Nicole Carpenter
@nicolecarpenter.bsky.social
📤 11619
📥 2868
📝 1433
reporter text me on signal @ nicolecarpenter.87 email:
[email protected]
pinned post!
it felt trivial at times to be writing about video games at rikers, which is so notoriously dangerous for incarcerated people. still, play and, specifically, video games are a meaningful piece of the lives of the ~12 young men i met and played with at rikers. read:
www.nytimes.com/2026/04/27/a...
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A Virtual Escape for Rikers Inmates
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/27/arts/rikers-island-video-games-jail-prison.html
about 2 months ago
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i fell so hard at hockey on Sunday that the mesh shorts i was wearing have been imprinted on my butt via a bruise or abrasion of some sort lol
about 3 hours ago
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Nicole Carpenter
Aftermath
about 5 hours ago
Konami suing over massive Metal Gear Solid 2 source code leak
aftermath.site/konami-metal-g...
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ON games journal
1 day ago
ON3 Design showcase: The spectrum of life and death. Can you remember your first
#Tamagotchi
?
@nicolecarpenter.bsky.social
can, and she's written all about the 90s craze in ON3. Get cute at
on.games/on3
#ON3mag
#GamesMagazine
#ProjectWeLove
@kickstarter.com
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Chris Person
1 day ago
For
@aftermath.site
, I reviewed the Steam Machine. It costs $1049 base. It is beautifully designed. It might be one of the most important computers ever made, launched at the worst time imaginable.
aftermath.site/steam-machin...
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The Steam Machine Is An Iconoclastic Computer Born In Unforgiving Times
Valve has released a tiny, silent, entry level PC that does important work bringing PCs gaming to the living room and desktop Linux to the masses. The timing could not be worse.
https://aftermath.site/steam-machine-review-price/
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i am considering making a TikTok/Instagram for my miniatures so i made a tiny microphone to talk into lol
3 days ago
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The Guardian
4 days ago
‘They kill games, we fight back’: the activists campaigning to keep video games playable
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‘They kill games, we fight back’: the activists campaigning to keep video games playable
When a company decided to shut down an online game’s servers, there wasn’t much the players who had bought that title could do – until a group called Stop Killing Games began lobbying for new consumer protection laws
https://www.theguardian.com/games/2026/jun/19/stop-killing-games-activists-campaigning-online-gaming?utm_term=Autofeed&CMP=bsky_gu&utm_medium=&utm_source=Bluesky#Echobox=1781860494
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Chris Kerr
4 days ago
NEW: Former Xbox president Sarah Bond, former Roblox chief product officer Manuel Bronstein, and Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick have been linked with a secret society called 'Dialog' organised by controversial billionaire and conservative activist Peter Thiel. Strap yourselves in for this one:
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Report: Game industry execs linked to Peter Thiel's secret mixer
A series of leaks have tied multiple current and former video game industry execs to the controversial billionaire's invite-only 'Dialog' conference.
https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/report-former-xbox-president-sarah-bond-and-take-two-ceo-strauss-zelnick-involved-in-peter-thiel-backed-secret-society
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Maddy Myers 🏳️🌈
6 days ago
i remain proud to have
@mothership.blog
alongside two extraordinary feminist publications,
@theflytrapmedia.com
and
@autonomynews.co
, as part of a VEEERYYYY good 50% off deal on a 90-day subscription! if you already support mothership, just use your subscriber email & we'll be taken off the bill~
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Trustfnd | Feminist Bundle
3 creators collaborating.
https://trustfnd.com/theflytrap/c/feminist-bundle--1JEkn65NDP3jD6BA5tiS
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Nicole Carpenter
Aftermath
5 days ago
Gamers sue Sony for allegedly breaking California digital purchase law
aftermath.site/sony-digital-t...
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Nicole Carpenter
Aftermath
6 days ago
We've hit 30,000 members! Thank you! To celebrate, we're dropping a ton of new merch:
aftermath.site/weve-hit-30-00...
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Riley MacLeod
8 days ago
It's not news that Xbox seems to have no idea what it's doing in its big "reset," but talking about axing a studio it was praising just weeks ago for doing the very thing the company seems to claim it wants is... well, basically what we've come to expect
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devastating news
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8 days ago
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Frankie de la Cretaz
9 days ago
For Vogue, I talked to Ramell-Correen Frederick, aka Cheeks, who embroidered Knicks gear in the streets of Brooklyn after Game 5. He uses a 104-year-old hand-crank, chainstitch embroidery machine that he named Jessica.
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The New York Artist Embroidering Knicks Merch on the Street
https://www.vogue.com/article/the-new-york-artist-embroidering-knicks-merch-on-the-street
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Danielle Lalonders
8 days ago
For an industry that claims it wants new stories with new protagonists, new IPs with character, and stories that haven't been done before. There is virtually no long-term support for the studios that take the risk of creating these games. It's not sustainable.
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Chris Plante
9 days ago
50 critics, directors, designers, reporters, comedians, and authors share their earliest picks for Game of the Year 2026. Welcome to the EGOTYs!!!
