First post of the year, new paper out today: we present possibly the biggest case of systematic Measurement Schmeasurement in tech use. It seems that most studies on gaming (videogame) addiction/disorder haven't measured gaming after all. This research took years, so long 🧵 doi.org/10.1098/rsos...

A thread on ZEN AND SLOW GAMES (MIT Press, 2026)

In collaboration with the amazing Herní archiv, we have finally been able to digitize and release the software archive of František Čuňas Stárek, the Czechoslovak dissident and member of the Vokno collective, who used the Sinclair ZX Spectrum in samizdat. 1/3
herniarchiv.cz/projects/fra...

Plague: In the Maze of the Mind is a 1996 Italian first person... virtual surgeon game? You run around a virtual Rome (patient's brains), gathering ideas to bring them back to where they belong, while killing animals (viruses).
Strange and repetitive, but running around in lowpoli Rome? Love it.

Eludamos has a new CFP for a Special issue: New Perspectives on Men and Masculinity in Gaming

Eludamos invites scholars in game studies and beyond to submit full papers for a special issue on men and masculinity in gaming, with deadline March 15, 2026.

Could be of interest to game historians/fans - a 1969 film from Dartmouth College showing P0TSH0T, an early artillery/ballistic curve computer game, displayed using a plotter. Credit to the original uploader Kevin Bunch! www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJ7A...

Hi folks! I’m currently co-editing a special issue for GAME about queer and trans games studies. Find the full cfp here www.gamejournal.it/n-132025-bey..., deadline for abstract submission is 12 January 2026!

The new yearly Eludamos issue has just dropped! It's massive: one editorial, 12 articles, 4 book reviews, and one commentary. It's well over 350 pages. Please find it here:

eludamos.org/index.php/el...

"Monsters in glass cages. This WAD is intended as a tool for WAD authors to give an easy way to examine animated sprites without getting killed by them."

From Doomscroll, a big collection of Doom mods playable in your browser:
doomscroll.cx

Check out this cool podcast episode (in Czech) I've moderated about Czech settings in Czech games, with the wonderful guests @bludr.bsky.social @lenikrsova.bsky.social and Zdeněk Záhora on the practical, creative and commercial aspects of local settings (+trains & alcohol). tinyurl.com/yz9yvkhf

This was clipped from a vid file I downloaded many years ago, but I've just seen that the BBC have uploaded a new version of the 'Commercial Breaks' expose of the rise of Ocean and the fall of Imagine.

Worth spending a half-hour watching for those interested in the UK's bedroom coder boom.

My and Jan Houška's article "Czech Appeal" is out in open access! We talked to local independent game developers who make locally themed games and asked them about their motivations, production processes, and the reception of their games. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

1/5🎥🏭When platform capitalism meets local labor: A Prague perspective on global streaming production.

My new article examines how Amazon's Carnival Row—filmed in Prague—embodies the contradictions of platform imperialism. 🧵👇

#StreamingMobileProduction #PlatformImperialism #CarnivalRow #Prague.

Go in and do this. I was also 'upgraded' automatically with no notice to the 30eur annually more expensive AI Bullshit Plus version of Office 365. Nothing says "this is a necessary and groundbreaking technology" like having to force-feed it down people's throats.

Happy to announce that for our game studies ERC project GAMEINDEX, we're looking for 2 PhD students. These are fully funded positions. More info here:

Be careful, if you ever played Among Us, or probably watched The Thing I guess, you might be a CEO assassin!

Like fucking clockwork lol

I sense some Blue Ice/Commander Blood vibes!

Happy to announce that my ERC Consolidator Grant project "GAMEINDEX:Politics and Aesthetics of Indexical Representation in Digital Games and VR" has been selected for funding. We're starting in October 2025!
gameproductionstudies.fsv.cuni.cz/2024/12/03/g...

Did you know that in Brazil, there are places where you can pay to play games for a certain amount of time?

I narrated the past, present, and future of some of these spaces in the doc Um real a hora (2022) -- One real an hour --, which is now available in English!

Let me tell you more below! 👇🏽