It’s possible to love a video game. To be devoted to it, to value what it does for you, and how it makes you feel. To want the best for it. Not in the same way you love a person — or at least, I hope not. But take a look at any major fan convention for video games, movies, TV, or almost anything that develops a subculture, and you can see this love is real, active, and powerful. And of course, profitable. And if it’s possible to love a video game, then of course it’s possible to fall out of love. To feel disconnected from what first drew you to it. To realize that it isn’t giving you everything it once did, and you can’t give it what it needs from you. Especially if what it needs is regular digital purchases in order to get a competitive advantage in gameplay. I loved Overwatch once. I don’t anymore. How that happened is, I think, worth examining. This Dear John letter is a broad history of the game Overwatch itself, and its relationship with both its own players and the company that made it. The honeymoon phase In 2016, Overwatch was a big deal. A Team Fortress 2-style team shooter, made by the people who brought us Starcraft and Diablo, with incredible character designs that looked like Pixar had decided to reboot G.I. Joe? Players couldn’t get enough of it. And indeed, for the first couple of years Overwatch was a 600-pound Winston of the gaming landscape, dominating game coverage, showing up constantly on Let’s Plays, and causing an excited... Continue reading at 'PC World'
[ PC World | 2022-11-01 15:51:22 UTC ]
Some writers turn to fiction as a way to escape the nonstop onslaught of (mostly bad) news that Americans are subjected to constantly these days. Karen E. Bender, the novelist and short story writer, is not that kind of writer. Bender’s new short story collection, “The New Order,” takes on a host... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2019-02-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Indonesia is the country of focus at the London Book Fair this year and recently at Frankfurt - to what extent do you think Indonesian literature is finally having it's moment in the spotlight? I cannot say for certain what these one-off ‘spotlights’ on Indonesian literature would mean for... Continue reading at British Council global
[ British Council global | 2019-02-08 10:06:53 UTC ]
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Audible is bringing the novels and short stories of A.S. Byatt to audio for the first time this month. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-02-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Myriad has acquired world rights to Elaine Chiew's debut collection of short stories, The Heartsick Diaspora. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-02-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The shortlist for the 2019 International Prize for Arabic Fiction was announced today at the El-Hakawati Palestinian National Theatre in East Jerusalem. The IPAF - often referred to as the ‘Arabic Booker’ - is an annual literary prize for prose fiction, which encourages the readership of... Continue reading at British Council global
[ British Council global | 2019-02-05 16:33:45 UTC ]
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David Walliams’ next publication, a funny story entitled Fing, "dovetails seamlessly" with his short stories and middle-grade novels, according to his publisher HarperCollins Children’s Books. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-01-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Author of the Oscar-nominated film “45 Years” David Constantine has signed a deal for a collection of short stories, The Dressing-up Box, with Comma Press. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-01-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Each month in 2018, Future Tense Fiction—a series of short stories from Future Tense and ASU’s Center for Science and the Imagination about how technology and science will change our lives—will publish a story on a theme. The theme for October–December 2018: Work. Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2018-12-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Daunt Books, Waterstones and Foyles are raising money for The Passage, a charity that supports people who are homeless, by selling a book of short stories by AS Byatt, Lennie James and Michael Morpurgo. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-12-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Thirty-six short stories were submitted for the first ever FutureBook speculative fiction competition run with digital reading platform the Pigeonhole. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-11-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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He has charmed Elton John, angered Paul McCartney – and horrified Yoko Ono. What will he uncover about the ‘murky’ death of Jimi Hendrix? The great rock writer reveals the pain – and pleasure – of chasing starsSlowhand: The Life and Music of Eric Clapton is my eighth rock biography since Shout!... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2018-11-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Saqi Books is publishing a newly discovered collection of short stories by the late author Naguib Mahfouz, who won the 1988 Nobel Prize for Literature. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-11-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Orwell Foundation will next month launch a prize to celebrate novels or short stories that illuminate social and political themes through the art of narrative. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-10-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Faber Children’s Books has acquired a collection of short stories, set in World War II, by Emma Carroll. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-08-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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As well as slashing fees for short stories, the magazine has demanded fiction writers waive all rights to their workThe new issue of the Woman’s Weekly fiction special is out now, promising its readers short stories from writers who “never fail to come up with new twists and turns and unexpected... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2018-08-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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With soaring sales, viral hits like Cat Person and a cameo by Tom Hanks, the form seems to be staging a comeback. But did it ever go away?In 2017, almost 50% more short story collections were sold than in the previous year. It was the best year for short stories since 2010. Booksellers are... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2018-03-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hutchinson has revealed it is publishing a posthumous collection of "powerful" short stories by Helen Dunmore, a day after the late author was given the Costa Award for Poetry. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-01-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Penguin Random House Children’s will publish what is believed to be the first ever all-female authored Doctor Who collection of short stories, with input from writers Jenny Colgan, Dorothy Koomson, Scottish comedian Susan Calman and Doctor Who author Jacqueline Rayner. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-12-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Raymond Chandler, the crime novelist, in 1946. One of his short stories, “It’s All Right — He Only Died,” was recently discovered and published by Strand Magazine, a literary quarterly. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2017-11-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Every era has its own fairy tales—fables that teach children what a princess looks like, and what monsters they should fear. According to the short stories in Her Body and Other Parties, Carmen Maria Machado’s exhilarating debut collection, a finalist for the National Book Award in fiction, our... Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2017-10-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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