Fantasy

The metaverse, or the very idea of it, is leaving a bad taste in some people’s mouths — literally (i.e., the “pixel-flavored” Coca Cola Byte) and figuratively. Now, Naoki Yoshida, the director of Final Fantasy XIV, has distanced the popular MMORPG from the inevitable metaverse. In a recent interview with Weekly Bunshun (translated by Siliconera), Yoshida spoke about the comments he and his team received from fans comparing Final Fantasy XIV to the metaverse. Those comments stem from the fact that PC gamers have been…

Paul Zacharia's "A Secret History of Compassion" valiantly drags the two disparate worlds of fiction and fact to a busy crossroads without traffic signals and then allows readers to revel in the sheer chaos that ensues. The book's central character, Lord Spider, an extremely famous author of popular fiction has been commissioned by the Communist Party to undertake what appears to be quite a straightforward task: Write an essay on compassion. What seems like a relatively easy assignment for a prolific author…