OpenAI on Thursday announced Sora, a brand new model that generates high-definition videos up to one minute in length from text prompts. Sora, which means “sky” in Japanese, won’t be available to the general public any time soon. Instead, OpenAI is making it available to a small group of academics and researchers who will assess harm and its potential for misuse.
“Sora is able to generate complex scenes with multiple characters, specific types of motion, and accurate details of the subject and background,” the company said on its website. “The model understands not only what the user has asked for in the prompt, but also how those things exist in the physical world.”
One of the videos generated by Sora that OpenAI shared on its website shows a couple walking through a snowy Tokyo city as cherry blossom petals and snowflakes blow around them.
Introducing Sora, our text-to-video model.
Sora can create videos of up to 60 seconds featuring highly detailed scenes, complex camera motion, and multiple characters with vibrant emotions. https://t.co/7j2JN27M3W
Another shows realistic-looking wooly mammoths walking through a snowy meadow against a backdrop of snow-clad mountain ranges.
Prompt: “Several giant wooly mammoths approach treading through a snowy meadow, their long wooly fur lightly blows in the wind as they walk, snow covered trees and dramatic snow capped mountains in the distance, mid afternoon light with wispy clouds and a sun high in the distance… pic.twitter.com/Um5CWI18nS
OpenAI says that the model works as a result of “deep understanding of language,” which lets it interpret text prompts accurately. Still, like basically all AI image- and video-generators we’ve seen, Sora isn’t perfect. In one of the examples, the prompt, which asks for a video of a Dalmatian looking through a window and people “walking and cycling along the canal streets,” omits the people and the streets in the video entirely. OpenAI also warns that the model can struggle to understand cause and effect — it can generate a video of a person eating a cookie, for instance, but the cookie may not have bite marks.
Sora isn’t the first text-to-video model around. Other companies including Meta, Google and Runway, have either teased text-to-video tools or made them available to the public. Still, no other tool is currently able to generate videos as long as 60 seconds. Sora also generates entire videos at once, instead of putting them together frame-by-frame like other models, which makes sure that subjects in the video stay the same even when they go out of view temporarily.
The rise of text-to-video tools has sparked concerns over their potential to more easily create realistic-looking fake footage. “I am absolutely terrified that this kind of thing will sway a narrowly contested election,” Oren Etzioni, a professor at the University of Washington who specializes in artificial intelligence, and the founder of True Media, an organization that works to identify disinformation in political campaigns, toldThe New York Times. And generative AI more broadly has sparked backlash from artists and creative professionals concerned about the technology being used to replace jobs.
OpenAI said that it was working with experts in areas like misinformation, hateful content and bias to test the tool before making it available to the public. The company is also building tools capable of detecting videos generated by Sora and including metadata in the generated videos for easier detection. The company declined to tell the Times how Sora had been trained, except stating that it used both “publicly available videos” as well as videos licensed from copyright holders.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/openais-new-sora-model-can-generate-minute-long-videos-from-text-prompts-195717694.html?src=rss
OpenAI on Thursday announced Sora, a brand new model that generates high-definition videos up to one minute in length from text prompts. Sora, which means “sky” in Japanese, won’t be available to the general public any time soon. Instead, OpenAI is making it available to a small group of academics and researchers who will assess harm and its potential for misuse.
“Sora is able to generate complex scenes with multiple characters, specific types of motion, and accurate details of the subject and background,” the company said on its website. “The model understands not only what the user has asked for in the prompt, but also how those things exist in the physical world.”
One of the videos generated by Sora that OpenAI shared on its website shows a couple walking through a snowy Tokyo city as cherry blossom petals and snowflakes blow around them.
Introducing Sora, our text-to-video model.
Sora can create videos of up to 60 seconds featuring highly detailed scenes, complex camera motion, and multiple characters with vibrant emotions. https://t.co/7j2JN27M3W
Another shows realistic-looking wooly mammoths walking through a snowy meadow against a backdrop of snow-clad mountain ranges.
