theverge--2020-09-22--The Wagadu Chronicles: the African fantasy MMO bringing roleplaying back to RPGs

Twin Drums is an apt name for a studio whose debut game aims to be revolutionary on two fronts .
Having officially launched its Kickstarter campaign , The Wagadu Chronicles is an upcoming massively multiplayer online game that shakes up mainstream expectations of the genre .
Firstly , the world of Wagadu removes the lens of medieval European influences in fantasy by being based entirely on African mythology .
While it ’ s not technically the first African fantasy video game — that honor belongs to Aurion : Legacy of the Kori-Odan , an action roleplaying game from Cameroon-based developer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s certainly the most deep and ambitious .
Its bolder proposition , however , is its emphasis on bringing roleplaying back to RPGs , a genre that ’ s more often preoccupied with combat , numbers going up , and a never-ending grind for loot .
Those two ambitions go hand in hand for studio founder Allan Cudicio .
Based in Berlin but raised in Italy with Ghanaian heritage from his mother ’ s family , he has always wanted to make a game that explores his African roots .
He also confesses @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and Dragons table-top roleplaying games , where acting out your character and role is often part of the fun .
This explains how The Wagadu Chronicles ’ premise has been created specifically to facilitate roleplaying .
The setting involves a Cycle where people belonging to a civilization known as the Upper Worlds suddenly experience a “ fall , ” disappearing and literally crashing into the mysterious purgatorial realm of Wagadu , a wild , verdant , and dangerous place where they have lost their memories and must band together with others to survive @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , it ’ s kind of like falling into Wagadu , so it ’ s easier to roleplay the disorientation , ” Cudicio explains .
“ I wanted to avoid these embedded contradictions you might get when , say , roleplaying an elf that ’ s 300 years old in a fantasy world that you don ’ t know anything about but your character , in theory , should know everything about .
So you ’ re already very lost and confused , and as you ’ re learning about the lore in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their memories.
” In a way , for Black people of the African diaspora , entering Wagadu — a fantasy setting based on a precolonial Africa — may even prove cathartic , akin to regaining memories of their lost ancestry , especially for generations of African Americans who had their own culture violently erased by the legacy of slavery .
“ If you go through the history in North America , they did a better job at erasing much of the African identity and culture , prohibiting languages , and banishing religions , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ moved by the messages he received from African Americans when the project was first teased with its inspiring concept art via Twitter earlier this year .
“ White Americans can look at fantasy coming from Europe and immediately go , ‘ I see this armored knight on a horse and that ’ s me as my ancestors.
’ It ’ s a fantastical projection of their ancestors .
So that ’ s what Afro-fantasy as a piece of media can do for an African American .
It ’ s a very special historical @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , I just accepted that I was never going to be represented.
” After Black Panther ’ s $ 1 billion dollar box office success brought Afro-futurism to the mainstream , it seems about time for Afro-fantasy to follow suit .
It ’ s an especially long time coming for Cudicio , who spent his childhood deeply entwined in fantasy and roleplaying without the presence of other Black faces .
“ I think growing up , I just accepted that I was never going to be represented , ” he says .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ elves are white , dwarves are white , humans are mostly white — that was a fact I just accepted.
” The Wagadu Chronicles pulls inspirations from all over the African continent , including the often underrepresented sub-Saharan countries .
The different classes of people in Wagadu — described as belonging to ancestral lineages , not to be confused with races , although some do have physical differences — are inspired by African ethnic groups and cultures , such as the Yoruba in Nigeria and the Maasai in Kenya .
They nonetheless have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , like the Emere who live in the rainforests , practice old magic , and even have pointy ears like elves .
Creating an African fantasy world is no simple feat — a sentiment that may be true for creating any new fantasy world .
Cudicio was able to draw inspiration from learning about theology and traditions from his family members , while the studio ’ s artist Iga Oliwiak also spent a week in a Maasai village in Kenya for research .
But they also had a unique barrier that most fantasy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ legacy of hardcore colonialism .
“ Colonialism means that a lot of things are not being spoken about or celebrated , ” Cudicio explains .
“ In African countries , speak about traditional African religion and lots of Africans would tell you this is Satanism.
” He even recalls that for Beyoncé ’ s Black is King visual album , made in Africa and taking in many of its traditional cultures , he was horrified to see reactions from Africans on YouTube along the lines of , “ Why is Beyoncé embracing Satanism @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the fact that almost no one else has been making African fantasy in games also means the team had to put in much more time and work in concept and research .
Even buying placeholder assets for the early build was virtually impossible .
In comparison , a developer making a Western fantasy would have plentiful resources , assets , and inspirations to reference .
So even in The Wagadu Chronicles ’ early build , where the cel-shaded aesthetic feels reflective of the concept art , you get a sense of a rich @ @ @ @ @ @ @ set foot in before .
Wagadu contains biomes based on African savannas , deserts , swamps , as well as the rainforest .
Cudicio shows me around each of the biomes , pointing out how the research blends in with the level design , such as a swampy clearing called a bai that exists in the Congolese rainforest or the way the savanna village ’ s architecture has cows protected in the middle just like the Maasai do in their villages .
Despite its fantasy trappings , Cudicio clarifies that The Wagadu Chronicles @ @ @ @ @ @ @ than World of Warcraft .
This is because the former is structured as a “ theme park ” MMO , a term that might sound pejorative but describes the more popular and accessible MMOs where stories and encounters are like fairground attractions shaped by the developers .
On the other end of the spectrum are skill-based sandbox MMOs , where the freedom allows for more emergent gameplay and storytelling created by the players themselves .
A famous example is Eve Online ’ s biggest war in history that involved over 7,500 player characters @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more than $ 200,000 in real-world money .
The extra ingredient Cudicio wants to add to his MMO , however , is bringing back roleplaying to the fore .
That is , fully immersing yourself into the character you ’ re playing , a personal fascination that began a decade ago when he became involved with an Ultima Online server where thousands of players completely dedicated themselves to roleplaying in character .
“ People are coming up with their own adventures.
” “ It blew my mind having this community of not just @ @ @ @ @ @ @ & D table but hundreds of people at the same time actively speaking in character , ” he explains , as this community built all their lore together , from religious ceremonies to love stories to epic battles .
Pockets of roleplaying communities do exist , including GTA Online , but these are usually hacks within games never designed for roleplaying .
The Wagadu Chronicles is instead being built and optimized specifically for that purpose .
A player might become devoted to spirits and just want to seek more followers to observe religious @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a really charismatic player could influence hundreds of players and villages to band together , become their emperor , and actually have people bowing and addressing them with the relevant title .
Or you could just stay in the village and be the best tailor you can be .
“ This sounds so very esoteric , but if you create a roleplaying environment , these things flourish and happen , ” he says .
“ Then you will see all sorts of interesting stories that you ’ ve never seen in a typical @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their own adventures.
” Although this requires putting trust in the community to shape Wagadu , the lore and design does steer toward an aspirational and utopian tone , not one of ruthless conflict or binary good-versus-evil morality .
That also means eschewing tired tropes of racial biases that have existed in fantasy since Tolkien .
“ I loved Tolkien , but he was a man of his time , ” Cudicio says .
“ Even if he did not identify as a racist , it ’ s also known that he described @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was ‘ the least lovely Mongol-types.
’ That was terminology he felt he could freely use.
” That ’ s not to say Cudicio needs to reject everything , but he says it ’ s important to build upon and subvert the racist elements .
“ If someone who ’ s mixed race is always an outcast and the pure race are the most powerful magical creatures , what messages are you sending about inclusion and diversity ?
” he asks .
“ What is the social , economic , political construct that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Wagadu Chronicles is not simply just about Black representation .
Its diversity is reflected in Twin Drums the studio , where the majority of its core team of nine are Black , female , and queer .
You can see this early on in the game ’ s character creation tool .
Even at this early stage where the only playable lineage are the horned Swala people ( inspired by the Maasai ) , there ’ s nonetheless a nonbinary option .
Despite the extra work a “ third ” gender means for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ committed to this inclusion , as it again unearths a side of ancient African culture that had been buried by colonialism .
