Activision has frightening programs meant to mimic humans and put you in a simulation



Video game publisher Activision seems keen on trapping gamers in a matrix where reality is replaced with a perfectly curated experience meant to keep the user happy for as long as possible.

The Call of Duty franchise by developer Treyarch under parent company Activision boasts over 50 games ranging from World War I to futuristic warfare titles.

With recent games carrying budgets of anywhere between $450-$700 million, Activision is focused on constantly improving its games, inch by inch.

The developer is actively monitoring its users, leveraging users' computing power, and creating a system of NPCs that are indistinguishable from humans in order to have the customer use the product longer and purchase more items.

These advancements in user experience may come at an ethical cost, however.

Much of the company’s direction, in a technological sense, can be found through analysis of its patents, and as gamers become increasingly aware of these documents, questions continue to pop up as to how much of their experiences with Call of Duty have been authentic.

In 2017, critics pointed to a patent titled, “System and method for driving microtransactions in multiplayer video games.”

With the title being a dead giveaway, gamers were not happy to find out that Activision was placing users in matches specifically designed to influence them to spend more money.

The patent description included the following:

“A system and method is provided that drives microtransactions in multiplayer video games. The system may include a microtransaction to arrange matches to influence game-related purchases. For instance, the system may match a more expert/marquee player with a junior player to encourage the junior player to make game-related purchases of items possessed/used by the marquee player. A junior player may wish to emulate the marquee player by obtaining weapons or other items used by the marquee player.”

Activision responded to criticisms by simply claiming it was “an exploratory patent filed in 2015 by an R&D team working independently” from its game studios. “It has not been implemented in-game,” the company added.

In 2020, players in multiple forums complained that Activision was changing player attributes in real time based on their skill to make individual interactions with other players more competitive. For example, if a better player interacted with a lesser-skilled player, the better player’s accuracy, hit box, aim assist, player health, and damage dealt would be altered to give the lesser-skilled player a better chance.

However, the patents that these claims were linked to no longer appear to be accessible.

Happy gamer, happy developer

To start 2025, Activision is being accused of taking its product in an incredibly eerie direction that includes face scans and fake players.

A YouTuber named PrimePete took a deep dive into some of Activision’s lesser-known patents that expose strange paths the company is taking with its technology.

After pointing to a researcher who seemingly proved Call of Duty: Black Ops was running programs that accessed the user’s camera, the YouTuber discovered an Activision patent that focused on taking two-dimensional facial images in order to generate a three-dimensional image.

An image in the patent describes a video game streamer’s face where the “expressions/reactions and movements” are tracked in real time. Simply put, images of a user’s face are constantly taken to be able to create a 3D model of his face and track his expressions in relation to events that are happening in the game.

In the patent that pushed microtransactions, player satisfaction is mentioned as a factor by which Activision determines if the gamer is enjoying his or her experience.

This “player engagement factor” is calculated in part by a player’s “level of focus,” which is determined, according to the patent, “from camera peripherals, etc., where greater engagement may indicate greater satisfaction.”

Additionally, “biometric factor[s]” are measured, such as “facial expressions, pulse, body language, sweat, etc.”

Return asked Activision if it is accessing user cameras, if it has permission to do so, and if it is accessing user cameras in order to measure facial expressions, body language, or even sweat, as it relates to this patent (US20160005270A1).

Activision did not respond.

Playing in the matrix

Another patent from Activision that hasn’t garnered media attention is titled, “System and method for transparently styling non-player characters in a multiplayer video game.”

This patent specifically describes styling NPCs so that it is “difficult to distinguish between human players and computer-controlled NPCs.”

The NPCs “may be styled to resemble humans” in both their player profiles and their gameplay actions in such a way that players “may not recognize NPCs as non-human, computer-controlled players.”

This would be coupled with limiting the information from player profiles to make it harder to discern if a user is human or computer.

In layman’s terms, in order to tailor a favorable experience for the user, Activision would implement NPCs that appear to be human while also hiding profile information that would make it easier to tell that they are NPCs.

Activision knows how important skill-based matchmaking is, and it has openly tested user experience outcomes with and without matching players based on skill level.

When it doesn't match players of similar skills, Activision claims more players quit and don’t come back.

Specifically curating matches to a user’s skill level using NPCs, without the player realizing it, could result in a significant increase in user retention.

Activision was asked in reference to this patent (US10668381B2) if it intended to have players matched against NPCs that they may not realize aren’t human players and if there would be a scenario where a player would only be playing against NPCs in a multiplayer match.

Activision did not respond.

Using your PC against you

Rounding out the series of patents that are sure to disturb is, “Methods and systems for continuing to execute a simulation after processing resources go offline.”

This patent outlines how an “end user device” can be used to participate in a simulated NPC gameplay session.

An end user device is defined by Law Insider as “any individual computer or mobile device.”

Activision patented a system that identifies end user devices that are still connected to its system but are idle or in a standby state and then uses its customer’s computer to participate in a simulation.

“An end user device may be available to participate when it has sufficient computing capacity, such as when in an idle or standby state,” the patent said. “As such, the system may leverage spare computing capacity of networked end user devices to execute NPCs at networked end user devices during a simulation.”

