The PlayStation 4 is the world's most popular game console by a mile, with over 74 million units sold.

There are many contributing factors to the PS4's dominance, but the biggest and most important reason is the games.

The PlayStation 4 can play most games available on other consoles, but it also has an incredible lineup of exclusive games that are literally not playable elsewhere.

Here are the 30 PS4 games every owner should have in their collection:

SEE ALSO: Every PlayStation 4 game I own — RANKED

"God Of War"

The new "God Of War," which launches on Friday, is the most sophisticated and most polished entry in the popular franchise. It has the best visuals, best story, best character development, and best combat of the whole series — and that's saying something. It's a must-buy if you own a PlayStation 4. It's also a PS4 exclusive.

"Bloodborne"

If you own a PlayStation 4, you owe it to yourself to play "Bloodborne." It's very similar to the "Dark Souls" series — it's made by the same developer — but it's faster paced and has cosmic horror theme very reminiscent of H.P. Lovecraft. The deeper you get in the game, the more you feel like you're overcoming your fears. It's also a PS4 exclusive.

"Horizon Zero Dawn"

"Horizon Zero Dawn" might seem like a run-of-the-mill adventure title, but it's anything but. This is a Hollywood movie masquerading as a game, with perhaps the best plot or lore in any video game ever created, with incredible characters, dialogue, and visuals to boot. It's also a PS4 exclusive.

• A Chicago-based startup is letting customers buy personalized messages from celebrities to share with friends for special occasions.
• The celebrity lineup is made up of 1,400 athletes, musicians, social media influencers, and more, all of whom set their own price per message and get 75% of the cut. 
• Founder Steven Galanis wants "to help the 99 percent of talent monetize," and engage with their fans the way that "the Kardashians and the Drakes of the world" get to, he told the Chicago Tribune's Stacy Swartz.

If you can't say it with a greeting card, try saying it with an athlete.

That's what's being offered with Cameo, an online service that lets you purchase a personalized message from one of over a thousand athletes, comedians, and personalities to send to friends for any occasion.

It launched in March 2017 offering exclusively athletes, and has since added a variety of celebrities including social media influencers and reality stars. As of April 2018, Cameo has 1,400 famous faces on its roster who have together sent at least 26,000 messages, as founder Steven Galanis told the Chicago Tribune's Stacy Swartz. 

To share a Cameo video, users head to the Cameo website, choose a celebrity, and plug in the recipient's name, their own email address and phone number, and some information about what the event is or what their relationship with the recipient is like.

The order can be refused if it's inappropriate or damaging to the star's image, but the site says there are no set rules about what you can and cannot request, and "as long as the request is appropriate," Cameo says the celebrities will fill the order. 

In addition to allowing fans the opportunity to surprise friends with a unique — at times humorous— video, Galanis wants Cameo to let the smaller celebrities of the world "better connect with you as a fan."

“Our goal is really to help the 99 percent of talent monetize,” Galanis told the Chicago Tribune. “We think the Kardashians and the Drakes of the world, they have so many outlets to make money and to engage with their fans, that this is just a great outlet for everybody else to boost their reach.”

Some stars are recruited by the Cameo team and others join on their own, but they all set their own price, and get 75% of the returns. They can range from $20 per video to a few hundred, but can seemingly change — the Tribune put former-NBA star Dennis Rodman per-video price at $200, but it's now up to $1,000 per video.

For now, the video messages are shared with customers as a downloadable link via email, which they can share with the friend. The service will be available on iOS on April 27, according to the Chicago Tribune. 

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: The top 10 games coming in 2018

• Amazon and Best Buy are partnering to offer "Fire Edition" TVs with Amazon's Fire operating system built-in that can run numerous streaming apps like Netflix and Hulu. 
• The TVs will first come from Toshiba and Insignia, and they'll essentially have an Amazon Fire streaming device built-in.
• But Amazon's "Fire Edition" TVs aren't likely to come with Google's YouTube app due to an ongoing corporate disagreement.
• Meanwhile, TCL's Roku TV with Roku's operating system built-in still runs the YouTube app. 

Amazon announced on Wednesday that it's partnering with Best Buy to sell smart TVs running on Amazon's Fire TV operating system starting this summer. 

The partnership includes 4K and full-HD 1080p TVs from Toshiba and Insignia, and they will have Fire TV Edition branding. Those TVs will essentially have Amazon Fire streaming devices built-in that can run the same numerous streaming apps from Amazon's Fire streaming devices.

You'll also be able to use Amazon's Alexa smart voice assistant on Fire TV Edition models through the included remote to find movies and TV shows, and even control smart home devices. 

It's a similar concept as TCL's Roku TV where a TV made by TCL runs on the Roku operating system and runs the same apps as Roku streaming devices. 

Unlike TCL's Roku TV, however, it doesn't seem likely that Fire Edition TVs will come with the YouTube app, which is one of the most popular streaming services on any platform.

You can gauge YouTube's popularity with the fact that YouTube was the most popular streaming app on Apple's App Store and Google's Play Store as of September 2017, besting the streaming giant Netflix in active monthly users (MAU), time spent in app, and revenue generated. 

That's all because of a petty fight between Google and Amazon. Google pulled the YouTube app from Amazon Fire streaming devices on January 1 because Amazon doesn't sell Google's Home smart speakers and Chromecast streaming devices on its store. The biggest victim in this corporate tiff is Amazon and its customers who use Fire streaming devices and like to watch YouTube videos. 

