Daily Archives: May 14, 2020

Yes, It Can Be Hard to Be an Atheist in America; Now We Have the Data – Religion Dispatches

Posted: May 14, 2020 at 5:58 pm

Are the nonreligious a marginalized group in America? When I brought this question up to a friend who lives in New York the other day, he was skeptical. Practically everyone he knows is an atheist, he says, as if this were the most natural thing in the world. As someone who grew up in central Indiana and Colorado Springs, where I was sent to evangelical schools, his attitude both bemused and concerned me. The disconnect just serves to illustrate that how one answers this question may vary wildly depending on where one sitsin some cases quite literally.

According to a new report from American Atheists* called Reality Check: Being Nonreligious in America, those living in very religious communities reported substantially more discrimination in employment, education, and other services than those living in not at all religious communities.

Visual from Reality Check: Being Nonreligious in America, courtesy of American Atheists.

The Secular Survey, from which the report was drawn, includes data from 33,897 nonreligious Americansthose who self-identify as atheists, agnostics, humanists, skeptics, freethinkers, secular, and/or simply nonreligious. The surveys designers consider a lack of data on nonreligious Americans an obstacle to effective advocacy for the needs of this group, which the report describes as an invisible minority.

In a webinar for journalists and advocates, American Atheists vice president for legal and policy, Allison M. Gill, stressed that most data we currently have fail to distinguish between the various stripes of the religiously unaffiliated (i.e. nones). Nones may retain some religious beliefs or consider themselves religious without belonging to a formal institution, but this is not true of the nonreligious proper, as the report defines them. As Gill observes, this can sometimes obfuscate the needs of our community.

According to Reality Check, Participants analysis of community religiosity aligned well with geographic expectations. In other words, regions youd expect to be highly religious were reported by participants to be so. In addition, While nonreligious beliefs may be casually accepted in states like California and Vermont, nonreligious people living in states like Mississippi and Utah have markedly different experiences.

Stigma and Community Religiosity by State chart is from Reality Check: Being Nonreligious in America, courtesy of American Atheists.

Indeed, the 554 survey respondents from Utah rated their state more religious than respondents from any other state, although Mississippians reported a slightly higher degree of stigmatization of nonreligious people. The study measured stigma using a scale based on nine microaggressions targeting nonreligious people, and respondents were asked to note whether and how often they had experienced each one over the year prior to taking the survey. Per the report:

Nearly two thirds of all survey participants were sometimes, frequently, or almost always asked to join in thanking God for a fortunate event (65.6%). Nearly half (47.5%) of survey participants recalled sometimes, frequently, or almost always being asked to or feeling pressure to pretend that they are religious. Nearly half of participants were sometimes, frequently, or almost always asked to go along with religious traditions to avoid stirring up trouble (45.3%), and nearly two in five (37.9%) were treated like they dont understand the difference between right and wrong.

Of participants, 26.3% reported that sometimes, frequently or almost always others have rejected, isolated, ignored or avoided me and 17.3% reported sometimes, frequently, or almost always being excluded from social gatherings and events because of their nonreligious identity. When RD recently spoke with American Atheists Gill over the phone, she also noted that her organization and others like it hear from constituents every day who have complaints about their children facing discrimination and bullying in school, how theyre at risk at work for talking about their beliefs, how theyre not able to access government services.

Stigmatized minority or bullies without a pulpit?

The representation of nonreligious Americans as a stigmatized minority is bound to be contentious, particularly when the Secular Surveys respondentsa convenience sample recruited through secular organizations rather than a representative sampleskew so disproportionately white (92.4% vs. a U.S. Census Bureau estimate of 76.5%, including white Hispanic/Latinx) and male (57.8% vs. 49.2%), a profile that inevitably recalls elevatorgate and the racism, misogyny, and alt-right views that have come to characterize far too much of visible movement atheism in recent years.

If ones primary associations with being nonreligious are people like Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Bill Maher, and their vocal and all too often abusive fans, its only natural to find it absurd and even offensive that such privileged and powerful men could be considered in any sense marginalized. But before we jump to too many conclusions, in addition to recalling the disparate geographic experiences noted above, we should also note that Secular Survey respondents skew disproportionately LGBTQ (23% vs. an estimated 4.5% of American adults as noted in Reality Check). In addition, Reality Check takes care to note disparate outcomes among African-American, Latinx, ex-Muslim, and LGBTQ respondents, the intersections of whose racial, ethnic, sexuality, and gender identities can affect their experiences as nonreligious Americans.

After reading Reality Check, I recently decided to test the waters on how the politically engaged, broadly progressive public might relate to the representation of nonreligious Americans as a stigmatized minority. I did so, as a queer nonreligious American myself, by posting a 24-hour Twitter poll in which I asked respondents, Can the language of coming out properly be used by anyone forced to conceal an aspect of identity, or does it belong only to the LGBTQ community?

I noted that the question was inspired by the new report on the Secular Survey, which found that many respondentsparticularly those in very religious communitiesare forced to conceal their nonreligious identity. The Twitter poll results are, of course, unscientific, but the replies were passionate and deeply divided in ways that matter for the kind of public discussion the Secular Survey is intended to spark:

While some respondents insisted that being nonreligious is a choice in a way that ones experience of ones gender and sexuality is notand even some self-identified atheists replied to the effect that they dont consider their atheism an identitythe fact remains that in many parts of the United States, being recognized as an unbeliever can come with severe social consequences. In addition, although ones beliefs about the nature of reality should ideally be a matter of conscience, children have no control over the beliefs theyre raised with or the communal norms that surround them.

If we recognize that forced religious conversion is an act of violence, then we should recognize that living in a community where its unsafe to disagree with the prevailing religious consensus and to refuse to participate in religious activities is also to experience violence. As a transgender woman and ex-evangelical, these issues are very relatable to me, as they are to many who have left high-control religious groups, and its my fervent conviction that they need to be part of our public discourse.