The reason provided was to recreate real-world conditions that affect gameplay, like connection quality and device capabilities.

If this is the case, Activision would be using gamers’ available computer power to run simulations for the company’s benefit.

Return asked Activision about the patent (US11896905B2) and whether or not the company is using its customers’ computing power to execute a simulation or conduct any other activities/run any programs the user typically wouldn’t expect.

The company was also asked where in the terms and conditions gamers agreed to such usage of the end user device.

Activision did not respond.

All of the cited patents are still listed as “active” and have an expiry date no earlier than the end of 2034, with the patent related to leveraging user end devices approved in just February 2024.

It would be reasonable to conclude from all of this information that Activision is working against its own customers.

The summation of all the expressed and intended use of these patents would be that the developer is actively monitoring its users, leveraging users' computing power, and creating a system of NPCs that are indistinguishable from humans in order to have the customer use the product longer and purchase more items.

The result on the surface would be a happy gamer who is great at a game that he plays a lot and who occasionally makes a purchase on the platform.

The grim reality is actually of a gamer who plays in an artificial environment in order to have the extraction of his income and time optimized, while his own computer is used to determine how that can be best accomplished.

Hollywood killed Indiana Jones. Great Circle resurrected him for fortune and glory.



Over the years, Dr. Henry Jones Jr. has redlined many a golden map by way of stolen automobile or unreliable aircraft; clobbered his fair share of goons in exotic locales; tilted his fedora at damsels in distress and femme fatales alike; and maintained an unreasonably Hobbesian skepticism about the supernatural despite repeatedly witnessing otherworldly forces teaching bad men bloody lessons about humility.

Some of Jones' adventures are memorable — the boulder, the burning heart, the mine cart chase, the judging knight, "no ticket" — while others aren't worth the celluloid or choose-your-own-adventure pulp they were printed on. Thanks to director James Mangold, "The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones" is now a little farther from the bottom of that list.

Voss figures this key will initiate the ark — Noah's, not the Israelites' — thereby enabling the Third Reich to initiate a blitzkrieg wherever Berlin wants, whenever it wants.

Two years after blowing up James Bond, Hollywood trotted out a geriatric Jones in 2023 to play an untuned second fiddle in his own film, Mangold's "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny." That disaster of a film, which embraced science fiction rather than going the proven cult/religion route, wasn't just more silver-screen iconoclasm; it was an execution.

Indiana Jones has, however, been resurrected.

MachineGames — the developer behind the Nazi-killing blockbusters Wolfenstein: The New Order and Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus — did what Hollywood couldn't or wouldn't do: make an "Indiana Jones" title that feels like a faithful companion to the original three films.

While Fate of Atlantis was exceptional and Infernal Machine remains near and dear to my heart — a title that had indianajoes6@hotmail.com beg his parents to buy their first 3D accelerator in 1999 — Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is far and away the best game in the franchise.

Great Circle, which is set between "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade," pits Jones against Italian fascists and a monomaniacal Nazi archeologist, Indy's old rival Emmerich Voss, in a race to uncover the Old Testament link between various artifacts of local spiritual significance that have recently been snatched up around the globe.

The Blackshirts who unwittingly leave restorative meals, cash, and weapons sitting unattended for Indy are digging up the Third World in search of the remaining components of a God-given key. Voss figures this key will initiate the ark — Noah's, not the Israelites' — thereby enabling the Third Reich to initiate a blitzkrieg wherever Berlin wants, whenever it wants.

It was an immersion-killer on a few occasions, such as when Lombardi popped a squat next to a pair of jackboots and shout-whispered at me.

Of course, Jones doesn't want to see that happen but also appears willing to risk everything for the sake of his curiosity. The great circle's secrets never stood a chance in the war between the competing egos.

You have to contend with far more than a bespectacled Jerry, Italian jackboots, booby traps, and snakes while punching, whipping, shooting, and puzzling as Jones in the first person.

Just as the Brotherhood of the Cruciform Sword sought to protect the Holy Grail in "Last Crusade," there is a secret order in the great circle committed to keeping the various components of God's covenantal gift undisturbed. While similarly bearing tattoos, these protectors operating behind the scenes in Vatican City, Giza, and elsewhere are giants; specifically, the Nephilim referred to in Genesis and Numbers. The overarching story of their fall from grace raises the overall stakes while also projecting greater mystery into the game's Egyptian, Iraqi, and Roman subterranes. One of these Adamic-speaking giants, Locus, manages to be a big problem for both Jones and the fascists.

Image courtesy of Bethesda

Since Locus is better at delivering punches than exposition, the game leans heavily on another character whom some critics might write off as something of a Mary Sue.

Jones' girlboss traveling companion, an Italian reporter named Gina Lombardi, is a solid mix of Elsa Schneider from "Last Crusade" and Marion Ravenwood from "Raiders."

