Center for Cyber Safety & Education launches ‘Garfield at Home’

The nonprofit Center for Cyber Safety and Education launches new Garfield at Home program to teach children ages six to 11 how to be safe and secure online from the comfort of their homes. “Covid-19 has shown us that internet safety education needs to be a priority, especially when it comes to younger kids. The Center is here to help parents eliminate the guessing game of how to teach their children cyber safety and what resources to use,” said director of the Center Patrick Craven.

Garfield at Home program will feature award-winning Garfield‘s Cyber Safety Adventures in a new digital platform where children will be able to learn internet safety lessons on privacy, gaming, cyberbullying, and illegal downloading through animated cartoons, game-based learning, and find and click storybooks. Children will earn digital badges as they test their knowledge through the different levels. Children will also have access to physical internet safety materials such as Garfield’s Cyber Safety Adventures Coloring Book and the newly released Movie Adventure Comic Book.

In addition, “Garfield at Home” will feature a new Parents Internet Safety Guide to help families continue the conversation of internet safety beyond “Garfield at Home” activities.

Garfield’s Cyber Safety Adventures was originally introduced in the fall of 2016 by the Center and cartoonist Jim Davis in the form of an educator kit to help teachers worldwide teach internet safety. The kit includes cartoons, comic books, posters, trading cards and stickers that show Garfield and friends tackling cyber safety issues such as privacy, the dangers of posting online, online etiquette, cyberbullying, and more.

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IGDA director Renee Gittins shares statement condemning abuse within the games industry

Global trade body the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) has condemned the abuse that has been revealed within the games industry.

In a statement, executive director Renee Gittins (pictured) said that it was “heartbreaking” to see how many people within the sector had been preyed upon by abusers and that it was vital to see the failures that allowed this to happen. It includes links to resources for victims of harassment, and outlines some of the ways in which the games industry has failed to keep people safe from harassment and abuse.

Woman wearing headphones playing video games late at night

Recently, many people within the games industry have come forward and spoken, openly and bravely, about their experience with abusers. The sharing of these experiences, which have often involved high-level game producers and developers, as well as streamers and journalists, has brought to light how the industry has sheltered many abusers, and has led to some action.

Here’s how the  Gittins’ statement reads:

“Over the past week, brave individuals have shared their experiences with discrimination, assault, and sexual harassment within the game industry and at our events.It is heartbreaking to witness how many people have suffered at the hands of abusers within our industry and to recognise how many more continue to bear their pain in silence. It is imperative that we recognise the failures that led to these situations and come together to create solutions that ensure the game industry is inclusive, supportive, and safe for all developers.

Each and every one of us can help our industry be a safer and more inclusive environment. We encourage you to stand up for your fellow developers against any injustices you witness and know that the IGDA and the game industry at large will support you. If you are in need of support, please use our harassment resources or contact us.

In order to support diversity within our industry, we cannot allow harassers and sexual misconduct to go unchecked. All of the efforts to recruit women are in vain if they are assaulted or made to feel unwelcome within our industry and its events. We must use this as a turning point so that we can ensure that game development and game developers are able to thrive.

We also recognise that change is needed from the top to be truly effective. This does not mean simply writing policies, but truly implementing, upholding, and living them. Our latest Developer Satisfaction Survey showed that while 71 per cent of companies had non-discrimination policies and 64 per cent had sexual harassment policies, only 59 per cent felt those policies were adequately enforced and 65 per cent believe there is not equal opportunity for all within the game industry.

The IGDA is working to create a compilation of resources for game studio leadership to ensure the cultivation of safe, positive company culture. We need to fix this system from the top down to uproot toxic cultures and harassment. For too long people in power have turned a blind eye to harassment allegations. We must stop this cycle and remove the poison that stops the growth of diversity within our industry.

Together we can condemn the failures in our industry’s past and take the steps forward to enact change in our industry that will ensure this wonderful, creative, diverse industry will support every person who contributes to it.”

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Epic Games reveals ‘Fortnite’ Summer Splash event kicks off

Epic Games has revealed Fortnite has begun the Summer Splash event, which will run until the end of Season 3.The event features several refreshed versions of classic limited-time modes including Fog of War (previously known as Sneaky Silencers), Close Encounters, Unvaulted, Catch!, and more.

There are typically summer events around this time of year in Fortnite and the latest one is the Summer Splash one. Interestingly, this is the event for the season, rather than something like a celebration of the anniversary for the battle royale game and so on.

Epic Games has announced that the following classic modes will be back this summer: Catch!, Close Encounters, Fog of War (originally known as Sneaky Silencers), and Unvaulted. The modes will feature some changes, in order to match the summer theme, but further details have yet to be revealed. A future update will also add a new version of Operation: Knockout, a “reel ‘em in royale, and a game of elimination-powered upgrades.” Last but not least, the game’s Summer Drift and Beach Bomber skins have also returned, and will be available in the Item Shop.

