Usually around this time of year is the C3 hacker conference, which tends to be the main conference to feature hacking talks related to game consoles and game devices. That said things that might well make for hacks in following years (there is a reason most times you see mod chips, flash carts and the like in development that the images will feature FPGAs, as might the final product) or just be of interest to the would be hacker and persons interested in seeing beyond what the general culture, news and education might tell you are also present.
This year for obvious reasons it was not held in person but held online (gaining the name RC3 rather than what would be 37c3 if held in person), though it has now concluded and most of the streams are now available for download (the rest following before long). Being a German hacking group and held in Germany normally then many talks are in German, though just as many are not and many of those have subtitles.

C3 media page
https://media.ccc.de/c/rc3
The "fahrplan" which might make for a better overview of what talks are available
https://fahrplan.events.ccc.de/rc3/2020/Fahrplan/
C3 youtube channel (which also features talks from many previous conferences). Some talks might not be on youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/c/mediacccde

For games then many will be interested in the hacking of the recent game and watch throwback, that was notably hacked prior even to the official launch despite them actually attempting some security measures. There are also a few talks related to games culture.

Also of interest might be the talk on how science tends to operate in the real world in Scientific Literacy 101 as such things are not always known or well understood outside academia.
What talks interest you this year?

 

[smf]

I don't think you can make them more evil that demon summoners who make cyborgs, clone Hitler many times and revive the dead as man eating monsters.

Rather than making them more evil, that just makes them appear more acceptable.

And why would it be a problem?
There are movies, books, theatrical plays, songs and paintings related or completely dedicated to discuss nazism. Why shouldn't gaming authors talk about it if they feel like it?

Gaming is about entertainment rather than education. I would argue against covering nazi's in any medium with the same objectives.

For the same reason I would argue against nazi themed McDonalds happy meals and nazi themed baby clothes

 

[Izual Urashima]

These complaints about showing Nazis in games always remind me about the exact same thing - A talk that happened while I was at school, about the atrocities caused by them, and a debate around it. Each student was pointing how horrible things were, and then, in the middle of a silence, one student in particular raised his hand to take the talk. And I'll never forget his words.

"While it's true things were that horrible, I'm glad it happened at that time and not now, considering how many countries have access to nuclear weapons and how Hiroshima didn't happen before the war actually happened."

Of course, it's a dark page of the world's history, but burying the Nazis and their atrocities makes it a higher chance that someone, somewhere, one day, will repeat them. Probably with higher results due to actual superior weaponry, and with an impact on the world that may not only be on history's books, but the world itself.

If only for that, it is needed to talk about it. No matter how shocking it is, no matter how scary it can be. Because the atrocities and their results mustn't be forgotten.

Let that sink in.

 

[raxadian]

Rather than making them more evil, that just makes them appear more acceptable.

Historical white washing is nothing new and banning Nazis from video games will just make people think Hitler was just an angry man like in happens Asia and Thailand.

 

[smf]

banning Nazis from video games will just make people think Hitler was just an angry man like in happens Asia and Thailand.

The complete opposite, allowing nazi imagery is what causes the problems in Thailand https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_imagery_in_Thailand

Although one imagines it's the lack of education that causes them to want to use it.
But putting mutant nazi's in games feeds the same idiotic behavior..

If only for that, it is needed to talk about it. No matter how shocking it is, no matter how scary it can be.

Sure talk about it, rather than not talking about it and putting mutant nazi's in computer games.

I don't think even historically accurate nazi's in games is a good thing, it's not teaching people the right mind set at all.

 

[raxadian]

Videogames or TV are not supposed to teach stuff you were not taught in school.

The problem is that apparently WWII is not a subject in schools of countries that were not really affected by it.

 

[FAST6191]

I wonder if a combination of both FPGA and side attack can lead to successfully trick the reading of the consoles?

Just let the security check work on the real content and bypass all the rest to load your own apps while it thinks you are using whateverOtherApp.

If your side channel/bait and switch trick needs something relatively complicated but also fast then yeah. Indeed I have examples of that going back to probably the N64 (my region changer was not a FPGA but still a very potent programmable device for the time), and we see examples going on and on (the USB stuff on the PS3 was kind of this, as was the DSi and 3ds stuff https://hackmii.com/2010/02/lawsuit-coming-in-3-2-1/ ) as well as fun with things like that SNES addon that never had its firmware/bios dumped until rather more recently as these things go.

