Getting a headstart by collating this as time progresses rather than trying to go through a backlog way at the end of the year, though this in no way means I'll keep up with doing this each month. Going to be missing a lot of good posts (and probably including the same people a fair bit) simply as a consequence of what crosses my timeline.
That time I accidentally deleted a game from MAME by @dog
As soon as I opened the cartridge, I noticed something interesting: these weren't the chips I was expected. Like with The Gladiator, I only needed to remove and dump two socketed chips, but these were a completely different model.
some thoughts on metalpoint, or, all the questions you all have asked (and haven't asked) in one place! by @iri
before the invention of the graphite pencil (1795), metal styli were used to write. the most common one was the heavy & somewhat toxic metal lead, which is why we still call it "pencil lead", because the element lead could easily mark most paper surfaces. artists however would often prefer to sketch in silver (sometimes also copper and gold if available) as it would not smudge (which also means it cannot be erased). many of the most famous sketches of da vinci are done in silverpoint.
Game Design and Porn Pt. 1 or, How To Fuck Up The Best Intrinsic Reward Ever by @leo-g
Porn games are a lot like horror games. They both get a bad rap for being cheap to make, appealing to base instincts, and generally being low quality. They're also both not actual genres of games, but genres of content. Think about it, if I asked you what a horror game is, you'd say a game that's scary. But what's the actual game part? The unfortunate answer would most likely be "walking sim," but there are a lot of examples that are FPSes, puzzles, driving sims, platformers, deck builders, the list goes on.
DVac's reframing strategies to stop being a martyr at work by @DeviousVacuum
The lesson is simple here - the work martyr does not exist in a vacuum, their martyrdom does impact other people and can possibly make things worse for the coworkers they care about. The work martyr often takes on extra work to protect other people, and they need to understand that taking time off and having boundaries also protects other people.
prisoner's dilemma as praxis: general strikes, social cohesion, and you by @invis
The work that does need to be done to end wars, stop climate change, and relieve the suffering of millions is not something one can - or should - tackle by themselves. It requires social cohesion, it requires strong communities working together. And if you don't mind me preaching a bit, the best way to start... is by involving yourself in those communities! It's not just good for the cause, it's good for the soul.
Happy Birthday Supes (nerdy Superman meta) by @jesncin
All I want is a story about an immigrant superhero, champion of the oppressed, giving hope to people who were promised a future in "the city of tomorrow" but see Metropolis and America for what it is. But with where his media is going and how fans dictate it, all they want is some "meta commentary on how dark and edgy and anti-hero superheroes are nowadays, oh and Superman is here too".
Are Games Art? by @Johnnemann
But I also, now, don't think games are automatically art. I think anything can be art - putting up a blank canvas on a wall, cleaning the floor, reciting a phrase over and over. But I also think that to be art, one has to embrace the motive to create art. Otherwise everything is art, which is the same as saying nothing is art.
thread on machine translation by @lokeloski, @amydentata
Machines, be they "AI", LLMs, or MTs, will never keep a consistent voice for characters, make creative decisions, be capable of using slang and informal speech correctly, or sometimes even follow basic grammar as they should. In the end, what happens is: the editor or reviewer receives the text, it is usually pretty bad or barely passable, so they have to rewrite or retranslate a lot from scratch. This not only takes more time than just editing, eating into their hours of work, but they won't receive the payment rate for translation, just for editing, which is lower. It's double the work for half the pay, basically.
Neotokyo's OST is still the high mark of cyberpunk operatorcore by @gee-man
I think at the time, Neotokyo's soundscape explored the idea that military sci-fi could be elegant, atmospheric, and effortlessly cool in a way a lot of Western military media would eschew as effeminate or incongruous. Female vocals, no heavy guitars or bassy drops. Maybe the shooter audience of 2009 simply wasn't ready for something like Neotokyo.
Morning thoughts about yarr harr by @pedipanol, @lokeloski
So, I think the issue is clear here: Nintendo, Sony, Sega, or whoever else, wasn't losing sales to piracy. They actually would have never made those sales anyway, because their stuff was financially unavailable for the population. And that still holds true today!