Prompt: “Several giant wooly mammoths approach treading through a snowy meadow, their long wooly fur lightly blows in the wind as they walk, snow covered trees and dramatic snow capped mountains in the distance, mid afternoon light with wispy clouds and a sun high in the distance… pic.twitter.com/Um5CWI18nS
OpenAI says that the model works as a result of “deep understanding of language,” which lets it interpret text prompts accurately. Still, like basically all AI image- and video-generators we’ve seen, Sora isn’t perfect. In one of the examples, the prompt, which asks for a video of a Dalmatian looking through a window and people “walking and cycling along the canal streets,” omits the people and the streets in the video entirely. OpenAI also warns that the model can struggle to understand cause and effect — it can generate a video of a person eating a cookie, for instance, but the cookie may not have bite marks.
Sora isn’t the first text-to-video model around. Other companies including Meta, Google and Runway, have either teased text-to-video tools or made them available to the public. Still, no other tool is currently able to generate videos as long as 60 seconds. Sora also generates entire videos at once, instead of putting them together frame-by-frame like other models, which makes sure that subjects in the video stay the same even when they go out of view temporarily.
The rise of text-to-video tools has sparked concerns over their potential to more easily create realistic-looking fake footage. “I am absolutely terrified that this kind of thing will sway a narrowly contested election,” Oren Etzioni, a professor at the University of Washington who specializes in artificial intelligence, and the founder of True Media, an organization that works to identify disinformation in political campaigns, toldThe New York Times. And generative AI more broadly has sparked backlash from artists and creative professionals concerned about the technology being used to replace jobs.
OpenAI said that it was working with experts in areas like misinformation, hateful content and bias to test the tool before making it available to the public. The company is also building tools capable of detecting videos generated by Sora and including metadata in the generated videos for easier detection. The company declined to tell the Times how Sora had been trained, except stating that it used both “publicly available videos” as well as videos licensed from copyright holders.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/openais-new-sora-model-can-generate-minute-long-videos-from-text-prompts-195717694.html?src=rss
YouTube just released a new feature that lets users remix music videos and turn them into Shorts. This allows you to adjust various parameters from a full-length music video to create something wholly unique. Does this sound like TikTok? It definitely sounds like TikTok.
Here’s how it works. Just tap “remix” on a music video. You’ll be presented with four options: Sound, Green Screen, Cut and Collab. You can only pick one, so choose wisely. The Sound tool does what you think. It strips the audio and lets you use it in your own YouTube Short. This is the kind of thing that’s hugely popular on TikTok, with many users lip-syncing to various audio clips. This Sound tool is available to any music video and most songs that were automatically uploaded to the platform.
Green Screen takes things a step further. It turns the video into a background, which you can then dance in front of or whatever. The Cut tool just clips out a five second portion of the video that you can add to any Short. Finally, Collab creates a side-by-side video that places your Short next to the original content. YouTube says this is the perfect option when “you and your friends” want to show off choreography alongside the original artist.
The feature’s already available on the mobile app, though it may not have rolled out to every user yet. If you want to check, just open the app, click on a music video and look for that “remix” option. It’s worth noting that many of these features were already available to Shorts creators, but not in one handy tab.
YouTube/Lawrence Bonk
YouTube Shorts was already a TikTok-alike when it released back in 2021, but these features make it even more, uh, TikTok-ier. With that in mind, YouTube picked the perfect time to officially launch the toolset. Universal Music has pulled its roster from TikTok after a breakdown in financial negotiations. UMG artists include Taylor Swift, Drake, Billie Eilish and many more.
This has forced TikTok creators to swap out music tracks, as anything sourced from Universal is automatically muted. The record label has accused TikTok of wanting to pay a “fraction” of rates offered by other social media sites. YouTube’s Remix tool has access to Universal’s entire roster.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/youtube-shorts-now-lets-you-chop-up-and-remix-music-videos-180655627.html?src=rss
YouTube just released a new feature that lets users remix music videos and turn them into Shorts. This allows you to adjust various parameters from a full-length music video to create something wholly unique. Does this sound like TikTok? It definitely sounds like TikTok.
Here’s how it works. Just tap “remix” on a music video. You’ll be presented with four options: Sound, Green Screen, Cut and Collab. You can only pick one, so choose wisely. The Sound tool does what you think. It strips the audio and lets you use it in your own YouTube Short. This is the kind of thing that’s hugely popular on TikTok, with many users lip-syncing to various audio clips. This Sound tool is available to any music video and most songs that were automatically uploaded to the platform.