“ In African societies , queerness was kind of accepted in various ways , ” he explains , having also detailed this history in a Twitter thread .
“ I ’ m not saying that Africa did not have patriarchy , but you also have many strong matriarchal elements .
Women getting married to each other was a tool in many different cultures and had just as much value as marriage @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cites the way statues of ancestors are often depicted with the traits of both genders , such as breasts , a pregnant stomach , as well as a penis and beard .
“ Ancestors were seen as perfect and otherworldly and therefore have traits from both genders , which is so different from the Western image of God as a bearded white man , ” he says .
“ The Wagadu Chronicles takes the conversation from those precolonial identities , connecting to these diverse and colorful traditions while also being aspirational to modern @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Chronicles is aiming to be a safe roleplaying space for everyone .
That doesn ’ t mean there won ’ t be conflict , but while Cudicio is inspired by Eve Online on a macroeconomic level , he doesn ’ t plan to emulate its aggressively bloodthirsty environment .
That ’ s evident from my hands-on of the build .
I do occasionally run into hostile wildlife , including zebras , which I ’ m told are more dangerous than they appear , but I don ’ t yet have the means to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is on some simpler tasks like gathering crops and materials to feed livestock or craft items for the village totem .
This becomes core to the loop , as you make offerings to spirits and totems who grant blessings and perks to your village , which in turn makes it easier to get better or rarer resources .
“ The totem is like a Tamagotchi , ” Cudicio smiles .
“ Most gods or spirits in African communities need constant input.
” It ’ s possible to acquire a whole pantheon of totems @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more resources , which is where you might then cooperate with other players or guilds who may otherwise want to claim the totem for themselves .
The notable presence of a crafting bench also draws parallels to Animal Crossing : New Horizons , which isn ’ t totally coincidental .
Especially in the COVID age , Cudicio finds it affirming that millions of people simply enjoy building things in a community without conflict .
It reflects much of The Wagadu Chronicles ’ tone , where there are many simple activities like planting , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , this gives more room to socializing , roleplaying , and telling stories .
So where does combat fit in ?
“ I went through a period when I wondered if ‘ The Wagadu Chronicles ’ could be a video game without combat.
” “ I went through a period when I wondered if The Wagadu Chronicles could be a video game without combat , ” he says .
“ Combat is such a high-stakes , tight loop kind of challenge , that ’ s why so many video games use it , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , generating these experiences and plotlines , roleplaying and acting out your character.
” There certainly won ’ t be player-versus-player combat , but you may have to fight back against hostile spirits or wildlife .
Or you could choose to become a mercenary and help protect other communities when they need to transport goods through perilous environments .
Even hunting sounds holistic as you ’ re not actively harming the wildlife .
“ In some ways , it ’ s more like sports , like you ’ re engaging in a ‘ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ You have a bit of a challenge where you can get materials from the animal , but you don ’ t actually kill it.
” He acknowledges there ’ s a fantasy element to it .
For example , you couldn ’ t take ivory from an elephant in real life without killing it because the tusks are deeply embedded in its skull .
But there are analogies to other games , such as Breath of the Wild , where you can pursue dragon-like spirits who drop rare materials when you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ could also look at The Wagadu Chronicles ’ precolonial fantasy as an exercise in decolonizing and deconstructing the fantasy genre as a whole .
When examining the themes and mechanics , that ’ s how Cudicio approaches it .
“ A lot of games is nonconsensual killing and getting rewarded for it , whereas in Wagadu , and with nature , it ’ s about consent , ” explains Cudicio .
“ That ’ s like traditional Yoruba hunters of the south of Nigeria .
When they hunt , they chant a blessing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ In some cultures , you also ask for forgiveness or thank them afterwards .
I think it ’ s important to rethink hunting not as something that ’ s very Western and capitalist — which is about the domination and destruction of nature — whereas in African societies it ’ s about balancing and respecting it.
” That ’ s also why he was more keen on building his own African fantasy instead of settling for Black representation in existing fantasy , which he finds representative of tokenism at best : “ It @ @ @ @ @ @ @ because we ’ re just saying everything stays the same , even the items .
Let ’ s look at what African weapons look like , what African armor looks like , what African magic spells look like , what African architecture looks like .
That ’ s what The Wagadu Chronicles is , and it ’ s already more representation for Black people than 99 percent of fantasy or science fiction.
” It ’ s a chance to provide a glimpse into a fairer utopian place and Twin Drums wants this to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ possibilities .
Part of that will be involving the community early on , especially a core community of roleplayers who can introduce newcomers to the genre .
Part of it is also in the game ’ s design , where communication is text based , as this would be the safest method while avoiding breaking immersion .
Suffice to say , being set in an African fantasy world also means players will only be able to play as Black characters , with a large selection of African names to choose from .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , then white players will be lazy and just pick white people , and not challenge themselves , and then the setting will not be Black anymore , ” says Cudicio .
“ To keep Wagadu African , there needs to be an artistic direction to say , like , this is a Black world , so everybody who plays has these features.
” It ’ s an understandable direction to avoid an accidental “ colonization ” from white players .
Though it sounds more restrictive than MMOs that give players freedom to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ having exclusively Black facial presets and hairstyles will be a fresh counterpoint to many games where Black characteristics are sometimes no more than a choice of skin color .
One concern , however , could be that white players roleplaying as Black characters could run the risk of being considered “ digital blackface , ” but Cudicio stresses that The Wagadu Chronicles isn ’ t just being made for Black people in the same way that Japanese fantasy isn ’ t made only for Japanese people .
Indeed , many people who play @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and interest for that culture .
“ This is a Black fantasy world , and you go there with the intent of celebrating , roleplaying , and acting like a part of this Black community , ” he says .
“ It ’ s an entirely different way of joining and connecting to Blackness .
I want to really push Afro-fantasy , even just parts of it , like the clothing and makeup , into the mainstream .
Look at the powerful image of the samurai .
It ’ s seeped into everything @ @ @ @ @ @ @ We want to do the same for Africa.
” An exclusively Black MMO that also expects its entire player base to commit to roleplaying certainly sounds risky , but having worked in marketing prior to game development , Cudicio is also confident he can reach this specific audience .
It ’ s why , after over a year of delays and bureaucracy involved with originally having the game developed with government funding , Twin Drums has decided to turn to Kickstarter for The Wagadu Chronicles .
With a backing goal of around $ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an MMO or any game of this scale , it ’ s important to note that development isn ’ t being solely crowdfunded .
“ We want people to start seeing Black fantasy as normal.
” Their primary source of funding actually comes from League of Legends developer Riot Games which , in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and ongoing Black Lives Matter protests , has pledged to invest $ 10 million in game studios with founders of underrepresented communities .
Kickstarter is more of a means to prove the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ providing additional funds to make a bigger and more polished game .
In any case , having Riot ’ s backing ensures The Wagadu Chronicles doesn ’ t share the fate of crowdfunded games that ran into funding issues late in development or worse .
Cudicio is only too aware that crowdfunded games that turned out to be scams , like Oath and Chronicles of Elyria , were also MMOs .
The goal isn ’ t to have millions of players to rival World of Warcraft — Cudicio admits to turning down some @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are growing the game for the sake of the investors .
The goal is to have a sustainable community where there ’ s a wealth of activity so that hundreds of thousands of people can meet and roleplay their characters .
As an even longer-term goal , The Wagadu Chronicles has the potential to put a spotlight not just on African fantasy in popular culture but African game development , and Cudicio wants to see Twin Drums collaborating with African developers .
“ I ’ d like to be able to contribute and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ if The Wagadu Chronicles is successful in the long term , there ’ s definitely a lot I would like to do with African developers , and other team members have similar feelings , ” says Cudicio .
“ In our small niche of fantasy video games , we want people to start seeing Black fantasy as normal , and we want people to get exposed to more African developers .
We ’ re not an NGO — and this might sound a bit dramatic — but at our core , we really @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ”

