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Valves Steam store is more than just a place to buy computer games online. Its an active community of gamers. Unfortunately, a sizable portion of those gamers are posting an unprecedented amount of hateful, racist and anti-Semetic content on the gaming sites cyber social gathering place Steam Community, according to a report from the Anti-Defamation League. The organization found 1.83 million unique pieces of extremist or hateful content from 1.5 million unique users in 73,824 groups. The content included explicitly anti-Semitic symbols and tens of thousands of instances of users showing support for foreign terrorist groups. The online gaming community even included an alarming number of copypastas, more than half of which were variations of Nazi swastikas. ADL The report also found a significant number of Steam avatars with hateful symbols. Investigators uncovered 827,758 users with extremist or racist-signaling avatar images including the cartoon character Pepe the Frog in Nazi regalia or adorned with stereotypical tropes and looks, swastikas, the white supremacist skull or siege mask and the Nazi Eagle. Another 15,129 avatars contained images of flags, emblems or logos of terrorist groups, the majority of which referred to the jihadist group ISIS. The ADL even uncovered images that glorify violent extremists and violent hate crimes. The report found references to and stills from tragedies like the 2019 Christchurch, New Zealand shooting and the stabbing of five people in Eskisehir, Turkey committed by an 18 year old wearing neo-Nazi imagery. Even the Collections and Mods community on the gamer gathering site contained hundreds of mods that contained hateful imagery. An unidentified user named after the Christchurch shooter Brian Tarrant took the Valve physics sandbox game Garrys Mod and made the Australian S**poster collection. The user recreated Tarrants body armor look and posted screenshots implying the character is killing Muslims just as Tarrant did in 2019. ADL Other users utilized the Garrys Mod game to create maps that also celebrated tragedies like the Columbine High School shooting and the Tops supermarket white supremacist shooting in Buffalo. The maps inspired even more racist comments and reactions such as make synagogue next and remember labs, subscribe to PewDiePie, a chilling reference to a comment Tarrant made on a livestream just before he committed his shooting. The ADL accused Valve, Steam's owner, of not taking enough action to remove or curb the use of these images in its communities. The report claims Valve has a highly permissive approach to content policy and only took action in rare notable cases. Steam has selectively removed extremist content, largely based around extremist groups publicized in reporting or in response to government pressure, the ADL report says. However, this has been largely ad hoc, with Valve failing to systematically address the issue of extremism and hate on the platform. Weve reached out to Valve for a comment on the ADLs report.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/adl-report-finds-steam-is-rife-with-racist-posts-and-images-203934592.html?src=rss
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Marketing and Advertising
Nintendo just dropped details on its various Black Friday promotions, all of which go live on November 24 and end on November 30. These include fairly steep discounts on first-party Switch titles, which rarely happens. The deals will be available at retailers like Best Buy, GameSpot, Target and Walmart, though it doesnt look like the Nintendo eShop will host these sales. Perhaps the jewel in Black Fridays crown is a $20 discount on The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. The game is normally $70, so this drops the price down to $50. The game is an absolute blast and builds on all of the good stuff originally introduced in Breath of the Wild. This time, however, new abilities allow for even more unique solutions to puzzles. The sale also applies to the long-gestating Pikmin 4 and the sublimely creative Super Mario Maker 2. Both will be available for $40. Animal Crossing: New Horizons, the belle of the COVID-era ball, will also cost $40. The same goes for Nintendo Switch Sports and Kirby and the Forgotten Land. Super Mario Odyssey, which is still the franchises latest 3D platformer, will shoot down to just $30. The same price will apply to the remake collection Pikmin 1 + 2. Joy-Con controllers, carrying cases and other accessories will also be on sale. There will even be a deal on an actual Switch console bundle. The Nintendo Switch Lite: Hyrule Edition is going to cost $210, but it comes with some serious perks. This bundle ships with the gold-colored console and a full year of Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack. This provides access to all kinds of retro games, from the NES all the way to the N64. Theres a caveat here. The Nintendo Switch isnt long for this world, as a sequel is imminent. Adults may want to wait for the new console, but a Switch Lite is still a great gift for a kid. However, nobody has any idea what Trumps promised tariffs will do to console prices, so maybe even the Switch Lite will cost $600 next year. Who the heck knows anymore. Check out all of the latest Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals here.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/nintendo-just-announced-its-black-friday-deals-and-they-include-tears-of-the-kingdom-for-50-194609765.html?src=rss
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Marketing and Advertising
Amazon and PBS have entered a partnership that will bring content from the public media operation to Prime Video. More than 150 local PBS channels and the PBS Kids Channel will launch as a free ad-supported TV (or FAST) offering on Prime Video over the coming months. The press release from PBS noted that this is the first time this collection of programming will be available on a major streaming service for free. PBS Distribution is also launching two new FAST channels that will be available exclusively on Prime Video for a limited time beginning November 26. These channels are PBS Drama and PBS Documentaries. It seems Amazon is looking to focus on a lineup of FAST channels within Prime Video for free viewing, since the company announced that it is closing Freevee. Having yet another place to watch public media content is a happy development for PBS fans. The broadcaster recently launched a FAST channel with Roku called PBS Retro, specifically with shows from the 1980s and 1990s for those of us who want to dive into a little nostalgic escapism. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/pbs-programming-is-coming-to-prime-video-190443155.html?src=rss
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Marketing and Advertising
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