My issue with Lombardi was not the writers' patent desperation to emphasize at every available opportunity her equality in thought and ability to Jones, versus a Willie Scott type, but rather her ability to bumble around and into enemy characters without being detected on stealth missions. Although a minor game design issue, it was an immersion-killer on a few occasions, such as when Lombardi popped a squat next to a pair of jackboots and shout-whispered at me as I tried stealing into the desert office of some fascist muckety-muck.

For all of her missteps, Lombardi does manage to leap into the narrative breach left by absent secondary personalities Marcus Brody and Sallah, firing off some great lines, helping on occasion, and affording Indy an opportunity to showcase his charm.

Jones' charm comes across sonically thanks to Troy Baker, who previously voiced the lead in the Indiana Jones knockoff Uncharted 4: Thief's End as well as the protagonist in the Last of Us game franchise.

You can race to your next primary objective when headed upriver or jump off on numerous shorelines on a whim in search of fortune and glory

To avoid the cognitive dissonance of looking at a young Harrison Ford but hearing someone else's voice, however closely matched, MachineGames eases in the player at the outset with a near-perfect shot-for-shot re-creation of the opening temple scene from "Raiders." While this sequence — complete with tarantulas and darts — familiarizes the player with the game mechanics, it has a Mandela effect, bringing Baker's voice into the original and having it briefly accepted as that which tells the freshly speared traitor, "Adios, stupido."

Jones sounds the part and, for the most part, looks the part. MachineGames did a great job capturing the younger Ford's likeness, but its ambitions in letting the character emote sometimes leave Indy looking outright psychotic — a trait better left to his foil.

Image courtesy of Bethesda

Voss, one of the few enemies who has the good sense to call out Lombardi for sneaking around, is more a background threat than a frontline danger. Nevertheless, his presence is felt throughout the game. Although the swastika on his shirt does the heavy lifting in terms of characterization, Voss' Freudian psychobabble and exaggerated gesticulations, accompanied by Marios Gavrilis' voice acting, make the character fun to hate.

Although there are numerous callbacks to scenes from the original trilogy — at one point you fly through the Obi-Wan Club in Shanghai and hear Indy remark, "Lao Che won't be happy!" — the lore is fresh and brilliantly disclosed to the player through Jerk Gustafsson's well-directed cinematics, side quests, discoverable items and texts, and NPC dialogue.

Great Circle delivers fast-paced excitement in its closed-game sequences but also rewards treasure hunters for careful study in the open-world environments. For instance, when in Thailand, you can race to your next primary objective when headed upriver or jump off on numerous shorelines on a whim in search of fortune and glory. There are similar opportunities for exploration in the game's other locales, including in a Nazi warship high up in the Himalayas, in a Shanghai newly bombed by the Japanese, in Roman catacombs, and in false-floored Egyptian temples.

While the inability to manually save progress might prompt you to try in a moment of frustration, don't expect to stack bodies like cordwood, B.J. Blazkowicz-style, in Great Circle. The game is, after all, largely stealth-oriented. Even if you manage to grab a rifle or load your six-shooter, there's not enough lead for what ails you. Over the course of the 20-30 hours that you'll play the game, much of it will consist of sneaking, climbing, and swinging. That said, the more you upgrade Jones' skills, the more damage you'll do when throwing down with two-footed hindrances and the less time you'll have to spend lurking in the shadows.

The tagline for "Temple of Doom" was "If adventure has a name, it must be Indiana Jones." A lot of words came to mind when watching the fourth and fifth films, and "adventure" was not one of them. MachineGames, on the other hand, has produced something warranting the tagline and in the process has revived the character and the franchise.

The professor who cracks books and skulls, who has a knack for ending up a captive witness to his foes' hard-won consumption by their obsessions, and who named himself after the dog is no longer a punch line in some Hollywood anti-fan fiction but a hero renewed. Hats off to the developer. Hat back on, Indy.

How Pokémon Go made you an unpaid employee for years



Pokémon Go creators told users they wanted them to catch all 1,025 characters in a fun, augmented-reality version of their cities. What they actually wanted was an army of bots to take pictures for them all over the world to help develop their product.

Niantic L, the former Google subsidiary that created Pokémon Go, has used gamers to contribute to its mass library of images for nearly a decade in order to hone its artificial intelligence mapping models.

A country essentially has no choice but to participate in espionage in its own streets.

Users contributed to Niantic’s “Scaniverse” by enabling an option in Pokémon Go that would place the adorable monsters in the user’s real world so that when a user looked at their phone, it appeared as if the Pokémon character was standing on their street, in their park, or at the local store.

Niantic said this feature was “completely optional,” and people had to “visit a specific publicly-accessible location and click to scan.”

Despite the feature being optional, the product’s volume of downloads (anywhere between 600 million to one billion) has allowed for more than enough data to extrapolated.

“We have trained more than 50 million neural networks, with more than 150 trillion parameters, enabling operation in over a million locations,” Niantic boasted in a blog post. “We receive about 1 million fresh scans each week, each containing hundreds of discrete images.”

That blog post was edited after a slew of bad press, and added, “Merely walking around playing our games does not train an AI model.”

It’s not clear however, what exactly a “discrete” image means.

The real product

Niantic’s Large Geospatial Model could seemingly be used as a competitor to, or addition to, Google Street View/Google Maps.

