It’s probably happened to all of us. We tune in to a stream on Twitch wanting to just relax and watch some good gameplay, a major tournament or even some cooking. And then, invariably our eyes stray to the chat. Yes, Twitch chat. That hotbed of thoughtful, fair and equitable destruction.

Or, as Totalbiscuit once described it: eye cancer.

While I won’t characterize ALL Twitch chats as wretched cesspools filled with some of the worst vitriol I have ever seen spew from a human’s mouth, many of them are. Just watch any major eSports tournament, such as DOTA2’s International or the Smite World Championships. Racism, sexism, hate speech. It’s all there. And it would seem Twitch wants to do something about it, because they have just announced a new feature called “AutoMod”. 

Streamers can toggle AutoMod in their settings page. If the service works as advertised it will allow streamers to set up filters for both terrible words and the little “l33t” speak version speople use to get around them. 

According to Twitch: 

AutoMod is a unique moderation tool that does more than filter inappropriate chat. When a user sends a message that AutoMod flags as potentially inappropriate, the message is held in a publishing queue awaiting moderator approval. AutoMod also enables broadcasters to adjust the degree of filtering in the event they are more or less conservative about the type of dialogue they want to see in their chat. Beyond identifying inappropriate words and phrases, AutoMod can detect potentially inappropriate strings of emotes and other characters or symbols that others could use to evade filtering.

This is a potentially big deal, as a large portion of the Twitch viewing audience probably aren’t terrible people. But they get drowned out by the vocal minority that thrive on spewing hate. My prime concern though is this: Aside from when I’m actually the one streaming or acting as a moderator, I habitually hide Twitch chat for the simple reason that I don’t want to look at it. I imagine I’m not alone in this. And I’m not sure that this tool, even if it works 100% as advertised will be enough to change that for many people.

What do you think? Will this tool get you to look at Twitch chat again? Or do you think people will find a way to circumvent it in short order?

I was one lucky fox, when I read that Sony have arranged a Playstation VR UK tour, that was coming to my neck of the woods. I quickly booked my slot at Meadow Hall Sheffield for Saturday 8th October at 9:30am. It meant I wouldn’t have to wait as long as the walk-ins, and guaranteed a thirty minute trial. I was early and the lovely chap at the desk asked me what I wanted to play.
When I stated Batman, I saw him inwardly cringe. “Oh yes Batman. EVERYONE wants to just play Batman. At the moment it is a forty minute wait for Batman.”
“Who doesn’t want to be Batman?” I smirked. I explained I didn’t mind waiting, as I was doing coverage for a gaming site.

The young chap (I am sorry, I forgot your name) was really helpful and offered for me to play Farpoint, whilst I waited on Batman.  I was given a little card with the Farpoint artwork on, and once it was called, I was lead to the booth.

There was another lovely chap (again so sorry, forgot your name too), who asked if I had tried VR before. I explained I hadn’t, and that I was intrigued by it. He explained how the headset would feel. I asked if it would be uncomfortable with glasses, and he confirmed it wouldn’t be. Which was good, as I am short sighted and need my glasses for gaming. He then picked up the Playstation VR gun, with its glowing ball end (Heheheh). He explained that the gun was an exclusive to the tour, and no one from the public had tried it yet.

There was an analogue stick to control movement, the trigger to shoot, and another button under the glowing end for grenades. He showed me how to move the gun to change weapons, and how to collect new items etc. So the headset came on, and with a button on the back it moved the eyepiece in a comfortable position for me. Oh my fox ! It was comfortable! Even with my glasses on, I couldn’t even tell I was wearing it. It was very light weight and it didn’t move when I moved my head. He then put on the surround sound headphones on. Then the game began.

I was teleported to a desert looking world, devoid of life, but beautiful. I had to keep telling my legs not to move, as it was controlled by the analogue stick. Honestly this was a struggle. I felt I was really there, my brain kept trying to make my legs move. Then I heard the noises, the scuttling of many legs on rocks. I look around not seeing anything, then a screech sound in front of me. I gasped as I saw a huge spider and shot its face off. Foxy the spider slayer! Good job I am not scared of spiders. I carried on exploring this world, shooting more spiders. There were some annoying ones, who spat green acid from their arses. I had to shoot the balls before they hit me. Moving my head around and seeing the game, as I do the real world was an experience. The technology has come so far, since I tried it as a kid. I unlocked a shotgun, which was great fun. Heard the chap laughing at my comment about foxing kneecapping time, I must have come across as crazy. I got quite far before I was swarmed and died. The gun will become over heated and cool down, before you can use it again. I got trigger happy, my own fault. I then respawned and saw two NPC’s walking through a cave, talking about the discovery. Then the screen went to black and I walked up to a large cave opening. A HUGE spider came out, screeching its head off. At this point I must have actually stepped back, because I felt the chap’s hand on my back. That was the end of the session though, and those thirty minutes flew by. He took the headset off (my hair was a mess), and I saw that I nearly walked into the wall behind me. “Yeah you stepped back a lot there, I had to stop you.” *Insert blushing* “You did really well though, best I have seen so far.” Then I noticed the camera filming me….oh great.