According to Reality Check:

Nearly one third (31.4%) of participants mostly or always concealed their nonreligious identity from members of their immediate family. Nearly half of participants mostly or always concealed their nonreligious identity among people at work (44.3%) and people at school (42.8%).

Family rejection can come into play as well, with the Secular Survey finding that 29.2% of respondents under 25 whose parents were aware of their nonreligious identity had somewhat or very unsupportive parents. By including questions about loneliness and isolation, the survey was able to suggest that such situations result in higher likelihood of depression, and it also showed that lack of family support for nonreligious Americans resulted in lower educational achievement. The reports prediction of likely depression corresponds well to recent social scientific findings on the psychological harm that comes to people who consider leaving their high-control religious communities but choose to remain.

In addition, some atheists are at risk of physical violence over their lack of religion. Only .8% of survey respondents reported being physically assaulted over their unbelief, although for African-American respondents the number is 2.5%. Meanwhile, 12% of respondents experienced threats of violence, and 2.5% experienced vandalism (14.2% and 3.2%, respectively, for Latinx respondents).

None of these facts make the experience of coming out as nonreligious the same as coming out as LGBTQ, but they do nonetheless show that disclosing ones nonreligious identity can be fraught and risky depending on ones social environment. While the report itself did not use the language of coming out, its framing is recognizable as that associated with social justice advocacy. The reports inclusion of intersectional analysis is also particularly noteworthy for an atheist organization, but is unsurprising given the diversity of American Atheists national staff and the organizations willingness to partner with religious organizations to work toward the common good, as the pluralism inherent in democracy demands.

With respect to the terminology of coming out, one of the qualitative responses included in Reality Check, identified as coming from a female respondent in Kentucky, reads in part, Joining an atheist/humanist meetup group helped me have the courage to come out with my secular beliefs. Prior to having a social group, I felt alone without a way to overcome judgement from religious family members. American Atheists Utah Director Dan Ellis also recently commented, When I came out as an atheist, I experienced discrimination from family members, adding that he lost friendseven ones who werent particularly religious.

Gill, herself a transgender lesbian, noted in our phone conversation that the Secular Surveys questions about identity concealment were indeed meant to get at a coming out experience, though the survey deliberately did not use that language in order to avoid possible confusion.

Asked whether she thinks the phrase coming out belongs only to the LGBTQ community, Gill remarked, I would vehemently disagree with that; I think it belongs to everybody. And I see a lot of similarities between being nonreligious and being LGBT. She stressed that this does not mean that the stigma and discrimination faced by nonreligious people and members of the LGBTQ community are the same, but observed that the process of coming to awareness of ones identity and beliefs and revealing it to other people and facing possible rejection is similar.

The use of the terminology of coming out outside of LGBTQ experience will likely remain contentious. But the hardships that many nonreligious Americans face for being nonreligious, while distinct from those faced by LGBTQ Americans, are still very real. Christian privilege and supremacism are pervasive in the United States, and much work remains to be done to render them more visible so that, along with white supremacism and patriarchy, we can work more effectively to dismantle them.

*Full disclosure: I am in regular contact with the leadership of American Atheists, and I was slated to speak at the organizations 2020 convention before it had to be postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Survey: Atheists face discrimination, rejection in many areas of life – UPI News

Posted: at 5:58 pm

May 11 (UPI) -- A new report says atheists in the United States face such widespread stigma and discrimination that many of them conceal their nonreligious identity from relatives, co-workers and people at school.

Atheist residents of "very religious" communities are especially likely to experience discrimination in education, employment and public services such as jury duty, according to Reality Check: Being Nonreligious in America, a survey released this month by American Atheists, a Cranford, N.J.-based nonprofit that advocates civil rights for nonreligious people.

The report says that although the percentage of Americans who consider themselves religious has been declining for decades and the diversity of religious beliefs has increased, nonreligious people "continue to live in a culture dominated by Christianity."

"Like religious minorities, nonreligious people too often face discrimination in various areas of life, as well as stigmatization, because of their beliefs," the report says.

Survey results

The report was based on the U.S. Secular Survey, which was created and managed by Strength in Numbers Consulting Group in New York. Nearly 34,000 participants age 18 or older who self-identified as atheists, agnostics, humanists, freethinkers, skeptics or secular people responded to the survey between Oct. 15 and Nov. 2.

"The Reality Check report reveals how widespread discrimination and stigma against nonreligious Americans is," American Atheists said in a news release. "Due to their nonreligious identity, more than half of survey participants had negative experiences with family members, nearly one-third in education and more than 1 in 5 in the workplace."

The percentage of survey respondents who mostly or always conceal their nonreligious identity from members of their immediate family was 31.4. The percent for co-workers was 44.3 and 42.8 for people at school, according to the report.

Among respondents under age 25, 21.9 percent reported their parents are not aware of their nonreligious beliefs. In that age group, 29.2 percent of those with parents who know about their nonreligious identity said they were somewhat or very unsupportive of their beliefs.

"We found that family rejection had a significant negative impact on participants' educational and psychological outcomes," the report says. "For example, participants with unsupportive parents had a 71.2 percent higher rate of likely depression than those with very supportive parents."

Geographic differences

The experiences of nonreligious people vary dramatically in different parts of the nation, Reality Check says. Nonreligious beliefs might be causally accepted in some states, including California and Vermont, but the stigmatization and concealment were higher on average in states survey participants reported as "very religious."

To reach those conclusions, survey participants were asked to assess how religious the people are in the community where they live and to rank the frequency -- never, seldom, sometimes, frequently or almost always -- that they had encountered nine types of "microaggressions" in the past year. Those experiences included being asked to go along with religious traditions to avoid stirring up trouble; being bothered by religious symbols or text in public places; being told they are not a "good person" because they are secular or nonreligious; and being asked by people to join them in thanking God for a fortunate event.

"As might be expected, participants from rural locations (49.6 percent) and small towns (42.7 percent) were more likely to say their current setting was 'very religious' than those from other settings (23.7 percent)," the report says. "Stigmatization and concealment were higher on average in states that participants reported are 'very religious.'"