Where Google Maps may be able to show users the front of a monument or the entrance to a park, Pokémon Go trained its AI model with thousands of images — from single locations — to precisely determine the terrain, dimensions, and maneuverability of an area.

The true meaning behind Pokémon Go’s scraping of user data does not seem to be to know where players are going or who they’re with, it’s simply that Niantic seemingly wanted to find a way to have tens of millions of people develop it product for it.

The price for Pokémon licensing pales in comparison to having limitless employees around the world, who love their jobs yet at the same time don’t when they are working.

“Pokémon Go is just the beginning,” Return’s James Poulos said. “When it comes to the high-tech grey zone of interactive digital overlays, this fast-evolving frontier mixes and blurs military intelligence and law enforcement data with commercial and recreational applications.”

It seems obvious that Niantic is moving toward using this data for augmented-reality glasses and further personalizing user experience in a new form of consumerism. The same way social media platforms or Amazon use a unique advertising ID to suggest that new pair of mittens, Niantic hopes its AI model will not only “help with navigation” but also guide users through the world, answer questions, and provide “personalized recommendations.”

Having a complex understanding of environments will allegedly give people the opportunity to be more “informed and engaged with their surroundings,” the company also claimed.

Why they need you

Niantic explained that without users, it wouldn’t be able to piece together proper measurements and unseen sides of any given object or location.

For example, Niantic revealed that its geospatial model is unable to properly navigate winding streets in an old European town, where elevation fluctuates and objects have unidentical sides.

The company explained, “Appearance changes based on time of day and season ... the shape of many man-made objects follow specific rules of symmetry or other generic types of layouts — often dependent on the geographic region.”

Much of the task, kicked to the consumer, has been finding a way to see what objects or locations look like from different angles. This “spatial understanding” is nearly impossible from satellite images, street view cameras, or AI models, especially for off-the-road locations.

This inability to visualize “missing parts of a scene” was indeed the missing link for Niantic to properly place objects using augmented reality or even send a robot through unmapped terrain.

Eerily, the latter will help autonomous bots navigate these off-road locations.

“The robots are coming,” Poulos explained. “While citizens will doubtlessly seek out boundaries where humanoid machines don’t tread, in the meantime, they need internal guidelines for navigating the physical world, and they need them fast.”

“Slurping up data provided en masse by unsuspecting augmented-reality players is a logical place to turn,” Poulos added.

Much like Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, Niantic is hoping the future coincides with AR glasses. Along with that comes the need to be able to recognize and place things in the real world.

The company even referred this connection to the real world as the “future operating system.”

What could go wrong?

When asked about a possible military application for its geospatial model, Niantic’s senior vice president of engineering, Brian McClendon, said he could “definitely see it.”

“I think the question is would there be anything that they would do with it that would be outside of what a consumer or a Bellingcat want to do with it,” he added, according to 404 Media.

One obvious application in war time would be using an enemy’s spatial mapping against them. If one country had its every nook and cranny mapped out, that data could be sold to a foe to develop a complex understanding of that country’s terrain.

This would make a grand strategy far easier to implement for nations with this information that those without such information.

However, McClendon said such use would “obviously” be an issue if it was “adding amplitude to war.”

He then noted the project is “months or even years away” from any kind of product but failed to answer whether or not the user data would be sold.

"There will be important questions that arise and we’ll tackle those responsibly and thoughtfully."

Niantic’s team, unlike many in the upper echelon of the tech space, doesn’t seem to have any direct ties to intelligence agencies; CEO John Hanke, art director Dennis Hwang, director Tatsuo Nomura, and the aforementioned McClendon are all former Google employees and Silicon Valley veterans.

While this data seems poised for nefarious use, as it stands, all signs point toward ruthless capitalism.

"Unfortunately, you're going to see more and more of this in the AI era,” said Josh Centers, editor in chief of Unprepared.life.

“Tech companies have been collecting stockpiles of random data for years, often unsure of what to do with it. Now, the answer is obvious: Feed it to a [language model] and see what it comes up with."

This collection of data gives a multinational corporation seemingly more power, in at least one sense, than a government or standing army. A country essentially has no choice but to participate in espionage in its own streets.

Most countries, anyway; Russia didn’t seem to approve of the notion of Pokémon Go from the start, as in 2016 it pushed out its own version of the app focusing on Russian culture and history.

Niantic eventually pulled Pokémon Go from Russia and Belarus in 2022, allegedly in response to the war in Ukraine.

It’s entirely possible, however, that Russia didn’t want it in the first place. Did it know?

New Policy From ‘League Of Legends’ Developer Puts Gamers’ Free Speech In Jeopardy

[rebelmouse-proxy-image https://thefederalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Screenshot-2024-12-06-at-4.22.15 PM-1200x675.png crop_info="%7B%22image%22%3A%20%22https%3A//thefederalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Screenshot-2024-12-06-at-4.22.15%5Cu202fPM-1200x675.png%22%7D" expand=1]Riot Games announced it plans to punish players in-game for alleged violations that occurred on non-Riot services.

