Downloading a film from a website implies some form of piracy. However, public domain movies can be freely, and legally, downloaded. And these aren’t unwatchable B-movies either. In just a few clicks, you can download and watch some brilliant films.
In this article, you’ll learn what public domain actually means, before we recommend the best public domain movie sites available online…
What Is Public Domain?
Simply put, a public domain definition means creations which lack exclusive intellectual property rights. The most common reason a movie, television show, or book has fallen into the public domain is the passage of time.
For example, many public domain movies are older silent or black and white films, since they were created before copyrights were established. Alternatively, their copyright may simply have lapsed. Additionally, many works fall under the public domain because the creator declined copyright.
Aside from cinema, you can find TV shows, music, and even images in the public domain. Software created before 1974 slides into the public domain too. Still, you’ll want to be careful when downloading. Occasionally, copyright changes, so always double check before streaming or downloading a film.
While there’s variety in available public domain flicks, some genres outshine others. Notably, public domain horror movies abound. For instance, you can download the likes of George A. Romero’s genre-defining Night of the Living Dead, and Vincent Price hit The House on Haunted Hill.
Likewise, you’ll find loads of solid sci-fi flicks. Darkly comedic science fiction romp A Boy and His Dog, Gamera the Invincible, and Kong Island are all public domain movies. Granted, much of what you’ll find would benefit from the Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K) treatment. Not surprisingly, several titles have including public domain horror movies Horrors of Spider Island and Manos: the Hands of Fate.
As the name suggests, Public Domain Torrents features torrents of public domain movies and shows. This veritable treasure trove of films and shows features tons of cult classics.
Although many sites exist for free, legal movie downloads, Public Domain Torrents remains one of the top sources. On the left-hand sidebar, there’s a fantastic public domain movie database. It’s segmented by categories, so you’ll find genres including action/adventure, animation, sci-fi/fantasy, and westerns.
Despite its retro web design, Public Domain Torrents offers a bevy of public domain movies from a variety of genres. Movies are available in a variety of formats including AVI, iPod MP4, and PlayStation Portable MP4.
Over on Archive.org, there’s a thriving catalog. You can sort its public domain movies list by genre, year, and more. Unlike Public Domain Torrents, films are available for direct download as well as torrents. However, specific format options depend on the title in question.
While there’s some crossover with other sites, Archive.org touts a tremendous catalog. In its movie vault, you’ll find classics like the groundbreaking noir flick The Hitch-hiker, and thriller He Walked By Night.
Unfortunately, Archive.org is ridden with multiple copies of uploaded movies. Sure, this means you might find a higher resolution copy of a certain video, but it also requires slogging through duplicates. Still, it’s an incredible source for movies, TV shows, and public domain music. Whereas Public Domain Torrents only hosts downloads, you can stream straight from Archive.org.
Similarly, Public Domain Movies serves as an impressive public domain movie database. It’s packed with quality films such as 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Because you can stream movies without downloading, it’s an excellent option. But there are download options available as well.
Most movies benefit from a substantive synopsis and cast list. For this reason, Public Domain Movies provides a fertile landscape for free, legal cinema. Though the user interface is aesthetically pleasing, there’s no search feature. Nevertheless, sorting by genre will help you navigate this extensive collection of films.
Though Public Domain Flix appears to almost entirely consist of embedded YouTube videos, it’s a nifty resource. Here, you can stream thousands of movies. Site navigation is simple thanks to a robust search feature. There’s also a brief synopsis of each movie.
Unfortunately, Public Domain Flix lacks download options. However, its excellent layout and descriptions still make it a phenomenal public domain movies site.
While most public domain movie sites yield streaming and download capabilities, OpenFlix is a bit different. Rather than concentrating on movie hosting, OpenFlix is merely a public domain movie database. But it excels at delivering a catalog of films.
Essentially, it’s the Wikipedia of public domain movies. You can search or browse by genre. Clicking into a movie’s entry, you can read plot synopses, DVD quality ratings, and more. Plus, there’s essential information such as the year of release and country of origin.
Although you can’t actually download directly from OpenFlix, it provides what’s arguably the definitive public domain movies list. There are links to Amazon DVDs of titles, or you can use OpenFlix to find what to watch, then download or stream elsewhere.
The Best Public Domain Sites for Movies
Although you’re unlikely to cancel your Netflix subscription based on the public domain movies available online, they’re another option when you want something to watch.
If we had to pick one site to bookmark it would be Archive. org for the sheer number of films available. Despite its lack of video content, OpenFlix is also a must-bookmark. Its information about public domain movies is unrivaled.
Whichever site you choose to use, ultimately, you can find hours of entertainment online completely free, and legal to download or stream. So you’d be a fool to pass up the opportunity.
These days, gaming is about more than simply fragging people and bragging about it afterwards. Rather, the hobby has changed into something with social, competitive, commercial, and recreational elements that mean gamers can use apps to enhance their experience.
From fun communication platforms to must-have utilities, apps for gamers are more necessary than ever. Here are some essential apps that PC gamers need in their lives. The bonus being that they’re all entirely free.
1. Discord
Finding a user-friendly, reliable, and free voice chat program for online games used to be a difficult task. Most platforms required usernames, subscriptions, or knowledge of the technology.