The survey ranks Utah as the most religious state based on 80 percent of survey participants who live there calling their community "very religious." Mississippi is second with 78.7 percent.

Mississippi ranks as the worst state for stigma against nonreligious people and as the state where they are most often forced to conceal their beliefs. Utah is ranked as the second worst.

Sarah Worrel said she had friends of many faiths while growing up in Long Island, N.Y., and "you didn't presume someone was religious or of a particular religion until they told you." It's different in Mississippi, where she's lived since age 12.

"There's so little cultural diversity that it's assumed that you are some form of Christian unless you state otherwise," Worrel, the American Atheists assistant state director for Gulfport, wrote in an email. "I've met many atheists, pagans and other non-Christians here, but I usually don't find that out until I've gotten to know them well."

Worrel said she's had encounters with strangers trying to push religion on her and is always honest about her lack of belief but has not faced any serious discrimination. However, a friend lost a job for being an atheist, she said.

Questioning religion

Dan Ellis, the Utah state director for American Atheists, also is open about being an atheist.

Ellis said that as a child, he couldn't square what he learned in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with stories of a Biblical flood that destroys everything. His teacher couldn't explain why a loving God would kill babies in such a cruel way, he said.

Ellis, who was never a firm believer, also was unable to get satisfactory answers to his questions from church leaders and as an adult, he eventually became a "Jack Mormon," a term for an inactive member of the LDS Church.

For a long time, he thought it was wrong to be a non-believer. He wasn't sure how to refer to himself until he was in his mid-20s and a co-worker revealed that he was an atheist. Ellis began using that label for himself with close friends and family.

At the time, people he knew linked atheism with satanism, he said. Ellis lost friends and angered some relatives, who cut him out of their lives.

"There's a lot of discrimination and recrimination in Utah against atheists," Ellis said, adding that many atheists can't be open about being nonreligious for fear of losing their job.

Overlooked viewpoint

Other survey findings include:

Nick Fish, president of American Atheists, said in a news release that the struggles of nonreligious people are often overlooked.

"Thankfully, the U.S. Secular Survey has revealed the discrimination our community regularly faces," Fish said. "With that well-established, we need to find solutions and work toward ending the stigma faced by our community."

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An outbreak anywhere is an outbreak everywhere – Modern Diplomacy

Posted: at 5:57 pm

New York governor Andrew Cuomo has become the articulate, compassionate political face of government competence in fighting a pandemic.

Thats quite an achievement for a man who as late as early March 2020 trumpeted: Excuse our arrogance as New Yorkers We think we have the best healthcare system on the planet right here in New York. So, when youre saying what happened in other countries versus what happened here, we dont even think its going to be as bad as it was in other countries. We are fully coordinated; we are fully mobilized.

New York was neither fully coordinated, nor was it fully mobilized.

In fact, it became the pandemics prime hotspot in the United States, accounting for the highest number of infection cases and the highest mortality rate. Its hospitals were overwhelmed, its stockpiles depleted, its frontline workers perilously exposed to risk of contagion. Many of the deaths could have been prevented had Mr. Cuomo opted to lock down the Big Apple earlier.

For now, that recent history has largely been forgotten. Mr. Cuomo thrives in his element, a rising star on Americas political ferment. His sober but empathetic, fact-based daily briefings project him as a man in command with a mission to ensure the health, safety, and wellbeing of his state.

If Mr. Cuomo, a veteran of dealing with the aftermaths of disasters like Hurricane Sandy, learnt anything from his delayed response to the coronavirus pandemic, it was that an outbreak anywhere is an outbreak everywhere.

Unlike other epidemics in recent years such as the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome or SARS in the early 2000s, the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in 2012 or the eruption of Ebola in West Africa in 2014, the coronavirus, dubbed COVID-19, left no corner of the globe untouched.

It is a lesson that goes to the heart of all that is wrong with global, regional, and national healthcare governance. It is a lesson that calls into question social and economic policies that have shaped the world for decades irrespective of political system.

It is also a lesson that goes to the core of the relationship between government and the people. It positions social trust as a pillar of an effective healthcare policy in a time of crisis.

In an era of defiance and dissent as a result of a breakdown in confidence in political systems and political leadership that kicked off with Occupy Wall Street and the 2011 Arab popular revolts and led to the rise of populists, mass anti-government demonstrations and in 2019 the toppling of leaders in Algeria, Sudan, Lebanon and Iraq, lack of trust complicated government efforts to counter the virus.

Distrust persuaded many Iranians to initially refuse to heed public health warnings to maintain social distancing, stay at home and install an Android app designed to help people self-diagnose and avoid rushing to hospital.

Pakistanis put their faith in religious leaders who rejected government demands for a halt to congregational prayers. So did many Russians as bans on mass gatherings split the clergy and threatened to undermine the Russian Orthodox Churchs key support for President Vladimir Putin.

Post-mortems of governments handling of the crisis once the coronavirus has been contained could increase the trust deficit.

Moreover, in an indication of pent-up anger and frustration that could explode, the imposition of curfews and stay-at-home orders failed to prevent incidental outbursts, including protests in mid-American states, quarantined Egyptian villages and poorer Tunisian and Moroccan hamlets.

In an echo of the Tunisian vendor who sparked the 2011 Arab revolts, 32-year-old unemployed and physically disabled Hammadi Chalbi set himself alight in a town 160 kilometres southwest of Tunis after authorities refused to license him as a fruit seller. In Lebanon, a taxi driver set his vehicle on fire while fruit vendors dumped their goods in the streets in expressions of mounting discontent. The protests suggest a universal corollary with the pandemic: an outbreak anywhere is an outbreak everywhere.

Protesters in 2019 went beyond demanding the fall of a leader. They sought the fall of political elites and radical overhaul of failed political systems. The pandemic called an abrupt halt to the protests. Protesters like the rest of the population went into temporary hibernation.

When they re-emerge, they are likely to put government leaders who prioritized political advantage above their health and economical well-being at a cost that surpasses that of the 1929 Great Depression on par with crimes committed against humanity during times of war.

