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academicality.bsky.social
nicholas theisen
@academicality.bsky.social
64 followers 130 following 130 posts
Game Design | Google Books @ UIowa Libraries | Co-host Furidashi Podcast
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by nicholas theisen
gibiz.bsky.social
Owlcat Games has launched a free game development learning resource, featuring over 350 learning resources including software recommendations, tutorials, and online courses

www.gamesindustry.biz/owlcat-games...
Owlcat Games sets up educational resource hub for game devs
Studio partners with Fireshine Games, 11 Bit Studios, Gaijin Entertainment, and Midwest Games to build database of over 350 learning resources
www.gamesindustry.biz
October 15, 2025 at 9:20 AM
Reposted by nicholas theisen
goblinmode.com
That joy must not be sold. It must not be "privatised," made into another privilege for the privileged. A public library is a public trust. And that freedom must not be compromised. It must be available to all who need it, and that's everyone, when they need it, and that's always. — Ursula K Le Guin
screenshot of Jason from The Good Place saying to a photoshopped-in image of Ursula K. Le Guin “Oh Ursula, we’re really in it now.”
October 10, 2025 at 2:43 PM
Reposted by nicholas theisen
jacobsberg.bsky.social
Cool cool
📜📚
Libraries Can’t Get Their Loaned Books Back Because of Trump’s Tariffs
Libraries have shared their collections internationally for decades. Trump’s tariffs are throwing that system into chaos and can ‘hinder academic progress.’
www.404media.co
October 6, 2025 at 4:17 PM
Reposted by nicholas theisen
espressocat.bsky.social
Year of Metal Gear 🎉✨ For those that don’t know I have a podcast 🎙️ I do! With @academicality.bsky.social and you can listen to our first episode now!
134. Hideo Kojima, Memelord | Year of Metal Gear | S6E01
open.spotify.com
September 25, 2025 at 5:07 PM
academicality.bsky.social
It's finally arrived folks! @espressocat.bsky.social and I have begun our infiltration of Outer Heaven in order to crack the Konami Code and discover the creative genius (?) of Kojima Hideo.

Join us in celebrating the start of season 6: The Year of Metal Gear!
Metal Gear transceiver screen with text reading, "Lauryn... it's coming... no! It's already here! The year... the year of Metal Gear!"
September 25, 2025 at 2:32 PM
Reposted by nicholas theisen
aftermath.site
'Kei' and 'Midi' are much more interesting video game definitions than 'AAA' or 'indie'

aftermath.site/video-game-gen...
September 17, 2025 at 12:13 AM
Reposted by nicholas theisen
kyleor.land
One of the coolest video game preservation stories I have ever covered arstechnica.com/gaming/2025/...
All 54 lost clickwheel iPod games have now been preserved for posterity
Finding working copies of the last few titles was an “especially cursed” journey.
arstechnica.com
September 8, 2025 at 6:21 PM
Reposted by nicholas theisen
espressocat.bsky.social
Yesss Kiki’s is one of my all time favorites! And in this one we really dig into burnout, creativity, and aesthetics of themes.
academicality.bsky.social nicholas theisen @academicality.bsky.social · Aug 28
It is that time of the month again! @espressocat.bsky.social and I wrap up season 5 on aesthetics with a deep dive into Studio Ghibli's 1989 film, Kiki's Delivery Service!
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/1...
133. Kiki's Delivery Service (1989) | S5E11
Podcast Episode · Furidashi Game Design Academy · 08/28/2025 · 1h 2m
podcasts.apple.com
August 28, 2025 at 3:22 PM
academicality.bsky.social
It is that time of the month again! @espressocat.bsky.social and I wrap up season 5 on aesthetics with a deep dive into Studio Ghibli's 1989 film, Kiki's Delivery Service!
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/1...
133. Kiki's Delivery Service (1989) | S5E11
Podcast Episode · Furidashi Game Design Academy · 08/28/2025 · 1h 2m
podcasts.apple.com
August 28, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Reposted by nicholas theisen
musicfighter.bsky.social
Start dismantling the data centers. Sell the GPUs at basement prices. Destroy the buildings and plant trees where they stood.
August 21, 2025 at 5:59 AM
Reposted by nicholas theisen
lauren.rotatingsandwiches.com
ALTMAN: By 2030 we'll be able to make sexy cartoon girls real

VON: With like, holograms?

ALTMAN: No, we'll have paint that can draw them into real life. Like a big god hand comes down with a paintbrush-

VON: And then Jessica Rabbit, Cool World, and anime babes I assume

ALTMAN: oh yeah, of course
August 19, 2025 at 11:43 AM
Reposted by nicholas theisen
birdrespecter.bsky.social
AI slobs genuinely cannot conceive the idea that creation, not the end product, is what makes it a worthy endeavor. To call this process “deeply unpleasant” is the ultimate self report
seraphsriddle.bsky.social Samyaza Panoptes @seraphsriddle.bsky.social · Aug 17
Honestly this is an excuse.

I know plenty of people who are not “naturally gifted” who do art.

It requires effort to learn. I feel you did not approach it correctly or think things happen over night.

Also hard work and skill is not “naturally gifted” as that undermines their efforts to draw.

1/2
August 17, 2025 at 2:56 PM
academicality.bsky.social
Good work building environmental disasters these days.
August 15, 2025 at 2:12 PM
Reposted by nicholas theisen
chadstanton.blacksky.app
Don’t feel like digging up the receipts but everything you’re seeing now, downplaying police violence and racism, purging schools of “woke” studies,showing a surge of civic and material support for police, were all suggestions made during the protests meant to quell them without answering any cause.
August 15, 2025 at 10:58 AM
academicality.bsky.social
I'm a firm believer in really digging into something before having an opinion about it, but I was not prepared for how turbo racist The Golden Bough is.
August 13, 2025 at 5:42 PM
academicality.bsky.social
I'm gonna get "we have impact beyond spreadsheets and gate counters" printed on a big sign so that I can tap it whenever someone from admin walks past my desk.
fineplan.bsky.social Matthew @fineplan.bsky.social · Aug 12
YES.

