Raph

Amen amen amen. I think a lot about how the pursuit of knowledge connects us to each other and to the immense systems we are part of. Curiosity leads to awe in the most unexpected places; it’s one of the coolest things about being human.

A 3/4th perspective view of a Naples, Italy street corner that looks suspiciously like Disco Elysium

I saw this photo of Naples, Italy and you cannot fucking tell me this isn't just Martinaise in Disco Elysium

Just found out Rob Wieland passed away. My heart goes out to his family. (There’s a GoFundMe in this article to support them in this time of need.)

He was a storyteller of our community, breathing life into it by sharing his love, helping so many to find a way in.

Rob,I’ll miss you dearly!

YouTube video by Gushers FruitHead | NEW Horror Film [Starring Bradley Whitford]

Fruit… is a Zone

youtu.be/3uO_d-4TJPo?...

This made my day 😺

The secret of The Zone has been revealed at last! 😂

Vertical photo of a sperm whale with a giant squid in its mouth. The tentacles and body of the squid can be seen emerging between the teeth.

Ventral view of the same scene : a sperm whale with a giant squid in its mouth. The tentacles and body of the squid can be seen emerging between the teeth.

Just woke up from a social media pause and the first thing I see is an incredible footage of a sperm whale casually cruising with a giant squid in its mouth ??

🦑 🌊 🌿

Would you look at these cuties
(via en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasit...)

Convoluted rock layers and gullies in the shadows of a crater wall, blue with frost, on Mars. Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona

This section of a shadowed crater wall in Terra Cimmeria, looking like something from HR Giger. New from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. www.uahirise.org/ESP_089139_1...

God its so freaking good. I cannot handle waiting another week. Put me in cryosleep for the next 168 hours.

Wingspan and Post-Capitalist Forms of Competition This might seem something of a pivot considering my blog generally covers books and television far more than other forms of art. But I want to be straightforward in situating board games as an artf…

Of course I also talk about the economic systems of board games.

simonmcneil.com/2021/02/01/w...

THE ZONE RPG · The tabletop storygame of surreal horror. The tabletop storygame of surreal horror. Mutate your friends, play-to-lose, and have a spooky time in the dark. The Zone is a tabletop RPG where up to 6 players take characters wracked with phobias &...

Just got to play @raphdamico.bsky.social's The Zone again for an upcoming project and let me tell you there is nothing better than finishing a game, silence and everyone going '...Damn that was so good!'.

Can not speak highly enough about this game! thezonerpg.com

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In case you've missed it - Disney has posted a downloadable Andor zine as part of the Emmys push that has lots of gorgeous pics and Tony Gilroy's one page pitch for s2...
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This video so perfectly captures what I was going for with The Zone! Im so glad you had fun with it!

What a great channel you’ve built here @thechindividual.bsky.social — instant subscribe for me!

Trust

Day 1/30 sharing my favorite doodles and drawings.

Oh yes ;) It’s going to be a lot of fun—might bring it to Metatopia!

"Whatever you now find weird, ugly, uncomfortable and nasty about a new medium will surely become its signature. CD distortion, the jitteriness of digital video, the crap sound of 8-bit - all of these will be cherished and emulated as soon as they can be avoided. It's the sound of failure: so much modern art is the sound of things going out of control, of a medium pushing to its limits and breaking apart. The distorted guitar sound is the sound of something too loud for the medium supposed to carry it. The blues singer with the cracked voice is the sound of an emotional cry too powerful for the throat that releases it. The excitement of grainy film, of bleached-out black and white, is the excitement of witnessing events too momentous for the medium assigned to record them." -Brian Eno

“The excitement of grainy film, of bleached-out black and white, is the excitement of witnessing events too momentous for the medium assigned to record them."

-Brian Eno

Lovely to see you here Alex 😊

Fantastic way to get The Zone if you’re in the UK!

Amen to that 😊🤘 So glad you enjoyed it!

As the TTRPG media sphere contracts, we're expanding -- Rascal is hiring a news writer!

We're running a short 2 week pledge drive, offering a 6 month, 25% discount, celebrating our Diana Jones Award... nomination... in order to support this new hire.

Thank you so much for the kind words! May your expeditions be full of ALL the beauty and horror! 🌀

The true form of “cat” is more beautiful than I had ever imagined

2.1 Lenses, Not Boxes I wondered whether this section was necessary, but games discourse seems to repeatedly find itself adrift in questions of whether _ counts as a _. We have seen the question repeatedly: Do games count as art? Do games without goals count as games? Is The Sims a game? Are hypertexts interactive fiction? Are Twine pieces literature? In fairness to the researchers cited here, all of whom I respect immensely, many of these sources pose or imply the question rhetorically. Still, the necessity of such a framing frustrates me. "Is _ a _?" is, in my opinion, a fruitless question. The question can never be answered to anyone's satisfaction, and it often serves as either a provocation to espouse politics or as a cover to institute gatekeeping. Its agenda is usually opaque to onlookers and bewildering to those trying to advance the field from across disciplines. We should be thinking in lenses, not boxes. It is always more interesting to ask "If we think of _ through the lens of _, what do we learn?" We know it is more interesting to ask "What do we learn by considering Tom Stoppard through the lens of poststructuralism?" than to ask "Is Stoppard's work poststructuralist?" And while some works may be more or less fruitful when examined through different lenses, sometimes the most unlikely pairings of lenses and objects are the most rewarding. Certainly any of the questions above would be much better served by reframing them in this way.

Wow we’re having “games are art” discourse again! Just gonna leave this here.

From my dissertation:

It me

Bertoldt vs. Pestar

A 2020 commission, and a fun one at that!

ISS astronaut captures a rare phenomenon from orbit — a giant 'sprite' above a thunderstorm Sprites have been known to form above intense thunderstorms.

Third impact much?
www.space.com/stargazing/i...

Everyday painkiller made from plastic — by E. coli Study highlights potential for sustainable synthesis of paracetamol.

Wow! Scientists engineered E. coli to convert plastic waste (PET) into pain medicine paracetamol (acetaminophen or Tylenol) in under 24 hours with up to 92% yield.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...

#medsky #pharmsky 🧪

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Movie you’ve watched more than six times with a gif