Social, economic, ethnic, and sectarian fault lines are likely to be hardened in countries like Pakistan and Iraq where militants stepped in with healthcare and other social services to fill voids created by lack of government capacity.

The pandemic further painfully illustrated the economic cost of not only failing to confront a health crisis in a timely fashion but also the risk inherent in policies that do not ensure proper healthcare infrastructure in every corner of the globe, guarantee equal access to healthcare, make sure that people irrespective of income have proper housing and nutrition, turn a blind eye to the destruction of healthcare facilities in conflict situations like Syria, Yemen, Libya, Ukraine, Nagorno-Karabakh, Myanmar, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, tolerate millions of refugees existing in sub-standard living and hygiene conditions, and disregard environmental degradation and climate change.

The pandemic casts a spotlight on the deprivation of populations of proper healthcare as a result of politically motivated discriminatory social and economic policies.

The non-discriminatory nature of the coronavirus forced the Israeli government to ramp up testing in communities of Israeli Palestinians which had been described by public health experts as a ticking time bomb.

The experts warned that Israeli Palestinians, who figured prominently among frontline doctors and nurses treating Jews and Palestinians alike, were an at-risk group, many of whom suffer from chronic diseases, live in crowded conditions, and are socially and economically disadvantaged.

Ramping up testing to prevent the spread of COVID-19 constitutes an immediate effort to stem the tide but does little to structurally prepare Israeli and Palestinian society for the next pandemic.

Pre-dominantly Palestinian East Jerusalem is gravely neglected in every possible way in terms of the infrastructure. Most neighbourhoods of East Jerusalem dont have sewage systems. Just about every possible public service you can think of is underbudgeted and lacking in East Jerusalem. The only thing they get a lot of is parking fines and (punitive) housing demolition orders, said left-wing member of the Jerusalem municipal council Laura Wharton.

A Monopoly board centred on Jerusalem given to her by Moshe Lion, the citys mayor and a former economic advisor and director general of prime minister Benyamin Netanyahus office, illustrates the political calculus that potentially puts not only Jews and Palestinians but populations elsewhere at risk in a future pandemic.

You have here the City of David, the Mount of Olives, the Knesset (the Israeli parliament), the Montefiore windmill, the markets, (the ultra-orthodox Jewish neighbourhood of) Mea Shearim. Al Aqsa (the third holiest Muslim site) is not here, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is not here. Basically what you have is a bunch of Jewish sites and various illusions to other things. Its not a very balanced picture of Jerusalem, Ms. Wharton noted pointing at various landmarks on the board.

African Americans, Hispanics and native Americans tell the story, They have fallen disproportionately victim in the United States to the coronavirus.

US surgeon general Dr. Jerome Adams, a 45-year old African American vice admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, one of Americas eight uniformed services, pulled out his inhaler at a White House press briefing in April 2020, saying hes carried it around for 40 years, out of fear of having a fatal asthma attack.

Looking fit and trim in his dark uniform, Mr. Adams said he also had a heart condition and high blood pressure. I represent that legacy of growing up poor and black in America. And I, and many black Americans, are at higher risk for COVID.

The surgeon general said that its alarming but not surprising that people of colour have a greater burden of chronic health conditions. African Americans and native Americans develop high blood pressure at much younger ages and (the virus) does greater harm to their organs. Puerto Ricans have higher rates of asthma and black boys are three times (more) likely to die of asthma than their white counterparts. People of colour are more likely to live in densely packed areas and multi-generational housing, situations which create higher risk for the spread of a highly contagious disease like COVID-19. We tell people to wash their hands, but a study shows that 30 percent of homes of the Navajo nation dont have running water, so how are they going to do that?

What goes for one of the wealthiest nations on earth goes for the rest of the world too, particularly with the last two decades suggesting that pandemics occur more frequently and are likely to do so going forward.

What started in Wuhan in China in December 2019 had by April 2020 brought the world to a virtual standstill. Millions across the globe were infected, tens of thousands did not survive, economies shut down and the prospects for recovery and return to what was normal seemed a mere hope in a distant future.

Andrew Cuomo may be the exception that confirms the rule. There is little in the response of leaders from Chinas Xi Jingping to Russias Vladimir Putin, Turkeys Recep Tayyip Erdogan and US President Donald J. Trump that suggests that the lesson that an outbreak anywhere is an outbreak everywhere has persuaded them to think in terms of structural change.

If the first six months of the coronavirus are anything to go by, the name of the game has been jockeying for political positions, ideology trumps science, and everyone for him or herself in a race to the bottom rather than apolitical banding together globally, regionally and nationally to fight a dangerous and debilitating common enemy.

The response to the pandemic reflected the crumbling of the post-World War Two international order that is in the grips of a struggle by big and medium-sized powers to shape global governance in the 21st century.

The struggle has already crippled the United Nations and politicization of the coronavirus and healthcare threatens to undermine the World Health Organization, the one, albeit flawed, structure capable of coordinating a global response.

Complicating the response, was the rise of civilizationalists like Mr. Xi, Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, Hungarian prime minister Victor Orban and Mr. Trump who think in civilizational rather than national terms.

They conceive of their nations as civilizations in which Hans, Hindus or Christians rule supreme and there is no equal place for minorities rather than nation states defined by legally recognized borders, population, and language.

Theirs is a world of neglect for international law, increased conflict, political violence, and mass migration that promises to be even less prepared for the next pandemic. It is also a world in which early warning systems are weakened by muzzling of a free press.

Former US president Barak Obama, in his opening blast against Trump in the run-up to the November presidential election, put his finger on the pulse.

What we are fighting against is these long-term trends in which being selfish, being tribal, being divided and seeing others an enemy, that that has become a stronger impulse in American life. And by the way, you know, we are seeing that internationally as well. And its part of the reason why the response to this global crisis has been so anaemic and spotty It has been an absolute chaotic disaster when that mindset of whats in it for me and to heck with everybody else when that mindset is operationalized in our government, Mr. Obama told a virtual gathering of his former staffers.