After year of woke disasters, Ubisoft reportedly seeking a buyout from Chinese shareholders



Canadian video game developer Ubisoft is reportedly seeking a buyout from its minority shareholders to avoid a hostile takeover, according to inside sources.

A report by Reuters cited "two people familiar with the matter" who requested to remain anonymous to provide the details.

The Guillemot family, the founders and largest shareholders (15%) in Ubisoft, have allegedly been in talks with the second-largest shareholder in the company, Tencent (9.99%), to organize a buyout.

Tencent is a giant, multinational media corporation headquartered in Shenzhen, China. It owns shares in over 30 gaming companies across the world, owning more than a third of studios like Epic Games and Shift Up. Tencent also wholly owns Riot Games out of Los Angeles, which created the ultra-popular League of Legends game.

The rumors allege that other minority shareholders, such as AJ Investments, have been nudging the founding family to take the company private or sell it off to a strategic investor.

The Guillemots would reportedly like to maintain control of the company, but Tencent has yet to decide whether or not it wants to increase its stake. Tencent has apparently asked for greater decision-making power in the boardroom including in regard to where cash flow is distributed. The Chinese company is hoping to avoid a hostile takeover by other investors who are unhappy with the company's drop in stock prices.

As of the time of this writing, Ubisoft stock prices have dropped by nearly 50% in the last year, falling from almost $25 per share in December 2023 down to around $13.30 in December 2024.

'We have utterly crushed this corrupt, gamer hating studio.'

Ubisoft has been mired in controversy for almost all of 2024, which has led to extremely sour tastes in the mouths of gamers and even poorer sales.

The company started off the year with marketing executive Philippe Tremblay saying consumers need to get used to not owning their video games in order to move the market in a direction that is focused on subscription-based access.

In April, developers of Star Wars Outlaws denounced oppression and inequality in a series of cringeworthy public statements meant to appeal to progressive audiences. Upon its release, Ubisoft said its sales were "softer than expected," admitting to just 1 million copies sold, which was incredibly low for a budget of approximately $250 million.

In July, the company's newest Assassin's Creed game faced relentless backlash for fabricating a story about a black samurai and making the character the face of the game. Assassin's Creed Shadows was eventually delayed until February 2025 as outrage spiraled online.

Game developer Mark Kern, who has led a crusade against forced diversity in video games in recent years, called Ubisoft one of the "most infected" studios in terms of heartless platitudes.

"[They] tried to make you love Star Wars Outlaws, and tried to virtue signal with Assassin's Creed Shadows."

Kern added, "You fought. We fought. And now, we have utterly crushed this corrupt, gamer hating studio."

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New ‘Dragon Age’ Video Game Indulges Trans Delusion With Avatar ‘Top Surgery Scars’ Option

[rebelmouse-proxy-image https://thefederalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Screenshot-2024-09-24-at-11.19.45 AM-1200x675.png crop_info="%7B%22image%22%3A%20%22https%3A//thefederalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Screenshot-2024-09-24-at-11.19.45%5Cu202fAM-1200x675.png%22%7D" expand=1]The transgender character creation elements in 'Dragon Age: Veilguard' reveal the left’s pathetic obsession with self-victimization and identity politics.

Blaze News original: Game industry veteran canceled for pro-life views helping Christian developer launch biblical blockbuster



Game developer Bible X, an Oslo-based game studio founded in 2020 as part of BCC media, is developing a semi-open world video game set in ancient Israel that is sure to generate major waves in an industry valued at over $240 billion.

While Gate Zero has multiple distinguishing features, what primarily sets it apart from other titles in the historical adventure genre is that it centers on the most important story worth telling: that of a certain Nazarene whose life, death, and resurrection forever changed the fate of mankind and serve as a reference point by which all nations still mark the years of lesser events.

'I truly believe this game can and likely will be one of the biggest things for spreading the gospel — maybe not just only this game, but the start of what this game is doing — since the printing press.'

Gate Zero is hardly the first faith-based game. However, its developers are set on making it the first proper Christian blockbuster — accomplishing for the medium what "The Chosen" and "The Passion of the Christ" managed for TV and film, respectively.

Blaze News discussed the project with Bible X's head of studio and game designer Arve Solli last year and previewed a compelling prototype of the game, which was then touted as an opportunity to "travel back in time to explore ancient Israel, interact with Gospel stories, and examine the deeper meaning of Jesus' words."

In the months since, Bible X has made several bold moves to maximize quality and impact, including the onboarding of John Gibson, an industry veteran who stepped down as CEO of Tripwire Interactive after radicals targeted him for ruin and exile in 2021 over his support for the unborn.

Solli and Gibson spoke to Blaze News this week about mainstreaming the Bible in the video game industry, the current state of the game, Bible X's fundraising efforts stateside, and remaining obstacles.

From exile to Bible X

Bible X announced in January that Gibson had joined the team as executive game consultant.

Gibson indicated that while the opportunity was providential, his path to accept it was anything but smooth or direct.

"It was kind of funny. Every time I opened social media, I was seeing ads for the game Gate Zero. It was like God was tapping me on the shoulder saying, 'You should check this out.' And I kept ignoring it and ignoring it," said Gibson.

