As bizarre as this game might seem, during the medieval period it was incredibly popular for people to undertake "virtual pilgrimages" in which they imagined they were following the footsteps of Jesus or Mary, and at points actually *be* them.

Three hours into The Ratline, a new deduction game in the Obra Dinn/Golden Idol/Roottrees vein. Not bad! Good premise and atmosphere, and some fun additions to the genre – you can call up people for info, which makes you feel like a real detective. Retains Roottrees' database search, too.

You've all been waiting for it: my review of the ultra-exclusive Austenland immersive experience. Perhaps the world's most expensive larp at $30,000 a ticket – and that's just the Bronze package – guests get to live out their Regency dreams in a vast English manor over three weeks.

Big news: I'm making Strandfall, an highly physical outdoor larp using custom spatial computers! This is the first project of Experimental Social Scene, a new collective founded by me and @x13n.com, and we're delighted to be supported by @immersiveartsuk.bsky.social funding.

The "transformation economy" originates from Pine and Gilmore's book The Experience Economy, which everyone has read maybe the first chapter of (or just the title) but not the utterly batshit bit at the end. One might wonder how you can keep sell transformations! Surely it's a one-and-done thing?

Wish I could make it to @voidspacezine.bsky.social's Strange Play festival in London next month! Digital, physical, and immersive games of all kinds including two jubensha, a haunted office, a casino with a twist, a TTPRG, micro larp, and more. What's not to like?

This is quite the retraction: the original story got *tons* of press in the UK as proof that young people were flocking back to church. Turns out the online survey it was based on wasn’t at all representative since it was opt-in and rewarded participants, leading to massive brigading!

Pretty telling the main example here is someone who spent almost $70,000 on a 2.5 year game design program and ended up doing QA for $15/hour.

Every few years I try a JRPG-style game again to remind myself why I don't click with them. I assume the problem is me, not the game designers, especially when everyone else loves them! I start by slowly wandering through the environments, soaking up the detail...

The bit in Panic World where @ryanhatesthis.bsky.social shouts out Perplex City (amongst other ARGs) *and* wrecks my shit: "Adrian will absolutely be messaging me about our inaccurate discussion of ARGs, he is the leader of the section of our audience that gets mad at us every single time." (true!)

Good news everyone! Turns out the correct material analysis of the origins of our current predicament, and its solutions, is contained in the very specific mix of podcasts I alone listen to.

For all the Brits harrumphing that this is correct and good because other countries do it, I will remind you that the British Museum's favourite reason for keeping all its stuff is because they're a "world museum" freely open to all. Take away that and things get even shakier...

High Fidelity (Hulu, 2020) depicts not only the millennial dream of a chill workplace but also the ideal urban life

RIP to a real one. The Soul of a New Machine may be the best technology book written, but House was a beautifully-crafted and deeply humanist book. Funny too!

Tom Bombadil is boring and sucks, there I said it

In honour of @ryanhatesthis.bsky.social's Panic World podcast covering Cicada 3301 this week, here's a documentary where I got identified as its potential creator because I designed ARGs. Now the video is mysteriously delisted – coincidence? I can neither confirm nor deny...

Just finished Jan Morris' excellent Hav, a novel about a fictional city written by an expert travel writer. Ursula Le Guin loved it and called it "alternate geography" and in actual fact, science fiction. The first part, in particular, is an astonishing melange of real and invented world history...

Honestly Green Card would make for a pretty great chamber larp

I wrote about my daily routine writing my book on immersive experiences! Reaching the first full draft took around two years of full time research and writing, which meant I had to be really disciplined about my process...

The criticism of this very sensible piece arguing that games like Pokopia aren't that deep is entirely of a piece with our era of "let people enjoy things" and "games are wondrous butterflies of art and agency". It's right to interrogate games' timewaster tendencies!

This is a really interesting bit of research! They compared children's ability to understand theory of mind/false beliefs when playing with physical dolls vs. open-ended games on tablets like Toca Hair Salon 3. The dolls won! (Caveat: Mattel funded the research. Not a deal-breaker IMO)

Weird piece that call the online subculture that celebrates mass murderers (e.g. gore forums) the "true crime community". Really?! I found this so odd I assumed the authors meant something else, or it had some other meaning to them. But maybe they're just bad at communicating?

