@akelatalamasca.bsky.social this painting made me think of you.

Probably the best thing I took away from my time working at EA was learning how audience-facing messaging is crafted. Because it allows me now to read what these publishers put out with that filter. Now I can see all the things they're NOT saying.

And this is what I'm talking about: rich White men live in a fucking completely different world, sheltered somehow from the slings and arrows that hoi polloi regularly loft their way. They actually think they're great people. It's fucking incredible.

The guy who can't fucking run the businesses he HAS already. THIS is the guy you want to start a video game business? In THIS social climate? Who's going to buy a game from ELON MUSK?

There's a bit in which Kotick says Musk would be the perfect person to start and run a video game company. Right. The guy who pays other people to play video games for him to get achievements and "prove" he's legit on socials.

Sorry. I'm reacting to an interview conducted by some White dude on a podcast I've never heard of. Featuring Elon Musk and Bobby Kotick, former CEO of ActivisionBlizzard. The topic was video games. Oh ho, here we fucking go

This really is a divided country. But the division isn't racial. It's financial. Whites and Blacks have more in common with each other than regular people and the wealthy.

Fucking LOOK at this. Are you REALLY telling me you don't use AI in your games? THE FUCK IS THIS, THEN?

What's worse is a statement that one of these studios released saying that they HAVE AI tools but none of it goes into the game. Except where you can CLEARLY SEE it. It's one of those fucking Studio Ghibli filters AI uses. THEY MADE THEIR WARTIME SHOOTERS LOOK LIKE GHIBLI CHARACTERS

People are up in arms -- and rightly so -- about the use of generative AI in games. It warms my heart to see it being called out online when it happens. Because again: THE ONLY REASON TO USE AI FOR ART IS TO FIRE THE ARTISTS YOU ALREADY HAD. So call it out. Shame those involved.

Today I start work on preliminary sketches for my son's Christmas gift. It's going to be a huge amount of work, especially as I'm going to be using watercolors for the first time. And it's 12 pages of artwork and hand-lettering. And I don't even know if it's a good gift. But it's all I can do.

good morning bluesky good morning bluefriends good morning gibbons good morning burkina faso good morning slight headache, loss of appetite good morning good morning

Just a quick reminder that the narrator of The Shoop Shoop Song has to be schizophrenic. She asks herself questions that then she answers. There's even a bit where she says to herself "You're not listening to all that I say"

I'M NOT CRYING YOU'RE CRYING OKAY YES I'M CRYING youtube.com/shorts/19dN2...

This is just the greatest series www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVxk...

Hey! I made a new friend in Rocket League! We got twinned up in a random 2v2 that we won, he suggested we party up, and we won the next 3 games before he had to leave. Nice!

Fuck, you know what would make me so happy? To have enough money to fund the personal projects of artists I admire. I don't know what millionaires who DON'T do this are like. What are their souls? Are they just sieves that let weighty thoughts slip through in favor of surface pleasures?

I saw a cow on a sea of grass/Like a ship upon the ocean/Like a cow/Upon a sea of grass

It's very simple, proles: Act like a human. A human with compassion and interests in things other than making money. Turns out humans like to support other humans when they prove to be good people.

Part of the strategy was to go on socials and talk about non-EA games. Prove to the public that hey, EA is made of people who like to play games too! We're not just corporate shills! And it actually worked for a while. Our approval rating went up. For a short time. Then my contract was up.

You know what's funny? The idea that I was hired on at EA years ago to help with reversing their image problem. People voted EA "Worst Company of the Year" two years in a row. I was part of the team that tried to change the public conception of them as a monolithinc corporation that didn't care.

Also, holy shit, look at this. THIS is integrity For those who don't know, Megabonk is a game made by ONE GUY and it was a HUGE success. Indie games, proles, you have to fucking love it. YOU MUST LOVE IT BY LAW

I'm alone in the house right now but I imagine you can all hear me chortling, regardless of where in the world you actually are

The day is rapidly approaching when these top-heavy companies will all sit around the conference room table realizing with sinking feelings that they don't actually know how to MAKE anything and that they laid off all the people who actually do.