I've worked in libraries where the message is we must "treat this like a business" which seems to forget that we have impact beyond spreadsheets tracking door counters. (our metrics are often flawed) The business of libraries, I think, is to enrich communities and provide opportunities.
raforall.bsky.social Becky Spratford @raforall.bsky.social · Aug 12
Today on the blog I am going to ruffle a lot of feathers as I argue for you to spend less money on bestselling authors as our budgets contract and why if you do not, you are making the problem worse for everyone-- authors and readers:

raforall.blogspot.com/2025/08/the-...
August 12, 2025 at 5:20 PM
Reposted by nicholas theisen
tuphlos.bsky.social
Our friend Fobazi could use our help. And all of our good energy for a complete recovery. gofund.me/11eb33bb
Donate to Fobazi’s road to recovery: Kidney and liver transplant, organized by Ysabel Gerrard
Hello all, my name is Ysabel and I’m fundraising for my friends … Ysabel Gerrard needs your support for Fobazi’s road to recovery: Kidney and liver transplant
gofund.me
August 7, 2025 at 9:05 PM
Reposted by nicholas theisen
lifewinning.com
So it's depressed and can't get a job
August 7, 2025 at 6:44 PM
Reposted by nicholas theisen
nathangrayson.bsky.social
when these companies try to claim this is about what’s legal or not, they’re lying. none of the games that were removed from steam or itch broke the law. financial companies are making subjective decisions based on what might inconvenience them

aftermath.site/steam-itch-p...
"But the idea that it's just about what's legal is ridiculous,” he added. “It's not about what the law allows you to process. These are often very subjective rules around what falls outside the brand guidelines for Visa and Mastercard. And even if something doesn't fall outside the brand guidelines, it may just be something that is uncomfortable. ... [Questions of] 'Is this inside the bounds? Is this outside the bounds? Should we be processing that? Should we not be processing that?' are often incredibly subjective." Stabile speculated that specific game removals on Steam and new rules on both Steam and Itch are meant to bring video games in line with what card companies and payment processors would be comfortable with in real-life porn. But that approach, he noted, doesn’t really stand up to prolonged scrutiny: "The difference is that you can't shoot anybody in real life, but there are plenty of games in which you can do that,” he said. “The stuff [companies] are talking about is entirely legal. It's legal to have in a book, it's legal to have in a game. They are making decisions based on their brand, based on public pressure from anti-porn groups, and that can be reversed."
August 1, 2025 at 4:05 PM
Reposted by nicholas theisen
waxy.org
Frame of preference: Marcin Wichary made an astounding history of Mac settings using 10 different embedded emulators, including easter eggs and bonus tasks https://aresluna.org/frame-of-...
Frame of preference
A story of early Mac settings told by 10 emulators.
aresluna.org
July 9, 2025 at 2:15 AM
academicality.bsky.social
The angel Gabriel, after Luca Signorelli
Line art drawing of the angel Gabriel with twisty hair
July 26, 2025 at 12:20 AM
Reposted by nicholas theisen
voiddebris.bsky.social
Mastercard:
Phone (US): 1-800-627-8372

Phone (outside US): 1-636-722-7111

www.mastercard.com/us/en/person...

Visa:
Phone (US): 1-800-847-2911

Non-US numbers:
usa.visa.com/contact-us.h...

Online form:
usa.visa.com/Forms/contac...

3/🧵
Paypal form submission steps: 1) “ Submit a complaint about PayPal” 2) “I can’t see my complaint reason”. 3) “Submit a complaint without logging in” (Note you MUST be logged out for this to work) 4) Fill out the form, you can copy/paste the complaint letter here.
July 24, 2025 at 2:19 PM
Reposted by nicholas theisen
voiddebris.bsky.social
Complaint letter! You can copy/paste or edit

You can use the same info for a call!

Paypal:
Phone (US): 1-888-221-1161

Phone (outside US): 1-402-935-2050

Hours: 6am - 6pm PT

Online (for non-users or logged out - UK bc US site ONLY allows logged in users): www.paypal.com/uk/cshelp/co...

2/🧵
Complaint Letter Template Customer Complaint Dept, This message is to lodge an official complaint about the ongoing rampant restrictions your company has placed on legal sales made by legitimate businesses. These restrictions are not only counter to the concept of freedom of speech and expression, but they harm consumers, businesses, and they harm your company’s bottom line. The following actions are absolutely necessary to protect the freedoms of your client base and the sustainability of legitimate business practices: Remove from your Terms of Service any mention barring the use of your service for sale and purchase of legal products. Contact Steam (Valve), Itch.io, and any other company you have previously put pressure on to retract your content restrictions. Put in place protections to prevent such restrictions from being put in place in the future without ample warning and time to contest them. If these changes aren't made then I, along with many others will be forced to seek other options for processing payments. Sincerely, A Concerned Customer. Contact Information Mastsercard Phone (US): 1-800-627-8372 Phone (outside US): 1-636-722-7111 Online Form Submission Visa Phone (US): 1-800-847-2911 Click Here For Non-US Numbers Online Form Submission Paypal Phone (US): 1-888-221-1161 Phone (outside US): 1-402-935-2050 Hours: 6am - 6pm PT Online Form Submission (UK site is linked as you’re able to submit a complaint without an account).
July 24, 2025 at 2:19 PM