🗣️📣 NEW BLOG POST ALERT! This week, I take a look at the culture of fan service that pervades a lot of the media we consume and discuss what makes this work, what makes stories suffer, and what we can do about it all. www.derekexmachina.com/blog/2026/4/...

Nearly half of these 100 are from games that were translated into English, btw, and a full half of the top 10 entries were written by translators. Sadly, some of them, like Suikoden 2, Yakuza 0, and Metal Gear Solid 4, blanket credit translation companies instead of listing names of individuals.

🗣️📣 NEW BLOG POST ALERT! This week, I take a look at the culture of fan service that pervades a lot of the media we consume and discuss what makes this work, what makes stories suffer, and what we can do about it all. www.derekexmachina.com/blog/2026/4/...

New blog post tomorrow!

What a useless and uninteresting list, lol. A Real case study in sampling bias, because this was clearly only voted on by dudes that exclusively play one Western AAA game a year and ignore everything else (and only for the last 15 years, at that).

What I like best about the Artemis II photos is that it was taken by actual humans. An actual person had to frame it and manually adjust settings. It's their own artistic rendition of what they thought looked best at the time, something no probe, rover or unmanned spacecraft can take. it's art

Tekken! All of the Mishima Family members. #Art #Tekken

This is my most anticipated game this year and it's not even close.

Networking is immensely hard for me - and it's often also painful. I've had many emails or DMs that have been unanswered or ignored. But the < 1% of responses I do get have been immensely helpful - even if them mostly devolve into "finding work in games sure is tough right now", etc.

After a whirlwind of launching a product on my first week, the new job is going pretty well now! Just starting to think about what my next move will be after this contract's over.

This is definitely the best-case scenario given the situation, but these threats should've never existed in the first place. ANY government official making the kind of threat that Trump did this morning is unacceptable and causes terror throughout the world.

Here's the number for the congressional switchboard. Please call your reps and senators. This man needs to be removed from office now. (202) 224-3121

Saw The Super Mario Galaxy Movie over the weekend. Like with the first movie, I enjoyed the movie for what it was. I think it's important to understand the mission for any piece of media. The way I see it, the mission of these movies is to be fun-first like the games themselves, and it succeeds imo

Happy international asexuality day!!! 🖤💜🤍

Really, REALLY well-written piece. I think giving fans what they appear to want is a dangerous path to go down. Fan service can make a story feel ultimately less legitimate and valid. Chasing a narrative endpoint to satisfy everyone involved misses the point that drama arises from hardship.

🌸の季節(`ᾥ’)

So it turns out that my new job won't last for over a year but rather just four months. So...probably have to start aggressively applying in like two months.

Currently playing Octopath Traveler 0. Took a while for it to click with me, but dang...Octopath Traveler really gets its hooks into you once you get into the rhythm of what it goes for.

SSBU Zelda

I keep seeing "all authors use AI, the real issue is they're being forced to be sneaky about it" headlines. Full stop No. This is a lie peddled for normalization. It's schoolyard-level pressure tactics "C'mon, all the cool kids are already doing it. We won't tell. It's fine. We're on your side."

Mio - Xenoblade Chronicles 3 #xenoblade3

They would not have stepped in on this had the public outcry been so loud, so please don't give them any credit.

🗣️📣 NEW BLOG POST ALERT! This week, I take a look at Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake, a case study in how much value there can be in remaking legacy titles with over 40 years of influence and history. Read more: www.derekexmachina.com/blog/2026/3/...

I've been trying very hard over the two years to put myself out there, make more friends, and even date. It's been immensely challenging as a neurodivergent person. It's led to a lot of rejection and unexpected isolation. But when things go well, it's all immensely worth it.

🗣️📣 NEW BLOG POST ALERT! This week, I take a look at Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake, a case study in how much value there can be in remaking legacy titles with over 40 years of influence and history. Read more: www.derekexmachina.com/blog/2026/3/...

No Kings 3 protest in St. Paul, Minnesota.

New blog post will be out on Monday, and I'm happy to see that I'm not back to making fairly normal-sized blog content again. It's nice to write something under 10,000 words again!

In the meantime, this industry is going to lose so much talent and knowledge while good people are having their lives upended, their stress maxed out, and their savings vaporized because the line didn't go up enough.

I don't think people understand how hard it is to work in the video-game industry right now. If you've been laid off, it can take months if not years to find new work. If you haven't been laid off, you're anxious that you will be laid off. This week's column: www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet...

Holy SHIT. $100 - $150 price increases across the board. A PS5 is now 33% more expensive than it was in 2020. There's no way this doesn't severely harm sales.

just this week: -- OpenAI killed Sora -- Disney subsequently cancelled its investment in OpenAI -- Wikipedia is now banning LLM-generated content ...tell me again how this is all "inevitable" and you have to "get on board or get left behind"?

NEW: Wikipedia has banned AI-generated content.

It was fate

I'm attending the No Kings protest on Saturday in St. Paul, Minnesota - the flagship rally in the US for the event. Consider joining your local protest! www.mobilize.us/nokings/even...

Game writers and narrative folks: who's familiar with Ink? I'm trying to tinker with various programs and saw this get recommended by a few game narrative professionals. What are people's thoughts on it and/or tips to know about it? www.inklestudios.com/ink/

Been playing Castlevania: Rondo of Blood (my first time playing a Castlevania game) and this game is immensely annoying to play.

[1/2] Making this post as much for my industry friends as I'm making it for myself. Don't work weekends, don't work late nights. Your company will chew you up and spit you out when your flavor's gone. Don't make your job your identity or your sole source of pride.

I may be getting ghosted AGAIN for the second time in a month. I'm crashing out, y'all.

Unbelievable and unacceptable. Nothing is ever good enough for any executive. Tim Sweeney and all executives like him are all cancers on the industry and the world.

Services like Metacritic and Steam Charts are the worst things to happen to games discourse and criticism. People really need to stop fixating so much on arbitrary scores and numbers and learn to embrace how different perspectives and assessments can be. Enjoy this image I slapped together.

My #WomensHistoryMonth edition of Localization Lore is up! Check it out to learn more about some of the ladies who were active in the J>E video game localization industry during the early 90s, including the origins behind "You spoony bard!"

Another rotation around the sun complete! As of today, I am Level 29. Here's to the last year of my 20s being full of adventure and realizing my goals!

Happy 1 Year Anniversary to the release of Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition!! Easily one of the best yet most underappreciated JRPGs ever imo, and this Switch release makes the game even better! It now also has a Nintendo Switch 2 Edition.

Made a presentation for a friend to pitch me at a dating event tonight and I'm afraid I may have peaked with this slide.

I hope the bubble bursts. I hope it bursts hard. And I hope it bursts soon.