Finally, he relented and messaged the company, noting, "I'm John Gibson. I've been developing games for a while. If any of my experience is valuable, I'd be happy to contribute."

Gibson boasts decades of experience, having worn many hats while leading Tripwire, a Georgia-based video game company he co-founded in 2005, which has sold tens of millions of games. He brought multiple well-received titles to market, including Maneater, Chivalry 2, and Rising Storm, as well as the Red Orchestra and Killing Floor franchises.

Gibson recalled that "Arve responded and said, 'I hope you don't mind me saying this: we've been praying for someone like you to come along.'"

Tragedy and misfortune had evidently primed Gibson to lean into the moment.

"I took a break from games for a while," he told Blaze News. "Just to be candid, it was a very difficult thing that I went through. … One of the things I haven't said on Tucker Carlson or some of those interviews, I don't believe, is that almost five family members — right after that whole crisis happened — including my mother at 66 years old, and my little sister at 44, just back to back to back every couple of weeks, somebody died, and it was traumatic."

Blaze News previously reported that after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to block Texas’ pro-life heartbeat law, Gibson tweeted, "Proud of #USSupremeCourt affirming the Texas law banning abortion for babies with a heartbeat. As an entertainer I don't get political often. Yet with so many vocal peers on the other side of this issue, I felt it was important to go on the record as a pro-life game developer."

Gibson told Blaze News that he had seen many of his peers in the industry condemning the law but no one daring to laud it.

"I wasn't trying to go on a big crusade," said Gibson. "But apparently I properly combined uranium to create a nuclear explosion on Twitter."

Not only was he viciously attacked online, but at least one company that conducted business with Tripwire — Shipwright — announced it was canceling all existing contracts with his company.

Various other outfits piled on, making sure to let everyone else know they disagreed with the gaming veteran's opinion and that they supported abortion.

In a statement indicating that Gibson had stepped down as CEO just over two days later, the company he co-founded even apologized on his behalf.

When asked whether he felt a little bit like Job — whether this bout of misfortune was a test of his faith — Gibson told Blaze News, "It was a crisis for me because I’m a fighter and a person of action. And when this all went down, and I get a lot of pushback from other conservatives and believers on this, but my initial reaction was to fight."

Gibson indicated that after his unceremonious exit from Tripwire, he hired one of President Donald Trump's former attorneys, intending to go on the legal warpath.

"I'm like, 'Let’s go. You want to fight? You're going to have one,'" said Gibson. "And I had absolutely no peace at all. I felt in those first few days that God was telling me to take the path of peace. I could fight and I could probably win, but the end result would be better if I just followed what He wanted to do."

Gibson indicated that it was a "battle every single day." Then came the decision to sell Tripwire to Saber Interactive.

"This was 20 years of blood, sweat, and tears," said Gibson, noting that to first get the company going, he borrowed against everything he owned, missed time with his family, and sank months of 100-hour work weeks.

After some soul-searching and counsel from a mentor, Gibson signed the contract, parting ways with his company.

Months later, he heeded the apparent tap of the divine on his shoulder, got in touch with Solli, and met the team in Norway. Shortly thereafter, he joined Bible X on a project he now figures could very well be "one of the biggest things for spreading the gospel" — something Solli noted is critical at a time of dismal Bible illiteracy.

Pulling out all the stops

Solli previously told Blaze News, "We want to create something great because we believe it's the greatest message ever told," adding that "the Christian message deserves to have the same amount of effort, if not more" than other works of entertainment.

This was a factor not only in seeking greater investment but also in adding Gibson to a team that includes individuals who previously worked at Rockstar Games on the Grand Theft Auto franchise and on Red Dead Redemption 2, as well as on the Thief and Assassin's Creed series.

"That's been the goal all the time: to bring on the best people with the best experience and the burning heart for this type of project," said Solli.

Blaze News previously asked Dr. Kevin Schut, a professor of media and communication at Trinity Western University and the author of "Of Games & God: A Christian Exploration of Video Games," about Christian video games and their apparent inability to break into the mainstream.

While the industry's aggressive and transgressive culture has long been a factor, Schut noted that "few developers of explicitly Christian games have either the experience or resources to make really high-quality games."

Bible X appears to be breaking the pattern.

Gate Zero - Screenshot from early demo

Solli noted that Gibson has brought 20-plus years of experience as a founder CEO, game developer, designer, and programmer, as well as his industry network.

"As a startup and as an indie developer — there's a lot of small challenges every day," said Solli. "The more we can shorten the decision time and shorten the time it takes to go from the wrong direction in the right direction, the more effective[ly] we can spend all the money we're using to create this game."

Gibson indicated that there were two preconditions for his involvement in the project.

First, he had to know that the team he would be working with had "the skills and the desire to make an undeniably great game, because not everybody has the skills and not everybody has the drive to do something that successful."

Second, he said Bible X would have to double its budget on Gate Zero to maximize quality and ensure that the game was a knockout.

Bible X had already satisfied the first condition and agreed to satisfy the second. However, the increased budget meant finding new ways to raise funds.