But Discord changed everything when it was introduced. The free app is available through browsers, a standalone desktop app, and a mobile app.
The ability to invite people to a channel with an invite link, the user-friendly interface, and free channel hosting make Discord the go-to choice for many gamers. Discord is not only reliable, but you can also use a guest account if you don’t want to create your own.
The app continues to improve over time, introducing new features that make life easier for gamers. Discord has even launched an online game store to rival Steam’s dominance in the market.
Steam is the most popular digital gaming library program, but it goes so much further than online gaming and cloud libraries. The client is also a social hub that lets you connect with your friends, share achievements, and play together.
In-home streaming is another way the platform is incredibly useful for gamers. This feature allows you to stream your games from your main PC to another device on your home network, such as a laptop.
The recommendations queue, follow reviewer features, and new and improved Steam chat are other ways that the platform has evolved its software over the years.
Parsec is a free game-streaming app that lets you play local co-op games with friends online. The cloud gaming platform also allows users to easily host games on their computers. You can use this functionality for either in-home streaming or online multiplayer with friends and other Parsec users.
You can also use Parsec to play multiplayer games that not every person in the party has. These multiplayer sessions don’t require everyone to have the game installed on their computer. As long as the host PC has the game and the game has local multiplayer functionality, any friend using Parsec can join the session.
OBS Studio is the go-to game-recording app for many players who want to share their gameplay—and it’s easy to see why. Not only is the software available for free, it performs well and is relatively easy for beginners to figure out.
The program can record your screen, audio input, and audio output when you are playing a game. This makes it easy to record not only what’s happening in the game, but also any commentary you would like to add with a microphone or headset.
OBS Studio also has other uses, including recording your screen for other types of content such as tutorials.
Despite its simple appearance, it’s a powerful tool. You can use it for streaming, recording gameplay for YouTube, or even just capturing clips to share with friends.
As soon as you hear the name “Twitch”, you think of live streaming. But it turns out that the Twitch desktop app has some handy features even for gamers who don’t watch streamers.
One of its most useful features is its game add-ons and overlay management through integration with CurseForge. Twitch acts as a central hub through which you can manage different mods for games such as Minecraft or World of Warcraft.
Twitch’s desktop app also has a variety of social features, such as community hosting, friends lists, and video chat. Like other apps on this list, it looks like the developers are continually finding new ways to improve the program and add new features.
While many gamers upgrade their hardware over the years to get the most out of their games, budgetary constraints mean that the majority of gamers don’t ever have the latest components. That’s why game-boosting software can be so useful. The right software can help push the hardware you have further when it comes to gaming.
Razer Cortex does this in a variety of ways. Its game booster feature helps free up system resources and RAM so that more memory can be dedicated to your game. Meanwhile, its system booster defragments your system to help optimize programs and processes.
These features launch automatically when you start a game. Your PC settings return to normal once you exit the game. It’s this automation that makes the program so easy and convenient to use.
For gamers who want more control over how to boost their computer’s performance, MSI Afterburner is an essential tool. The free software is the go-to graphics card overclocking tool for those who want to easily access their GPU settings. The only drawback being that only certain manufacturers allow users to overclock their graphics cards.
MSI Afterburner also includes scanning tools that can help boost your system. But the detailed overview and ability to adjust system settings is the program’s major draw. The software also includes hardware temperature monitoring, custom fan settings, and an overlay that allows you to keep track your system while in your game.
These apps aren’t the only reason why so many gamers prefer using a PC as their main platform. In fact, there are a variety of factors that continue to motivate people to stick with their computer over switching to a console.
From the lack of worrying over backwards compatibility to the graphics potential, there’s no shortage of reasons why PC gaming is better than console gaming. Yes, we said it.
While social media makes all the noise, SEO is still the best way to get noticed online. However, keeping track of your ranking can be a time-consuming task. Enter SerpCloud — an online platform that creates detailed daily SEO reports for your site and helps you compare your performance against your competitors. Right now, you can get a lifetime Pro subscription for only $29.99 at MakeUseOf Deals.
SEO Insights
When we talk about SEO, we usually think about Google. But millions of people also use other search engines. SerpCloud helps you improve your ranking across all major search platforms.
In fact, the online platform tracks the performance of your site across 180 Google regions, along with Yahoo, Bing and Yandex. SerpCloud automatically checks these rankings every day, and you can choose to receive your results in a daily email.
But that’s not all. SerpCloud can help you analyze traffic from backlinks, social media, Alexa, YouTube, and a variety of other sources. All the data is displayed in neat charts, meaning you can see your progress.
Aside from personal projects, SerpCloud Pro is great for marketing professionals. You can easily track multiple client sites, and the app can produce white label reports. Add in Google Analytics integration and good support, and you have the ultimate SEO tool.
Lifetime Analytics for $29.99
It’s worth $2,575, but you can currently get a lifetime SerpCloud Pro subscription for only $29.99.
Adobe Photoshop is the king of image editors, but it costs a pretty penny. But don’t worry, you can get most of its best features for free through a few online tools.
No, we aren’t talking about the usual popular cloud-based photo editors like Pixlr, PicMonkey, SumoPaint, and others. These are relatively little-known image editors that make it easy for anyone to apply basic effects on their photos.
