Gaming

The Sims adds double mastectomy scars and chest binders to game

The Sims is now trans-inclusive! Electronic Arts, the gaming company behind the wildly successful Sims franchise, added the ability to give your custom sims double mastectomy scars, tucking underwear, and chest binders in the latest update to The Sims 4. The new Create a Sim options are available for teen, young adult and adult sims. Teen sims attend high school in the game, so Electronic Arts is subtly promoting the idea of "top surgery" — or lopping off healthy breasts so that females may appear physically more male — for minors. According to one study, chest reconstruction surgeries for minors in the United States rose by nearly 400 percent between 2016 and 2019. https://twitter.com/make_it_sizzle/status/1620553289078284288?

Visitors try out the game 'SIMS 4' at the Electronic Arts stand at the 2014 Gamescom gaming trade fair (Photo by Sascha Steinbach/Getty Images)

Could the Chinese gaming clampdown backfire?

When the Soviet Union still existed, visitors to Eastern Europe would smuggle illegal books and magazines to visitors. As the Chinese government announces that young people are to be banned from playing video games for more than three hours a week, it is tempting to imagine people sneaking copies of Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto into the PRC — perhaps inside DVD cases of lavish propaganda films such as The Founding of a Republic. OK, I’m aging myself here. I know most gamers now play online. I also know the Chinese are big fans. More than half the population enjoy gaming and China has the world’s most substantial market for games.

gaming

Dungeons and Dragons goes woke

East Lansing, Michigan, August 15, 1979 — James Dallas Egbert III, 16, disappears. The child prodigy went missing at Michigan State University, where he studied computer science and played the fantasy roleplay game Dungeons & Dragons. Egbert was shy and especially small for his age. The young boy faced intense academic pressure, battled drug addiction and was a latent homosexual. He entered the steam tunnels underneath his college, intending to commit suicide by consuming methaqualone but failed. Egbert woke up the next day and fled. His parents hired private investigator William Dear to track him down. Dear discovered Egbert’s fascination with D&D after scoping through his dormitory, where he found evidence suggesting Egbert hosted games in the tunnels with other students.

dungeons and dragons

A brief history of selling bath water

Instagram model Belle Delphine made waves in the news this month after she decided to sell tubs of her own bath water for $30 a pop. The ‘product’ sold out in just three days, and led to a bountiful trove of online content, including my own review for Spectator USA. But Delphine isn’t the first person to sell bath water to her followers. Shoko Asahara, founder of the Japanese doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo and the man behind the Tokyo subway sarin gas terrorist attack in 1995, which killed 12 people and injured over 1,000 more, also sold his own bath water to devotees who drank it during rituals.

belle delphine bath water

I drank Belle Delphine’s GamerGirl Bath Water

On July 10, 2019, after a week, my order of Instagram model Belle Delphine’s ‘GamerGirl Bath Water’ arrived in the mail. It was a frustrating process to obtain the now-sold out tub, labeled on Delphine’s website as ‘for sentimental purposes only,’ and I had to jump through several hoops before the order could be shipped. https://www.instagram.com/p/BzZFu2AnbZ8/ After paying $33 for order #10100, I waited four days, before receiving an email from the model asking me to reply with a clear statement of understanding that ‘the water should not be consumed, poured upon my body or opened should the seal be broken.

belle delphine gamergirl bath water

Fortnite should be banned, I agree with Prince Harry

This week, Prince Harry called for the popular game Fortnite to be banned, saying: ‘That game shouldn't be allowed. Where is the benefit of having it in your household? It’s created to addict, an addiction to keep you in front of a computer for as long as possible. It’s so irresponsible.’ I could not agree with him more. These days children spend far too much time indoors, playing on their video games consoles and other electronic what-have-yous. Very often, I hear the argument ‘But many kids come from backgrounds where the internet and video games are the most easily-accessible way for them to socially engage with other like-minded young people.’ What utter rot!

prince harry fortnite