title: Crusaders (rugby union)

text: Individual players also hold records: Andrew Mehrtens for most points in a Super 12 season (206 in 1998), and Rico Gear for most tries in a season (15 in 2005). Thirteen players have played over 100 games for the franchise: Justin Marshall, Reuben Thorne, Caleb Ralph, Greg Somerville, Leon MacDonald, Richie McCaw, Chris Jack, Dan Carter, Andy Ellis, Kieran Read, Wyatt Crockett, Sam Whitelock and Ryan Crotty they also have three International Rugby Board Players of the Year: Dan Carter (2005), (2012), (2015), Richie McCaw (2006), (2009) and (2010) and Kieran Read (2013)


title: Crusaders (rugby union)

text: Due to the success of the Crusaders throughout Super Rugby, many players that have represented the Crusaders have gone on to play international test rugby for the All Blacks. List of All Blacks that have represented the Crusaders:


title: Crusaders (rugby union)

text: Half-back Justin Marshall was the first player to achieve the feat, playing for the Crusaders between 1996 and 2005. Both Thorne and Ralph achieved the 100-game mark at the same time. However, Ralph had played nine of his matches for other franchises: three for the Chiefs and six for the Blues. Ralph achieved the "100 Crusaders games" feat later that season; remarkably, they were played consecutively. Greg Somerville became the next player to contribute 100 games for the franchise, achieving this in the 2006 semi-final against the Bulls. The first match of the 2008 season was Leon MacDonald's 100th game, and on 11 March 2011 Chris Jack started against the Brumbies to play his 100th match for the Crusaders. The Crusaders also boast three winners of the IRB International Player of the Year Award: Dan Carter (2005, 2012 and 2015), Kieran Read (2013) and Richie McCaw (2006, 2009 and 2010).


title: Crusaders (rugby union)

text: On the eve of the last Super 12 final in 2005, a panel of experts picked the Crusaders team of the decade, which was published by the Christchurch Press. The experts chosen to select the team were: Tane Norton (former All Blacks captain), Vance Stewart (first Crusaders coach), Dick Tayler (president of supporters club), Bob Schumacher (former Christchurch Press rugby writer) and Tony Smith (Christchurch Press rugby writer).


title: Crusaders (rugby union)

text: The most notable omissions from the team were Dan Carter, Richard Loe, and Reuben Thorne. Daniel Carter was omitted due to the strength of Andrew Mehrtens and Aaron Mauger who occupied the first and second five-eighth positions respectively, and because he was regarded as "the star of the next decade". Despite being considered one of Canterbury's best ever props, Richard Loe missed out as he was only in the team for the unsuccessful 1996 season. The former All Black captain Reuben Thorne was omitted due to the quality of players in the lock and blindside flanker positions. The most unlikely inclusion was for Norm Berryman at right wing. Berryman was picked over Marika Vunibaka and Afato So'oalo due to his crucial tries late in the 1998 and 1999 seasons that helped the Crusaders qualify for the semi-finals. The team:


title: Crusaders (rugby union)

text: The Crusaders were coached in their first season by Vance Stewart, who was assisted by Aussie Mclean. Stewart was replaced by Wayne Smith in 1997; McLean too was replaced, by Peter Sloane. Smith continued as coach until he was appointed All Blacks coach after the 1999 season. Robbie Deans took over the reins for the 2000 season. Deans has had several assistants: in 2000 and 2001 his assistant was Steve Hansen; in 2002, Colin Cooper; in 2003 and 2004, Don Hayes; and in 2005 and 2006, Vern Cotter. Deans' assistant for the 2007 season was former Crusader Mark Hammett. Deans was appointed coach of Australia in December 2007, but was allowed to continue coaching the Crusaders in the 2008 season. Former captain, Todd Blackadder was appointed his successor in July 2008, with Hammett continuing as assistant coach. Hammett was appointed Hurricanes coach from the beginning of the 2011 season, and consequently former prop Dave Hewett was appointed assistant forwards coach. In June 2016, Scott Robertson, former Crusaders player and former Head Coach of the Canterbury National Provincial Team and the New Zealand Under 20 Rugby Team, was announced as the Crusaders Head Coach from 2017 through to 2024.


title: Yooka-Laylee

text: Yooka-Laylee is a platform game published by Team17 in 2017 for Windows, macOS, Linux, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch, followed by a version for Amazon Luna in October 2020. Developed by Playtonic Games, a group of former key personnel from Rare, "Yooka-Laylee" is a spiritual successor to the "Banjo-Kazooie" series released for the Nintendo 64 nearly 20 years prior. After years of planning to develop a new game, Playtonic Games initiated a Kickstarter campaign that attracted significant media coverage and raised a record-breaking sum of over £2 million. The game follows chameleon Yooka and bat Laylee on their quest to retrieve a magical book from an evil corporation.


title: Yooka-Laylee

text: "Yooka-Laylee" received mixed reviews, with critics divided on whether emulating its predecessors was enough to make it a successful game, or whether it was purely trying to capitalize on nostalgia. While most critics agreed that it captured the essence of earlier platformers, they also pointed out technical shortcomings and outdated gameplay. A spin-off, "Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair", was released on October 8, 2019.


title: Yooka-Laylee

text: "Yooka-Laylee" is a platform game played from a third-person perspective. The gameplay is similar to that of games in the "Banjo-Kazooie" and "Chameleon Twist" series. The player controls two characters that work together to explore their environment, collect items, solve puzzles and defeat enemies. The playable characters are Yooka, a male chameleon, and Laylee, a female bat. During their adventures, Yooka and Laylee explore worlds contained within magical books and complete challenges to collect "Pagies": golden book pages that act as the main currency in the game. Players can use their Pagies to either unlock new worlds or expand those which have already been unlocked.


title: Yooka-Laylee

text: Yooka and Laylee can learn a variety of abilities, including "sonar blasting", "tongue whipping", "sky soaring", eating berries for temporary powers such as fire breath, and a "fart bubble" for breathing underwater. Most of these abilities use a power meter that is filled by collecting butterflies (which can be eaten instead to restore health). Each new ability is earned by collecting enough quills to purchase them from Trowzer, a snake salesman who wears pants. Collectibles by the name of Mollycools are given to Dr. Puzz, an octopus scientist, in order to give Yooka and Laylee various transformations that grant them exclusive abilities. Play Tonics are RPG-style ability modifiers that are purchased from Vendi, a living vending machine, and equipped to modify or enhance players' ability stats. Also found in the levels are Ghost Writers, collectible characters who provide various challenges like catching or fighting them, and Play Tokens, which are used to play the secret arcade games that are found once per level, hosted by a low-polygon tyrannosaurus rex named Rextro Sixtyfourus. There are several "quiz show challenges", similar to the "Banjo-Kazooie" games. Furthermore, there is another character named Kartos, a sentient mine cart who allows "mine cart" sequences, similar to those of "Donkey Kong Country" and "Donkey Kong 64".


title: Yooka-Laylee

text: The game features a local cooperative multiplayer mode for two players. There is also a 2–4 player adversarial local multiplayer mode, with eight different minigames. The game also features an optional "64-bit" mode, which imitates the graphical appearance of Nintendo 64 games.


title: Yooka-Laylee

text: After their precious book, later revealed to be the magical "One Book", is sucked up by the evil Hivory Towers Corporation, Yooka and Laylee enter their headquarters to retrieve their property. Fighting their way through the vast company grounds and the levels they contain, they eventually manage to reassemble the book's lost pages. In a final fight against the CEO Capital B, they manage to defeat him and reclaim the One Book. Yooka and Laylee proceed to invite everyone from their grand adventure for a party at Shipwreck Creek, and Laylee decides to lock the book up in a safe so that it appreciates in value. During the credits, it is revealed that Hivory Towers is part of the bigger evil organization V.I.L.E., which still targets the book.


title: Yooka-Laylee

text: In September 2012, a group of former Rare employees attempted to create a spiritual successor to "Banjo-Kazooie". They joined under the Twitter handle "Mingy Jongo", the name of a boss from the second "Banjo" game, "Banjo-Tooie", with cooperation from ex-Rare designers, including composer Grant Kirkhope. In December 2014, the account was left abandoned and the project confirmed to be on indefinite hiatus by Kirkhope in a Reddit AMA; however, in August a video game company named "Playtonic Games" was incorporated by this group, and the account was soon revived under the name of its new company. Playtonic then announced that they were planning a spiritual successor to the "Banjo-Kazooie" franchise titled "Yooka-Laylee", formerly codenamed "Project Ukulele". At the start of development, six people were involved. To finance the game, the development team decided to use fundraising website Kickstarter to acquire £175,000 to start production. Immediately, the campaign attracted enormous attention and the goal was reached within 40 minutes, a record on the platform. Later the campaign made another record for the fastest game to get pledged in the history of the platform. Within a few weeks, the game had garnered £2.1 million from over 80,000 backers.


title: Yooka-Laylee

text: The game was intended as a resurrection and modernization of the "collectathon" 3D platforming game genre of the late 1990s and early 2000s, with an emphasis on progression by collecting various different items. Some of the collectibles were created using 2D sprites. Additional post-launch downloadable content is planned, which began production following the game's release, with crowdfunding participants receiving this content for free. The game's native language is featured in English, but it also features French, German, Italian and Spanish localizations. Wil Overton, a former artist for Rare, illustrated the game's instruction manual.