Twin Drums is an apt name for a studio whose debut game aims to be revolutionary on two fronts. Having officially launched its Kickstarter campaign, The Wagadu Chronicles is an upcoming massively multiplayer online game that shakes up mainstream expectations of the genre.
Firstly, the world of Wagadu removes the lens of medieval European influences in fantasy by being based entirely on African mythology. While it’s not technically the first African fantasy video game — that honor belongs to Aurion: Legacy of the Kori-Odan, an action roleplaying game from Cameroon-based developer Kiro’o Games — it’s certainly the most deep and ambitious.
Its bolder proposition, however, is its emphasis on bringing roleplaying back to RPGs, a genre that’s more often preoccupied with combat, numbers going up, and a never-ending grind for loot.
Those two ambitions go hand in hand for studio founder Allan Cudicio. Based in Berlin but raised in Italy with Ghanaian heritage from his mother’s family, he has always wanted to make a game that explores his African roots. He also confesses to a lifelong love of the Dungeons and Dragons table-top roleplaying games, where acting out your character and role is often part of the fun. This explains how The Wagadu Chronicles’ premise has been created specifically to facilitate roleplaying.
The setting involves a Cycle where people belonging to a civilization known as the Upper Worlds suddenly experience a “fall,” disappearing and literally crashing into the mysterious purgatorial realm of Wagadu, a wild, verdant, and dangerous place where they have lost their memories and must band together with others to survive.
“When you join the servers, it’s kind of like falling into Wagadu, so it’s easier to roleplay the disorientation,” Cudicio explains. “I wanted to avoid these embedded contradictions you might get when, say, roleplaying an elf that’s 300 years old in a fantasy world that you don’t know anything about but your character, in theory, should know everything about. So you’re already very lost and confused, and as you’re learning about the lore in the game, then your character regains their memories.”
In a way, for Black people of the African diaspora, entering Wagadu — a fantasy setting based on a precolonial Africa — may even prove cathartic, akin to regaining memories of their lost ancestry, especially for generations of African Americans who had their own culture violently erased by the legacy of slavery.
“If you go through the history in North America, they did a better job at erasing much of the African identity and culture, prohibiting languages, and banishing religions,” says Cudicio. He was especially moved by the messages he received from African Americans when the project was first teased with its inspiring concept art via Twitter earlier this year.
“White Americans can look at fantasy coming from Europe and immediately go, ‘I see this armored knight on a horse and that’s me as my ancestors.’ It’s a fantastical projection of their ancestors. So that’s what Afro-fantasy as a piece of media can do for an African American. It’s a very special historical moment.”
“I think growing up, I just accepted that I was never going to be represented.”
After Black Panther’s $1 billion dollar box office success brought Afro-futurism to the mainstream, it seems about time for Afro-fantasy to follow suit. It’s an especially long time coming for Cudicio, who spent his childhood deeply entwined in fantasy and roleplaying without the presence of other Black faces. “I think growing up, I just accepted that I was never going to be represented,” he says. “Like, everybody’s white — elves are white, dwarves are white, humans are mostly white — that was a fact I just accepted.”
The Wagadu Chronicles pulls inspirations from all over the African continent, including the often underrepresented sub-Saharan countries. The different classes of people in Wagadu — described as belonging to ancestral lineages, not to be confused with races, although some do have physical differences — are inspired by African ethnic groups and cultures, such as the Yoruba in Nigeria and the Maasai in Kenya. They nonetheless have traits and characteristics borrowed from existing fantasy, like the Emere who live in the rainforests, practice old magic, and even have pointy ears like elves.
Creating an African fantasy world is no simple feat — a sentiment that may be true for creating any new fantasy world. Cudicio was able to draw inspiration from learning about theology and traditions from his family members, while the studio’s artist Iga Oliwiak also spent a week in a Maasai village in Kenya for research. But they also had a unique barrier that most fantasy writers don’t have: the legacy of hardcore colonialism.
“Colonialism means that a lot of things are not being spoken about or celebrated,” Cudicio explains. “In African countries, speak about traditional African religion and lots of Africans would tell you this is Satanism.” He even recalls that for Beyoncé’s Black is King visual album, made in Africa and taking in many of its traditional cultures, he was horrified to see reactions from Africans on YouTube along the lines of, “Why is Beyoncé embracing Satanism?”
From a practical standpoint, the fact that almost no one else has been making African fantasy in games also means the team had to put in much more time and work in concept and research. Even buying placeholder assets for the early build was virtually impossible. In comparison, a developer making a Western fantasy would have plentiful resources, assets, and inspirations to reference.
So even in The Wagadu Chronicles’ early build, where the cel-shaded aesthetic feels reflective of the concept art, you get a sense of a rich and diverse world you haven’t set foot in before. Wagadu contains biomes based on African savannas, deserts, swamps, as well as the rainforest. Cudicio shows me around each of the biomes, pointing out how the research blends in with the level design, such as a swampy clearing called a bai that exists in the Congolese rainforest or the way the savanna village’s architecture has cows protected in the middle just like the Maasai do in their villages.
Despite its fantasy trappings, Cudicio clarifies that The Wagadu Chronicles plays more like sci-fi MMO Eve Online than World of Warcraft. This is because the former is structured as a “theme park” MMO, a term that might sound pejorative but describes the more popular and accessible MMOs where stories and encounters are like fairground attractions shaped by the developers.
On the other end of the spectrum are skill-based sandbox MMOs, where the freedom allows for more emergent gameplay and storytelling created by the players themselves. A famous example is Eve Online’s biggest war in history that involved over 7,500 player characters and the destruction of space ships worth more than $200,000 in real-world money.
The extra ingredient Cudicio wants to add to his MMO, however, is bringing back roleplaying to the fore. That is, fully immersing yourself into the character you’re playing, a personal fascination that began a decade ago when he became involved with an Ultima Online server where thousands of players completely dedicated themselves to roleplaying in character.
“People are coming up with their own adventures.”
“It blew my mind having this community of not just four or five people around a D&D table but hundreds of people at the same time actively speaking in character,” he explains, as this community built all their lore together, from religious ceremonies to love stories to epic battles. Pockets of roleplaying communities do exist, including GTA Online, but these are usually hacks within games never designed for roleplaying. The Wagadu Chronicles is instead being built and optimized specifically for that purpose.
A player might become devoted to spirits and just want to seek more followers to observe religious rites. On the other hand, a really charismatic player could influence hundreds of players and villages to band together, become their emperor, and actually have people bowing and addressing them with the relevant title. Or you could just stay in the village and be the best tailor you can be.
“This sounds so very esoteric, but if you create a roleplaying environment, these things flourish and happen,” he says. “Then you will see all sorts of interesting stories that you’ve never seen in a typical MMO because people are coming up with their own adventures.” Although this requires putting trust in the community to shape Wagadu, the lore and design does steer toward an aspirational and utopian tone, not one of ruthless conflict or binary good-versus-evil morality. That also means eschewing tired tropes of racial biases that have existed in fantasy since Tolkien.
“I loved Tolkien, but he was a man of his time,” Cudicio says. “Even if he did not identify as a racist, it’s also known that he described in a letter his inspiration for Orcs was ‘the least lovely Mongol-types.’ That was terminology he felt he could freely use.”
That’s not to say Cudicio needs to reject everything, but he says it’s important to build upon and subvert the racist elements. “If someone who’s mixed race is always an outcast and the pure race are the most powerful magical creatures, what messages are you sending about inclusion and diversity?” he asks. “What is the social, economic, political construct that you are subconsciously building?”
The Wagadu Chronicles is not simply just about Black representation. Its diversity is reflected in Twin Drums the studio, where the majority of its core team of nine are Black, female, and queer. You can see this early on in the game’s character creation tool. Even at this early stage where the only playable lineage are the horned Swala people (inspired by the Maasai), there’s nonetheless a nonbinary option. Despite the extra work a “third” gender means for the artists, Cudicio says he was committed to this inclusion, as it again unearths a side of ancient African culture that had been buried by colonialism.
“In African societies, queerness was kind of accepted in various ways,” he explains, having also detailed this history in a Twitter thread. “I’m not saying that Africa did not have patriarchy, but you also have many strong matriarchal elements. Women getting married to each other was a tool in many different cultures and had just as much value as marriage between man and woman.”
He also cites the way statues of ancestors are often depicted with the traits of both genders, such as breasts, a pregnant stomach, as well as a penis and beard. “Ancestors were seen as perfect and otherworldly and therefore have traits from both genders, which is so different from the Western image of God as a bearded white man,” he says. “The Wagadu Chronicles takes the conversation from those precolonial identities, connecting to these diverse and colorful traditions while also being aspirational to modern LGBT rights.”
Essentially, The Wagadu Chronicles is aiming to be a safe roleplaying space for everyone. That doesn’t mean there won’t be conflict, but while Cudicio is inspired by Eve Online on a macroeconomic level, he doesn’t plan to emulate its aggressively bloodthirsty environment.
That’s evident from my hands-on of the build. I do occasionally run into hostile wildlife, including zebras, which I’m told are more dangerous than they appear, but I don’t yet have the means to defend myself. Instead, the focus is on some simpler tasks like gathering crops and materials to feed livestock or craft items for the village totem. This becomes core to the loop, as you make offerings to spirits and totems who grant blessings and perks to your village, which in turn makes it easier to get better or rarer resources. “The totem is like a Tamagotchi,” Cudicio smiles. “Most gods or spirits in African communities need constant input.” It’s possible to acquire a whole pantheon of totems, too, though retaining them requires more resources, which is where you might then cooperate with other players or guilds who may otherwise want to claim the totem for themselves.
The notable presence of a crafting bench also draws parallels to Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which isn’t totally coincidental. Especially in the COVID age, Cudicio finds it affirming that millions of people simply enjoy building things in a community without conflict. It reflects much of The Wagadu Chronicles’ tone, where there are many simple activities like planting, farming, and animal husbandry. Ultimately, this gives more room to socializing, roleplaying, and telling stories. So where does combat fit in?
“I went through a period when I wondered if ‘The Wagadu Chronicles’ could be a video game without combat.”
“I went through a period when I wondered if The Wagadu Chronicles could be a video game without combat,” he says. “Combat is such a high-stakes, tight loop kind of challenge, that’s why so many video games use it, but our game is about creating stories, generating these experiences and plotlines, roleplaying and acting out your character.”
There certainly won’t be player-versus-player combat, but you may have to fight back against hostile spirits or wildlife. Or you could choose to become a mercenary and help protect other communities when they need to transport goods through perilous environments. Even hunting sounds holistic as you’re not actively harming the wildlife. “In some ways, it’s more like sports, like you’re engaging in a ‘ritual’ hunt,” Cudicio explains. “You have a bit of a challenge where you can get materials from the animal, but you don’t actually kill it.”
He acknowledges there’s a fantasy element to it. For example, you couldn’t take ivory from an elephant in real life without killing it because the tusks are deeply embedded in its skull. But there are analogies to other games, such as Breath of the Wild, where you can pursue dragon-like spirits who drop rare materials when you shoot them with an arrow.
You could also look at The Wagadu Chronicles’ precolonial fantasy as an exercise in decolonizing and deconstructing the fantasy genre as a whole. When examining the themes and mechanics, that’s how Cudicio approaches it.
“A lot of games is nonconsensual killing and getting rewarded for it, whereas in Wagadu, and with nature, it’s about consent,” explains Cudicio. “That’s like traditional Yoruba hunters of the south of Nigeria. When they hunt, they chant a blessing and ask permission for the animal. In some cultures, you also ask for forgiveness or thank them afterwards. I think it’s important to rethink hunting not as something that’s very Western and capitalist — which is about the domination and destruction of nature — whereas in African societies it’s about balancing and respecting it.”
That’s also why he was more keen on building his own African fantasy instead of settling for Black representation in existing fantasy, which he finds representative of tokenism at best: “It doesn’t move the conversation forward because we’re just saying everything stays the same, even the items. Let’s look at what African weapons look like, what African armor looks like, what African magic spells look like, what African architecture looks like. That’s what The Wagadu Chronicles is, and it’s already more representation for Black people than 99 percent of fantasy or science fiction.”
It’s a chance to provide a glimpse into a fairer utopian place and Twin Drums wants this to be a safe space to imagine those possibilities. Part of that will be involving the community early on, especially a core community of roleplayers who can introduce newcomers to the genre. Part of it is also in the game’s design, where communication is text based, as this would be the safest method while avoiding breaking immersion.
Suffice to say, being set in an African fantasy world also means players will only be able to play as Black characters, with a large selection of African names to choose from. “I know if people have that freedom, then white players will be lazy and just pick white people, and not challenge themselves, and then the setting will not be Black anymore,” says Cudicio. “To keep Wagadu African, there needs to be an artistic direction to say, like, this is a Black world, so everybody who plays has these features.”
It’s an understandable direction to avoid an accidental “colonization” from white players. Though it sounds more restrictive than MMOs that give players freedom to create any avatar, the idea of having exclusively Black facial presets and hairstyles will be a fresh counterpoint to many games where Black characteristics are sometimes no more than a choice of skin color.
One concern, however, could be that white players roleplaying as Black characters could run the risk of being considered “digital blackface,” but Cudicio stresses that The Wagadu Chronicles isn’t just being made for Black people in the same way that Japanese fantasy isn’t made only for Japanese people. Indeed, many people who play Japanese-themed games do it out of respect and interest for that culture.
“This is a Black fantasy world, and you go there with the intent of celebrating, roleplaying, and acting like a part of this Black community,” he says. “It’s an entirely different way of joining and connecting to Blackness. I want to really push Afro-fantasy, even just parts of it, like the clothing and makeup, into the mainstream. Look at the powerful image of the samurai. It’s seeped into everything, even the standard Western fantasy. We want to do the same for Africa.”
An exclusively Black MMO that also expects its entire player base to commit to roleplaying certainly sounds risky, but having worked in marketing prior to game development, Cudicio is also confident he can reach this specific audience.
It’s why, after over a year of delays and bureaucracy involved with originally having the game developed with government funding, Twin Drums has decided to turn to Kickstarter for The Wagadu Chronicles. With a backing goal of around $120,000, a rather modest sum for an MMO or any game of this scale, it’s important to note that development isn’t being solely crowdfunded.
“We want people to start seeing Black fantasy as normal.”
Their primary source of funding actually comes from League of Legends developer Riot Games which, in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and ongoing Black Lives Matter protests, has pledged to invest $10 million in game studios with founders of underrepresented communities. Kickstarter is more of a means to prove the audience is out there, while also providing additional funds to make a bigger and more polished game. In any case, having Riot’s backing ensures The Wagadu Chronicles doesn’t share the fate of crowdfunded games that ran into funding issues late in development or worse. Cudicio is only too aware that crowdfunded games that turned out to be scams, like Oath and Chronicles of Elyria, were also MMOs.
The goal isn’t to have millions of players to rival World of Warcraft — Cudicio admits to turning down some offers to avoid a situation where they are growing the game for the sake of the investors. The goal is to have a sustainable community where there’s a wealth of activity so that hundreds of thousands of people can meet and roleplay their characters.
As an even longer-term goal, The Wagadu Chronicles has the potential to put a spotlight not just on African fantasy in popular culture but African game development, and Cudicio wants to see Twin Drums collaborating with African developers.


