We just dropped our latest regular issue of Eludamos! With an editorial, 12(!) articles, 4(!) book reviews and a commentary, it's a big boi, and I'm really pleased to see all this excellent work out in the wild.

🚨 My new article 'Antagonistic Game Design: the Author as a Player' is out on #Eludamos (Journal for Computer Game Culture)! 🚨 >> septentrio.uit.no/index.php/el... << WARNING: might contains traces of @cloobot.bsky.social @doougle.net @jzagal.bsky.social @foddy.net and @add-hawk.bsky.social XD

The Center for Digital Play at the IT University of Copenhagen is organizing a new conference: Playing Futures. The conference will take place from May 20th to 22nd at the IT University of Copenhagen. You can read more about it here: playingfutures.today

Maybe useful, especially if you want to argue against this nonsense bsky.app/profile/oliv...

I'm delighted to announce that my new book, Artgames after Gamergate, is out now with Palgrave: link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

I'm hardly championing an obscure artist or anything, but I finally listened to the new Rosalía album in full yesterday (was waiting to get the record in my hands) and I had a full-body emotional experience. My maximalist soul loves it when an artist goes all the way out. youtu.be/htQBS2Ikz6c?...

Already laying out my meditation mat and lighting my scented candles in preparation.

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...

New stream of "A LIft Home." Premium Passenger Dr. Joleen Blom. Live on November 19, 2025. From Lublin (EPLB) to Helsinki (EFHK). Inflight menu: Transmedia storytelling and the dynamic game character. Departure 7pm (CET)/8pm (EET). #gamestudies #transmedia #mediastudies wp.me/p5EI1K-1tC

As always it was a pleasure to be at Essen Spiel with @mightyboards.bsky.social! Got to show off our new Fateforge expansion, caught up with friends, made new ones, played some excellent new games (special shout out to the Yōtei team, who made one of the most delightful games I've played in a while)

Okay, at this point, if I want to publish an academic book, which publisher can I work with that means my intellectual labour isn't being fed into an LLM wood chipper to make money for someone else? Asking for a friend.

Okay so did Paul Thomas Anderson happen to be driving down a particularly undulating stretch of road in the desert and have a eureka moment, or did he have the idea for the scene and scour the Southwest looking for a stretch of road like that? Someone has to ask the real questions.

The Zone of Interest La Chimera Furiosa Drive My Car Decision to Leave Bacurau Petit Maman RRR I Saw the TV Glow Aftersun

DiGRA 2026 (Ireland) CfP is now live Full paper and abstracts deadline: 1 December 2025 Workshop proposals deadline: 15 February 2026 www.digraconference2026.com #games #gamestudies

Please please please everyone (pls reskeet) who is involved with a uni/college academic program (broadly speaking) conected to games Could you write a quick comment + links if any apply to what you and your institution are doing in that sphere? I need to show what's out there. 1/ #AncientBluesky 🗃️

The new issue of Countertext includes a paper by Krista Bonello Rutter Giappone and myself on libraries in digital games - their significances, (non-)functions, meanings. It's not open-access (boo), but ask and you shall receive www.euppublishing.com/toc/count/11/2

Fateforge: Chronicles of Kaan is awarded Adventure Game of the Year at the Polish Board Game of the Year awards! It's beyond amazing to see Fateforge: Chronicles of Kaan continue to get recognition, especially right as we've wrapped up work on the second expansion.

I think we should start using the term "long gamergate"

The Play for Peace: Games for Palestine charity bundle is now live! Nearly 400 games from creators all around the world, with proceeds going directly to Gaza relief efforts. Bundle link: itch.io/b/2979/play-... We made a launch trailer to celebrate this moment👇 Please RT.

At #historyofgames2025, where the focus is the 1990s! My own 90s in gaming involved playing NES game knockoffs on my cousin's Micro Genius, getting my first PC, and, as a 13-year-old, buying pirated PC games from a police officer running a side business from the trunk of a squad car. Ah, nostalgia.

It's been ten years since I defended my PhD at ITU - the community of researchers I met during my time there set me off on the academic path I'm still on, and it's great to be back this week to participate in this anniversary celebration. en.itu.dk/About-ITU/Pr...

Silicon Valley’s alliance with Donald Trump was a mask off moment and showed the world we can’t depend on US tech companies. For the past few months, I’ve been trying to get off US tech and I put together a guide so you find alternatives too. I hope you find it helpful!

The future dystopian Rome of Lucio Fulci's Warriors of the Year 2072 (1984). My paper on the film's use of the gladiatorial combat trope has just been published in @gua-le-ni.com @domford.bsky.social and Riccardo Fassone's special issue of Eludamos on fictional games. eludamos.org/index.php/el...

