ICYMI: "Assassin’s Creed was unusual: a game produced in the West in which we inhabit an (albeit Occidentalized) West Asian freedom fighter resisting a European invasion." @mlupetti.upandpunch.red on playing Assassin's Creed during the Gaza genocide and 25 years after 9/11:

Replaying the first Assassin's Creed Videogame During the Gaza Genocide - Unwinnable

Few Western games would have allowed us to play “the terrorist.”

buff.ly

companies are sourcing millions of printed books for AI labs that scan them for training data, then destroy them. printed books are more valuable because they're free of AI slop, and AI labs know destroying them is an "optics problem." www.404media.co/ai-companies...

AI Companies Are Buying Tons of Old Books Because They're Free of AI Slop

ISBNdb, a company that sources printed books for AI companies to turn into training data, tells clients “the optics problem is real.”

404media.co

I'm sad to say that I'm no longer working with the team at Rascal. It's been a great couple of years, but circumstances have dictated that it's time for me to move on. That does mean that I'm now (quite desperately) looking for freelance work, so if you need words for/about games, my DMs are open.

crazy cars, game over screen, macintosh (1988) www.mobygames.com/game/781/cra...

Managed to catch Covid again during a press trip, despite masking up for travel - I may be hard to reach for the next week or so.

"Decay can extract softness from despotism, political persistence from the abolition of utilizable power... Decay mars power on virtual surfaces of zero, there to be rotten and reeked up; but above all, decay leeches death from the living without falling into the black transparency of death."

"The frog in the boiling pot of water looks around and finds all that’s left is hot metal." @jaymcastello.bsky.social reflects on 10 years of writing in the games space:

10 Years in the Game Space - Unwinnable

2016 games media was clumsy. 2026 games media is a fucking disaster.

unwinnable.com

Nine Pens Poetry Press currently open for pamphlet submissions 😊 Pamphlets | Nine Pens share.google/xj0WxWOqOp2v...

Pamphlets | Nine Pens

share.google

Valnet is a journalist's idea of hell. Support indie games media where you can and help to kill this bullshit. pressgazette.co.uk/news/confusi...

Confusion and anger as publisher moves journalists to pay-per-click contracts

Journalists on The Gamer paid $8 per thousand clicks.

pressgazette.co.uk

Hi, I wrote about being trans and playing Warframe. Like a nerd. Please enjoy. docs.google.com/document/d/1...

warframe trans essay

Waking up in a body that isn’t what it’s supposed to be is a weird purgatory. I get why people struggle to understand it. I barely feel like I have the words to conceptualize it myself, terms like ‘dy...

docs.google.com

If you have ever had to belatedly turn an online-required game into an offline-capable game, and would like to come sob bitterly into my shoulder while I transform your anguish into an article of some kind, please, hit me up: www.rockpapershotgun.com/authors/edwi...

just sent the email ending the lease at my apartment of 4 years to move next month AND got word I'm losing my part-time editing job that's covered my cost of living for 3 years so uh hey who needs a copy editor?

Counting Petals

Unreal killed Blueprints last week and also all my cats. www.jank.cool/blueprints-i...

Blueprints is dead, and so is my unfinished game about cats

Goodbye to the only way I know to code

jank.cool

if you haven't yet, please buy poppy and my latest game, HUNGERWINTER. its a game about starving to death which we are both currently doing. support us here: das-kunstkollektiv.itch.io/hungerwinter

HUNGERWINTER by Das Kunstkollektiv, Mia Cain, Digital Poppy

The hunger. The hunger...

das-kunstkollektiv.itch.io

Here's a rare one: we're hiring a News Editor at Eurogamer! The role is hybrid in London, though there can be some wiggle room on this for a worldie of a candidate. We're after someone who can not only proof, but understand how to push a story forwards originally. www.eurogamer.net/eurogamer-is...

