one avoids stanning, and sorry to bring twitter over here, but we fucking stan

Bumping this again! There's a wide, unusual mix of games in this year's list, so I hope you'll take a look. I'm still getting whatever the writer's equivalent of sea legs is back under me, but I'm pretty happy with what I wrote about Baby Steps.

This Bruce anti-ICE anthem is gonna leave a mark:

If you're reading this, I am sincerely asking you to bombard your senator's phone lines tomorrow to urge them to pursue the defunding and abolition of ICE. Nominal reforms will achieve nothing when DHS has shown an overt and gleeful willingness to ignore the law while brutalizing our neighbors.

Thinking a lot about the phrase "this is not who we are," that well-trod empty platitude we often hear from those in power whenever something outrageous happens. It's so self-evidently false; either "we" is all of us, or it is not. And if it's not, then who's left out, why, and by whose authority?

Bumping this again! There's a wide, unusual mix of games in this year's list, so I hope you'll take a look. I'm still getting whatever the writer's equivalent of sea legs is back under me, but I'm pretty happy with what I wrote about Baby Steps.

Now presenting the 2025 Silicon Sasquatch Game of the Year Awards, featuring the voices of @tyleramartin.bsky.social, @dougbonham.blog, @aaronthayer.bsky.social, Spencer-whose-Bluesky-handle-is-a-secret, and @nickcummings.com. Somehow, we did it again. 🧡

This is exactly what I imagine Trails of Cold Steel is like

happy large boulder the size of a small boulder day to all who celebrate 🙏

As both a game developer and a critic, this is very, very funny to me

ok the full clip is way better than the little one going around. her whole team try to get her to bail on the event and she's like no, I came to speak. incredible example.

Very esoteric question, but I’ve been wondering for decades: does anyone remember a HyperCard Myst parody game called Mynt? I found it on AOL’s file-sharing service in the late 1990s. Eleven-year-old me, taking his very first steps into game design with HyperCard at the time, thought it was rad.

TOMORROW

A lot of Dems are going to take Bovino and Noem being fired as the finish line, and it's very important to make it clear to them that it is a starting line

I’m not gonna quote the OPB story because I don’t like looking at photos of dead animals, but I feel we are long overdue as a city to ban force-feeding-derived foie gras. In my experience, how we treat non-human animals is inextricable from how we treat each other, so yes, this is important.

for me it was the fact that the author is one of the main driving forces behind the global movement to kill my trans friends and erase their existence hope that helps

"You must see to it that you pull up regularly all the baobabs, at the very first moment when they can be distinguished from the rosebushes."

You: It can’t happen to me. The state: we looked into this white guy we killed and we do feel a need to bring up these parking tickets

All I see is federal agents getting violent with residents, over and over, while Democratic leaders repeatedly tell those residents to calm down and not do anything in response. This is not sustainable.

By who? Who shot the person dead? You saw the video. We all know a federal agent shot a man dead who was prone on the ground. Also, it's not "according to officials." It's according to verified video seen with your eyes. Not saying what anyone can obviously see with their eyes is a form of lying.

Dear Oregonians, if you live in Eugene, @merkley.senate.gov 's mailbox is full here, but the Portland office mailbox isn't (yet! GO FILL IT UP). That number is 503-326-3386. His DC office number is 202-224-3753. #Oregon

As tens of thousands across America protest the violence that ICE sows with impunity, federal agents shot and killed another person in Minneapolis today.

ICE terrorizes our cities. ICE puts us all in danger. Abolish ICE.

Anyone who is part of the federal government who is not doing everything in their power to stop this administration, regardless of the assumed cost to normalcy or career, is a coward and a collaborator.

Arresting the witnesses to their crimes. ICE is a criminal organization operating under cover of the government.

We owe an incredible debt to the Minnesotans who are on the streets protesting and documenting what is happening.

You have to arrest these guys, man

Reminder: DHS legislation that funds ICE at current levels without policy restrictions is in the Senate and needs 60 votes to pass. Deadline is next Friday.

Seeing a bunch of normal ass midwestern moms and dads marching in -20 degrees knowing they might be tear gassed or worse really drives home what a cowardly lot of people the pundit class is

On Thursday, 7 yr old Diana Crespo suffered a nosebleed that lasted most of the night. The next morning, Diana's parents took her to urgent care at Portland Adventist Health, but they only made it to the parking lot before they were detained by immigration officers. www.opb.org/article/2026...

Reposted with some alt text.

I wrote about Minneapolis. nymag.com/intelligence...

"we'll look weak and out of touch" ICE is underwater with non-college whites including 41% "strong disapprove" there's no polling to hide behind, if you're not willing to fight here it's because you don't want to, not because it's a losing fight

I came to Minneapolis to report on what's going on, and one of the main questions I showed up with is "just what is the scale of the resistance?" After all, we're all used to the news calling Portland a "war zone" or whatever when it's just some protests in one part of town.

I guess I do think if you participated in the arrest of a five-year-old you are probably just fundamentally incompatible with society. That you are not a safe person for humanity to be around, generally

🚨HOLY CRAP. An ICE whistleblower just revealed a secret memo authorizing ICE officers to break into homes without a judicial warrant, which DHS's own legal training materials say is unconstitutional! ICE then hid the memo from the public, passing it along by word of mouth and private conversation.

i really hold a deep, deep fucking hatred for all the "but we GOTTA go super right on the border and immigration" we got sold over the years but especially in 2024. zero benefit to this. all it did was hurt people and set things up to make it even easier for these fuckers to hurt people.

Few things make a more urgent case for funding strong liberal arts education than enduring just 10 minutes of the writing in It Takes Two

i feel like the viral bus thread resonates because at every step of the way you're like "ok surely this will be resolved shortly, any second now," which seems like what all the passengers are also thinking. then the fact that the situation doesn't resolve and the bus just keeps going is an Allegory

I am drawing daily inspiration and energy from John Darnielle’s reflections on his songs in the book This Year. There is a humble clarity and erudite earnestness to the way he reflects on art (his + others’). It feels like an offering: portable, translatable, ready to be reshaped into something new.

this is it. this is the way forward.

I’ve written about 5,000 words this year and they’re all trash. Just so bad: the clumsiest expressions, endless complex sentences, points that I can’t seem to quite land on. But those last 1,000 words are definitely better than the first 4,000, and that’s how it works, isn’t it.

every single successful general strike in US history has had union backing through the local AFL-CIO this is the first time it’s been called for since the 1940s

Here’s a thread that’s worth reading, imho

Every time I open my freezer and grab one of the many breakfast burritos I made a few weeks ago

tbh I think the Mercury buried the lede, which is that an Oregonian comments section troll / real estate developer appears to be using Councilor Dan Ryan as a mouthpiece

Just sitting over here, age 39, very much looking forward to the Lorwyn pre-release on Friday like a kid anticipating Christmas

In our hands is placed a power greater than their hoarded gold, Greater than the might of armies, magnified a thousand-fold. We can bring to birth a new world from the ashes of the old For the union makes us strong. Solidarity forever, for the union makes us strong.

Every movie should offer this choice

Ascending to Portland demigod status by taking my Christmas tree and two wreaths to be recycled by bike