Eric Stein (he/him)

Imagined Agency: Review of Stefano Gualeni and Riccardo Fassone’s Fictional Games Eric Stein Under Review:Fictional Games: A Philosophy of Worldbuilding and Imaginary Play. Stefano Gualeni and Riccardo Fassone. Bloomsbury Academic, January 2023. Throughout the media we enjoy, fr…

Check out this nice review of FICTIONAL GAMES that @steinea.bsky.social did for ARB a while back: ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2023/05/26/i...

Astronaut meme: "Wait, it's all perception?" "Always has been"

Roll with Advantage: Creative, Collaborative, and Critical Responses to Dungeons & Dragons (Play Story Press 2025) edited by Suzanne Richardson & Edmond Y. Chang: playstorypress.org/books/roll-w... - in print or open access PDF! #analoggamestudies #creativewriting #dungeonsanddragons #dnd

Silksong true ending as praxis, in this essay I will

The Mist, Phantom, Cogwork Dancers last night. Unlocked Whiteward before going to sleep. This game, man. Mechanically, aesthetically, just so impressive. And the WRITING! Achingly beautiful. Talking with the Caretaker in Songclave, some real gut-punch lines.

I'm starting to get texts about this now so I guess I need to say something:

There is a fundraiser going around about a "preservation disaster" raising money right now that I highly advise you to stay very far away from. A particular British tabloid is running with it unquestioningly. Thread:

The Zenodo service (“Zenodo”) is offered by CERN as part of its mission to make available the results of its work. Use of Zenodo, both the uploading and downloading of data, denotes agreement with the following terms: 1. Zenodo is an open dissemination research data repository for the preservation and making available of research, educational and informational content. Access to Zenodo’s content is open to all, for non-military purposes only. 2. Content may be uploaded free of charge by those without ready access to an organised data centre. 3. The uploader is exclusively responsible for the content that they upload to Zenodo and shall indemnify and hold CERN free and harmless in connection with their use of the service. The uploader shall ensure that their content is suitable for open dissemination, and that it complies with these terms and applicable laws, including, but not limited to, privacy, data protection and intellectual property rights. In addition, where data that was originally sensitive personal data is being uploaded for open dissemination through Zenodo, the uploader shall ensure that such data is either anonymised to an appropriate degree or fully consent cleared. 4. Access to Zenodo, and all content, is provided on an “as-is” basis. Users of content (“Users”) shall respect applicable license conditions. Download and use of content from Zenodo does not transfer any intellectual property rights in the content to the User. ... Terms continue at https://about.zenodo.org/terms/, too long to include whole thing in alt text.

And of course I should emphasize, Zenodo is still the best, though a bit less "discoverability" friendly compared to other platforms. Their terms, though, are why I always post there first as the canonical source for my open access research.

about.zenodo.org/terms/

I'm not an expert in this stuff, but PhilPapers and KC Works make me more comfortable than ResearchGate.

Links here:

philpapers.org/help/terms.h...

about.hcommons.org/terms-of-ser...

www.researchgate.net/terms-of-ser...

If you are a Member, you can add Member Submissions to the Service. You retain all ownership rights in your Member Submissions. However, you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sub-licensable license to use your Member Submissions (including to host, reproduce, distribute, modify, copy, publicly perform or display, translate, and create derivative works of your Member Submissions for the sole purpose of making available and improving our Service. You also grant Users a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, non-transferable and non-sublicensable license to access your Member Submissions through the Service and use the Member Submissions solely in connection with using the Service.

ResearchGate terms

By posting User Content on the Network, you grant MSU a nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license to use the User Content in accordance with these Terms on the Network, in all formats in which the Network is available, until you remove or delete it, which use includes but is not limited to reproducing, distributing, transmitting, publicly displaying and performing, and incorporating the User Content into a collective work. Whenever possible, we will credit you as the author of the User Content you provide, and, by posting User Content on the Network, you grant MSU the right to use your name (as provided in your user profile) for that attribution. If you delete your User Content, cached versions of or references to the User Content may not be made unavailable. Some User Content, such as files uploaded to KC Works, may not be removed or deleted. Please contact us for assistance.