title: Yooka-Laylee

text: The game was created with the Unity engine with help from middleware tools. This allowed for bugs to be more easily repaired and the incorporation of ten thousand polygons. The phoneticizing of "ukulele" was an early idea that went through several versions (e.g. Hawaiian terms Yoku, meaning "to eat bugs", and Laylee, meaning "to fly") until the final title "Yooka-Laylee". "Yooka-Laylee" features 3D worlds by environment artist Steven Hurst, who also worked on the "Banjo-Kazooie" series as well as "Viva Piñata". The game's characters were designed by Kevin Bayliss, who helped design the modern Kong characters in the "Donkey Kong Country" series, and Ed Bryan, who designed the characters in "Banjo-Kazooie". Originally, character art director Steve Mayles imagined Yooka as a lion, but eventually made him a chameleon and created Laylee as a bat, because of how their abilities could accommodate the gameplay. Player characters were deliberately left without voices so as to enhance player choice. The game's perk system was based upon what was done in video games outside the 3D platform genre. Layered animations were among other things employed to improve character movement. Along with Kirkhope, former Rare composers David Wise and Steve Burke collaborated to compose the game's orchestral score. A soundtrack CD was released and rewarded to certain supporters of the crowdfunding campaign. The increase in memory availability since working on "Banjo-Kazooie" permitted a higher quality soundtrack. The title character of the indie game "Shovel Knight" makes an appearance as a non-playable character, voiced by "Shovel Knight" director Sean Velasco. The inclusion was announced by "Shovel Knight" developer Yacht Club Games following the release of Yooka's character trailer in September 2016.


title: Yooka-Laylee

text: In March 2017, YouTube personality Jon "JonTron" Jafari, who was set to voice a character in "Yooka-Laylee", would have his voiceovers removed from the final game after making controversial comments on a Twitch livestream. Jafari stated that although it was unfortunate his role had been removed, he understood Playtonic's reasoning and wished them success.


title: Yooka-Laylee

text: Shortly after "Yooka-Laylee"s release, Playtonic announced further updates to the game to address criticism of the in-game camera and controls while adding additional features and various other improvements.


title: Yooka-Laylee

text: The game is published by Team17, who also assisted Playtonic with localization, product certification, quality assurance, marketing and general non-developer tasks. The game's funding project was announced on Kickstarter in May 2015. It reached its initial crowdfunding campaign goal of £175,000 within thirty-eight minutes and its initial highest goal of £1 million in 21 hours, at the time becoming the fastest video game in Kickstarter history to reach . Playtonic Games later sent out a public statement thanking all their supporters and promising more updates in the future. The campaign added four additional stretch goals, all of which have been reached. Those who contributed predetermined amounts to the campaign received special rewards related to the game's release. It is currently the highest-funded UK video game in Kickstarter history, passing the previous record held by "", earning £2,090,104. with success in the crowdfunding campaign allowing a simultaneous April 2017 release for consoles.


title: Yooka-Laylee

text: In October 2016, Playtonic Games confirmed that the game would have a physical retail release alongside the digital release, and promised backers who earned the digital version the choice of physical media. In December, Playtonic Games confirmed the game would be available both digitally and at retail worldwide on 11 April 2017 for all platforms. In the same update, Playtonic Games announced that the Wii U version had been cancelled, with development duties moved to the Nintendo Switch. The announcement cited "unforeseen technical issues" as the reason for cancelling it. Playtonic offered Kickstarter backers who pledged for the Wii U version choices of refund or moving their pledge to any other platform at no additional cost. Playtonic said that additional details regarding the game's Nintendo Switch version would be announced in January 2017. It was later explained that the decision to cancel the Wii U version is unrelated to the console's poor commercial performance, and that some of the developers expressed reluctance to do so. In February, Playtonic noted that a physical release for "Yooka-Laylee" on the Nintendo Switch was "beyond [their] scope", and they had no plans for it at the time. Limited Run Games announced to release physical copies for the Nintendo Switch in North America, starting in August 2018. Playtonic Games also announced the release of a special Collector's Edition of the game for December 2017, including a statue, concept art, a key chain, and pins.


title: Yooka-Laylee

text: "Yooka-Laylee" was delayed to early 2017 in order to give the team additional time to polish the game. Additionally, Playtonic Games was focusing their development efforts on the PC and Wii U versions, and originally giving the latter platform "the right attention" due to greater demand from Kickstarter backers, as well as nostalgia factors. Publisher Team17 assisted porting the game to the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. On 1 April 2017, Playtonic released "The Yooka-Laylee Rap!", which was a stretch goal on Kickstarter. It pays homage to the DK Rap from "Donkey Kong 64", with Kirkhope reprising his role as the composer.


title: Yooka-Laylee

text: "Yooka-Laylee" received "mixed or average" reviews on the PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, while on the Nintendo Switch it received "generally favourable" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic. Critics generally agreed that the game recaptured the feel of a classic 3D platformer, but were divided over whether this made the game successful or simply made its gameplay and design feel unoriginal and outdated. Its Kickstarter backers were ultimately satisfied with the final product, despite their disappointments with the pre-release demo being delayed and the cancellation of the Wii U version, with many of those backers being given Steam codes instead of Switch codes. It debuted at number 6 in the U.K. all-formats chart in its first week as well as the number 2 spot in the Australian sales charts in its first week. By 24 November 2018, the game has sold over 1 million copies.


title: Yooka-Laylee

text: The game won the award for "Game in a Small Studio" at The Independent Game Developers' Association Awards, whereas its other nomination was for "Action and Adventure Game". It was also nominated for "New Games IP", "Animation", and "Visual Design" at the 2017 Develop Awards; and for "Game, Original Family" at the National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers Awards.


title: Yooka-Laylee

text: Many critics praised the game as a successful follow up to the original "Banjo-Kazooie" games. Steven Bogos of "The Escapist" positively referred to the game as "Banjo-Threeie", calling it "a nostalgic ride through time, bringing the collect-a-thons from the N64 era into the modern age". James Kozanitis of Game Revolution felt that "Yooka-Laylee" improved on the gameplay and structure of classic titles, in particular the relevance and importance of the collectables. Chris Carter of "Destructoid" praised the expansive levels and the colorful design, but concluded that due to the throwback designs, it would not be for everyone. Marty Sliva of IGN called "Yooka-Laylee" "a good reminder that this genre, once thought to be dead, still has some life left in it". He also noted different aspects of the game that felt authentic to games from the 90s, praising the level design, soundtrack and characters while also criticizing how the game controlled at certain points and stated it was "not 1998 anymore" regarding frustrating camera movement. Kallie Plagge of GameSpot similarly praised certain aspects such as the collectibles and non-linear structure, while also criticizing the uncooperative camera and in some instances convoluted level design.


title: Yooka-Laylee

text: On the other hand, Colm Ahern was more negative about the game's intention to capitalize on people's nostalgia, especially noting "camera issues, ambiguous puzzles, a distinct lack of signposting, and voices that will make your ears bleed", while the game itself could not decide whether it was aiming at children or adults as an audience. Furthermore, while he was positive about the first level, he claimed that all other levels in the game were falling short, finding them repetitive and confusing. Chelsea Stark of "Polygon" noted that "Yooka-Laylee" was "proof that sometimes our fondest memories should stay in the past". She called the game's combat mechanics "a chore" and was critical of the controls. GamesRadar also noted the game's repetitive missions and objectives, with reviewer David Houghton noting that some of the game's power-ups, especially the flight ability, render most puzzles and level design choices obsolete.


title: Yooka-Laylee

text: A spin-off, "Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair", in contrast to its predecessor, is the game set in 2.5D levels resembling those of the "Donkey Kong Country" series, although it does contain a 3D overworld. The game was released for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC on October 8, 2019.


title: Yooka-Laylee

text: Yooka and Laylee appear as playable guest characters in the fighting games "Brawlout" and "Mighty Fight Federation", in the party battle game "Brief Battles" as a skin for the character Violet, and as assist characters in the upcoming Beat ’Em Up game "Jitsu Squad".


title: The Guns of August

text: The Guns of August (1962) (published in the UK as "August 1914") is a volume of history by Barbara W. Tuchman. It is centered on the first month of World War I. After introductory chapters, Tuchman describes in great detail the opening events of the conflict. Its focus then becomes a military history of the contestants, chiefly the great powers.


title: The Guns of August

text: "The Guns of August" thus provides a narrative of the earliest stages of World War I, from the decisions to go to war, up until the start of the Franco-British offensive that stopped the German advance into France. The result was four years of trench warfare. In the course of her narrative Tuchman includes discussion of the plans, strategies, world events, and international sentiments before and during the war.


title: The Guns of August

text: The book was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction for publication year 1963, and proved very popular. Tuchman later returned to the subject of the social attitudes and issues that existed before World War I, which she had touched upon in "The Guns of August", in a collection of eight essays published in 1966 under the title "The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War, 1890–1914".


title: The Guns of August

text: In May 1910 the funeral of Edward VII of the United Kingdom drew the presence of nine kings, one being Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany. Wilhelm, or William, was Edward's nephew. The opening chapter begins and ends with a description of the royal funeral and in between provides a discussion of the continent's political alliances and the diplomacy of royalty, all amidst the national rivalries, imperialism, and social Darwinism in the years leading up to the Great War (1914–1918).


title: The Guns of August

text: Chapters 2 to 5 are grouped into a section called "Plans". Addressed is prewar military planning, as done by the major powers in Europe. Included are the German Schlieffen plan, France's offensive Plan XVII, joint British and French arrangements, and Russia's approach to a future European war.


title: The Guns of August

text: "Outbreak" starts with a short introduction, which briefly mentions the event that triggered World War I. On June 28, 1914, in Sarajevo, Gavrilo Princip, a Serbian nationalist, assassinated the heir apparent to the throne of Austria-Hungary, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg. European-wide diplomacy and military preparations during July are then referenced.


title: The Guns of August

text: Chapters 6 to 9 commence with August 1914. Discussed and probed are maneuvers by leading politicians, diplomatic affairs, and actions undertaken by various armies, during the opening days of the war, August 1 to August 4. Covered are the Kaiser's hesitation, the struggle by Russia to ensure that its ally, France, would join in the war, France's attempts to win a guarantee from Britain of her involvement, and Germany's ultimatum to Belgium.