The pandemic demonstrates the need for coordinated policies ranging from global, regional, and national stock piling, international cooperation in medical research and development, conflict mediation, protection of minority rights, environment, absorption of refugees and robust but diversified supply chains.

It also highlights the importance to healthcare of eradication of poverty and proper social security nets, housing, hygiene, and access to water in a world in which an outbreak anywhere is an outbreak everywhere.

The pandemic positions an approach towards healthcare that is integrated into sustainable social and economic policies as a matter of global and national security on par with regional and national defense and security policies and investments.

It also raises the question of what role major non-governmental institutions like the Clinton Initiative, George Soros and the Gates Foundation can play.

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Summer game fest: how to watch this summers digital gaming events – The Verge

Posted: at 5:55 pm

Even though E3, Gamescom, and other summer gaming events have become online-only or outright canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it seems theres still going to be a lot of gaming news this summer. Publishers and media have already scheduled many digital events, promising news and announcements, which could help fill the void left by the loss of the big tentpole events. And it seems likely that some of these events will provide early looks at the first Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 games, making them particularly intriguing.

To help you keep track of everything thats planned, weve collected every event that we know about in this post. Weve put together details about each event, when theyre scheduled to happen, and how to watch them. Be sure to check back here often; well be updating this post as more events are announced.

What: Geoff Keighley, who created The Game Awards, will be hosting a series of digital events throughout the summer featuring breaking news, in-game events, and free playable content. Many large publishers are already on board, including Bethesda, Blizzard Entertainment, CD Projekt Red, Electronic Arts, Microsoft, Riot, Sony, and Square Enix.

When: There will be multiple events throughout the months of May and August. You can see the full schedule here, which is updated as events are added.

How to watch: Watch Summer Game Fest events on Twitch, Twitter, and YouTube. (Note that some of these are the accounts for The Game Awards.)

What: IGN will be hosting a global, digital event to bring you the latest news and impressions around upcoming games and the next generation of console hardware. There will be live broadcasts and on-demand programming. IGNs event will also feature many publishers, including Blizzard, CD Projekt Red, EA, Facebook (including Oculus), Google Stadia, Humble, Microsoft, PC Gaming Show, Sega, Square Enix, Twitter, and Ubisoft.

When: Planned to kick off in June

How to watch: You can watch IGNs coverage on Facebook, Mixer, Twitch, and Twitter

What: Play for All is a multi-week event with news, previews, interviews, and more. The event will also be raising money for COVID-19 relief efforts in partnership with Direct Relief. Publishers including EA, Bethesda, CD Projekt Red, Deep Silver, Devolver Digital, Larian Studios, Google Stadia, Bandai Namco, Private Division, Square Enix, Sega, and 2K Games will be participating in the event.

When: Begins in early June

How to watch: Watch Play for All on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube

What: Guerrilla Collective is a new digital games festival taking place from June 6th to June 8th, produced by Media Indie Exchange and the Kinda Funny Games Showcase. Studios on board with the event include Humble Publishing, Larian Studios, Paradox Interactive, and many more.

The first day, June 6th, will have three different shows: Guerrilla Collective Live, hosted by Kinda Funny Games Greg Miller; the PC Gaming Show focused on PC gaming news and reveals; and the Future Games Show, which will have have reveals, developer interviews, and wholesome gaming chatter. Theres an online press event scheduled for June 7th and another day of programming with live demos and developer interviews on June 8th.

When:

How to watch: Watch the Guerrilla Collective events on Twitch

What: Limited Run Games says #LRG3 will be its third totally-live, totally-bitchin press conference for the biggest announcements in the future of physical video games.

When: Monday, June 8th, 12PM PT / 3PM ET

How to watch: Watch on Limited Run Games Twitch channel

What: EA says its EA Play Live 2020 will be a live digital broadcast, but the studio hasnt shared many details beyond that just yet.

When: Thursday, June 11th, 4PM PT / 7PM ET

How to watch: TBA

What: Ubisoft is holding a digital E3-style showcase with plenty of exclusive game news, exciting reveals, and much more.

When: Sunday, July 12th, 12PM PT / 3PM ET

How to watch: TBA

What: Geoff Keighley will be hosting another Opening Night Live event timed with Gamescom, which is now an all-digital event. It will be a spectacular, industry-wide finale to the Summer Game Fest, according to the Summer Game Fest calendar.

When: Monday, August 24th, 11AM PT / 2PM ET

How to watch: Since its a Summer Game Fest event, it seems likely youll be able to watch Opening Night Live on all of the Summer Game Fest platforms, including Twitch, Twitter, and YouTube. (Note that some of these are the accounts for The Game Awards.)

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Unreal Engine 5 Just Showed Us Next-Gen Gaming, But Dont Expect Games To Look Like That Yet – Forbes

Posted: at 5:55 pm

Unreal Engine 5

It was our first true next-gen moment. Weve been wondering about what sort of a leap were going to be able to see with Xbox Series X and PS5, and now Epic has delivered us a stunning tech demo that offers a glimmering promise of what these machines are capable of. And yes, that demo definitely does its job. Lets watch it again:

Its exciting! But its important to remember what were looking at. This is a tech demo, even if it is playable. It is not what games will look like at the launch of the Xbox Series X and PS5, and it likely wont be what games look like for a little while after that. Unreal Engine 5 wont even be in preview until early 2021, with full launch coming later that year. But this is what Epic has been doing for a while: showing off the future before it arrives.

For context, lets check out the big tech demo for Unreal Engine 4, from 2012:

Its interesting to watch the above. Games certainly didnt look like that in 2012, but things have changed. And while there are certain aspects of that video that you might not see in a game today, if you released this today and told me it was for a game available right now, Id definitely believe you. Maybe Ill say the same thing in 8 years about this demo, or maybe Ill say the same thing in less time than that.

For now, there are lots of other reasons why games wont be making games that look like this for a little while, and tech is only one of them. For most developers, the economics of building games for a small subset of players with the latest hardware just dont make sense, which is why were going to see such a strong emphasis on cross-gen development.

