Why does my cat's mouth smell like a decaying fish market but the rest of her smell like baby powder

Jeff Bezos makes enough money to fully fund this literally every two minutes.

Rowan and I survived a crucible together, and I'll never be able to repay her camaraderie and friendship during the past two years. I am gutted to be losing her voice on the site, but I'm so excited to see what comes next and have no doubt it will involve kicking ass.

On Feb 7 2020, Dr Li Wenliang, known as one of the first whistleblowers on COVID, died from the disease in Wuhan.

I have so much to say about this but yes, hell yes

No joke: I got angry hate mail today for writing an obituary of a Black woman scientist—because the person felt she did didn’t deserve the recognition. Which just makes me want to share it again: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

I'm writing a story about this and would love to talk to trans TTRPG creators, if you're open to sharing your thoughts. Hit me up please! [email protected]

Do I know any writers/journos/crits who write about TV stuff???

I love this and, more imptly, I love that this piece has found its way to Mothership - I fear that it wouldn't have been published on most legacy sites, otherwise

Media coverage of Gaza has plummeted. So today on @thenation.com, we're doing something pretty special: we're only running pieces by people in and from Gaza. We're calling it "A Day for Gaza." You can find links to all of the incredible pieces here. Please read! www.thenation.com/article/worl...

The podcast has always been a place where we can provide a coda to news stories and trending topics without necessarily augmenting our written work. My discussion here with Thomas adopts that framework, and it was both generative and exhausting. Thanks to everyone who wrote in!

A thing i hate about Bethesda's modern treatment of Fallout is everything is just a wink wink nudge nudge towards cosplaying an ideology It is not fun playing alongside real players who wear the costume of rapists whose philosophy is rooted in enslavement of women

I loved Mirror's Edge and I love this piece by @lewisgordon.bsky.social. Can't believe I missed this earlier!

When he was at RPS (and when the freelance landscape was more... lively, so to speak) Brendy was one of my fave editors to work with. Always loved seeing a new cool workers-owned gaming website but am esp excited for this one!

🚨 If you submitted a game to the No ICE In Minnesota charity bundle jam, please approve your submissions here itch.io/b/3484/no-ic... 🚨 All submissions unapproved by Febr 6 will be pruned so the bundle can start on time on Feb 9. Please share for visibility & tell your friends who joined the bundle

Big woops (but US writers only, meh)

How does tabletop journalism differ from its video game cousin? And where do they align? @crapstacular.bsky.social reflects on their leap into an analog industry and wonders why we use so many acronyms.

I'm also thinking about setting up a safe space somewhere for game journos who have been harassed for work - doxxed, sent death threats, yelled at, lost their jobs/gigs - to discuss and share our experiences and how to move on. But not sure how much of a good idea this is

Curious to hear from journos in this space (games, tech, human rights) who have been labelled as an activist for writing certain reports/features: how does this make you feel?

A fresh one from me! I wrote about fandom, what characters "deserve," lesbians and our desire to Return To The Past. What does it mean to wind back the clock and why does that seem to be *the* thing many folks want from art now? aftermath.site/life-is-stra...

buy my book! or don't! make your own choices!

An idea pitched and developed by @newmadras.bsky.social, beautifully realized by @crapstacular.bsky.social: The Rascal 7. One of our new approaches to covering more games in interesting ways. It's so rad to work with talented and creative people.

I was proofreading this piece before publication and every word I read here makes me feel madder and madder about the extent some companies will exploit creatives in order to pay them as little money as possible

PMG won the Knickerbocker Award for Best Games Journalism last night at the @nyvgcc.bsky.social! It feels like we've come such a long way since we first launched this thing nearly eight years ago, but winning a journalism award at an event in NEW YORK CITY still seems totally mad to me.

Our team has been doing this investigation since July. I'm so so proud of the work we do at Rascal to handle stories like this with care and compassion.

I spoke with five artists and writers who felt blindsided and betrayed by the way Jay Dragon and Possum Creek Games handled the future of Yazeba's Bed & Breakfast. What was supposed to be a monumental RPG from a beloved indie publisher will likely never be printed in the same form again.

Please do not confuse Horses 2025 (2026) with HORSES (2025).

Thanks for wrapping us up in a big indie media hug, @rascal.news! We had so much fun chatting with Chase and Caelynn from Rascal for 60 minutes and not a second more

Wrote some small tributes for two treasured people

Struck by how Chaoyang Trap's 2022 piece on jubensha remains one of the best-written takes on the phenomenon even today. Not a week goes by without me missing that amazing newsletter on Chinese pop culture. RIP my sweet princes!! 😭😭😭

As the free online encyclopedia turns 25, it’s facing political opposition, AI scraping, dwindling volunteers, and a public that may no longer believe in its ideals. www.wired.com/story/wikipe...

I chatted with @ludicpen.bsky.social on making games in Venezuela amidst the conflict, and their long term plans. More than ever, creating art - creating anything - is a form of resistance these days.

DESIGN WORKS ✨ We've collaborated with a 𝘭𝘰𝘵 of cool folks at Lost In Cult, and our Design Work collection highlights the development of great titles and studios such as Mouthwashing, Animal Well, Cocoon and Simogo 📖 Pre-Orders available for those with some good sense! 🔗⬇️

I reached out to more than three dozen X advertisers, xAI investors, politicians, and government agencies about the growing library of sexualized deepfakes generated with Grok—now including Renee Good. I only heard back from four, with three declining to comment. spitfirenews.com/p/grok-deepf...

Huge fan of the Taiwanese indie scene

This is a fun piece I did with @chasecarter.bsky.social and @caelyn.bsky.social - we talked about the two new videogames (!!!) Warlock and Exodus, and whether WoTC's plans to make a shit ton of $$$$$ via videogames are a short-sighted endeavor, inspired by the blinding success of Baldur's Gate 3

“i want back my rocking chairs, / solipsist sunsets, / & coastal jungle sounds...” A poem by Renee Nicole Good, who was murdered by ICE earlier today. lithub.com/renee-nicole...

If you haven't already, January is a good time to cancel your Xbox Game Pass in solidarity with Palestine. Read more about the boycott on our website and sign our pledge at nogamesforgenocide.com

I have written about how state violence is well tuned to justify its perpetual killing tendency the-haters-guide-to-international-politics.ghost.io/the-state-vi...

no, absolutely not, you all should've been nicer to my trans homies

It's been 5 years since a group of alt-right revolutionaries attempted a violent coup on the United States government at the behest of Donald Trump. A year ago I attended a gamified version of that terrible day for @rascal.news. Its terrifying to see how much has changed and how much hasn't.

This is the piece I've been waiting to publish :) The Kuei-jin has always been a weird, orientalist mess, but I find the concept of this clan so fascinating. Paradox is essentially pretending they don't exist anymore, so fans are writing books to redo the Kuei-jin - and the TTRPG system behind them

Patrick Dane, longtime games and entertainment journalist and News Editor at This Week in Videogames, has died in a motor vehicle accident. He was 34 years old.

4,000 words on the stage I haven't been able to stop playing for the last six years. Early dev screenshots, talk of tech challenges, five demo tracks embedded so you can hear the song's evolution. All the good stuff.

i think that if you are a member of the games media disgusted by this (and you should be) you have to really, genuinely ask yourself what the difference is between this and saying "Microsoft is on the BDS list but [game] is good in XYZ ways"