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dolly was exceptionally ambitious in *doing* good things for others but it's not actually terribly difficult to be a consistently decent person and I think that was part of her message, because she always made it look as sensible and effortless as it should be

Dolly Parton did a huge amount of good with wealth she largely worked to earn. 9 to 5 is a Marxist text & permeant karaoke banger. She stood with queer & trans people throughout her life & the world was a better place for having her stay a while.

I played the original Metal Gear on NES, briefly played Metal Gear Solid for PS1, and got completely immersed in MGS4 for PS3. Cutscene fatigue was real but this was an exceptional video game experience for me. Can’t believe it’s been almost 20 years 🫠

Carolyn Petit@carolynmichelle.bsky.social · last wk.

with its impending arrival on modern platforms via the master collection 2, i'm stoked to have this review of metal gear solid 4 by cole kronman on kotaku today: kotaku.com/metal-gear-s...

Archival work is both time and resource intensive but if you can swing it, nothing beats looking at primary sources. I’m a big believer that everyone should visit their local archives and just start digging. You will feel more connected and be better informed for the effort.

Ancillary Review of Books@ancillaryreviewofbooks.org · 2w ago

The Robber Time: @ckunzelman.bsky.social on Joanna Russ in the Archives

The Robber Time: @ckunzelman.bsky.social on Joanna Russ in the Archives

The Robber Time: Joanna Russ in the Archives

Cameron Kunzelman In my life as a critic and academic, I am often fortunate enough to go places, read things, and generally have experiences with no expectations around them. I just want to learn w…

ancillaryreviewofbooks.org

a tv should not be a computer. a tv should be a tv. if i choose to hook a computer up to it, that's between me and god

🧵 For our ten year anniversary sale, we chose one game from each calendar year Hollandspiele has been in business. I thought it might be interesting during this next week to talk about the games we chose and why we chose them. Our first choice, from 2016, is Brian Train's The Scheldt Campaign.

There's definitely a heart piece down there.

✧𝔪𝔲𝔡 𝔰𝔠𝔞𝔪𝔭✧@altaudge.bsky.social · 2w ago

girls be like “i know a spot” and then take you here

In today's continuation of my series on The Guerrilla Generation, the usual government/insurgent dynamic is flipped on its head as the socialist Sandinistas face the foreign-funded Contras. This is the strongest scenario thus far. spacebiff.com/2026/08/05/g...

Liberation Ludology, Part Three: Nicaragua

The first thing one notices about the third scenario in Stephen Rangazas’s The Guerrilla Generation is that the script has been flipped. Unlike both the Uruguay and Peru scenarios, which pres…

spacebiff.com

In this house we keep the Woke on the One, just like James Brown said.

Been enjoying a #wargames mystery started on a comics forum. Seems this game was maybeade by someone on the HMS Malaya and they got to the point of selling and advertising. So many games during this time are gone hit curious if anyone has seen a copy?

Kiddo is right: fan labor is a major signifier (and evangelization arm)

Paul Czege@paulczege.bsky.social · 4w ago

Kiddo: "Daddy, I think the Dungeon Crawler Carl TV series is going to be good. I think maybe two or more good memes will come out of it." Daddy: "<cough>uh...is that how people measure a show now? By the memes that come out of it?" Kiddo: "Yes, because online ratings are being gamed by AI bots."

This month marks the tenth anniversary of Hollandspiele, which started taking orders for a reprint of Brian Train's The Scheldt Campaign on August 16, 2016. We have in that time released 122 games, expansions, and freebies - 64 of them my own designs. What a beautiful gift this life & work is.

Big announcement: Game Studies Study Buddies is going on hiatus after the 100th episode and will return in 2027 in a slightly different form. We talk about it extensively near the end of this episode.

Ranged Touch@rangedtouch.bsky.social · 4w ago

The 96th episode of GAME STUDIES STUDY BUDDIES finds some time for a rather big announcement about the show and its near future, but we mostly talk about technology, critical practice, death, and the nature of images with Roland Barthes' CAMERA LUCIDA: rangedtouch.com/2026/08/03/9...

This month on Paper Labyrinths, nic (@nictringali.bsky.social) and I speak with Ian Williams (@brocktoon.bsky.social) about the material conditions of miniature wargames, about the importance of craft in our work lives, and the beautiful game of soccer. sites.libsyn.com/568595/site/...

