We are hiring a Canada Impact+ Research Chair in Artificial Intelligence and Social Change (Professor or Associate Professor, Tenured). Applications due March 26, 2026. Please share widely! #BrockU brocku.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/brocku_caree...

resets "days since arma 3 footage has been presented as real" sign back to 0 pressprogress.ca/global-news-...

Disgraceful support for illegal aggression from our prime minister

In case you’re just waking up, the U.S. has teamed up with Israel overnight to start an illegal war of regime change, apparently on a presidential whim with no involvement of Congress, and they are already committing horrific atrocities.

the "just asking questions" to "legitimate questions about fairness in sports" to "the state doesn't have to consider us as real people" pipeline working exactly as designed.

A few thoughts: 1) This is the natural end point of treating universities as degree mills. 2) AI companies are pushing VERY hard to make students utterly dependent on them. 3) Do you want handwritten assignments, because this is how you get handwritten assignments.

I think this is exactly right. So many of the pedagogical changes we've made over the years to increase accessibility are easily exploitable by GenAI tools, putting us in an impossible position

what even is the fucking point

It's book release day! The Impossible Reversal www.upress.umn.edu/978151791622... is out in the world. It's jam packed with 1960s art games, discussions of spies doing educational roleplay, electromechanical pinball cabinets, liberal theorists making baseball metaphors, and much more!

Ten glorious years of a guy who has mostly been the president and always been the main character of American political life doing posts like this and everyone trying to figure out what cable news segment he saw, misunderstood in the way a dog might misunderstand a crossword, and made into policy.

I am never going to get over the fact thar so many Americans died that corpses stacked up in nursing homes and hospital morgues, that refrigerator trucks had to be brought in for the overflow, and that the big takeaway from Important Pundits is there should have been *less* mitigation.

The subheadline on this NYT piece is going to turn me into the Joker. Like... this... is exactly what trans people have been saying was going to happen for years.

Canada please win or lose by 5 goals next game I can't handle these

Thousands of institutions abandoned programs, ended or rewrote scholarships, closed down clubs and publications, all in pre-emptive compliance. And you know why? Mostly because they wanted to do it if they thought they could blame someone else for it.

The Left Must Engage With This Thing That Really Seems Stupid Or Else Appear Out Of Touch by Pundit Who Fell For It Last Time And The Time Before That

Marner!

Team Canada looking like the Leafs with not clearing the zone

New book now coming out very soon. Next month!

This week: seventeen fresh picks on Relooted, Kiwami 3, Nioh 3, and lots more: critical-distance.com/2026/02/15/f...

I feel this way about pretty much all vaccine-preventable infectious diseases. You shouldn't be allowed to dump cyanide into municipal drinking water and you shouldn't be allowed to recreationally spread viruses around shared public spaces.

💾The Games & Storage special issue of Critical Studies in Media Communication is officially out! 📚Thanks to editors @nickttaylor.bsky.social, @thechristinet.bsky.social, and Robyn Hope for putting this together. 📡Be sure to check out my article on Satellaview restoration, 𝘚𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘈𝘳𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘦𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘪𝘦𝘴!

Hell yeah

The NYU Game Center's hiring! A senior, tenure-track professor post for an experienced game designer, artist or industry pro with a notable body of creative work. Experience finishing games and mentoring/teaching more important than any kind of academic credential! gamecenter.nyu.edu/were-hiring-...

Unwinnable subscribers saw an excerpt of this last month, but here's the much, much longer convo I had with Autumn back in December about cultural criticism, my process, and a long, ongoing battle with alienation from my own taste and craft. A little rambly, apologies unwinnable.com/2026/02/11/a...

That's ok guys tackling isn't that important anyway

My co-author Dr. Megan Condis and I gathered nearly 3,000 print ads from the console wars era to analyze whether the popular narrative that "Sega was for rad teens and Nintendo was for babies" actually holds up. The results paint a slightly more nuanced picture. Read about it on @aftermath.site!

"rich dipshit owner doesn't understand the industry he's bought into and clumsily destroys what made it good" feels less like a narrative unique to the washington post and more like the music that's been playing in the background of all our lives for at least 40 years

Bezos isn't destroying the Washington Post because it isn't profitable. He's destroying the Washington Post because he's calculated that a robust free press threatens the ability of his class to warp society around their interests

Media coverage of Gaza has plummeted. So today on @thenation.com, we're doing something pretty special: we're only running pieces by people in and from Gaza. We're calling it "A Day for Gaza." You can find links to all of the incredible pieces here. Please read! www.thenation.com/article/worl...