theverge--2020-09-22--Former YouTube content moderator sues the company after developing symptoms of PTSD

A former YouTube content moderator is suing the Google-owned company for failing to properly protect her and her co-workers from the mental harms caused by reviewing hours and hours of graphic footage every day .
The proposed class-action lawsuit against YouTube is being brought by the Joseph Saveri Law Firm , which previously sued Facebook for failing to safeguard the mental health of its own content moderators .
That earlier suit resulted in Facebook paying a $ 52 million settlement to moderators who developed PTSD as a result of their work for the company .
“ She has trouble sleeping @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has horrific nightmares.
” The lawsuit , which was first reported by CNET , says YouTube consistently failed to follow its own safety guidelines and provided inadequate support to moderators .
As a result of her time working for the company , the lawsuit ’ s plaintiff , who remains anonymous , says she suffered “ severe psychological trauma ” and developed symptoms of PTSD and depression .
The lawsuit says videos that the plaintiff had to watch and review during her employment included footage of cannibalism , child rape , suicide , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ woman being beheaded by a cartel , of a person ’ s head being run over by a tank , of a fox being skinned alive , and of school shootings .
“ She has trouble sleeping and when she does sleep , she has horrific nightmares , ” says the lawsuit of the plaintiff .
“ She often lays awake at night trying to go to sleep , replaying videos that she has seen in her mind .
She can not be in crowded places , including concerts and events , because @ @ @ @ @ @ @ severe and debilitating panic attacks.
” The plaintiff in this recent lawsuit reviewed YouTube content via a third-party agency called Collabera , working for the firm between January 2018 and August 2019 .
Such third-party agencies are often used by tech companies like Google and Facebook .
This work is frequently low-paid with short-term contracts and minimal health benefits .
Employees have to sign non-disclosure agreements ( NDAs ) to stop them talking about their work publicly .
The lawsuit details a number of alleged failings from YouTube and Collabera , including the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , new employees were exposed to graphic content without proper guidance or preparation .
Trainees are told they can leave the room when being shown this content but the lawsuit says people were concerned that “ leaving the room might mean losing their job.
” • During training “ little to no time was spent on wellness and resiliency.
” Counselors guiding trainees told them to get enough sleep and exercise and take regular breaks during work , but when content moderators started full-time employment the pace of the job meant “ these @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s best practices says moderators should not view graphic content for more than four hours a day , but due to “ chronically understaffed ” workplaces this limit was “ routinely ” exceeded .
• Support services for content moderators included access to “ Wellness Coaches , ” but these coaches were not medically trained professionals who could diagnose or treat mental health disorders .
One coach counseled the lawsuit ’ s plaintiff to take illegal drugs to cope with her symptoms while another coach told a co-worker to simply “ trust @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fearful that any complaints to coaches would be reported to management and so were not able to speak freely about their problems on the job .
The lawsuit also highlights the lengths YouTube has gone to “ to shield itself from liability.
” It notes that the company began forcing content moderators to sign a statement acknowledging that the job can give them PTSD as of December last year , four days after The Verge published an investigation into the trauma caused by their work .
YouTube has repeatedly said it would use @ @ @ @ @ @ @ human moderators , but just this week the company admitted that such automated filters were not as accurate .
YouTube and other tech platforms are facing increasing scrutiny over their moderations duties not only because of the trauma afflicted on employees but also the spread of racist content and misinformation .
The lawsuit is currently filed on the behalf of the individual plaintiff but is proposed as a class action suit “ on behalf of all persons who performed content moderation work for YouTube in the United States at any time up until @ @ @ @

A former YouTube content moderator is suing the Google-owned company for failing to properly protect her and her co-workers from the mental harms caused by reviewing hours and hours of graphic footage every day.
The proposed class-action lawsuit against YouTube is being brought by the Joseph Saveri Law Firm, which previously sued Facebook for failing to safeguard the mental health of its own content moderators. That earlier suit resulted in Facebook paying a $52 million settlement to moderators who developed PTSD as a result of their work for the company.
“She has trouble sleeping and when she does sleep, she has horrific nightmares.”
The lawsuit, which was first reported by CNET, says YouTube consistently failed to follow its own safety guidelines and provided inadequate support to moderators. As a result of her time working for the company, the lawsuit’s plaintiff, who remains anonymous, says she suffered “severe psychological trauma” and developed symptoms of PTSD and depression.
The lawsuit says videos that the plaintiff had to watch and review during her employment included footage of cannibalism, child rape, suicide, self-harm, bestiality; videos of a woman being beheaded by a cartel, of a person’s head being run over by a tank, of a fox being skinned alive, and of school shootings.
“She has trouble sleeping and when she does sleep, she has horrific nightmares,” says the lawsuit of the plaintiff. “She often lays awake at night trying to go to sleep, replaying videos that she has seen in her mind. She cannot be in crowded places, including concerts and events, because she fears mass shootings. She has severe and debilitating panic attacks.”
The plaintiff in this recent lawsuit reviewed YouTube content via a third-party agency called Collabera, working for the firm between January 2018 and August 2019. Such third-party agencies are often used by tech companies like Google and Facebook. This work is frequently low-paid with short-term contracts and minimal health benefits. Employees have to sign non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) to stop them talking about their work publicly.
The lawsuit details a number of alleged failings from YouTube and Collabera, including the following:
During the training process, new employees were exposed to graphic content without proper guidance or preparation. Trainees are told they can leave the room when being shown this content but the lawsuit says people were concerned that “leaving the room might mean losing their job.”
During training “little to no time was spent on wellness and resiliency.” Counselors guiding trainees told them to get enough sleep and exercise and take regular breaks during work, but when content moderators started full-time employment the pace of the job meant “these promised breaks were illusory.”
YouTube’s best practices says moderators should not view graphic content for more than four hours a day, but due to “chronically understaffed” workplaces this limit was “routinely” exceeded.
Support services for content moderators included access to “Wellness Coaches,” but these coaches were not medically trained professionals who could diagnose or treat mental health disorders. One coach counseled the lawsuit’s plaintiff to take illegal drugs to cope with her symptoms while another coach told a co-worker to simply “trust in God.”
Content moderators were fearful that any complaints to coaches would be reported to management and so were not able to speak freely about their problems on the job.
The lawsuit also highlights the lengths YouTube has gone to “to shield itself from liability.” It notes that the company began forcing content moderators to sign a statement acknowledging that the job can give them PTSD as of December last year, four days after The Verge published an investigation into the trauma caused by their work.
YouTube has repeatedly said it would use AI systems to relieve the burden on human moderators, but just this week the company admitted that such automated filters were not as accurate. YouTube and other tech platforms are facing increasing scrutiny over their moderations duties not only because of the trauma afflicted on employees but also the spread of racist content and misinformation.


