On a personal note: 1. We fucking did it. I am so proud of everyone involved. 2. Unionizing is a goddamn fight, regardless of any, ah, "diplomatic" coverage on the matter. This is a general observation, unrelated to today's news -- of course. 3. UK devs: your turn. DMs are open if you need help.

The workers at ZA/UM Studio have unionized. First recognised games union in the UK, too. May many others follow. www.gameworkers.co.uk/workers-at-z...

This week: RDR2, TotK, ACVI, and several other games that aren't acronyms! critical-distance.com/2023/10/22/o...

hello it took two attempts but i made some bread, hope you do something nice for yourself too!

And my new #gamestudies friends, if you find yourself even more curious abt #HistoricalGameStudies and #GamingthePastinEd, I'd be delighted if you checked out gamingthepast.net (there's a book too, but the site is where I've collected almost 20 years of work on games in and outside of history ed.)

deep-hell.com/swim-sink/ Faith moves us forward. It is a propellant. It is sometimes a convenient excuse for violence. @feelthebryn.bsky.social

Wrote about Hydlide, a game notorious in North America for sounding and looking and playing poorly, but it's actually a vital piece of action RPG history that, for a few reasons, never got its due outside Japan. One of those reasons? The failure to update it even a little bit for 1989's standards.

hahaha not me; I could sail through Lost Levels like it was nothing when I was 9, but now you throw that shit at me and I'm just, you want me to do WHAT?

I reviewed Saltsea Chronicles for @pastemagazine.bsky.social !!! glad to give the new @gutefabrik.bsky.social a Paste 9.7 (i.e. go play this, it’s special)

Full sequence of the annular solar eclipse at Shiprock, New Mexico. This was a dream composition of mine. So much time, energy, and money went into making it happen. I'm forever grateful to the Navajo for letting me shoot it from sacred ground. An experience I'll never forget.

A very kind friend gifted me a smartwatch and the thing I love most about it is now I get to feel like shit about the 5800 steps I get in on a work day because the watch thinks I should be getting 10,000

When I see some middle-aged neoliberal doing corporate apologia on here I have to wonder what prompted them to choose the trans shitposters/sex workers/autistic millennials site of all sites for their pulpit

I'm seeing an increase across faculties here in (well intentioned!) assignments asking students to engage with Indigeneity and historical colonial injustices in Canada, but I think these assignments were designed for a settler audience rather than the actual student audience taking these courses.

For Bullet Points, I tried to figure out what Starfield, ostensibly a game about space exploration, actually thinks space exploration is. Unsurprisingly, it's mostly a vehicle for becoming the specialest guy there ever was bulletpointsmonthly.com/2023/10/05/a...

It is essential to fascism's endurance that you mistake stupid people as simply evil, and evil people as simply stupid.

Happy to see Remap launch their full site and look forward to their continued success.

If you missed our stream, Remap's big announcement today was the re-launch of remapradio.com. Not only does it look awesome, but it heralds some big news: we're bringing back writing. Many of us at Waypoint are writers at heart, and we don't want to lose that at Remap.

I like Analogue's products but I really do not like their business model, practices, or branding. Their identity is predicated on further and continued gentrification of retro games, turning it into a playground for guys in their forties who got in just before the middle class evaporated.

Some speculations: 1) It's gonna be expensive, moreso than the Duo. The FPGA grunt to drive an N64 core won't be cheap 2) If Analogue does PS1 or Saturn, expect one or the other in two years 3) I think Analogue increasingly sees themselves in competition with upscalers and modders

If this place ever gets promoted posts I hope it's sooner than later so the site is still small enough that I can personally make an outsized contribution to making each and every promoted account here miserable

Reskeet with a banger pic of your cat

I recently re-watched The Matrix films with a friend and I was struck not with smug condescension that we used to think trenchcoats and polarized lenses were cool, but rather with a bit of melancholy that we used to think computers were cool.

If you ever need a healthier place to put unfocused rage you could do worse than Vulture Capital firms: www.vulture.com/article/epic...