Green Screen takes things a step further. It turns the video into a background, which you can then dance in front of or whatever. The Cut tool just clips out a five second portion of the video that you can add to any Short. Finally, Collab creates a side-by-side video that places your Short next to the original content. YouTube says this is the perfect option when “you and your friends” want to show off choreography alongside the original artist.
The feature’s already available on the mobile app, though it may not have rolled out to every user yet. If you want to check, just open the app, click on a music video and look for that “remix” option. It’s worth noting that many of these features were already available to Shorts creators, but not in one handy tab.
YouTube/Lawrence Bonk
YouTube Shorts was already a TikTok-alike when it released back in 2021, but these features make it even more, uh, TikTok-ier. With that in mind, YouTube picked the perfect time to officially launch the toolset. Universal Music has pulled its roster from TikTok after a breakdown in financial negotiations. UMG artists include Taylor Swift, Drake, Billie Eilish and many more.
This has forced TikTok creators to swap out music tracks, as anything sourced from Universal is automatically muted. The record label has accused TikTok of wanting to pay a “fraction” of rates offered by other social media sites. YouTube’s Remix tool has access to Universal’s entire roster.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/youtube-shorts-now-lets-you-chop-up-and-remix-music-videos-180655627.html?src=rss
Nintendo’s next first-party Switch title is almost here. Princess Peach: Showtimewill be available on March 22 and the company just dropped a brand new trailer to keep the hype train rolling. The game’s primary hook is that the oft-kidnapped princess can transform into a number of different professions, each with its own move sets and challenges.
The new trailer gives us a look at four never-before-seen transformations, including a figure skater, a superhero, a thief and a mermaid. Each transformation shakes up the gameplay, so while figure skater Peach stars in a 2.5D platformer, superhero Peach pummels her way through a side-scrolling beat-em-up. Mermaid Peach seems to spend most of her time singing.
A previously-released trailer showed Peach turning into a swordfighter, a detective, a pastry chef and a kung-fu master. It remains to be seen just how many other jobs the princess has experience with. Nintendo has shown off ten so far, but it’s likely keeping several as a surprise. Peach sure has a diverse resume, and she does all of it while running a kingdom filled with excitable little fungi. Meanwhile, Mario golfs and plays tennis on his days off.
Princess Peach: Showtime will cost $60 when it hits next month, and pre-orders are open now. To commemorate the release, Nintendo is also dropping a pair of pastel pink Joy-Cons. The controllers will be available on March 22, alongside the game, and will set you back $80.
If you can’t wait until March to dive into some Mario-adjacent tomfoolery, a remake of the Game Boy Advance puzzle platformer Mario vs. Donkey Kong releases this Friday. This updated version includes local co-op.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/princess-peach-showtimes-latest-trailer-shows-off-four-new-transformations-181503463.html?src=rss
There aren't enough games with queer characters and themes — and GLAAD, the world's largest LGBTQ media advocacy group, has the statistics to prove it. GLAAD's first annual report on the video game industry found that nearly 20 percent of all players in the United States identify as LGBTQ, yet just 2 percent of games contain characters and storylines relevant to this community. The report highlights three critical truths: Representation matters a lot to LGBTQ players, the remaining gaming audience largely welcomes these themes, and new generations of gamers are only becoming more open to queer content.
GLAAD has the numbers, so let's take a deeper look alongside a few bits of gaming news from the past week:
This week's stories
Xbox rumor mill
Xbox is preparing to address a bunch of rumors on Thursday about the company’s plans to bring its exclusive games to PlayStation, Switch and other platforms. The rumors have centered on major releases like Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and Starfield, but according to The Verge’s Tom Warren, the first titles scheduled to make the leap are Hi-Fi Rush and Pentiment. Nothing has been confirmed yet, but Xbox’s top gaming executives, Phil Spencer, Sarah Bond and Matt Booty, will chat about all of it on the next installment of the Official Xbox Podcast, which drops at 3PM ET on Thursday.