Naturally, none of these apps are going to be as powerful and full-featured as Photoshop itself. Adobe has hundreds of engineers working on a single product, while these online apps are usually labors of love.
Photopea (Web): The Best Free Online Photoshop Alternative
There is no debate about this. Forget about Pixlr, forget about SumoPaint, forget about anything else you’ve tried. Once you use Photopea, you can’t go back. It’s as close to the Photoshop experience as you’re going to get.
The web app looks and feels like Photoshop, so you’ll get used to it instantly. There are detailed tutorials available for it so that you can learn how to use any feature. All the popular Photoshop features are available, like clone stamp, layers, filters, and so on. You can even open a PSD file or save an image as PSD.
Photopea’s best part is that it does all its computation offline, so your pictures are never sent to the cloud. Open the website and that’s it, the rest of the work is happening on your computer. That not only makes it faster than working online but also protects your data.
Photopea has been around for some time, but never really got its due. After recently getting some great updates, it has been gaining some popularity. Hop on this bandwagon now. Chromebook users should especially give this one a whirl.
Mara.Photos (Web): Swiss Army Knife of Tools and Effects
Mara slipped under most people’s radar when it launched, but it’s a brilliant and simple image editing app. It has a whole bunch of effects, filters, and tools, all of which can be applied to an image for free.
First, you need to select the effect you want to apply. Options include Resize, Crop, Rotate, Type, Sketchpad, Pop, Vintage, Art, Frame, Overlay, Stickers, Converter, Auto Fix, Red Eye, Color Picker/Converter, Dropper, Brightness/Contrast, Hue/Saturation, Vibrance, Curves, Blur, Sharpen, Smooth, Noise, Grayscale (Black & White), Threshold, Vignette, Pixelate, Mosaic, Straighten, Skew, Perspective, Twirl, Bulge/Pinch, Wave, Splitter, Color Tint, Bump, Invert Colors, Palette Extractor, Optimize Palette, GIF Editor, APNG/AWebP Editor, Mirror, Kaleidoscope, ASCII Art, 3D Anaglyph, Glitcher, RAW, EXIF, PNG Metadata, Steganography, ANSI Art, Vector Graphics Editor.
You can then upload the image from your desktop, cloud drive, or share a URL. Each effect has multiple tweaks you can make, choosing how deeply to apply the effect. And yes, once you apply an effect, you can transfer the image to another tool or effect.
Remove BG (Web): Automatically Remove Backgrounds of Photos
Remove BG is almost magical. In Adobe Photoshop, the magic wand tool lets you select the main subject of an image and then remove the background in the picture. Well, Remove BG is the free tool to do that online.
You have to try it out to see how well it works. Upload a picture from your computer or paste a URL. Remove BG will work on it for a few minutes and then you’ll get a result of the before and after version of the picture. You can download and save it to your computer for free, without any watermark. It’s fantastic.
Remove BG is by far the best online tool we’ve seen for this feature. Others don’t offer the same accuracy or make you pay to remove watermarks. Bookmark this one, you’ll need it.
Image Toolbox (Web): Easy Batch Image Resizing and Converting
Photoshop’s scripts make it easy to resize a batch of images quickly. If you want to do that online, Image Toolbox has your back.
The web app lets you resize a bunch of images at the same time. You can resize them based on specific resolutions for width or height, or by percentage of the original picture.
At the same time, Image Toolbox can also convert all images to JPEG or PNG, depending on what you want. As always, you can choose the quality of the JPEG or PNG file, which determines the file size too.
One nice feature is that you don’t need to re-upload the pictures if you don’t get it right the first time. There’s an option to “Re-edit and retry”, which saves you the time and energy of uploading a huge number of images a second time to get it right.
This isn’t technically a Photoshop feature, but Photoshop scripts do make it easy to convert one image into several different sizes for different social media uses in one click. Now you can do that online with Promo’s handy tool.
It’s surprisingly easy to use. First, upload a picture or add it from a URL. Then scroll down to select the types of image sizes you want. Promo has templates for everything you’d need in Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Email and Blog, and Google Display Network. These include every type of profile picture, cover image, story, and other space where you can upload the image.
The downloaded package of zipped files has the image type in the file name, so it’s easy to know what to upload where. It’s a fantastic tool that makes life much easier.
One-Click Tools for Easier Image Editing
The multitude of options and features in Photoshop isn’t for everyone. Many people need something simpler. Just like Remove BG and Promo offer a single-click option to do one task well, there are several other one-click websites to make your photos look better.
Facebook has become one of the best places to sell your stuff online. Hundreds of millions of people use Facebook Marketplace every month. And there are other ways to sell stuff on Facebook too.
In this article we look at the different ways you can sell your unwanted items on Facebook, as well as share some crucial tips for making a successful sale.
Facebook Marketplace
Facebook Marketplace is definitely the first place you’ll want to try if you’re looking to to make a quick sale.
Since Facebook already knows your location when you’re logged in, it automatically calls up sales from your local area. This means when you click the Sell Something button on the left, Facebook will tailor the listing for buyers near you who are looking for that item.
Selling is also fast. You’ll pick from one of the main categories; Item for Sale, Vehicle for Sale, or Home for Rent.
