With regards to blind boxes and microtransactions regulations, this is relevant for a child in my life right now. He's the 16 year old son of two refugees and they're living here in the U.S.. He has his first job, and he's wasting tons of money on FIFA and Fortnite microtransactions. He plays with friends, so there's that pull to always pay for these things to try to get swag to show off and impress those friends.
At the same time, his parents are aware of video games but I don't think they understand how insidious these things are designed - a parent who isn't aware of technology beyond using a cellphone for communication possibly has no idea that these games are literally designed in a way to make you want to spend lots of money. His dad is seeing the bank transactions in his son's account, but thinks it's purely a lack of self-control on his son's part, but also he's still a kid and is still developing. It really sucks.
I'm only partway thru the ep so I don't know if it's mentioned but I'd highly recommend reading Because, Internet by Gretchen McCullough, a great book about the evolution of language on the internet - including emojis. ❤️
@beggary: And from my experience with it, I would say that MIT's Scratch is still a better intro game programming platform (or programming in general)... At least that is like real programming code but in blocks so they don't have to type. This is just some completely proprietary system and they can't really take that knowledge elseware except "to move a character, we have to wire up 'button' to 'person'."
I'm glad that the night class I taught yesterday was a catch-up day and I didn't have to lecture, because I was tearing up, I had to keep my camera off.
I grew up watching y'all in the Gamespot days, and Giant Bomb has been around my entire professional career. I've been especially leaning heavily on the podcasts this year as we've all been staying home most of the time. I love you all and I just want to thank you for all of the work you've put in to this, I don't think any of us can express just how grateful we are for you.
Going forward, I am hopeful to see new hosts. I really miss Dan and Abby and Ben, and I've been looking forward to "meeting" the new people that Giant Bomb hires and see what new ideas they bring. As long as Giant Bomb is around, I'll be here and I'll be a subscriber.
Take care everybody! Get some much deserved rest. :)
Moosader's comments