The future dystopian Rome of Lucio Fulci's Warriors of the Year 2072 (1984). My paper on the film's use of the gladiatorial combat trope has just been published in @gua-le-ni.com @domford.bsky.social and Riccardo Fassone's special issue of Eludamos on fictional games. eludamos.org/index.php/el...

It was a true honor to give the keynote at DiGRA 2025 at the University of Malta. The audience was deeply moved, some in tears and many asked: “What can we do to help Palestine?” That question alone meant so much. #DiGRA25

520+ participants from 42 countries, 326 paper & abstract presentations, 16 workshops, a PhD consortium, a public discussion, conference dinner, board game night, improv show, and a beach visit. I think we can safely say that #DiGRA25 organized by @indigitalgames.bsky.social was a big success!

I spent this week in Valletta, Malta, at Digra 2025 conference. Digra is an annual game studies conference, that I have managed to attend approximately every other year since 2007. I’ll list some of my highlights from this year. (Looong thread.)

aaaaah it's starting tomorrow digraconference2025.org

Are we doing this? Mulholland Drive Portrait of a Lady on Fire In the Mood for Love Happy Hour First Reformed Mad Max: Fury Road The New World Pulse An Elephant Sitting Still The Zone of Interest

The US and its proxy are dragging the world into nuclear war but, but...movies are awesome, am I right? Right? This is fine.

Presenting at Film-Philosophy 2025 next week and working on a thing.

Coming up on the 30th June! Remember to sign up for the livestream - I'm thrilled we've managed to get together such an amazing panel of game designers and scholars.

Mark your calendars! 30/06 18.30 CET, as part of DiGRA 2025 at the University of Malta, I'm thrilled to be co-chairing Games at the Crossroads - a public discussion with a great lineup of speakers! Livestreamed on Zoom, free attendance - just sign up to receive the link: forms.gle/jmwCWyLQtof5...

Mark your calendars! 30/06 18.30 CET, as part of DiGRA 2025 at the University of Malta, I'm thrilled to be co-chairing Games at the Crossroads - a public discussion with a great lineup of speakers! Livestreamed on Zoom, free attendance - just sign up to receive the link: forms.gle/jmwCWyLQtof5...

Important #DiGRA2025 update!

The problem is (1) the prevalent ideology that tech can 'solve' every domain it is applied to, (2) that this ideology informs these companies' marketing pitch, and (3) that so many academic institutions fail to grasp that this is in fact a marketing pitch.

The performativity of asymptotic discourse, always ostensibly approaching concrete action but never quite getting there, it's always discussing steps towards, identifying a pathway in the direction of, getting closer and closer but never actually there www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

"I miss the good old days when games weren't political"

One month today until DiGRA 2025 kicks off in Malta! We've been working on making this happen for a couple of years now and we can't believe we're going to be welcoming you all here so soon. Who's coming? digraconference2025.org

In Final Reckoning, Tom Cruise sorry Ethan Hunt free-dives up from a submarine at the bottom of the Arctic, hangs from a biplane, and lands safely with a burning parachute, but the biggest stretch of plausibility is an American president taking a level-headed decision in the interest of humanity.

Literally cannot understand why anyone would get Alex Garland to make an Elden Ring movie when Paul W.S. Anderson is right there. We could have had Milla Jovovich as Malenia twirling through the air in slow-mo, blades drawn.

I'm at Nord University in Bodø, Norway for the already excellent Northern Star Symposium, organized by @torillelvira.bsky.social and others. Getting into the building was a challenge but we finally made it with some summoned help.

Travelling to #DiGRA25 with family? We'll be offering childcare services at the conference venue! Details and registration form here: digraconference2025.org/conference-c...

Man, I can't wait for Sufjan Stevens to reissue Illinois with a new song about the Chicago pope

The moment you begin to fathom the sheer scale of most Western countries' defense budgets, it becomes crystal clear (1) what a drop in the ocean all the devastating cuts to education, research and public services are, and as a result (2) the fact that these cuts are ideological, not necessary.

In 2021 I visited this Naples restaurant; the ragu' was so transcendental it reduced us to blubbering wrecks. It's just found itself in a firestorm for standing up to Zionists annoyed it displayed an anti-genocide message, so if you're in the area, give them all your money. tinyurl.com/4zhc4fwv

Enforcing the gender binary🤝Committing imperialist violence

There is no end to the violence of the rogue settler-colonial state, or to its disregard for humanitarian principles or international law: now it's right on my doorstep, and the Maltese government should do the right thing and offer aid. timesofmalta.com/article/gaza...

What a weird, distasteful article. First half: we asked women why they don't use ChatGPT, and they highlighted many valid issues like lack of accuracy and personal connection, etc. Second half: it must be because women lack confidence with technology! www.bbc.com/news/busines...