Unreal Engine 5 will impact the industry at all levels: tools arent just about improving what people can do with the biggest budgets and the most powerful hardware, theyre about reducing the labor and technical costs of every aspect of game development. The biggest changes might be the ones that you never really see in a demo, but the ones that make life easier for developers. So in a few years, when high-end developers are starting to realize some of the true potential of next-gen hardware, the most interesting games might still be coming from smaller developers empowered by better tech and tools.

So, for right now, this stuff is exciting to see, but what were seeing is the possibility of what games will be able to look like with next-gen. For right now, Im mostly curious about what games Ill be playing in the Fall, and a lot of it is going to be cross-gen stuff that looks beautiful, if not revolutionary. If were going to see a next-gen exclusive stunner at this point, a first-party Sony title is our primary candidate, because Microsoft has committed to releasing all exclusives on Xbox One for the time being.

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YamatoCannon joins SANDBOX Gaming as first Western LCK head coach – ESPN

Posted: at 5:55 pm

Former Team Vitality coach and League of Legends European Championship analyst Jakob "YamatoCannon" Mebdi will join SANDBOX Gaming as their head coach, becoming the first Western coach to join a League Champions Korea team in that position, sources familiar with the team's plans told ESPN.

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YamatoCannon will work remotely from his home in Europe until it's safe to relocate to Seoul, South Korea. South Korea saw rapid improvements amid the coronavirus pandemic but has recently experienced new concerns after more than 100 COVID-19 cases were traced back to the entertainment district of Itaewon in Seoul.

YamatoCannon joins SANDBOX after he worked for Riot Games as a desk analyst for the League European Championship in their Berlin studio, and then remotely from home, following the COVID-19 outbreak in Europe. Prior to working as a full-time analyst, YamatoCannon was one of the most popular European coaches, serving as the head coach of Team ROCCAT, Splyce and Team Vitality, and being a frequent guest on the analyst desk. Before coaching, YamatoCannon played League of Legends professionally.

During his time with Vitality, YamatoCannon led the team to the 2018 World Championship in South Korea, where they nearly qualified for the quarterfinals. In that group, they went 3-3, defeating Gen.G twice and Royal Never Give Up once. The team ultimately did not qualify, with Royal Never Give Up and Cloud9 advancing out into the quarterfinals.

No other Western coach -- from North America or Europe -- has served as a head coach of a team in the LCK. Nick "LS" De Cesare, who is currently a commentator for the English-language League Champions Korea broadcast, served as the head coach of the BBQ Olivers from late 2018 through summer 2019, but at that time, BBQ Olivers competed in Challengers Korea, the amateur sister of the LCK.

The 2020 Spring Split spelled disaster for SANDBOX, as the team finished ninth overall -- the lowest in organizational history -- in the LCK. The team competed to retain their spot in the 2020 LCK Summer Promotion tournament and were successful in doing so after defeating Seorabeol Gaming.

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Best gaming headsets, controllers, keyboard and accessories 2020 – NBC News

Posted: at 5:55 pm

With more people spending time at home, video games-based internet traffic has exploded. If youve dug back into the gaming scene with a new gaming console to supplement your at-home entertainment and streaming, dont stop there a few add-ons could make your experience even better. Ive been a gamer since I was a toddler (literally), and have been reviewing gaming peripherals for the majority of my 10-year career writing about consumer technology. To help guide you to an elevated gaming experience, we put together some of the best gaming accessories out right now for different consoles and at various price points.

If youve downloaded so many games that youve run out of space on your consoles hard drive, it may be time to upgrade. Technically, you can buy an entirely new drive and swap it in yourself with a screwdriver, but its even easier to just grab a USB 3.0 drive like this 1TB My Passport model from Western Digital and plug it in. Youll double your space with minimal hassle. If you have a bit more to spend, the 1TB My PassPort Go SSD is faster, which means shorter loading times.

If you want every explosion to rock your skull without annoying your neighbors or whoever is stuck at home with you, a good gaming headset is a must. There are plenty of great options out there, but the wireless HyperX Cloud Flight S strikes a delicate balance between sound quality, features and price plus, its so comfortable youll barely notice its there. Its only compatible with PS4 and PC, though, so if youre an Xbox player, youll need the Xbox version of the last-gen CloudX Flight.

While most gaming headsets including the Cloud Flight S boast 7.1 surround sound, its just a virtual processing mode that adds a feeling of spaciousness to the sound. I rarely find that it sounds better than traditional stereo, so I turn it off, but true surround sound can be amazing for games. If you want to experience it, though, youll need a 5.1 set of speakers, or a soundbar with rear satellites. We've previously put out a shopping guide to soundbars, but if you want something affordable that sounds great, this 5.1 Vizio soundbar will ensure you hear anything coming close to your game character.

While this VIZIO model is out of stock, consider the highly-rated and refurbished VIZIO SB3651-E6B 5.1 Soundbar its a bit shorter, and the subwoofer takes up a bit more space, but its also more affordable. You could also go with the refurbished VIZIO SB3851-C0 38-Inch 5.1 Channel Sound Bar, which is a bit better than the 36-inch model. To learn more about refurbished tech at retailers like Amazon, check out our guide to buying refurbished tech at major retailers.

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The best gaming memories I have arent me sitting alone in a room they involve battling my wife in Mario Kart or shooting for goals in Rocket League with a bunch of friends on a Saturday afternoon. If you still only have one controller, grab an extra and include your family in on the fun you can grab them in all sorts of fun colors if the standard black is too boring or bleak for you.

Wireless controllers are a huge step up over the wired trip hazards of the 80s and 90s. Unfortunately, though, you have to keep them charged which is a lot easier to do with a multi-port charging station like this one for PlayStation, or this one for Xbox.

PC gamers have long contended that a keyboard and mouse is a more precise video game control system than any gamepad, and both arent limited to PCs anymore. Both the Xbox One and PS4 support integration with a keyboard-and-mouse for certain games, and there are plenty of great wireless models to choose from.

