Category Archives: News

News

19-Year-Old Swatter Faces 5 Years in Prison; Army Veteran Swatted Mid-Stream on Twitch – Today in “stuff that shouldn’t fit right into our gaming tag…”

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In addition to featuring prominently in Law and Order‘s upcoming Gamergate episode, the practice of swatting (falsifying claims with the aim of sending armed law enforcement to a target’s house) is gaining more national attention following the raid of 27-year-old veteran and Twitch streamer Joshua Peters’ home and the unrelated arrest of 19-year-old swatter Brandon Wilson.

According to The Guardian, Peters (Koopatroopa787 on Twitch) was playing Clash of Clans and Runescape for an audience of nearly 60,000 viewers when armed members of the Minnesota St. Cloud police department were dispatched to his house after receiving a phone-call that someone “had shot their roommate and now they were pointing their gun at them” at Peters’ residence. The police reportedly heard “two gun shots” before the call ended.

Peters, who told The Guardian “there’s no possible persons who I can think would do something like this to me,” addressed his Twitch followers after the attack, saying,

I see you posting my address. I had police point a gun at my little brothers because of you. They could have been shot, they could have died. Because you chose to swat my stream. I don’t give a shit about what you have against me, or what I did to you. For that I am at a loss for words. Your gripe is with me. But do not involve my family in this. They don’t deserve it.

Peters explained to The Guardian,

There’s not a lot of things that can get me emotional in this world… but it’s been a process getting back in my feet. Today was the first day where everything went smoothly, it was very energetic, everything was going well in my stream, and then it’s like, once again: here is another hurdle to overcome.

And this is way worse than anything else I’ve had to overcome. It was like… gosh, let’s go back to the other areas I had to deal with, they were much more manageable. I’m the oldest of four brothers, and to know that a gun was pointed at my little brother? That hits home for me.

Whether or not the perpetrators intended to inflict anything more than emotional trauma on Peters and his family, harassment-via-law-enforcement can obviously have fatal results: in 2014, a Utah man was shot and killed by a SWAT team after calling a suicide hotline, while a 1-year-old was severely burned after SWAT members threw a grenade into his playpen in October of last year. For African-American male targets, swatting obviously comes with additional terrifying implications.

Thankfully, at least one of the perpetrators responsible for this kind of harassment is facing repercussions: 19-year-old “Brandon Wilson,” known online as “Famed God” (!), has been arrested in Nevada and is awaiting extradition to Illinois for allegedly reporting a murder to Naperville, Illinois police in July 2014. According to Polygon, Wilson also threatened the banking and Social Security accounts of his gamer target and is suspected in multiple swatting incidents across the U.S.

Hopefully, Wilson’s arrest will set a precedent and serve as a deterrent for prospective swatters. In an ideal world, law enforcement would also be able to intervene in online abuse like the kind faced daily by many of the devs targeted by Gamergate without harassment needing to escalate into IRL consequences first.

Originally posted on The Mary Sue

News

2015 Might Be the Year of Steam Broadcasting Versus Twitch

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Gamers will have to decide which streamers to watch

When I look back at 2014, I tend to focus on the video games that I have played or the news that might influence the evolution of the Xbox One or the PlayStation 4 in the coming years, but for a growing audience the past 12 months were the moment when Twitch video streaming has become more important than actually playing.

At the moment, there are personalities who broadcast their activity on the service and have massive audiences, but there’s also space for players who want to simply show how they experience their favorite titles.

Twitch is fast becoming a better way to evaluate a game than reading a classic review and major publishers are working to sponsor the channels with the biggest audience, while producing their own streams to show off features of upcoming releases.

Steam Broadcasting enters the fray

Valve surprised a lot of people when it announced that it was adding a Broadcasting feature to Steam, its dominating digital distribution service.

The concept is more limited than that of Twitch but it can be used to stream video game content (and more) to a smaller audience which is made up of friends.

Valve has not announced any plans to expand Broadcasting in 2015 in any major way but gamers can expect to see it play a major role in upcoming DOTA 2 tournaments or other Valve events.

Massive audiences versus smaller circles of friends

The common view is that, at one point, Steam Broadcasting will become a true rival for Twitch and that the two services will compete for a while, trying to introduce new features and to increase their audiences, before one of them becomes a footnote in the history of video games.

But I suspect that Valve is not aiming to create a solution for mass streaming but rather a way for smaller circles of friends to show each other gameplay and to comment on it.

Twitch seems to be focused on big audiences at the moment and the Steam feature can become important if it manages to become relevant for smaller groups, giving them easy-to-use tools to create content and to then share it.

The two can co-exist and the only downside is that a growing number of gamers will continue to watch rather than play in the coming year.

News

Dailymotion launches Twitch competitor for video game streaming

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Paris-based online video platform Dailymotion wants a piece of the video game streaming pie: the company launched a new live streaming service called Dailymotion Games Wednesday. The service basically tries to do what Twitch has been doing so successfully: Offer video gamers a way to live stream their gameplay so they can attract a big audience for tournaments, review games in front of a live audience or simply show off their skills.

dailymotion

Dailymotion Games is available on the web, as well as via dedicated apps for iOS, Android and for Sony’s PS4.

Dailymotion already sees more than 180 million video views per month for video game content, the company revealed Wednesday, adding that more than 11 million unique visitors tune into video game content every month.

