Amazon’s gameplay streaming service Twitch is introducing a new set of automated moderation tools in a bid to reduce user abuse and harassment across all registered channels.
According to Twitch, the optional AutoMod feature is designed “to help [broadcasters] create a more positive experience for themselves and their communities” by automatically filtering specific words and phrases parroted by users who participate in serial harassment.
User harassment has long been an issue for the Twitch platform, as persistent trolls can easily circumvent chat bans and word filters designed to prevent abusive language. According to Twitch, the new AutoMod feature will supplement existing moderation tools through machine learning and natural language processing.
Twitch’s new moderation tools saw a trial run during the platform’s recent broadcasts of the Democratic and Republican National Conventions, with encouraging results.
“AutoMod is a unique moderation tool that does more than filter inappropriate chat,” Twitch explains. “When a user sends a message that AutoMod flags as potentially inappropriate, the message is held in a publishing queue awaiting moderator approval.”
The AutoMod tool offers an adjustable degree of filtering “in the event [users] are more or less conservative about the type of dialogue they want to see in their chat.” In addition to eliminating specific words and phrases in chat, broadcasters can target abusive emotes and other harassing language that often evades traditional filtering tactics.
“What makes Twitch a leader in moderation, beyond our ever-vigilant team of Admin moderators, is that we equip streamers with a robust set of tools and allow them to appoint trusted moderators straight from their communities to protect the integrity of their channels,” said Twitch Moderation Lead Ryan Kennedy.
“This allows creators to focus more on producing great content and managing their communities,” Kennedy continued. “By combining the power of humans and machine learning, AutoMod takes that a step further. For the first time ever, we’re empowering all of our creators to establish a reliable baseline for acceptable language and around-the-clock chat moderation.”
The AutoMod tool is currently available in English only, though future updates will support Arabic, Czech, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Turkish.
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.