Business Insider has contacted both Google and Amazon to confirm that the YouTube app is still unavailable on Amazon Fire streaming devices – and if it'll specifically feature on Fire Edition TVs – but neither company responded at the time of publication.

A look at the apps available on Fire streaming devices on Amazons website doesn't show the YouTube app, so it seems like Google's YouTube ban is still in effect. 

Unless Google and Amazon resolve their differences between now and summer when Fire Edition TVs become available, there's no telling when – or if – the YouTube app will ever return to Amazon Fire streaming devices, or if it'll feature in Fire Edition TVs. 

SEE ALSO: The Google vs Amazon fight over YouTube is the perfect reason why you should buy a Roku

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NOW WATCH: Google, Apple, and Amazon are in a war that no one will win

Season one of "Westworld" raised far more questions than it answered. But that's why we loved it.

Like "Game of Thrones," it's one of those shows that spawns theories, making its ambiguity one of the best parts of watching it. Season one's mysterious story, characters, and expansive park left room for a wild second season, which expands beyond Westworld.

Here, we collected our biggest questions after season one that we hope get answered in season two. 

Season two of "Westworld" premieres on HBO Sunday night at 9 p.m. ET.

SEE ALSO: 'Westworld' season 2 is even better than the first and transcends the last sci-fi tropes holding it back

Did Robert Ford want Dolores to kill him?

Ford, played by Anthony Hopkins, was the director of Westworld and one of the cofounders. In the season one finale, we find out that Ford planned a host rebellion, which he called his "final story." At a fancy dinner party, Dolores and other hosts come in and try to wipe out the humans. Dolores shoots Ford in the head. But did Ford intend to die? It seems like he did, but if he didn't that would tell us the hosts are out of his control. 

Are hosts still acting on Fords orders, or do they have complete free will now?

Given that Ford is dead, it would make sense if the hosts, including Bernard, are relieved of the narratives he created for them. But Ford seems to have had a grand plan, which could've been planned to last long term. We think that Maeve acted against Ford's orders by getting off the train in the finale, but what about the other hosts? Does Dolores actually have the free will she thinks she has, or did Ford write that into her narrative? 

Where's Elsie?

Elsie Hughes is the behavioral specialist who Bernard seemingly strangled under Ford's orders. Her fate was left up in the air, and word is she's somewhere in the park. Now that the hosts are in the park and unhinged, we're a bit worried about her. 

Former first lady Barbara Bush diedon Tuesday at the age of 92 after battling Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and congestive heart failure. She had been hospitalized several times over the last year.

During her lifetime, Bush was famous for speaking her mind on a variety of topics and issues. Take a look here at some of the former first lady's 12 best quotes during her lifetime.

SEE ALSO: Former first lady Barbara Bush dies at age 92

DON'T MISS: Inside the 'storybook' marriage of Barbara and George HW Bush — who were married longer than any first couple, and still said 'I love you' every night

Barbara Bush on regret:

Source: Time Magazine

Barbara Bush on what matters:

Source: Associated Press

Barbara Bush on George H.W. Bush:

Source: Smith Alumnae Quarterly

Tyra Banks and her mother Carolyn London outline Tyra Banks's difficult journey to success in their book "Perfect is Boring". At the height of Tyra Banks’s high fashion career, she was called “too big” by designers during Milan Fashion Week. In response to this criticism, Tyra questioned her body and how she could change it to adhere to the industry’s rigid standards. Her mother had a different plan and instead took her daughter out to pizza.

Tyra and her mother Carylon London, who at the time was acting as her manager, decide to leave high fashion and pursue mainstream brands. Several years later, Tyra Banks has established an empire from being the first Black covergirl on Sports Illustrated, the first Black Victoria’s Secret Angel, to creating America’s Next Top Model. And there is still more yet to come. Following is a transcript of the video.

Tyra Banks: I've been told that my butt was so big and just not marketable anymore. She gave me the tools, and the self-esteem, and the self-love, and the strategy to get around all of that hardship.

The fashion industry is a dog-eat-dog, very difficult world where you're broken down from your head to your toe, constantly told that you're not good enough, waitin' for the phone to ring.

When I was a very young model, and at the height of my high fashion career, high fashion meaning Chanel and Dior and Armani and all the wonderful high fashion designers in the world, I was told one season that I wasn't good enough.

They said your daughter is too big, her butt is getting too big, and you need to go tell her to lose some weight. This happened in Milan, Italy. So my mom came to me and she showed me the list of eight designers that did not want to hire me anymore. And I started crying and I was like, mom, okay, what do I do? Should I diet? Should I work out twice a day? Should I just have salads for breakfast, lunch, and dinner? And my mom said, "You know what we're gonna do?"

Carolyn London: "We gonna go get some pizza. And we're gonna come up with a plan."

Banks: Over a big, juicy, wonderful pizza with lots of cheese and sauce, we made a plan. There was a butcher paper on top of that table and she put a pen in my hand and she said, "You write down every client that likes ass. Your ass, because it's growing and there's nothing wrong with that. And I'll be damned if my baby starves for this industry." I was like, eatin' the pizza like. Likes ass? Okay, um ... Victoria's Secret?

London: And I said write it down.

Banks: And then she was like, okay now, who has an ass? And I was like, Cindy Crawford?

London: Write it down.

