Adi Robertson

I hadn’t realized just how many game titles were falling until Kevin wrote about it this morning. But there’s actually a very good reason! It’s because they have to maintain equilibrium with all the titles that are rising. Consider: Dead Rising. Rise of the Triad. Monster Hunter Rise. Metal Gear Rising. Ryse: Son of Rome. (Actually, maybe don’t consider that one.) I’m sure I’m forgetting some others. Variations in vertical distance fans rise up!

Techdirt’s Mike Masnick and Leigh Beadon teamed up with game designer Randy Lubin for Moderator Mayhem, a swipe-based game about the challenges of moderating a social network. It’s sort of like Reigns, except instead of ruling a kingdom, you’re deciding whether to take down reviews of Cocaine Bear.

The singer-songwriter defeated a lawsuit alleging “striking similarities” between his song “Thinking Out Loud” and Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On.” It’s certainly a better outcome than the disastrous “Blurred Lines” verdict, and we wish Sheeran all the best with his continued creative career.

50 Years of Text Games is a newsletter by Aaron Reed (author of the fantastic horror novel Subcutanean) about the history of interactive fiction — from stuff even non-IF fans probably know about, like Oregon Trail, to deep cuts like a version of Doom for blind players and a parser game in a nonsense language. Reed collected the essays into a great-looking 600-page limited edition print run, and there’s still some copies left before it’s set to ship in June.

KOSA is perhaps the biggest of the myriad child safety bills from state and federal lawmakers, and it’s back in Congress after its initial introduction last year. The bill mandates a variety of parental controls and other requirements for online services. Lizzo likes it; about 100 civil liberties and LGBT advocacy organizations don’t.