series. Upon its release in 2012, the game sold a million copies in 20 days. Telltale went on to develop four more games in the series.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13835104\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/06/Minecraft-screenshot-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"Screenshot from 'Minecraft: Story Mode'\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13835104\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/06/Minecraft-screenshot-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/06/Minecraft-screenshot-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/06/Minecraft-screenshot-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/06/Minecraft-screenshot-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/06/Minecraft-screenshot.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/06/Minecraft-screenshot-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/06/Minecraft-screenshot-960x540.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/06/Minecraft-screenshot-240x135.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/06/Minecraft-screenshot-375x211.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/06/Minecraft-screenshot-520x293.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Screenshot from ‘Minecraft: Story Mode.’ \u003ccite>(Netflix)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Building on its cinematic, episodic style developed for the \u003ci>The Walking Dead\u003c/i> games, it then produced games for notable properties such as \u003ci>Game of Thrones\u003c/i> and \u003ci>Guardians of the Galaxy.\u003c/i> Continuing successes led the company to grow to 400 employees, but the company couldn’t sustain the staffing level and it \u003ca href=\"https://www.usgamer.net/articles/exclusive-how-a-culture-of-crunch-brought-telltale-from-critical-darlings-to-layoffs\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">laid off 90 employees\u003c/a> — 25 percent of its staff — last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The deal Telltale inked with Netflix means two different products for the two licensed properties, \u003ci> Minecraft\u003c/i> and \u003ci>Stranger Things.\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.techradar.com/news/netflix-to-add-games-to-its-service-including-stranger-things-and-minecraft\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> TechRadar reports\u003c/a> that \u003cem>Minecraft: Story Mode\u003c/em> is a five-part interactive story series similar to other Netflix properties. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s an extension of our other interactive stories we have on our service like \u003cem>Stretch Armstrong: The Breakout\u003c/em>, \u003cem>Puss in Book: Trapped in an Epic Tale\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Buddy Thunderstruck: The Maybe Pile\u003c/em>,” a Netflix representative \u003ca href=\"https://www.polygon.com/tv/2018/6/13/17460834/netflix-telltale-minecraft-story-mode-stranger-things-game\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">told Polygon\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, the \u003ci>Stranger Things\u003c/i> game will not be available for streaming on Netflix, as it is just a part of the streaming service’s marketing strategy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t have any plans to get into gaming,” Netflix told TechRadar. “There’s a broad spectrum of entertainment available today. Games have become increasingly cinematic, but we view this as interactive narrative storytelling on our service.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Stranger Things,\u003c/i> a sci-fi horror series steeped in ’80s nostalgia, premiered on Netflix in 2016, becoming a sensation practically overnight. The third season of the show is currently in production.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://telltale.com/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Telltale Games\u003c/a>, an independent game developer based in San Rafael, announced Wednesday that it has made a deal with Netflix to produce a video game based on the hit show, \u003ci>Stranger Things.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Telltale Games revealed few details about the game, announcing the news while also announcing that Netflix would be streaming an interactive version of Telltale’s game \u003ci>Minecraft: Story Mode.\u003c/i> Telltale had little to say about either project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our partnership with Netflix is something we’re incredibly proud of, and while we don’t have anything more to share right now, we’re excited to reveal details on these projects later in the year,” Telltale \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/telltalegames/status/1006996305082630144\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">posted on Twitter \u003c/a>Wednesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Three former LucasArts employees — Dan Connors, Kevin Bruner and Troy Molander — founded Telltale in 2004, following LucasArts’s cancellation of a game they worked on together called \u003ci>Sam & Max Hit the Road.\u003c/i> The company went on to create games for movies such as \u003cem>Back to the Future\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Jurassic Park\u003c/em>. But Telltale saw its first big success with the episodic game it created based on \u003ci>The Walking Dead\u003c/i> comic and television series. Upon its release in 2012, the game sold a million copies in 20 days. Telltale went on to develop four more games in the series.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13835104\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/06/Minecraft-screenshot-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"Screenshot from 'Minecraft: Story Mode'\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13835104\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/06/Minecraft-screenshot-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/06/Minecraft-screenshot-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/06/Minecraft-screenshot-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/06/Minecraft-screenshot-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/06/Minecraft-screenshot.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/06/Minecraft-screenshot-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/06/Minecraft-screenshot-960x540.