Previously, Bible X successfully crowdfunded several hundred thousand dollars in campaigns for the game on Indiegogo and Kickstarter.

"Since we talked last time, we have started an organization in the U.S. called NextGen Bible Media. The goal there is to first and foremost fund-raise for [Gate Zero], but later on, possibly for other games," Solli told Blaze News.

Bible X appears to be crafting a game that satisfies the expectations of conventional gamers while also delivering biblical content they will never have seen before.

NextGen Bible Media is a nonprofit registered through the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services set up to help fund the Gate Zero project in BCC Media. According to the NextGen Bible Media page, which has an option for tax-deductible donations, the project is already 49% funded.

"This is marking great progress, but we need additional support to reach the full target and bring this vision to life," said Solli.

Gibson noted that he is among the donors.

"I am a significant backer of Gate Zero. I'm putting my money where my mouth is," said Gibson. "I'm not just asking people to donate. I'm saying, 'Come alongside me and also donate because — and Arve talks about this a lot — Bible literacy is going down."

According to the American Bible Society's State of the Bible 2024 report, the percentage of American adult Bible users (defined as those who interact with scripture at least three or four times a year outside church or faith services) bounced around 50% for several years but then plunged to 40% in 2022. That downward trend has continued, falling to 39% last year and 38% this year.

Of Millennials, 12% are scripture-engaged, whereas 65% are Bible disengaged. While slightly less Bible-disengaged than the older cohort (61%), Gen Z adults are the least scripture engaged at 11%.

"We have an entire generation that's not engaging with the Bible," said Gibson, noting that such a game would constitute a massive evangelizing opportunity.

"I truly believe this game can and likely will be one of the biggest things for spreading the gospel — maybe not just only this game, but the start of what this game is doing — since the printing press," continued the gaming veteran. "This is how the next generation interfaces with media. Video games are bigger than all of professional sports combined. Video games make more revenue than all of movies and television. So it’s a shame that no one has gotten there yet, but it's time."

When asked whether Bible X has partnered with religious organizations and churches stateside, Solli said, "We haven’t done that yet, but it's definitely an opportunity."

Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, previously told Blaze News that "any medium that offers an accurate account of the biblical story and encourages young people to grow in the Christian faith should be welcomed by Christians. With proper parental guidance, it can serve as a platform for more serious study. Gate Zero promises to do just that."

Although Donohue admitted to a limited exposure to Gate Zero, he indicated that it "would be an important cultural marker" should it break into the mainstream. "Young people, especially boys, are being inundated with morally debased videos, so wholesome alternatives are badly needed."

"Some parents may carp that this is not a blue-chip medium, but if a video game presents a realistic opportunity to evangelize the young, its unconventional approach should not be a factor," added Donohue.

The game — and how it has evolved

The version of the game previewed by Blaze News late last year kicks off in a cyberpunk dystopia in the year 2072. Current trends were clearly left unchecked because the soulless society of the 2070s appears to be bereft of Christianity.

Max, the playable teen protagonist, uses his time machine, Gate Zero, to travel back to the first century as part of a resistance group, keen on challenging a corrupted version of history. There, Max explores ancient Israel and follows Christ's ministry in ancient Judea and Galilee.

The sci-fi framing not only coheres the game but permits Bible X to avoid dragging two millennia of social and political baggage into the game.

"The intent behind the time machine is to bring the player back to Year Zero, back to Jesus, and to talk to the Author, basically," said Solli. "The game takes players back to the source, back to Jesus, because we believe that connecting with Jesus is what people really need today. This journey allows players to explore their own questions and find help for their current challenges."

Gate Zero - Screenshot from early demo

"We tried to weave together the story of our player character with the stories from Jesus," Solli previously told Blaze News. "They have certain meeting points where they connect, and then you can explore."

The player is free to explore an intricately detailed world that clerics, archeologists, historians, and other scholars have worked with the Bible X team to ensure is both historically and biblically accurate.

Gate Zero is not, however, a mere virtual museum. The player has agency, is met with both purpose and danger, and is rewarded for curiosity.

'We just have to do our job and be humble every day. Be humble and work hard. That's our secret ingredient.'

Since Blaze News last spoke to him in November, Solli indicated that he and his team at Bible X have been working on the core of the game and strengthening the game loop to ensure that "it's an undeniably great experience."

When pressed on specifics, Solli noted they have been working on action, stealth, and traversal mechanics, as well as on conducting further research to incorporate additional stories into the game.

Gibson said early iterations may have come across as high-quality walking simulators, but the game has radically evolved.

"We want the action parts of the game to be amazing, making it on par or better than other games in these genres," said Gibson, citing Assassin's Creed and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild as two examples. "We want the action parts to be on par with that, so that when players play it, they might come into the game going, 'I don't care about the stories, but I hear the game plays really good.'"

"One of the big improvements from what people have seen in the Kickstarter demo is the abilities that Max has to traverse the world," said Gibson. "He's climbing, jumping, and balancing on beams and has some really cool special abilities that we're not quite ready to reveal yet."

