After much extensive dropboxing in these final hours, I think we'll be retitling to "Routledge Companion to Video Games and History - Rob Houghton's conflicted copy." @robehoughton.bsky.social @chriskempshall.bsky.social

Relatable.

Why is Olympus always at the top of a lift in modern games? Do we only think vertically through elevator shafts in the modern world...?

Oops.

It's the last week of the Routledge companion, the second to last week of term (and I've got two module groups all needing essay tutorials), and also concert week. Can't stop won't stop! But despite the busy, it is nice to have the concert to distract me from the others really.

9. The Excavation of Hob's Barrow This is one of the best point & click adventures you could possibly play, and one of the best horror games you could play too, the pacing and slow build of dread is truly something to be experienced.

For work purposes I'm playing the game Code: Realize, Guardian of Rebirth sporadically, which is set in a kind of steampunk London. It has a really weird subplot about Queen Victoria being a mass murdering sociopath which is quite interesting for other work purposes... But also really quite strange.

I have a little banana lunchbox, which is a very excellent invention. (It's basically a plastic banana-shaped hard case, designed to stop them getting so smashed in your bag). But it comes with a little fork, which I do not understand at all.

Myself and @mtrc.bsky.social are running a workshop on Games and Archaeological Play (GAP) at FDG 2026! Short papers of up to 4 pages are due by April 5th. We are interested in any work that broadly relates to video game archaeology. See the full CFP here: gapworkshop.org/call-for-pap...

Also talking a lot to students planning modules for next year and having to explain that I am not currently employed for next year, which they often find baffling. Easier to explain in some ways when we are on strike, and they're more familiar with the deep problems of academia already!

Today was too much really. As we hit the last two weeks of term I've basically filled every hour I'm not teaching with student meetings, so I am doing quite a lot. But there was also #WCCWiki and Games academic drinks, so some really nice things mixed in with a long day!

Definitely worth it, whether or not you're usually a Greek myth gamer!

You've got THREE more days to get Mythmatch 20% off in our launch sale! And seems like folks are loving it! 100% positive with 61 reviews. 5 / 5 - The Guardian 8 / 10 - Edge 96 / 100 - Screen Hype 4.5 / 5 - So Many Games store.steampowered.com/app/1778050/...

Good HE is really simple: quality time spent with subject experts who know and care about their students. My university and many others are deliberately abandoning this truth in favour of financial and organisational efficiency.

I enjoy being the editor who both 1) insists on making organised spreadsheets for everything but then 2) leaves chaotic comments and conversations over all the spreadsheets so the organisation quickly dissolves.

I really have too much to do.

New post on the HGN blog: for “Fictions,” Christopher Gerteis discusses HashimaXR, an immersive heritage project that grapples with the blurring of historical fact and fiction, contested historical and political memory & the meaning of “historical play” www.historicalgames.net/island-that-...

Did everyone else already know that there is a TV channel which shows 24 hour Xena Warrior Princess...? (If so why did no one tell me?!)

TFW it's two weeks to the concert but the conductor seems to have lost faith in you...

Well everything job related continues basically terrible and enormously stressful (must be nearly summer - the season of stress and imminent unemployment), but at least I have now booked my May trip to Granada, so I can look forward to that! Off to talk about Dating Aphrodite in games.

I wonder if all the neostoicism bro types are also writing sexy love letters to their tutors like Marcus Aurelius. ... Probably not.

Now announcing the CRSN/@ics.bsky.social Summer Series beginning 27 April: "Overlooked/Undercooked: Classical Reception in Colonial and Postcolonial Southeast Asia"! Find more information, titles, and links below: classicalreception.org/crsn-ics-sum...

Played a little of Mythmatch this evening, and it's fun and sweet, with some refreshingly progressive writing and depictions of the ancient world!

I think it might be time to finish Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. (Yes, it's been months. I've been busy). Sad about it!

That was quite a day. I'm off to sleep. Thank you all for the support! I'm very bad at being the center of attention, but it was really nice today. And please leave a review if you bought it as we're still struggling for those 10 reviews to have a rating store.steampowered.com/app/1778050/...