I dont know about you, but Im just about out of room in my entertainment cabinet. If you dont have the shelf space to hold your game console, a vertical stand can keep it upright for maximum space efficiency.

Whitson Gordon is a freelance technology writer with bylines in the New York Times, Popular Science Magazine, PC Magazine and more. Previously, he was the editor-in-chief of Lifehacker and How-To Geek.

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NVIDIA GeForce Now adds another 18 new games to its cloud gaming library – XDA Developers

Posted: at 5:55 pm

NVIDIAs GeForce NOW game-streaming service enjoys its share in the now-crowded game streaming market on the fact that it was one of the first to appear for end consumers. The service started beta testing for Android last year and opened up for everyone in February. NVIDIA had pledged to announce new games for GeForce NOW every week, and over the past weeks, it has kept to that promise on multiple occasions. Last week, NVIDIA added 19 games to its cloud gaming library, and today, NVIDIA is announcing 18 new games that will now be available on GeForce NOW.

GeForce NOW incorporates technology that utilizes AI and RTX GPUs to enable the next generation of performance and visuals. Its NVIDIAs improved deep learning neural network that boosts frame rates while generating beautiful, sharp images for games. Since the base technology is game streaming, games begin playing instantly when you fire them up. They also include an experience that has been optimized for cloud gaming and includes Game Ready Driver performance improvements, managed directly by NVIDIA.

Here is the complete list of new games that have been added to GeForce NOW this week:

Of these,ATOM RPG Trudograd was released on May 11 on Steam for PC, while Super Mega Baseball 3 was released on May 13 on Steam for PC. As such, they are fresh entries to the roster, so cloud gamers are not behind conventional gamers.

We also spot Goat Simulator on the list, which is a fun game to kill some time mindlessly without any larger objectives.

XDA News Brief NVIDIA GeForce Now adds another 18 new games to its cloud gaming library

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Nvidia’s bleeding-edge Ampere GPU architecture revealed: 5 things PC gamers need to know – PCWorld

Posted: at 5:55 pm

Nvidias next-generation GPU architecture is finally here. Nearly a year and a half after the GeForce RTX 20-series launched with Nvidias Turing architecture inside, and three years after the launch of the data center-focused Volta GPUs, CEO Jensen Huang unveiled graphics cards powered by the new Ampere architecture during a digital GTC 2020 keynote on Thursday morning. It looks like an absolute monster.

Ampere debuts in the form of the A100, a humongous data center GPU powering Nvidias new DGX-A100 systems. Make no mistake: This 6,912 CUDA core-packing beast targets data scientists, with internal hardware optimized around deep learning tasks. You wont be using it to play Cyberpunk 2077.

But that doesnt mean we humble PC gamers cant glean information from Amperes AI-centric reveal.Here are five key things that Nvidias Ampere architecture mean for the next-gen GeForce lineup.

If youre looking for specific details about GeForce graphics cards, well, keep waiting. Like the Volta and Pascal GPU architectures before it, Amperes grand reveal took shape in the form of a mammoth GPU built to accelerate data center tasks. Unlike Volta, however, Ampere will indeed be coming to consumer graphics cards too.

In a prebriefing with business reporters, Huang said that Ampere will streamline the Nvidia GPU lineup, replacing both the data center-centric Volta GPUs as well as the Turing-based GeForce RTX 20-series. The hardware inside each specific GPU will be tailored to the market its targeting, though. Theres great overlap in the architecture, but not in the configuration, Marketwatch reports Huang as saying when asked about how the consumer and workstation GPUs will compare.

As widely expected, Nvidias Ampere GPUs are built using the 7nm manufacturing process, moving forward from the 12nm process used for Turing and Volta. Its a big deal.

The Ampere GPU at the heart of the A100 is called GA100, a teaser video released by Nvidia shows.

Smaller transistors mean better performance and power efficiency. The Navi-based Radeon RX 5000-series graphics cards beat Nvidia to 7nm, and the transition helped AMDs offerings greatly increase their efficiency. While Radeon cards have run hot and power-hungry for years prior, the 7nm Navi cards drew even with their GeForce counterparts in both performance and efficiencyno small feat. Looking back to Team Greens own past, Nvidias transition from the GeForce GTX 900-series 28nm process to the GTX 10-series 16nm process resulted in huge performance gains.

In other words, history says we should expect wonderful advancements from Ampere-based GeForce GPUs.

The move to smaller transistors also means you can squeeze more cores into the same space. Whereas the Volta flagship, the Tesla V100, deployed 21.1 billion transistors, 5,120 CUDA cores, and 80 streaming multiprocessor clusters into its 815 mm^2 die, the new Ampere-based A100 crams 54 billion transistors, 6,912 CUDA cores, and 108 SMs into its 826 mm^2 die.

Thats a big leap forward, and more GPU means faster graphics cards. For reference, the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti has 4,352 CUDA cores in its 754 mm^2 die. Its successor might be downright bristling with cores.

Volta and Turing introduced tensor cores to Nvidias GPUs. Tensor cores accelerate machine learning tasks, and in GeForce GPUs, they power the awesome Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) 2.0 technology and denoise the grainy artifacts generated by real-time ray tracings light casting.

The A100 GPU utilizes third-gen tensor cores that greatly improve performance on 16-bit FP16 half-precision floating point tasks, add TF32 for AI capabilities for single-precision tasks, and now support FP64 double-precision tasks as well. It remains to be seen how (and potentially even if) the third-gen tensor cores get deployed in Ampere-based consumer GPUs, but with Nvidia pushing DLSS and machine learning so aggressively, it seems like a lock that next-gen GeForce GPUs will have leveled-up AI in some manner, especially if rumors about greatly enhanced ray-tracing performance prove true. More rays means more noise, and more noise means better denoising is required.

Nvidia didnt announce this for its DGX-A100 system, but Supermicro also revealed new systems powered by the Ampere A100 GPU, and that announcement confirms that the next-gen hardware supports the cutting-edge PCIe 4.0 interface. AMDs Ryzen 3000-series processors were the first to embrace the new interface, which delivers a big speed boost over the PCIe 3.0 slots found in computers for several years running.

