A Hive of Scum and Villainy

An image of a young person with a lightsaber standing in front of several other characters holding various implements.

... but why are they all women? I've been playing Jedi: Fallen Order - reluctantly and with much pain - for about 20 hours now. What I've discovered so far is that all villains seem to be women. At least the named ones. The imperial soldiers are all men, of course, but the force users... Continue Reading →

2023-07-31 0

Blackbirds and the Language of Design

I’m currently trying to get through the TTRPG tome Blackbirds. I can’t say I’ve made much headway. I’m 20 pages in in this heavy, unwieldy and somewhat morose volume and already there are two things that strike me as Gatekeep-y. The first is the opaque language, that I assume is intended to bring with it... Continue Reading →

2023-07-25 0

A Dysfunctional Industry

A simple drawing of a girl in red staring down a tiger against a yellow background

A while back Riot settled a gender discrimination and harassment lawsuit for $100 million. The lawsuit brought up cases of sexual harassment, pregnancy discrimination, retaliation, and constructive dismissal. I’m pretty sure - actually I’m convinced - that this type of behaviour does not only exist, I would also argue that most likely, it is fairly... Continue Reading →

2023-07-23 0

I Want to Make a Difference

A button featuring a serious princess Leia looking into the camera. A white text on a red background reads "we are the resistance"

It might seem like a foolish or vain thing to some, but I want to have an impact on the games industry and culture. I want to make a difference in the industry that I work in and I want to leave some imprint on the games I work on. I’ve tried indifference a couple... Continue Reading →

2023-07-21 0

Game Design Diary – Look at All the Pretty Things

I hade a confession to make. Despite me constantly admonishing my colleagues, both past, present and hypothetical, to please make decisions, my designer self is just as likely to be distracted by a nice new design or a pretty new feature, meaning I’m not much better and that I got distracted. I am still trying... Continue Reading →

2023-07-17 0

OSR, Ludology and Conservative Gaming Culture

I’m reading a book called the Role-Playing Game Primer and Old School Playbook by Chris Gonnerman, purporting to teach beginners how to play RPGs. It is one of those books that I’ve had on my shelf for ages and never managed to read because… well. Honestly probably because I started reading and found it somewhat... Continue Reading →

2023-07-15 0