J. Rey Lee

This is an excellent piece about the perils of AI art broadly, and within our hobby more specifically. If we reach the point where AI art is found in every board game, I will stop playing and writing about board games. Simple as that.

The Hidden History of Women Game Designers - JSTOR Daily Nineteenth-century women turned music lessons into interactive entertainment, complete with spinning wheels and ivory counters.

The Hidden History of Women Game Designers daily.jstor.org/the-hidden-h...

“Unsettling Catan: Detached Design in Eurogames” by J. Rey Lee There are more than a few books about Catan out there. You can even find a couple of novels in the endless catalogue of ISBN lists. But in “Unsettling Catan” author J. Rey Lee doesn’t simply retrace his personal journey into the many-coloured world of modern board games. He also doesn’t give us a history of Catan’s development and success story, which – as some would argue – was the launch of the eurogame genre.

Unsettling Catan by J. Rey Lee isn't a book just about Catan, but about eurogames and their characteristic features.

This is me trying to talk about its most pertinent arguments.

#boardgames

In the end, although boardgames always mean more than they say, taking them seriously means getting more say in what they mean.

I've only just started reading Unsettling Catan by @jreylee.bsky.social but the introduction already includes bangers like this one.

While also bringing up player *complicity*. I can't wait to get through more of its pages.

I just launched an AMA for Unsettling Catan over on boardgamegeek. Please drop by and ask me anything!

Link: boardgamegeek.com/thread/36112...

#boardgames #bgg

NPI does fantastic work! They were a major influence on Unsettling Catan, as I talk about in my latest design diary.

#boardgames

Paperback copy of Unsettling Catan appears in front of a board game with the text Now Available

The first book in the Tabletop Games series is now available! Start reading "Unsettling Catan" by J. Rey Lee at doi.org/10.3998/mpub...

Unsettling Catan: Detached Design in Eurogames Most revolutions don't start with nineteen cardboard hexagons, but Klaus Teuber's game about settling a hexagonal island quietly revolutionized boardgaming. <I>Catan</I>'s commercial success selling o...

That's odd. It's working for me right now.

Here's a direct link: www.fulcrum.org/concern/mono...

I said Monday, but it's apparently out early (aka, now 👀)

You can also buy the book from the publisher (with a promo code) or the audiobook from me, but all I really want is for folks to read and engage.

If you want to support my work, please advocate for academic freedom and funding. It's why I can afford to write Open Access in the first place.

Unsettling Catan Read Online Buy Paperback* Buy Audiobook Description Coverage *30% off with code UMWEB30 Audiobook Preview Description Most revolutions don’t start with nineteen cardboard hexagons, but Klaus Teube…

Hey all, you can read Unsettling Catan: Detached Design in Eurogames free online right now!

Stay tuned because instead of my typical monthly blog post, I'll be doing an AMA on BGG in a week or two.

#boardgames #NewBook @pbooth81.bsky.social @aarontram.bsky.social @uofmpress.bsky.social

Perfect day for hexes!

I obviously talk about Catan, but I also show love for Revive.
@kostby.bsky.social @wermlund.bsky.social

Q&A with Author J. Rey Lee

Unsettling Catan releases on Monday, so I sat down with Danielle from @uofmpress.bsky.social to do a Q&A on the book.

(the interview was written, but I was sitting down at the time)

#boardgames #catan
@pbooth81.bsky.social @aarontram.bsky.social

No worries, looking forward to it 😊

I can't seem to find this on BGA anywhere. Am I doing something wrong or is this not actually out yet?

Happy Essen Spiel to those who celebrate! 🎉

I won't be there but I love seeing all the posts.

I'd genuinely rather someone avoid my work altogether than read bits thrown into a blender with random crap scooped from the internet.

I'm not at all offended if someone doesn't have the time or inclination to read the book. But the AI slop completely distorts any value my work may have had.

The only reason it says that is because (a) lots of reviews use words like “bold” and “timely” and (b) my book uses the words “detached design.” That’s it. It’s just piecing together random bits of info in a way that sounds good.

Talk about empty praise.

AI summaries are bad enough, but book reviews are nothing but value judgments AI is incapable of making.

“…makes a bold, timely intervention by naming and interrogating “detached design” in Eurogames” would be nice if the AI meant it. But it has no more idea what that means than a toaster does.

Screenshot showing the slider for "AI-enhanced Outputs" disabled in the user settings page for academia.edu.

I immediately disabled the AI setting (which they defaulted to active without my permission), so the review should be deleted now.

But it had just enough detail to make me think they have more than the blurb to work with. We're trying to figure this out now.

Screenshot of email notification from Academia.edu that reads "An AI wrote a review of your paper."

Disappointed but not surprised academia.edu wants to peddle AI slop reviews of my book.

Disappointed and very surprised they generated an AI review of a book that’s not out anywhere. The publishers and I have no idea what they based it on.

#AcademicSky #AI #writingcommunity

(1/5)

The Costs of Publishing Monographs - Ithaka S+R The University Press business model faces numerous challenges today, with revenues under pressure due to a host of factors, from the decline of

*The $27,000 figure comes from studies they ran on the costs of publishing in 2016. I'd imagine the costs today are considerably higher.

Studies:
sr.ithaka.org/publications...
quod.lib.umich.edu/j/jep/333645...

So proud of @uofmichigan.bsky.social for investing in Open Access publishing!

In a world where "you get what you pay for," we're used to free meaning cheap. But UMP lays out over $27,000* to make a book available to the public. That's putting ideas over profit.

You can support their work here:

That's awesome! I hope he enjoys it!

More info at lookingglance.com/unsettling-catan/

The print book does look great and buying direct from U Michigan doesn't feed the capitalist machine, but this will also be available Open Access so it's super low commitment.

I've got all the info and a short preview at lookingglance.com/unsettling-catan/

This is an Open Access book, so the digital ebook will be available to read for free upon release.

This is why Dan is good at what he does: when he says "Writing is thinking for me," he means it. Instead of churning out content to fit a formula, he just engages with games and sees where it goes.

I tell my students this over and over, so I'm always happy to see someone say it so clearly.

I don't want to spoil anything, but *maybe* that'll be the next book.

If it helps, you aren't the first person to think that.

I only realized that could be an issue when I sent an email entitled something like "Unsettling Catan Info" and the recipient thought it was a tabloid heading 😂