Now wondering if I can get away with playing video games rather than editing work on video games for the rest of the afternoon... Probably not.

I really like teaching year-long courses, it gives you and the group a much better length of time to get to know one another and develop discussions and ideas.

Have spent two weeks trying to use modern reception to suggest that everything we've spent sixteen weeks arguing on 'Drama & Democracy' this year was totally wrong. I'm pleased that the students are mostly resisting, and coming up with good alternative answers to the issues!

🎙️👾 PODCAST TIME: In our second episode, Eugen Pfister talks with his colleague Prof. Yannick Rochat. Together, they discuss the game studies scene in Switzerland and previous networking efforts, which ultimately led to ever closer cooperation in our Sinergia project. Check it Out ⬇️

The amount of black cabs I've seen drive straight into bike boxes with bikes already in them this week is staggering.

Erm. Not sure on that description, thanks.

Super important for every month of the year, actually :)

UNISON members at KCL are going on strike this month, for fairer pay and cost of living adjustments. If you can afford to support their strike fund, it'll help their members who are out there fighting for better pay and conditions. Any donations help! www.gofundme.com/f/kclunisons...

🚨NEW ARTICLE OUT🚨 My most recent paper on historical agency & games is available in open access! It deals with environmental studies, posthumanism, fantasy, the 'ontological turn' in the philosophy of history & my upcoming video-game, Galar. Quick thread on the contents 🧵1/6 #gamestudies #gtp

I really enjoy teaching reception, which I am doing a lot of over this/last week - but I have got to stop making it so hard for myself by setting 5-6 alternative modern versions for every class. Over a couple of weeks I am basically teaching 20+ dramas as a result. Which is a bit much.

My work days this week are 14-16 hours. And somehow I have to find time to try to apply for jobs etc among all that. What a life.

Phew Greek play week is intense.

Opens tonight! Have you got your ticket for The Clouds, the one-and-only 2026 KCL Greek Play? Performance starts at 7.30pm, and runs for three nights (and a matinee) only! estore.kcl.ac.uk/conferences-...

After getting my "soon you will be fired reminder" from HR at the weekend, today I'm wondering how many of my own "I won't be here because soon I'm getting fired so I don't think that work to do is mine" emails is too many per day/week...

Oh that temporary staff feeling. Somewhere I made a nice lecture slide about the Abbey Theatre, its foundation and performances of tragedy. Cannot for the life of me work out which job's folder it is in.

Now that I'm back from holiday, I can finally properly promote our project podcast. In the first episode, @pachuki.bsky.social and I give a general introduction to the @snf-fns.ch funded Sinergia project @chludens.bsky.social! #GameStudies

We're announcing our new theme: Analogue. It's an open call, and full details are available on the HGN blog here: www.historicalgames.net/call-for-con...

Current work mood: turning down everything and leaving really helpful notes on all the shared docs of things for other people to do...

Next time I edit a volume (never) I am going to have a blanket policy that anyone who doesn't follow the style guide gets immediately kicked. Myself included. We will end up with a volume with no authors, but that's fine if I never again have to spend days moving the punctuation in notes...

Still true.

“the actual number of staff leaving their posts is likely to be higher because most institutions did not include in their figures staff who completed fixed-term or temporary contracts.”

And wouldn't you know, look what I found here! store.steampowered.com/app/3067260/Tales_from_the_Mabinogion/

Today I had a long walk (mostly in the rain, but apparently that's 2026 for you), read a whole library book, and entirely ignored my emails and work. Good.

Interested in poetry in games / games in poetry - including in historical games? Check out the call for papers for our annual conference (Multiplatform) below, which will take place in Manchester in mid-June. manchestergamecentre.org/events/2026/...

I have worked in five departments since my PhD-awarding institution. Only in one of those departments has there been a policy of remembering temporary staff exist when sending out all-staff email (e.g. warning that the email will not apply to us, or asking what we'd like to do about x task).