Luis Aguasvivas
@aguaspoints.bsky.social
Game Critic - NPR Contributor Debug Mag Columnist Member of the New York Videogame Critics Circle - DiGRA Words: Unwinnable, Gamers with Glasses, PopMatters, Game Informer, Ars Technica & other places aguaspoints.com
Next week we're back on whether games are art. And then the week after, let's see, the calender says it's time to discuss difficulty options again. Then we have a free space provided it has something to do with Final Fantasy. I imagine we'll do the turn-based thing again, but hope springs eternal.
Mitch Dyer@mitchyd.bsky.social · 10h agoThey should invent a games discourse that isn’t 10-20 years old
Today on Tales from the Backlog, @aguaspoints.bsky.social joined me for a fun discussion about Arco! It's a wide-ranging conversation, but as always, no spoilers for a while- enjoy! Listen: talesfromthebacklog.fireside.fm/225 Watch: youtu.be/MFxZLs7CIyk
Limited interaction for all! Inspired by @critdistance.bsky.social Jam, I put a few words together on friendslop.
Friendslop = Friendless<<Slop>> Or: Will We Ever Lock Eyes When We Play Again?
Friendslop is the Ghost of Play’s Past. It is the Ghost of Play’s Present. It is the Ghost of Play Never to Come. Only without any humanist intent.
aguaspoints.com
@mayorhere.bsky.social on Saros: "Robert W. Chambers's Yellow Shore becomes more knowable in Saros than the original myth ever was, and something is lost in that. But the core idea survives: the horror was never the Shore. It was always the wanting." www.gamerswithglasses.com/features/sar...
Saros, Robert W. Chambers, and the Horror of Desire — Gamers with Glasses
Robert W. Chambers’ stories from The King in Yellow are often described as Lovecraftian by association - but, as Housemarque demonstrates in Saros, the horror of Chambers’ Carcosa goes deeper than Lov...
gamerswithglasses.com
Read Luis on gamer (a generalized identity in our current social situation) alienation
Luis Aguasvivas@aguaspoints.bsky.social · 3d agoLimited interaction for all! Inspired by @critdistance.bsky.social Jam, I put a few words together on friendslop.
@aguaspoints.bsky.social reads friendslop through the lens of Wark's Gamer Theory and finds new nadirs of alienation in the form aguaspoints.com/2026/08/03/f...
Friendslop = Friendless<<Slop>> Or: Will We Ever Lock Eyes When We Play Again?
Friendslop is the Ghost of Play’s Past. It is the Ghost of Play’s Present. It is the Ghost of Play Never to Come. Only without any humanist intent.
aguaspoints.com
Limited interaction for all! Inspired by @critdistance.bsky.social Jam, I put a few words together on friendslop.
Friendslop = Friendless<<Slop>> Or: Will We Ever Lock Eyes When We Play Again?
Friendslop is the Ghost of Play’s Past. It is the Ghost of Play’s Present. It is the Ghost of Play Never to Come. Only without any humanist intent.
aguaspoints.com
Get insight from leading game journalists on the changing trends and culture shaping the industry this August 7-9 at LI Retro! LIRetro.com @lucasmthomas.bsky.social @aguaspoints.bsky.social @marioprime.bsky.social
Here's what's coming to Tales from the Backlog in August! An RPG-heavy month with these great guests: 🏹 @aguaspoints.bsky.social 🐉 @pizzadinosaur.fineti.me 🧛♂️ @funandgamespod.bsky.social ☀️ @duckvalentine.bsky.social Follow the show so you won't miss them!
Lots going on @skyboxcritics.com. We have a killer piece from @supercrip1994.bsky.social today, and we have a new columnist joining the regular crew tomorrow. That means one monthly column each week. Pretty stoked for y'all to see what we have cooking.
Très bonne liste de @npr.org qui souligne l'incroyable richesse des sorties JV de l'année, alors qu'on n'est même pas en août.
Luis Aguasvivas@aguaspoints.bsky.social · 2w agoOur best games of the 2026 so far list is out. Some real gems in here. www.npr.org/2026/07/21/n...
Our best games of the 2026 so far list is out. Some real gems in here. www.npr.org/2026/07/21/n...
The best games of 2026 so far, picked by NPR's staff
Titans like Resident Evil Requiem and Crimson Desert dominated in the first half of the gaming year, with early-access sequels like Slay the Spire 2 and Subnautica 2 not far behind.
npr.org
Excited Baby Says YESSSSSS!!
ALT: Excited Baby Says YESSSSSS!!
static.klipy.com
Onion Games@oniongames.bsky.social · 2w agoIt's true! STRAY CHILDREN TREASURE BOX will launch in Japan on Dec. 10, and will include: 🎮 a physical copy of the game 📖 a 160-page booklet 🗺️ a cloth map (!) of Crescent Moon 💿 a soundtrack CD of "lost" Crescent Moon music 🗝️ a keychain! Pre-orders are open...right NOW! 👇
"“Why aren’t the fires being put out” is a question only if you’ve never been north of the border. Canada is home to 30% of the world’s forests, over 300 billion trees, most of them in very remote areas that are not managed like US forests"- @katharinehayhoe.com www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...