Coupled with the recent changes to the game, it seems that Fortnite fans will have a lot of ways to enjoy the game over the summer months! The game’s water theme came about as a result of the Doomsday Device Event, in which The Agency was destroyed by Midas, and a giant wall of water temporarily surrounded the game’s map. Eventually, that water came crashing down, flooding parts of the map.

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Is fantasy esports in India is next big thing after fantasy sports?

Before the pandemic, the Indian mobile gaming platform was dominated by fantasy sports. But as COVID-19 hit the surface and started spreading all around sporting events were either cancelled or postponed. This has led the fantasy sports to face the diminishing curve. During this period many fantasy sports platforms started introducing new strategies to engage the existing audience on the platform. Some became active on the community tab, some expanded with a new game of skill games on the platform, some conducted webinars  with the fan favourite sporting stars to engage the fans and to spread the message that due to halt in sporting events they might be temporarily not conducting matches but it will soon resume functioning once they commence again. During this period many sports fans tried playing new games and many underdogs started taking part in gaming tournaments and started playing games out of boredom during the pandemic lockdown. This has given a decent rise to the gaming and esports industry, and in midst of it, a fantasy esports platform Profeud was launched in June.

Profeud co-founder Robin Dhar

Speaking about the launch with AnimationXpress Profeud co-founder Robin Dhar shares, “ProFeud is India’s first fantasy esports app combining the excitement and rewards of the daily fantasy sports model with global esports events. We started out in June 2020 and currently offer CS:GO matches on our platform and we are the first ones to do so in India. Almost all of the international matches are covered and all matches have paid as well as free contests. With the rapid growth of esports in India in terms of participation and engagement, we saw an opportunity to give the fans a platform to create their fantasy teams and win at the same time. In addition, we also have twitch streaming links of live matches which makes it a cohesive platform for esports fans.”

Fantasy esports might sound new to many in India but the market has been existed globally for quite a some time and has been a crucial part of the esports market. Recently Sleeper has raised $20 million from investors include Twitch cofounder Kevin Lin, retired NBA player Baron Davis, and NFL wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster. Recently Esports One has started fantasy esports platform and has shown support for the LCS (North American) and LEC (European) regions for League of Legends, the goal for them was to support a wide range of esports titles.

In India according to Dhar the platform functions similarly to Dream11  but for esports. Similar like fantasy sports, fantasy esports can be considered a game of skill and not gambling as users create their fantasy teams and enter with cash in one of their many contests on offer and based on the players’ performance, and thereafter the users are ranked on the leader board with bigger winnings of cash prizes. Every match that is listed on their platform also has free tournaments with no cash prizes where users can practice and hone their skills until they are ready to enter the cash contests.

It is true that pandemic has dipped down the fantasy sports business as it is dependent on real-time sporting events.  Understanding that when we asked should Indian fantasy sports platforms also introduce esports to their platform and not just be dependent on realtime sporting events? He replies, “When we actually started building out the product, no one could’ve predicted what was to come and when we were right in the thick of development, the pandemic hit real hard and we were a bit apprehensive as well with regards to how it would affect our start. But as it would be, most off the esports tournaments were shifted offline which is being played remotely rather than in an arena. This ensured continuity of matches and in fact, during the pandemic, esports events were one of the very few who were not majorly impacted. Could other platforms have put it in? Sure, but then again it depends on their target audiences as well as their estimations about the restart of other sporting events.”

According to a KPMG report, the number of fantasy sports users is set to rise up to 100 million during 2020 (up from 50+ in February 2019) and the esports audience to grow to 10 million by 2021 (up from 2 million in 2017). Not only that international esports organisations like Fnatic have started setting up teams in the Indian esports scene. As the participation of players started increasing  therefore  an increase in viewership was also followed. Thus “In our first month, we’ve already had people playing in the cash contests, and many others join our free contests which give us hope,” he added.

Currently,  the platform has CS:GO listed and they cover almost all of the global tournaments and matches. Apart from that, there are a few other games which they are exploring like the recently release Valorant, PUBG, Dota 2 and Rainbow Six Siege. “Our aim is to become a cohesive esports platform with news, discussion boards, products, and so on all under one roof, he added.”

They have partnered with a premier esports data provider through which they have access to all the matches being played and the scores for it which are accordingly updated to their platform. Currently, They have bootstrapped their fantasy esports platform and they are at their initial stages of the venture. On the other hand, they have also received interest from a few people with whom they have shared their pitch.

When we asked that whether they are planning to rope in brand ambassador/s for their platform he replies, “We certainly hope to do so in the medium term but if a favorable opportunity arises, we are definitely open to it.” In the coming days  they are aiming to evolve constantly into a better platform with bigger contests, the addition of more games and aims to host other features that are currently being under process.

