Chris Mooney
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chriskmooney.bsky.social
Chris Mooney
@chriskmooney.bsky.social
3.5K followers 300 following 1.4K posts
they/them, non-binary, #wotcstaff Senior Game Designer, Great Designer Search 3
Lead for Avatar, SNC cmdr, LCI cmdr, Ponies the Galloping, and more
All opinions my own.
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chriskmooney.bsky.social
Chris Mooney @chriskmooney.bsky.social · Nov 13
Hey bluesky! I recently passed my 5 year anniversary as #wotcstaff, so I figure introducing myself here will also be a great chance to look back at all I've done over that time. Here's a thread of all* the Magic products I've worked on so far!

(*It's not even close to all, but I don't have all day)
Reposted by Chris Mooney
wolvendamien.bsky.social
Please read this extremely thoughtful & careful post on Tim Walz, Anne Frank, & the US Holocaust Memorial Museum from Martin Shuster, philosopher, Isaac Swift Distinguished Professor of Jewish Studies, former Holocaust Memorial Museum Fellow, & scholar of genocide, the Holocaust, & authoritarianism:
Martin Shuster sdSreptoon1hm9t97235g2u5796glgh0435l6iaf05it1l232lc20cllf4g0 · So apparently on Sunday Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota, said in a press conference that "we have got children hiding in their houses, afraid to go outside ... many of us grew up reading that story of Anne Frank. Somebody’s gonna write that children’s story about Minnesota.” Then on Monday--one day before International Holocaust Remembrance Day--the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum tweeted in response that: "Anne Frank was targeted and murdered solely because she was Jewish. Leaders making false equivalencies to her experience for political purposes is never acceptable. Despite tensions in Minneapolis, exploiting the Holocaust is deeply offensive, especially as antisemitism surges." As someone who spent a year at the Museum as a fellow doing research, I feel embarrassed for the institution. First, it is very clear that Walz wasn't drawing an equivalence, he was drawing an analogy. So this kind of response reminds me of the atrocious positions that the ADL has started to carve out, and why it has become mostly a sycophantic joke, now seemingly mostly geared towards currying favor with MAGA. Not unrelatedly, I am noticing that a lot of--oftentimes even well-intentioned--people are spending time trying to delineate exactly which historical referent best captures what's going on now, as if we have to pick only one. There is the now well-circulated meme that says: no, ICE isn't the Gestapo, it's actually American--it's slave catchers. But this is a kind of odd distinction: the Nazis were themselves influenced by the Americans (if you're curious read the excellent book by James Whitman, _Hitler's American Model_). Nazis came here and studied American legal systems and statutes ... and remarkably a group of "liberal" Nazis decided that they couldn't make German laws as *extreme* as American ones (and this "liberal" group in fact won the day; German laws weren't as extreme as many of ours). Equally, Nazi jurists and theorists like Carl Schmitt were deeply influenced by American notions of manifest destiny. So the Nazi and American contexts were already fused. The idea of foreign/domestic is already quite complex in this context. (And this is before we even speak of the many actual Nazis that existed here and the many people who materially supported Hitler and the regime). We can complicate this picture more by noting that Nazism itself, even apart from these American influences, wasn't something that sprouted up out of thin air: it, too, had a(n experimental) history. Many of its barbaric practices and aims were developed and tested on colonial and imperial victims (as I have written elsewhere: there is a direct line from Shark Island concentration camp [called frequently simply "Death Island" where the Germans committed genocide against the Herero and Nama people] to the entire Nazi camp system). Thinkers like Hannah Arendt and Aimé Césaire drew our attention to this already in the middle of the last century. In noting this, let me be clear that this does not erase or make less relevant the centuries of European antisemitism that fed into the Nazi project. That's the whole point: these are all related phenomena. European antisemitism influenced the way in which European colonialism and imperialism operated against indigenous populations in the Americas. Strikingly, as innovations mounted in "administering" the Americas, antisemitic policies also evolved in Europe. Administrators (oppressors) would sometimes even move from one sphere to the other and back. They were all synergistic (a brilliant examination of some of this is María Elena Martínez's _Genealogical Fictions_). (And one could, btw, also tell an important story about the development of Islamophobia in this very same orbit, since policies stumbled on in the Americas came back to oppress both Jews and Muslims in Europe). This is all to say: Walz's analogy is not at all far fetched. The history of oppression doesn't move in any kind of neat or purely linear fashion. It is oftentimes recursive, shifting, necessarily granular. Neither is it a competitive history. It is, in the words of Michael Rothberg, a *multidirectional* history. Drawing these analogies in fact *helps* us understand all the involved phenomena better. At least this is what "Never Again" has meant and means to me: it does not mean only never again for me or other Jews. And it does not mean never again only something that looks exactly like the Nazi genocide. I think also, btw, that this is what it meant for Otto Frank, who spent time *editing* his daughter's diary so that it could be available to anyone, not only to Jews. For ultimately the Nazi genocide--any genocide--is a highly mediated phenomenon: it consists of many diffuse events, marshals an immense amount of people and institutions, relies on sometimes conflicting or contradictory cross-sections of society, and, indeed, emerges out of a process that does not neatly, especially as its happening, have a clear beginning, middle, and end, but rather arranges for itself a kind of constellation that harnesses a range of actors, perspectives, and also histories (this is one way to understand how German colonial projects or anti-communism or ableism were no less crucial to Nazism than European antisemitism). The genocidal outcomes emerge from the structural forms society adopts. And all of this without in any way eliding the special role that Jews played in the apocalyptic Nazi worldview.
January 30, 2026 at 1:24 AM
chriskmooney.bsky.social
The 70th anniversary World of Color is the best World of Color since World of Color
February 1, 2026 at 5:38 AM
Reposted by Chris Mooney
rincewind.run
life is a series of clubs - if you’re in, your misdeeds are written off as mistakes and indiscretions and you’re afforded infinite grace, and if you’re out a single fuckup will ruin your life

