ben

thank you for sharing this. it's encouraging to me on my own journey of career changes / developing a healthier relationship with music comp. and getting out from under expectations of what "success" is. hope you feel liberated and fulfilled!

we need this, as a society

Myst was my first “immersive” experience in a game as a kid—the first game to transport me beyond the awareness that I was playing with a toy on the computer. I was hooked on the series that followed. they’re foundational to my personal journey of playing, studying, and creating games!

they gotta let him direct one. his love of G would undo Emmerich’s hate

he’s an enemy of art and artists. he turned his 4K “remasters” into AI-smoothed sludge and he’s feeding the workers who have made his VFX-driven projects possible into the chipper to save money and push the use of tech he’s invested in

I’ll happily continue to ignore this series

You Won't Make Me Watch The Worst Non-Movie Of The Year No, I'm not going to watch that movie everyone is saying is so awful that I have to see it. I'm not falling for that trap.

I'm not watching WAR OF THE WORLDS and I don't think you should either. Why? Because the bean counters at Amazon don't see hate-watching as a bad thing. In fact, they are playing to that.

Would You Like To Know More?

since it’s being talked about, imo (personally) 1) all games are “art” and 2) player choice/a certain threshold of interactivity is not required to qualify as a game. “play” takes many forms. games as multimedia storytelling are valid even if they are completely linear and lack choice

not good! people should not lose their livelihoods to “AI efficiencies”—and libraries and the orgs around them should be a bastion of information for and by humans. machine readable things like the semantic web etc. are only as good as they are useful to humans on both ends of the sharing of info

so basically, the D’ni number system logic @cyan.com

love how they so subtly honored the American TriStar Zilla

incredible piece of criticism

ScienceDirect AI ad on ScienceDirect, offering to "instantly surface, cite, compare and explore trusted evidence from deep within peer-reviewed literature"

no thanks!

it is distressing that “Processed by the Boys” not only remains relevant but has never been truer in its description of a police/surveillance state fueled by xenophobia and marketed as “cool and nice”

this is the tie-in that would get me to play

"1 Perfect Games" in Steam account

Screenshot of "Frog Detective 1: The Haunted Island" with a badge in Steam

Steam is almost correct. there is 1 perfect game, and it's Frog Detective, but there are 2 others: Frog Detective 2 and 3.

me when I download the Taco Bell app again

I never considered that a pope could be from where I’m from. somehow it’s strange

the Japanese Breakfast show was so good that I forgot to take a picture

good grief. I stopped buying their stuff because of the transphobia fiasco, but it’s disconcerting as an indicator of where the industry is. I was also bummed to see LABS go from free to free* (*subscription platform with some free stuff to get you in the door)

I remember this cover story because it pushed me over the edge to cancel my Atlantic print subscription and seek out more progressive voices

We're suing Trump to save library funding. Show up for our libraries, American Library Association.

NEW: ALA is going to court to stop the President’s attempts to illegally dismantle the Institute of Museum & Library Services.

The President does not have the authority to destroy a federal agency. That's why we're taking action with our co-plaintiff @afscme.bsky.social. #ForOurLibraries (1/3)

we can still save it. keep donating your HEI points

it’s Christmas in Tinseltown!

been thinking about “a thousand points of light” and “a kinder, gentler nation (machine gun hand),” how Young was calling out hypocrisy in that presidential rhetoric. they’ve all but dropped that benevolent moral superiority facade in favor of open authoritarianism. it’s just “machine gun hand” now

this is among the biggest misses of the noms to me (of the films I’ve seen). subjectively, I think the cinematography is transcendent — objectively, it’s at the center of the language the filmmakers use to tell the story of Nickel Boys.

Screenshot of Variety article about Dune Part 2: “The Academy’s rule states: “In cases such as sequels and franchises from any media, the score must not use more than 20% of pre-existing themes and music borrowed from previous scores in the franchise.” Since Zimmer’s composition for “Dune: Part Two” incorporates substantial elements from his work on 2021’s “Dune,” it falls outside of the eligibility criteria.”

my Oscars quibble: not being able to use more than “20% of preexisting themes” in a sequel score seems pretty arbitrary and unrealistic

making your skill issue everyone’s problem by trying to kill the commercial viability of a craft… cool stuff man

finally, I continue to have a wonderful time with longtime mainstay @warframe.com. my favorite space opera storytelling in games, packaged within an experience that is absurdly rich (fashion? fishing? interior decorating? snowboarding? spaceships? dating sim?) and accompanied by a positive community

I fear that like Starship Troopers (the film), anti-colonialism/anti-militarism/anti-fash readings of Helldivers II are lost on too many players, but I've had a fun time playing with friends. idk how I feel about it as a vehicle for commentary, but it is a great vehicle for memorable squad mayhem