Depending on which category you choose, you’ll see a simple form to fill out your details.
Filling out this form and adding photos can take as little as one to five minutes, depending how descriptive you get.
In just a few steps you’ll have a live listing, accessible to all the buyers using Facebook Marketplace in your local area.
From this listing page, you’ll manage questions from potential buyers. People can also send private messages, make offers, and arrange a pickup time and place.
Because there are so many people on Facebook Marketplace, you’ll find that in most cases you’ll have far more interested buyers than you’ll know what to do with. Most items can sell in as little as one to four days.
Tips for Selling on Facebook Marketplace
Make your titles interesting and descriptive.
Use a brief description that covers what buyers care about, such as quality, history, and why you’re selling.
Take advantage of the 10 images, and make them all clear and detailed.
Answer buyer questions quickly, and consider taking lower offers if you want to sell fast.
Arrange to meet somewhere safe and in public to close the sale.
Buy and Sell Groups on Facebook
While Facebook Marketplace is the most popular way to sell things on Facebook, it isn’t the only way.
There are entire Facebook Groups, many that have thousands or hundreds of thousands of members, dedicated to buying and selling things. In many cases, you can find groups focused on selling specific types of items like antiques, vehicles, real estate, and more.
You can find these groups by clicking on Groups in the left navigation pane, and then searching for “buy and sell groups”.
If you’re having difficulty finding what you’re looking for, read through these useful Facebook search tips.
The main differences between selling on these groups and selling on Facebook Marketplace is that the groups aren’t always localized. You may land a buyer who lives halfway across the country from you. So you’ll need to arrange shipping (and make sure to charge the buyer shipping costs).
With that said, you can sometimes find a local buy and sell group near you as well. Posting your item in a Facebook Group can increase the odds of selling (as well as the final selling price). This is because people in the group are already interested, and they’re usually willing to pay more.
Some of these groups are public (meaning you can join and start posting immediately), but most are private. So once you click Join, you’ll need to wait until the group Admin accepts you into the group.
Tips for Selling on Facebook Groups
Use good formatting so buyers can easily scan the post for features that are important to them.
Photos appear larger than in Facebook Marketplace, so take high-detail pictures.
Include your location in the post along with estimated shipping costs.
Buy and Sell Pages on Facebook
If you’re doing more than just doing a one-time sale, a better option might be creating a buy-and-sell Facebook Page.
If you own your own store and you’re looking to build a community of people interested in the kind of items you sell, a Facebook Page is the perfect way to do it. Once you’ve attracted enough members, you can post daily updates to your page with items from your shop. You can even do this if your entire business is digital.
Beyond selling things, you can also use your own Facebook page to promote special events or promotions.
The one downside of launching your own page is that, unlike Facebook Marketplace, you aren’t starting out with an existing community of buyers.
But on the flip side, once you’ve built a large enough following, you’ll have a devoted group of people who are interested in the stuff that only you are selling. There’s no competing with other sellers on your own Facebook page.
Tips for Selling on a Facebook Page
Focus your early efforts on promoting your new Facebook page.
Post items for sale frequently to generate and maintain interest with your followers.
Promote your Facebook page to your real world customers and everyone you know.
Include your Facebook page on business cards.
Offer frequent discounts and special deals to your followers.
Sell on Your Facebook Wall
One of the most common ways people occasionally sell items on Facebook is by posting that item for sale on their own wall.
This is the easiest and fastest solution, because you don’t have to search for a group or fill out a form on Facebook Marketplace. You just take a few photos of the item and write up a status update as you normally would.
If you have even just a few hundred friends, the odds are pretty good that one of your family or friends will want what you’re selling. You can also feel great about giving one of your family or friends a great deal on something they need.
Tips for Selling Through a Facebook Post
Create the post on a 3rd party site (like eBay or YouTube), and share the post to your Facebook wall.
Offer to deliver the item (if a local friend or family member buys it).
List it far enough below its true value to attract interest.
Selling Stuff on Facebook Is Easy
All of the methods listed above to sell things on Facebook are simple and straightforward. It doesn’t take very long, and usually your item will sell much faster than if you posted it elsewhere. Best of all, sales should be hassle-fee.
Usually there’s no packaging or shipping, and often you can meet with the buyer and get rid of the item on the same day.
Selling things is only one way Facebook can be a powerful tool. But like all large communities, it’s important to stay safe. This is especially true when dealing with people you don’t know.
Before you get started selling, make sure to review our Facebook privacy guide and ensure that you’re protecting yourself and your information along the way.
Depending on how paranoid you are, this research from Stanford and Google will be either terrifying or fascinating. A machine learning agent intended to transform aerial images into street maps and back was found to be cheating by hiding information it would need later in “a nearly imperceptible, high-frequency signal.” Clever girl!
This occurrence reveals a problem with computers that has existed since they were invented: they do exactly what you tell them to do.
The intention of the researchers was, as you might guess, to accelerate and improve the process of turning satellite imagery into Google’s famously accurate maps. To that end the team was working with what’s called a CycleGAN — a neural network that learns to transform images of type X and Y into one another, as efficiently yet accurately as possible, though a great deal of experimentation.