title: The Guns of August

text: The bulk of the remainder of the book, chapters 10 to 22, is essentially devoted to the battles and tactical planning on two fronts, the Western (chapters 11 to 14, 17, and 19 to 22) and the Eastern (chapters 15 and 16). However, Austria, and the Balkans, are omitted. Chapters 10 and 18 are devoted to the war at sea.


title: The Guns of August

text: Intertwined in the narration are the adverse effects of the vanity of the various leaders and insubordination. Also addressed are some perceptions made among those in the rest of the world, including a critical interpretation of events that cemented various political views (such as chapter 17). The short "Afterword" then reflects on events of August 1914.


title: The Guns of August

text: Tuchman starts the "Battle" section by covering the search by Allied naval forces for the German battlecruiser in the Mediterranean (chapter 10). The "Goeben" finally took refuge in the Dardanelles, waters of the then neutral Ottoman Empire. Such naval actions set off diplomatic maneuvers, but the event precipitated Turkey's entry into the war on the side of Germany. The development worked to block Russian import/export via its year-round ports on the Black Sea. That, in turn, led to the disastrous Gallipoli Campaign.


title: The Guns of August

text: Chapters 11 to 14 cover the war in western Europe. First discussed are the German invasion northeast of Belgium and the general Western Front, especially the situation in Alsace. Next, Tuchman describes the arrival in France of the British Expeditionary Force (chapter 12).


title: The Guns of August

text: As they crossed the Belgian frontier, the German armies were engaged by the Belgian army in front of Liège, and in the east of France, by five French armies, and in the south of Belgium, by four British divisions (known as the British Expeditionary Force). The French were said to be labouring under the delusion that Gallic élan would be crucial in countering German attacks while the British fought hard at the Battle of Mons. In August, each side deployed its armed forces in order to effect its own strategies developed in advance of the war (discussed in "Plans").


title: The Guns of August

text: The French High Command had made incomplete allowances for dealing with the large massed attack by the German army, which now came quickly bearing down on them. It was perhaps through the decisions of Charles Lanrezac, the French Fifth Army commander, who acted in a timely fashion before getting permission from Joseph Joffre, that the entire French line was eventually saved from envelopment and general collapse. Although his pleas were ignored, Lanrezac withdrew his forces at Charleroi from an untenable position and probable destruction, and he redeployed them more favorably. He was later relieved of command.


title: The Guns of August

text: The Battle of the Frontiers was brutal. The Belgian army was rushed against the German army, but the Allies were forced to retreat slowly under the German onslaught until the Germans were within 40 miles (64 km) of Paris. The city was saved through the courage and verve of a semiretired territorial general, Joseph Gallieni, who marshalled his limited resources and saved the day. The city was preparing for siege and possible complete destruction, and the government had fled south, when two divisions of reserves suddenly arrived and were rushed to the front by the city's fleet of 600 taxi cabs. Tuchman cynically notes that Joffre later took complete credit for saving Paris and the French army after having the commander who ordered the tactical retreat, Lanrezac, relieved of duty and the old commander and his former superior, Gallieni, pushed back into obscurity.


title: The Guns of August

text: Tuchman is also careful to point out that although many of Joffre's actions were shameful, when he was finally pushed into action, he showed great skill in guiding the hastily improvised counterblow that crashed into the invader's flank. The Germans greatly contributed to their own undoing by outrunning their supply lines, pushing their infantry to the point of physical collapse and deviating from the original invasion plan, which called for the right flank to be protected from counterattack. At that stage of its offensive, the German army lacked the troops used by the siege of the fortress of Antwerp, held by the Belgian army. Both sides were plagued by poor communication and general staffs that were heavily invested with politics and sycophancy. Dire warnings from commanders in the field were ignored when they did not fit preconceived notions of quick victory at low cost.


title: The Guns of August

text: Tuchman introduces all of the key players, both the Allied (French, British, Belgian and Russian) and the German commanders. Their personalities, strengths, and weaknesses are discussed.


title: The Guns of August

text: Only chapters 15 and 16 are devoted to the Eastern Front, and center on the Russian invasion of East Prussia and the German reaction to it, culminating in the Battle of Tannenberg, where the Russian advance was stopped, decisively.


title: The Guns of August

text: In the chapters, Tuchman covers the series of errors, faulty plans, poor communications, and poor logistics, which, among other things, decidedly helped the French in the west. For example, the Germans mistakenly transferred, from the west, two corps to defend against what the book refers to as the 'Russian Steam Roller'. The great misery that developed on the Eastern Front is noted.


title: The Guns of August

text: Woven into the text about the battles in Belgium are threads of fact that Allied governments would employ in the formation of the West's eventual opinion that Germany had been "the aggressor nation" against Belgium. Such facts and conclusions would be repeated for the duration of the war and greatly affect the future involvement of the United States.


title: The Guns of August

text: Also here in chapter 17 "The Flames of Louvain", Tuchman places a selection of German views from a variety of sources as to the aims and desires of Germany. She cites Thomas Mann as saying the goal was "the establishment of the German idea in history, the enthronement of "Kultur", the fulfillment of Germany's historical mission". She then conveys American reporter Irvin S. Cobb's account of an interview with a 'German scientist': "Germany [is] for progress. German "Kultur" will enlighten the world and after this war there will never be another." Yet further, a 'German businessman' opines that the war will give Europe "a new map, and Germany will be at the center of it" (aims similar to the Septemberprogramm). Such outspoken menace worked to solidify opposition to Germany, caused George Bernard Shaw to become "fed up" at Prussian Militarism, and H.G. Wells to condemn the German "war god" and hope for an end to all armed conflict.


title: The Guns of August

text: Chapter 17's main focus is the German army's atrocities in Belgium, in particular against the historic university city of Louvain. Tuchman frames her remarks by describing the Schrecklichkeit, the German military's "theory of terror". Accordingly, in a failed attempt to suppress the "illegal" franc-tireur (civilians shooting at German troops), hundreds of nearby citizens at several Belgium towns had been executed. Her accounts of the ferocity of such German army reprisals against the general population and of the willful burning of Louvain, such as its university library make it obvious why the Western Allies might feel themselves justified to condemn Germany and Germans wholesale.


title: The Guns of August

text: Chapter 18 describes the British fear that since their island nation was dependent on overseas imports, the German navy could manage to disrupt their international trade. Although Britain's navy was superior in ships and experience, perhaps the German navy's "best opportunity for a successful battle was in the first two or three weeks of the war." However, the German High Seas Fleet remained in port and was ordered not to challenge the British warships watching the North Sea. Thus, a substantial control over the world's seaways was then exerted by the British Royal Navy.


title: The Guns of August

text: Surrounding the neutral role of the United States, diplomatic politicking quickly intensified. On August 6, Washington formally requested the Europeans to agree to follow the 1908 "Declaration of London", which "favored the neutrals' right to trade as against the belligerents' right to blockade." Germany agreed. Britain "said Yes and meant No" and supplemented an "Order of Council" on August 20 (the 100th anniversary of Britain's burning of Washington). Despite the equitable intent of international law, Britain sought to receive supplies from America while its naval blockade of Germany denied the supplies to Germany. Woodrow Wilson had already advised Americans on August 18 to be "neutral in fact as well as in name, impartial in thought as well as in action" so that America might become the "impartial mediator" that could then bring "standards of righteousness and humanity" to the belligerents in order to negotiate "a peace without victory" in Europe. Both wartime paper profits from a nearly fourfold increase in trade with Britain and France and "German folly" eventually would later work to cause American entry into World War I.


title: The Guns of August

text: The book's last four chapters (19–22) describe the fighting in France up to the beginning of the First Battle of the Marne. The French and British forces, united at last, fell on Alexander von Kluck's exposed right flank in what would be the first successful offensive by the Allies. In the subsequent attack, the Germans were forced back north, with both sides suffering terrible losses. While Paris had been saved, the war took on a new cast, with both sides settling into a defensive trench system, which cut across France and Belgium from the Channel to Switzerland. That became known as the Western Front, and over the next four years, it would consume a generation of young men.


title: The Guns of August

text: Tuchman briefly offers reflections on the First Battle of the Marne and on the war in general. The war's opening "produced deadlock on the Western Front. Sucking up lives at the rate of 5,000 and sometimes 50,000 a day, absorbing munitions, energy, money, brains, and trained men," it ate up its contestants. "The nations were caught in a trap..."


title: The Guns of August

text: With time, such a war would become intolerable. "Men could not sustain a war of such magnitude and pain without hope–the hope that its very enormity would ensure that it could never happen again."


title: The Guns of August

text: Throughout the aforementioned narrative, Tuchman constantly brings up a theme: the numerous misconceptions, miscalculations, and mistakes that she believed resulted in the tragedy of trench warfare, such as:


title: The Guns of August

text: Overall, Tuchman argues that while some of the war's major combatants looked forward to a war, specifically Germany and Austria-Hungary, all of them expected it to be a short one, and none of them desired or anticipated a prolonged war. Likewise, she argues that even successes, such as the First Battle of the Marne, a French victory, were to some extent accidental victories that were won despite, and not because of, military leadership or strategy.


title: The Guns of August

text: The book was an immediate bestseller and was on the bestseller list of "The New York Times" for 42 consecutive weeks. The Pulitzer Prize nomination committee was unable to award it the prize for outstanding history because Joseph Pulitzer's will specifically stated that the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for History must be a book on American history. Instead, Tuchman was given the prize for general nonfiction.