Banks: So I wrote that down and other models that had curves. And my mother said, "Those are the careers that you need to look at and figure out how you can implement some of those strategies, and those are the clients that you are gonna call to see if they will hire you. Goodbye high fashion, hello girl next door."

Cut to me, you know, being the first Black woman on the cover of a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition, and doing that twice, back-to-back. Me being the first Black Victoria's Secret Angel. One of the original Angels in fact. Me being the first Black woman on the cover of the Victoria's Secret catalog, the first Black woman to have a Victoria's Secret contract, the first Black model to wear the Victoria's Secret Fantasy Bra, and I did that twice.

Most of the time the road, we all know this, the road to success, no matter what the story says on Business Insider, people are like, oh yeah, I made it and I ... honey. My mother was super instrumental in so many aspects of my career. You know, my mom was fearless and she was creating an empire, not just saying be on this cover or work this runway. I had her there. She was my rock, my mother was there.

And it all started on a pizza butcher paper in Milan, Italy with my mama sayin'

Banks & London: Write it down.

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E-sports — which is to say, competitive, professional online video gaming — have exploded in popularity in recent years.

In fact, experts have predicted that e-sports viewership is likely to surpass that of traditional sports leagues, including the NBA and MLB, by 2020. Indeed, esports revenue is likely to climb to more than $900 million this year as television channels like ESPN continue to incorporate e-sports into their daily lineups, and streaming services like Amazon's Twitch become more mainstream.

In a world where competitive video games have the potential to be as lucrative an industry as professional sports, the title "pro gamer" has evolved massively since the '90s, where a relatively small group of die-hard gamers played in relatively unnoticed tournaments for community notoriety and occasional prize money. 

In the modern world of e-sports, pro gamers are salaried employees with medical benefits and 401-ks, and who have personal nutritionists and fitness trainers. They are celebrities and role models for the fans who purchase jerseys and other merchandise in their honor. They also happen to play the same video game for 8 to 10 hours a day.

Business Insider got to interview professional gamers who play in the Overwatch League, competing at the highest levels of Blizzard's acclaimed and best-selling competitive first-person shooter "Overwatch."

We got an inside look at the ups and downs of their everyday lives and, the journeys that they've taken to get to the highest level for their game of choice.

SEE ALSO: This 26-year-old makes $500,000 every month playing 'Fortnite' in his bedroom — here's how he does it

During an average week, teammates spend the majority of the day practicing "Overwatch" for hours at a time.

"Practices are really hard and really demanding," said Daniel "dhaK" Martinez, a professional player on the San Francisco Shock, one of the twelve permanent teams in the Overwatch League. 

Martinez said that on a typical practice day, he and his teammates play two hours at a time, for two or three times a day. These practice hours include running drills and skirmishes. The practice time give the players time to perfect or experiment with different in-game characters, called "heroes."

While the notion of getting paid to play video games all day may seem like a fantasy for many gamers, the reality of the training sessions can be both physically and mentally taxing, explained Jacob "Jake" Lyon, who plays on the league's Houston Outlaws.

For example, Lyon said he struggles with severe wrist pains thanks to the long hours spent working a keyboard and mouse in practice, and has to wear "geriatric gloves" while sleeping and regularly do special stretches to reduce strain.

"That's definitely not something I thought I'd have to worry about at 21," he laughed.

Match days come with the extra stresses of competing for a live audience of millions, doing press and meeting with fans, says Martinez.

"It's definitely surreal—knowing you're playing for tens of thousands of people, all watching from home," said Lyon, who plays for the Houston Outlaws. 

Any level of public notoriety comes with the responsibility of learning to be a role model for young fans — especially since "Overwatch" is smash hit with younger and older fans alike.

“It definitely requires a lot of personal responsibility," said Martinez, of the San Francisco Shock. “There are a lot of young kids watching, so you have to be extra careful — especially when you’re streaming."

Martinez is referring to the practice of streaming "Overwatch" matches on platforms like Amazon's Twitch — something that is not required by the Overwatch League, but which several players do on their own time to promote their personal brand and blow off steam.

Martinez says despite the pressures of fame, he's welcomed the opportunity to have an impact on young gamers and fans.

"It’s also really nice, knowing you can affect other people’s lives...knowing that someone looks up to you," he said.

• Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson told Rolling Stone that he thought the original ending to his new film "Rampage" was too sad.
• Johnson fought for a different ending and threatened to quit the movie unless it was changed.
• Johnson said he had "built a trust" with his worldwide audience and they come to his movies to feel good.

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson hated the original ending to his new movie "Rampage" so much that he was going to quit unless it was changed.

In an interview with Rolling Stone, Johnson said he doesn't like sad endings because "life brings that s--- — I don't want it in my movies. When the credits roll, I want to feel great."

In the film's original ending (spoiler alert), George — a mutated giant ape with a close bond to Johnson's character — dies after sacrificing himself to stop the other infected monsters. In the finished version, George survives.

"He sacrifices himself like a brave soldier," Johnson told Rolling Stone when describing how others tried to sell him on the original ending. "OK. But this is a movie! There's a crocodile the size of a football stadium – we're not making Saving Private Ryan."

Johnson said that George's fate became the "number one topic of discussion" with the director and producers, and that if George didn't survive, he would have walked away from the movie. 

"My problem is I have a relationship with an audience around the world," he said. "For years I've built a trust with them that they're gonna come to my movies and feel good. So every once in a while, you have to drop this card, which is: You're gonna have to find another actor. We need to figure something out, otherwise I'm not gonna do the movie."