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/06/Minecraft-screenshot-240x135.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/06/Minecraft-screenshot-375x211.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/06/Minecraft-screenshot-520x293.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Screenshot from ‘Minecraft: Story Mode.’ \u003ccite>(Netflix)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Building on its cinematic, episodic style developed for the \u003ci>The Walking Dead\u003c/i> games, it then produced games for notable properties such as \u003ci>Game of Thrones\u003c/i> and \u003ci>Guardians of the Galaxy.\u003c/i> Continuing successes led the company to grow to 400 employees, but the company couldn’t sustain the staffing level and it \u003ca href=\"https://www.usgamer.net/articles/exclusive-how-a-culture-of-crunch-brought-telltale-from-critical-darlings-to-layoffs\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">laid off 90 employees\u003c/a> — 25 percent of its staff — last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The deal Telltale inked with Netflix means two different products for the two licensed properties, \u003ci> Minecraft\u003c/i> and \u003ci>Stranger Things.\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.techradar.com/news/netflix-to-add-games-to-its-service-including-stranger-things-and-minecraft\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> TechRadar reports\u003c/a> that \u003cem>Minecraft: Story Mode\u003c/em> is a five-part interactive story series similar to other Netflix properties. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s an extension of our other interactive stories we have on our service like \u003cem>Stretch Armstrong: The Breakout\u003c/em>, \u003cem>Puss in Book: Trapped in an Epic Tale\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Buddy Thunderstruck: The Maybe Pile\u003c/em>,” a Netflix representative \u003ca href=\"https://www.polygon.com/tv/2018/6/13/17460834/netflix-telltale-minecraft-story-mode-stranger-things-game\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">told Polygon\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, the \u003ci>Stranger Things\u003c/i> game will not be available for streaming on Netflix, as it is just a part of the streaming service’s marketing strategy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t have any plans to get into gaming,” Netflix told TechRadar. “There’s a broad spectrum of entertainment available today. Games have become increasingly cinematic, but we view this as interactive narrative storytelling on our service.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Stranger Things,\u003c/i> a sci-fi horror series steeped in ’80s nostalgia, premiered on Netflix in 2016, becoming a sensation practically overnight. The third season of the show is currently in production.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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}
},
"baycurious": {
"id": "baycurious",
"title": "Bay Curious",
"tagline": "Exploring the Bay Area, one question at a time",
"info": "KQED’s new podcast, Bay Curious, gets to the bottom of the mysteries — both profound and peculiar — that give the Bay Area its unique identity. And we’ll do it with your help! You ask the questions. You decide what Bay Curious investigates. And you join us on the journey to find the answers.",
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"order": 3
},
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},
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"info": "The day's top stories from BBC News compiled twice daily in the week, once at weekends.",
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"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/BBC-World-Service-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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"meta": {
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},
"link": "/radio/program/bbc-world-service",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/global-news-podcast/id135067274?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/BBC-World-Service-p455581/",
"rss": "https://podcasts.files.bbci.co.uk/p02nq0gn.rss"
}
},
"californiareport": {
"id": "californiareport",
"title": "The California Report",
"tagline": "California, day by day",
"info": "KQED’s statewide radio news program providing daily coverage of issues, trends and public policy decisions.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-California-Report-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/californiareport",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 8
},
"link": "/californiareport",
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"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/26099305-72af-4542-9dde-ac1807fe36d5/kqed-s-the-california-report",
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}
},
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"title": "The California Report Magazine",
"tagline": "Your state, your stories",
"info": "Every week, The California Report Magazine takes you on a road trip for the ears: to visit the places and meet the people who make California unique. The in-depth storytelling podcast from the California Report.",
"airtime": "FRI 4:30pm-5pm, 6:30pm-7pm, 11pm-11:30pm",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/californiareportmagazine",
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"order": 10
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM3NjkwNjk1OTAz",
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},
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"id": "city-arts",
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"info": "A one-hour radio program to hear celebrated writers, artists and thinkers address contemporary ideas and values, often discussing the creative process. Please note: tapes or transcripts are not available",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/05/cityartsandlecture-300x300.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.cityarts.net/",
"airtime": "SUN 1pm-2pm, TUE 10pm, WED 1am",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "City Arts & Lectures"
},
"link": "https://www.cityarts.net",
"subscribe": {
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/City-Arts-and-Lectures-p692/",