title: The Guns of August

text: According to the cover notes of an audio version of "The Guns of August", "[President John F. Kennedy] was so impressed by the book, he gave copies to his cabinet and principal military advisers, and commanded them to read it." In his book "One Minute to Midnight" about the Cuban Missile Crisis, Michael Dobbs notes the deep impression "Guns" had on Kennedy. He often quoted from it and wanted "every officer in the Army" to read it as well. Subsequently, "[t]he secretary of the Army sent copies to every U.S. military base in the world. Kennedy drew from "The Guns of August" to help in dealing with the crisis in Cuba, including the profound and unpredictable implications a rapid escalation of the situation could have. Robert S. McNamara, United States Secretary of Defense during Kennedy's presidency, recalled that "[e]arly in his administration, President Kennedy asked his cabinet officials and members of the National Security Council" to read "The Guns of August". McNamara related that Kennedy said "The Guns of August" graphically portrayed how Europe's leaders had bungled into the debacle of World War I, and that Kennedy told later his cabinet officials that "We are not going to bungle into war."


title: The Guns of August

text: The British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, who had served on the Western Front during the First World War, was also profoundly affected by the book. In his diary for Monday, 22 October 1962, he wrote:


title: The Guns of August

text: Graham Allison, a political scientist who covered the Cuban Missile Crisis in "Essence of Decision", noted the effect of Tuchman's book on Kennedy, but also its implications for the proper study of decision-making and warfare. Allison created an entire model of decision-making, which he called the Organizational Process Model, based on such issues as those covered by Tuchman, a model that directly countered game theory and other rationalistic means of explaining events.


title: The Guns of August

text: After Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, representatives from over 90 countries attended the state funeral on November 25. They included 19 presidents, prime ministers, and members of royal families, including French President Charles de Gaulle, Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie, Belgium's King Baudouin, West German Chancellor Ludwig Erhard, Britain's Prince Philip, and Greece's Queen Frederika. NBC News producer Reuven Frank recounted in his autobiography that everybody in the control room had read the book and gasped when seeing the many heads of state marching on foot. The funeral saw the largest gathering of presidents, prime ministers, and royalty at a state funeral since that of King Edward VII. In all, 220 foreign dignitaries from 92 countries, five international agencies, and the papacy attended the funeral.


title: The Guns of August

text: While she did not explicitly mention it in "The Guns of August", Tuchman was present for one of the pivotal events of the book: the pursuit of the German battle cruiser "Goeben" and light cruiser "Breslau". In her account of the pursuit she wrote, "That morning [August 10, 1914] there arrived in Constantinople the small Italian passenger steamer which had witnessed the "Gloucester"'s action against "Goeben" and "Breslau". Among its passengers were the daughter, son-in-law and three grandchildren of the American ambassador Mr. Henry Morgenthau." As she was a grandchild of Henry Morgenthau, she is referring to herself, which is confirmed in her later book "Practicing History", in which she tells the story of her father, Maurice Wertheim, traveling from Constantinople to Jerusalem on August 29, 1914, to deliver funds to the Jewish community there. Thus, at age two, Tuchman was present during the pursuit of "Goeben" and "Breslau", which she documented 48 years later.


title: The Guns of August

text: The book was the basis for a 1964 documentary film, also titled "The Guns of August". The 99-minute film, which premiered in New York City on December 24, 1964, was produced and directed by Nathan Kroll and narrated by Fritz Weaver, with the narration written by Arthur B. Tourtellot. It used film footage found in government archives in Paris, London, Brussels, Berlin, and Washington, DC.


title: Kirstjen Nielsen

text: Kirstjen Michele Nielsen (; born May 14, 1972) is an American attorney who served as United States Secretary of Homeland Security from 2017 to 2019. She is a former principal White House deputy chief of staff to President Donald Trump, and was chief of staff to John F. Kelly during his tenure as Secretary of Homeland Security.


title: Kirstjen Nielsen

text: Nielsen was confirmed as Secretary of Homeland Security on December 5, 2017. Nielsen is best known for implementing the Trump administration family separation policy. She resigned in April 2019.


title: Kirstjen Nielsen

text: Kirstjen Michele Nielsen was born on May 14, 1972, in Colorado Springs, Colorado, to Phyllis Michele Nielsen and James McHenry Nielsen, both United States Army physicians. Nielsen's father is of Danish ancestry while her mother is of Italian descent. The oldest of three children, Nielsen has a sister, Ashley, and a brother, Fletcher. Following Nielsen's birth, the family relocated from Colorado Springs to Clearwater, Florida.


title: Kirstjen Nielsen

text: Following high school, Nielsen attended the Georgetown School of Foreign Service, graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree. She then attended the University of Virginia School of Law, receiving her Juris Doctor in 1999. She also took Japanese studies at Nanzan University, in Nagoya, Japan.


title: Kirstjen Nielsen

text: Nielsen served during the George W. Bush administration as special assistant to the president and as senior director for prevention, preparedness and response (PPR) at the White House Homeland Security Council. She also set up, and led as assistant administrator, the Transportation Security Administration's Office of Legislative Policy and Government Affairs.


title: Kirstjen Nielsen

text: After leaving the Bush administration in 2008, Nielsen became the founder and president of Sunesis Consulting. The firm's online profile listed her as its only employee, with the firm's phone number being Nielsen's personal cellphone. In September 2013 the company won a federal contract, with an initial award of about $450,000, to "provide policy and legislation, technical writing, and organizational development" to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.


title: Kirstjen Nielsen

text: Nielsen was a senior member of the Resilience Task Force of the Center for Cyber & Homeland Security Committee at George Washington University and served on the Global Risks Report Advisory Board of the World Economic Forum.


title: Kirstjen Nielsen

text: Nielsen served as John F. Kelly's chief of staff at the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) after he assumed that position on January 20, 2017. In early September 2017, just over a month after Kelly became White House chief of staff on July 31, 2017, Nielsen moved to the White House, becoming the principal deputy chief of staff under Kelly.


title: Kirstjen Nielsen

text: On October 11, 2017, President Donald Trump nominated Nielsen to be the new United States secretary of homeland security, replacing acting secretary Elaine Duke. On December 5, 2017, the Senate confirmed her nomination, by a 62–37 vote. On December 6, 2017, she was sworn in as secretary of homeland security.


title: Kirstjen Nielsen

text: On January 16, 2018, Nielsen testified before the United States Senate in favor of merit, rather than family, based immigration. She was questioned about an earlier meeting at the White House in which press reports and Senator Dick Durbin related that the president had used the word "shithole" to describe African countries, as well as disparaging remarks about Haiti. Nielsen said, "I did not hear that word used, no sir," although she said she heard "tough language" that was impassioned. During the same hearing, Senator Patrick Leahy asked her whether Norway was a predominantly white country. Nielsen appeared to hesitate before answering with, "I actually do not know that, sir." She added, "But I imagine that is the case." Nielsen was criticized by Senator Cory Booker for not recalling or speaking out against Trump's disparaging remarks which Booker characterized as bigoted. Following the hearing, Nielsen expressed her disappointment in the amount of attention being paid to the White House meeting.


title: Kirstjen Nielsen

text: On March 23, 2018, it was reported that Nielsen agreed with the enactment of the Presidential Memorandum for the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Homeland Security Regarding Military Service by Transgender Individuals.


title: Kirstjen Nielsen

text: At a May 2018 congressional hearing, Nielsen said that she was unaware of the intelligence community's conclusion that Russia sought to interfere in the 2016 presidential election to help candidate Trump get elected. An assessment by the FBI, CIA and NSA in January 2017 was that the Russian preference was clearly to help Trump win; this assessment was mirrored in a bipartisan report by the Senate Intelligence Committee released days prior to Nielsen's testimony. Nielsen said that she had not seen the intelligence community briefing that Russia had tried to interfere in the 2016 election. A week later, Nielsen backtracked, saying that she agreed with the intelligence community's assessment.


title: Kirstjen Nielsen

text: In July 2018, Nielsen said there were no signs that Russia was targeting the 2018 midterm elections in the same "scale or scope" as it did in 2016. At the Aspen Security Forum, Aspen, Colorado, during an interview by Peter Alexander of NBC on July 19, 2018, Nielsen stated that Russians had absolutely interfered in the United States presidential election in 2016. When Alexander asked if Russians had interfered in favor of Donald Trump, Nielsen responded, "I have not seen any evidence that the attempts to interfere in our election infrastructure was to favor a particular political party. I think what we have seen on the foreign influence side is they were attempting to intervene and cause chaos on both sides." Prior to this on July 16, 2018, at the joint press conference in Helsinki after 2018 Russia–United States Summit, Jeff Mason from Reuters asked President Putin, "Did you want President Trump to win the election and did you direct any of your officials to help him do that?" Putin's response was: "Yes, I wanted him to win. Because he talked about bringing the U.S.–Russia relationship back to normal."


title: Kirstjen Nielsen

text: During the same interview at the Aspen Security Forum when Alexander further asked whether the president has made countering white supremacy a priority, Nielsen replied that he wanted the DHS to prevent "any form of violence" threatening Americans. Referring to President Trump's response to clashes between the white supremacists and counter-protesters at Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia on August 12, 2017, Alexander asked, "But in the comments that are obviously highly publicized when he [President Trump] placed blame in his words on both side, does that make your job harder when [p]resident says things that at least in those communities are viewed as he has got our [white supremacists'] back?" She said, "I think what is interesting about that is we saw, and I think we continue to learn— maybe there was different, whether it was foreign influence or different purposeful attempts to get both sides, if you will, aggressively pitted against each other." She later added that "it is not that one side is right, one side is wrong. Anybody that is advocating violence, we need to work to mitigate."


title: Kirstjen Nielsen

text: In October 2018, Nielsen said that China has become a major threat to the U.S. Nielsen also confirmed, in an answer to a question from a senator, that China is trying to influence U.S. elections. On October 22, 15 days prior to the 2018 mid-term elections, President Trump met with Nielsen and White House staff and demanded "extreme action" to stop migrants at the southern border. Later that afternoon at a meeting of top Homeland Security officials, Customs and Border Protections representatives proposed deploying a microwave weapon against approaching migrants. Nielsen told an aide at the meeting that she would not authorize the use of the device and that its use should never be brought up to her again.