A DGX-A100 Ampere system, fresh out of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huangs oven.

When it comes to graphics cards, the move may seem somewhat academic. Navi-based AMD Radeon 5700 graphics cards that support PCIe 4.0 arent any faster than they are in PCIe 3.0 systems, as our PCIe 4.0 primer explains, and generally, most graphics cards dont come close to saturating the PCIe 3.0 interface yet.

That mosttrend matters, though. TechPowerUps testing shows that the fearsome $1,200 GeForce RTX 2080 Ti indeed gets a small, but measurable performance boost when running from a PCIe 3.0 x16 slot rather than a PCI 3.0 x8 slot, indicating that its approaching the upper boundaries of PCIe 3.0s capabilities in multi-GPU gaming rigs. Running several GPUs in a mainstream, non-HEDT system splits one PCIe 3.0 x16 connection across the two slots.

If the Ampere-based RTX 2080 Ti successor indeed packs many more CUDA cores and a lot more graphics oomph, it could overwhelm PCIe 3.0 x8 connections. Deploying PCIe 4.0 skirts that roadbump. It also introduces a novel twist for system builders. Intels latest 10th-gen Core CPUs opted to remain on PCIe 3.0 rather than upgrading to PCIe 4.0. While Intel CPUs generally run slightly faster than their AMD Ryzen counterparts in games, if you plan on building a fire-breathing, no-holds-barred system with several high-end Ampere GeForce GPUs inside, opting for Ryzen and its PCIe 4.0 support could be the better move. Interesting!

[ Further reading: The best CPUs for gaming.]

Ampere is here, and soon itll be powering next-gen GeForce graphics cards.

Nvidias limited A100 announcement failed to reveal some specifications of key interest to gamers, most notably Amperes clock speeds and ray tracing performance. Faster clock speeds mean faster gaming performance, generally. More dedicated RT cores could greatly enhance the ray tracing capabilities of next-gen GeForce GPUs, meanwhile, reducing the steep performance penalty currently inflicted when you activate the gorgeous lighting effects in gamesespecially if paired with Nvidias new advanced tensor cores.

The GTC 2020 keynote and Nvidias associated documentation didnt touch on either aspect, alas. Recent leaks and rumors suggest that GeForce Ampere GPUs will clock even higher than the speedy RTX 20-series, however, and deliver up to a 4x performance increase in ray tracing speeds. The source doesnt have an established track record for accurate leaks, however, and you should always take rumors with a big pinch of salt. That said, all the extra space provided by the jump to 7nm gives Nvidia a lot of room to pack in more CUDA cores, more RT cores, or (hopefully) a mixture of both.

Technical types can find Nvidias deep-dive into the Ampere architecture here.

Bottom line: Nvidias next-gen Ampere GPU architecture is finally here, and even in data center form, theres a lot for PC gamers to get excited about. Now the wait for Ampere-based GeForce graphics cards begins. Nvidia hasnt uttered a peep about them, but expect to see the new hardware later this year. With Big Navi Radeon GPUs and impressive next-gen consoles bringing bigger performance and ray tracing to AMD hardware in the coming months, Nvidias sure to want to drop a hammer on its rivals ambitions.

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Resolution Games sets the table for VR game Cook-Out: A Sandwich Tale – VentureBeat

Posted: at 5:55 pm

Resolution Games, creators of virtual reality games with millions of downloads, is showing off gameplay for its next VR title, Cook-Out: A Sandwich Tale. The game is part of the Stockholm-based companys continuing quest to make accessible, casual, and humorous titles for the masses to drive mainstream consumer acceptance of VR.

Headed by Tommy Palm, the studio has previously created titles such as Angry Birds VR: Isle of Pigs, Bait, and Acron: Attack of the Squirrels. The latter has been downloaded more than 3 million times.

Were sharing some more detailabout our extremely whimsical cooking and collaborative multiplayer game, Palm said in an interview with GamesBeat. Weve always been very big on trying to make VR content that would fit everybody and bring more people into VR. Cooking is one of these things we have wanted to do for a long time.

Cook-Out: A Sandwich Tale is a cooperative game where up to four players can work as chefs in a kitchen. The game will launch later this year on Oculus Quest and Oculus Rift platforms, with additional platforms to come. The title has been in the works for a couple of years.

Gustav Stenmark is the producer if Cook-Out, and he said in a statement that players will have to deal with the pressure cooker of a fast-moving kitchen, where chefs prepare meals but also have to fight off a number of nasty customers who seem absolutely set on making trouble.

The game has a lot of our traditional humor and a little bit of a cartoony style, Palm said. Its built around needing to communicate with other players. You need to serve customers, but theyre very different types of customers.

Above: Cook-Out: A Sandwich Tale has up to four players in co-op cooking.

Image Credit: Resolution Games

While the game is focused on cooperative play, solo players will be able to enjoy the experience with the help of a simulated partner.The trailer includes three prominent Swedish chefs, including the winner of MasterChef Sweden 2020 Sofia Henriksson, Gabriel Jonsson, and Filip Poon.

Founded in 2015, Resolution Games is privately held and has 60 employees. Palm said the company has a bunch of games in development and will likely ship a couple of titles this year.

While the team has been sheltering in place, the developers have been holding meetings inside the game, so they can talk about any work matters as they play, Palm said. The Cook-Out: A Sandwich Tale team includes Mike Booth, a veteran developer who worked on titles such as Left 4 Dead, Counter-Strike: Condition Zero, and Nox. He was most recently creative director at Facebook on VR.

Palm said he really likes the Oculus Quest platform, which has been selling out, because it gets rid of the wires and some of the hassles of playing VR.The price point is good and it is very comfortable, he said. You dont have to upgrade your drivers all the time like you do on the PC.

With hardware like the Quest in place, Palm believes the onus is on developers to create outstanding games to attract more consumers to VR.

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