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The Earliest Game of the Year Awards
50 critics, directors, designers, reporters, comedians, and authors share their favorite games of 2026
https://postgame.substack.com/p/the-earliest-game-of-the-year-awards
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Chris Bratt
8 days ago
People Make Games traveled to Michigan to meet Jerry Gretzinger, an 84-year-old man, who's spent most of his life working away on a single, giant map to an imaginary world.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Is8N...
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The Man Who's Spent a Lifetime Making One, Giant Map
YouTube video by People Make Games
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Is8N7B9b0GQ
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day one of making miniature pottery
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10 days ago
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Nicole Carpenter
Aftermath
10 days ago
Blizzard sues to take down another private World of Warcraft server, Project Ascension
aftermath.site/blizzard-proje...
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i saw a scene kid at the mall today, a real live scene kid straight from 2004 and it shook me to my core, like, she must have been a time traveler
11 days ago
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Nathan Grayson
11 days ago
the duality of
@aftermath.site
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Joshua Rivera
11 days ago
for
@aftermath.site
, I spoke to the makers of Forbidden Solitaire about the virtues of being a “no-hit wonder” and how tricky things get when you do have a hit
aftermath.site/forbidden-so...
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Forbidden Solitaire's Developers Made The Opposite Of What They Planned: A Hit
Two tiny indie studios share the difficulties of keeping things slow and steady
https://aftermath.site/forbidden-solitaire-grey-alien-night-signal-interview/
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hehe i wrote about love and deepspace, everything i wanted to know when i started playing, as someone new to this sort of game
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12 days ago
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Jay Castello 🌻
12 days ago
for the best part of this year, I've been speaking to former Maxis developers to put together this: a near-6000 word oral history of Spore 🦠
www.designroom.site/spore-an-ora...
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Spore: An oral history
A wild bet in development for the better part of a decade, Spore reached for the stars — and, at times, got there. We recently spoke to eight team members, including chief designer Will Wright, to loo...
https://www.designroom.site/spore-an-oral-history
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Chris Kerr
12 days ago
Another banger from
@nicolecarpenter.bsky.social
on the cultural and financial impact media bundles can have on independent video game publications
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did google change something with its colors in google sheets? the spreadsheet i use to track my work is just slightly off color wise and it's driving me nuts
13 days ago
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Phil Salvador
14 days ago
One collection in our library I'd love to see more people explore is the William Volk papers. Hundreds of spreadsheets and write-ups from the technology department at Activision in the early 90s, including: - Trade show reports! - SNES CD-ROM details! - Data on unreleased games!
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6 new discoveries from Activision history | VGHF Library Highlights
YouTube video by The Video Game History Foundation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZ6ZJm-nKnA
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remember when I made the miniature hockey skate? i made a tinier one. it took forever. my dog Celly ate it yesterday
14 days ago
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I like scientist yoshi
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15 days ago
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it's gita time
15 days ago
new from
@nicolecarpenter.bsky.social
! a review of yoshi and the mysterious book!
aftermath.site/yoshi-myster...
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Yoshi and the Mysterious Book Is A Science Experiment
What does that do? Try it and find out.
https://aftermath.site/yoshi-mysterious-book-nintendo-switch-2-review/
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Isaiah D. Colbert 🤸🏾🔜 Anime Expo 🍖
15 days ago
I interviewed Elijah Wood, Yvette Nicole Brown, Randall Park, and Kimiko Glenn about starring in Among Us.
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Joshua Rivera
15 days ago
really like how this one turned out, really nice to finally be on the site that I read religiously while figuring out how to write
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been 9 years since i was hospitalized for myocarditis. it’s super weird to think about—even 9 years later, it still impacts my life. anyway, a reminder to not ignore symptoms: the first ER i went to told me it was anxiety. by the time i went to the second, i was critically sick.
17 days ago
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Adriaan
17 days ago
Announcing: Hidden Folks 2 - New themes and areas. - Improved graphical quality. - Second (not text!) clue. - Lots of new mouth sounds. - Various quality-of-life improvements. - Made in
#godot
. Get an email when it releases:
hiddenfolks.com
Wishlist on Steam:
store.steampowered.com/app/4480060
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Aftermath
18 days ago
The URL for Summer Games Fest, a common typo, now redirects to the Transgender Law Center
aftermath.site/summer-games-f...
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Rebekah Valentine
18 days ago
It's back! The annual video game industry conflict minerals report returns for 2025! Let's see which gaming hardware companies are actually checking their supply chains to ensure they're not funding armed conflict and human rights violations, shall we?
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Luke Plunkett
20 days ago
been a bit slack with these kinda posts, and I know they're annoying, but still: we have no no backers, no investors, we are just running on reader subs, so every reader sub makes a difference! so does telling your friends! reviewing our podcast! buying merch! everything helps!