title: Kirstjen Nielsen

text: In January 2019, Nielsen, Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, and FBI director Christopher Wray announced 23 criminal charges (including financial fraud, money laundering, conspiracy to defraud the United States, theft of trade secret technology, provided bonus to workers who stole confidential information from companies around the world, wire fraud, obstruction of justice and sanctions violations) against Chinese tech giant Huawei and its CFO Meng Wanzhou.


title: Kirstjen Nielsen

text: On May 7, 2018, Secretary Nielsen, despite her objection, officially enacted a controversial practice of the Trump administration's policy of separating parents and children accused of crossing over the U.S.–Mexico border illegally.


title: Kirstjen Nielsen

text: At a congressional hearing on May 15, 2018, Nielsen testified that she would enforce the then-newly enacted Trump administration policy of separating parents and children who crossed over the U.S.–Mexico border, noting that similar separations happened in criminal courts "every day."


title: Kirstjen Nielsen

text: In June 2018, Nielsen stated that the Trump administration did not maintain a policy of separating migrant families at the Southern border; "The Washington Post" fact-checker described Nielsen's claim as false and "Orwellian." At that point, the Trump administration had in six weeks separated approximately 2,000 migrant children from their parents. Contrary to Nielsen's claims, the DHS website showed that a policy of family separation was in place.


title: Kirstjen Nielsen

text: On June 18, 2018, Nielsen defended the policy at a sheriffs' conference but said the administration had asked Congress "to allow us to keep families together while they are detained" as an alternative. "We cannot detain children with their parents so we must either release both the parents and the children – this is the historic 'get out of jail free' practice of the previous administration – or the adult and the minor will be separated as the result of prosecuting the adult. Those are the only two options. Surely it is the beginning of the unraveling of democracy when the body who makes the laws, rather than changing them, asks the body who enforces the laws not to enforce the laws. That cannot be the answer." Three days earlier, the DHS said that it had separated 1,995 immigrant children from 1,940 adults, which it described as "alleged adult parents," at the border between mid-April and the end of May. Because the law forbids children from being kept in criminal detention facilities, they are separated from their parents.


title: Kirstjen Nielsen

text: Nielsen held a press briefing with White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders in June 2018 amid growing public outcry about the family separation policy. Nielsen accused the media and members of Congress of mischaracterizing the administration's policy. She dismissed the suggestion that the administration was using family separations as political leverage to force Congress to support Trump's broader immigration agenda or to deter migrants from coming to the United States. In doing so, she contradicted comments made earlier by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Chief of Staff John Kelly and senior adviser Stephen Miller. She got very little support from administration officials such as Miller, who was openly against her. John Kelly, who had strongly recommended her to Trump, was her biggest advocate amongst the people who talk to Trump the most.


title: Kirstjen Nielsen

text: On June 20, 2018, after repeatedly arguing that the administration could not sign an executive order to end family separations, she was present at Trump's signing of an executive order ending his "zero-tolerance" policy of separating of children from families. Sources told "Politico" that Nielsen had privately pushed for this executive order behind the scenes while at the same time saying publicly that the executive order could not be created.


title: Kirstjen Nielsen

text: In September 2018, "The Intercept" reported that Nielsen had previously personally authorized the family separation policy after receiving an April 23, 2018, memo by the heads of three federal immigration agencies (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Customs and Border Protection, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement) recommending the family separation policy for the express purpose of deterring migration. At the time of the report, Nielsen had avoided attributing deterrence as the purpose of the policy.


title: Kirstjen Nielsen

text: Nielsen testified before Congress that "every parent" had the choice to take their child back and that the parents who left their children behind did so voluntarily. A 2021 investigation by the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General found that parents were forcibly deported without their children, which contradicted Nielsen's claims that the parents had a choice.


title: Kirstjen Nielsen

text: In 2019, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) wrote in a letter to FBI director Christopher A. Wray: “...the FBI should immediately investigate whether Secretary Nielsen’s statements [to Congress] violate 18 U.S. Code § 1621, 18 U.S.C § 1001, or any other relevant federal statutes that prohibit perjury and false statements to Congress.” Other Democratic representatives also echoed the same accusations. Nielsen has repeatedly denied the allegations of perjury.


title: Kirstjen Nielsen

text: In October 2019, Nielsen defended the family separation policy, saying "I don’t regret enforcing the law."


title: Kirstjen Nielsen

text: During Nielsen's tenure, several incidents at the U.S.–Mexico border between law enforcement and migrants seeking passage attracted international attention and prompted criticism of the Trump administration's approach towards enforcement.


title: Kirstjen Nielsen

text: On Sunday, November 25, 2018, there was an incident at the San Ysidro Port of Entry between California and Mexico. Groups of Central American migrant caravans tried to forcibly cross the border into the United States. Some of them threw rocks at U.S. Border Patrol agents, who responded by firing tear gas into the crowd which included families with small children. The use of tear gas in this situation was strongly criticized. In a statement Nielsen said that this caravan had acted violently in the past and "I refuse to believe that anyone honestly maintains that attacking law enforcement with rocks and projectiles is acceptable." She added that in some cases the women and children in the caravan were being used by the organizers as "human shields" when they confronted law enforcement. She asserted "at this point we have confirmed that there are over 600 convicted criminals traveling with the caravan flow." An earlier "Fact Sheet" about the caravan, released by the DHS, had stated that "over 270 individuals along the caravan route have criminal histories" and that "Mexican officials have also publicly stated that criminal groups have infiltrated the caravan." It also asserted that the caravan included individuals from more than 20 countries. However, that statement was challenged by a "Washington Post" fact checker, who said it was oddly worded in such a way as to suggest the people referenced were not actually part of the caravan.


title: Kirstjen Nielsen

text: In another instance, Jakelin Caal, a 7-year-old girl from Guatemala, died in the custody of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, an agency of the Department of Homeland Security, on December 8, 2018. A few weeks later on Christmas Eve, December 24, 2018, Felipe Gómez Alonso, an 8-year-old boy from Guatemala, died in the custody of CBP. In a formal statement released on December 26, 2018, Nielsen called the death "deeply concerning and heartbreaking" and cited U.S. immigration system failings for a growing border crisis. She said she had ordered her agency to bolster medical screenings of children at the southwest border and had enlisted the medical corps of the United States Coast Guard to provide an assessment of CBP's medical programs. The secretary also said that she would travel to the border to personally observe the screenings. Nielsen said that the changing immigration dynamic had been spurred by "an immigration system that rewards parents for sending their children across the border alone," without requiring the adults to face "consequences for their actions." In the same statement released on December 26, 2018, Nielsen added, "Smugglers, traffickers, and their own parents put these minors at risk by embarking on the dangerous and arduous journey north. [...] As a result of bad judicial rulings from activist judges and inaction by Congress, we are seeing a flood of family units and unaccompanied alien children."


title: Kirstjen Nielsen

text: After her arrest in Pattaya, Thailand, on February 25, 2018, Anastasia Vashukevich immediately requested asylum in the United States because she feared for her life if Russia became involved. She stated that she had been "repressed by Russia" and had fled Russia for Thailand. Vashukevich had videos and audio recordings of "crymes of Russian government" and wished to give these recordings both video and audio to United States authorities. A hand written note signed by Vashukevich requesting asylum in the United States was given to a Ukrainian American, Pavlo Yunko, who delivered it to the United States embassy in Bangkok. A spokesperson for the embassy, Jillian Bonnardeaux, stated that the matter was referred to the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) because all matters regarding asylum in the United States are handled by DHS, however, no one contacted Vashukevich from DHS. On February 28, 2018, the Radio Free Europe website displayed photos of the handwritten asylum request signed by Vashukevich. Vashukevich stated that she had information about the Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections.


title: Kirstjen Nielsen

text: In September 2020, Brian Murphy alleged that Nielsen had politicized the Department of Homeland Security and interfered with DHS intelligence reports to support the views of Stephen Miller and Donald Trump. According to Murphy, Nielsen supported President Trump's building of a wall along the southwestern United States border by knowingly and repeatedly lying to and misleading Congress through tweets and White House-backed PowerPoint presentations overstating the number of special interest aliens who had crossed the United States Mexico border as several thousand while Murphy contended that only three "known or suspected terrorists" had crossed the southwestern United States border.


title: Kirstjen Nielsen

text: In May 2018, "The New York Times" reported that Nielsen considered resigning after President Trump berated her during a cabinet meeting for what he described as her failure to secure U.S. borders. The newspaper reported that there was tension between Nielsen and Trump after she and other DHS officials resisted Trump's call to separate undocumented immigrant parents from their children while in custody. The reporting was confirmed to "Politico" and Reuters by a source at the DHS. Nielsen denied that she threatened to resign.


title: Kirstjen Nielsen

text: Nielsen submitted her resignation as secretary of homeland security on April 7, 2019, after a White House meeting with President Trump, two days after the President announced he wanted to go in a "tougher" direction on immigration. She had cut short a week-long trip to Europe where she was going to discuss cybersecurity and terror threats with senior United Kingdom and Swedish government officials.


title: Kirstjen Nielsen

text: Trump also had tweeted, on April 7, that Kevin McAleenan, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner, would become acting secretary. Trump announced that intention following the resignation of Nielsen on April 7, 2019. Legally, under 6 U.S.C. §113(g), the role would have fallen to then Acting Deputy Secretary Claire Grady. That succession was made legal after Trump forced Grady, the next in line, to resign on April 9. In a tweet, Nielsen had said that she had agreed to remain in her position until April 10, 2019 "to assist with an orderly transition and ensure that key DHS missions are not impacted."


