Former professional esports player Dennis Fong founded GGWP in 2022, more than a year before companies like Microsoft and Google debuted their natural-language search engines and the AI revolution officially gripped the globe. GGWP is an AI-powered moderation system that identifies and takes action against in-game harassment and hate speech, and after two years on the scene, it's now integrated into titles at more than 25 studios. Fong may be a veteran of the Doom and Quake esports scenes, but he's interested in protecting players from abuse in every genre, especially as social features become easier to implement for studios of all sizes. These aren't all gritty military sims or hardcore competitive franchises like Counter-Strike or League of Legends, where you might expect emotional outbursts and increased toxicity. One-third of the games that utilize GGWP are co-op and PvE experiences, rather than competitive PvP settings, according to Fong. Turns out, cozy games need moderation too.

A deer and a fawn are lost far from home, with no idea where they are or how they can get back to the woods. With the help of glowing antlers, curiosity and sheer will, the animals travel through wheat fields, abandoned subway systems and surreal sewers to make it back where they belong. This is Way to the Woods, a video game for PC and Xbox One due out in 2020 from an independent, 20-year-old developer named Anthony Tan. Following in the footsteps of similar so-called "pacifist" games like Journey, Firewatch and Night in the Woods, Way to the Woods is aimed at gamers looking for adult experiences that don't rely on violence to tell a compelling story. While President Donald Trump and others continue to suggest a connection between violent video games and mass shootings despite a lack of evidence, there has been a notable spike in games like Tan's that are more about exploration, story and design than racking up a body count.