Do you remember all that went down in the virtual realm over the last fortnight? Did you add anything to your Steam library this week? Have you gone down any rabbit holes in the last seven days? No? Would you like to? Do you have a minute?
This week, we have everything from J.K. Rowling’s problematic social media presence to some highly anticipated video game adaptations. Sixty seconds on the clock — on your marks, get set, read!
— Rebecca Smith, Senior Arts Editor, and Cecilia Ledezma, Digital Culture Beat Editor
“Fallout” TV trailer
Last week we got a second look at Amazon Studios’ take on the nuclear wasteland with a new trailer for their “Fallout” TV series. We got a brief introduction to several of the main characters, including Walton Goggins (“Sons of Anarchy”) as a salesman-turned-ghoul-turned-badass gunslingin’ cowboy. I’m extremely excited to see his take on the dry and witty humor that defines the games and maybe even bring a bit of New Vegas charm to the show. Ella Purnell (“Yellowjackets”) seems to be a good pick for the leading role as a Vault Dweller, and, from what I can tell, they’re really leaning into making her play a naive “pure” character (think Ryan Reynolds in “Free Guy”). I hope that we can see her slowly become warped by the callousness of life outside the vault, just like what happens during play-throughs of the games. We also got to see a bit of Aaron Moten’s (“Disjointed”) character, who seems to be a somewhat troubled soldier in the Brotherhood of Steel, the militaristic faction that imposes its own idea of justice on the wasteland. Watching him don a suit of power armor was more than enough to bring me on board with this series.
But enough about the actors, let’s talk about those creatures! Yao guais, radroaches, mutated axolotls with fingers for teeth — now that is what Fallout is all about. Say what you want about the current state of the franchise, but some elements of it will always be appealing, and goofy, sick and twisted environments are among them. If all else fails (as it has with the “Halo” show), I know I can at least count on “Fallout” to make the nuclear apocalypse look just as bombastic as I had hoped it would be. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go start yet another Fallout 4 save file.
Daily Arts Writer Hunter Bishop can be reached at hdbishop@umich.edu.
The animated show “Among Us”
Ah yes, the extended cabin fever of the pandemic. Don’t you remember staying up too late, playing the hit game Among Us? Embarking on the impossible task of deceiving your friends in the midnight hours of a day already spent online, pretending you’re completing tasks or biding your time while everyone argues about who is the most suspicious? Well, if you’re feeling nostalgic for those times (dear god, I hope you aren’t, do we need to talk about that?), you can now endlessly view those struggles in the form of an animated series! Yes, that’s right, an Among Us animated show! While it was announced a little while back, we recently got more information about casting. According to this tweet last week from the official game’s account, we have: Ashley Johnson (“The Legend of Vox Machina”) as Purple, Elijah Wood (“The Lord of the Rings”) as Green, Randall Park (“Fresh Off The Boat”) as Red and Yvette Nicole Brown (“Community”) as Orange.
Also included in the tweet was “ROUND 1,” indicating there are more cast announcements to come. Regardless, it should be a pretty casual and fun watch with an already star-studded cast. Hopefully, Green will premiere wearing a stylish wig. Who knows who will be included next? Personally, I think my fan cast of Simu Liu (“Barbie”) as Brown would slay.
Daily Arts Contributor Amanath Khandaker can be reached at amanathk@umich.edu.
JKR Holocaust denial
Washed-up author and X’s TERF royalty, J.K. Rowling hit a new low this week. On March 13, she tweeted a response to an anonymous tweet about the Nazi burnings of gender and sexuality research, calling the original claim a sourceless “fever dream.” Regardless of your politics, you cannot deny true historical events. Let me be very clear about this: On May 6, 1933, members of the Nazi Party broke into and burned the contents of the Institute of Sexology. Run by Magnus Hirschfeld, the institute was one of the most prominent conglomerates of research into gender and sexuality with work dating back about two decades. We do not have this research today because, and I repeat, Nazis broke in, burned it and openly documented it.
Unfortunately, Rowling’s claims are likely not enough to actually implicate her in any crimes. Although her statement would classify as prosecutable denial of (parts of) the Holocaust in the European Union, the international sphere of social media is very difficult to prosecute, the UK didn’t enforce the optional EU law when it passed and the UK is no longer part of the EU regardless. Nevertheless, her determination to erase the genuine crimes of the 1930s Nazi Party says volumes about her own behavior. This latest tweet is one in a long line of verbal and financial support Rowling has given to the trans hate movement in the UK. For real, stop giving her a platform; your wizard stories are not worth it.
Daily Arts Writer Lin Yang can be reached at yanglinj@umich.edu.
Steam Families
Last Monday, Valve shadow-dropped a new feature for their famous launcher — “Steam Families.” In short, it lets up to six (six!) users share games while having different save files and includes some straightforward parental control features. This is another feature that brings PC gaming closer to console gaming; sharing games with siblings, children or cousins has been a highlight of the genre for as long as it has existed, but it’s much harder to share PC games. This feature (alongside Steam’s improved controller support, the Steam Deck and other recent additions to the platform) brings something new to PC gaming that will be greatly appreciated.
Plus, if you don’t want to share games with your family, you could just use Steam Families to get free games from your friends. Nobody’s stopping you. Seriously. Considering Gabe Newell’s opinion on piracy and his general laissez-faire attitude towards consumer usage of Valve’s products, I doubt that this (mis)use of the feature wasn’t thought through and planned for. The only real limits to Steam Families are that some games are incompatible with it and that one person in the family getting banned from a game means the owner will be banned, too — so maybe don’t invite the friend that smashes his controller every week to your family.
The fact that Steam Families has no real “catch” or downside is unbelievable at a time when Netflix is attempting to curb password sharing, Google is cracking down on ad-blockers and the ability of users to do what they want with the products they purchased lessens by the day. We’re only a few years away from the verification can dystopia, which I’m pretty sure is what “1984” was about. Not to give too much credit to what is ultimately just another for-profit corporation, but hey, Steam does its job better than most. As it turns out, not hating your users can go a long way in establishing a successful service.
My favorite part of what has been showcased so far (keeping in mind that this feature is being beta tested) is the fact that child accounts can just send requests to adult accounts to purchase games for them, and I can’t help but imagine a parent logging onto Steam to see dozens of requests for in-game currency that they’ll have to deny one by one. As far as I’m concerned, though, this is just a new way to convince/coerce/manipulate my friends into playing the games that I like and own, and vice versa. There are no longer any excuses not to play Zero Escape.
Daily Arts Writer Ariel Litwak can be reached at arilit@umich.edu.