Children’s Culture Guide for Adults: What Was Announced at the Game Awards?

This week, kids watch the second season of The Witcher , overcome the pitfalls of virtual reality (spoiler alert: other people are the problem) and enjoy old-fashioned glitter bombing. They don’t appear to be posting school shooting threats on TikTok.

Is the December 17 TikTok school shooting warning real?

Every week I swear I’m not going to talk about TikTok-hysteria du jour, but parents and the school system are so worried about the December 17 TikTok school shooting test that I should. So I’ll repeat my cut and paste: Even though news organizations, school officials, and police organizations across the country are warning about the threat of gunfire or the threat posed by TikTok, there doesn’t seem to be any evidence of such a threat or challenge posted on TikTok. There are tons of threat / challenge reports, but there doesn’t seem to be a real threat or problem.

As usual, TikTok cut and pasted its own statement, which reads in part, “We have found no evidence that such threats originate or are spread through TikTok.”

Sadly, school shooting is so common that no one can say it won’t be on a particular day, but if it does, it probably won’t be due to a TikTok issue. Another question is whether anyone can be inspired by hysteria about the perceived threat.

I understand that everyone is excited about the recent shooting in Michigan, but TikTok was not the cause of this tragedy. I have no idea how to prevent gunfire in schools – other than the unthinkable of people having their guns taken away – but using social media as a scapegoat is useless. This is also not hysteria. If you want to know how kids actually talk about the school shooting on TikTok, this video from a Sandy Hook survivor is a good place to start.

The Witcher Returns For Season Two

Speaking of witch hunts, The Witcher is back on Netflix for a second season! And just in time – the fantasy nerds were having a tough few years. We had endless time inside to watch what was happening, but there was nothing to see. (At one point, I was so desperate that I watched half of the first Hobbit movie.)

While The Witcher is not a Game of Thrones , when you need to fix swords and / or sorcery, that’s more than enough. Yes, it is a little uneven and occasionally trite, but it has magic spells and armor! People go on quests to save the world! There are elves! Enough, dude.

Groped in virtual reality

In the disturbing light of our near future, Facebook / Meta’s Horizon Worlds VR platform beta tester reported that another user actually groped it against their will. A post on the Facebook group for Horizon users reads: “Sexual harassment is not a joke on the regular Internet, but being in virtual reality adds another layer that makes the event more intense … Last night, I was not only groped, but there were other people there as well. who supported the behavior that made me feel isolated in the square. “

According to Facebook – sorry, Meta – Horizon Worlds has a feature that allows users to create a protective bubble around their virtual self, but the fact that this problem was expected and needed is just depressing. I go back to bed.

The 2021 Game Awards Winners & Announcements

The annual Game Awards were held this week, and the event not only announces upcoming games, but also celebrates the best games of the year. In terms of hype, the biggest news (for me at least) is the opening of the sequel to the horror game Alan Wake, which is scheduled for release in 2023. The deck also features Wonder Woman, Matrix, Suicide Squad, and Star Wars games. if you like movie and comic book games. In terms of the awards itself, It Takes Two was named Game of the Year, and Kena: Bridge of Spirits was named Best Indie Game. Check out the full list of winners here .

Viral Video of the Week: EXPLODING Glitter Bomb 4.0 vs. Package Thieves

It’s a holiday, a time of annual tradition, and one of the highlights on YouTube is the annual Glitter Bomb video of the mad engineer Marc Robert . Robert spends the entire year creating elaborate fake bags that can be left on the porch to catch thieves. The pirates from the porch flee with forged boxes, then explode with sparkles, fart spray, police lights and loud quotes from Home Alone. Of course, all this is documented from different angles.

I think this whole operation is morally dubious – petty thieves are usually pretty desperate, and maybe we shouldn’t have fun because of their punishment – but YouTube seems to be more prone to revenge for a crime than me: 13 million people have shared theGlitter Bomb 4.0 video since it was posted a few days ago. Interestingly, the videos are so popular that more than one thief clearly knew they had stolen the sequin packaging as soon as they opened it.

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