In some early results, the agent was doing well — suspiciously well. What tipped the team off was that, when the agent reconstructed aerial photographs from its street maps, there were lots of details that didn’t seem to be on the latter at all. For instance, skylights on a roof that were eliminated in the process of creating the street map would magically reappear when they asked the agent to do the reverse process:
The original map, left; the street map generated from the original, center; and the aerial map generated only from the street map. Note the presence of dots on both aerial maps not represented on the street map.
Although it is very difficult to peer into the inner workings of a neural network’s processes, the team could easily audit the data it was generating. And with a little experimentation, they found that the CycleGAN had indeed pulled a fast one.
The intention was for the agent to be able to interpret the features of either type of map and match them to the correct features of the other. But what the agent was actually being graded on (among other things) was how close an aerial map was to the original, and the clarity of the street map.
So it didn’t learn how to make one from the other. It learned how to subtly encode the features of one into the noise patterns of the other. The details of the aerial map are secretly written into the actual visual data of the street map: thousands of tiny changes in color that the human eye wouldn’t notice, but that the computer can easily detect.
In fact, the computer is so good at slipping these details into the street maps that it had learned to encode any aerial map into any street map! It doesn’t even have to pay attention to the “real” street map — all the data needed for reconstructing the aerial photo can be superimposed harmlessly on a completely different street map, as the researchers confirmed:
The map at right was encoded into the maps at left with no significant visual changes.
The colorful maps in (c) are a visualization of the slight differences the computer systematically introduced. You can see that they form the general shape of the aerial map, but you’d never notice it unless it was carefully highlighted and exaggerated like this.
This practice of encoding data into images isn’t new; it’s an established science called steganography, and it’s used all the time to, say, watermark images or add metadata like camera settings. But a computer creating its own steganographic method to evade having to actually learn to perform the task at hand is rather new. (Well, the research came out last year, so it isn’t new new, but it’s pretty novel.)
One could easily take this as a step in the “the machines are getting smarter” narrative, but the truth is it’s almost the opposite. The machine, not smart enough to do the actual difficult job of converting these sophisticated image types to each other, found a way to cheat that humans are bad at detecting. This could be avoided with more stringent evaluation of the agent’s results, and no doubt the researchers went on to do that.
As always, computers do exactly what they are asked, so you have to be very specific in what you ask them. In this case the computer’s solution was an interesting one that shed light on a possible weakness of this type of neural network — that the computer, if not explicitly prevented from doing so, will essentially find a way to transmit details to itself in the interest of solving a given problem quickly and easily.
This is really just a lesson in the oldest adage in computing: PEBKAC. “Problem exists between keyboard and computer.” Or as HAL put it: “It can only be attributable to human error.”
My parents are approaching 60. When they were young, they hung out at diners, or drove around in their cars. My generation hung out in the parking lot after school, or at the mall. My colleague John Biggs often talks of hanging out with his nerd buddies in his basement, playing games and making crank calls.
Today, young people are hanging out on a virtual island plagued by an ever-closing fatal storm. It’s called Fortnite.
They hang out in Fortnite the way we used to hang out in basements or back yards. We played games or kicked a ball around, but it was all a pretense for the social aspect.
The thread above describes exactly what I’m talking about. Yes, people most certainly log on and play the game. Some play it very seriously. But many, especially young folks, hop on to Fortnite to socialize.
The phenomenon of ‘hanging out’ on a game is not new.
I was in a 50 person clan in World of Warcraft in 2004 and we all hung out on a Ventrilo for hours every day for years and years. I saw real romantic relationships begin, grow and die on there. So “x is a place” is a fine observation, but it’s not a new phenomenon.
Almost any popular game results in a community of players who connect not only through the common interest of the game itself, but as real friends who discuss their lives, thoughts, dreams, etc. But something else is afoot on Fortnite that may be far more effectual.
Gaming culture has long had a reputation for being highly toxic. To be clear, there is a difference between talking about someone’s skills in the game and making a personal attack:
“You are bad at this game.” = Fine by me
“You should kill yourself.” = Not fine at all
But many streamers and pro gamers make offensive jokes, talk shit about each other, and rage when they lose. It’s not shocking, then, that the broader gaming community that tries to emulate them, especially the young men growing up in a world where esports are real, tend to do many of the same things.
A new type of community
But Fortnite doesn’t have the same type of community. Sure, as with any game, there are bad apples. But on the whole, there isn’t the same toxicity permeating every single part of the game.
For what it’s worth, I’ve played hundreds of hours of both Fortnite and Call of Duty over the past few years. The difference between the way I’m treated on Fortnite and Call of Duty, particularly once my game-matched teammates discover I’m a woman, is truly staggering. I’ve actually been legitimately scared by my interactions with people on Call of Duty. I’ve met some of my closest friends on Fortnite.
One such relationship is with a young man named Luke, who is set to graduate from college this spring.
During the course of our now year-long friendship, Luke revealed to me that he is gay and was having trouble coming out to his parents and peers at school. As an older gay, I tried to provide him with as much guidance and advice as possible. Being there for him, answering his phone calls when he was struggling and reminding him that he’s a unique, strong individual has perhaps been one of the most rewarding parts of my life this past year.