I think people make way too big a deal about Martin Scorsese Having Opinions About Media in the exact same way they once did about Roger Ebert.

This week: Saints Row, Volcano High, Halo, and more: critical-distance.com/2023/10/15/o...

An overly literal way of taking the temperature of games press right now is to measure how loudly the fans rev up in my 3-month old overspeced laptop when I try to open and read a single ad-choked web article.

Hey game designers, especially all my folks in the ttrpg space: I'm making an itch bundle to benefit Medical Aid For Palestinians. If you'd like to donate your game(s), hit up the QR code below or email me at esther at oak grove dot games. Please share widely, and Free Palestine!

Hello, I came out of writing retirement to post a piece I've had in my head for a while about Live-A-Live and how it tells stories differently. Give it a read, and if you like what you read, consider giving me a tip on my ko-fi! cohost.org/Jeremy-Write...

🎮 "did you know? mew's under the truck by the ss anne!" i made a bitsy game about gaming rumours of the past for the #bitsyfest jam by @museumofscreens.bsky.social & @adamledoux.net 🚚 npckc.itch.io/mews-under-t...

Got a job for you, 621. This time its something personal. My "friend" has a dire need for a crunchwrap supreme, 621. I know I can count on you. Good luck.

old lady on the train, very loudly: you know cannabis? seniors smoke that stuff! it's not just the young kids!

To end your week, Remap Radio is here, featuring the delightful Carli Velocci (@carlivelocci.com). This episode has: Great guest. ✅ Robocop talk. ✅ A lengthy discussion about copy editing. ✅ It's almost three hours. ✅ art19.com/shows/remap-...

If anarchism is naïvete it is a far lesser naïvete than the fantasy that any state can be trusted to value human lives in the broadest, most collective sense.

hey y'all one of the things I'm starting in the new year is a game studies/radical politics book club. the first "season" is gonna be pretty heavily centered around games but as time goes on that'll shift and change. anyhow link w/ more info and a way to join below! www.patreon.com/posts/coming...

So the thing on my mind today about the Microsoft-Activision merger is Activison is among, if not the most prolific and close partner with the US Department of Defense when it comes to how the military is represented and promoted in popular games. When Microsoft absorbs CoD, they absorb that.

Shithole province regina.ctvnews.ca/parents-bill...

ok maybe this ONE time it would have been better to just name your variables and functions via the tried and true method of keyboard smash

An MPP put out a very mild statement asking folks to consider the settler colonial frameworks that produce generational death and misery in places like Palestine and officials and groups from across the political spectrum are calling for her job so that's where Ontario is at on endorsing Apartheid.

A longstanding problem in Canadian politics which predates this escalation is that you cannot so much as breathe the idea of a free Palestine in the halls of power here without drawing overwhelming condemnation. toronto.ctvnews.ca/ontario-ndp-...

Is 621 trans? Buddy,, are all Ravens trans

I have really, deeply enjoyed Bullet Points' whole issue on AC6 and I'm happy this series' longstanding, posthuman, anticorporate themes are getting some critical examination by some of the smartest writers in the scene

I ain't buying anymore fuckin' BioWare games, dude, don't care if Dreadwolf is even good! (it won't be) www.rockpapershotgun.com/canadas-firs...

This week: El Paso, Elsewhere, The Talos Principle, Cyberpunk, and more: critical-distance.com/2023/10/08/o...

I think difficult art might broadly be engaged with more thoughtfully if it is put out into the world with a certain measure of humility from its creators, but I don't see a lot of space for that humility in commercial entertainment media--you have to promote and defend your work at all costs.

I have developed a peculiar fascination with the works of Edmund McMillen this weekend

Generally speaking the way folks talk about violence - and what they mean when they say "violence" - as a means of achieving political ends will tell me a lot about how much they actually expect to get done using nonviolent means.

Two hours trying to get Dreamcast working on steam deck, thaaats enough banging my head against a wall for one evening

I'd honestly much rather have a beer or non-alcoholic beverage of your choice with all of you than try to decipher the genuinely interesting conversation happening here about games and narrative on a platform designed for dunks