BECAUSE YOU DON'T HAVE TO PAY HEALTH INSURANCE FOR A CONTRACTOR

I would LOVE for EA to go away forever. I worked there for a year and was relatively happy. Why only a year? Because EA has/had a policy in place to only hire people on as contractors for a year, with the option to renew their contract at the end of the year, which they rarely did. Why?

Now these execs are just looking at spreadsheets, bemoaning how players "don't want to play games anymore" as the reason for this downturn. No, corporate shill, they don't want to play YOUR games anymore.

And these are the studios who have been laying off their staffs by the THOUSANDS. You know: the people who actually do the WORK.

I'm sure the good folks at EA are fucking scratching their heads over all this too. They helped push the AAA boat along with their monetization practices. Cosmetics, game passes, gacha mechanics, all that stupid shit that has nothing whatsoever to do with actual GAMEPLAY

Look at what Ubisoft just said to their shareholders. FUCKING COPIUM. This is what you think? Sales numbers don't back that up. Video game awards nominations don't back that up. Player reviews don't back that up.

Mate, let me speak directly to you: ALL I WANT are single-player games with the one exception of Rocket League, which, by the way, isn't monetized out the ass like most AAA games are these days. I just want a well-crafted single-player game that I can sink into.

AAAAAHAHAHAHAAAAA The amount of copium in the AAA publishing world is simply too ridiculous to be believed. AAA games are fucking tanking and the publishers think players don't want single-player games?

I've seen the future/I can't afford it

You know what movie fucked me up when I saw it as a kid? The Manitou

This is going to sound grumpy and unworthy of who I am. BUT: If you're teaching me to aspire to something, you have to make the AFTER actually look significantly better than the BEFORE And... this isn't... ... I mean... I guess it's... better than the... before... arguably?

... but it had also finally returned and started up right where it left off. So now I'm starting over from the beginning and holy shit it's still amazing.

Funny how sometimes even amazing things fall off your radar To wit: I was in love with Saga when it first hit the stands and read it for quite a while. Then something distracted me and I forgot all about it. Then a short while ago I read that in the meantime not only had it taken a sabbatical...

youtu.be/tG-wl2qqD7Y?... If you haven't seen Fame, you should. So many wonderful songs and performances. And directed by the same guy who directed The Wall, a COMPLETELY different kind of musical.

watching one of my favorite reactors reacting to "Dr. Feelgood" and she said "I can't look at Vince Neil and not see Dolly Parton" I laughed aloud

Today was the longest FUCKING day of my life. And technically it was only 8 hours. But 8 hours of trying to take care of a dementia patient. It's fucking maddening, infuriating, thankless work. I hope I never have to do it ever fucking again.

I'll say it again: let's divide this fucking country straight down the middle. republicans on one side, democrats on the other. one president for each. within 5 years let's see which system actually works. there's nothing United about these States

good morning bluesky. I'm fucking pissed off because i just read that the DoJ is suing California for redistricting. Even though the only reason we did that was because fucking Texas did it first. The reasoning is fucking asinine. i hate this godforsaken country.

good morning bluesky good morning bluefriends good morning arizona good morning terns good morning blah blah blah good morning good morning

I think the only bit of wisdom I have to pass on to the next generation is: Never go to a gingivitis-themed party

I hereby present my new battle-cry: I'M ON ANTIBIOTICS

"Laugh at me. Mock me. Understand that I have disposable income and am interested in your products and services. I am your worst nightmare: I am your most likely customer and I delete apps from my phone when they require more than three taps to achieve one action."

goodnight bluesky goodnight bluefriends goodnight baja goodnight wrens goodnight tired, so very tired of it all goodnight goodnight

it's just occurred to me how appropriate it is that an anime about a stretchy guy would of course apply that stretchiness to its storylines holy fuck, this Dressrosa arc could have been easily half as long as it's turning out to be

I was just served this short video on YouTube and didnt bother to watch it. It's about how to draw perspective. And look at it. That stool is NOT in proper perspective.

just watched episode 2 of Pluribus. Continues to be smart and annoying.