After understanding the concept when we were curious to know whether fantasy esports is the new normal for fantasy sports he expresses, “I think it’s too early to call this the new normal. Yes, major sporting events have ceased across the world but we can see football restarting in Europe and cricket being touted as well in England. All these events would restart eventually but that would not diminish the esports audience. We are creating a platform for a niche that has never existed in the past and I think there is enough room for all fantasy sports players and fans to co-exist.”

Wrapping up we would say that the good days of fantasy ‘game of skill’ sector will be- where fantasy sports and fantasy esports are growing side by side.

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E-learning, the new normal?

The pandemic has entirely changed the way we approach things. Every sector — across the spectrum—  has been affected by the ongoing lockdown — in some way or the other. With social distancing being the norm today, a major chunk of our daily lives — has moved towards digital.

Digital workspaces — are a common thing now and have made it easier for people to continue their work. As a result, digital classrooms are becoming more commonplace as well. E-learning — was already gearing up parallel to the traditional form, but with the —pandemic-induced lockdown in place, e-learning is becoming the choice for —many students and parents alike.

To get a better understanding of the scenario AnimationXpress, in association with Autodesk, brought together some of the leaders from the e-learning industry in a virtual round table.

Present in the panel were:  Testbook  CEO and co founder Ashutosh Kumar, Next Education India CEO and co founder Beas Dev Ralhan, upGrad president of corporate development Gaurav Kumar, BYJU’s director of product Kaustubh Khade, Brainly CEO and co founder Michał Borkowski, Aptence CTO Prabhat Pankaj, Autodesk sr.technical sales specialist, M&E Samit Shetty, Imarticus Learning COO and founder Sonya Hooja, YuppTV  & YuppMaster founder and CEO Uday Reddy and the session was moderated by Indiantelevision do com group CEO and editor in chief Anil Wanvari.

Explaining the calibration of their fundamental strategies as — an e-learning platform —post Covid-19, BYJU’s director of product Kaustubh Khade shared: “Content has always been our main suite, on 13th of march we put out our courses live. We made it all live for all the 4th to 12th graders across the globe. That was like the first piece that went very well for us.”


“All of us are in this black swan event but the sector that has been blessed to have had some positive impact with the live classes”


They also gradually understood the exigencies of the situation as to how the schooling landscape has been affected by the pandemic-induced lockdown. He further informs: “Shortly after that what we started understanding is that schools are going to be hit for example, exam dates were being postponed and we started understanding that there is lack of structure that parents and students will both feel. We knew that teachers are going to be facing a problem just scaling up online which means there are going to be large portions of time when kids are going to be just sitting at home not learning”

According to him, all of us are in this black swan event but the sector that has been blessed to have had some positive impact with the live classes.

Speaking about streamlining their e-learning systems and its myriad challenges, he shares: “For the first month and a half, we were putting out one product every two weeks. With iterations, we were making sure the funnels are up and running. Logistics took a hit so lot of our went in just equating how to get that back up and running and what are the alternatives. It’s been an interesting time but we are now reaching back to the space where we are doing interesting R & D and seeing what the future is.”


“Personalisation is very important for students who operate at their own speed and explore academics on their own”


Discussing the varied offerings of his service, Brainly CEO and co founder Michał Borkowski shared: “Brainly is an on online community for students, parents and teachers. Whenever a student struggles with any school-related question, they can help each other and what we do as a service is add expert supervision to the exchange that is happening between students. We also have thousands of experts answering questions that are particularly popular or super tough that they can not answer on their own.”

Commenting on the current situation vis-a-vis the current market and the burgeoning problems that afflict it, Borkowski said: “We see four primary problems. On one hand, students lack the face-to-face interaction that they have at school. What happened to parents over the last month is that parents had to become teacher looking for education material so that their kids are engaged that they are developing their educational path. Teachers had to figure out technology as to how to engage students who may not have access to a device or couldn’t join online classes. there are many problems from their end”

He added: “The main problem is that there is a huge group of students all across the world and in India who are excluded from learning right. He believes that the he opportunity is that personalisation is very important for students who operate at their own speed and explore academics on their own and many online educational services that are here need to allow them to do that.

Speaking about the tangible solutions to the pressing challenges faced by the education landscape across the world, Borkowski illustrated: “For example, If they want to spend more time learning linear equations they can totally do that even if the class would like to move forward faster.”


“The accessibility challenges can be solved with a very concentrated partnership between the public and private agencies.”


