A massively popular computer game has sparked confusion and outrage after it spontaneously added pronouns while removing gender options at the same time.The game Old School RuneScape was launched in 2013 and was meant to maintain the 2007 version of the game. It is heralded as a classic by gaming fans and costs about $80 annually to play.Peaking at 205,000 concurrent players as recently as November 2023, fans have rejoiced over how developers seek their opinion through polls then modify the game accordingly. That is until recently when developers decided remove the option to choose male or female when creating a character in the game, and replaced it with "Body type A" and "Body type B."'Body type A and body type B? Have you been living under a rock for the past decade?'Furthermore, developers decided to add in pronoun selections, providing the options "He/him," "They/them," and "She/her.""We didn’t vote on this!" a user said to the game's moderators on X. "I play RuneScape to escape from this bulls**t not to be forced to see it! This WILL cost you players... I'm debating on canceling my membership."A moderator, who goes by the name Mod Ash and has over 140,000 followers on X, responded to the user and said he didn't expect players to see the text so often."Thanks for letting me know you no longer wish to play due to players having that text option. All the best with your future gaming," he added with a smiley face.I wouldn't have expected you to see it very often unless you're switching up at the Makeover Mage really regularly, but thanks for letting me know you no longer wish to play due to players having that text option. All the best with your future gaming :)— Mod Ash (@JagexAsh) August 14, 2024 'You poll this but not pronouns?'Just hours before that moderator's response, a fan actually predicted that concerns about the change would be shrugged off by the RuneScape team:"Body type A and body type B? Have you been living under a rock for the past decade? Gamers don't want this garbage," the irate user wrote. "Well I'm done: 18 years a player but I'm done," they continued. "You're gonna say 'good riddance, no one forces you to play you fascist bigot.' but guess what: I don't think I'll be the only one. Good luck with this 'new and inclusive' direction you're going in."More fans took issue with the fact that the inclusion of pronouns and removal of gender was not a topic that developers polled their customers about. This move by the game creators proved to be even more puzzling due to the fact that other polls are conducted for the most miniscule of details."You poll this but not pronouns?" one fan asked, attaching an image of a poll that asked ""Should the green pixel be removed from the Construction skill icon?"Over 50,000 gamers responded to that particular pool showcasing just how responsive the fanbase is.Another user who has an account that is over 8,200 days old (22 years) noted that he didn't think he would be renewing his membership due to the recent controversy."I'd been thinking about renewing my membership and playing OSRS again after taking a break for a year or so. I don't think I will be doing that any time soon."I'd been thinking about renewing my membership and playing OSRS again after taking a break for a year or so. I don't think I will be doing that any time soon. https://t.co/pscg74avlI pic.twitter.com/I0LKNtH61f— Dave Shrigley (@dshrig) August 15, 2024 Production company Jagex has a history of activism that has caused blowback in the past. In 2017, a Pride update was widely mocked for its use of rainbows and has since become an infamous event in the game's history. At the time, developers asked users in a poll whether they wanted a "gay pride event." Users overwhelmingly rejected the idea with 66% of the respondents saying "no." Over 20,000 people participated in that poll.On its website, Jagex also gives an annual "gender pay gap report" that touts "the importance of a diverse workforce" and complains about the lack of "industry-wide female representation."However, in its latest report, the company was only able to lower its own pay disparity by 0.1%.The website reads, "In the report issued for 2022-2023, our expectations that our gender pay gap would decrease were met with a reduction in our Gender Pay Gap from 25.9% to 25.8%."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

— (@) America used to be the powerhouse of the world, exporting not only the best manufactured goods but also the best ideas the world has seen. But now, areas that were once rich in economic activity have turned into ghost towns as the State Department exports some of the worst ideas the world has seen. On "Zero Hour," Mike Benz, a former State Department official in the Trump administration and the founder and executive director of the Foundation for Freedom Online, sat down with James Poulos to discuss the state of the U.S. State Department and its dystopian control of information. Even though many of America’s manufacturing hubs have their best days behind them, America can still be proud to be the world's beacon of liberty — until now. “The thing that we had to hold our hat onto is … the distinct values that we have in the U.S. We have free speech, [and] we have a rule of law which will protect you in court to always be able to defend your rights,” Benz told Poulos. “What we've seen instead,” Benz added, “is this wanton abuse of the sanctions system so that anybody who does business in a way that upsets our State Department or Defense Department or Intelligence Community gets sanctioned.” Benz attributes the rise of these ill-advised sanctions and censorship tools to America’s declining influence in the world today. "We don't abide by this free-trade concept any more because any trade between two other countries that bothers us, we sanction. And we do the same thing if anyone invests here. You've got to be a little bit crazy, frankly, to put your money here under this current administration," he said. What’s more, these sanctions have contributed to China’s growing might. Benz argues that Hungary, along with other countries, is strengthening its ties with China due to the West’s antagonism toward military restraint and traditional values. “The head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee [came] out and [said] that Hungary should be sanctioned because they're not co-signing war on Russia or military support for Ukraine or the LGBT agenda pushed by the State Department,” Benz noted. To hear more of what Mike Benz had to say about censorship, free speech, China, semiconductors, and more, watch the full episode of "Zero Hour with James Poulos." America was convinced tech would complete our mastery of the world. Instead, we got catastrophe — constant crises from politics and the economy down to the spiritual fiber of our being. Time’s up for the era we grew up in. How do we pick ourselves up and begin again? To find out, visionary author and media theorist James Poulos cracks open the minds — and hearts — of today’s top figures in politics, tech, ideas, and culture on "Zero Hour" on BlazeTV.