"rss": "https://www.cityarts.net/feed/"
}
},
"closealltabs": {
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/closealltabs",
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"order": 1
},
"link": "/podcasts/closealltabs",
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"info": "\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />",
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"meta": {
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},
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"id": "commonwealth-club",
"title": "Commonwealth Club of California Podcast",
"info": "The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.",
"airtime": "THU 10pm, FRI 1am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Commonwealth-Club-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
"link": "/radio/program/commonwealth-club",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jb21tb253ZWFsdGhjbHViLm9yZy9hdWRpby9wb2RjYXN0L3dlZWtseS54bWw",
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"title": "Forum",
"tagline": "The conversation starts here",
"info": "KQED’s live call-in program discussing local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 9am-11am, 10pm-11pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Forum with Mina Kim and Alexis Madrigal",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 9
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM5NTU3MzgxNjMz",
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"id": "freakonomics-radio",
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"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/freakonomicsRadio.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://freakonomics.com/",
"airtime": "SUN 1am-2am, SAT 3pm-4pm",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WNYC"
},
"link": "/radio/program/freakonomics-radio",
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"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/WNYC-Podcasts/Freakonomics-Radio-p272293/",
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},
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"id": "fresh-air",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=214089682&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"info": "A live production of NPR and WBUR Boston, in collaboration with stations across the country, Here & Now reflects the fluid world of news as it's happening in the middle of the day, with timely, in-depth news, interviews and conversation. Hosted by Robin Young, Jeremy Hobson and Tonya Mosley.",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510051/podcast.xml"
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"hidden-brain": {
"id": "hidden-brain",
"title": "Hidden Brain",
"info": "Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/series/423302056/hidden-brain",
"airtime": "SUN 7pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "NPR"
},
"link": "/radio/program/hidden-brain",
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},
"how-i-built-this": {
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"title": "How I Built This with Guy Raz",
"info": "Guy Raz dives into the stories behind some of the world's best known companies. How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/howIBuiltThis.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this",
"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/how-i-built-this",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz/id1150510297?mt=2",
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},
"hyphenacion": {
"id": "hyphenacion",
"title": "Hyphenación",
"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Hyphenacion_FinalAssets_PodcastTile.png",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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"order": 15
},
"link": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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},
"jerrybrown": {
"id": "jerrybrown",
"title": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"tagline": "Lessons from a lifetime in politics",
"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Political-Mind-of-Jerry-Brown-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 18
},
"link": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1492194549",
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}
},
"latino-usa": {
"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
"airtime": "MON 1am-2am, SUN 6pm-7pm",
"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/latinoUsa.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://latinousa.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/latino-usa",
"subscribe": {
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=79681317&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510016/podcast.xml"
}
},
"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marketplace-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.marketplace.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
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"rss": "https://feeds.publicradio.org/public_feeds/marketplace-pm/rss/rss"
}
},
"masters-of-scale": {
"id": "masters-of-scale",
"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Masters-of-Scale-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://mastersofscale.com/",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WaitWhat"
},
"link": "/radio/program/masters-of-scale",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "http://mastersofscale.app.link/",
"rss": "https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale"
}
},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
"title": "MindShift",
"tagline": "A podcast about the future of learning and how we raise our kids",
"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Mindshift-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED MindShift: How We Will Learn",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/mindshift/",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 12
},
"link": "/podcasts/mindshift",
"subscribe": {
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/464615685/mind-shift-podcast",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/stories-teachers-share",
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}
},
"morning-edition": {
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