theverge--2020-09-22--Cynicism suggests that the TikTok deal will go through

The Interface is a daily column and newsletter about the intersection of social media and democracy .
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Mark Twain is credited with first saying that if you don ’ t like the weather in New England , just wait five minutes .
The TikTok deal has followed a similar schedule .
On Friday , President Trump said downloads of TikTok would be banned from mobile app stores on Sunday , potentially preventing users from receiving critical security updates .
On Saturday , Trump said he supported Oracle ’ s bid to acquire a stake in TikTok and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ extended the ban date to September 27th .
As part of the deal , he said , the companies involved had agreed to contribute $ 5 billion for “ patriotic education.
” On Sunday , everyone involved took a well deserved rest .
And as Monday dawned , everything went to hell .
Everyone agrees that Oracle and Walmart have bought a combined 20 percent of TikTok .
But the remaining 80 percent appears to be up for grabs .
Here are Georgia Wells and Alex Leary in the Wall Street Journal : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ differing accounts over the structure of the remaining stake , with a spokesman for ByteDance Ltd. , TikTok ’ s Beijing-based owner , saying Sunday that ByteDance would directly hold an 80 % share of the new TikTok entity before an expected initial public offering .
Early Monday , Oracle issued a statement seeming to contradict that .
“ Upon creation of TikTok Global , Oracle/Walmart will make their investment and the TikTok Global shares will be distributed to their owners , Americans will be the majority and ByteDance will have no ownership @ @ @ @ @ @ @ vice president Ken Glueck said .
The disagreement over such basic terms of the deal shows the fluid status of the talks even after Mr. Trump on Saturday said he had approved the agreement in principle .
It threatens to disrupt the carefully brokered pact , which could also be blocked by the Chinese government .
If ByteDance retains 80 percent control over the company , as it asserts , that would undermine the stated purpose of the deal — which was to , you know , force ByteDance to give up control @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , if ByteDance is forced to give up control , China seems likely to block the deal .
All of which would seem to leave us more or less where we were when the weekend began : scanning the horizon , waiting for the weather to change .
I am famously bad at making predictions about TikTok , but I ’ ll tempt fate and tell you how I ’ m thinking here .
Last week , I wrote that TikTok ’ s deal with Oracle was a bet that Trump would cave @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has essentially called Trump ’ s bluff , ” I wrote , “ wagering that he will accept the deal , reward a loyal friend in Oracle , and declare total victory .
This ... does not seem like a bad bet ?
” In fact , on Saturday it appeared as if ByteDance had played its hand perfectly .
“ President Trump pronounced the agreement a success and blessed it , ” the New York Times noted , “ saying on Saturday that TikTok would ‘ have nothing to do with China @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , that ’ s part of the deal.
’ ” Trump clearly bungled that nothing-to-do-with-China detail , but bungling details is consistent with all of the president ’ s public remarks about the deal .
Calling in to Fox and Friends on Monday morning , Trump continued to assert that Oracle and Walmart would have “ total control ” over TikTok , and that he would block the deal otherwise .
Despite the uncertainty these remarks have generated , it still seems to me to be more likely than not that Trump will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ban TikTok without any real due process , the authoritarian president was able to flex his power .
By forcing a structural change within ByteDance , however insignificant , he can continue to claim total victory — while glossing over all the details or lying about them , just as he did on TV Monday morning .
And by getting two stodgy old legacy businesses a big stake in a fast-growing consumer app , Trump can reward two of his more high-profile loyalists — Oracle founder Larry Ellison , who has raised money @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Doug McMillon , who serves on Trump ’ s coronavirus task force .
“ Oracle and Larry Ellison are great , great company , great guy , ” Trump said this morning .
“ And as you know Walmart is Walmart , it ’ s great.
” If you thought that Trump ’ s negotiations with ByteDance were about producing some specific outcome , you might imagine that he would blanch at the terms the company has reached with its investors .
But if you assume , as I did , that his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ influence , whatever reality lurked in the details , then all of this is proceeding more or less to plan .
There are still some big questions here — what happens to the ubiquitous Chinese app WeChat , which also faces a ban , is probably the most pressing .
And it ’ s possible some new change in the weather causes Trump to follow through on his threat to block the deal anyway .
But so far the most cynical take about Trump and TikTok has been the correct one — and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ see this mugging through .
Of course , there will be consequences .
Chinese state media has already suggested that the nationalist splintering of the internet represented by this move ought to serve as a new global model for regulation , and the country is working on a broader plan for retaliating against the United States , the Wall Street Journal reported .
And Trump ’ s flouting of the rule of law , however often we have seen it in these past four years , suggests even darker developments to come .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ deal , Walmart published a typo that , when read out loud , communicated a kind of anguished cry : “ Ekejechbecehggedkrrnikldebgtkjkddhfdenbhbkuk.
” Contemplating this chaotic TikTok deal and all it represents , all I can say is that Ekejechbecehggedkrrnikldebgtkjkddhfdenbhbkuk is right .
Today in news that could affect public perception of the big tech platforms .
Trending up : Facebook says it ’ s helped 2.5 million people register to vote across Facebook , Instagram , and Messenger in time for the 2020 US election .
The company has set a goal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ vote this year .
( Jay Peters / The Verge ) Trending down : Twitter is investigating claims of racial bias in how its algorithm selects photo previews .
The news comes after multiple users posted examples that showed Twitter ’ s preview of a photo more frequently displayed a white person , in images that featured a photo of a Black person and a photo of a white person .
( Rachel Kraus / Mashable ) ⭐ Facebook tried to crack down on QAnon with new policies targeting extremist content .
But @ @ @ @ @ @ @ still flourishing on the site .
Sheera Frenkel and Tiffany Hsu at The New York Times have the story : Twitter expanded its restrictions on QAnon-linked accounts to include political candidates and elected officials who promote the conspiracy theory .
In July , the company banned more than 7,000 QAnon-linked accounts , but its enforcement policy was murky when it came to elected officials .
( Jack Brewster / Forbes ) Policies around coordinated inauthentic behavior are vaguely written , flexibly interpreted , and inconsistently applied on Facebook and Twitter .
The lack @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of bias in moderating speech .
( Shannon McGregor / Wired ) Disinformation campaigns require a lot of human effort — but artificial intelligence could change all that .
Tools like GPT-3 that generate text in a way that can credibly imitate humans could make the supply of disinformation infinite .
( Renée DiResta / The Atlantic ) YouTube has been tweaking its recommendation algorithm to stop misinformation from going viral .
It ’ s worked — the algorithm is less likely now to promote misinformation .
But with the president of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ still might not be enough .
( Clive Thompson / Wired ) As TikTok becomes a destination for political content , the company is taking a different approach to content moderation than Facebook or Twitter .
It has opted against using fact-checking labels and is simply quietly removing lots of content , the company says .
( Elizabeth Culliford / Reuters ) A network of Facebook Pages operated by Guinean president Alpha Condé ’ s political party shows the blurry line between modern campaigning and coordinated inauthentic behavior .
In the run up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , a network of 94 Facebook Pages has been spreading pro-Condé messages to a combined 800,000 followers .
Facebook said the campaign did not meet its threshold for coordinated inauthentic behavior .
( Stanford Internet Observatory ) A suspicious Facebook account posting political content about the George Floyd protests appears to be linked to a school board candidate in Texas .
( Mark Dent / Fort Worth Star Telegram ) Facebook is threatening to leave Europe if regulators don ’ t back down .
The move is a response to a preliminary order @ @ @ @ @ @ @ transfer of data about European customers to servers in the US .
( David Gilbert / Vice ) The European Union is considering new rules that would likely require Apple to give competitors access to payments technology in the iPhones .
The new laws would prevent phone manufacturers from limiting access to near-field communication technology embedded in smartphones and smartwatches .
( Natalia Drozdiak and Alexander Weber / Bloomberg ) A judge in California stopped the Trump administration ’ s ban on downloads of WeChat over the weekend .
The move blocks the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to remove WeChat from their app stores .
( Amanda Macias / CNBC ) In the run up to the WeChat ban , downloads of the app surged to make it the 100th most-downloaded app in the US .
It has typically ranked between 1,000th and 1,500th this year .
( Gerrit De Vynck / Bloomberg ) Here ’ s where Donald Trump and Joe Biden stand on Big Tech regulation .
Both see the need for more regulation and want to change Section 230 , but they differ on the solutions .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ / The Wall Street Journal ) The tech industry ’ s inability to properly calculate risk has led to a series of high-profile tech disasters over the last decade , this piece argues .
Facebook ’ s slow response to the threat of ethnic cleansing in Myanmar is the textbook example .
( Catherine Buni and Soraya Chemaly / OneZero ) The Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice don ’ t have enough funding to adequately regulate the tech giants .
Antitrust divisions at the departments have a combined annual budget @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
( Alex Kantrowitz / Big Technology ) Google ’ s decision to block online advertising trackers in an effort to protect user privacy has come under scrutiny in the antitrust probe .
Publishers who rely on the trackers are telling the Justice Department that the move would hurt their sites and indirectly benefiting Google ’ s own ad business .
( Nick Bastone / The Information ) Iranian hackers likely connected to the government have been running a surveillance campaign with tools that can outsmart encrypted messaging apps like Telegram .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ abroad , but can also be used to spy on the general public inside Iran .
( Ronen Bergman and Farnaz Fassihi / The New York Times ) As COVID-19 cases surge in France , the government is looking to resurrect its failed contact tracing app .
While most countries that built such apps used the contact tracing API designed by Apple and Google , France designed its own solution .
The results were dismal .
( Chris O ’ Brien / Venture Beat ) ⭐ TikTok is giving boring businesses a chance @ @ @ @ @ @ @ dull jobs like landscaping , car detailing , and power washing regularly rack up millions of views on the platform .
The Verge ’ s Jacob Kastrenakes has more : Facebook is giving people more control of where their images end up .
In an update to its rights management platform , the company is starting to work with partners to give them the power to claim ownership over images and then moderate where those images show up across Facebook and Instagram .
( Ashley Carman / The Verge ) Facebook is opening @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The office will be home to teams including engineering , sales , and policy and communications .
( Facebook ) Why isn ’ t Slack dominating during the pandemic ?
The company is experiencing the peril of disruptor expectations , this piece says .
( Rob Walker / Marker ) Stuff to occupy you online during the quarantine .
Listen to Kara Swisher interview House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in the inaugural episode of her new podcast “ Sway.
” Make a plan to vote and sign up to work the polls if you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , questions , and TikTok deal theories : casey @ theverge.com and zoe @ theverge.com .