Delineating the difficulties — that we need to overcome— to ensure the smooth functioning of the e-learning space in the post pandemic age, upGrad president of corporate development Gaurav Kumar shared: “Learners always have had a preference for traditional models of learning and delivery. If this (Pandemic and the lockdown) continues for longer, the adoption curve will be far sooner than what we anticipated. So that’s a shift in the overall e-learning space. However I think the problem will become far more glaring in the coming months when the content and platform comes to test because what will start with the forced adoption will eventually come to being selective and the customer will become more intelligent. The customer will look for right platform, right content and right learning experience. That will also see a bit of consolidation going forward in the way we see.”

He adds: “Maybe the accessibility challenges — can be solved with — a very concentrated partnership between the public and private agencies.”   

Explaining the services they provide in the modern education sector, Imarticus Learning COO and founder Sonya Hooja shared: ” We are a B2B and B2C player in the professional education space so what we do on the B2C side is we offer learning programmes anywhere from four to six month long where they will be upskilling or enrolling for placement-oriented programmes in a very specific age skill sets whether is finance or tech or any new age skillset.  From the classroom perspective we got all of these canvasses across the country where learners used to go and undertake these programmes and used to offer the same thing online for those who didn’t want to actually walk into a classroom.”

Highlighting how they had to quickly adapt after being hit by the crisis triggered by the current crisis, she recounts: “All was going well until the COVID hit and our classroom business took a royal beating essentially in March when the order was to shut all of the classrooms and I think that’s when we got hit the hardest and actually we were one of the few players in the industry that were frankly hit for that particular time frame but like everybody here we adapted very very quickly.”


“The online education system has been expedited by two three years in just last two months.”


According to Hoorja, online education system — is always seen as the the way to — augment the traditional learning and the adoption of the online learning — was coming along even before COVID-19, what the pandemic did was— accelerated that e-learning adoption, leading their company to move online within 15 days.

Discussing the way forward and his vision for the country, YuppTV  & YuppMaster founder and CEO Uday Reddy elaborated, “Since I hail form a tier 2 city, I can say that there are students who are still not able to go to the top coaching institutions and get access to the top faculty. These are the challenges I have seen from the day one. We are launching something together with BSNL in India with the vision that the faculty should be available to all the students in the country and then technology we will sort it out.

Having identified the need gaps in the education system which range from lack of affordability and good faculty, he envisioned YuppMaster the streaming platform and the online coaching with the top-notch faculty at affordable prices which his team put together in a span of a month. Echoing the observation advanced by Hooja, he stated: “The online education system has been expedited by two three years in just last two months”


“E-learning is a golden era right now”


Throwing light on initial challenges induced by the Covid-19 crissi and the importance of e-learning platforms, Testbook  CEO and co founder Ashutosh Kumar who believes that we’ve entered into the golden era of E-learning said: “After the lockdown there was a bit of drop in the engagement as most of the students were adjusting with the new normal. But after that we got a very good engagement and enrolment in the course. In the last two months, we have been more than 18 lakh course enrolment by almost two and a half lakh students. E-learning is a golden era right now”

Aptence CTO Prabhat Pankaj believes that screen time should be less and within a limited screen time, students should benefit as much as possible. Speaking about the solutions they provided during the crisis, he shared: “To help the schools facing the Covid-19 problem, we also created new applications that was based on online conferencing to test engines so they can check their assignments and see their results.”

Next Education India CEO and co founder Beas Dev Ralhan shares that they have always endeavoured to create technology-based solutions for the schools ‘whether it is trying to digitise the books, changing the blackboard to a digital board or helping them to automate some of their processes in their school’

He shared: “We have to make them understanding that conferencing solution is not a classroom solution. Soon they will have to adapt”


“As it was suggested like a lighter version of a Unity 3D on mobile phone and all is being looked at. Even Autodesk is you know coming up with solutions which will not be like multiple products but everything hand in hand”


Autodesk sr.technical sales specialist, M&E Samit Shetty shared that more emphasis needs to be put on the investment that is needed to ease the creation of content. He elaborated: “The new normal is what we’re hearing these days. In the past four months everyone has adapted to something new including school teachers who were absolutely zero in technology are now taking Zoom classes and Google Meet classes for the kids and they’re pros. Within two weeks’ time, they became pros in handling all these activities.”

He informed that they as a technology company also know the challenges that companies or their employees who are creating content are facing. Speaking about the advancements of technology, he noted: “As it was suggested like a lighter version of a Unity 3D on mobile phone and all is being looked at. Even Autodesk is you know coming up with solutions which will not be like multiple products but everything hand in hand. We at Autodesk are trying to club everything together so we provide a solution to the content creators. You don’t really have to invest tons of money  or look at different software. That’s going to changes in the next couple of months. Unity is game engine because you don’t have to render as the game engine performs in real time.

Shedding light on the way Autodesk aims to provide solutions, he explained: “For the past two years, we have been going to the end-users and asking what they want and what sort of challenges are they facing. Based on that feedback, we’ve brought in new technology and upgraded our tools to meet the end-user requirements”

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Givenchy – Antigona