I’ve also made friends with young men who, once they realize that I’m older and a woman and have a perspective that they might not, casually ask me for advice. They’ve asked me why the girl they like doesn’t seem to like them back — “don’t try to make her jealous, just treat her with kindness,” I advised, and then added “ok, make her a little jealous” — or vented to me about how their parents “are idiots” — “they don’t understand you, and you don’t understand them, but they’re doing their best for you and no one loves you like they do” — or expressed insecurity about who they are — “you’re great at Fortnite, why wouldn’t you be great at a bunch of other things?” and “have more confidence in yourself.”
(Though paraphrased, these are real conversations I’ve had with random players on Fortnite.)
There is perhaps no other setting where I might meet these young people, nor one where they might meet me. And even if we did meet, out in the real world, would we open up and discuss our lives? No. But we have this place in common, and as we multitask playing the game and having a conversation, suddenly our little hearts open up to one another in the safety of the island.
But that’s just me. I see this mentorship all the time in Fortnite, in both small and big ways.
Gaming culture is often seen as a vile thing, and there are a wide array of examples to support that conclusion. Though this perception is slowly changing, and not always fair, gamers are usually either perceived as lonely people bathed in the blue glow of the monitor light, or toxic brats who cuss, and throw out slurs, and degrade women.
So why is Fortnite any different from other games? Why does it seem to foster a community that, at the very least, doesn’t actively hate on one another?
One map, a million colors
First, it’s the game itself. Even though Fortnite includes weapons, it’s not a ‘violent’ game. There is no blood or gore. When someone is eliminated, their character simply evaporates into a pile of brightly colored loot. The game feels whimsical and cartoonish and fun, full of dances and fun outfits. This musical, colorful world most certainly affects the mood of its players.
Logging on to Fortnite feels good, like hearing the opening music to the Harry Potter movies. Logging on to a game like, say, Call of Duty: WWII feels sad and scary, like watching the opening sequence to Saving Private Ryan.
Moreover, Fortnite Battle Royale takes place on a single large map. That map may change and evolve from time to time, but it’s even more “common ground” between players. Veterans of the game show noobs new spots to find loot or ways to get around. As my colleague Greg Kumparak said to me, “every time you go in, you’re going to the same place. Maybe it’s skinned a little different or there’s suddenly a viking ship, but it’s home.”
Of course, there are other colorful, bubbly games that still have a huge toxicity problem. Overwatch is a great example. So what’s the difference?
Managing expectations
Battle Royale has introduced a brand new dynamic to the world of gaming. Instead of facing off in a one-vs-one or a five-vs-five scenario as with Starcraft or Overwatch respectively, Battle Royale is either 1-vs-99, 2-vs-98 or 4-vs-96.
“It isn’t as binary as winning or losing,” said Rod “Slasher” Breslau, longtime gaming and esports journalist formerly of ESPN and CBS Interactive’s GameSpot. “You could place fifth and still feel satisfied about how you played.”
Breslau played Overwatch at the highest levels for a few seasons and said that it was the most frustrating game he’s ever played in 20 years of gaming. It may be colorful and bubbly, but it is built in a way that gives an individual player a very limited ability to sway the outcome of the game.
“You have all the normal problems of playing in a team, relying on your teammates to play their best and communicate and to simply have the skill to compete, but multiply that because of the way the game works,” said Breslau. “It’s very reliant on heroes, the meta is pretty stale because it’s a relatively new game, and the meta has been figured out.”
All that, combined with the fact that success in Overwatch is based on teamwork, make it easy to get frustrated and unleash on teammates.
With Fortnite, a number of factors relieve that stress. In an ideal scenario, you match up with three other players in a Squads match and they are all cooperative. Everyone lands together, they share shield potions and weapons, communicate about nearby enemies, and literally pick each other up when one gets knocked down. This type of teamwork, even among randos, fosters kindness.
In a worst case scenario, you are matched up with players who aren’t cooperative, who use toxic language, who steal your loot or simply run off and die, leaving you alone to fight off teams of four. Even in the latter scenario, there are ways to play more cautiously — play passive and hide, or third-party fights that are underway and pick players off, or lure teams intro trapped up houses.
Sure, it’s helpful to have skilled, communicative teammates, but being matched with not-so-great teammates doesn’t send most people into a blind rage.
And because the odds are against you — 1 vs 99 in Solos or 4 vs 96 in Squads — the high of winning is nearly euphoric.
“The lows are the problem,” says Breslau. “Winning a close game of Overwatch, when the team is working together and communicating, feels great. But when you’re depending on your team to win, the lows are so low. The lows aren’t like that in Fortnite.”
The more the merrier
The popularity of Fortnite as a cultural phenomenon, not just a game, means that plenty of non-gamers have found their way onto the island. Young people, a brand new generation of gamers, are obsessed with the game. But folks who might have fallen away from gaming as they got older are still downloading it on their phone, or installing it on the Nintendo Switch, and giving Battle Royale a try. Outsiders, who haven’t been steeped in the all-too-common hatred found in the usual gaming community, are bringing a sense of perspective to Fortnite. There is simply more diversity that comes with a larger pool of players, and diversity fosters understanding.
