The rapid evolution of the gaming industry, driven by technological advancements and a burgeoning community, necessitates a deeper understanding of user sentiments, especially as expressed on popular social media platforms like YouTube. This study presents a sentiment analysis on video games based on YouTube comments, aiming to understand user sentiments within the gaming community. Utilizing YouTube API, comments related to various video games were collected and analyzed using the TextBlob sentiment analysis tool. The pre-processed data underwent classification using machine learning algorithms, including Naïve Bayes, Logistic Regression, and Support Vector Machine (SVM). Among these, SVM demonstrated superior performance, achieving the highest classification accuracy across different datasets. The analysis spanned multiple popular gaming videos, revealing trends and insights into user preferences and critiques. The findings underscore the importance of advanced sentiment analysis in capturing the nuanced emotions expressed in user comments, providing valuable feedback for game developers to enhance game design and user experience. Future research will focus on integrating more sophisticated natural language processing techniques and exploring additional data sources to further refine sentiment analysis in the gaming domain.

This paper presents a comprehensive comparative analysis of Natural Language Processing (NLP) methods for automated toxicity detection in online gaming chats. Traditional machine learning models with embeddings, large language models (LLMs) with zero-shot and few-shot prompting, fine-tuned transformer models, and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) approaches are evaluated. The evaluation framework assesses three critical dimensions: classification accuracy, processing speed, and computational costs. A hybrid moderation system architecture is proposed that optimizes human moderator workload through automated detection and incorporates continuous learning mechanisms. The experimental results demonstrate significant performance variations across methods, with fine-tuned DistilBERT achieving optimal accuracy-cost trade-offs. The findings provide empirical evidence for deploying cost-effective, efficient content moderation systems in dynamic online gaming environments.

In its first report on the state of LGBTQ inclusion in video games, US advocacy organisation Glaad (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) has said that games are yet to catch up with TV and film when it comes to queer representation. The study of US-based players found that 17% of gamers identify as LGBTQ a significant increase on the 10% reported in a 2020 Nielsen Games study, and 10% more than the proportion of the US general population thought to be LGBT . By contrast, only 2% of games feature an openly LGBTQ character. That compares with 28% of films released in 2022, and 11% of primetime TV characters in 2022 and 2023, per other Glaad reports. In partnership with Nielsen, Glaad surveyed 1,452 gamers in the US, from within and outside the LGBTQ community.

"It's dangerous to go alone! Take this," says the famous quote from the iconic game The Legend of Zelda. In life, it is dangerous to go it alone--and having a supportive community is critical, particularly for people experiencing mental health challenges. This memorable line of dialog inspired the name of the nonprofit Take This, which celebrated its 10th anniversary in November. The organization has been promoting mental health by combating toxicity in the gaming space for the past decade, and its reach and impact continue to grow and create positive change.

After Mike Rufail graduated from college in 2001, he turned to video games as a cheaper alternative to nights out, buying an Xbox 360 paired with popular first-person shooter Call of Duty 2. "I realized I was one of the better players pretty quickly," says Rufail, 36. Rufail went on to become a professional esports athlete and, later, founder and CEO of Envy Gaming, an esports squad that competes in tournaments for games like Fortnite, Overwatch, and, yes, Call of Duty. "I was a fairly good athlete, and played sports my whole life," says Rufail, who retired from competitive play in 2013 to manage Envy's roster. "But I also had a love for gaming." But in the past few days, Rufail's profession has been criticized by politicians and pundits who argue that violent video games have at least in part fueled America's mass shooting epidemic.

How much gaming is too much gaming? This is the question Japan's pre-eminent addiction expert, Dr. Susumu Higuchi, is trying to answer as he treats people whose lives have been destroyed by video game addiction. Online gaming addiction has become the fastest-growing form of addiction in the 21st century, and it's the most vulnerable people -- children -- who mainly fall prey to its psychoactive effects, Higuchi says. As head of the Kurihama Medical and Addiction Center in Kanagawa Prefecture, which started the country's first program for internet addition in 2011, Higuchi is rolling up his sleeves to tackle a scourge that has eaten into the vitals of our society. "This isn't just about Japan, it's happening all over the world," Higuchi said in a recent interview.

JAKARTA, Indonesia – Esports organizers say don't blame the games. Executives at the Asian Games have expressed sympathy for the victims of the deadly shooting at a video game tournament in a Florida shopping mall. But Kenneth Fok, president of the Asian Electronic Sports Federation, said the shooting was more a reflection of U.S. gun laws than the gaming community. U.S. authorities say 24-year-old David Katz of Baltimore killed two people and wounded nine others before fatally shooting himself Sunday at a Madden tournament being held at a riverfront mall in Jacksonville. "Of course tragedies like this should never happen. One is already too many," Fok told a news conference Wednesday about the introduction of esports at the Asian Games.

When the Xbox team at Microsoft first unveiled the Xbox Adaptive Controller back in May, the design drew applause from the gaming community. The fact that a prominent gaming hardware manufacturer was directly addressing the needs of disabled gamers with innovative product design was a moment worth noting. The controller, called the XAC, is remarkable for its simplistic design: On top, there's a D-pad, a few menu buttons, and two giant round hand pads. Its back strip, though, has a multitude of ports that will let physically disabled gamers plug in any kind of assistive devices they need. The XAC is expected to ship later this year and will cost $100.

Microsoft's new gaming console controller does not look like the previous Xbox One controller. Heck, it does not even look like any other video game controllers out on the market. But there's a good explanation why Microsoft designed its Adaptive Controller the way it looks now. Microsoft's Adaptive Controller is targeted at a market comprising people with disabilities. People who can't use the regular Xbox One controller for reasons pertaining to their physical limitations will find Microsoft's new controller the perfect peripheral for their gaming sessions. The motivation that drove Microsoft and partner AbleGamers to come up with the Adaptive Controller has to do with the demand for a peripheral that offers the right user experience at a price point that's not going to break the bank.

"This [scrutiny] is absolutely something that has been much needed and is part of our controlled process of making sure that the public can control and can trust the data that's in our database," he said. Hall bought TG in 2014, and since then his "administration" has been working to clear the company's reputation. During the organization's early days in the 1980s, founder Walter Day would go around arcades in his native Iowa recording high scores from arcade cabinets and organizing state-level tournaments. These were published in a few places, most notably The Guinness Book of World Records. After Day retired in 2010, ownership changed hands a few times, and at one point, there was an entry fee for score submissions.