As much as I like gamification analogies, I think this piece is stretching things a bit far. IMO Silicon Valley's obsession with agency and "agentic vs mimetic" behaviour is better explained as a direct callback to early 20th century Italian Futurists who glorified war, speed, energy, and youth.

This looks extremely cool!

It’s kind of weird to write a whole dang book four years ago about the gamification of everything (including video games!), how it developed, why it became popular, and where it might go - and to have it completely ignored by almost every games journo because… idk?

"Today, to get bodies into stores, the shopping experience must be theatrical, Instagrammable, gamified." But it was ever thus...

*sighs, updates immersive experience book manuscript*

Jonathan Haidt just claimed that the pull-to-refresh behaviour in Mail on the iPhone was "literally" copied from slot machines. As someone who has written a book critiquing gamification, this seems totally off. www.newyorker.com/news/the-new...

Grimly fascinated how scam centres in Cambodia are designed with elaborate sets and props to look like bank branches and police stations. “I think they also have a creative section that will come up with ideas on how to deceive people in each country”

In 500 years time the Phantom Menace will be studied as the epic of its time, recording a true history of events. Clearly it was an amalgam of multiple writers though - no single person could write a story of such genius.

Finally watched Picnic at Hanging Rock last night, which was extremely my shit. Why do so many people classify it as horror, though? Like, I get the point, but it feels way closer to magic realism or plain weirdness to me, in the best possible way.

Watched the first ep of High Fidelity (the show) after everyone kept saying it was better than the movie. So far so good, but crucially the music is *absolutely* on point, already discovered a few artists who’ll be going into my heavy rotation!

The epic Battlestar Galactica-inspired larp Odysseus has launched its crowdfunding campaign, attracting €100,000 in the space of five minutes! It really is one of the most sophisticated and spectacular larps out there, so if you're at all interested in what Nordic larp is like, check it out.

Can't stop thinking about that person who joined the Nordic Larp discord with the immortal words "who up larpin they nords rn"

It gets easier after you die and try again

This really is as fantastic as you'd expect!

I miss the days when the worst thing Ben Thompson could write about was aggregation theory

Pixar’s Hoppers absolutely rules and I cannot *wait* for the absolute firestorm of political discourse to ensure when it releases in the US next week. Ezra Klein: Mayor Jerry did politics the right way! etc etc

Apropos nothing in particular, I am struck by how the UK Global Talent Visa has no explicit recognition of video game makers. There's clear guidance for architecture, fashion, film, TV, and theatre, and there's recognition of major literary and art awards, but nothing for games.

Finally, Tetris gets Story Mode difficulty

Interesting to see that Odysseus – the upcoming BSG-themed blockbuster larp – will be offering a €6000 Fleet Charter tier for in its crowdfunding campaign, targeted for corporate teams and celebrations. 20 players, 2-3 hours w/ briefings, less about role play and more about atmosphere and teamwork

We've just released full details of all TEN games playable at Jubensha Con 2026 this May! This is likely the widest range of English-language jubensha available at any event, ever, and most of them are wholly or partly-GMed so players get the full jubensha experience. Extremely hyped!

Did a 5 minute lightning talk at Social Science Foocamp about using “experimental modes of togetherness” like larp, jubensha, and certain kinds of interactive theatre to solve the loneliness epidemic. Everyone very intrigued - bodes well since I touch on this in my forthcoming book!

In honour of everyone being curious about gamification again, a thread about my 2022 book You've Been Played, which the NYT called "illuminating and persuasive". I wrote it because my games are often cited as among the best forms of gamification around – Zombies, Run! has over 10m players!

You know priorities are fucked when the National Gallery is planning a £375m extension but wants to cut staff and raise ticket prices

People need more role play in their lives *that they know is role play*!!

I finally watched Austenland yesterday after reading a profile of Keri Russell and now I'm already outlining a six-part lecture series examining the movie's treatment of immersive experiences and role play?!?!

Every few years someone figures out how to make an awesome, non-freemium spin on match-3 games and I love to see that Titanium Court has taken to crown this year!

One of the most interesting things in Matthew Ball’s State of Video Gaming 2026 is the suggestion games are being outcompeted by, essentially, the gamification and gamblification of the rest of the world - r/wallstreetbets being an early sign of that (Someone should write a book about that etc etc)

Delayed flight and missed connection means I have an unexpected day in Paris on the way to San Francisco. Could be worse!