Plus, Fortnite has solid age distribution among players. The majority (63 percent) of players on Fortnite are between the ages of 18 and 24, according to Verto Analytics. Twenty-three percent of players are ages 24 to 35, and thirteen percent are 35 to 44 years old. However, this data doesn’t take into account players under the age of 18, which represent 28 percent of overall gamers, according to Verto. One way Fortnite is like other games is that 70 percent of players are male.
There aren’t many scenarios where four people, from different backgrounds and age groups, join up under a common goal in the type of mood-lifting setting that Fortnite provides. More often than not, the youngest little guy tries to make some sort of offensive joke to find his social place in the group. But surprisingly, for a shoot and loot game played by a lot of people, that’s rarely tolerated by the older members of a Fortnite squad.
All eyes on Fortnite
The popularity of the game also means that more eyes are on Fortnite than any other game. Super popular streamer Ninja’s live stream with Drake had more than 600,000 concurrent viewers, setting a record. The more people watching, the more streamers are forced to watch their behavior.
Fortnite streamers are setting a new example for gamers everywhere.
One such streamer is Nick “NickMercs” Kolcheff. Nick has been streaming Fortnite since it first came out and has a huge community of mostly male viewers. I consider myself a part of, albeit a minority in, that community — I’ve subscribed to his channel and cheered for him with bits and participated in the chat. In short, I’ve spent plenty of time watching Nick and have seen him offer a place of support and friendship for his viewers.
I’ve seen Nick’s audience ask him, in so many words, how to lose weight (Nick’s a big fitness guy), or share that they’re dealing with an illness in the family, or share that they’re heartbroken because their girlfriend cheated on them.
In large part, Nick says he learned how to be a mentor from his own dad.
“I remember being in those kinds of positions, but I have a great father that always sat me down and let me vent and then shared his opinion, and reminded me that it isn’t supposed to be easy,” said Kolcheff. “It feels good to bounce things off other people and hard things always feel much easier when you know you’re not alone, and I can relate to my chat the way my dad relates to me.”
Nick always has something positive to say. He reminds his audience that even if they feel alone IRL, they have a community right there in his Twitch channel to talk to. He sets an example in the way he talks about his girlfriend Emu, and the way he treats her on screen. When Nick loses a game and his chat explodes with anger, he reminds them to be cool and to not talk shit about other players.
And it’s easy to see his example followed in the chat, where young people are treating each other with respect and answering each other’s questions.
Nick wasn’t always like this. In fact, the first time that NickMercs and Ninja played together on stream, they brought up the time that Nick challenged Ninja to a fight at a LAN tournament years ago. But both Nick and Ninja have matured into something that you rarely find in online gaming: a role model — and it’s had an effect.
Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, far and away the most successful Twitch streamer ever, decided to stop swearing and using degrading language as his influence in the community and his viewership grew. When his audience said they missed the old Ninja, he had this to say:
I’m the same person, you guys. 2018 can’t handle old Ninja and… guess what, I can’t handle old Ninja because the words that I used to say and the gaming terms I used to say… they weren’t ok, alright? I’ve matured.
Jack “Courage” Dunlop is another Fortnite streamer who uses his influence in the community to mentor young people. He has befriended a young fellow named Connor. Courage helped Connor get his first win and has since continued playing with him and talking to him.
Not only is he being kind to Connor, but he’s setting an example for his viewers.
“In comparison to games like Call of Duty and Gears of War and Halo, the top content creators like Ninja, Sypher PK, Timthetatman, are a little older now,” said Kolcheff. “They’ve come from other games where they already had a following. If you look at me five or six years ago, or any of us, we’ve all chilled out. We were more combative and crazy and had a lot more words to say, but I think we just grew up, and it bleeds through to the community.”
These guys are the exception in the wider world of gaming and streaming. But they represent the future of gaming in general. As esports explode with growth, pro players will undoubtedly be held to the same behavioral standards as pro players in traditional sports. That’s not to say that pro athletes are angels, and that’s not to say that bad actors won’t have a following. Just look at PewDiePie.
A matter of time
The esports world is realizing that they can’t let their professionals run their mouth without consequences. As the industry grows, highly dependent on advertisers and brand endorsements, with a young audience hanging on every word, it will become increasingly important for leagues, esports organizations and game makers to start paying closer attention to the behavior of their top players.
We’re already seeing this type of policing happening on Overwatch, both for pro players and amateurs alike.
There is plenty more work to do. But the problem of removing toxicity from any platform is incredibly difficult. Just ask Facebook and Twitter. Still, it’s only a matter of time before esports decision-makers raise the stakes on what they’ll allow from their representatives, which are pro players and streamers.
Toxic behavior is being rejected in most polite society anywhere (except Twitter, because Twitter), and it surely can’t be tolerated much longer in the gaming world. But Fortnite maker Epic Games hasn’t had to put too much effort forth to steer clear of toxic behavior. The community seems to be doing a pretty good job holding itself accountable.
Winning where it counts
Believe you me, Fortnite is not some magical place filled with unicorns and rainbows. There are still players on the game who behave badly, cheat, use toxic language and are downright mean. But compared to other shooters, Fortnite is a breath of fresh air.
No one thing makes Fortnite less toxic. A beautiful, mood-lifting game can’t make much of a difference on its own. A huge, relatively diverse player base certainly makes a dent. And yes, the game limits frustration by simply managing expectations. But with leaders that have prioritized their position as role models, and all the other factors above working in harmony, Fortnite is not only the most popular game in the world, but perhaps one of the most polite.