Mark Zuckerberg-owned social media giant Meta has shut down CrowdTangle, a researching tool used to monitor social media posts that include alleged misinformation.The move has upset a series of nonprofits which sent letters in protest of Meta's move to a new tool called Content Library. Their issue stems from Meta limiting usage of Content Library to "qualified academic or nonprofit institutions who are pursuing scientific or public interest research."This has prevented many journalists from having immediate access to the new tool, TechCrunch reported.The letter to Meta in May 2024 asked for CrowdTangle to stay available until at least January 2025 so that it could be used through the 2024 presidential election."This decision jeopardizes essential pre- and post-election oversight mechanisms and undermines Meta's transparency efforts during this critical period, and at a time when social trust and digital democracy are alarmingly fragile," the letter, which was posted to the Human Rights Watch website, stated."This obstruction poses a severe risk to the efforts of civil rights groups, activists, journalists, and election officials to identify and mitigate political misinformation, incitements of violence, and the online targeting of vulnerable communities."The letter was signed by nearly 50 organizations, including Media Matters for America, Human Rights Campaign, GLAAD, and the Center for American Progress.The Mozilla Foundation, which operates the popular web browser Firefox, penned its own letter also criticizing Meta for a lack of transparency."For years, CrowdTangle has represented an industry best practice for real-time platform transparency. It has become a lifeline for understanding how disinformation, hate speech, and voter suppression spread on Facebook, undermining civic discourse and democracy," the company wrote.Mozilla also hoped that Meta would continue to operate until at least after the 2024 election cycle.Despite the outcry, the Meta Content Library seems mostly similar in its allowing to search for keywords in public posts on Facebook and Instagram.Other features were talked about in a recent Meta blog.At an MIT Technology conference in May 2024, Meta's president of global affairs was asked why the company wouldn't wait until at least 2025 to transition away from CrowdTangle. "It only measures a narrow cake slice of a cake slice, which is particular forms of engagement," said Nick Clegg. "It literally doesn’t tell you what people are seeing online."Clegg vehemently defended the decision and said he took it personally that journalists and researchers didn't understand why the change was being made. He even advocated for the tool to be removed sooner than it was.Return managing editor Peter Gietl said that this move might signal a growing desire from Zuckerberg and Meta to move away from political content."We've seen in interviews and recent reports that Zuckerberg is shying away from making big splashes in politics during the 2024 election cycle," Gietl noted. "We see him at UFC events, jiu jitsu tournaments, and praising Donald Trump for being bad ass. It seems the company may be making a shift to focus on their technologies, like augmented reality, rather then trying to appease political activists."According to the Washington Post, political donations have indeed dried up from Zuckerberg-led sources.At $2.5 million, political grants and awards connected to Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan are less than 1% of what was spent in 2020, which was around $332 million.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

KARMA, BABY! Tech Reporter Harassed by Taylor Lorenz Is THRILLED She's Finally Getting Her Comeuppance

'Absolute Insanity'! Kamala Harris Reminds Us How Much More Food Costs After Years of Biden-Harris

GET WRECKED: Even CNN (Yes CNN!) Admits Kamala's Price Control Policy Will Cause A LOT OF HARM (Video)

THIS Is Why Kamala Won't Give Interviews: Listen to Kamala's Rambling Answer on Democracy

BREAKING: JD Vance's Plane Makes Emergency Landing in Milwaukee

Exclusive: Eyewitness Told 300K Venezuelans Crossed Border Wednesday into San Diego

Biden's Latest White House Remarks About New Monument Are a Slurring, Pandering Mess