Finally! My book Super Nintendo is out TODAY in the US + Canada. Here's where to buy it: www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/753986... "MacDonald is one of the best games journalists... Here is a book bursting with love. Bop your head against it and see if a shower of gold coins comes out." -The Times

“Notorious pedophile Jeffrey Epstein played a role in convincing Bobby Kotick to embrace loot boxes, essentially gambling for children” what is this sentence, what is this world

"technologists, reactionaries, and seething upstarts are brought together by decadent parties on a wealthy idiot's pedophile island, laying the groundwork for a digital-first fascism" sounds like a cyberpunk plot but you know it's real life because they did it with the style of people in bumper cars

In the 90th episode of GAME STUDIES STUDY BUDDIES, we journey all the way back to 1984 to discuss the first published textbook on video game development, Atari legend Chris Crawford's pointed, prescient, and idiosyncratic THE ART OF COMPUTER GAME DESIGN: rangedtouch.com/2026/01/31/9...

For decades the Right has daydreamed about saving their country from monsters, they finally got the chance and it turns out they love the monsters. The monsters are even monstrous in the exact ways they fantasized about! You never have to listen to these guys about anything again

I cannot tell you how much doubt was consistently directed at the Gaza Health Ministry’s casualty numbers and how much pressure was put on news organizations to couch those numbers as unreliable. Biden himself said they were fabricated! www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...

new blog post: notes on level design workflows for the 3D platformer Big Hops www.blog.radiator.debacle.us/2026/01/note...

There is not a lot Canadians can do about ICE, but we can ask Parliament to investigate Canadian companies doing business with them, like Hootsuite. Call or email your MP - or contact the INDU House committee MPs. Will post link below. www.theglobeandmail.com/business/art...

rightwingers see people caring about others in their community and instead of finding that inspiring they think it’s some sort of grand conspiracy because they don’t understand what it means to care for others you don’t personally know

Really hard to look at this and all the other examples of bravery and kindness from ordinary people in this moment not think also of the tremendous cowardice exhibited over the past year by some of the richest, most well-protected people in business, media and politics

By who? Who shot the person dead? You saw the video. We all know a federal agent shot a man dead who was prone on the ground. Also, it's not "according to officials." It's according to verified video seen with your eyes. Not saying what anyone can obviously see with their eyes is a form of lying.

Almost like the whole "freedom of speech" thing was a rightwing ruse and everyone who fell for it are giant marks...

Speeches are great but a reminder that what we're getting here in Canada so far is: * Tax cuts for the wealthy * Militarization and more surveillance powers * More oil, less action on climate change. * Austerity and cuts to the public service * Deals with authoritarian regimes

If a conservative anywhere has to hear, encounter, or be subject to judgement based on an opinion they disagree with that’s maoism but if conservatives use state power to prosecute, defund, or censor you that’s fine because they’re just entitled to do that for reasons

It exposes directional alignment; you still seek to limit, not expand, who is allowed to be human. Yes, you have set your limitation more inclusively than our fascist gang of white supremacists; it doesn't mean you're not also setting limitations & they'll use your limit as long as it serves them.

It’s so funny to be like “this is when women were WOMEN”

This isn't just a casual observation. Fascism scholars have long made this point. It's why calling them "weird" was a more effective strategy than talking about the prices of eggs. Fascism is an aesthetic political movement - you need to make people feel embarassed and horrified by it.

The reactionary centrist logic is simple: if the left does something bad it’s the left’s fault, and if the right does something bad, it’s also the left’s fault for making them do it. It’s a simple formula and once you see it every one of their arguments is the same

a government agent, who murdered a civilian for peacefully protesting, flying a dont-tread-on-me flag is such a perfect distillation of the maga ethos it almost feels fake

this is your mission. roll up to this daycare in full tactical gear to harass some kids and teachers. when you get spooked by your own shadow like a panicked horse and start shooting your gun, our pedophile president will call the person you shot a terrorist. good luck soldier

Today's events with ICE are an example of why I don't quibble about calling the Trump regime fascist. There's no utility in throwing around academic terms like 'competitive authoritarianism' when the President has a personal army invading cities and murdering citizens. It's fascism.