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Into the Spider-Verse’s greatest legacy is giving American animators freedom to play

After decades of chasing realism and copying Disney and Pixar, they’ve finally been freed up to experiment with style

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The versatile Cypher System powers tabletop adventures across genres

From zombie horror RPG settings to Terry Pratchett-style fantasy and everything in between

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AI can’t replace humans yet — but if the WGA writers don’t win, it might not matter

The WGA strike is only the first battle in an oncoming labor war

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Magic: The Gathering’s new set is trying to capture the hope of The Lord of the Rings

Senior art director Ovidio Cartagena talks to us about the vision behind the set

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Walt Disney cheated his animators out of profits — and their strike changed the world

The Disney animators’ strike of 1941 was a game-changer for animation — and it paved the way for the WGA strike

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Meet the inventors making Hyrule’s most complicated contraptions

Welcome to Hyrule Engineering Club

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Disney’s Robin Hood is still a life-changing furry phenomenon

Here’s why it’s such a beloved standard, even with many more anthropomorphic animal movies out there

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The future of tabletop role-play is hope

Hopepunk can help us build a better world at the table

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Can AI actually write good fanfiction?

ChatGPT, Bing AI, and Google’s Bard all tended toward writing straight ships

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Dragonflight’s first big patch delves into World of Warcraft mysteries

It’s time to check out Deathwing’s old science projects

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Rocket Raccoon was never supposed to be a superhero

You either die a funny animal, or you live long enough to have a tragic backstory

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Unicorn: Warriors Eternal creators on the animated marvel 20 years in the making

Genndy Tartakovsky and Darrick Bachman talked to Polygon about the long road to getting their passion project out in the world

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Inside the Bourne Stuntacular, the theme park take on high-impact spycraft

How do you make the Bourne movies into great theater? Keep the screen.

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101 things that must be said about 101 Dalmatians

Walt Disney may have hated it, but like Cruella de Vil, he was wrong

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Cozy games are getting darker

Dredge is the latest in a burgeoning genre

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The Legend of Zelda is everywhere in modern music

Koji Kondo’s legendary compositions have never been bound by the video games

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15 years ago, the NSA spied on World of Warcraft — but did a leak change anything?

MMOs were fertile grounds for exploitation along both signals intelligence and human intelligence lines

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From Russia with Love’s spy watch is movie history and a DIY obsession

A wave of online interest and fan creations has given the watch a new life

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The US hunt for truth serum during WWII shaped our superheroes

From DC to Marvel, the pantheon of crime fighters is all wrapped up in America’s spy history

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In the year 2000, everyone wanted a female James Bond

Alias, Kim Possible, Perfect Dark, and others all landed on a similar concept around the same time — we dig into how that came about

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Failing internet and Game of Thrones fandom turned Cuban kids into fake spies

‘SNET’ tech opened the door for Game of Thrones and World of Warcraft

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Anime home video is thriving, even in the streaming era

Blu-rays are great collectibles — and you never have to worry about your favorites disappearing from streaming

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World of Warcraft’s most notorious bug inspired this cursed piece of modern art

Artist Harris Rosenblum gets under the (gross) skin of his creation, Relic of the Corrupted Blood

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Why teens are suddenly obsessed with chess

In some schools, it’s become a problem, but at most, it’s encouraged

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Forget the Pokédex, our brains contain a ‘rich cognitive map’ of Pokémon

Long-term Pokémon fans’ brains are built differently

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Wit Studio is what made Attack on Titan’s first season so special

10 years later and with the final episodes coming, Wit’s tone still sets the bar

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Pixar’s Elemental draws an interracial love story from a personal place

The filmmakers were inspired by the director’s life — and by movies from The Big Sick to The Godfather

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The men who created Tetris reflect on their bromance

For Alexey Pajitnov and Henk Rogers, it was love at first sight

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Honor Among Thieves’ directors explain where and why they broke the D&D rules

And more significantly, where they follow the lore exactly

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Roman Reigns should’ve been the next John Cena or The Rock — but the WWE left him behind

The Wrestlemania combatant should’ve been the next John Cena or The Rock — but the WWE left him behind

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Wrestling turned me cis, then it turned me trans

In the ring, vulnerability is everything

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Tetris creator on turning his life into a spy movie: ‘exaggeration is kind of natural’

Alexey Pajitnov says the new Apple biopic is ‘spiritually and emotionally’ true

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