The Climate Crisis Was Always Real. Now It's in Your Lungs
The longstanding West Coast air quality crisis reached the East Coast this week. That’s because climate collapse is everywhere — and inescapable
rollingstone.com
What NPR does for books (curated, filter-tagged staff picks), it also does for video games! Among the "highlighted popular favorites and under-recognized gems": Perfect Tides: Station to Station Titanium Court Mixtape TR-49
The best games of 2026 so far, picked by NPR's staff
Titans like Resident Evil Requiem and Crimson Desert dominated in the first half of the gaming year, with early-access sequels like Slay the Spire 2 and Subnautica 2 not far behind.
npr.org
The wind is rising. This month's issue of Unwinnable Monthly features @autumn-wright.com on The Wind Rises and terror plus our regulars on topics like Marathon, Alan Wake II and Silent Hill f. Buy: buff.ly/ci350lH Subscribe: buff.ly/2FiTW11
Our best games of the 2026 so far list is out. Some real gems in here. www.npr.org/2026/07/21/n...
The best games of 2026 so far, picked by NPR's staff
Titans like Resident Evil Requiem and Crimson Desert dominated in the first half of the gaming year, with early-access sequels like Slay the Spire 2 and Subnautica 2 not far behind.
npr.org
Friendslop Jam‽‽‽
Critical Distance | Where’s all the good writing about games?@critdistance.bsky.social · 2w agoGood morning readers and writers! We are starting a new essay jam today that'll run until August 19! We're calling it the Blogs of the Round Table: Friendslop Jam! Check out the details here: critical-distance.com/2026/07/20/b...
new writing from me for @artreview.bsky.social: on video games not just as wartime propaganda and recruitment tool but as burgeoning battlefield tech and new perceptual logic. artreview.com/how-videogam...
How Videogames Feed the War Machine
What’s happening is less the corruption of a sacrosanct form of play than the interactive medium’s return to, and reentanglement with, its military roots
artreview.com
Doing a little archival maintenance today. Christian, Nate, and Don were on to something with this trio of short game blurbs about Umurangi Generation, Pivotal, and End of the Skyline back in 2020.
Indie Cyberpunk, Part 2: Postindustrial Wastelands and Cyberpop Fantasies — Gamers with Glasses
Indie Cyberpunk Games, Part 2
gamerswithglasses.com
Pleased to support Mayor Mamdani's PIT Crew initiative. Done right, digital government saves people time and money. Done wrong, it can be costly, useless, or discriminatory. How a city interacts with its people shouldn't be outsourced. It should be local and accountable. www.nyc.gov/mayors-offic...
Mayor Mamdani Launches "Public Interest Technology (PIT) Crew" to Rapidly Build Digital Solutions to Public Problems
nyc.gov
@corndruid.bsky.social on Perfect Tides: Station to Station by @meredithgran.com: "When you examine the idea for even just a second, it’s pretty strange that we ever talk about 'the college experience' in the singular." www.gamerswithglasses.com/reviews/perf...
Perfect Tides: Station to Station, and Love's Truths as We Live Them — Gamers with Glasses
When you examine it for even just a second, it’s pretty strange that we ever talk about “the college experience” in the singular. Nate Schmidt reviews Perfect Tides: Station to Station, finding a comp...
gamerswithglasses.com
No union employees at Blizzard were impacted by today’s bloodbath—and I sincerely doubt that was because the powers that be think that we’re all vital. Odds are, they wanted easy cuts. Status Quo makes you not easy. The best time to unionize was a year ago. The second best time to unionize is now.
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Gamers with Glasses@gamerswithglasses.bsky.social · last mo.New contributor Dídac Jiménez Torras on Koyamachou Watch Repair Shop! "The current times rely on black-boxed technology...when buying new proprietary tech is cheaper than fixing, digital restoration stores and communities tend to fade away." www.gamerswithglasses.com/impressions/...
👀❤️🔥👀🎆🕶️
Gamers with Glasses@gamerswithglasses.bsky.social · last mo.New contributor Dídac Jiménez Torras on Koyamachou Watch Repair Shop! "The current times rely on black-boxed technology...when buying new proprietary tech is cheaper than fixing, digital restoration stores and communities tend to fade away." www.gamerswithglasses.com/impressions/...
Tomodachi Life: Living The Dream rewrites the news by @platanoranger.bsky.social "None of it makes any sense, but that’s the appeal, and it certainly beats the shit out of doomscrolling the actual stupidity and cruelty that passes for news in real life." Read on: skyboxcritics.com/2026/06/23/t...
Tomodachi Life: Living The Dream rewrites the news
Tomodachi Life is ridiculous, but its odd, reality-bending cadence proves a compelling alternative to doomscrolling.
skyboxcritics.com
Excited to welcome back NPR contributing writer, Debug magazine columnist and New York Video Game Critics Circle Member, Luis Aguasvivas to LI Retro this August 7-9. Join @aguaspoints.bsky.social for an exciting retro deep dive this Summer at LI Retro! LIRetro.com
