TwitchCon made me a Twitch convert
I’m going to admit this right up front: I wasn’t looking forward to covering the first-ever TwitchCon. Sure, I co-host our weekly Playdate broadcasts and absolutely adore talking with our community of regulars who show up three times per week to watch us play games, but outside of that, I didn’t spend time on Twitch. My worry for TwitchCon was that I’d be trapped inside Moscone West in San Francisco with thousands of screaming “personalities” — like the guy I’d watched (for approximately 45 seconds, max) shout and swear his way through Choice Chamber, for an entire weekend. That all changed after attending a number of panels and talking with some of the biggest broadcasters on the service. This first show was one of the best events I’ve been to for work, period. And I recently found myself doing something I never thought: watching Twitch for fun.
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Community is the bedrock of Twitch. Over 20,000 fans made their pilgrimage to San Francisco for a weekend in September without a clue of what to expect from TwitchCon. What they got was an event that catered specifically to them. But somehow, it didn’t seem pandering; it felt earnest. The overt fan focus of the show was all too evident: From the opening keynote where Twitch Director of Programming Marcus “djWHEAT” Graham self-deprecatingly recounted his history of broadcasting to the final moments of Deadmau5’s thumping set at the official after-party.
Flush with cash from Amazon’s $970 million acquisition, Twitch could’ve gotten practically anyone to play its after-party at San Francisco’s Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. Instead, the company hired electronic artists Darude and Deadmau5. The former likely because his 1999 track “Sandstorm” got a second life thanks to feature placement ahead of League of Legends streams, and the latter because he’s an incredibly active broadcaster on the service and a massive gamer in his own right.
Both artists seemed incredibly happy to be there, and the audience responded in kind. Chants of “We love TwitchCon” filled the gaps in Darude’s beats while Twitch-specific emoticons flashed on the massive video screen above the stage. “Way to restore my faith in the gaming community,” Deadmau5 later exclaimed from his LED-packed dais. “Way fucking better crowd than at the Dota 2 International.” Oh, and those tickets? $25 apiece, plus the $85 weekend con pass. Not a bad deal considering festival shows that he plays can cost $70 to get into, minimum.
WELP pic.twitter.com/7fbPEWAJLu
— Timothy J. Sepultura (@timseppala) September 27, 2015
That feeling of gratitude for the community was a running theme throughout the entire weekend. Panels and shows took place on the Kappa stage (the “main” Twitch emoticon), and in the Sandstorm, BibleThump and FrankerZ theaters — each name a heartfelt wink to the Twitch user-base. The talks themselves were largely focused on every facet of how to become a better broadcaster. I showed up a few minutes late to the “Broadcasting on a Budget” panel and had a hard time finding a seat. Near the end of that talk, there were people standing along the sides of the theater and snaking through the doorway.
When the floor opened for a question-and-answer session, six people immediately jumped up to the mic, asking everything from how to stream from a Mac (use Boot Camp), how to get discovered on the service (persistence) and how much to spend on a streaming setup (around $800 for your computer). The “Women in Gaming” panel was even more popular, with BibleThump (one of the bigger theaters) at capacity, and at least 20 folks in line for the open-mic question session.
Even at their most tired, the people I ran into were all smiles. As I sat at San Francisco International Airport at 3AM on Sunday to catch my early flight home, I noticed a small group of TwitchCon attendees draped in the company’s trademark shade of purple. They were parting ways, heading back to their respective corners of the country, hugging, laughing and promising to come back next year. Almost every person I talked to that weekend was friendly and more than willing to give advice or just talk for a few minutes. Hell, I even had a chance to meet up with one of our Playdate regulars, Austin “Yauddle” Busch, take him out for drinks and break his five-year Taco Bell abstinence.
This, sadly, was as close as I got to my scheduled interview with Fred Durst at TwitchCon.
All of this goodwill culminated in the heretofore unthinkable: I now watch Twitch instead of, you know, playing video games myself. For the past few months, Engadget features editor and gaming overlord Joseph Volpe has been raving about a channel called Excessive Profanity. I’d followed the channel a while back, but never actually tuned in for a stream. When the email ping came through indicating the channel had gone live late that Saturday, unlike every time before it, I heeded its suggestion and Chromecasted the show to my TV. The streamer EP (real name: Cody Hargreaves), was playing Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, a game I’ve been miserably stuck in since our own Playdate broadcast.
All of this goodwill culminated in the unthinkable: I now watch Twitch instead of playing video games myself.
A few minutes into his stream, it finally all made sense to me; I “got” why people watched Twitch instead of playing a game for themselves. It was like TV, but something I could participate in, in real time. Having EP give me and around 700 other viewers at the time a guided tour — replete with some seriously funny, curse-laden Australian commentary — was the perfect way to experience a few hours of Hideo Kojima’s latest title.
I got wrapped up in the chat, sharing my glee with everyone else when EP manned a mini-mech and fled the scene as a skyscraper-sized bipedal weapon chased him down. I even dropped a RalpherZ emoticon. I’ll likely never beat The Phantom Pain, or sadly even get past the “Honeybee” mission (I’ve tried multiple times since), but now I know why people love it so much. I don’t have time to devote to beating every game that’s released, but I do have an hour or so to watch others play and comment on them.