But it’s likely that not just the own metrics prompted Dailymotion to go down this route: Industry leader Twitch not only managed to attract a monthly audience of 60 million video game fans, the site was also acquired for $970 million in cash last summer. Dailymotion on the other hand has had troubles to find an exit: The company was talking about selling to Yahoo two years ago, but French regulators put an end to the sale, balking at the idea that am American company would own more than 50 percent of Dailymotion.

News, Twitch

Microsoft’s New YouTube and Twitch Rules Don’t Apply to Minecraft

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You can make YouTube videos with Microsoft’s games as long as they’re not lewd or Pornographic.

Microsoft has updated its Game Content Usage Rules page to explain how people can use its game content to create YouTube videos and Twitch Streams, but the new rules don’t apply to Minecraft, which Microsoft acquired last year for $2.5 billion.

The new policy states that Microsoft allows users to create derivative works based on its games strictly for personal, non-commercial use, as long as they follow a set of rules. Some of these rules prohibit users from reverse engineering games to “access the assets or otherwise do things that the games don’t normally permit,” or creating content that is “pornographic, lewd, obscene, vulgar, discriminatory (on the basis of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, etc.), illegal, hate speech, promoting violence, drug use or any illegal activity, promoting crimes against humanity, genocide or torture, or is otherwise objectionable.”

“Whether an Item is ‘objectionable; is up to us, but you can expect us to be concerned if a significant number of people in the game’s community or the public at large report the content as offensive,” Microsoft said.

You also can’t earn compensation with derivative works by selling it or through advertisements, unless you’re posting it to YouTube and Twitch.

The new rules apply to all of Microsoft’s products except Minecraft, which retains its own guidelines. The rules are not that different (mostly common sense in both cases), but Minecraft is a bit more lax, allowing users to create and sell whatever content they want as long as its clear that it’s not an official Minecraft product.

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Xbox One gets all new Twitch features

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This is the biggest Xbox One update to date, packed with more features our community has been asking for. This includes a more personal app experience, new directories for Xbox One games, and the debut of videos on demand (VODs)!

New, personalized homepage

The redesigned homepage puts the content you follow front and center. To curate your experience, hover over any Game or Channel, press the Menu button, and select Follow.

You read that right. Following Games is a big part of this update. In addition to following broadcasters, you can follow a game, allowing you to quickly get to the games you love, without scrolling through the directory.

HP

Advanced directories for your favorite Xbox One games

Have you ever wanted to find the best Call of Duty player currently broadcasting? Now it’s possible. Twitch has teamed up with Xbox to make it easy to watch content most relevant to you.

When you navigate to the directory for any Xbox One game, you’ll see expanded filtering and sorting options. Depending on the game, you can drill down broadcasts by maps, game modes, progress, in-game activity, players stats, and skill level. The options are endless, with more Xbox One games being added over time.

Sorted Directory

It’s not just live – highlights and past broadcasts are available, too!

Xbox One is the first platform to bring you a full-featured app with Twitch video on demand (VODs). You’ll see VODs (i.e., highlights and past broadcasts) gradually added to channel pages, so you can watch even when the broadcaster is offline.

This represents the start of a new video service for Twitch, aimed at eventually delivering VODs everywhere. The rollout of this feature will be an ongoing process, with the majority of VOD content added to the program by early 2015.

Channel + VODs

This is one of the biggest Xbox One updates for Twitch ever. To help address any questions with the new features, Twitch put together a FAQ below.

Metadata FAQ

If you’re familiar with the experience on the web, you may have seen how Twitch used CS:GO metadata to enhance that game’s viewing experience. Twitch worked with Microsoft to bring this feature to console for all Xbox One games.

Q: What’s the difference between filtering and sorting?

A: Filtering lets you narrow down data by a specific criteria (i.e. show me broadcasts from this map only). Sorting lets you organize data in a certain order (i.e. show me broadcasts with the most minutes played).

Q: What games will have advanced directories?

A: All Xbox Games will automatically support the advanced directories at launch — the minimum bar for every single game is sorting via Hero Stats. In addition to Hero Stats, these games will get extra options for filtering and sorting: Minecraft, Halo MCC, Sunset Overdrive, Assassin’s Creed Unity, and Forza Horizon 2.

Some awesome examples:

  • Find the best Call of Duty player currently broadcasting by sorting by their K/D Ratio.
  • Find the best FIFA or Madden players by the number of matches won.
  • Find live broadcasters who are currently riding a hog by filtering by activity.

VODs FAQ

I know you’ve been looking forward to VODs across all platforms. This service is in its initial stages and is being debuted on the Xbox One with an eye toward serving content across all platforms in 2015.

Q: When will VODs be available on [Channel]?

A: Twitch is gradually adding VODs to the platform throughout 2015. You will see a steady increase in VOD availability and storage every month, until all broadcasters are on the new system.

Q: I see some recent Past Broadcasts for [Channel], but don’t see any content from November. What’s broken?

A: Twitch has limited storage capacity and has decided to prioritize new content. Twitch’s long term goal is to have all VODs available on all platforms (if you can watch it on the website, you’ll be able to watch it on Xbox), and Twitch is actively working towards that end.

Q: Will VODs be available on other platforms?

A: Twitch is excited to debut VODs with Xbox One first, and in updates to iOS and Android apps next year.