The trouble for most modern stuff is not the speed and complexity but the inbuilt encryption that might be an unknown to even doing 1:1 originals (never mind people wanting cheats, region free, ROM hacks and the like). There is still stuff vulnerable to it (the sky3ds probably being a good example) but whether I would expect it to be viable in and of itself for future stuff without chaining another exploit is a harder ask.

For retro stuff. Different game entirely. Indeed with them being programmable I almost expect them to be more common as people figure out/models come out that are capable of acting as a USB-laser adapter for all those CD based consoles/addons with 50 different models of laser that all die (or being 20+ years on can be expected to have) and make replacement an utter arse ache. Far easier to make something you can twiddle in software and have a few different ribbon slots hanging off it than make things that might have only had a small batch. This plus the likes of the megadrive/genesis flash cart that also emulated the whole megaCD thing as well https://gbatemp.net/threads/the-upc...h-cart-with-onboard-megacd-recreation.542791/

 

[legendheaven]

Is there any news about swıtch?

 

[Tatsuna]

Rather than making them more evil, that just makes them appear more acceptable.



Gaming is about entertainment rather than education. I would argue against covering nazi's in any medium with the same objectives.

For the same reason I would argue against nazi themed McDonalds happy meals and nazi themed baby clothes

That's your personal vision of the industry and you cannot impose it on others. There is no medium out there whose purpose is "educational only" or "entertainment only". Books, which are deemed the main educational source, are often written with the only purpose of entertaining. So what do you say, do we ban fictional entertaining books because they are not meant to educate?

Your position not only is needlessly extreme (why couldn't I make an educational game, or even better, both an educational and entertaining one?), but it demands a universal and anti-democratic view of the gaming medium too. It's a discussion with no beginning nor end.

Let's just say that you only want to play entertaining and not stressful game and end it at that. It's your right. Which denying others to do things in a different way isn't. Otherwise it's pointless to go on.

 

[ShadowOne333]

Seriously? People crying over Nazi's being portrayed in videogames and media?
Holy fuck, I thought we were way beyond that, but guess society is fucking devolving into the idiotic mindset of the 90s with the soccer mom and religious wackos's bitching about violence and sex in videogames, TVs and movies "damaging" their kiddos minds (when it's clear it has nothing to do).

While we are at that...
Why not ban all FPS and Third PS from Earth, since they take away from the "seriousness" of killing in real life? Hell even Splatoon should be banned
Why not ban all mentions and uses of drugs, since they take away from the "seriousness" of using them?
Why not ban each and even the slightest of suggestive sexual notion in characters, since they take away from the "seriousness" of having a sexual relation and the abrupt amount of STDs and teenage pregnancies?

Let's not stop there, we can go even beyond!
(and of course even more absurd, because that's how some people think)

Why not ban all kinds of attorneys and legal hearings in gaming, (let's get rid of Ace Attorney altogether) because it takes away from the "seriousness" of people committing real crimes and being sentenced for them?
Why not ban Super Mario Bros. because it takes away from the "seriousness" of animal cruelty by depicting a human being damaging turtles?
Why not ban cars from each videogame because it takes away the "seriousness" of real driving and the consequences like drunk driving and people being killed in accidents?

Hell, why not ban fucking Elmo games teaching you math because it takes away the "seriousness" of schools and the teachers that give their all every day to teach the new generation?

...That's how fucking idiotic and stupid it sounds.
And this is just a small taste of all the shit I can come up based on that logic.

 

[Joom]

Holy fuck, I thought we were way beyond that, but guess society is fucking devolving into the idiotic mindset of the 90s with the soccer mom and religious wackos's bitching about violence and sex in videogames, TVs and movies "damaging" their kiddos minds (when it's clear it has nothing to do).