Eurogamer is hiring a News Editor

We're after a top-class newshound to take us into a new era here at Eurogamer.

eurogamer.net

If you're affected by any Xbox cuts and feel it would be useful to talk to RPS about it, my email is in my bio: www.rockpapershotgun.com/authors/edwi... Some older reporting I've done of the anon sourcey variety: www.rockpapershotgun.com/former-devel... www.rockpapershotgun.com/how-embracer...

for manifesto jam. lessons from the one teacher i respect. meal-ticket-games.itch.io/mcguirkifesto

McGuirkifesto by Meal Ticket Games

meal-ticket-games.itch.io

Okay, so this is massive and we're terrified. Partnering with @play.breakthrought1d.org in the fight against diabetes, the ENTIRE inkle catalogue is on Humble Bundle right now for $20 -- including TR-49, all four novels, both Overboard! games, 80 Days, all four parts of Sorcery! ... everything.

The Complete Inkle Library

Adventure awaits in these beloved classics and new favorite games from Inkle! Get them at the price of your choice and support Breakthrough T1D!

humblebundle.com

MANIFESTO JAM 2026 An invitation/provocation for YOU to write a manifesto. Running for a full week from June 8th to June 15th (AEST). Participate and submit at: itch.io/jam/manifest...

Manifesto Jam 2026

A game jam from 2026-06-07 to 2026-06-14 hosted by haraiva. MANIFESTO JAM 2026 A Manifesto for Manifesto Jam, 2026: SEND ME YOUR ADDRESS SO I CAN VISIT YOU AND EXPLAIN MY PASSIONS I'm sick of talks. I...

itch.io

IGN Entertainment is refusing to pay its workers the wages we deserve, even as we make #IGNLive the event that it is this weekend. So we left a message that can’t be ignored. And you should too. Let our upper management know that you support us by sending them an email here: bit.ly/4e2uUCP

Today, kick off SGF with some old games, in the 2nd edition of the Unearthed Treasure Room, a showcase of recent overlooked games we want you to play!! Starting shortly here: youtu.be/mxIrzO7R0EU?...

The Unearthed Treasure Room 2: An Alternative Showcase of Overlooked Games

YouTube video by ANALGESIC PRODUCTIONS

youtu.be

To our dismay, the artist and author Marjane Satrapi has passed away. As she wrote, ordinary Americans and Iranians have more in common with each other than we do with either of our governments, which have far too much in common with each other. We honor her memory and oppose the war.

Le Monde in English@english.lemonde.fr · 2mo ago

Marjane Satrapi, author of 'Persepolis,' dies at 56

I don't talk about this quite often, but let me shout out we're accepting donation support for our curations. as you see, we've been dedicating a lot to illuminate and archive so many meaningful works by solo devs and small teams all over the world. a tiny tip would be welcomed! warpdoor.com/about/

"Everywhere, all the time, the gamer confronts the rival impulses of chance and competition, intoxication and spectacle, as homeopathic antidotes to a boredom that challenges being from within." - McKenzie Wark, 2007 www.hup.harvard.edu/books/978067...

Still playing through, but I enjoy how Zero Parades thinks about 'bad art' and inauthenticity. I haven't read them - I'd rather not have anybody else's thoughts in my head just yet - but Alexis and Nic's reviews for EG and Jank should be worth a gander www.rockpapershotgun.com/zero-parades...

Zero Parades: For Dead Spies is both bootleg Disco Elysium and a spirited interrogation of fake culture in all its guises

ZA/UM's first post-Disco RPG Zero Parades is obsessed with forgeries and bootlegs and the ways they can be wielded for erasure and displacement.

rockpapershotgun.com

Preprinted! Been working on this for ~1 year w wonderful coauthors Nancy & Mark: > Understanding Artificial Neural Networks: Mysterianism about Known Mechanism is Mysticism doi.org/10.5281/zeno... Have you noticed many experts say they don't understand AI? What's going on? 🤯 Let us tell you... 1/

I'm attending Digital Dragons this month - if you're also there and would like to chat, my email is in my bio. (I apologise in advance if I get too busy and ghost you.) www.rockpapershotgun.com/authors/edwi...

What I Did On My Holidays

I tried to play PC games on the highest mountains of Wales

The MSI Cyborg 14 gaming laptop is billed as peak on-the-go gaming, so rather than writing a traditional review, I carried it up a bunch of 3000 foot mountains.

rockpapershotgun.com