title: Kirstjen Nielsen

text: On April 5, immigration and civil rights groups had urged companies listed in the "Fortune" 500 not to hire senior Trump administration officials who were involved in planning, carrying out, or defending the separation of migrant children from their parents. On April 8, a petition aimed at scholars and media figures began circulating, with signers vowing not to "associate myself in any way" with any think tank or university department that employs Nielsen.


title: Kirstjen Nielsen

text: In a piece summarizing Nielsen's tenure at DHS, "Vox"'s Dara Lind wrote that Nielsen had been "arguably the most aggressive secretary in the department's short history".


title: Kirstjen Nielsen

text: In October 2019, the Trump Administration announced that Nielsen had been appointed to the National Infrastructure Advisory Council.


title: Turkey women's national volleyball team

text: The Turkey women's national volleyball team () is formed by the Turkish Volleyball Federation (TVF) and represents Turkey in international CEV and FIVB organizations.


title: Turkey women's national volleyball team

text: The team is one of the most successful national sports teams in the country and is nicknamed "Filenin Sultanları" () since the 2003 Women's European Volleyball Championship hosted in Ankara, Turkey. It is ranked sixth in the FIVB World Rankings as of October, 2022. It was the bronze medallist in both 2011 Women's European Volleyball Championship and 2012 FIVB World Grand Prix. Giovanni Guidetti is the current head coach of the team.


title: Turkey women's national volleyball team

text: Sabiha Gürayman was the first Turkish woman to engage in the game of volleyball, which was introduced in Turkey in the 1910s. As a young woman Gürayman founded and played for the Fenerbahçe women's volleyball team, having previously played in the men's team of that club. Turkish women volleyball has undergone a rapid transformation since the 2000s, achieving many successes at both club and national level. As a result, women's volleyball is one of the best followed sports in Turkey.


title: Microtransaction

text: Microtransactions, often abbreviated as mtx, are a business model where users can purchase virtual goods with micropayments. Microtransactions are often used in free-to-play games to provide a revenue source for the developers. While microtransactions are a staple of the mobile app market, they are also seen on PC software such as Valve's Steam digital distribution platform, as well as console gaming.


title: Microtransaction

text: Free-to-play games that include a microtransaction model are sometimes referred to as "freemium". Another term, "pay-to-win", is sometimes used pejoratively to refer to games where buying items in-game can give a player a disproportionate advantage over other players, particularly if the items cannot be obtained through free means. The objective with a free-to-play microtransaction model is to involve more players in the game by providing desirable items or features that players can purchase if they lack the skill or available time to earn these through regular game play. Also, presumably the game developer's marketing strategy is that in the long term, the revenue from a micro transaction system will outweigh the revenue from a one-time-purchase game.


title: Microtransaction

text: Loot boxes are another form of microtransactions. Through purchasing a loot box, the player acquires a seemingly random assortment of items. Loot boxes result in high revenues because instead of a one-time purchase for the desired item, users may have to buy multiple boxes. This method has also been called a form of underage gambling. Items and features available by microtransaction can range from cosmetic (such as decorative character attire) to functional (such as weapons and items). Some games allow players to purchase items that can be acquired through normal means, but some games include items that can only be obtained through microtransaction. Some developers ensure that only cosmetic items are available this way to keep gameplay fair and balanced.


title: Microtransaction

text: The reasons why people, especially children, continue to pay for microtransactions are embedded in human psychology. There has been considerable discussion over microtransactions and their effects on children, as well as regulation and legislation efforts. Microtransactions are most commonly provided through a custom store interface placed inside the app for which the items are being sold. Apple provides a framework dubbed "in-app purchases" for initiating and processing transactions. Google's framework for the same use is referred to as "in-app billing", named more from the developer's point of view. Apple and Google both take 30 percent of all revenue generated by microtransactions sold through in-app purchases in their respective app stores. Steam offers support for microtransactions in games on its platform through the Steamworks SDK.


title: Microtransaction

text: Initially, microtransactions in games took the form of exchanging real-life money for the virtual currency used in the game that the user was playing. The arcade game "" (1990) was infamous for its use of microtransactions to purchase items in the game. It had shops where players insert coins into arcade machines to purchase upgrades, power-ups, health, weapons, special moves and player characters. The microtransaction revenue model gained popularity in South Korea with the success of Nexon's online free-to-play games, starting with "QuizQuiz" (1999), followed by games such as "MapleStory" (2003), "Mabinogi" (2004) and "Dungeon Fighter Online" (2004).


title: Microtransaction

text: Notable examples of games that used this model in the early 2000s include the social networking site "Habbo Hotel" (2001), developed by the Finnish company Sulake, and Linden Lab's 2003 virtual world game "Second Life". Both free games allow users to customize the clothing and style of their characters, buy and collect furniture, and purchase special, 'flashy' animations to show off to others using some type of virtual currency. "Habbo Hotel" uses 3 different kinds of currency: Credits (or coins), Duckets (which are earned through accomplishing specific achievements during gameplay), and Diamonds. Diamonds are only obtained through buying Credits with real-life money. In "Second Life", the Linden Dollar (L$) is the virtual currency used to power the game's internal economy. L$ can be bought with real money through a marketplace developed by Linden Lab themselves, LindeX. "Second Life" in particular have generated massive amounts of economic activity and profits for both Linden Lab and "Second Life"s users. In September 2005, $3,596,674 worth of transactions were processed on the platform. Both games are still active today.


title: Microtransaction

text: "" was released in March 2006 by Bethesda Softworks. From April 2006 onwards, Bethesda began releasing small, downloadable packages of content from their website and over the Xbox Live Marketplace, for the equivalent of between one and three US dollars. The first package, a set of horse armor (barding) for "Oblivion"s steeds, was released on April 3, 2006, costing 200 Marketplace points, equivalent to US$2.50 or £1.50; the corresponding PC release cost was US$1.99. Bethesda offered no rationale for the price discrepancy. These were not the first "Oblivion"-related Marketplace releases (the first was a series of dashboard themes and picture packs released prior to "Oblivion"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s publication, in February 2006, for a nominal fee) nor were they entirely unexpected: Bethesda had previously announced their desire to support the Xbox release with downloadable Marketplace content, and other publishers had already begun to release similar packages for their games, at similar prices. A November 2005-release of a "Winter Warrior Pack" for "" was also priced at 200 Marketplace points, and similar content additions had been scheduled for "Project Gotham Racing 3" and "Perfect Dark Zero". Indeed, Marketplace content additions formed a significant part of a March 2006 Microsoft announcement regarding the future of Xbox Live. "Downloadable in-game content is a main focus of Microsoft's strategy heading into the next-gen console war", stated one GameSpot reporter. "With more consoles on their way to retail, 80 games available by June, and new content and experiences coming to Xbox Live all the time, there has never been a better time to own an Xbox 360", announced Peter Moore. Nonetheless, although Xbox Live Arcade games, picture packs, dashboards and profile themes continued to be a Marketplace success for Microsoft, the aforementioned in-game content remained sparse. Pete Hines asserted,


title: Microtransaction

text: "We were the first ones to do downloadable content like that—some people had done similar things, but no one had really done additions where you add new stuff to your existing game." There was no pressure from Microsoft to make the move.


title: Microtransaction

text: Despite player complaints about paying for a purely decorative item, the horse armor content ended up being the best-selling piece of DLC for "Oblivion" by 2009. "Oblivion" horse armor became a model for many games that followed for implementing microtransactions in video games, and is considered the first primary example and often synonymous for microtransactions.


title: Microtransaction

text: In June 2008 Electronic Arts introduced an online Store for "The Sims 2". It allowed players to purchase points that can be spent on in-game items. The Store has also been a part of "The Sims 3" since the game's release. In "The Sims 4" Electronic Arts removed the ability to buy single items, instead downloadable content is provided exclusively via expansion packs.


title: Microtransaction

text: In the late 2000s and early 2010s, games like Facebook's "FarmVille" (2009), Electronic Arts's "" (2012) and Supercell's "Clash of Clans" (2012) pioneered a new approach to implanting microtransactions into games. In conjunction with having virtual currency be used to purchase items, tools, furniture, and animals, These mobile games made it so users can purchase currency and then use that currency to reduce or eliminate the wait times attached to certain actions, like planting and growing carrots or collecting taxes from the townspeople.


title: Microtransaction

text: In March 2009 the Ultimate Team game mode was introduced in FIFA 09 in which gamers can buy "packs" containing items such as players, stadiums and contract extensions with currency earned by playing the game or real world money. EA followed this success by introducing the game mode to Madden NFL beginning with Madden NFL 10 in January 2010. In March 2014 EA marked the 5th anniversary of Ultimate Team and shared statistics showing the explosive growth in popularity of the game mode. By the late 2010's, Ultimate Team was generating billions of dollars every year.


title: Microtransaction

text: From around 2017, another major transition in how microtransactions are implemented in games occurred. "Live-service" games, like Epic Games's "Fortnite", with constantly changing and updating content, became more prevalent in the video game market. These types of games heavily employ the use of the loot box microtransaction type. According to the September 2019 report by the UK Parliament's House of Commons and the Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport Committee, they define loot boxes as “... items in video games that may be bought for real-world money, but which provide players with a randomised reward of uncertain value. The widespread usage of loot boxes by game developers and publishers have garnered a great amount of criticism from gamers in the past decade. Game developing corporations, like Electronic Arts (EA) and Activision Blizzard, make billions of dollars through the purchase of their microtransactions. In FY2017, EA raked in around $1.68 billion and Activision Blizzard earned over $4 billion respectively.


title: Microtransaction

text: The aforementioned Fortnite is an example of a microtransaction model in which all purchases are solely cosmetic: players can choose to purchase "skins" (cosmetic changes to the way characters, weapons, and vehicles look) to show off to other players. However, a player can experience all the content of the game and be on an even playing field without purchasing any microtransactions because no feature or gameplay-affecting piece of content is locked behind a payment. These games still occasionally take accusations of being "pay-to-win" as combat-focused video games such as Apex Legends or offer skins that are inspired by real-world military equipment – often including camouflage – which technically can give players an advantage by obscuring them to human opponents.