Paper Labyrinths: Ian Williams on Miniatures and Material Conditions

We talk with Ian Williams about his recently-announced book on miniature wargaming, the material conditions of craft, the power of nostalgia, and the impact of hydration breaks on association football...

sites.libsyn.com

airbnb I’m staying at unintentionally created the toughest punk album cover of 2027

ps if anyone feels like reading or just tucking away somewhere will link below the article in question, which mashes up nabokov with super mario bros along the way to something rather larger than i knew how to deal with just then was several personal frameworks ago, but this still feels right:

Chris Forster@cforster.bsky.social · 4w ago

Hey, @epikt.bsky.social shout out in Man Carrying Thing debrief of social media drama about the fate of modernism. (See ~2:30) youtu.be/ENAHZMlW4fE?...

I love the term "folk forensics"—and indeed, many cloying tells of AI use—like lists of threes, words deemed statistically likely to be LLM output, and em dashes—are mere superficialities. Not only that, they distract us from the underlying logic of textual production in the 21st century.

Matthew Kirschenbaum@mkirschenbaum.bsky.social · 4w ago

Raise your hand if you look forward to a cultural future that consists of policing every artist, performer, entertainer, or author whom you love and admire for the slightest whiff of “AI,” defined by vibes and whatever set of folk forensics is currently in circulation.

Mimetic contagion as the source of moral panic is nothing new in media (D&D satanic panic, violent video games, etc.) but the atomization afforded by AI provides a well for this panic that is unfathomably deep.

Matthew Kirschenbaum@mkirschenbaum.bsky.social · 4w ago

Raise your hand if you look forward to a cultural future that consists of policing every artist, performer, entertainer, or author whom you love and admire for the slightest whiff of “AI,” defined by vibes and whatever set of folk forensics is currently in circulation.

Battle of the Bulge, December 1944-January 1945

Daniel Greenberg@winterion.com · 4w ago

we're surrounded

So happy to finally share the news that my book, “A History of Uncertainty: Science between the Ottoman Empire and Early Modern Europe,” will be out in Spring 2027 by the University of Pittsburgh Press. I still can't believe it's now beyond my hands and on its way to meeting its readers.

One of the best things I've seen in a while. @friede.bsky.social is so knowledgeable and personable, and she and @brennanleemulligan.bsky.social have a really lovely conversation about such interesting shit. Highly recommend giving this a watch and looking up her work. I know I'm getting her book!

Dimension 20@dimension20.dropout.tv · last mo.

🚨 A new episode of Adventuring Academy is out now on Dropout! Join Brennan Lee Mulligan and Dr. Emily Friedman as they talk TTRPG history, game systems, and beaver nuggets!

In response to the unprecedented number of game developers laid off this year, we have created a bundle on itch to benefit a Game Industry Hardship Fund, managed by @videogameworkers.bsky.social. More than 100 games for 10+ bucks! Please share widely and donate generously! itch.io/b/3802/game-...

I am unbelievably touched that @dropout.tv titled my @dimension20.dropout.tv Adventuring Academy episode “A Duty of Care”

I’m overwhelmed today, but I want to circle back in a while to share the links to everyone & everything I cited. More soon.

A Duty of Care (with Dr. Emily Friedman) - Season 7 - Dropout

Dr. Emily Friedman joins Brennan to discuss the history of actual play and the best gaming system. Content Warning: Misophonia (Crunching) - [throughout 54:37-1:01:03]

watch.dropout.tv

📣 I’m excited to announce!! 📣 I’m partnering with Unstable Games to start a sister studio to them named… ✨ Ordinary Magic!! ✨ I’m so excited to bring 3 BRAND NEW GAMES under this new studio to you this Fall!!! 🍁

Ordinary Magic by Unstable Games - Gamefound

3 New Games, 1 Extraordinary World. Explore this visionary studio partnership between award-winning game designer Marceline Leiman and Unstable Games.

gamefound.com

I wrote a Myth for Mythic Bastionland for Appendix N Jam 2026. Witness the invasive power of THE VERSE. Inspired by Annihilation, Pontypool, and Book of the New Sun. sulcata.itch.io/what-they-sc...

What They Scrawled Across The Edifice by sulcata | Brendan McLeod

An invasive Myth

sulcata.itch.io

I love dice rolls in videogames, I love the way they invite the player to narrate their experience in relation to unexpected events, I love their connections to the history of chance as a storytelling tool, I love the way they attack the player's tendency to want everything their own way.

What I'll further say: it does not matter to them that it's stupid. On some level many of them know. This entire business is about throwing as much spaghetti as possible and once a piece sticks, nothing prior matters because the sticky thing lives on in The Narrative while everything else evaporates

was pondering this yesterday when I saw people dunking on a weirdo doing "inspect element" on Rotten Tomatoes to find the "real" audience numbers, a truly laughable thing and also exactly the sort of computer-enabled gamified grievance hallucination that's the engine of the modern right

michael lutz@ztul.bsky.social · last mo.

Gamergate was already here, and it is becoming increasingly widely distributed