Matt Knutson

Family Enters Crisis Talks After Learning Restaurant Has 45-Minute Wait

Family Enters Crisis Talks After Learning Restaurant Has 45-Minute Wait http://theonion.com/family-enters-crisis-talks-after-learning-restaurant-ha-1819577952/

College 'sticker prices' have risen dramatically. Here's why It's no secret that going to college can be very expensive, with tuition costs rising faster than financial aid. But what's causing that price tag to rise so quickly?

Concise story from NPR about tuition cost changes over time. It's one thing to hear that tuition at 4-year universities has risen by 100% over the last 30 years, and it's another to see it visualized and put in context with tuition at Purdue, Harvard, etc.

Save 10% on Q-UP on Steam Sick of long queues, unfair matchups, and arbitrary reflex tests? Try Q-UP, the coin flipping eSport. It's one part clicker, one part multiplayer strategy game, one part demented capitalism simulator,...

I've been playing Q-UP, a brilliant and deeply weird incremental game with an esports theme.

It starts with a simple coin flip and spirals into a fugue of emergent mechanics.

I'll post some thoughts here as I idly play…
store.steampowered.com/app/3730790/...

My presentation is today at 12:30 p.m. EST, when I'll be talking about the pre-history of collegiate esports. Did you know that both Nintendo and Sega put on intercollegiate competitive events for scholarship money + a new car? I'll be talking all about it :)

EsportsResearchNetwork - Twitch ERN Conference 2025, sponsored by Corsair for Business

Thrilled to be presenting today at the premier conference in the study of #esports, the Esports Research Network Conference! #EsportsEDU

This is being livestreamed *right now* & continuously through Friday in successive handoffs between global regions. Catch it at twitch.tv/esportsresearchnetwork

YouTube video by Jim Davis 🏆 Behind The Pro Tour: An Inside Look From Testing House To The Trophy 🏆

👀

Amazing insider's perspective on the Pro Tour from @jimdavismtg.bsky.social featuring Reid Duke. I know I'll be citing this one I'm the future!

youtu.be/3crdirj9quM?...

The new TOC from academia dot edu. By creating an Account with Academia.edu, you grant us a worldwide, irrevocable, non-exclusive, transferable license, permission, and consent for Academia.edu to use your Member Content and your personal information (including, but not limited to, your name, voice, signature, photograph, likeness, city, institutional affiliations, citations, mentions, publications, and areas of interest) in any manner, including for the purpose of advertising, selling, or soliciting the use or purchase of Academia.edu's Services.

If you’re on academia dot edu, let me suggest that you strongly consider deleting your account.

Shout-out to Netflix subtitles for making "squelching" part of our national lexicon.

A guide to esports degrees: what to expect Is an esports degree a valuable career path or just a gimmick? We spoke to professors and experts to find out what to expect from an academic esports program.

Today a piece from @teamliquid.com's Newsroom came out talking about collegiate esports degree programs, and I had the pleasure of being interviewed for it! teamliquid.com/news/world-c...

The piece came out great - it weaves together many perspectives and addresses challenges in the space.

This article is kind of jumping to conclusions based on a handful of preview cards. Certainly there are design challenges to making a universe with four distinct factions/elements/nations work within Magic's five colors. But whether this set has risen to or failed that challenge is still unclear.

YouTube video by Matthew Knutson Playing for a Collector Booster Box in the MTG Arena Direct

Local Professor Competes for $400 in Prizes on MTG Arena

I competed in this weekend's Arena Direct on MTG Arena. As I try to get there in the video, I talk about something I've previously published on - the professional history of MTG. The game is what I would call a "peripheral esport."

They do, but before the bill they didn't pay taxes in years when their net earnings were $0 or less. Under the new bill, someone who wins $100k but also loses that same $100k in a year would have to pay taxes of $10k even though their net income was $0. This would push many out of the career.

U.S. to Review Social Media Posts of Student and Scholar Visa Applicants

The State Department under Rubio is resuming the processing of student and visiting scholar visas after a halt of nearly a month. But it's now checking social media accounts of applicants to look for what it calls "hostility" to the U.S. Story: www.nytimes.com/2025/06/18/u...

All will be bedazzled.

The most exciting part about a summer to-do list is not yet knowing which items I'm going to end up leaving unfinished this time around!

Grades in ✅️
Productive writing retreat this week ✅️
Last-minute end-of-semester grant submitted ✅️
Talk given at the Scholastic Esports Expo in Manitoba ✅️

Aww yeah, now I can enjoy the rest of this work trip and get summer started in style. Have a great break, academic friends!

Here's a little spelling trick: whenever I try to spell the word "occasionally," I say to myself "don't fuck this up like you did last time," and I carefully think through how to spell it: O-C-A-S-S-I-O-N-A-L-L-Y then I press space and see the little squiggly red line reminding me that I'm hopeless.

A Chicago Pope implies the existence of an MLA Pope and APA Pope

AI and the Tommy Boy-ification of Higher Ed.

What's it called when Billy Mays can't be there in person to get a tough stain out but sends a surrogate instead?

Proxy Clean

dakotacollegiaterl - Twitch DCRL | SEASON 6 | CROSSBAR KINGS VS SILVER LEVELING | DIV C | LAN

Happening on UND campus today and tomorrow: the finals for Dakota Collegiate Rocket League! m.twitch.tv/dakotacolleg...