"Rampage" debuted to a huge $55 million in its opening weekend in China (and $35.7 million in the US), proving that he's one of the most recognizable actors in the world, and one of the few who can still bring people to the theater no matter where his movie is showing.

More on Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson:

• How The Rock conquered the China box office
• The Rock calls out 'Fast and Furious' stars who complained about his spin-off movie
• Every movie The Rock has starred in, ranked by how much money they made at the U.S. box office
• The Rock describes dealing with depression after his mom's attempted suicide

SEE ALSO: The 25 worst superhero movies of all time, ranked from bad to unwatchable

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: How all-you-can-eat restaurants don't go bankrupt

• Meteors have been seen falling in Fortnite: Battle Royale as the game wraps up season three and players await the beginning of season four.
• The celestial phenomenon has caused players to speculate what the meteors could mean for the future of Fortnite and the game map.
• Some Fortnite theorists have suggested the meteor might hit Tilted Towers, the most populated area in the game, effectively changing the landscape of the game as we know it.

Fortnite: Battle Royale is the most popular video game in the world right now, and the game might be going through a big change soon based on what players are seeing.

If you play Fortnite: Battle Royale right now, and you look up in the sky there's a good chance you'll see falling meteors. Some believe the meteor will hit one of the game's most popular areas, Tilted Towers.

A blog dedicated to Fortnite news and related content pointed out Wednesday that many players have noticed large "shooting stars" falling across the sky while playing the game. The "stars" were first spotted a few days ago, according to Fortnite Intel, when they were much smaller and often hard to spot, but have been growing rapidly in size and frequency today.

Here's what it looks like in the game now:

As the "shooting stars" get closer and appear to come closer to the ground, more players have been referring to them as meteors.

Many have started to speculate about what the meteors could signal for the game, and what the ramifications might be if one actually hits the ground.

Within Fortnite, time is measured in "Battle Royale Seasons," which last about three months.

The game is in season three, scheduled to end on April 30, leading many to believe that the meteor could drastically change the Fortnite map with a fiery blast — in a similar way that the dinosaurs were wiped out — especially if it were to hit "Tilted Towers," one of the most high-traffic metropolitan areas in the game, where the meteor has been spotted.

Videos of the meteors have revealed an Easter-egg sound effect that is triggered by a player pointing directly at it, as demonstrated by Tyler "Ninja" Blevins, the most-followed Fortnite streamer on Twitch, saying "IT IS THE END! IT IS COMING!":

Hardcore fans on Reddit and Twitter have even suggested that listening closely to the sound made by the meteor might convey a secret hint from the game developers at the fate of the meteor via Morse code, a theory that Ninja, who is a well-known consultant of the developers, showed interest in by retweeting:

We'll know what these meteors mean for sure in the coming days.

SEE ALSO: 'Fortnite' is roughly as popular as 'Apple' right now, according to Google Trends

DON'T MISS: Full benefits, 6-figure salaries, 401Ks and nutritionists — 2 professionals reveal what it's really like to be paid to play video games for a living

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: A neuroscientist explains why reality may just be a hallucination

• The upcoming "Battlefield V" game could have a "battle royale" style game mode that's similar to the massively popular "Fortnite" and "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" – or "PUBG."
• It's still rumor at this point, but it's not entirely surprising considering the popularity of "Fortnite" and "PUBG."

The upcoming "Battlefield V" game being developed by EA Dice could have a "battle royale" style game mode that's similar to the massively popular "Fortnite" and "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" games, according to VentureBeat, which spoke with sources close to the matter.  

In both "Fortnite" and "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" – more commonly known as "PUBG" – 100 online players are dropped onto island maps to fight to the death with weapons they find scattered throughout the map. The objective is to become the last player standing. 

If the reports are accurate, it'll be interesting to see how EA Dice implement a battle-royale mode in its "Battlefield" series, where two sides – or teams –  of online players battle each other to complete objectives. 

"Battle royale" game modes have completely taken over game culture, "with everyone from celebrities to major game streamers to your kids playing either "Fortnite" or "PUBG,"" as my colleague Ben Gilbert puts it.

"PUBG" went on to dominate the leaderboard for concurrent players on the Steam gaming platform as a "pre-release" game, before it was even finished. "Fortnite," which is available to play for free on PC, Mac, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, iOS, and soon Android, has amassed a gigantic player base of 45 million players and three million concurrent users.

With those games' popularity in mind, it's not surprising that game developers are looking to include something similar in their own games. 

EA Dice is expected to release "Battlefield V" some time this year, and it's still unclear which conflict "Battlefield V" will be based on. "Battlefield 1" takes place during the First World War. 

The upcoming "Call of Duty: Black Ops 4" game was also reported to get a battle royale game mode earlier this week. 

SEE ALSO: It sounds like this year's 'Call of Duty' is getting some major changes, including a 'Fortnite'-inspired 'Battle Royale' mode — here's what we know so far

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Everything you need to know about 'Battlegrounds' — an unfinished game that’s already made $60 million

In any form of storytelling, characters are often what draws an audience in.

But in television, compelling characters are especially crucial, as they're tasked with holding the interest of viewers over the course of a season or an entire series. 

TV Time has compiled data from the in-app voting of its 12 million registered global users this year to track which TV characters audiences have gravitated toward the most in particular episodes. The app tracks 60,000 TV shows.