apparently the final form of this is pedophile club
brendelbored.bsky.social Brendel @brendelbored.bsky.social · 1d
I think what both the second Trump administration and the Epstein files have taught us is that there’s very little need of covertness or secrecy if everyone with power pretends you aren’t doing what you’re doing when you openly tell them what you’re doing
January 31, 2026 at 7:38 PM
Reposted by Chris Mooney
magic.wizards.com
We are deeply saddened at the news of the passing of Magic legend Kai Budde. His achievements in the game and community go beyond what we could say in one post. Our thoughts go out to Kai's friends and family in this moment.

Remembering Kai Budde: magic.wizards.com/en/news/anno...
January 30, 2026 at 12:59 AM
Reposted by Chris Mooney
maro254.bsky.social
Someone on my blog asked what plane has the best pizza. One of the planes I chose was Ravnica, so another person asked which guild made the best pizza. It was “Another Day of R&D Productivity Lost” (for fans of my old “Tales from the Pit” comic).
#WotCStaff
January 29, 2026 at 6:30 PM
chriskmooney.bsky.social
I am fueled by all reactions to Mathemagics.
January 28, 2026 at 2:12 AM
Reposted by Chris Mooney
zeddary.bsky.social
Extremely funny that the champion of the revolutionary left/socialist boogeyman of Republicans everywhere is basically Leslie Knope.
anildash.com Anil Dash @anildash.com · 7d
One of the hardest things to do is bring campaign-level communications to the work of governance, and snowstorms are notoriously one of the biggest litmus tests that less-engaged voters use to judge mayoral administrations. This is an excellent way to communicate.
January 25, 2026 at 5:29 PM
chriskmooney.bsky.social
Hot take/confession: Even as a film student, I do not understand when people say “in this movie, [the setting] is its own character” 🤷

Like is the setting important and unique? Sure. But it’s still not a character in function.

Anyone have good examples where they thing of the setting this way?
January 25, 2026 at 5:31 PM
chriskmooney.bsky.social
Ever since Stranger Things ended I've been fascinated by why my family reacted so differently (we liked it ok) to the audience at large.