One of the most hype, high-energy esports events in the collegiate scene and super proud that UND gets to host it.

You Are Generative AI by Kris Lorischild A Large Language Model Simulator

Introducing the latest and greatest in generative AI technology: you

Play YOU ARE GENERATIVE AI now!

direkris.itch.io/genai

Anna Anthropy, Game & Narrative Designer, Writer and Educator "Anna Anthropy is a prolific creator across many formats who makes big things using simple tools. I envy her knack for taking an existing system and, with a few simple twists, turning it into a balloon animal uniquely hers." —Tim Hutchings, author of Thousand Year Old Vampire Whether digital or tabletop, I’m interested in exploring trans and disabled bodies in play and the boundaries of games as a narrative form. Contact me: collectfruit@gmail.com w.itch.io on the internet @cyborgurl on bluesky Teaching DePaul University Game Designer in Residence 2016 - 2025 As a term faculty member, I helped build one of the most renowned game development programs in the midwest, creating and revamping courses and interviewing and hiring new faculty members. I served as one of several faculty advisors to the entire Game Development student body, planned events and booked speakers, and advised numerous independent studies and thesis projects. Classes taught: Games Literacy, Advanced Game Design, History and Design of Role-Playing Games, Playgramming, Writing for Games, Game Dev 1, Game Dev Capstone. Games ndie Games (2009 – 2013) Flash games for the web, with a particular interest in representing queer identity and relationship dynamics. Mighty Jill Off (2019). REDDER (2010). Newgrounds. Lesbian Spider-Queens of Mars (2012). Adult Swim Games. dys4ia (2012). Newgrounds. Triad (2013). Queers in Love at the End of the World (2013). Tabletop Role-Playing Games (2018 – present) Concise, experimental story games with an emphasis on non-traditional game mechanics. Princess with a Cursed Sword (2020). Tavern at the End of the World (2020). I LOVE YOU, ALIVE GIRL (2021). Hibernation Games Anthology. The Maw (2023). The Fool’s Journey (2023). Forgotten Palaces (2024).

Books Rise of the Videogame Zinesters. Seven Stories Press, 2011. A Game Design Vocabulary (with Naomi Clark). Pearson, 2014. ZZT. Boss Fight Books, 2014. Make Your Own Twine Games! No Starch Press, March 2019. Make Your Own Scratch Games! No Starch Press, June 2019. Make Your Own PuzzleScript Games! No Starch Press, October 2019. Shows and Exhibitions Harpy Diem (with Babycastles). Secret Project Robot (New York), 2012. Filthy Pixels. Bit Bash (Chicago), 2017. Hey! Play! Chicago Design Museum, 2017-2018. It’s Complicated. Likelike (Pittsburgh), 2018. Indiecade Presents: A Decade of Game Design. Museum of the Moving Image (New York), February 2018. I Was Raised on the Internet. Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago), June - Oct 2018. Design / Play / Disrupt. Victoria & Albert Museum (London), Sep 2018 - Feb 2019. Chicago New Media 1973-1992. Gallery 400 (Chicago), November-December 2018. Polymorphism: Queer Encounters of Intimacy in Games. VGA Gallery (Chicago), Jan - April 2019. Bit Bash. Museum of Science and Industry (Chicago), August 2019. Rules to Play By. Flow Gallery (St. Louis), September 2019. Pink Screens Queer Film Festival. Cinema Nova (Brussels), November 2019. Indie Game Revolution. Museum of Pop Culture (Seattle), 2023-present. Skills Affinity Publisher / InDesign p5.js / Javascript Streamlabs Paint Shop Pro / Photoshop Excel / Google Sheets Yarn Spinner / Ink / Twine HTML / CSS Awards Lifetime Award, Arse Elektronika (2012) Game Changer Award, Indiecade (2013) Trans 100, We Happy Trans (2016) Global Illumination Award, VGA Gallery (2017)

new pinned post: my cv! my current employment ends in june and i'm looking for work and gigs! hire me to do narrative design / writing for digital or tabletop games, commission me to make an art game for a gallery, invite me to speak remotely at your school. or simply write me into your will and die

Sick! Lmk if you want to party up in Mario Kart day one.

Been a while since I stayed up for a midnight preorder/release! Luckily got through with one retailer while my other Switch 2 order sat in a cart I couldn't check out. Okay, off to bed. Looking forward to telling the kids the good news in the morning :)

Sorry, it's just been one of those [lifetimes].

NPR CEO Katherine Maher addresses future of federal funding for public media Katherine Maher, president and CEO of National Public Radio, talks with NPR's Mary Louise Kelly about the White House proposal to eliminate federal funding for public media.

Katherine Maher, president and CEO of National Public Radio, talks with NPR's Mary Louise Kelly about the White House proposal to eliminate federal funding for public media.

“Neither Harvard nor any other private university can allow itself to be taken over by the federal government,” Harvard attorneys wrote to federal officials. “Accordingly, Harvard will not accept the government’s terms.”

If you’ve never given to Harvard, GIVE NOW!

search.app/M76p3GzTmMuc...

I'm more diligent about it for in-person conferences than remote. I did it for an esports conference last spring but almost none of my esports colleagues at the time were on Bluesky. If I go to QGCon this year I'll likely live-post it, and I applied to another in Denmark this year that might happen.

Thanks so much, it means a lot! I see it as both a way to keep me listening intently to all the panelists and as kind of an informal service to the profession, so I'm glad to hear it's useful to you.