But which characters were the most popular?

Netflix, it turns out, has (unsurprisingly) found successful formulas for character development, as a number of characters from Netflix originals like "The End of the F***ing World" and "Money Heist" appear on this list.

Here are the 20 most popular TV characters in the world (followed by the 20 most popular in the US), according to TV Time users:

SEE ALSO: The 50 best TV show seasons of all time, according to critics

GLOBAL DATA

20. Sheldon Cooper — "Young Sheldon"

Played by: Iain Armitage

19. Denver — "Money Heist"

Played by: Jaime Lorente

Critics are panning the new Amy Schumer-led comedy, "I Feel Pretty," with the film's trailer having already spurred an online backlash this week ahead of the movie's release on Friday.

Schumer stars as the film's lead character, Renee, who the film's website says "struggles with feelings of deep insecurity and low self-esteem" but one day "wakes from a brutal fall in an exercise class believing she is suddenly a supermodel."

Written and directed by Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein, "I Feel Pretty" drew criticism on social media earlier this week over its trailer, which some argued appeared to promote a negative stance on issues of body image.

Schumer has responded to the backlash in interviews with multiple outlets. She told Vulture that audiences should see the film before judging it, and she described how she felt the film addressed issues of low self-esteem.

"It's not about an ugly troll becoming beautiful — it's about a woman who has low self-esteem finding some," Schumer told Vulture. "Everyone's got a right to feel that feeling, regardless of their appearance."

But film critics appear to have not found much redeeming material in "I Feel Pretty." The film has a 36% "Rotten" rating on the reviews aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.

"I Feel Pretty" is also expected to open to a slow start in theaters this weekend. The Wrap projected that the film was set for an opening of $13 million to $15 million at the box office, well below the release of Schumer's 2015 film, "Trainwreck," which opened with $30 million and went on to gross $140.7 million worldwide.

Here are a few of the harshest reviews of the film so far:

SEE ALSO: The 44 worst movies made by iconic directors — from Spielberg to Scorsese

"An honest-to-God fiasco. Virtually every single aspect of this rigidly unfunny comedy is botched, from the characters to the plot, the themes to the core message."

Inkoo Kang, The Wrap

"'I Feel Pretty' takes a talented comic and casts her in the worst possible light (and I don't mean that literally — she looks fine)."

Sara Stewart, The New York Post

"Ersatz and predictable, 'I Feel Pretty' just wanders in circles of amiable confusion, and the star never finds a groove that connects the two halves of Renee into one believable woman."

Ty Burr, Boston Globe

• Delane Parnell, a 25-year-old Detroit native, is bringing a competitive video gaming (or eSports) league to high schools across America.
• He is not the stereotypical Silicon Valley tech founder and has overcome a lot. "I'm from Detroit. I grew up in the Jeffries Projects. Raised by a single mother. My father was murdered before I was born," Parnell said matter-of-factly.
• His startup PlayVS is teaming up with the country's leading governing body for high school sports to build infrastructure for an eSports-focused league.
• Student athletes will form eSports teams at their schools, compete with players from other schools, and battle for titles at state championships.

Growing up, Delane Parnell and his friends would gather after school in a classroom, where a plucky science teacher set up laptops and PCs for an unofficial competitive video gaming, or eSports, club. It created a safe space for Parnell, who grew up in a tough Detroit neighborhood, to be competitive, laugh, socialize, and engage in something he loved: video games.

Now, Parnell, 25, wants to bring a competitive eSports league to high schools across America.

His venture-backed startup, PlayVS, is building an online platform that will let teen gamers form eSports teams at their high schools, compete with players from other schools, and battle for titles at state championships. The idea is to bring eSports into the fold of traditional high school athletics by giving gamers a platform to operate on and a stage for recognition.

PlayVS is announcing on Thursday that it's landed an exclusive partnership with the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS), an organization that writes the rules of competition for most high school sports in the US and reaches nearly eight million high school athletes. The two will work together to introduce eSports across NFHS's 50 member states.

From 8 Mile to Silicon Beach

Without eSports, Parnell isn't sure he would have made a career in technology.

"I'm from Detroit. I grew up in the Jeffries Projects. Raised by a single mother. My father was murdered before I was born," Parnell said matter-of-factly.

As a teenager, he moved to the city's West Side and lived a few blocks away from the notorious 8 Mile Road. He started his first job at age 13 and played sports — requirements his mom put in place to ensure her two sons would stay out of the neighborhood until she got home from work.

Parnell grew up without a computer or home internet. So when a science teacher put together an unofficial eSports club — before eSports was even "a thing" — in his classroom after school, Parnell jumped at the opportunity. There, he found his community, and his people.

After graduating high school, Parnell went onto become a senior associate at a small seed-stage investment firm called IncWell Venture Capital and an early employee at Rocket Fiber, a high-speed internet company based in Detroit. But he had an itch to build something around eSports.

A fateful meeting on a dance floor with Peter Pham, an angel investor and cofounder of a startup incubator called Science, at South by Southwest led Parnell to move from Detroit to Santa Monica to develop his idea. He founded PlayVS out of the incubator a month later.

How PlayVS works

Parnell describes the PlayVS platform as a virtual gymnasium, weight room, and trophy case.

High school students will choose from four game titles to play, "practice" online on school computers, and compete during two four-month seasons that each end in a state championship.