We reached out to Epic Games, Courage, and Ninja for this story, but didn’t hear back at the time of publication.
Four billion miles from Earth, the New Horizons probe that recently sent such lovely pictures of Pluto is drawing near to the most distant object mankind has ever come close to: Ultima Thule, a mysterious rock deep in the Kuiper belt. The historic rendezvous takes place early tomorrow morning.
This is an encounter nearly 30 years in the making, if you count back to the mission’s beginnings in 1989, but it’s also been some 13 years since launch — the timing and nature of which was calculated to give the probe this opportunity after it had completed its primary mission.
New Horizons arrived at Pluto in the summer of 2015, and in its fleeting passage took thousands of photos and readings that scientists are still poring over. It taught us many things about the distant dwarf planet, but by the time it took its extraordinary parting shots of Pluto’s atmosphere, the team was already thinking about its next destination.
Given the craft’s extreme speed and the incredibly distant setting for its first mission, the options for what to investigate were limited — if you can call the billions of objects floating in the Kuiper Belt “limited.”
In fact the next destination had been chosen during a search undertaken in concert with the Hubble Space Telescope team back in 2014. Ground-based reconnaissance wasn’t exact enough, and the New Horizons had to convince Hubble’s operators basically to dedicate to their cause two weeks of the satellite’s time on short notice. After an initial rejection and “some high-stakes backroom maneuvering,” as Principal Investigator Alan Stern describes it in his book about the mission, the team made it happen, and Hubble data identified several potential targets.
Ultima Thule as first detected by New Horizons’ LORRI imager.
2014 MU69 is a rock of unknown (but probably weird) shape about 20 miles across, floating in the belt about a billion miles from Pluto. But soon it would be known by another name.
“Ultima Thule,” Stern told me in an interview onstage at Disrupt SF in September. “This is an ancient building block of planets like Pluto, formed 4 billion years ago; it’s been out there in this deep freeze, almost in absolute zero the whole time. It’s a time capsule.”
At the time, he and the team had just gotten visual confirmation of the target, though nothing more than a twinkle in the distance. He was leaving immediately after our talk to go run flyby simulations with the team.
“I’m super excited,” he told me. “That will be the most distant exploration of any world in the history of not just spaceflight, but in the history of human exploration. I don’t think anybody will top that for a long time.”
The Voyagers are the farthest human-made objects, sure, but they’ve been flying through empty space for decades. New Horizons is out here meeting strange objects in an asteroid belt. Good luck putting together another mission like that in less than a few decades.
In the time I’ve taken to write this post, New Horizons has gone from almost exactly 600,000 kilometers away from Ultima Thule to less than 538,000 (and by this you shall know my velocity) — so it’ll be there quite soon. Just about 10 hours out, making it very early morning Eastern time on New Year’s Day.
Even then, however, that’s just when New Horizons will actually encounter the object — we won’t know until the signal it sends at the speed of light arrives here on Earth 12 hours later. Pluto is far!
The first data back will confirm the telemetry and basic success of the flyby. It will also begin sending images back as soon as possible, and while it’s possible that we’ll have fabulous pictures of the object by the afternoon, it depends a great deal on how things go during the encounter. At the latest we’ll see some by the next day; media briefings are planned for January 2 and 3 for this purpose.
Once those images start flowing in, though, they may be even better in a way than those we got of Pluto. If all goes well, they’ll be capturing photos at a resolution of 35 meters per pixel, more than twice as good as the 70-80 m/px we got of Pluto. Note that these will only come later, after some basic shots confirming the flyby went as planned and allowing the team to better sort through the raw data coming in.
“You should know that that these stretch-goal observations are risky,” wrote Stern in a post on the mission’s page, “requiring us to know exactly where both Ultima and New Horizons are as they pass one another at over 32,000 mph in the darkness of the Kuiper Belt… But with risk comes reward, and we would rather try than not try to get these, and that is what we will do.”
NASA public relations and other staff are still affected by the federal shutdown, but the New Horizons team will be covering the signal acquisition and first data live anyway; follow the mission on Twitter or check in to the NASA Live stream tomorrow morning at 7 AM Pacific time for the whole program. The schedule and lots of links can be found here.
Citi Research has joined a growing list of analysts to lower first-quarter production estimates for Apple’s iPhones amid weakening demand for the smartphones.
Citi Research analyst William Yang cut the overall iPhone shipment forecast by 5 million, to 45 million for the quarter, reported Reuters. That’s a sting that falls in line with others such as influential TF International Securities Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who delivered a less than stellar iPhone forecast earlier this month.
It’s Yang’s outlook for the 6.5-inch iPhone XS Max that is particularly gloomy. In a research note to clients, Yang slashed the shipment forecast for the iPhone XS Max by 48 percent for the first quarter of 2019.
The cut in Citi’s forecasts is driven by the firm’s view that “2018 iPhone is entering a destocking phase, which does not bode well for the supply chain,” Yang wrote.
Two weeks ago, Kuo predicted that 2019 iPhone shipments will likely between 5 to 10 percent lower than 2018. He also lowered first-quarter shipment forecasts by 20 percent.