I’ve even done some late-night Destiny streaming on my personal Twitch channel since returning home; something that wouldn’t have happened were it not for TwitchCon. And if that was the mission of the show — to bolster the Twitch community and invite others in — it worked. I’m a believer. I’m a streamer. And now, I’m a viewer.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership could spell the end of filesharing sites
According to documents leaked by Wikileaks — specifically, the TPP’s finalized chapter on Intellectual Property — the days of filesharing sites could quickly be coming to a close. Per the agreement, which would be enforced across all 12 member states, ISPs would be required to “remove or disable access” as soon as they “become aware” of a court decision that deems a piece of content infringes upon an existing copyright. This is a more extreme version of America’s DMCA takedown notices and would effectively tie domestic ISP actions to another nation’s legal decisions. So if, say, a court in Malaysia says a piece of content infringes on a Malaysian copyright, ISPs in America (really ISPs in all 12 member nations) would be required to remove it — regardless of whether or not it infringes upon any local copyrights.
This is especially worrisome for Canada, which has a rather relaxed “stepped” approach to content takedowns where every involved party must be notified before any action is taken. “The broadly worded provision could force Canadian ISPs to block content on websites after being notified of a foreign court order—without first having to assess whether the site is even legal under Canadian law,” internet law analyst Michael Geist wrote in a recent blog post. This would constitute a significant change to Canadian copyright law and one made without input from Canadian voters.
But don’t freak out just yet. This is just the currently agreed-upon wording. The entire deal still has to be ratified by the member nations, which could see further debate and clarification on this issue. It will be a couple more months until the rest of the agreement will even be publically released — and President Obama has promised the American people ample opportunity to review the documents once they do come out — so just keep your pants unbunched until then.
[Image Credit: LatinContent/Getty Images]
Via: Motherboard
Source: Michael Geist
Hulu’s virtual reality app will launch alongside Gear VR in November
Oculus and Samsung’s first fully-fledged virtual reality product, the Gear VR, is set to launch in November for $99. A host of apps have been announced to work with the new hardware, and now we have confirmation that Hulu’s VR app will be ready to go when the Gear VR launches. As reported by CNET, Hulu head of distribution Tim Connolly says that the company’s app is “ready to go” for the Gear VR launch. As for what that app will offer, traditional 2D content will be available, but the company is also experimenting with “enhanced” 2D content — like watching Seinfeld in Jerry’s apartment, for example.
The company is also creating a native VR film called The Big One, and the company may also commission pure virtual reality series that can only be experienced through products like Gear VR. As for Gear VR itself, it’ll work with all of Samsung’s flagship devices — the Galaxy S6, S6 Edge, Note 5 and Galaxy S6+ when it launches this November.
Source: CNET
Stephen Hawking: ‘The real risk with AI isn’t malice but competence’
Artificial intelligence was one of the biggest topics during Stephen Hawking’s Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) earlier this year. So it’s not too surprising that Hawking used up a significant portion of his answers to that Q&A session, released by Reddit yesterday, by clarifying his stance on dangerous artificial intelligence. “The real risk with AI isn’t malice but competence,” he wrote to a teacher who’s tired of having the “The Terminator Conversation” with his students — that is, explaining away the notion that evil, killer robots will be the main danger with AI. “A superintelligent AI will be extremely good at accomplishing its goals, and if those goals aren’t aligned with ours, we’re in trouble.” Hawking previously warned that AI could “spell the end of the human race,” and he also joined Elon Musk and other notable technologists to call for a ban on autonomous weapons.
While it’s a bit less exciting than robots bent on destroying humanity, Hawking’s reasoning is no less worrisome. The idea that the equivalent of an AI software bug could eventually have world-changing implications isn’t exactly reassuring.
“You’re probably not an evil ant-hater who steps on ants out of malice, but if you’re in charge of a hydroelectric green energy project and there’s an anthill in the region to be flooded, too bad for the ants,” Hawking added. “Let’s not place humanity in the position of those ants.”
Responding to another question about when AI will reach human levels of intelligence, Hawking stressed that we don’t really know when that will happen. But, he noted, “When it eventually does occur, it’s likely to be either the best or worst thing ever to happen to humanity, so there’s huge value in getting it right.” To that end, he calls for being more careful about how we develop AI. Rather than just exploring “pure undirected artificial intelligence,” we should instead be focusing on creating “beneficial intelligence.”
Hawking also noted that an evolved AI will be able to have drives or goals similar to living organisms. But where living creatures focus on surviving and reproducing, he notes that AI could be driven to collect more resources to fulfill its goals, citing scientist Steve Omohundro. And once again, that could spell trouble if it’s taking away resources for humans.
Pointing to a slightly more pressing issue, one Redditor asked Hawking about his thoughts on technological unemployment — especially around the idea that we might one day reach a point where most tasks are automated, and most humans are out of work. Hawking described commonly-discussed scenarios: One where most people can live a slightly more luxurious life, if the resources produced by the machines are shared. Or another where most people end up “miserably poor” and the rich people who own those machines end up consolidating wealth. At this point, Hawking sees things trending towards the second reality.
On the lighter end of things, we also learned that Hawking’s favorite movie is Truffaut’s Jules and Jim, and that he somehow finds The Big Bang Theory funny. Perhaps the funniest takeaway: When one Redditor asked if Hawking remembered briefly watching Wayne’s World 2 at a Cambridge video store, Hawking replied with a resounding, “NO.”
[Photo credit: Desiree Martin/AFP/Getty Images]
Source: Reddit
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