Bible X appears to be crafting a game that satisfies the expectations of conventional gamers while also delivering biblical content they will never have seen before — certainly not in a game.

Solli indicated that the primary market the company aims to target is the U.S. and English-speaking countries. However, owing to the committed and ever-growing community, he suspects that the game will be localized and translated into roughly 12 languages on day one.

As for immediate next steps, Solli said, "We just have to do our job and be humble every day. Be humble and work hard. That's our secret ingredient."

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After Woke ‘Star Wars’ Release, Ubisoft Stock Hits 9-Year Low

Adding race and sex politics to ‘Star Wars: Outlaws’ and ‘Assassin’s Creed: Shadows’ has not gone well for game maker Ubisoft.

DEI game funded by taxpayers bombs as players are encouraged to 'cancel' each other for racism



A video game that received a reported $1.4 million from the Norwegian government has immensely underperformed after gamers exposed the strange diversity-driven game mechanics.

Dustborn, created by Red Thread Games, was published by the company Spotlight by Quantic Dream. Quantic Dream is a French subsidiary of NetEase, a Chinese technology company out of Hangzhou, China.

Just two weeks into its release, Dustborn became a gigantic flop after gamers became aware of how much diversity, equity, and inclusion is jammed into the game.

The story involves a female character who essentially uses left-wing ideology to defeat enemies across the "Divided States of America."

'We have zero tolerance for hate speech, harassment, and threats of any kind.'

An X post revealed at least four skills players can use in the game.

This included "cancel," which is described as the following: "We've learned how to CANCEL someone."

"CANCEL will allow us to isolate people from their friends and compatriots. In battle, this could be a useful tool against enemies."

"Normalize" is also an option that allows users to "normalize negative emotion."

Other skills include "bully" and "sow discord."

Gameplay footage uploaded online showed off hilarious scenes that allow the user to get offended.

In one scene, a police officer asks the main character about a "black kid" she knows and if he has any information. The player is immediately given the ability to use the "trigger" function, which results in her saying, "You are racist!" to the cop.

In another portion of the game, the player is given no choice but to be cruel to a robot who is trying to give the main character a ride.

A caption reads "that machine is not coming near us," as the character freaks out and says, "Don't touch me!"

It should also be noted that the robot also has preferred pronouns.

Unfortunately, these game mechanics weren't meant to be funny.

'We have a point of view with this game.'

Just days into its launch, Dustborn's engagement on gaming platform Steam has been abysmal. At the time of this publication, it had peaked at just 76 concurrent players.

If this were an independent game, it would be one thing, but Dustborn received a reported 14 million kroner ($1.4 Million USD) from the Norwegian government/taxpayer and another €150,000 ($166,000 USD) from the European Union.

According to game developer Mark Kern, the Norwegian Film Institute raised the money while the EU contributed through its Creative EU grant program.

Gaming outlets have averaged a score of 68% in their reviews for Dustborn, while 374 user reviews on Metacritic have averaged an outstanding 1.1/10.

The backlash caused Red Thread Games to state what it sees as disrespectful criticism.

"We expected Dustborn to spark conversation and debate, and looked forward to engaging with our players in a positive and constructive fashion," the developers wrote. "Unfortunately, that conversation has been drowned out by a tidal wave of hate and abuse."

"We embrace discussion and debate. But we have zero tolerance for hate speech, harassment, and threats of any kind," the statement added.

The developers then called for a world where everyone can feel "valued and empowered to share their stories."

— (@)

"The developers made it clear they were inspired to create the game based off the 2016 Presidential campaign," said John F. Trent, editor for culture site That Park Place. "They also attempted to normalize immoral and evil behavior through its game mechanics such as the ability to 'cancel' people."

"It's a great thing that the game failed spectacularly and many gamers did not purchase it nor play it," Trent added.

Brazilian website DEI Detected called the game an actual representation of DEI itself. The site pointed out the game's "forced diversity, virtue signaling" and a "(woke) political agenda."

The outlet described Dustborn as having a "soy-filled" combat mechanic in which gamers fight with the power of words, based on the premise that words can hurt.

Any discussion as to whether or not that game was politically motivated from a leftist stance can be put to rest simply by referring to Red Thread studio leader Ragnar Tørnquist. In 2020, Tørnquist told outlet VG247 the following:

"We have a point of view with this game," Tørnquist said. "We're not stepping back and saying 'you figure it out'. We're actually saying, 'No, fascism is bad' — but we are also going to let our characters argue about it."

The studio head added that the developers "believe in" a diverse cast and setting and that the clearest theme is unity in the face of oppression.

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Politics-Free ‘Black Myth’ Sells 10 Million In Three Days As DEI Games ‘Dustborn’ And ‘Concord’ Flop

[rebelmouse-proxy-image https://thefederalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-29-at-12.11.35 PM-1200x675.png crop_info="%7B%22image%22%3A%20%22https%3A//thefederalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-29-at-12.11.35%5Cu202fPM-1200x675.png%22%7D" expand=1]The failures of 'Concord' and 'Dustborn' offer game developers a stark lesson: Nobody wants to buy these over-the-top woke disasters.