Mark Twain is credited with first saying that if you don’t like the weather in New England, just wait five minutes. The TikTok deal has followed a similar schedule.
On Saturday, Trump said he supported Oracle’s bid to acquire a stake in TikTok and oversee some of its operations, and extended the ban date to September 27th. As part of the deal, he said, the companies involved had agreed to contribute $5 billion for “patriotic education.”
On Sunday, everyone involved took a well deserved rest. And as Monday dawned, everything went to hell.
Everyone agrees that Oracle and Walmart have bought a combined 20 percent of TikTok. But the remaining 80 percent appears to be up for grabs. Here are Georgia Wells and Alex Leary in the Wall Street Journal:
People involved in the deals have provided differing accounts over the structure of the remaining stake, with a spokesman for ByteDance Ltd., TikTok’s Beijing-based owner, saying Sunday that ByteDance would directly hold an 80% share of the new TikTok entity before an expected initial public offering. Early Monday, Oracle issued a statement seeming to contradict that. “Upon creation of TikTok Global, Oracle/Walmart will make their investment and the TikTok Global shares will be distributed to their owners, Americans will be the majority and ByteDance will have no ownership in TikTok Global,” Oracle executive vice president Ken Glueck said. The disagreement over such basic terms of the deal shows the fluid status of the talks even after Mr. Trump on Saturday said he had approved the agreement in principle. It threatens to disrupt the carefully brokered pact, which could also be blocked by the Chinese government.
If ByteDance retains 80 percent control over the company, as it asserts, that would undermine the stated purpose of the deal — which was to, you know, force ByteDance to give up control of TikTok.
On the other hand, if ByteDance is forced to give up control, China seems likely to block the deal.
All of which would seem to leave us more or less where we were when the weekend began: scanning the horizon, waiting for the weather to change.
In fact, on Saturday it appeared as if ByteDance had played its hand perfectly. “President Trump pronounced the agreement a success and blessed it,” the New York Times noted, “saying on Saturday that TikTok would ‘have nothing to do with China, it’ll be totally secure, that’s part of the deal.’”
Trump clearly bungled that nothing-to-do-with-China detail, but bungling details is consistent with all of the president’s public remarks about the deal. Calling in to Fox and Friends on Monday morning, Trump continued to assert that Oracle and Walmart would have “total control” over TikTok, and that he would block the deal otherwise.
Despite the uncertainty these remarks have generated, it still seems to me to be more likely than not that Trump will approve the deal. By threatening to ban TikTok without any real due process, the authoritarian president was able to flex his power. By forcing a structural change within ByteDance, however insignificant, he can continue to claim total victory — while glossing over all the details or lying about them, just as he did on TV Monday morning.
And by getting two stodgy old legacy businesses a big stake in a fast-growing consumer app, Trump can reward two of his more high-profile loyalists — Oracle founder Larry Ellison, who has raised money for the president, and Walmart CEO Doug McMillon, who serves on Trump’s coronavirus task force. “Oracle and Larry Ellison are great, great company, great guy,” Trump said this morning. “And as you know Walmart is Walmart, it’s great.”
If you thought that Trump’s negotiations with ByteDance were about producing some specific outcome, you might imagine that he would blanch at the terms the company has reached with its investors. But if you assume, as I did, that his negotiations were primarily about projecting power and influence, whatever reality lurked in the details, then all of this is proceeding more or less to plan.
There are still some big questions here — what happens to the ubiquitous Chinese app WeChat, which also faces a ban, is probably the most pressing. And it’s possible some new change in the weather causes Trump to follow through on his threat to block the deal anyway. But so far the most cynical take about Trump and TikTok has been the correct one — and cynicism suggests the president will want to see this mugging through.
Of course, there will be consequences. Chinese state media has already suggested that the nationalist splintering of the internet represented by this move ought to serve as a new global model for regulation, and the country is working on a broader plan for retaliating against the United States, the Wall Street Journal reported. And Trump’s flouting of the rule of law, however often we have seen it in these past four years, suggests even darker developments to come.
In its initial public statement on the deal, Walmart published a typo that, when read out loud, communicated a kind of anguished cry: “Ekejechbecehggedkrrnikldebgtkjkddhfdenbhbkuk.” Contemplating this chaotic TikTok deal and all it represents, all I can say is that Ekejechbecehggedkrrnikldebgtkjkddhfdenbhbkuk is right.
The Ratio
Today in news that could affect public perception of the big tech platforms.
🔽 Trending down: Twitter is investigating claims of racial bias in how its algorithm selects photo previews. The news comes after multiple users posted examples that showed Twitter’s preview of a photo more frequently displayed a white person, in images that featured a photo of a Black person and a photo of a white person. (Rachel Kraus / Mashable)
Governing
⭐ Facebook tried to crack down on QAnon with new policies targeting extremist content. But groups related to the conspiracy theory are still flourishing on the site. Sheera Frenkel and Tiffany Hsu at The New York Times have the story:
The QAnon movement has proved extremely adept at evading detection on Facebook under the platform’s new restrictions. Some groups have simply changed their names or avoided key terms that would set off alarm bells. The changes were subtle, like changing “Q” to “Cue” or to a name including the number 17, reflecting that Q is the 17th letter of the alphabet. Militia groups have changed their names to phrases from the Bible, or to claims of being “God’s Army.” Others simply tweaked what they wrote to make it more palatable to the average person. Facebook communities that had otherwise remained insulated from the conspiracy theory, like yoga groups or parenting circles, were suddenly filled with QAnon content disguised as health and wellness advice or concern about child trafficking.
Twitter expanded its restrictions on QAnon-linked accounts to include political candidates and elected officials who promote the conspiracy theory. In July, the company banned more than 7,000 QAnon-linked accounts, but its enforcement policy was murky when it came to elected officials. (Jack Brewster / Forbes)
Policies around coordinated inauthentic behavior are vaguely written, flexibly interpreted, and inconsistently applied on Facebook and Twitter. The lack of clarity leaves platforms open to charges of bias in moderating speech. (Shannon McGregor / Wired)
Disinformation campaigns require a lot of human effort — but artificial intelligence could change all that. Tools like GPT-3 that generate text in a way that can credibly imitate humans could make the supply of disinformation infinite. (Renée DiResta / The Atlantic)
YouTube has been tweaking its recommendation algorithm to stop misinformation from going viral. It’s worked — the algorithm is less likely now to promote misinformation. But with the president of the United States spreading conspiracy theories, it still might not be enough. (Clive Thompson / Wired)
As TikTok becomes a destination for political content, the company is taking a different approach to content moderation than Facebook or Twitter. It has opted against using fact-checking labels and is simply quietly removing lots of content, the company says. (Elizabeth Culliford / Reuters)
A network of Facebook Pages operated by Guinean president Alpha Condé’s political party shows the blurry line between modern campaigning and coordinated inauthentic behavior. In the run up to a crucial presidential election in October, a network of 94 Facebook Pages has been spreading pro-Condé messages to a combined 800,000 followers. Facebook said the campaign did not meet its threshold for coordinated inauthentic behavior. (Stanford Internet Observatory)
A suspicious Facebook account posting political content about the George Floyd protests appears to be linked to a school board candidate in Texas. (Mark Dent / Fort Worth Star Telegram)
Facebook is threatening to leave Europe if regulators don’t back down. The move is a response to a preliminary order handed down last month to stop the transfer of data about European customers to servers in the US. (David Gilbert / Vice)
The European Union is considering new rules that would likely require Apple to give competitors access to payments technology in the iPhones. The new laws would prevent phone manufacturers from limiting access to near-field communication technology embedded in smartphones and smartwatches. (Natalia Drozdiak and Alexander Weber / Bloomberg)
A judge in California stopped the Trump administration’s ban on downloads of WeChat over the weekend. The move blocks the Commerce Department from forcing Apple and Google to remove WeChat from their app stores. (Amanda Macias / CNBC)
In the run up to the WeChat ban, downloads of the app surged to make it the 100th most-downloaded app in the US. It has typically ranked between 1,000th and 1,500th this year. (Gerrit De Vynck / Bloomberg)
Here’s where Donald Trump and Joe Biden stand on Big Tech regulation. Both see the need for more regulation and want to change Section 230, but they differ on the solutions. (John D. McKinnon and Ryan Tracy / The Wall Street Journal)
The tech industry’s inability to properly calculate risk has led to a series of high-profile tech disasters over the last decade, this piece argues. Facebook’s slow response to the threat of ethnic cleansing in Myanmar is the textbook example. (Catherine Buni and Soraya Chemaly / OneZero)
The Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice don’t have enough funding to adequately regulate the tech giants. Antitrust divisions at the departments have a combined annual budget below what Facebook makes in three days. (Alex Kantrowitz / Big Technology)
Google’s decision to block online advertising trackers in an effort to protect user privacy has come under scrutiny in the antitrust probe. Publishers who rely on the trackers are telling the Justice Department that the move would hurt their sites and indirectly benefiting Google’s own ad business. (Nick Bastone / The Information)
Iranian hackers likely connected to the government have been running a surveillance campaign with tools that can outsmart encrypted messaging apps like Telegram. The operation targets domestic dissidents and antigovernment activists abroad, but can also be used to spy on the general public inside Iran. (Ronen Bergman and Farnaz Fassihi / The New York Times)
As COVID-19 cases surge in France, the government is looking to resurrect its failed contact tracing app. While most countries that built such apps used the contact tracing API designed by Apple and Google, France designed its own solution. The results were dismal. (Chris O’Brien / Venture Beat)
Industry
⭐ TikTok is giving boring businesses a chance to go viral. Clips of seemingly dull jobs like landscaping, car detailing, and power washing regularly rack up millions of views on the platform. The Verge’s Jacob Kastrenakes has more:
The best small business videos capture your attention with something new and unexpected, like a sawed-off wedge of wood falling out of a huge tree or bright pink lip gloss flowing from a stark white machine. They take you behind the scenes of a small world you’d otherwise know nothing about — and may not have even known you could seek out. “I didn’t realize that people might not know what I do exists,” said Erika Thompson, who operates the Austin-based Texas Beeworks. A recent video shows Thompson in jeans and a tank top — “the veil, suit, and gloves cause you to lose a lot of dexterity” — taking a tree branch covered in a thick swarm of bees and banging it against a box, toppling the bees into the hive-like storage structure below. “Bees have pretty tough exoskeletons, so the short drop doesn’t harm them at all,” Thompson says in the video.
Facebook is giving people more control of where their images end up. In an update to its rights management platform, the company is starting to work with partners to give them the power to claim ownership over images and then moderate where those images show up across Facebook and Instagram. (Ashley Carman / The Verge)
Facebook is opening an office in Lagos, Nigeria. The office will be home to teams including engineering, sales, and policy and communications. (Facebook)
Why isn’t Slack dominating during the pandemic? The company is experiencing the peril of disruptor expectations, this piece says. (Rob Walker / Marker)
Things to do
Stuff to occupy you online during the quarantine.
And finally...
Talk to us


theverge--2020-09-22--Elon Musk warns new Tesla battery tech won’t reach mass production until 2022