While students will play the games on a bigger distribution platform like Steam, the PlayVS platform will download the scores of those matches and publish the results on its own ranking of top gamers. Students will be able to maintain player profiles and team pages on PlayVS.

"We look at ourselves as a full-stack sport," Parnell said.

The inaugural season kicks off in October, with high school students in at least 15 states getting access to PlayVS's platform. Parnell declined to name the game publishers or states taking part, but said the games will span three genres: multiplayer online battle arena, fighting, and sports games.

The eSports industry is on fire

PlayVS will lean on the NFHS to help it build infrastructure for an eSports league that Parnell hopes to take across 50 states someday. According to Parnell, the federation had been looking to expand its offerings into eSports for at least two years, as it watched interest in eSports grow.

Some 335 million people watched or played eSports in 2017, an increase of 19% year over year, according to market intelligence firm Newzoo. If the eSports nation were an actual nation, it would be the third largest country on the planet, ahead of the United States in population size.

Newzoo expects the global eSports economy will grow 38% to $906 million in 2018.

PlayVS will make money in part by charging a $16 membership fee per student per month that they (or their school) must pay in order to access the platform. That works out to about $128 per year, which could be cost-prohibitive for some students, over two four-month seasons.

When asked if he thinks there will be backlash from school administrators or parents who say eSports "isn't a real sport," Parnell bristled, calling the criticism a "generational issue."

Not everyone will agree with bringing eSports to high schools, though.

Last year, the World Health Organization said it was considering adding "gaming disorder" to a list of mental health conditions, stating that problematic gaming behavior might cause problems in other areas of people's lives. There's been a call for more research into the links between video games and violence in the wake of events like the school shooting in Parkland, Florida. For this reason, Parnell said that PlayVS will not offer shooting games on the platform.

Still, the percentage of teens who play video games rose to 72% in 2015. Some colleges in the US and Canada have started recruiting and offering scholarships for eSports, while some enthusiasts have turned their hobbies into lucrative careers as professional eSports gamers.

Parnell wants to give students a chance to seize those opportunities.

"Esports is about more than just playing games," he said in a statement. "It can be used to help students grow their STEM interests and develop valuable life skills, and since there are more high school gamers than athletes, it's about time we foster this pastime in an educational setting."

SEE ALSO: How playing video games affects your body and brain

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NOW WATCH: It turns out the life of a professional video game player is harder than you think

The Nintendo Switch is barely a year old, yet there's already a killer line-up of games available.

Whether you're looking for Nintendo staples like "Mario" and "Zelda," fast-paced first-person shooters like "DOOM", or narrative-driven indie RPGs like "Golf Story," there's something for everyone on the Switch.

Good news! We've put together a list of the best games to enjoy on Nintendo's latest console:

SEE ALSO: The 31 best Nintendo Switch games under $20

1. "Super Mario Odyssey"

The pure joy of playing "Odyssey" is hard to convey. It's the best Mario game in years, and easily one of the best Mario games ever made. It's certainly the best game on the Nintendo Switch, which is really saying something.

Read our review of "Super Mario Odyssey" right here.

Check it out in action right here:

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2. "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild"

"The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild" is a rare gem.

It's the kind of game that changes player expectations — what they expect of themselves and what they expect from games.

Read our review of "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild" right here.

• In an interview with Newsweek, "Avengers: Infinity War" directors Joe and Anthony Russo reveal "the most frightening thing" about villain Thanos.
• They call him "understandable" and say that the audience might find themselves empathizing with him.
• This calls to mind the "Black Panther" villain, Killmonger, who was praised for being a figure who made a strong argument — #KillmongerWasRight even trended on Twitter after the film's release.

The villain Thanos may want to destroy half the universe in Marvel's "Avengers: Infinity War," but according to directors Joe and Anthony Russo, he's sympathetic — and that's the most frightening thing of all.

When the movie hits theaters next week, audiences will get their best look yet at Thanos, played by Josh Brolin, whose battle against the Avengers has been teased and built up for the past 10 years of Marvel Cinematic Universe movies.

In an interview with Newsweek, the Russo brothers revealed "the most frightening thing about Thanos" is that he might actually have good reasons for his evil deeds.

"While he has a horrific goal in mind, he has a lot of conviction,” Anthony Russo told Newsweek. “Some of what he’s looking for in the movie is actually very understandable. That, I think, is where it gets very uncomfortable and challenging. You find yourself empathizing with him.”

"You don’t root for Thanos,” Dan DeLeeuw, Infinity War’s visual effects supervisor, told Newsweek. “But there’s something very charismatic about him."

This description resembles the "Black Panther" villain Killmonger, played by Michael B. Jordan, who was praised by critics and audiences for being a sympathetic figure even though his methods were brutal.

The character was so captivating that #KillmongerWasRight was trending on Twitter after the film's release because of how strong an argument he made despite the morally questionable execution of his goals. 

It might be hard to root for a guy who wants to wipe out most of humanity — including the Avengers — but we'll see just how compelling Thanos' motives are when "Avengers: Infinity War" is released on April 27.

SEE ALSO: The rise of the Russo brothers — from going into credit card debt for their first movie to directing 'Avengers: Infinity War'

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NOW WATCH: What living on Earth would be like without the moon

Netflix did some major house cleaning in 2017, cutting expensive shows like "Sense8" and "The Get Down." 

It also killed flops like "Girlboss" and "Gypsy" after only one season, and old favorites like "House of Cards," which will end after its sixth season. 