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h-apple pride month! 🍎
19 days ago
My first ever byline at the ever-wonderful
@rascal.news
writing about local independent tabletop book seller Tom Gibes and
@tabletopbookshelf.com
! Was a real treat to meet Tom and get to tell his story and the evolution of the store.
www.rascal.news/tabletop-boo...
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Tabletop Bookshelf built its brick-and-mortar future out of past goodwill
For owner Tom Gibes, Milwaukee's first independent RPG bookstore is a testament to lifting up small, passionate tabletop creators.
https://www.rascal.news/tabletop-bookshelf-built-its-brick-and-mortar-future-out-of-past-goodwill/
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kelly jensen
19 days ago
If PERSEPOLIS is your only exposure to Marjane Satrapi, I recommend doing a deep dive into her other comics. When I finished library school and was unemployed for months, that was a project I took on and it was well, well worth it. She also put out a collection in 2024, WOMEN LIFE FREEDOM.
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Aftermath
20 days ago
Aftermath is a reader-supported website that wouldn't survive without subscriptions. We don't have investors, don't have owners (well, aside from us) and don't have a sales team, so every new member helps us continue our work.
aftermath.ghost.io/?ref=after...
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Luke Plunkett
20 days ago
coffee blog! 007 First Light's art team knocked it out of the park here, the game is full of varied and very functional coffee machines, from dogshit drips to a very fancy manual espresso machine.
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it's gita time
20 days ago
my impressions of Paralives. It's....... okay!
aftermath.site/paralives-th...
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Yeah, That’s A Life Sim Alright
Paralives is a welcome competitor to The Sims, but so far doesn't offer much that's new to the genre.
https://aftermath.site/paralives-the-sims-life-sim/
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Fox Harper
21 days ago
And while it's linked in the piece, I want to especially mention
@boarlord.club
's article from The Outline in 2018 that dug into the same topic.
theoutline.com/post/3032/fa...
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Fox Harper
21 days ago
I didn't get to dive in b/c I was away for a funeral, but thank you to
@nicolecarpenter.bsky.social
for covering this topic (and Teen Vogue for thinking it's important enough to discuss).
www.teenvogue.com/story/why-ar...
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Why Are Thin Bodies the Default in Games?
Motion capture has the ability to capture fat bodies. So why don't we see more plus-size characters in games?
https://www.teenvogue.com/story/why-are-thin-bodies-the-default-in-games
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Nicole Carpenter
Cass
21 days ago
I wrote about how millions of people are tuning into a legal dispute over a Lego collection, seeking relief from the dark forces of the Scam World in which we all live
www.rogue.site/editorials/b...
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The Bricks and Minifigs controversy is messy proof we all live in Scam World
A $200,000 Lego collection has gone missing, and it kickstarted a controversy including arrests, police pressure, and accusations of a Mormon mafia.
https://www.rogue.site/editorials/bricks-minifigs-controversy-explained/
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Nicole Carpenter
i wrote about motion capture, animation, and bodies in games for TEEN VOGUE! it's very excited to have a byline at a magazine that i've been reading since i was teen✨
www.teenvogue.com/story/why-ar...
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Why Are Thin Bodies the Default in Games?
Motion capture has the ability to capture fat bodies. So why don't we see more plus-size characters in games?
https://www.teenvogue.com/story/why-are-thin-bodies-the-default-in-games
25 days ago
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Jason Koebler
22 days ago
We (404 Media) sued ICE because it failed to release public documents about its spyware. Now some docs are coming out but they're massively redacted. We are continuing to fight in court & are hopeful we'll get more:
www.404media.co/we-sued-ice-...
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We Sued ICE to Get Its Spyware Contract. The Agency Is Redacting Essentially Everything
Paragon's software is capable of remotely breaking into phones and accessing messages from encrypted messaging apps. Our lawsuit aims to pry records about it from ICE.
https://www.404media.co/we-sued-ice-to-get-its-spyware-contract-the-agency-is-redacting-essentially-everything/
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Chelsea Stark
25 days ago
so nice of
@zoehhannah.com
and
@midimyers.com
to have me by Mothership this week. I help readers decide which Persona to start with, and yes, it might might be Metaphor.
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Chet Faliszek
25 days ago
In L4D2 coach is thinner than we wanted but they were having issues with the bigger model and I still wish we could have had her in the game... The DMV woman... in our world in Cleveland, this was the most powerful woman on earth.
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Aura/Moom
25 days ago
tangential to this article, but my rule for Boro's animation in Wanderstop was we were going to lean away from 'fat character' stereotypes. no jiggling, no lumbering, none of that shit. Let his personality shine.
@anabell.zone
, who did most of his anims, did such a great job bringing him to life.
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i wrote about motion capture, animation, and bodies in games for TEEN VOGUE! it's very excited to have a byline at a magazine that i've been reading since i was teen✨
www.teenvogue.com/story/why-ar...
loading . . .
Why Are Thin Bodies the Default in Games?
Motion capture has the ability to capture fat bodies. So why don't we see more plus-size characters in games?
https://www.teenvogue.com/story/why-are-thin-bodies-the-default-in-games
25 days ago
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