Ubisoft pledges to be good again
Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said on an investor call last week that the studio is officially going to make good games again. Talking about the company’s positive third quarter, Guillemot said it “marks the beginning of our turnaround to consistently creating and delivering high-quality, long-lasting games,” which sounds like a tacit admission that Ubisoft hasn’t been producing great games recently. This is something I’ve talked about a lot — it feels like the studio has been coasting on NFTs and free-to-play mobile titles since a period of financial turmoil in 2015, and I’m actually excited to see a return to its weird, more focused roots. Assassin’s Creed Mirage and Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown were great first steps. Ubisoft plans to reveal more details about Star Wars Outlaws, the new Assassin’s Creed set in Japan and its mobile lineup in May.
Gaming has never been gayer
“The game industry is out of step with contemporary media in terms of LGBTQ representation, and it is failing its LGBTQ customers.” That’s one of the breakout lines from GLAAD’s first annual gaming report, which analyzes the state of the video game industry from the perspective of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender players in the United States.
In its survey, GLAAD — the world’s largest LGBTQ media advocacy group — found that 17 percent of the total gaming audience identifies as LGBTQ, or about one in every five players. This figure falls in line with statistics for Gen Z. Still, just 2 percent of all games on the market contain LGBTQ content, a saturation level that falls miserably short of those in film, TV and other forms of media.
GLAAD ran the numbers itself: In November 2023, the Xbox store had 146 games with LGBTQ content, while PlayStation offered a list of 90 titles with these themes, and the Switch eShop had 50 games tagged LGBT. Steam had 2,302 English-language games under its LGBTQ+ tag, but that figure dropped to 1,506 when filtering out “adult only sexual content” titles. All told, queer games composed roughly 2 percent of the stores’ libraries.
In contrast, GLAAD found that almost one in three films from the top distributors in 2022 contained an LGBTQ character, and LGBTQ characters appeared as series regulars in 10 percent of primetime scripted broadcast shows in 2022 and 2023. GLAAD Associate Director of Gaming Blair Durkee said that, with queer representation at just 2 percent, gaming remains woefully behind other entertainment industries.
The report also tried to identify why this gap exists. It suggested some developers simply don’t think about including LGBTQ people, or they worry about pushing away a core audience that they assume is hostile toward LGBTQ content. However, the report says, “This imagined core audience is a myth,” considering LGBTQ people compose nearly 20 percent of the market on their own. Critically, GLAAD found that more than 60 percent of non-LGBTQ players weren’t bothered by queer protagonists in their games, and 70 percent said they were fine with titles that presented the option to play as an LGBTQ character.
So this type of representation doesn’t bother most straight, cisgender people, but it means a lot to LGBTQ players. 72 percent of LGBTQ players said that seeing characters of their gender identity or sexual orientation portrayed well made them feel better about themselves, and this number was even higher among younger players. Overall, 36 percent of LGBTQ players reported that video games helped them discover their sexual orientation or gender identity, and this percentage rose to 41 percent among LGBTQ players of color. More than 40 percent of queer players said video games helped them cope with a lack of acceptance in the real world. These issues are more prominent than ever amid an avalanche of anti-LGBTQ legislation: Already in the first few weeks of 2024, more than 500 anti-LGBTQ bills have been proposed or passed in the US, a majority of which target transgender youth.
While GLAAD found that 66 percent of all LGBTQ gamers said they use gaming to express themselves in ways they don’t feel comfortable doing in the real world, this statistic rose to 75 percent for players living in states with proposed or active anti-LGBTQ bills.
The real key is that more gamers identify as LGBTQ than ever before, and resistance toward these themes is waning with each new generation of players. I’m part of the LGBTQ community, and I can say that overall, the GLAAD report rings true. It feels like the industry is saturated with games that weren’t made for me, and there’s an immense joy that comes with discovering a new title that speaks to my own life or lets me play in a world that doesn’t involve traditionally straight-male power fantasies. Queer people have fantasies, too, and the GLAAD report highlights how forgotten these stories have been in games. It’s not a matter of LGBTQ people asking for all games to be gay — we just want proportional access to fantasy and escape. Personally, I’d love to see more LGBTQ people in positions of authority in video games, a recommendation that GLAAD makes in its report as well.
And really quickly because I can already hear the keyboards melting: Woke ideas will not destroy the gaming industry, but stagnation will, and as the GLAAD report points out, we’re much closer to that reality than anything else.
Bonus content
FromSoftware's parent company has acquired Acquire, the team behind Octopath Traveller.
