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- Facebook Memo Reveals Angst Over Growth Culture's Consequences
- Every Game Releasing in April 2018 for PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch
- There's A Comet In Fortnite, And Players Have Wild Theories About What It Means
| Facebook Memo Reveals Angst Over Growth Culture's Consequences Posted: 30 Mar 2018 05:08 PM PDT  Andrew Bosworth's memo in 2016 titled 'The Ugly' drew attention to the risks of Facebook's direction. Photo: Paul Sakuma/Associated Press For many years, Facebook Inc. FB 4.42% employees were told that growth was paramount. But during the spring of 2016, there were mounting questions internally about the ill consequences of growth-at-all-costs. That mentality was laid bare in a 2016 memo called "The Ugly" from a Facebook executive who defended to employees the social network's relentless pursuit for growth, even if it meant a user somewhere was bullied to death through Facebook or a terrorist attack was coordinated by the tools. "The ugly truth is that we believe in connecting people so deeply that anything that allows us to connect more people more often is *de facto* good," Andrew Bosworth, then Facebook's vice president of ads, wrote in a note he posted on Facebook's internal forums. Mr. Bosworth now oversees augmented- and virtual-reality efforts at Facebook. Mr. Bosworth wrote that the emphasis on growth—connecting millions of people around the world—is justified despite the risks. "All the questionable contact importing practices. All the subtle language that helps people stay searchable by friends. All of the work we do to bring more communication in. The work we will likely have to do in China some day," his message read. The ideas from the memo, first reported by BuzzFeed on Thursday and confirmed by Mr. Bosworth, provoked an internal backlash, according to former employees. "It was not well-received," one of the former employees said, because it seemed as if Mr. Bosworth wasn't thinking clearly enough about the negative consequences of connectivity. In a statement Thursday on Twitter, Mr. Bosworth said that at the time he wasn't espousing the ideas he presented in the memo, rather it was designed to expose issues for discussion within Facebook. "It was intended to be provocative," Mr. Bosworth further tweeted. "This was one of the most unpopular things I've ever written internally and the ensuing debate helped shape our tools for the better." Mr. Bosworth's note has surfaced amid a broader debate among Facebook employees about the company's tactics for expanding its user base, including its liberal use of notifications, the scary effectiveness of its "People You May Know" feature and its willingness to build what many employees view as a censorship tool in order to help Facebook crack the Chinese market. The publication of Mr. Bosworth's internal note is the latest in a string of controversies about Facebook's business and policy practices over the last 18 months. The note also shows the extent to which Facebook was having internal debates about its use of power well before similar discussions occurred in the mainstream media. In a public post on Twitter on Thursday, one former Facebook employee, Alec Muffet, said the ideas in Mr. Bosworth's note were a big factor in his departure from the company in 2016. Mr. Muffet was among the employees who pushed back on Facebook's desire to create a tool that would allow outsiders to censor content before it was posted online, he and another former employee said. Mr. Muffet didn't respond to a request for comment. Facebook is still reeling from its disclosures two weeks ago that an app creator improperly shared data about tens of millions of Facebook users with data-analytics firm Cambridge Analytica, which worked with Republican candidates and the Trump campaign in 2016. That episode highlighted Facebook's lax enforcement of its rules and inability to detect when outsiders abused users' data—an issue that the company has taken steps to address. Facebook has been lambasted for allowing objectionable content, including violent live videos, and fabricated news articles to proliferate on its service. Last fall, Facebook lurched into crisis mode after disclosing that Russia-backed entities used its platform and advertising tools to spread divisive messages to disrupt the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign. Write to Deepa Seetharaman at Deepa.Seetharaman@wsj.com |
| Every Game Releasing in April 2018 for PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch Posted: 31 Mar 2018 10:04 AM PDT  It's almost a new month, gamers, which means new tales to dive right into. March saw a few incredible releases, including the highly anticipated Far Cry 5 title from Ubisoft. Next month is a bit calmer, but does come with a few exciting experiences of its own. Not only is the critically acclaimed narrative-driven Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice finally coming to the Xbox One, but PlayStation 4 users can finally get their hands on the new God of War to see exactly all of the ways the franchise has evolved for themselves. The next, and final, step for the Yakuza series is also on its way and you can check out our full review on that and how we felt it did the rest of the franchise justice right here. To get started on your next journey to epic game-age, check out the full list of titles releasing soon: 0commentsPenny-Punching Princess - (Switch, PS Vita) - April 3rd We're definitely excited for God of War, that's a given, but we're also really looking forward to Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption which was inspired by Dark Souls. Unlike most games that have players progress to get better loot, you start off as the strongest you'll ever be. Shiny weapons, strong gear, incredible stats. With each boss you fight, and beat - you have to give something up. By the end of the game, you're nothing except your victory and your salvation! |
| There's A Comet In Fortnite, And Players Have Wild Theories About What It Means Posted: 31 Mar 2018 10:30 AM PDT  There's something strange going on in Fortnite right now. Controllers are rumbling randomly, when nothing is happening. There's something in the sky that wasn't there before. Nobody knows what any of it means. Right now, if you look up into Fortnite's skybox, you might notice a shiny orb with a celestial tail. It looks like a comet. The object doesn't appear to be a part of the storm or anything like that—actually, it seems to have specialized animations, as if it's moving across the sky. The curious thing is, players say that the comet appears to be getting bigger. I played yesterday, and the comet looked like this:  Smaller, more distant, not quite as bright. The picture from the top of the post, meanwhile, was taken this morning. It seems that Epic is slowly but surely making this object more visible on the sky. But why? What does it mean? When Kotaku reached out to the developer, a representative only answered with a single image: Okay, then. 🤔 Players might as well be the conspiracy theory dude right now. Without Epic's direction, players are taking to Reddit to concoct theories about the significance of the comet. Will the comet hit the map? What happens when it does—will it come with an event? Goodies? Will the comet destroy the map, or change it somehow? (I'm skeptical of this last idea—Epic just added a bunch of new areas to the island, would they really just get rid of it all for a new map?) Earlier this month, a Redditor submitted a map idea where Tilted Towers gets transformed into a crater, and some folks think this might be what's happening right now. The idea is that Tilted Towers will get nuked and flattened. While Epic has had fun with Redditors and incorporated their ideas into the game, it seems unlikely to me that Tilted Towers will specifically get targeted. It hasn't even been here for very long. But who knows? While the timing might make this seem like a potential April Fool's gag, the comet stuff seems to span much longer than this specific weekend. Actually, the entire Battle Pass season seems to be space-themed, and we still have weeks left to go before it's over. During this season, one of the Battle Pass rewards is an astronaut costume. Savvy players have also noticed that other unlockables include stickers of eggs, dinosaurs, and an explosion. It's as if Epic is referencing dinosaur extinction, something which was prompted by an asteroid. Will something big happen at the end of the current Fortnite season? Another leading theory is that this is all a build-up for Epic announcing that Save the World, the PVE portion of Fortnite, will become free. While I'm unsure there's enough evidence to support this, it's certaintly a move that would make sense: it's baffling that anyone would pay for that portion in the game in the first place. If you're playing on console, you might have also noticed that your controller keeps offering rumble feedback. It's apparently a glitch: Even with this info, given everything else that is going on with the comet, players are still trying to figure out what it "means." One player mapped out where the rumbles happen, and another has tried transforming the rumbles into morse code. Until the issue is fixed, we're likely going to get more theories about the rumble, and whether or not it connects to the wider mystery. Even after seeing all the evidence floating around, I have no idea what is happening. If nothing else, though, I love that Fortnite can get weird like this. |
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