virtually nobody here has asked me about bsky but virtually nobody still aint nobody, so: while I accept the possibility of being forced onto [sns service xyz] for the sake of promoting other peoples' shit, I have zero personal desire to be on bsky (or anywhere, really) and this week's news changes nothing
Erica @erica 6 hr ago
will you be keeping (or already have) a blog where folks can keep up with you? i've really enjoyed your posts on here and would love to know if you plan on having some kind of written outlet elsewhere to follow!
much appreciated!
the short answer is, idk! the slightly longer answer is that I haven't done the whole "here's where to find me" spiel because I'm undecided on whether life will continue to allow me to justify doing anything that isn't bringing in supplementary income, or whether my disgust for the ever-encroaching pressure on people to commodotise their entire online persona is something I'll be able to swallow, or whether I even still want to be found... but the clock's tickin', so I guess I ought to pick a direction while I can.
for now, I can say this:
-
I intend to keep helping out with Shmuplations, Indie Tsushin, etc for as long as is necessary (and I'm disappointed that this place is going under before any real top-down reckoning on the specific cultural fragilities that caused Renkon to leave could occur)
-
I've been writing for the Retronauts website for a long-ass time—mostly just weekly roundups of whatever old games are being reissued each week, and largely void of personal takes beyond whatever baseline passive-aggressiveness oozes out when I'm bashing out takes in the early AM, but I've recently been made very aware of the fact that very few people seem to know this is a thing I do and that I ought to mention it more often. I could and probably should be writing over there more regularly on a wider variety of topics, but we'll see.
-
people have been in my ear about a personal blog, or newsletter or whatever, for a while; I've brushed 'em off for various reasons ("stuff wot I saw" does not strike me as particularly appealing nor something with much of a through-line, and more niche-focused outlets bring their own baggage and may veer too close to community management for my liking, especially if they're tied to patreon or whatever) but I'm running out of options, frankly, so I might end up biting one bullet or another.
-
I'm fucking fantastic at talking myself out of doing stuff and I can't guarantee I won't vacate all the above venues before long, too ¯_(ツ)_/¯
I'll attempt to end things on a more optimistic note: I joined Cohost right as I began umming and ahhing over whether to go ahead with an indie/doujin publishing label in the vein of DIY initiatives like Indiepocalypse and the Japanese Syakerake service, and I've finally decided that it's now or never and that I need to pull the trigger while I still can... so, public announcement, I guess: ALL CITY SLOP SHOP, launching as soon as Paypal/Stripe stop fucking with me (ETA 2/5/25, but let's not count our chickens). I don't know that I'll have so much as a URL to point to by the time this place goes read-only, but I do want to try and at least throw up the mission statement in the next week or so. The games aren't mine but the space I'm attempting to carve out is one that I believe is important, and I hope people are willing to carve it with me.
one last bump, in case this place is locked once I wake up... if it aint, I guess I might have one last Post in me, and if it is... allow ALL CITY SLOP SHOP to park itself in your brain somewhere for the next little while, because I definitely do not have so much as a URL to point anyone towards right now
edit: just in case I run out of time, the placeholder-est of placeholder links