At this point I was quite impressed, and couldn’t wait to try Batman. I went back to the chap at the desk and he gave me a card for Batman, and said it was only a ten minute wait. At this point it was getting really busy. I sat and watched the PS4 Pro gameplay of Horizon: Zero Dawn on a huge 4K TV, which looked very impressive. I was disappointed they didn’t have the PS4 Pro set up, so people could play on them whilst they waited for their VR turn. I feel this was a missed opportunity for Sony, personally.

Batman was called out, and off I skipped to try it out. Now I remember this chap’s name, as he was really lovely and enthusiastic. Matt explained that Batman VR was an introduction into VR itself. He was delighted by the fact that my headphones had bat ears on. (Yes, like Batman’s cowl, they had bat ears.)
He told me to look down, and handed me the move controllers (I still think they are from Ann Summers), and I was transported into the body of Bruce Wayne. Standing in front of a beautiful piano, Alfred walks up to me, tells me off for not sleeping in my bed, and hands me a key to the piano. I looked around and could see the gorgeous Wayne manor and even looked out into the gardens. Using the move controller I unlocked the piano, as though I was using a real key. Then the floor opens up and I am being lowered via lift into the bat cave. It stops and I am prompted to kit out my batsuit…

Now this feature was really impressive to me. I grabbed the cowl, and moving the move controller up to my face, slid the cowl onto my head. Then I was given a grappling hook, which I tested against a target. To unequip this I looked down at my waist, and could see the utility belt. Using the controller I slid the grappling hook into my belt. Looking down again, I could see my batarangs. Grabbing one and throwing it at the targets. I was starting to feel like Batfox! Then this is where the session ended. Unfortunately due to the high demand of the game, it was cut to fifteen minutes. It was out of the two, the most impressive one.

I would have liked to try some more games, as they were happy to let me. But alas mamma fox (who only wanted to go shopping) was getting impatient. I am convinced by VR now, and really happy I was lucky enough to experience it. Perhaps one day, when the price tag lowers I might buy one.

~FoxyFoxlyn

I’ve got 99 achievements and having fun aint one…

“The Climb” is a VR game for oculus rift from Crytek that looks little better than a tech demo for what the oculus can do, as opposed to a fully-fledged title.

From what was shown the one of the challenges in the game is that certain hand holds in the game might be “dirty” at which point you will need to brush them off to clean them before being able to continue the climb or possibly having to climb in the dark. As it stands the game doesn’t seem massively appealing and the inclusion of “99 achievements” seems more of an afterthought as a bullet point for talking of the game, a very interesting addition would be doing a climb race versus friends.

You can check out the trailer from this years GamesCom here…

Twitch has changed a lot in the past few years, and it seems like things will be changing even more. Today the company announced that they are acquiring Curse.

 
“Please join us in welcoming Curse, a leading global multimedia and technology company focused on content and products specifically for gamers, to the Twitch family.”

Curse, of course is a prominent company involved in voice communications, chat and gaming mods as well as wikis and guides. The release from Twitch goes on to say “This acquisition will help provide gamers with the tools and resources they need to achieve the ultimate gaming experience, a mission shared by both Twitch and Curse. Together Curse and Twitch will help gamers connect, interact, and share information with one another.” 

From a business perspective, this is a huge acquisition for Twitch. Curse has more than 30 million unique users per month. There is a huge opportunity here for Twitch to extend their community and content offerings through this acquisition. In addition, Twitch already has strong options in place to monetise content and subscribers on it’s own platform. The acquisition of Twitch could potentially open up other avenues for Twitch to gain additional revenue, as well as incorporate Curse’s voice chat technology into the platform. While no definite plans have been stated, the Twitch announcement did say they are excited for the many possibilities ahead. It will be interesting to see what comes of this merger in the next few months.