GREG DAVIES: seems like a kind of a shit task. Everyone just seems like they're going home normally. ALEX HORNE: well before you say that let's have a look at how Odysseus did. cut to panel of AJAX, MENELAUS, AGAMEMNON, and DIOMEDES who are all staring at ODYSSEUS with his head in his hands

It's a start. Better than literally any other party has managed. Would still like to see some votes getting floored. But it's a start.

The Soviet Winnie-the-Pooh is a wonderful thing. And its version of Pooh himself is one of the great animated characters. The artists didn't take from Disney's version. They aimed for an "absolutely new bear" -- and they pulled it off. We explore: animationobsessive.substack.com/p/the-absolu...

Streeting, Burnham, who cares? They're equally useless. Raynor has a pulse if she can get out of the tax mess. Weird that a party with a majority of 170 has so little talent

Here's a fun game we can all play: I was a (paper) candidate for the Lib Dems in Essex. My dad was a (paper) candidate for the Tories in Norwich. Who do you think did worse?

The Raspberry Bomped Myself On The Noggin With A Cart And Got A Big Lump

Goodbye Viktor Orbán. Sic semper fascistis.

Casting announcement for some of the husbands in “The Husbands” is out, woooooop deadline.com/2026/04/appl...

Really? I don't think it could have been much more clear

This is a fun one of which to unpick the impactions.

I made the mistake of reading a column in the guardian and now I'm fizzing with anger, and I have no way of dispelling that energy so I just have to sit in it.

They let me do a thing!

I'm home and I've written a bit on my blog about post-GDC feelings: meredithgran.com/gdc-thoughts...

Abingdon Abbey Northcourt looks spicy

🧵Speculation about Tory reshuffle means its worth looking at whether there has been any Badenoch bounce? The data I think unambiguously shows there has, the fact it is not translating into change in party ratings is arguably a worse sign for Tories than if there hadn't been one

Can't help but feel like the Labour NEC were actually probably right to block Andy Burnham from running in G&D, for the ostensible reason they gave as well: he might have won the byelection but Reform would probably have won the Greater Manchester Mayoralty, which is much higher stakes.

Can't wait to see Starmer respond to this by moving really emphatically to the right.

Gorton and Denton is very triggering, for me specifically. Some very vivid, unprocessed Chingford 2024 feelings.

I viewed my Mariner's toxic masculinity through the lens of: he thinks he's a good guy, he wants to be an ally, but his version of that is all attacking, all 'leadership', all identifying enemies and then 'taking on the burden' of destroying them. Something odiously Linehan about him

Some pals are on their way to my house to spend the weekend playing @jdragsky.bsky.social's Seven-Part Pact. I only just found this www.patreon.com/posts/lazy-p... and am reflecting on how underprepared I feel. Oh well! Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose.

enclose.horse Day 10 🥇 Excellent! 🥇 95% Yeah great

Dear god

I am also doing this! So far I have: The Hol by Hiroko Oyamada, Senselessness by Horacio Castellanos Moya, and A Room Of One's Own lined up for Jan

Found this, by @laurenleek.eu, really useful for crystalising some of my intuitions about the economic performance of the AI speculation rush. laurenleek.substack.com/p/ai-boom-or...

I just solved this puzzle to get access to Thinky Dailies! Try it out! thinkygames.com/dailies/

If there is an AI bubble collapse coming, it is much more likely to resemble dot-com in 2000 than subprime in 08. Subprime was a liquidity crisis driven by contagion when banks were insufficiently capitalised to cover to loses on bad investments. But AI is being largely funded by cash transactions!

When Elden Ring had been announced but not yet released, its subreddit started collectively pretending the game was already out. I spent far too many hours reading strategies to defeat the (completely made-up) Glaive Master Hodir. For research. This is the result: doi.org/10.1093/aest...

My #over/under ended a few weeks ago, really, but my Internal Affairs team just commissioned a team portrait. Ours was a small story in the overall scheme of things, but it's a very nice reminder of a bit of the game that I really liked, and it's nice to have it commemorated in this way.

Congratulations to the Netherlands for having the new hottest currently serving head of government.

New Game: Egg terrycavanagh.itch.io/egg

Hitting a motivation slump in #over/under this morning, and reflecting on why. A lot of the players approach the games as an RP experience. A small subset of the players get to engage with it as a wargame. I like an RPG, but I approach *this* game as a gamer. I came to strategise and to try to win.

ending all my conversations from here on out with "GOODNIGHT SOCIALISTS" (tagline maintains his gainful employment for yet another day in #over/under !! sorry to millie, angel, and joyce for his dodging of any and all major character growth :P)

#over/under is: * Very good * Taking up a lot of my time * More TTRPG than I expected, and less wargame * A bit reminiscent of MUDs, and a bit reminiscent of very early blognomic * Extremely ready to be adapted into a LARP * Maybe the best game I've played this year so far

Seeing the after-action reports of the big Bratva ball in #over/under is making me temporarily sad that I joined the widely-reviled Stratemeyer! But then I remember that I'm rich and it's all okay.

In my lifetime, there has only been one Labour Prime Minister who did not at some point have to sack Peter Mandelson.

If one were being slightly snippy one might observe that a turnout of 38% is very low for a leadership election. Labour 2020: 63% Tories 2024: 73% Lib Dems 2020: 57% And all of those were sharply down, by 10-15%, from their immediate precursors.

Two months in and my game of Cataphracts is going strong. 15 Commanders, a lot of really dumb shit, but signs that players are starting to get it and are making big long-term strategic moves. What we are struggling with is players. Vacancies keep cropping up and I have drained my pool. #cataphracts

I’m getting out of the going into town on business business & into the going out of town on business business—in fact the further out of town the business is, the more I want in. That’s the kind of far-out business I’m way into

They're coming for games today; it'll be films tomorrow. Industry bodies should be stepping up on this.

My game of Cataphracts is now a bit over two weeks old. There are currently fifteen active Commanders any my action log is well over a hundred lines long. I don't know where this ends. #noactionableintelligence

I saw @samsorensen.bsky.social's post about Cataphracts, a years-long real-time information asymmetry and logistics management strategy game and shared it with my friends, and now they have bullied me into having some INSANE spreadsheets on the go

A while ago, in a blissful moment of procrastination I dared ask "Why did Van Gogh become the poster child for immersive experiences in the 2010s?" Well, in order to answer this question we first need to go back 50 million years to when France was underwater www.goodafternoon.uk/news/immersi...

The first rule of politics

Well @terrycavanaghgames.com's new Downpour game is a DELIGHT downpour.games/~terry/a-pro...

hello! it's one week till my book comes out! what a strange emotion I'm having, if anyone knows what it is please let me know! lnk.to/thehusbands

It's a trilogy now downpour.games/~vividfax/do...

on Lime bikes in London downpour.games/~Ellis-Other...

I made a Downpour of some of my favorite Downpours downpour.games/~Rascal/down... This tool whips ass. The content right now has zine vibes, not just aesthetically but philosophically, in terms of speed and resources and creativity. I absolutely love it and I strongly recommend checking it out

I made a downpour, inspired by @hollygramazio.bsky.social's find madeline. It's called find anu downpour.games/~aosher/find...