Casey O'Donnell [he/him]

Park Service Union Movement Spreads to Grand Canyon, Joshua Tree Employees in dozens of park units are organizing to fight attempts by the Trump administration to downsize the agency.

National Park workers at 24 parks and offices are moving to form a union.

These National Park Service workers in Grand Canyon, Grand Teton, Rocky Mountain and nine other locations have filed petitions to hold a union election.

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Marc Lobliner post on X: "Why the hell are we giving food stamps to 40 million people? Does anyone work anymore?"

SNAP isn't about "people who don't work." It's about people who don't get paid enough to live.

Of the 40 or so million people who rely on food stamps:

* Two-thirds are children, seniors, or disabled

* Most working-age adults who receive SNAP are employed—but in jobs that pay poverty wages

There is a cyclical element to this. Fall 2023 at DevCon Tampere many devs praised their publishers. At the time I asked about this; it contradicted much of my data and was largely ignored. By spring 2024 most despised publishers. It is a _bad_ relationship and game makers need alternative models.

Hands holding a copy of "Seeing Red: Nintendo's Virtual Boy" by Jose P. Zagal and Benj Edwards. The cover depicts a Mario game in play in black and red pixels.

👀 We heard Nintendo is bringing the Virtual Boy back to gamers. While we can't get you the new add-on, the story behind this unique platform is completely free!

@jzagal.bsky.social & @benjedwards.com's "Seeing Red" is available #OpenAccess: mitpress.mit.edu/978026204506...

Jason (and you) should read my piece the California Problem that talks in detail about my feelings on the past, present and future of videogames as an art form ellaguro.blogspot.com/2023/02/the-...

SCOOP: Apple Quietly Made ICE Agents a Protected Class Internal emails show tech giant used anti-hate-speech rules meant for minorities to block an app documenting immigration enforcement.

You cannot be fucking serious

Hard for me fault anyone who doesn’t know good games exist when almost no major gaming website reviewed or covered this year’s Seamus McNally Grand Prize winner.

She was how my informants understood what I was doing. One day I came into the office and they'd surrounded my desk with plants. I was gifted a pith helmet from an informant at my dissertation defense. The original title of my book was, "Developers in the Mist." 😂 MITP made me change it.

!!!* INTERNSHIP OPPORTUNITY *!!! Hey everyone… great news! please share with your network of budding young students.   We have now opened applications for our internships in Story, Ideation, Concept…... !!!* INTERNSHIP OPPORTUNITY *!!! Hey everyone… great news! please share with your network of budding young students.   We have now opened applications for our internships in Story, Ideation, Concept ...

2026 internships available in my team at The LEGO Group!

Internships in
Story,
Ideation,
Concept Model Design (ie, building with bricks),
Prototyping (3D printing etc),
Hardware (soldering and weird sensors!)
Physical (springs and spinny things)
Digital (code for doing stuff with bricks)

It’s official: EA is going private.

The leveraged buyout will be financed by a staggering $20 billion of debt, which likely means some *aggressive* cost cutting is ahead for EA in the coming months and years.

www.businesswire.com/news/home/20...

MSU Union of Tenure System Faculty

In related news... Tenure system faculty at MSU are unionized now too. Huzzah. www.utsfmsu.org

Specialist - Teacher-Fixed Term - East Lansing, Michigan, United States Working/Functional Title Professor of Practice - Games & Interactive Media Position Summary The Department of Media and Information (M&I) at Michigan State University (MSU) seeks to hire an in...

We are hiring a Professor of Practice (PoP) in Games & Interactive Media. We are looking for an experienced game maker with a compelling portfolio and experience in game programming. PoP at MSU are unionized and have opportunity for advacement.

bit.ly/MediaInfoJob...

I've written previously about game companies leveraging the extra-legal force of police in the US, but this is a very interesting one unfolding in the UK. Wow.

journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

WOW. Just... wow.

I've written a lot about Nintendo long leading w/ videogame patents. This, however, should have been obviously squashed, as "summoning monsters to help you battle," has long existend.

Wither Mario Factory? - journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...
NES and 10NES - journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...

DiGRA 2026 Conference Announcement - DiGRA The DiGRA Executive Board is pleased to announce that DiGRA 2026 will be hosted at Maynooth University in Maynooth, Ireland from 14 to 18 June 2026.

DiGRA 2026 will be hosted at Maynooth University in Maynooth, Ireland from 14 to 18 June 2026.
The 2026 conference theme is Intersectional Pleasures.

digra.org/digra-2026-h...

Sharing this again because the deadline is coming up on the 8th.

UNBOXING Podcast The UNBOXING podcast is a weekly dose of insight into play and profit for the gaming curious. Joost crunches data. Laine rummages in archives. Together these two NYU professors unlock the secrets of…

🎙️NEW EPISODE ALERT🎙️
Steam and itch pulled thousands of NSFW games 🔞 PLUS, find out how payment processors became censors 🤬 and how the UK’s Online Safety Act isn’t helping 🙅 Tune in here:

New: The Corporation for Public Broadcasting says it is shutting down

cpb.org/pressroom/Co...

Longer video of the forcible removal, detainment, and arrest of Sen. Alex Padilla by the Trump regime during a DHS press conference. Footage provided by Sen. Padilla's team.

First My Mother Died. Then My Home Got Hit by a Tornado. My street got leveled by 150-mph winds. Why do I feel somehow at ease?

I wrote about my mom dying and my street getting leveled by a tornado in the same week (gift link).

🙄 OMGoddess it just gets dumber and dumber. I can't. 🙄

Taking a second out of my anger to remind other writers: get copies of your work now. Look at what happened to Kotaku stories re: searchability etc. after it got sold to morons.

Notify NHA about grant terminations! We are collecting information about current grants that have been canceled since March 31st, 2025. If you are looking to share a story about the impact of NEH funding on your work please use this for...

The National Humanities Alliance is collecting information on canceled NEH grants to share with congressional leaders. This is legit fact finding in support of competent lobbying. If you've had your grant canceled, do let them know.

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

An image of the AI summary of a search related to Pokemon Go's Max Monday schedule. It claims March 24th is Scorbunny. I correct it. It replies again incorrectly that it is Chansey. I correct it again and it responds with what I've already told it twice.

The (my) future is (me) correcting AI content. 😭

A picture of the cover of the book "The Arrogance of Power" by Senator J. William Fulbright.

I do not know what the long-term implications are, but I was likely one of the last cohorts of US Fulbright Scholars thanks to the efforts of the current administration. All IIE (Institute of International Education) have been furloughed. 80 years of international collaboration cut.

Also... Who gets to retire at 53? Like I don't think I'll ever get to retire. 😤

"“The prices are just ridiculous,” said Rouse, 53, a retired Michigan firefighter and paramedic who has voted for Trump three times. “I’d like to see a lower cap on what I have to pay out-of-pocket.”" - NEVER GONNA HAPPEN UNDER A REPUBLICAN ADMIN SORRY DUDE. Especially not these guys.

"Tactical Issue" kitten playing with plants on a tile desktop with a snowy landscape in the window behind.

I haven't posted much in a bit because I've been busy. But I also know that new folks are showing up here. Here is a cat picture of the new roommate Aino.