Selling Failure by @Partheniad
You roll a massive pool of dice and fail anyway? Work with your GM in describing how your confidence in that moment leads to you getting thrashed. Paint s picture of your despair. How do you feel in that moment?
Species and Fantasy Races in RPGs by @smuonneutrino
Traditions and cultural customs should be tied to region, class, trade, religion, or all of the above. You should only ever make cultural statements about a species in a particular context; talk about the "the culture of the Bird-Men of The City That Breathes Sand", don't just talk about "the culture of the Bird-Men".
Fingers and Toes: Spotting Deepfakes by @mtrc
You can't ever know if something is really real or not on the Internet any more - but that has, to some extent, been true for a long, long time. It's also very easy to fool most people with things that don't even look particularly real. What we're experiencing now isn't exactly new, it's just a gear shift that we aren't used to.
Jusant isn't good at being about rock climbing even though it's a rock climbing game by @SiFSweetman
I did not go into Jusant expecting realism, but upon seeing its main locomotive mechanic I immediately burst out laughing. I will get to why in minute, but at the end of my 5 hours with the game, I couldn't shake the feeling like it had truly failed to capture, to me, why climbing is challenging, satisfying or even appealing.
If I Should Die Here On This Field by @dreamcastaway
It often talks about a grand history that is far more interesting than the status quo our characters are in. On the one hand, I get it. You want a story that allows the player to bop and weave around the map and readily justifies the sheer volume of combat challenges. On the other hand, while the setting has politic tensions woven into the fabric, they're very thin. This is mostly a game about the good knights fighting the bad knights.
You have to want to do the work not just to have the result by @erica, @Osmose
It can be direct enjoyment, or it can be an outlet for feelings or stress, or it can be a physical practice of being present, etc. You also don't need to have this before you start—you can learn or develop in yourself a sense of what drives you to the process of making things. It is not solely the domain of people who were born with some innate need to make.
untitled thread on passion by @PermanentReset, @margot, @NireBryce
just because it can't stereotypically be leveraged into visible "creative pursuits" or "productive work" doesn't mean it's not passion, and even games teach you things over that many years that end up being useful in life, in work, and in making things for the sake of it.
tips for a healthier relationship to discourse and internet arguments from somebody who's been on social media for over 15 years by @Ultra-Valkyrie
we're at the point where many many people have had internet access their entire lives and take mass/social media for granted, but in terms of human evolution it's still an overwhelming new thing that our brains (and global society) are struggling to adapt to. remember the fleshy fallible apes behind the keyboards and be kind.
the "140 characters" effect and how negativity has become the prevalent face of the internet. by @charlenemaximum
yes, i understand that the last decade of life in general has been significantly trying. people are worn down. people are tired. people don't feel good about the unstable state of the world. people have concerns that they wish to voice. all of these things are true and valid. but i think we need to be more responsible in general with how we use our voices and our platforms to speak up and speak out.
thread on propaganda in social media by @amydentata, @spookybiscuits, @NireBryce
You are being targeted by a sophisticated PR campaign meant to make you more resentful, bitter, and depressed. It's not just disinformation; it's also real-life human writers and advanced bot networks working hard to shift the conversation to the most negative and divisive topics and opinions.
Save Your Game Please by @mint
I remember the first my mom unplugged the N64 weirdly clearly. I had paused in the Water Temple of OOT to go use the bathroom. When I came back, my mom was vacuuming, and the N64 had been moved on top of the table. When I turned it back on, I saw that I had lost all my progress.
A look back at the 40 year reactionary war on youth by @GwenStarlight
So an entire generation, conditioned by propaganda and capital absorbing campaigns, systematically neutralized all spots young people could cohere as a group.
thread on rapid societal change re:technology by @cathoderaydude, @0xabad1dea, @zandravandra
Multiple lives overlap in my memory and sometimes it’s so difficult to make sense of it all. How can anyone cope with so much change over time? How can I have been so many different people at so many different times and yet be me, now?
Part-Time Indie Dev: Burning Out Before You Even "Make It" by @tanatb
You just can’t do as much when you’re working 0-2 days a week. Deadlines have to be flexible to accommodate for when life just decides to throw you off-track. Every task and every milestone ends up with an uncomfortable amount of padding. Feature after feature gets cut to reduce the scope to something manageable. Priorities get streamlined, so you can reach a point at which you're happy with your work without tiring yourself out.