Whatever is unveiled during Tesla ’ s Battery Day event on Tuesday won ’ t enter “ serious high-volume production ” until 2022 , the company ’ s CEO Elon Musk has cautioned on Twitter .
The time-scale means the technology will mainly impact Tesla ’ s Semi , Cybertruck , and Roadster projects , the CEO said , adding that the company will continue to buy third-party battery cells even if Tesla decides to make its own .
Musk ’ s comments suggest that any new battery tech shown at Tuesday ’ s event will be at the prototype @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in Tesla ’ s current mass-market vehicles like the Model 3 or Model Y. Musk points towards the “ extreme difficulty ” in scaling new technology as being to blame , noting that making “ the machine that makes the machine is vastly harder than the machine itself.
” Musk ’ s statements also make it clear that Tesla will still need to purchase third-party battery cells over the coming years even if it begins manufacturing its own .
“ We intend to increase , not reduce battery cell purchases from Panasonic , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ too ) , ” the CEO wrote , “ However , even with our cell suppliers going at maximum speed , we still foresee significant shortages in 2022 & beyond unless we also take action ourselves.
” Shortages impacted Tesla in 2018 , when Musk said a lack of battery cells at Panasonic constrained Model 3 production .
There ’ s been a lot of speculation about what Tesla could announce at its Battery Day event .
Leaks , acquisitions , patent applications , research , and — of course — tweets from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ new battery technology that holds a higher capacity than third-party cells , and which can be produced at a lower cost .
Reports have also mentioned a so-called “ million mile ” battery , which could allow Tesla to sell its cars more cheaply , and give customers the confidence that the electric vehicles will last longer .
“ It will be very insane ” Musk , ever the showman , promised last week .

Whatever is unveiled during Tesla’s Battery Day event on Tuesday won’t enter “serious high-volume production” until 2022, the company’s CEO Elon Musk has cautioned on Twitter. The time-scale means the technology will mainly impact Tesla’s Semi, Cybertruck, and Roadster projects, the CEO said, adding that the company will continue to buy third-party battery cells even if Tesla decides to make its own.
Musk’s comments suggest that any new battery tech shown at Tuesday’s event will be at the prototype stage, ruling out its imminent use in Tesla’s current mass-market vehicles like the Model 3 or Model Y. Musk points towards the “extreme difficulty” in scaling new technology as being to blame, noting that making “the machine that makes the machine is vastly harder than the machine itself.”
Musk’s statements also make it clear that Tesla will still need to purchase third-party battery cells over the coming years even if it begins manufacturing its own. “We intend to increase, not reduce battery cell purchases from Panasonic, LG & CATL (possibly other partners too),” the CEO wrote, “However, even with our cell suppliers going at maximum speed, we still foresee significant shortages in 2022 & beyond unless we also take action ourselves.” Shortages impacted Tesla in 2018, when Musk said a lack of battery cells at Panasonic constrained Model 3 production.
There’s been a lot of speculation about what Tesla could announce at its Battery Day event. Leaks, acquisitions, patent applications, research, and — of course — tweets from Musk himself suggest that Tesla could announce new battery technology that holds a higher capacity than third-party cells, and which can be produced at a lower cost. Reports have also mentioned a so-called “million mile” battery, which could allow Tesla to sell its cars more cheaply, and give customers the confidence that the electric vehicles will last longer.


theverge--2020-09-22--Microsoft is pausing Xbox Design Lab on October 14th, before you get to unwrap your Series X

If you are planning to design your very own Xbox controller ahead of the Xbox Series X and S launch on November 10th , you might want to act fast .
Microsoft is temporarily shutting down its Xbox Design Lab on October 14th .
Announced back in 2016 , Xbox Design Lab brings a lot of flexibility and personal flair to the Xbox One controller .
For $ 80 , you have access to over 40 different color options for the various parts of the controller , adding up to over a million different combinations in total .
A couple @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a close friend and was amazed how much customization I could do ; it didn ’ t feel like I was just creating another color variant , but a truly unique personalized product .
My friend loved it , telling me they thought I ’ d bought a rare controller online .
But starting October 14th until sometime in 2021 , Microsoft says the service will be “ offline temporarily so that we can bring you some updates.
” The company didn ’ t say why or exactly when in 2021 the service @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s likely that Microsoft is preparing to expand the service to include customization features for the new Xbox controller .
Unlike the PS5 ’ s DualSense controller , which strays away from the design of the DualShock series in terms of design and color scheme , the new Xbox Series X and S controller has a pretty familiar design .
Microsoft says the controller ’ s “ size and shape have been refined to accommodate an even wider range of people , ” which makes it slightly smaller than its predecessor .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ redesigned D-Pad and a dedicated share button .

If you are planning to design your very own Xbox controller ahead of the Xbox Series X and S launch on November 10th, you might want to act fast. Microsoft is temporarily shutting down its Xbox Design Lab on October 14th.
Announced back in 2016, Xbox Design Lab brings a lot of flexibility and personal flair to the Xbox One controller. For $80, you have access to over 40 different color options for the various parts of the controller, adding up to over a million different combinations in total.
A couple years ago, I designed one for a close friend and was amazed how much customization I could do; it didn’t feel like I was just creating another color variant, but a truly unique personalized product. My friend loved it, telling me they thought I’d bought a rare controller online.
But starting October 14th until sometime in 2021, Microsoft says the service will be “offline temporarily so that we can bring you some updates.” The company didn’t say why or exactly when in 2021 the service will be back online, but it’s likely that Microsoft is preparing to expand the service to include customization features for the new Xbox controller.


theverge--2020-09-22--Here are Tesla’s biggest announcements from Battery Day

At Tesla ’ s Battery Day event , CEO Elon Musk made some big announcements : the company ’ s moves toward eliminating cobalt in its batteries , a new Plaid powertrain for the Model S that could get to speeds of 200 mph , and a new cathode plant to streamline its battery production .
And , with the new battery technology , Musk has said Tesla will make a $ 25,000 car .
The socially-distanced outdoor event had Musk and other presenters addressing Tesla shareholders in parked cars , who honked their horns to indicate their approval of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ drive-in movie/shareholders meeting .
Here are the main takeaways from Tesla ’ s 2020 battery day : Tesla plans to manufacture its own “ tabless ” batteries , which will improve its vehicles ’ range and power .
The new batteries will be produced in-house , which Musk says will reduce costs and bring the sale price of Tesla electric cars closer to gasoline-powered cars .
It ’ s expected to lower Tesla ’ s cost per kilowatt hour , a key metric used to measure electric vehicles ’ battery packs .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tab that connects the cell and what it ’ s powering ) , which Tesla is calling the 4860 cells , will make its batteries six times more powerful and increase range by 16 percent .
Tesla currently sources its batteries from Panasonic , and is likely to keep doing so for some time , but moving battery production in house has been on Musk ’ s to-do list for some time ; in 2018 a shortage of those cells added to production delays .
Musk has said the pace of battery production @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Model 3 and the Model Y .
Model S Plaid will cost $ 139,990 and be available in 2021 Musk has been teasing the Plaid powertrain for a while , which will be a step above its Ludicrous model .
It will have a range between charges of 520 miles , get from 0-60 mph in under two seconds , and a top speed of 200 mph .
The price is listed on Tesla ’ s website at $ 139,990 .
Musk had noted in the past that a Plaid trim level @ @ @ @ @ @ @ offerings , ” which it does .
It will be available in the Model S in late 2021 .
Musk said Tesla will build a new cathode plant for its batteries in North America , part of its quest to reduce supply chain costs and simplify cathode production .
It ’ s also making improvements to its process that will make cathodes 76 percent cheaper , and produce zero wastewater .
The company also plans to diversify the cathodes it uses , because of low nickel supplies .
We don ’ t know @ @ @ @ @ @ @ built , but Musk said in July when Tesla announced its next factory would be in Austin , Texas that he would “ strongly consider ” runner-up city Tulsa , Oklahoma for future projects .
No more cobalt in the cathodes Tesla plans to eliminate the use of cobalt in its cathodes .
Musk has said he wanted to eliminate it entirely in the past — even though Tesla ’ s existing batteries use very little .
Cobalt is often mined under conditions that violate human rights , which has led to a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it .
Musk didn ’ t offer a timeline for when the company will stop using cobalt but said it will make its batteries significantly cheaper .
“ It ’ s absolutely critical that we make cars that people can people can actually afford , ” he said .
“ Affordability is key to how we scale.
” Tesla plans to reduce the cost of its battery cells and packs , with an end goal of building a $ 25,000 electric car .
Tesla will hit this goal using its new “ tabless @ @ @ @ @ @ @ materials inside the cell , which he said should allow Tesla to “ halve ” the price per kilowatt-hour , Musk said .
This isn ’ t the first time Musk has predicted that Tesla would dramatically reduce the costs of its electric cars .
He first promised a $ 25,000 EV back in 2018 , which he said was possible within three years .