The FTC accused Microsoft of lying about its intentions with Activision Blizzard after enacting a huge round of layoffs at the end of January, and the FTC is continuing to investigate potential antitrust issues around the acquisition. Microsoft responded by saying its plans changed, so there.
Children of the Sun is a dark and trippy puzzle game that makes shooting a mechanic of elegance. Players find an angle, set up the shot and then control the path of a single bullet as it takes out every enemy on-screen. This is my kind of shooter. Children of the Sun is available on Steam as a demo only for now, and it comes from solo developer René Rother, published by Devolver Digital.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/glaad-says-games-are-failing-lgbtq-players--this-weeks-gaming-news-173003080.html?src=rss
Paramount Global said Tuesday it’s laying off some of its “very valued colleagues,” including on its Paramount+ team. Varietyreported Tuesday the cuts will affect about 800 employees, an estimated three percent of the media giant’s workforce. “I am confident this is the right decision for our future,” CEO Bob Bakish wrote in a leaked staff memo. Paramount Global’s revenue grew three percent in the third quarter of 2023.
Bakish’s memo says the company will notify terminated staff by the close of business on Tuesday. He added that international offices will be affected, too. “Those notifications will occur over time in line with our local legal obligations in each of the countries where we operate,” the CEO wrote.
Variety claims the layoffs will be spread among all the company’s divisions. These include Paramount+, CBS, Paramount Pictures, Showtime, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon and Pluto TV.
The CEO referenced Super Bowl LVIII, which became what the NFL says was the most-watched telecast ever. Bakish chalked that up to the game’s broadcast showcasing “the full power of Paramount.” Some may counter that it instead showcased “the full power” of combining NFL fans with Taylor Swift fans.
Jon Stewart’s 2024 return to ‘The Daily Show’
Comedy Central / Paramount
Bakish’s memo shouted out Jon Stewart, who returned to Comedy Central’s The Daily Show on Monday. (In the host’s 2024 homecoming, he suggested a new slogan for the 2024 US Presidential election: “What the f#@k are we doing?”) Stewart agreed last month to reclaim his old desk once a week after leaving his Apple TV+ series, The Problem with Jon Stewart, after only two seasons. Apple’s cancellation reportedly came after disagreements with the iPhone maker over episodes criticizing China and AI. Lawmakers later questioned Apple about the fallout.
Paramount’s streaming and film divisions have driven recent growth, but its traditional television offerings continue to struggle. Revenue in that area dropped by eight percent in Q3 2024, with TV advertising dropping by 14 percent. The company’s linear TV struggles have reportedly put it on the block for mergers and acquisitions, including (allegedly stalled) merger talks with Warner Bros. Discovery in December 2023.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/paramount-global-lays-off-a-reported-800-employees-192614248.html?src=rss
The Playdate console has been tough to get a hold of since being released back in 2022, as pre-orders have vastly outnumbered current orders. This has led to lengthy waiting periods when placing an order for the crank-adjacent portable. That all changes today, as the manufacturer has announced the console is available for immediate shipment upon purchase.
Playdate also passed a significant milestone, as over 70,000 preordered units have shipped, up from 50,000 last year. Manufacturer Panic says it has finally “caught up” to all Playdate preorders, but that this wide availability may not last forever. The company says just a “limited number” of consoles are available for immediate purchase. The online store currently says shipments go out in two to three days.
Panic says that, moving forward, it’ll notify the public whenever Playdates are in-stock and ready to ship. On the other hand, the store will clearly note when stock is low and when there’s a waiting period.
The manufacturer has also opened up shipments to a number of new countries, including Hungary, Greece, New Zealand, South Korea and Malaysia. That last one is particularly important, as Malaysia is where the console is actually manufactured. It’s always nice when the people who make the thing can use the thing.
Panic is planning another video showcase to unveil forthcoming games for the system. More details on this event will come at a later date. The last showcase happened in August and featured an array of bizarre, yet engaging, titles.
For the uninitiated, the Playdate is a portable gaming console unlike any other. It’s cute and bright yellow, with a manually-operated crank that can be used as a control mechanism. Each $200 console comes with 24 free games, with two unlocking each week for 12 weeks. You can also purchase games via the Playdate Catalog online store.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/you-can-now-buy-a-playdate-console-without-an-obscene-waiting-period-185535666.html?src=rss
“The game industry is out of step with contemporary media in terms of LGBTQ representation, and it is failing its LGBTQ customers.”