The guidelines of captioning (or, Captioning Is Harder Than You Think) by @miscu
Never have multiple different lines appear on-screen. Don't do the thing of having background dialogue on top of the screen, it creates visual chaos for a viewer and it's shocking that services like Crunchyroll still think it's acceptable. You have to be an absolutist about whether a line is important enough that a deaf/hard-of-hearing viewer needs to know it's being said. Include it as a main line, put it into an audio description like [audience chattering], or just don't include it at all
thread on LLMs in video games by @bruno, @amydentata, @Unanbangkay
This tech won't take off because gamers don't want to talk to their consoles, and PC gamers don't want to type dialog. It's the same reason why "smart speakers" are on a massive decline, and most people use Siri once or twice before dropping it. There is strong pressure against talking to machines. Because of social norms, yes, but also because speaking is often less convenient. Situations where speaking is more convenient are niche.
ttrpg and hackability/modules as longevity by @orchidrabbit
myself and other game masters i know write A Lot of their own stories and campaign content, however we use a bunch of canon materials as the basis and backing to our stories. this leads to a lot of homebrewing and original mechanical material we have to create to accompany the story so it suits the system we're using.
"Goodbye, All Evangelions." by @dreamcastaway
I was technically around for the last days of Gawker. I was around when the deadspin walkout happened. i left the site because I saw a horrible future under Spanfeller's management. and now we're here. people might have mixed thoughts about Kotaku. All I know is that I tried to be a good writer and good person while I was there, and for a while I think I might've managed it.
Remembering The Realms: Introduction by @Bigg
Or maybe I just saw the cover art for the collection of R. A. Salvatore's The Dark Elf Trilogy with this crazy sick dark elf wielding TWO (count 'em!) scimitars and my 12-year-old boychild brain went "oh okay I'll just go ahead and rewire everything to be About This, boss". Either way, from the late 90s to the mid-00s, Forgotten Realms was My Thing, well before I ever rolled a single die in a game of Dungeons & Dragons.
Some half-formed thoughts on landrace gardening and the future by @gardening-in-the-dark, @corhocysen, @calliope
There is going to be some minimum viable level of intervention necessary to keep your vegetable patch in a condition where it will support the growth of, well, vegetables. Those conditions necessarily also support the growth of "weeds", and there are many strategies to deal with this, including learning to eat dandelions and chickweed and welcoming the hazels planted by the squirrels, but doing nothing at all ever isn't one of them. Genetic adaptation to one set of conditions is only useful if those conditions stay roughly the same, or at least within a range.
Is outrage all that's left? by @Campster, @iiotenki
And stepping back I have to ask: Is this just what The Discourse is, now? Is social media so rotted by engagement metrics that the only thing people engage with is rage bait? Has the hollowing out of games publications by venture capital finally left only Outrage Merchants in charge of critical consensus?
Design Lateralism, the Demon's Souls Remake and Why AI Art Can't Be Creative, but Is Still Inevitable by @Kayin
This design does nothing to excite the imagination, or inspire curiosity. Even without all the possible lore, without all the deep readings... PS5 Flamelurker is an enemy I've seen in a million other games. He's probably a character in at least 3 different MOBAs. Even if the same design doesn't quite exist, it's existence is practically implied, an aspect of the ur-flame demon that exists at the center of the zeitgeist. Familiar and boring.
"But GameX isn't a Combat Game about Combat!" by @amaranth-witch
If I cannot build a character for this game which does not engage with specific activity-focus language, I am going to believe that this game is about that focus.
Superheroes & Mental Health by @Partheniad
So you are a dumb kid who loves Batman. Who wants to be a hero. And you are told he can't be because he is crazy, broken. And you struggle against the idea because... you know what you are. You know you are broken, that there's a piece missing. And even if you argue that Batman isn't crazy, desperate not to lose your hero. While you do are struggling to prove he isn't unstable, you are accepting their premise. That crazy people can't be heroic. That you can't be.
