Razer has partnered with Sam Altman’s World to help distinguish real players from bots in multiplayer experiences. Bots in multiplayer games are nothing new; in fact, many games benefit from giving players AI-controlled bots to play against when there aren’t enough human players to fill a server. However, bots can also be too skilled and nearly impossible to defeat, or worse: they could be farming bots that do nothing but spam the game and ruin player experiences.
Razer ID verified by World ID is designed to designate users as humans and provide assurance that you’re playing against another person, rather than a bot. It’s built on the World Network, an existing blockchain system that uses iris scans to verify identity.
However, the technology has a way to go before it’s widely available. Its first use will be in a game called Tokyo Beast, a blockchain-focused title that will require users to sign in through a Razer ID. In theory, it will prevent human players from being paired against bot players.
In a survey from Echelon Insights and requested by World, 59% of gamers reported frequent encounters with bot-controlled players in games. Of those surveyed, 71% said that bots ruin the competitive nature of games, and 18% stopped playing a game because of the number of bots.
Razer and World want to ensure the online multiplayer experience remains human-focused, where gamers can test their skills against one another rather than against a bot with artificial skills.
Wei-Pin Choo, Chief Corporate Officer of Razer, said “Growing a verified community is key to fair play. To foster fair competition, developers must be able to build trusted, human-only game experiences that keep AI bots out. By teaming up with World, we’re ensuring that real players are the heart of every experience, keeping gaming fair, immersive, and designed for humans.”
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.