From my research, I've realized that y'all were WAY more into Stranger Things this whole time than we were lol. Expectations really do mean everything!
January 25, 2026 at 2:02 AM
chriskmooney.bsky.social
I find all the Gen Z cast members on SNL to be the funniest. I can’t tell if this should make me feel young because clearly Gen Z humor is my thing, or old because I know what SNL is.
January 24, 2026 at 8:49 PM
chriskmooney.bsky.social
The thing that keeps me hooked on the Bazaar is how drastically the runs can feel even with the fixed card pool. Like this Stelle run I had where Tempering allowed two items I think are usually weak (Cloud Tanker and Battle Drone) to take me all the way to a perfect 10 wins.
January 24, 2026 at 6:31 AM
chriskmooney.bsky.social
I actually became a big Smosh fan over the last year or two, so seeing us partner with them is cool to me.

We've got Dropout and Smosh, now all we need is some kind of Starkid collab and the holy trinity will be complete.
January 23, 2026 at 6:15 PM
chriskmooney.bsky.social
“I’d like to start a podcast with you”
grayhaem.bsky.social Roy Graham @grayhaem.bsky.social · 12d
"pick your brain" is obviously a gross expression but I'm not sure what the alternative is. open to suggestions. maybe we get even grosser? "hey I'd love to slurp up some of your thought-juice if you have time this week"
January 20, 2026 at 7:12 PM
Reposted by Chris Mooney
blaqdocdown.bsky.social
Martin Luther King, Jr., arrested for “loitering,” Montgomery, Alabama, 1958

Photo by Charles Moore
January 15, 2026 at 4:44 PM
chriskmooney.bsky.social
*USC Alum seeing everyone freaking out over Caleb Williams*
January 19, 2026 at 3:51 AM
chriskmooney.bsky.social
Shoutout to everyone who (like me) opened a fine, not notable at all prerelease pool and piloted it to a solid 2-1 finish. I appreciate you even if you were not compelled to post your deck because it was so boring.
January 18, 2026 at 2:26 AM
chriskmooney.bsky.social
1996 does feel like 30 years ago and 2006 does feel like 20 years ago. But 2016 feels like yesterday. It feels like tomorrow too. It’s been 2016 for a decade now.
January 15, 2026 at 5:16 PM
chriskmooney.bsky.social
Brennan Lee Mulligan is such a trusted font of wisdom in my household that it was legitimately shocking to see him accidentally present the prisoners dilemma slightly wrong last week. It’s like the first time you realized as a child that an adult could be wrong.
January 12, 2026 at 5:50 AM
Reposted by Chris Mooney
kenjennings.bsky.social
If you are anxious and sad about the state of the world, that's fine, and there are plenty of strategies for dealing with that. But I think you already know that drive-by online dooming isn't a strategy. It's selfish and adolescent. It's a contagion that only spreads the worst of you, not the best.
January 8, 2026 at 3:51 AM
chriskmooney.bsky.social
The Fallout show feels like if someone played the Fallout games and then said “let’s make a show based on this.”

Which sounds obvious but historically has been rare for video game adaptations.
January 10, 2026 at 8:50 PM
Reposted by Chris Mooney
beatskelton.bsky.social
IF I LEAVE THIS KLAN RALLY ALL THAT WILL BE LEFT ARE KLAN MEMBERS.
January 10, 2026 at 4:54 PM
chriskmooney.bsky.social
Today I got a root canal. It’s been a roller coaster 48 hours.
January 6, 2026 at 11:19 PM
Reposted by Chris Mooney
danfloydplus.bsky.social
The extent to which Games Done Quick has helped to steer the larger speedrunning community - one of the most hardcore video game enthusiast subcultures there is - into becoming something so welcoming, inclusive and supportive astonishes me
January 4, 2026 at 8:35 PM
chriskmooney.bsky.social
Today I was promoted at work. I am now a Principal Game Designer for Magic: the Gathering.
January 6, 2026 at 3:22 AM
chriskmooney.bsky.social
The final episode of Stranger Things is literally just the last scenario of every Arkham Horror campaign.
January 5, 2026 at 1:32 AM