Yeah see, I'm more worried about the adults who get their minds poisoned. The unfortunate truth is that we live in a day and age where rhetoric on the internet, especially that found in gaming communities, creates hivemind mentalities in young adults. We give human psychology way too much credit when it's demonstrable that grown adults are just as impressionable as children. Also, nobody's talking about banning anything, but rather how the imagery desensitizes people because it downplays the severity of what happened. The guy below talks about how the FPS communities he hung around are what snared him. Kids don't understand politics or really have the ability to take a political standpoint past what they hear their parents regurgitate, so your "think of the children" point is rather moot because this has nothing to do with the portrayal of violence. You get some 21 year old incel who's mad at the world, though? They're prime pickings for recruitment. It's the edginess of it and the feeling of having a purpose in life. There's even huge Neo-Nazi communities in the Brony and furry scenes for this exact reason. And just because you aren't the type to be easily persuaded doesn't mean there aren't thousands out there who are. Would the removal of Nazis and their imagery really affect you negatively? The argument you're trying to make is comparing a real life group that committed mass genocide to a fictional attorney and cartoon squids that shoot paintballs. You're part of the problem if this is your logic, as the problem describes exactly what you're doing.

 

[ShadowOne333]

Yeah see, I'm more worried about the adults who get their minds poisoned. The unfortunate truth is that we live in a day and age where rhetoric on the internet, especially that found in gaming communities, creates hivemind mentalities in young adults. We give human psychology way too much credit when it's demonstrable that grown adults are just as impressionable as children. Also, nobody's talking about banning anything, but rather how the imagery desensitizes people because it downplays the severity of what happened. The guy below talks about how the FPS communities he hung around are what snared him. Kids don't understand politics or really have the ability to take a political standpoint past what they hear their parents regurgitate, so your "think of the children" point is rather moot because this has nothing to do with the portrayal of violence. You get some 21 year old incel who's mad at the world, though? They're prime pickings for recruitment. It's the edginess of it and the feeling of having a purpose in life. There's even huge Neo-Nazi communities in the Brony and furry scenes for this exact reason. And just because you aren't the type to be easily persuaded doesn't mean there aren't thousands out there who are. Would the removal of Nazis and their imagery really affect you negatively? The argument you're trying to make is comparing a real life group that committed mass genocide to a fictional attorney and cartoon squids that shoot paintballs. You're part of the problem if this is your logic, as the problem describes exactly what you're doing.

I do understand where the desire to ban such a thing comes from, but then again, such games are aimed for Mature audiences. Anything related to Nazis I dare say are always aimed to that, so we are not really dealing with kids when it comes to that, and if a kid does so, then it's the parents' fault, not the developer.

As for people within the age range that such games are aimed that, if they are desensitized towards such kinds of things, then they already had it from way before that, it's not like a game will change what a certain individual already has ingrained in their mind.

As for your statement towards comparing real life Nazis to Splatoon and Ace Attorney, I think you missed the point.
If such a thing like banning Nazis from every media except historical records, what's stopping the "cancel" mentality from reaching far and beyond? First it's gonna be Nazis, then they will go after whatever shit they find "inappropriate" and cancel/ban that too, and so on and forth, until we pretty much become a society with no freedom of speech nor expression.

Artists thrive from such a thing, and people trying to define what an artist can and cannot express in their art is flat out inhumane and cruel.

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Aside from that, I feel like this is derailing the thread way too much already, we don't need a Nazi discussion in a hacking conference thread.
I say we stop it and focus on the topic at hand.

 

[raxadian]

Is there any news about swıtch?

Besides the arrest? No as fas as I know. But hacking a Switch will get harder if you are in the models that need a chip for that.

 

[stanleyopar2000]

They should legit do a shout-out to Nintendo because leaked documents show they watch these events

 

[Izual Urashima]

I'm expecting major Nintendo breakthroughs to be avoided at these events, since the hacking community now knows that Nintendo is having their eyes on them, with their best option being to play hide-and-seek while dropping their releases somewhere else.

Mouth-by-mouth always is something that goes fast in the hacking community, Nintendo can't control it despite their best efforts (see what happened with AM2R, it still is distributed in many places if you know where to search), and it probably will be something that'll spread, so I expect new releases to happen that way.

Also, props to Nintendo for proving how massively wrong they were in that aspect. Pro tip to them: You don't win new sales by making your system completely unpermeable to attacks (since it's impossible), you win new sales by making good games.