This sentiment has felt true for years, and now the statistics in GLAAD’s first annual gaming report prove it. The media watchdog and LGBTQ advocacy group today published GLAAD Gaming: The State of LGBTQ Inclusion in Video Games, offering a comprehensive breakdown of the industry from the perspective of queer players and developers.
According to GLAAD, 17 percent of the total gaming audience identifies as LGBTQ, or about one in every five players. This figure falls in line with statistics for Generation Z. Still, just 2 percent of all games on the market contain LGBTQ content, a saturation level that falls miserably short of those in film, TV and other forms of entertainment media. GLAAD found that 28.5 percent of films from the top 10 distributors in 2022 contained an LGBTQ character, and LGBTQ characters appeared as series regulars at a rate of 10.6 percent on primetime scripted broadcast shows in 2022 and 2023.
For the gaming stats, GLAAD ran the numbers: In November 2023, the Xbox store had 146 games with LGBTQ content, while PlayStation offered a list of 90 titles with LGBTQ themes, and Nintendo’s Switch eShop had 50 games tagged LGBT. Steam had 2,302 English-language games under its LGBTQ+ tag, but that figure dropped to 1,506 when filtering out “adult only sexual content” titles. Together, these games composed less than 2 percent of the Xbox, Playstation and Switch digital libraries, and they made up just 1.7 percent of Steam’s offerings (without the adult-only content). For context, it’s estimated that about 1 percent of all games released in the 2010s included LGBTQ themes.
“Despite the significant progress we’ve seen, gaming remains woefully behind other forms of entertainment media when it comes to representation,” GLAAD Associate Director of Gaming Blair Durkee said.
GLAAD’s report identified the following reasons behind the lack of LGBTQ representation in video games:
“Some reasons for exclusion are passive. Often, game companies have not considered that they should represent LGBTQ people, nor do they see us as a major part of the core gaming audience. Some reasons for exclusion are active. Companies worry about pushing away a core audience that they assume are resistant or hostile to LGBTQ content. This imagined core audience, however, is a myth, and it is one of the reasons it was paramount for GLAAD to create this gaming report. LGBTQ gamers are a significant part of the existing active gamer market and, by and large, non-LGBTQ gamers are not nearly as resistant to this content as many assume.”
More than 60 percent of non-LGBTQ respondents said they weren’t bothered by LGBTQ protagonists and NPCs in their games, and 70 percent said they were fine with titles that presented the option to customize a bisexual, gay or lesbian character. Resistance toward these themes is waning with each new generation of players, GLAAD found.
One of the report’s key takeaways is the idea that developers seem to be building games for an outdated stereotype, rather than the reality of the market. Straight, white, cisgender men definitely play video games, but the actual gaming audience is much more diverse and it’s only become more variable.
“The lack of LGBTQ representation in video games is often explained by the assumption that the stereotypical core video game consumer is a white, heterosexual, cisgender man between the ages 18 and 34,” GLAAD said. “However, our data shows that 17 percent of active gamers are LGBTQ, a 70 percent increase from the 10 percent counted in Neilsen’s 2020 report.”
This figure is even higher for younger players, the next generation of gamers. Roughly 25 percent of players under the age of 35 identify as LGBTQ, a higher concentration than reported in the human population as a whole. This trend drives home another conclusion of GLAAD’s gaming report — the idea that LGBTQ players are drawn to games in particular because they offer an immersive outlet for expression, experimentation and escape.
“The interactive nature of games, the opportunity to build community in gaming, and the long history of LGBTQ game industry professionals makes this medium a uniquely powerful tool for LGBTQ people to safely discover, connect, and express themselves,” GLAAD president and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said. “Particularly for LGBTQ gamers, gaming can not only be an escape and source of entertainment, but also an important outlet of self-expression.”
In the GLAAD survey, 72 percent of LGBTQ players said that seeing characters of their gender identity or sexual orientation portrayed well made them feel better about themselves, and this number was even higher among younger players. Overall, 36 percent of LGBTQ players reported that video games helped them discover their sexual orientation or gender identity, and this percentage rose to 41 percent among LGBTQ players of color. Notably, GLAAD found that gamers of color are less resistant to titles with queer content than white players.
