The Sunday Papers

Sundays are for becoming best friends with a neighbour's cat. Before you deliver some scritches, let's read this week's best writing about games.

Over on Wired, John Learned wrote about how covid is pulling the plug on beloved Japanese arcades.

Normally Game Newton, a small Tokyo arcade in the Itabashi City ward that has become holy ground for the 3rd Strike faithful, would be a cacophony of applause and cheers at what American Street Fighter legend Justin Wong has called the best set of the year. But not so after 2020. Not in the time of coronavirus. Not when Japan is under its second state of emergency in 12 months, one that restricts outside gatherings and operating hours for establishments like Game Newton. Unless you streamed it on Twitch or watched the recap on YouTube, you would have been one of five people to see it.

For Vice, Lauren Kaori Gurley asked: what can Activision's own investigation actually accomplish?

"I have asked the law firm WilmerHale to conduct a review of our policies and procedures to ensure that we have and maintain best practices to promote a respectful and inclusive workplace," Kotick wrote in a public statement on Tuesday. "This work will begin immediately." Kotick—who has a history of fighting off sexual harassment lawsuits, and previously hired Harvey Weinstein's lawyer, Patricia Glaser, to defend himself—noted that the company would "not hesitate to take decisive action" against employees including termination.

RPS newser Craig pointed me towards the fall of Minecraft's oldest anarchy server 2b2t. He described it as "like one of those Eve heists, but with Minecraft hacks", which is a great sell, to be honest.

I've linked the video below, but this Github page has the nitty gritty if you want to dive deeper.

For Fanbyte, Chris Penwell wrote about the unlikely fan remaster of Shrek SuperSlam, a game revived by memes.

Beneath its surface lies a surprisingly engaging fighting game that keeps its competitive nature alive. The game isn’t exactly polished, but that’s also part of the attraction: Broken mechanics mean players have found creative exploits to turn the game into something far more complex than it was originally meant to be. Like an onion, Shrek SuperSlam has layers upon layers. This has led the fighting game to amass a cult-following online through forums like ShrekBoards, which has a Discord server with over 1,000 members, and a growing community on Reddit. Tournaments are regularly held online.

And for Input, Tom Maxwell wrote about a portable armadillo-like workstation for working outdoors. I will never work in this oversized bonnet, but I'll respect those who do.

Music this week is List by il:lo. A chill dance track to stick on in the background.

That's me. Have a solid Sunday everyone!