Welcome back to the WIRED Games newsletter friends! Steam Next Fest has been teeming with announcements and trailers: Have you seen anything you're interested in? Any announcements that pique your interest? Let us know at [email protected] so we can take a look as well! I'll reserve judgment for now since, well, you know how hype seasons go—between the Summer Game Awards and the Xbox Games Showcase and now this, we've been washed under really pretty trailers and announcements, but time will tell which of the games we saw actually come to life.

But first, let's chat about the news this week, shall we? Zephin Livingston took a look at why the Fighting Games community, which is well known for its prickliness to outsiders, is surprisingly one of the safest havens for LGBTQ gamers of all types. It's an incredible story with great interviews including names you've likely heard of if you've ever spent time playing Super Smash Bros or Street Fighter. It's also some good news during a Pride Month fraught with widespread attacks on the rights of queer people across the US and the UK.

And speaking of Fighting games, Grant Stoner sat down with Takayuki Nakayama, the director of Street Fighter 6, to talk about the game's "modern controls," and how the ability to use them (or not) has made the game more accessible than any other title in the franchise, and potentially the most accessible fighting game yet. The two discuss how accessibility and the opportunity for anyone to pick up the game and play as a beginner and hone their skills to mastery was crucial to Nakayama, and how those design decisions have led to one of the most successful game launches of the year. It reminds me of Carlo Pasquale's piece from a few years ago, where he explained that more accessibility options only make games better for everyone.

Meanwhile, Megan Farokhmanesh tracked down the person behind the egg game from the Netflix sketch comedy series I Think You Should Leave. If you haven't seen it, the bottom line is this: You feed small eggs to a bigger egg, and if you land enough eggs in the big egg's mouth, you get a … treat. I won't spoil the treat, but you can read all about how it came to be, and how the person behind it actually had to make the thing into a game, in Megan's excellent piece.

If you're approximately my age (and I'm sorry if you are) you probably have fond memories of playing The Oregon Trail in school. It may even have been the first "computer game" you were ever exposed to, especially considering it was co-op and you could either play alone or with three of your friends sitting with you while the story unfolded. Well, Michael Ventuolo-Mantovani remembers the game fondly, and how he and his sister grew close sitting in front of an old Apple II and trying to make their way across the American West in the 19th century. While those days may be long past, the game lives on, and so do the bonds that he formed back then.

Finally, if you're a gamer, you probably also at least have a passing familiarity with or have used Reddit in the past. The company is on the cusp of some pretty significant changes to its API, which means it's about to get more difficult to control your personal data, access it, or get it out through anything but Reddit's official channels. Luckily, there's time to get your data out before then, and we have a guide to do just that. Grab it before you can't, folks!