More than 40 percent of LGBTQ players said video games helped them cope with a lack of acceptance in the real world. At the same time, 51 percent of LGBTQ players said they wanted video games to do more in terms of inclusion, and 74 percent wished for more opportunities to explore and express their true selves in games.
“Games are a medium in which players can be anything, but the game industry has continued to rely on very narrow representational options,” GLAAD said.
Transgender content faced the most resistance among all respondents. Concerning LGBTQ players, 63 percent said they were more likely to buy a game that supports a bisexual, gay or lesbian protagonist, while 46 percent said the same about a transgender main character. However, 94 percent of LGBTQ respondents said they were just as likely or more likely to purchase a game that includes the option to embody a transgender protagonist. Among non-LGBTQ gamers, 80 percent responded the same way.
The importance of representation in video games has only grown amid an avalanche of anti-LGBTQ violence and legislation in the United States. In the first weeks of 2024, more than 500 anti-LGBTQ bills have been proposed or passed in the US, a majority of which target transgender youths. This is already a dramatic spike from 2022 and 2021, both record-setting years in terms of anti-LGBTQ legislation.
Queer players are more likely than their counterparts to use gaming as an escape, according to GLAAD, and this is even more true for people living in states that have proposed or passed anti-LGBTQ legislation. While 66 percent of all LGBTQ gamers said they use gaming to express themselves in ways they don’t feel comfortable doing in the real world, this statistic rose to 75 percent for players living in states with proposed or active anti-LGBTQ bills.
“For these LGBTQ gamers, gaming is necessary to cope with real-world discrimination and targeting,” GLAAD said in its report. “Game developers need to understand the role gaming plays for LGBTQ gamers in the United States and especially LGBTQ gamers in states where they are disproportionately targeted and attacked.”
Researchers offered the following recommendations for increasing LGBTQ representation in games:
The percentage of games with LGBTQ representation should be proportional to the share of gamers who are LGBTQ.
Game developers should strive for representation that promotes inclusivity and acceptance.
The game industry should take responsibility for making their communities more inclusive.
The game industry should consult LGBTQ media content experts.
LGBTQ game industry workers should be hired in positions of authority.
Amid all of the percentages, GLAAD identified a clear pattern in its first gaming report: Representation matters a lot to most LGBTQ players, and the majority of the remaining audience isn't too bothered by queer content. Sometimes, it's even preferred.
“We are nearly invisible in game representations, despite being a significant percentage of gamers,” Ellis, GLAAD’s president, said.
The report’s survey data was collected in collaboration with Nielsen Games and includes responses from 1,452 active PC and console players in the US, with a boost sample of LGBTQ gamers to ensure accuracy for the community-specific questions. The survey was distributed between June and August 2023.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/glaads-first-annual-gaming-report-is-here-to-tell-us-how-gay-games-are-140021089.html?src=rss
Lyft is expanding its Women+ Connect program to a bunch of new cities. This initiative originally launched in a limited number of locations back in September, but now it's getting a much larger rollout.
Women+ Connect does exactly what the name implies. It connects women and nonbinary riders to similarly identifying drivers, and vice versa. This is an opt-in feature that aims to bolster safety during rides, in addition to enticing women and nonbinary people to become drivers for the platform. Lyft says that nearly half of riders are women, but they only make up 23 percent of drivers.
Here’s how it works: You turn on the feature and it’ll connect you to an appropriate driver based on the gender you entered when signing up. For drivers, it uses the gender associated with the license on file. If there’s no women or nonbinary drivers looking for fares, you’ll still get matched with a male driver, so you won’t be standing around outside in the cold.
The program started in just a few cities, including Chicago, Phoenix and San Francisco. It’s apparently been a huge success for Lyft, with the company noting that 2.4 million riders have turned on Women+ Connect since the September launch and more than half of eligible drivers have begun using the service. It also says that this feature has the highest satisfaction rate of any driver tool the company has ever launched.
Women+ Connect is available today in New York City, Los Angeles, Miami, Las Vegas, Dallas, Washington D.C. and other places. Check the app to see if the feature is available where you live.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/lyft-expands-program-that-matches-women-and-nonbinary-riders-to-drivers-113016366.html?src=rss