And Netflix isn't holding back in 2018 either.

Netflix's most recent cancellation is the drama "Seven Seconds," which told the story of a city filled with racial tension after a white cop critically injures a black teenager. 

This is Netflix's fourth cut show in 2018, the others being comedies "Lady Dynamite," "Disjointed," and "Everything Sucks!"

Here are the eighteen shows Netflix has killed in total, along with their critic and audience ratings from Metacritic.

Additional reporting by Jethro Nededog. 

SEE ALSO: All the TV shows that have been canceled in 2018

"Seven Seconds": Canceled after one season

Netflix description: "The death of a 15-year-old African American boy in Jersey City sets off a police cover-up and a search for the truth."

Critic rating: 68/100

Audience rating: 87.1/10

"Everything Sucks": Canceled after one season

Netflix description: "It's 1996 in a town called Boring, where high school misfits in the AV and drama clubs brave the ups and downs of teenage life in the VHS era."

Critic rating: 62/100

Audience rating: 7.3/10

Date canceled: April 2018 

"Disjointed": Canceled after one season

Netflix description: "Pot activist Ruth Whitefeather Feldman runs a medical marijuana dispensary while encouraging her loyal patients to chill out and enjoy the high life."

Critic rating: 43/100

Audience rating: 7.4/10

Date canceled: February 2018 

It's still early in the year, but the list of canceled TV shows is already piling up.

Networks haven't announced many cancellations yet, except for ABC, which canceled its freshman sitcom "The Mayor" and "Once Upon a Time," once a ratings hit. And in March, TNT announced the cancellation of its original series "The Librarians."

On the streaming side, things are a bit different. Amazon kicked off the year with a slew of cancellations, announcing the end of three quirky comedies, including the Golden Globe nominee "I Love Dick" and the comedian Tig Notaro's semi-autobiographical show, "One Mississippi." It canceled Golden Globe nominee "Mozart in the Jungle" in April, after four seasons. Also in April, Netflix canceled the 90s coming-of-age comedy, "Everything Sucks," which came to the streaming service in February. 

There are many more cancellations to come, especially since networks haven't announced the fate of their fall shows.

We'll update this list as more are announced.

Here are all the shows that have been canceled this year, including those from networks and Netflix:

SEE ALSO: The worst TV show of every year since 2000, according to critics

"The Mayor" — ABC, one season

"Chance" — Hulu, two seasons

"Lady Dynamite" — Netflix, two seasons

• Walt Disney Worldemployees, also known as cast members, are trained in the art of creating a positive experience for guests.
• But some visitors to the famed Orlando park don't make things easy for the people who work there.
• Business Insider spoke with eight former Disney World cast members to get an idea of the most annoying guest behaviors.
• From overly aggressive pin-hunting to blaming cast members for bad weather, these are the things sure to annoy or concern Disney World cast members.

Walt Disney World cast members interact with a ton of guests every year — as many as 20.4 million people visited the park in 2016.

But for employees, also known as cast members, not every interaction with a guest is going to be positive and seamless.

John Quagliano, a former cast member, told Business Insider that most guests were perfectly nice to cast members.

"But at the same time, a lot of people can be really testy," he said.

Quagliano, who worked in the Magic Kingdom, added that he understood why some Disney visitors might be on edge at the park.

"People have just spent this much money to have this wonderful vacation and come to Florida, and then all of a sudden they get to the park and they realize 'Whoa, my family and I maybe have to stand in line for 20 minutes,' or 'It's raining, and now the ride's closed down,'" Quagliano said. "A water's $3, so they get thirsty and they say, 'I just spent four grand on a hotel — how is the water $3?'"

But former cast members say there are some things visitors can avoid doing to avoid antagonizing them.

Business Insider recently spoke to eight people who participated in the Disney College Program at Disney World. Here are the annoying guest behaviors they said they wished would stop.

SEE ALSO: A look inside the daily routine of Walt Disney, who wandered through the office after hours and always carried snacks in his pockets

DON'T MISS: 11 insider facts about working at Walt Disney World only cast members know

READ MORE: 20 cities are left in the running for Amazon's second headquarters — and the story of Disney's secret hunt for land nearly 60 years ago could predict how Amazon's HQ2 will change its home city

Getting mad while waiting in line

At Disney World, the lines can get long, and heat and boredom can cause tempers to flare.

But one former cast member who operated rides like The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh and The Mad Tea Party, told Business Insider that now that she had worked at the park, she'd "never get upset at a merge point, when a cast member lets all of the FastPass line go and not standby."

"There's a certain expectation in terms of how that is done — and knowing that, I am more than willing to be patient with the cast member at merge because I know they're just doing their job," she told Business Insider.

Ignoring cast members' instructions — especially when it comes to safety precautions

"A lot of guests sort of ignored safety-related directions," Devin Melendy, a former cast member who wrote "Devin Earns Her Ears: My Secret Walt Disney World Cast Member Diary," told Business Insider.

Melendy, who worked in Frontierland, said she often helped with crowd control during park parades. She said she felt uncomfortable when she had to ask guests to move to a better location and often got attitude in response.

Quagliano agreed, saying he sometimes encountered guests who were reluctant to comply with requests like moving strollers to the side to avoid blocking foot traffic.

"We don't tell people what to do just for the sake of doing it," Melendy said. "Disney is very devoted to safety and making sure that guests are happy and in a safe zone. We don't do it for fun — it's so everyone can enjoy the park and the parades in a safe manner."

