Written by Lee Ai Yun, Melantha Tan and Naini Gupta.
GIPHY Arcade is here to add entertaining, micro-sized gaming to any conversation.
GIPHY Arcade is a new subsection of GIPHY’s online site dedicated to bite-sized games. If you remember the days of Flash games such as Desktop Tower Defense, Red Remover and Bookworm, you’ll find GIPHY Arcade to be a familiar concept to you.
The platform lets your create, play and share games that any device that can access a web browser. Unlike Flash, the user won’t need to learn a complex program and its related skills in order to create a game. Conversely, the space for creativity is made smaller since the user will be working with templates and assets provided by GIPHY. Fret not, you’ll still be able to create really cool games like Cosmic Cat in a matter of seconds.
GIPHY has said that users will have access to some 30 backgrounds and 20 original music tracks when creating their own games. You’ll also be able to mix and match these to your heart’s content on desktop. To create a game on your phone, GIPHY Arcade will ask you three questions related to a template you have chosen and depending on your answers, the platform will generate a game for you.
Brands have also taken advantage of this new feature on GIPHY–three of the games that you can play today were made by Wendy’s. They feature game icons, such as Wendy’s chicken nuggets, created by the brand and users can use those in their own games as well.
The ‘Series’ option enables creators to brand their content better, encouraging return viewing. This update is no doubt influenced by Snapchat new slate of ‘Snap Originals’ content (shorter, TV-like episodic content), which experienced an increased success as of late.
Facebook puts warning labels on ‘fake news’
Facebook is getting more serious about preventing ‘fake news’ from getting viral on Instagram. In the coming month, the app will have “false information” labels that obscure posts that have been cross-checked by Facebook’s fact-checkers. These labels will appear on posts in Stories and Instagram’s main feed. With an added step of clicking “See Post”, users will still be able to view the original post.
In addition to labels, Instagram will also warn users who attempt to share previously debunked posts. They’ll see a notice that fact-checkers say the post contains false information with a link to more information. Users can still share post containing the false information, but it will appear with the “false information” label.
While Facebook down-ranks debunked posts in its News Feed, Instagram aims to focus on removing these posts from public-facing areas of the app, like hashtag pages and its Explore section. They want to act on posts in users’ feeds to help prevent false information from going viral. In the US and some other countries, they even temporarily reduce distribution if they have signals that a piece of content is false with a pending review by third-party fact-checkers.