title: Microtransaction

text: Mobile web analytics company Flurry reported on July 7, 2011, that based on its research, the revenue from free-to-play games had overtaken revenue from premium games that earn revenue through traditional means in Apple's App Store, for the top 100 grossing games when comparing the results for the months of January and June 2011. It used data that it analyzed through 90,000 apps that installed the company's software in order to roughly determine the amount of revenue generated by other popular apps. They discovered that free games represented 39% of the total revenue from January, and that the number jumped to 65% by June, helped in part by the fact that over 75% of the 100 top grossing apps are games. This makes free-to-play the single most dominant business model in the mobile apps industry. They also learned that the number of people that spend money on in-game items in free-to-play games ranges from 0.5% to 6%, depending on a game's quality and mechanics. Even though this means that a large number of people will never spend money in a game, it also means that the people that do spend money could amount to a sizeable number because the game was given away for free.


title: Microtransaction

text: A later study found that over 92% of revenue generated on Android and iOS in 2013 came from free-to-play games such as "Candy Crush Saga".


title: Microtransaction

text: Electronic Arts Corporate Vice-President Peter Moore speculated in June 2012 that within 5 to 10 years, all games will have transitioned to the microtransaction model. Tommy Palm of King ("Candy Crush Saga") expressed in 2014 his belief that all games will eventually be free-to-play. According to Ex-BioWare developer Manveer Heir in a 2017 interview, microtransactions have become a factor in what types of games are planned for production.


title: Microtransaction

text: Free-to-play coupled with microtransactions may be used as a response to piracy. An example of this is the mobile game "Dead Trigger" switching to a free-to-play model due to a high rate of piracy. While microtransactions are considered a more robust and difficult to circumnavigate than digital rights management, in some cases they can be circumvented. In 2012, a server was created by a Russian developer, which provided falsified authentication for iOS in-app purchases. This allowed users to obtain features requiring a microtransaction without paying.


title: Microtransaction

text: Consumer organizations have criticized that some video games do not describe adequately that these purchases are made with real currency rather than virtual currency. Also, some platforms do not require passwords to finalize a microtransaction. This has resulted in consumers getting unexpectedly high bills, often referred to as a "bill shock".


title: Microtransaction

text: In the mid and late 2010s, people became increasingly aware of how microtransactions operate in games, and they have become much more critical of their usage. The commonly cited issues of microtransactions from gamers are:


title: Microtransaction

text: The implementation of microtransactions and the subsequent backlash from gamers and the gaming media have caused governments from all around the world to look into these games and their microtransaction mechanics. In April 2018, the Netherlands and Belgium banned the sale of microtransactions in games sold in their countries. The specific games Belgium looked closer at were EA's "Star Wars Battlefront II" (2017) and "FIFA 18", "Overwatch", and "" developed by Valve. All of those game's microtransactions, except for "Star Wars Battlefront II" which removed their gameplay-altering microtransactions in March 2018 (but kept cosmetic microtransactions) due to players calculating that it would take over 48 hours of playing to obtain Luke Skywalker and then complaining about this extreme threshold to unlock popular characters to EA, have been determined to be "games of chance" by the Belgian government. As such, they are highly regulated by the Belgian government under their gambling laws.


title: Microtransaction

text: Games would have to remove their microtransactions in order for it to be sold in their country. If the game companies don't comply, then Belgium's government said that it will enact "a prison sentence of up to 5 years and a fine of up to 800,000 euros". While most game publishers agreed to modify their games' loot boxes in accordance with governmental laws, or otherwise as a result of negative reactions, others, such as Electronic Arts, have contested that they do not constitute as gambling. However, EA eventually complied with the Belgian government's declaration and made it so players in Belgium can not purchase FIFA Points, the premium (obtained by buying it with real money) in-game currency used in "FIFA"s "Ultimate Team" game mode. Professional "FIFA" players in Belgium were disappointed because not being able to buy FIFA Points makes it harder for them to compete and succeed in the "FIFA Global Series" and the EA-sponsored e-sports competition for "FIFA" games, showing just how "pay-to-win" they feel FIFA Ultimate Team is.


title: Microtransaction

text: In the United States, there have been some calls to introduce legislation to regulate microtransactions in video games, whether on mobile, consoles, or PC, and numerous attempts have been made recently to pass such legislation. In November 2017, Hawaii representatives Chris Lee and Sean Quinlan, during a news conference, explained how loot boxes and microtransactions prey on children and that they are working to introduce bills into their state's house and senate. A few months later, in February 2018, they successfully put four bills onto the floor of Hawaii State Legislature. Two of those bills would make it so games containing loot boxes can not be sold to people under the age of 21, and the other two would force game publishers to put labels on the case of their games that have loot boxes in them, as well as make them be transparent about the item drop rates for the rewards in their game's loot boxes. However, all four bills failed to pass through the Hawaii State Legislature in March 2018. In May 2019, Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri introduced a bill named "The Protecting Children from Abusive Games Act" to ban loot boxes and pay-to-win microtransactions in games played by minors, using similar conditions previously outlined in the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. The bill received some bi-partisan support in the form of two co-sponsors from Democrats Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Ed Markey of Massachusetts.


title: Microtransaction

text: The United Kingdom has also been closely observing microtransactions, especially loot boxes, and their effects on children. A major report by the UK Parliament's House of Commons and the Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport Committee, released in September 2019, called for the banning or regulation of microtransactions and loot boxes to children as well as having the games industry to take up more responsibility with regards to protecting players from the harms of microtransactions that simulate gambling. Specifically, the committee's conclusion is that microtransactions should be classified as gambling in the UK and therefore subject to current gambling and age-restriction laws. In October 2019, the Children's Commissioner for England, which promotes and protects children's rights, released a report describing the experiences, thoughts, and effects, positive and negative, of gaming on children ages 10–16. Within the report, some of the children directly stated to the interviewers that the microtransactions and loot boxes that they encounter and subsequently buy, are just like gambling. The report concludes that showing the odds and percentages of certain microtransactions to players does not go far enough and does not actually solve the problem.


title: Microtransaction

text: Instead, they suggest that certain new features to protect children should be implemented in all games featuring microtransactions, like showing the all-time spending on a child's in-game account and having limits on the amount someone can spend daily. Additionally, they push for game developers and publishers to stop pressuring children to spend money on microtransactions in their games in order to progress through the game and for Parliament to change their current gambling laws to declare loot boxes as gambling and subject to gambling laws.


title: Microtransaction

text: Alongside questioning the legality of the extensive use of microtransactions, some gamers have also questioned the morality and ethics of selling microtransactions, especially to children. Researchers have studied the natural psychology behind both the selling and purchase of microtransactions.


title: Microtransaction

text: According to a post made by Gabe Duverge on the Touro University Worldwide (TUW) website, impulse buying is a significant part of the psychology behind people buying microtransactions. Essentially, many games, especially in the realm of mobile games and the "free-to-play" market, force a decision from the player to keep playing or not via a limited time pop-up on the screen that tells them that if they pay a certain amount of money (usually about 99 cents or a dollar), they can keep playing where they left off. This is another type of microtransaction and it has become increasingly common in the mobile games sphere as of late. Another psychological aspect that is used to get players to continue playing and buying microtransactions is called loss aversion. When a player continues to lose over and over again, they begin to crave the dopamine-filled, positive feelings that they feel when they win. As such, they become more inclined to spend money for items that will help them achieve that elusive win. Then when they do win, the player attributes their win with the item that they just bought, making it more likely that they will spend money whenever the player gets on a losing streak, and so the cycle continues on.


title: Microtransaction

text: During the past two decades, gaming has emerged as one of the top options children go to as a means of alleviating boredom. In an August 2019 report conducted by "Parent Zone" in the UK, they studied and gathered data directly from children between the ages of 10–16 years old about their experiences with online gaming and the microtransactions that the games that they play hold, as well as ask about how the microtransactions in these games have affected them (and/or their parents) socially and financially. A growing number of parents of children aged 5 to 15 years old are now concerned that their children could be pressured to perform microtransactions online.


title: Microtransaction

text: According to the "Parent Zone" study, in the United Kingdom, 97% of males and 90% of females aged 10–16 years old play video games. About 93% of people 10–16 years old in the United Kingdom have played video games, with many playing games that utilize an Internet connection. Many online games targeting younger audiences may have the presence of microtransactions. The primary items bought by children in these games are largely cosmetic items, specifically "skins", which modify the appearance of the in-game player.


title: Microtransaction

text: In the case of "Fortnite", many of the skins are locked behind a "battle pass" that the player must pay for. A "battle pass" is a tiered system where the player buys the pass. By completing challenges and missions, they earn in-game items like weapons, skins, experience, emotes (special animations used to taunt opponents, celebrate victories, dance, and show-off), and more. It is about $9.50 (or 950 of "Fortnite"s in-game virtual currency, V-Bucks), but the player can pay about $28 (or 2,800 V-Bucks) instead to unlock the battle pass and they automatically complete the first 25 tiers (out of 100 tiers) of it.


title: Microtransaction

text: A majority of the children surveyed feel that these kinds of microtransaction systems in their online games are complete rip-offs. 76% of them also believe that these online games purposely try to squeeze as much money as possible from them when they play the game. About half of the children expressed that they need to spend money on the game in order for it to be fun to them; this is due to many of these games' features, which are modes that the children want to play and experience, being locked behind microtransaction paywalls. As such, there is a large gap between the gaming experiences that non-paying players have and the experiences that paying players have.


