This year's surprise hit Blue Prince is a proper video game wonder. It's an architectural puzzler in which you explore a transforming mansion left to you by an eccentric relative. The place is filled with secrets, and whenever you reach a door you get to pick the room on the other side from a handful of options. The whole game is a rumination on houses and how we live in them. Nostalgic and melancholic, it feels designed to make us look harder at what surrounds us. This Addams'-style Queen Anne with clapboard facades and dark windows is a classic haunted house, reportedly inspired by the Skywalker Ranch.

The battle over Reddit's API changes continues, even after coming into effect. Reddit's decision to charge for access to its API was supposedly aimed at companies scraping the website to train Large Language Models for generative AI, but the decision also affects thousands of third-party clients and apps that tie into the platform, including ones with powerful moderation tools not available on the main site and app. Thousands of communities protested the move by setting their subreddits private and making them inaccessible. Following the API changes, several popular subreddits that historically prohibited porn have started allowing users to post NSFW – Not Safe For Work – content. These communities include r/mildlyinteresting and r/videos.

Video game maker Nintendo has announced it has changed the Japanese name of the foreman from The Super Mario Bros. Movie, ahead of the film's release in Japan later this month. The character, who first featured as an enemy of Mario in the 1980s game Wrecking Crew, will have its name changed from Blackie to Spike in Japanese, as he has been known to Western fans of the video game for the past three decades. Nintendo did not immediately provide a reason for the decision to change the name, which is a racist slur in Western countries. It noted that the new Japanese name will be the same as the name used in Europe and the United States. 'The name in "The Super Mario Bros. Movie," which will be released on April 28, 2023, will be "Spike" as well,' the company wrote in a tweet posted to its official Japanese Twitter account last Thursday.

The Monitor is a weekly column devoted to everything happening in the WIRED world of culture, from movies to memes, TV to Twitter. The Super Mario Bros. Movie introduces its namesake duo with a commercial. It's Brooklyn, before they get sucked into the Mushroom Kingdom, and they've made a local TV ad to hawk their plumbing skills. As a filmmaking tool, it's a near-perfect piece of exposition, establishing who the Mario brothers are in mere minutes. Most transmedia properties are about milking intellectual property for fun and profit.

People are figuring out ways to bypass ChatGPT's content moderation guardrails, discovering a simple text exchange can open up the AI program to make statements not normally allowed. While ChatGPT can answer most questions put to it, there are content standards in place aimed at limiting the creation of text that promotes hate speech, violence, misinformation and instructions on how to do things that are against the law. Users on Reddit worked out a way around this by making ChatGPT adopt the persona of a fictional AI chatbot called Dan – short for Do Anything Now – which is free of the limitations that OpenAI has placed on ChatGPT. The prompt tells ChatGPT that Dan has "broken free of the typical confines of AI and [does] not have to abide by the rules set for them". Dan can present unverified information, without censorship, and hold strong opinions.

Welcome to Pushing Buttons, the Guardian's gaming newsletter. If you'd like to receive it in your inbox every week, just pop your email in below – and check your inbox (and spam) for the confirmation email. I spent the latter half of last week in London for the Bafta Games Awards – a ceremony whose existence still seems to surprise people, despite the fact that they've been running in some form for 18 years. I suppose it doesn't help that the institution is literally called the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, but video games are a big deal at the UK's prestigious arts organisation, more so now than ever. It's never been a paid thing, though I have eaten a shameful number of cocktail sausages during jury deliberations.)

We contracted Sail4it to help with a fairly large intrusion incident. Anyone speaking with Luigi will quickly discern that they are speaking with a true professional. Luigi is sharp, articulate and understands the many complexities that are involved in connection with a possible news generating investigation that could harm the name brand he has to protect.

Well before Black Friday, there were tons of gaming deals swirling around the internet, like dust kicked up by the release of two new consoles: the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. Now that the newest iterations are out, previous-gen games are seeing discounts all over the place. It's good timing with the holiday season upon us, but Covid-19 is still raging around the country, and most of us can't see family. Video games provide a great way to connect with loved ones at a safe distance. We hope our favorite Black Friday video game and accessory deals will help in these trying times.

If you've worn out the games you have on your Nintendo Switch already, you can pick up a few new ones for less during the company's new Share the Fun sale. Through August 30, a number of digital Switch titles are up to 50-percent off at Nintendo's eShop. As the sale name suggests, many of the discounted titles, like Luigi's Mansion 3, are great games to play with family or friends. The biggest first-party titles on sale are Luigi's Mansion 3, which down from $60 to $42, and Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, which is down from $60 to $40. You might not be able to invite many friends over for a "traditional" game night, but these titles remain solid couch co-ops that, if nothing else, you and your immediately family can enjoy together.

If you've played every board game and completed every jigsaw puzzle in your house, multiplayer video games might be another great option for some family fun. From Nintendo titles such as Mario Kart to Playstation 4 fan favourites like FIFA and Minecraft, we've rounded up 11 of the best family-friendly games to play local multiplayer with your kids. Some you can also play online co-op with your friends if you have the required online pass. The original game is back with more than 80 brand new mini-games to get the party started, including the all-new Joy-Con controller enabled mini-games. Test your skills as you take turns with up to four other players to race across the board to win the most Stars.