Debating height requirements for rides

"You'll have guests try to argue about the height requirement when they're at the front of the line," Christina Hartless, a former Disney cast member, told Business Insider. "You'll have guests who try to stuff their kids' shoes."

Hartless worked at the Epcot attraction The Sum of All Thrills, which allowed guests to design a simulated roller-coaster experience.

The ride had two height requirements: You had to be 48 inches tall to ride and 54 inches tall to use the feature that would flip the attraction upside down.

As a result, Hartless said, she often encountered people who'd try to persuade cast members to look the other way when it came to height requirements.

"I once had a family tell me that they had come all the way from Brazil just so their 3-year-old could ride that ride," she said, "which I kind of doubted."

Fortunately, Disney World's website allows you to check which rides have height requirements before you waste your time waiting in line and bugging cast members.

• MoviePass' parent company, Helios & Matheson, lost 40% in trading Thursday. 
• The company said late Wednesday it had sold millions of shares at a hefty discount.
• Its losses come just days after its auditor said there's "substantial doubt" about its ability to stay in business as it reported a $150.8 million loss.
• Follow HMNY stock in real-time here.

Shares of Helios & Matheson Information Technology, the parent company of MoviePass, sank more than 40% Thursday after the company announced it sold new stock at a hefty discount.

Helios & Matheson said in a regulatory filing late Wednesday that it had sold 10.5 million shares at a price of $2.75 — a hefty 28% discount form its closing price earlier that day of $3.83. When markets opened Thursday, the stock's price tanked.

The losses come at an inconvenient time for MoviePass, which is struggling to stay afloat amid heavy losses. Earlier this week, the company's auditor, Rosenberg Rich Baker Berman & Co., said it had "substantial doubt" that Movie Pass could stay in business after reporting a $150 million loss.

Helios & Matheson CEO Ted Farnsworth downplayed the significance of the "going concern" warning to Business Insider, saying such a warning was in "pretty much most" 10-K filings when a company is running at a loss. "If they don't raise money, they could go out of business," he continued.

Such statements, though, aren't triggered by a company's profits or losses. Instead, they reflect the auditor's view on how viable a company is in the year forward.

Since MoviePass dropped its subscription price to $9.95 a month last summer, which allows members to see one movie per day in theaters, it has shaken up the industry. It has attracted millions of new subscribers, but many have questioned how it will continue to sustain itself financially given that it's paying most theaters full price for movie tickets.

Still, Farnsworth remains committed to the portfolio company. "I'm the biggest fan because I see what's going on from the inside and what Mitch is creating here," he said.

Jason Guerrasio contributed to this report.

SEE ALSO: MoviePass' auditor says there's 'substantial doubt' about its ability to stay in business — as it reports a $150.8 million loss

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NOW WATCH: Wall Street's biggest bull explains why trade war fears are way overblown

Donald Trump has been a public figure since the '80s, but that image has been overshadowed by his recent presidency. Tina Brown, author of "The Vanity Fair Diaries," discusses how much Trump has changed since then.

Tina Brown: I decided at Vanity Fair to buy an extract of his new book, The Art of the Deal, and I bought it because I love the voice in the book. I thought to myself, this is BS but it's authentic BS. That was critical thing, I loved his voice. I thought, you know what, I know he's a con man, but something about the voice is very beguiling.

Brown: Subsequently, about a month or so later, I met him at a party hosted by a big Park Avenue socialite. And each of our dinner partners was kind of ignoring us and so we ended up sort of bouncing back and forth over the heads of the other diners at the dinner party. And he, of course at that point, was very genial. I was the person who had extracted his book and he saw me as a big ally and he would go like, Aye, Tina, what do you think of my cover this week of Newsweek? I mean that's better than Time, isn't it? And I'd go, actually I think Time is better than Newsweek. No, I could have had Time. You know it was exactly what he's like today except at that time he was much more fun and much more genial in a way, and he was just this funny, coarse, crass guy but he had a personality.

Brown: But of course subsequently, as we covered his business failures, which then took over, he became much darker and much more aggressive and much more belligerent. A piece that we ran by Marie Brenner was so kind of critical of him that he was very, very unhappy. I mean Marie Brenner wrote the fact that he had Hitler speeches on his desk. And she wrote about his bankruptcies and so forth, and he was very, very upset about this piece. She was at a party in Manhattan, at a benefit, and she's sitting there having dinner and she suddenly finds something cold and wet coming down her back. And she looks up and there is Donald Trump, heading off across the room having emptied a glass of white wine down her evening dress.

Brown: That, in a sense, was what Donald Trump became, and it's really the Trump we see today. Trump is the absolute, sort of, final arch of celebrity culture that we saw beginning in 1984 when he rose to now, when the reality show ethos has just reached its apotheosis, if you like, and he is that person. Really I think a lot of people underestimated how deeply The Apprentice made its mark on the American psyche. I mean there was season after season of that show which huge amounts of people watched. Maybe not the people who write opinion columns, but the people who vote watched that show. And that show was all about presenting Donald Trump as a winning CEO, a decisive guy. A man who could get the difficult decision done. A man who didn't hesitate while he made his company work. It was, of course, a phony image because it was a reality show, but it was an image that just sealed itself onto the American psyche so that when he runs for president they all say, he's going to make the country work. And that's really why he made it through to the Oval Office.

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