title: Microtransaction

text: Some other statistics and thoughts regarding loot boxes specifically were also collected from the children. Out of the 60% of children that know about loot boxes, a majority (91%) stated that the online games they play contain loot boxes in them, 59% of them would rather pay for in-game content individually and directly instead of through a collective and randomized loot box, and 44% believe that if loot boxes were eliminated from their online games the games would actually be a lot better. Plus, 40% of the children who played a game with loot boxes in them paid for one, too. Overall, the report stated that of the children who were generally unhappy with the games they paid for or were gifted, 18% felt that way because certain features had to be bought after paying for the game already, effectively making is so they had to pay more than the normal, full-price of the game in order to play the full game. The game was simply just not worth paying for to 35% of the unsatisfied children and 18% of them also felt that in-game microtransactions were not worth paying for either. Ultimately, children feel that spending money on microtransactions has become the norm and an expectation when playing modern video games.


title: Microtransaction

text: For many children, the excitement that they feel when they open loot boxes, packs, and obtain items through microtransactions is very addictive to them. Opening these random boxes without knowing what is inside, to them, is the same as opening a present. The excitement and suspense is amplified when the experience is felt alongside friends. In the UK Children's Commissioner's report, the children who played "FIFA" feel that opening player packs are a game within the game. To them, opening packs creates variety because they can play some football games in the "Ultimate Team" game mode and then open some packs when they get bored of playing normal football matches.


title: Microtransaction

text: Children might want to fit-in by paying for microtransactions and loot boxes and obtaining very rare items in front of their friends, creating a lot of hype and excitement among them. This makes paying for microtransactions a very positive experience for them. However, when children buy items in front of their friends, peer pressure often set in. Friends pressuring the player to continue buying packs hoping that they will be able to see them get a rare item can cause the player to spend more than they may actually be able to. The pressure to spend money on in-game content also stems from children seeing their friends have these special, rare items, and them wanting to have it themselves. Essentially, when everyone around them has it, they will want it too in order to feel like a part of the group.


title: Microtransaction

text: Peer pressure is not the only way children's social gaming experiences are altered. As noted in both the Parent Zone report and the Children's Commissioner's assessment, children who play "Fortnite", explained that classism, as in discrimination against people of different economic and social classes, exists among the players of the game. Some children fear that if they have the free 'default' skin in "Fortnite", no one, friends nor random strangers, will want to play with them as the default skin is seen as a symbol of a player being bad at the game. The default skin is used as judgement and an insult against the player whose in-game avatar wears it, too. Players wearing default skins are considered 'financially poor' and very 'uncool' by their peers and the game's community, so children spend money on microtransactions in order to avoid having that 'tag' or target on them.


title: Microtransaction

text: The media that children consume outside of the game can also affect their social interactions and in-game spending. A popular mode of entertainment for children is watching YouTube videos of other people playing their favorite games. In the case of "FIFA", children watch their favorite and most popular YouTubers constantly open player packs in the "Ultimate Team" game mode. Unlike the children however, the YouTubers have a lot more money to spend on packs as creating entertaining YouTube videos are their jobs and major source of income. The children watch in anticipation, wondering what rare players the pack may produce. Then, they see the jubilant, over-the-top screaming and reactions from the YouTuber, which makes the children happy, too, despite them not actually getting the player themselves. As a result, they go into the game and spend a lot of money buying player packs hoping to get a rare player just like the YouTuber that they just watched.


title: Microtransaction

text: The amount of money that children spend on microtransactions has continued to grow because the design of these online games, as well as other outside influences, have made spending money for in-game content an essential aspect of the game itself. In the UK, different cases of children unknowingly spending money from their parents and their own in order to get what they want or need to progress through the game have surfaced. In one instance, the father of a family with four children all under 10 years old, bought an £8 "FIFA Ultimate Team" player pack for them. In the span of three weeks, the children kept spending money on packs, eventually spending £550 ($709.91) altogether, completely emptying their parents' bank account, but never receiving one of the best players in the game as well as the children's favorite player: Lionel Messi.


title: Microtransaction

text: The children apologized to their parents and explained that at the time they did not understand how much they were impacting the family's financial situation. There have been other situations where UK children spent £700 ($903.53), £1,000 ($1290.75), £2,000 ($2581.50), and even £3,160 ($4078.77) on microtransactions in various mobile games, usually as a result of them getting tricked by the game to pay for something in-game or just not understanding that real money was being taken out of their, or their parents', bank accounts when they bought items in-game. Spending such large amounts of money on microtransactions have devastated some families financially, including some who had to pay a bill full of microtransaction payments with college savings and even money in life savings accounts.


title: Microtransaction

text: In the Children's Commissioner's study, children reported spending more and more money with each coming year, despite also feeling that because they are rewarded completely unknown items, they feel like they may be wasting money, too. One of the children that played "FIFA" in the study said that they spend anywhere from £10 ($12.91) a day to upwards of £300 ($387.23) in one year, sometimes even buying multiple player packs at one time. Some children have also stated that they have seen friends, their siblings, and acquaintances who have mental disorders spend all of their birthday money on in-game microtransactions, all while feeling like spending that money has not been a waste despite them not receiving any valuable items.


title: Microtransaction

text: Microtransactions have become increasingly common in many types of video games. Smartphone, console, and PC games all have conformed to the use of microtransactions due to its high profitability. Many companies and games, especially smartphone games, have taken on a business model that offer their games for free and then relying purely on the success of microtransactions to turn a profit.


title: Microtransaction

text: The collection of this data on consumers, although technically legal in the United States, or outside the EU, can be considered unethical. Companies can sell data about consumers, involving their spending, bank information, and preferences, to understand the consumer better overall, making business models for gaming companies safer and more profitable. With microtransactions under a negative spotlight from the gaming community, there may be displeasure from those who are aware that their data is being shared to make microtransactions possible.


title: Microtransaction

text: Data from a variety of sources show that microtransactions can vastly increase a companies' profits. Three free-to-play mobile games that made heavy use of the practice, "Clash Royale", "Clash of Clans", and "Game of War", were all in the top five most profitable mobile games of 2016. Microtransactions are also used in larger budget games as well, such as "Grand Theft Auto V" (2013) generating more revenue through them than retail sales by the end of 2017. This trend was consistent with many other popular games at the time, leading to the practice being widespread in the 2010s. In its 2021 fiscal year, Activision Blizzard earned $8.8 billion, with the majority of profit generated from microtransactions.


title: Sister Act (musical)

text: Sister Act is a musical based on the hit 1992 film of the same name with music by Alan Menken, lyrics by Glenn Slater, book by Bill and Cheri Steinkellner, and additional material by Douglas Carter Beane. After having a regional premiere in 2006 in Pasadena, California, the original West End production opened on June 2, 2009, at the London Palladium, starring Patina Miller and produced by Stage Entertainment and Whoopi Goldberg. Subsequent productions have been seen on Broadway and in many countries around the world.


title: Sister Act (musical)

text: Philadelphia, Mother Superior declares that the convent is in need ("Prologue") before Deloris Van Cartier, crowned 'Lady Fabulous' of 1978, is seen performing in the night club run by her gangster boyfriend Curtis Shank ("Take Me to Heaven"). Deloris is overjoyed as she believes her boyfriend is going to introduce her to a record producer on that day (her birthday), although she soon learns that this is not to be. Hurt and frustrated, Deloris goes to her backup singers KT and LaRosa, about her dreams of stardom and fame ("Fabulous, Baby!"). She decides to break up with Shank and head out of Philadelphia to go fulfill her dreams on her own. However she gets to Shank just in time to see him and his crew made up of nephew TJ, Bones, and Dinero, shoot someone who they believe has "squealed" about them to the cops. Horrified, Deloris runs away and Shank orders his men to get her and bring her back. Deloris runs to a police station and tells the desk chief, Eddie, about what happened. The two recognize each other as old friends from school with Deloris calling him "Sweaty Eddie". Eddie decides that Deloris needs to go into the witness protection program and sends her to the place he believes Shank will never find her - a convent called The Holy Order of the Little Sisters of Our Mother of Perpetual Faith.


title: Sister Act (musical)

text: Over the coming weeks, the choir has become incredibly successful and the money from donations has paid for the church to be remodelled and fixed ("Sunday Morning Fever"). However, the newfound fame comes at a price. Shank and his goons spot Deloris with the choir in the newspaper. Shank orders his boys to get into the convent and bring Deloris to him. TJ, Bones, and Dinero discuss how they will do this ("Lady in the Long Black Dress"). Meanwhile, back at the church, Monsignor Howard has some terrific news: the choir has been asked to perform a special concert in front of the Pope. The choir are overjoyed but nervous and that night they ask Deloris to pray for their success ("Bless Our Show"). Deloris is also looking forward to the occasion, although the Mother Superior calls her over and tells her that Shank's men have just come looking for her and she must leave quickly. The other nuns overhear and Deloris is forced to tell them the truth about who she really is and that she cannot perform with them. Deloris quickly runs off to get her things followed by Sister Mary Robert while the other nuns disappointedly go back to their rooms. Alone in Deloris' room, the Mother Superior expresses joy that life can go back to being as it was. However it is evident that she, along with the other nuns, have developed a love for Sister Mary Clarence and her modern if somewhat unorthodox ways ("Here Within These Walls (Reprise)").


title: Sister Act (musical)

text: On Christmas Eve, Deloris Van Cartier is performing for her gangster boyfriend Curtis Jackson in the night club he owns ("Take Me to Heaven"). Deloris is overjoyed as she believes her boyfriend is going to introduce her to a record producer on that day, although she soon learns that this is not to be. Jackson tells her he cannot join her for Christmas Day, but gives her a coat, which she discovers belonged to his wife. Hurt and frustrated, Deloris sings to her backup singers, Michelle and Tina, about her dreams of stardom and fame ("Fabulous, Baby!"). She decides to break up with Jackson to fulfill her dreams on her own, but gets to him just in time to see him and his crew shoot Ernie, who they believe has "squealed" about them to the cops.