Knowledge Commons terms

Regarding texts (for example, full articles) submitted to the PhilPapers Archive or PhilArchive: the PhilPapers Foundation acknowledges that it obtains no intellectual property rights to these texts. However, when submitting texts to our services, you give the PhilPapers Foundation a worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive licence to host and display these texts. Users have the right to request that texts they submitted be removed from PhilPapers and PhilArchive.

PhilPapers terms

I put PDFs on Zenodo first, searchable by name, and linked from my ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-4131-2695

I syndicate to PhilPapers and Knowledge Commons, which from a quick re-scan of ToCs have much better policies. I also syndicate to ResearchGate, though their ToCs are a bit more concerning...

Wow, these ToCs are awful. I've made my research available on several platforms for a while for exactly this reason, as well as syndicating on my personal site. This was an easy few clicks to delete my Academia page. The site has rapidly worsened over the last few years, so I'm not sad to leave it.

Book: "You're not overthinking it," blue cover depicting an overgrown futuristic cityscape. Alongside it is a yellow slipcase with a patterned die-cut and an emboss of the same city.

THEY LET ME WRITE ANOTHER BOOK

"You’re Not Overthinking It" is available for pre-order right now. It collects the most meaningful essays of my career alongside hundreds of new annotations on each piece’s creation, background, and legacy. Far more details below: www.lostincult.co.uk/overthinking

Looking back, looking at the map as it expands, has a very similar feeling to doing a big hike and looking back from a high point at where you've come, like woah, that was really tough, but also I made it here!

Yes, exactly this! I am not good at these kind of games, but it's been amazing how learnable these totally wild fights feel. Final Widow phase was impossible until suddenly it wasn't.

Spot on. I do not have the fastest reflexes, but it's been incredible to feel Silksong teaching me to *slow down*. I beat Widow and Last Judge when I was able to actually calm myself and stay still in the arena. Panic is my #1 cause of a failed boss run.

Beautifully written. The whole review is worth a read, captures a lot of what I love about this game. May we be like the bugs, indeed!

(Oh, and one more thing: the Plasmium Vial from the Wormways and the Fractured Mask from Hunter's March are your best friends here. Tricks! This also implies an order of zones to do before Sinner's Road... This was my last zone before I continue down the critical path.)

Time your hits to knock enemies into hazards. Wall cling to hide as flying enemies patrol so you can get the jump on them and pogo them to death. Worms hurt you, but they hurt enemies more. And enemies that mantle? Cheese those ledges! All of this turns an oppressive space into an opportunity space.

Sinner's Road plays dirty, and you should play dirty back! The environment punishes you, but it wants you to get creative with all the mechanics you've learned to twist the environment to your advantage.

I think "tricks" is the operative word here. Hunter's March had environmental tricks, but Sinner's Road has those + gameplay tricks, all sorts of design elements testing your skills, removing or torquing mechanics, and in general forcing you to think creatively.

I ran through Sinner's Road tonight and it is evil and mean and incredible. So many awful curveball surprises which made for great early game tests of all the tricks I've learned so far. Liz describes it perfectly here.

"I want games that I can argue with, games that trust me to read them closely, games that demand I think through them."

Digging into Silksong, and of course it’s beautiful, but it also SOUNDS so good. All those crunchy rocks and rosary beads rolling around, the voices, and the music.

Everything I could have hoped for in a sequel. Just scratching the surface so far. Feels so good to be back.

Accidentally played for 7 hours after work and now it's 2am

Silksong GOTY

Steam and Nintendo eShop both down lmaooooooo

"The only thing that that amount of wealth is necessary for is the domination of others. In other words, at a certain point, wealth shifts from being something that enables freedom to something that can only be used to take freedom away from the public"