At Tesla’s Battery Day event, CEO Elon Musk made some big announcements: the company’s moves toward eliminating cobalt in its batteries, a new Plaid powertrain for the Model S that could get to speeds of 200 mph, and a new cathode plant to streamline its battery production. And, with the new battery technology, Musk has said Tesla will make a $25,000 car.
The socially-distanced outdoor event had Musk and other presenters addressing Tesla shareholders in parked cars, who honked their horns to indicate their approval of the speakers’ remarks— almost like a drive-in movie/shareholders meeting.
Here are the main takeaways from Tesla’s 2020 battery day:
Tesla plans to manufacture its own “tabless” batteries, which will improve its vehicles’ range and power. The new batteries will be produced in-house, which Musk says will reduce costs and bring the sale price of Tesla electric cars closer to gasoline-powered cars. It’s expected to lower Tesla’s cost per kilowatt hour, a key metric used to measure electric vehicles’ battery packs. The tabless cells (Tesla is removing the tab that connects the cell and what it’s powering), which Tesla is calling the 4680 cells, will make its batteries six times more powerful and increase range by 16 percent.
Tesla currently sources its batteries from Panasonic, and is likely to keep doing so for some time, but moving battery production in house has been on Musk’s to-do list for some time; in 2018 a shortage of those cells added to production delays. Musk has said the pace of battery production at Panasonic had slowed production of both the Model 3 and the Model Y.
Musk has been teasing the Plaid powertrain for a while, which will be a step above its Ludicrous model. It will have a range between charges of 520 miles, get from 0-60 mph in under two seconds, and a top speed of 200 mph. The price is listed on Tesla’s website at $139,990. Musk had noted in the past that a Plaid trim level would “cost more than our current offerings,” which it does. It will be available in the Model S in late 2021.
Musk said Tesla will build a new cathode plant for its batteries in North America, part of its quest to reduce supply chain costs and simplify cathode production. It’s also making improvements to its process that will make cathodes 76 percent cheaper, and produce zero wastewater. The company also plans to diversify the cathodes it uses, because of low nickel supplies.
We don’t know where the new cathode plant will be built, but Musk said in July when Tesla announced its next factory would be in Austin, Texas that he would “strongly consider” runner-up city Tulsa, Oklahoma for future projects.
Tesla plans to eliminate the use of cobalt in its cathodes. Musk has said he wanted to eliminate it entirely in the past — even though Tesla’s existing batteries use very little. Cobalt is often mined under conditions that violate human rights, which has led to a push to find other materials to replace it.
Musk didn’t offer a timeline for when the company will stop using cobalt but said it will make its batteries significantly cheaper.
“It’s absolutely critical that we make cars that people can actually afford,” he said. “Affordability is key to how we scale.”
Tesla plans to reduce the cost of its battery cells and packs, with an end goal of building a $25,000 electric car. Tesla will hit this goal using its new “tabless” battery cells, and changing the materials inside the cell, which he said should allow Tesla to “halve” the price per kilowatt-hour, Musk said.


theverge--2020-09-22--Tesla to make EV battery cathodes without cobalt

Tesla will make electric vehicle batteries with cobalt-free cathodes , it announced during its Battery Day event today .
The announcement came as part of the company ’ s move to make batteries in-house instead of purchasing them .
Musk didn ’ t give a timeline for going to a zero-cobalt battery .
Cobalt is the most expensive material used in batteries , so eliminating it from the mix was expected help to electric vehicles become as affordable as those that run on gas .
Tesla now says it can make a $ 25,000 electric vehicle — $ 10,000 less @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the improvements it ’ s made to its batteries , including axing cobalt .
“ It ’ s absolutely critical that we make cars that people can people can actually afford , ” Musk said today .
“ Affordability is key to how we scale.
” Cobalt has also been called the “ blood diamond of batteries.
” That ’ s because it ’ s been mined in a way that ’ s endangered child workers and wrecked the environment in the Democratic Republic of Congo .
A lawsuit filed against Tesla , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Microsoft in December by an international human rights group alleges that the companies make their products with cobalt mined by young children .
Tesla started working with Chinese battery company Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd. ( CATL ) to develop batteries that use little-to-no cobalt , Reuters first reported in May .
Working with a different kind of battery will come with new challenges .
The push to use less cobalt has driven up demand for another metal replacing it in batteries : nickel .
Musk urged mining companies to dig up more nickel @ @ @ @ @ @ @ so again during Battery Day .
“ In order to scale , we really need to make sure that we ’ re not constrained by total nickel availability .
I actually spoke with the CEOs of the biggest mining company in the world and said , ‘ Please make more nickel , it ’ s very important , ” Musk said today .
Nickel is mined in more places around the world than cobalt , but its extraction has polluted indigenous peoples ’ lands in Russia .
As a result , indigenous activists @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the material from the mining company Norilsk Nickel , Grist reports .

Tesla will make electric vehicle batteries with cobalt-free cathodes, it announced during its Battery Day event today. The announcement came as part of the company’s move to make batteries in-house instead of purchasing them. Musk didn’t give a timeline for going to a zero-cobalt battery.
Cobalt is the most expensive material used in batteries, so eliminating it from the mix was expected help to electric vehicles become as affordable as those that run on gas. Tesla now says it can make a $25,000 electric vehicle — $10,000 less than its cheapest model — because of the improvements it’s made to its batteries, including axing cobalt.
“It’s absolutely critical that we make cars that people can people can actually afford,” Musk said today. “Affordability is key to how we scale.”
The “blood diamond of batteries.”
Cobalt has also been called the “blood diamond of batteries.” That’s because it’s been mined in a way that’s endangered child workers and wrecked the environment in the Democratic Republic of Congo. A lawsuit filed against Tesla, Apple, Alphabet, Dell, and Microsoft in December by an international human rights group alleges that the companies make their products with cobalt mined by young children. Tesla started working with Chinese battery company Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd. (CATL) to develop batteries that use little-to-no cobalt, Reuters first reported in May.
Working with a different kind of battery will come with new challenges. The push to use less cobalt has driven up demand for another metal replacing it in batteries: nickel. Musk urged mining companies to dig up more nickel during a July earnings call and did so again during Battery Day. “In order to scale, we really need to make sure that we’re not constrained by total nickel availability. I actually spoke with the CEOs of the biggest mining company in the world and said, ‘Please make more nickel, it’s very important,” Musk said today.


theverge--2020-09-22--SXSW will attempt to hold its popular festival online in 2021... somehow

SXSW , the annual tech , music , and film meetup held in downtown Austin was canceled earlier this year due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic .
The festival ’ s organizers announced today that it will host an online-only version of the weeklong event next year .
SXSW Online will take place from March 16th through March 20th , 2021 .
Throughout the week , organizers say attendees will be able to check out film and music screenings and take part in other activities such as exhibitions and networking opportunities , but they ’ ll all be online .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ where you can substitute a digital stage I ’ m curious to see how it all goes .
Unlike other events , SXSW isn ’ t just a convention .
Sure , people go to the keynotes , but SXSW is a festival .
Most years , it ’ s packed with opportunities for people to network within the tech , music , and film industries , and I ’ m interested to see if SXSW can recreate the feeling of in-person networking events when the event is entirely online .
I suppose @ @ @ @ @ @ @ event , though .
And I ’ m also wondering how the SXSW organizers will handle film screenings , though we have one idea how they could work already .
SXSW could strike a similar deal like the one made with Amazon to stream movies from this year ’ s festival , free of charge , for a limited time on Prime Video .
However , there may also be in-person event of some kind next year , as well .
Organizers said that “ SXSW is working with the City of Austin @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a physical event in 2021.
” They didn ’ t elaborate further than that , so we ’ ll have to see if there ’ s an in-person aspect of some kind alongside the online event , or maybe later in the year .

SXSW, the annual tech, music, and film meetup held in downtown Austin was canceled earlier this year due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The festival’s organizers announced today that it will host an online-only version of the weeklong event next year.
SXSW Online will take place from March 16th through March 20th, 2021. Throughout the week, organizers say attendees will be able to check out film and music screenings and take part in other activities such as exhibitions and networking opportunities, but they’ll all be online.
SXSW isn’t just a conference where you can substitute a digital stage
I’m curious to see how it all goes. Unlike other events, SXSW isn’t just a convention. Sure, people go to the keynotes, but SXSW is a festival. Most years, it’s packed with opportunities for people to network within the tech, music, and film industries, and I’m interested to see if SXSW can recreate the feeling of in-person networking events when the event is entirely online. I suppose Burning Man managed to do an online event, though.
And I’m also wondering how the SXSW organizers will handle film screenings, though we have one idea how they could work already. SXSW could strike a similar deal like the one made with Amazon to stream movies from this year’s festival, free of charge, for a limited time on Prime Video.


theverge--2020-09-22--Tesla reveals its Plaid powertrain will be available for delivery in 2021

As part of its Battery Day presentation , Tesla CEO Elon Musk showed off video of the new “ Plaid @ @ @ @ @ S sedan , a step up from its “ Ludicrous ” model .
According to @ @ @ @ @ s website , the long-awaited Plaid powertrain will have a range between charges of 520 @ @ @ @ @ in under two seconds , and a top speed of 200mph .
The price is @ @ @ @ @ website at $ 139,990 .
Musk has been teasing the Plaid for a while , @ @ @ @ @ year of a Tesla with the Plaid powertrain , noting it would “ cost more @ @ @ @ @ ( The name is apparently a reference from the Mel Brooks movie Spaceballs . )
@ @ @ @ @ last September at the Laguna Seca raceway , where it ran the course in 1 @ @ @ @ @ seen in this video : Plaid models will be available for delivery in late 2021 @

As part of its Battery Day presentation, Tesla CEO Elon Musk showed off video of the new “Plaid” version of its Model S sedan, a step up from its “Ludicrous” model. According to the specs on Tesla’s website, the long-awaited Plaid powertrain will have a range between charges of 520 miles, get from zero-to-60 in under two seconds, and a top speed of 200mph. The price is listed on Tesla’s website at $139,990.
Musk has been teasing the Plaid for a while, and showed a video last year of a Tesla with the Plaid powertrain, noting it would “cost more than our current offerings.” (The name is apparently a reference from the Mel Brooks movie Spaceballs.) The Plaid Model S debuted last September at the Laguna Seca raceway, where it ran the course in 1 minute and 36 seconds, seen in this video: