Alexander King
@literallyaking.com
Game Designer, Economy/System Design. Adjunct Professor at NYU Game Center & Parsons DT. Staff Data Analyst for ACT-UAW Local 7902. Spreadsheet aficionado.
(He/Him)
(He/Him)
Reposted by Alexander King
I keep thinking about them saying "haven't you learned [from Renee Good's murder]" and... they don't understand why people are still coming out after they've shown they can and will kill us, because they're cowards, and they don't understand what it's like not to be a coward
January 17, 2026 at 10:22 PM
I keep thinking about them saying "haven't you learned [from Renee Good's murder]" and... they don't understand why people are still coming out after they've shown they can and will kill us, because they're cowards, and they don't understand what it's like not to be a coward
This is true. I had a cubicle at my first job, and I literally didn't know how good I had it. Quiet, private, high walls, like a small office. Everything after that was open floorplan hell, mainly chosen only because they *look* more hip and dynamic.
Early Dilbert comics were funny but also harmful to society because they turned us against the noble cubicle. Cubicles were civilization’s apex - a cloth box for everyone, millennia of progress ending in a private paradise cube - but Dilbert made them uncool and we’ve paid the price ever since
January 18, 2026 at 1:53 AM
This is true. I had a cubicle at my first job, and I literally didn't know how good I had it. Quiet, private, high walls, like a small office. Everything after that was open floorplan hell, mainly chosen only because they *look* more hip and dynamic.
Finished the new season of culinary class wars last night, and while I thought the season was only okay overall, I absolutely loved Venerable Sunjae, a Buddhist monk who cooks temple cuisine.
More game shows needs to have monk contestants! Someone with no attachments is utterly terrifying.
More game shows needs to have monk contestants! Someone with no attachments is utterly terrifying.
January 14, 2026 at 11:33 PM
Finished the new season of culinary class wars last night, and while I thought the season was only okay overall, I absolutely loved Venerable Sunjae, a Buddhist monk who cooks temple cuisine.
More game shows needs to have monk contestants! Someone with no attachments is utterly terrifying.
More game shows needs to have monk contestants! Someone with no attachments is utterly terrifying.
This is allegedly to "improve efficiency" but I assume it's for the exact same reason every company wants you to use their app for purchases now, because then it magically makes price discrimination legal.
Look I know we’ve got a lot going on right now but I just sent off a really disappointed-yet-respectful email directly to the CEO over this one. The Drafthouse used to be church to me. If they go through with mid-movie phone ordering then what’s the point? It’s over.
Alamo Drafthouse Goes Mobile, Getting Rid of Pen-and-Paper Food Orders to ‘Protect the Moviegoing Experience’ (EXCLUSIVE)
Alamo Drafthouse is switching to mobile ordering for food and drinks to "protect the moviegoing experience."
variety.com
January 9, 2026 at 8:50 PM
This is allegedly to "improve efficiency" but I assume it's for the exact same reason every company wants you to use their app for purchases now, because then it magically makes price discrimination legal.
Love this game! Played it a ton back in the day. It's a sort of Mad Max themed trading sim. You're going around buying low and selling high, but if you screw up your water volume-to-weight ratio calc you die of thirst in the desert.
New release: Caravaneer (2007 - Win) - https://www.myabandonware.com/game/caravaneer-zhz #abandonware
January 4, 2026 at 11:53 PM
Love this game! Played it a ton back in the day. It's a sort of Mad Max themed trading sim. You're going around buying low and selling high, but if you screw up your water volume-to-weight ratio calc you die of thirst in the desert.
This is incredible work, haunting and humanizing.
And here's a different link to the video that doesn't seem throw a login wall-
www.nytimes.com/video/opinio...
And here's a different link to the video that doesn't seem throw a login wall-
www.nytimes.com/video/opinio...
January 3, 2026 at 11:09 PM
This is incredible work, haunting and humanizing.
And here's a different link to the video that doesn't seem throw a login wall-
www.nytimes.com/video/opinio...
And here's a different link to the video that doesn't seem throw a login wall-
www.nytimes.com/video/opinio...
This fall marks 10 years of me working 'in games' (more or less), and I wanted to jot some thoughts down about it while it's still 2025.
I often feel like I haven't accomplished anything, but all in all, somehow I can't bring myself to feel disappointed.
blog.literallyaking.com/2025/12/30/1...
I often feel like I haven't accomplished anything, but all in all, somehow I can't bring myself to feel disappointed.
blog.literallyaking.com/2025/12/30/1...
10 Years of Fun and Games – Alexander King’s Blog
blog.literallyaking.com
December 30, 2025 at 11:45 PM
This fall marks 10 years of me working 'in games' (more or less), and I wanted to jot some thoughts down about it while it's still 2025.
I often feel like I haven't accomplished anything, but all in all, somehow I can't bring myself to feel disappointed.
blog.literallyaking.com/2025/12/30/1...
I often feel like I haven't accomplished anything, but all in all, somehow I can't bring myself to feel disappointed.
blog.literallyaking.com/2025/12/30/1...
Checking out music piracy for the first time in about twenty years, and it's wild how much it's changed from.. sifting through random mp3s with no consistent naming convention that are sometimes misattributed, to like... meticulously well meta-tagged FLACs of an artists' entire oeuvre.
December 24, 2025 at 6:48 PM
Checking out music piracy for the first time in about twenty years, and it's wild how much it's changed from.. sifting through random mp3s with no consistent naming convention that are sometimes misattributed, to like... meticulously well meta-tagged FLACs of an artists' entire oeuvre.
It's funny seeing that WSJ article making the rounds about having an LLM "run" a vending machine. There was the exact same story from the exact same company six months ago. Even punchline (it's bad at it, but in a funny way) is the viral-share-encouraging same. It's just an ad basically?
December 21, 2025 at 10:47 PM
It's funny seeing that WSJ article making the rounds about having an LLM "run" a vending machine. There was the exact same story from the exact same company six months ago. Even punchline (it's bad at it, but in a funny way) is the viral-share-encouraging same. It's just an ad basically?
Did an ideas guy write this?
America, you have spoken loud and clear: You do not like AI. But what if AI is the way to restart the world’s idea machine?
We’re running out of good ideas. AI might be how we find new ones.
What if the best use of AI is restarting the world’s idea machine?
www.vox.com
December 16, 2025 at 2:12 PM
Did an ideas guy write this?
Reposted by Alexander King
Game designer: After lots of hard work we’re proud to announce we’ve created the Wheel of Saṃsāra from the ancient Buddhist classic Don’t Get Trapped in the Wheel of Saṃsāra
December 14, 2025 at 3:02 AM
Game designer: After lots of hard work we’re proud to announce we’ve created the Wheel of Saṃsāra from the ancient Buddhist classic Don’t Get Trapped in the Wheel of Saṃsāra
Reposted by Alexander King
📊📊 Hey wanna make some spreadsheet makes?? 📊📊
This saturday it's @beetleeggblues.bsky.social's 2 HR GameJam Club at @wonderville.nyc, and this month's engine is Google Sheets!! So I'll be there doing a workshop, sharing some spreadsheet gamemaking tricks of the trade.
⊞✋👨
This saturday it's @beetleeggblues.bsky.social's 2 HR GameJam Club at @wonderville.nyc, and this month's engine is Google Sheets!! So I'll be there doing a workshop, sharing some spreadsheet gamemaking tricks of the trade.
⊞✋👨
December 10, 2025 at 7:55 PM
📊📊 Hey wanna make some spreadsheet makes?? 📊📊
This saturday it's @beetleeggblues.bsky.social's 2 HR GameJam Club at @wonderville.nyc, and this month's engine is Google Sheets!! So I'll be there doing a workshop, sharing some spreadsheet gamemaking tricks of the trade.
⊞✋👨
This saturday it's @beetleeggblues.bsky.social's 2 HR GameJam Club at @wonderville.nyc, and this month's engine is Google Sheets!! So I'll be there doing a workshop, sharing some spreadsheet gamemaking tricks of the trade.
⊞✋👨
📊📊 Hey wanna make some spreadsheet makes?? 📊📊
This saturday it's @beetleeggblues.bsky.social's 2 HR GameJam Club at @wonderville.nyc, and this month's engine is Google Sheets!! So I'll be there doing a workshop, sharing some spreadsheet gamemaking tricks of the trade.
⊞✋👨
This saturday it's @beetleeggblues.bsky.social's 2 HR GameJam Club at @wonderville.nyc, and this month's engine is Google Sheets!! So I'll be there doing a workshop, sharing some spreadsheet gamemaking tricks of the trade.
⊞✋👨
December 10, 2025 at 7:55 PM
📊📊 Hey wanna make some spreadsheet makes?? 📊📊
This saturday it's @beetleeggblues.bsky.social's 2 HR GameJam Club at @wonderville.nyc, and this month's engine is Google Sheets!! So I'll be there doing a workshop, sharing some spreadsheet gamemaking tricks of the trade.
⊞✋👨
This saturday it's @beetleeggblues.bsky.social's 2 HR GameJam Club at @wonderville.nyc, and this month's engine is Google Sheets!! So I'll be there doing a workshop, sharing some spreadsheet gamemaking tricks of the trade.
⊞✋👨
I'm using some music tagging software on the contents of my old ipod, and I've discovered a couple friends in college did NOT have the impressively deep and eclectic tastes I had assumed, they just had a copy of Clubber's Guide 2008
December 6, 2025 at 4:16 PM
I'm using some music tagging software on the contents of my old ipod, and I've discovered a couple friends in college did NOT have the impressively deep and eclectic tastes I had assumed, they just had a copy of Clubber's Guide 2008
Reposted by Alexander King
Here’s my Spotify Wrapped 🎵✨
December 3, 2025 at 4:51 PM
Here’s my Spotify Wrapped 🎵✨
Wow, straight up cancelling the whole thing a week before it'd launch, I think that might be unprecedented?
I really feel for the people working there, so many stories out of Wizards these days indicate they're being pushed to make too much too fast, and the cracks are really starting to show.
I really feel for the people working there, so many stories out of Wizards these days indicate they're being pushed to make too much too fast, and the cracks are really starting to show.
We care a lot about the worlds we get to celebrate, and Secret Lair x Monster Hunter didn’t quite come together the way it should have. We hear you, so we’re heading back to the drawing board to rework this Superdrop. More to come.
magic.wizards.com/en/news/anno...
magic.wizards.com/en/news/anno...
November 27, 2025 at 1:56 AM
Wow, straight up cancelling the whole thing a week before it'd launch, I think that might be unprecedented?
I really feel for the people working there, so many stories out of Wizards these days indicate they're being pushed to make too much too fast, and the cracks are really starting to show.
I really feel for the people working there, so many stories out of Wizards these days indicate they're being pushed to make too much too fast, and the cracks are really starting to show.
You should go see this!! I can't think of any recent film that is this in conversation with games. This is a movie that connects Buster Keaton silent film slapstick, Let's Plays, and the systemic logic of videogames, without any dialogue but an off the charts gags-per-minute.
November 23, 2025 at 4:09 AM
You should go see this!! I can't think of any recent film that is this in conversation with games. This is a movie that connects Buster Keaton silent film slapstick, Let's Plays, and the systemic logic of videogames, without any dialogue but an off the charts gags-per-minute.
Wow on those stats vs Adams this time four years ago. It's a whole order of magnitude change on the # of people vs amount given.
Adams' transition:
884 people, donating $1,129 each
Mamdani's:
12,707 people, donating $77.65 each
Adams' transition:
884 people, donating $1,129 each
Mamdani's:
12,707 people, donating $77.65 each
We need your help! But let me explain why:
November 18, 2025 at 3:42 PM
Wow on those stats vs Adams this time four years ago. It's a whole order of magnitude change on the # of people vs amount given.
Adams' transition:
884 people, donating $1,129 each
Mamdani's:
12,707 people, donating $77.65 each
Adams' transition:
884 people, donating $1,129 each
Mamdani's:
12,707 people, donating $77.65 each
Reposted by Alexander King
Reposted by Alexander King
The largest mass media- NYT, CNN, CBS, etc- are owned by billionaires. They own media not to make money, but to control the information space to be friendly to class interests.
Those outlets will never report positive political outcomes for regular people in any kind of objective framing.
Those outlets will never report positive political outcomes for regular people in any kind of objective framing.
After a week in which Dems exceeded expectations in elections, Trump's popularity continues to tank, the GOP largely abandoned the task of governing (just as Thanksgiving travel approaches), I'm a bit surprised to see many more stories highlighting weakness in the Dem than in the GOP coalition.
This NYT framing is ludicrously overstated. Sure, there are primaries. But if anything, the results showed a lot of Dems that there's a way to unify the factions around anti-Trump and affordability politics (as I try to argue in the piece/thread below).
November 9, 2025 at 6:51 PM
The largest mass media- NYT, CNN, CBS, etc- are owned by billionaires. They own media not to make money, but to control the information space to be friendly to class interests.
Those outlets will never report positive political outcomes for regular people in any kind of objective framing.
Those outlets will never report positive political outcomes for regular people in any kind of objective framing.
I'm finding Monster Train 2 to be mostly only okay, but I will say that in a year with a lot of sequels, it's one of the few that adheres to the Pokémon Gold/Silver sequel standard of excellence- namely, that the direct sequel contains basically the whole of the first game in its entirety.
November 8, 2025 at 11:30 PM
I'm finding Monster Train 2 to be mostly only okay, but I will say that in a year with a lot of sequels, it's one of the few that adheres to the Pokémon Gold/Silver sequel standard of excellence- namely, that the direct sequel contains basically the whole of the first game in its entirety.
The back half of this is interesting too. He shows I think genuine disbelief in how development can possibly happen if rent can't be maximized to extract a profit- Market fundamentalism so absolute that alternatives can't even be imagined. Libraries, eg, must be so utterly baffling and alien to him.
Canadian multimillionaire and Shark Tank guy Kevin O'Leary went on TV to say he's upset Zohran won't talk to him: "I and others who invest in real estate have tried to get a meeting to figure out what's rhetoric and what's policy. So far for me it's been crickets."
November 8, 2025 at 12:43 AM
The back half of this is interesting too. He shows I think genuine disbelief in how development can possibly happen if rent can't be maximized to extract a profit- Market fundamentalism so absolute that alternatives can't even be imagined. Libraries, eg, must be so utterly baffling and alien to him.
Something that Zohran's win has got me thinking about is the ongoing collapse of 'mainstream'/corporate media for liberal consent manufacture. We usually think of the negatives, post-truth fake news etc, but it also has benefits- no one is tuning in to see them punch left and tear down progressives.
The bad news is that *even in the current climate* liberals, capitalists, and mainstream media will form a united front with the fascists to oppose a center-left candidate.
The good news is that they can be defeated.
The good news is that they can be defeated.
November 5, 2025 at 4:21 PM
Something that Zohran's win has got me thinking about is the ongoing collapse of 'mainstream'/corporate media for liberal consent manufacture. We usually think of the negatives, post-truth fake news etc, but it also has benefits- no one is tuning in to see them punch left and tear down progressives.
Reposted by Alexander King
They aren't afraid of Mamdani, they are worried about what he would unleash among VOTERS. That those voters would say: "actually, we're not buying this centrist bullshit you've been shoveling for decades, we want something else." That's what's being litigated in these Dem elites are worried essays.
November 4, 2025 at 3:49 PM
They aren't afraid of Mamdani, they are worried about what he would unleash among VOTERS. That those voters would say: "actually, we're not buying this centrist bullshit you've been shoveling for decades, we want something else." That's what's being litigated in these Dem elites are worried essays.
AS WAS FORETOLD!!!
It's wild that when I posted this, it still felt like a longshot hope. Everyone out campaigning that day was trying not to get their hopes up too much, prepared for disappointment. And then since that afternoon he beat Cuomo's ass TWICE hahaha
It's wild that when I posted this, it still felt like a longshot hope. Everyone out campaigning that day was trying not to get their hopes up too much, prepared for disappointment. And then since that afternoon he beat Cuomo's ass TWICE hahaha
November 5, 2025 at 3:21 AM
AS WAS FORETOLD!!!
It's wild that when I posted this, it still felt like a longshot hope. Everyone out campaigning that day was trying not to get their hopes up too much, prepared for disappointment. And then since that afternoon he beat Cuomo's ass TWICE hahaha
It's wild that when I posted this, it still felt like a longshot hope. Everyone out campaigning that day was trying not to get their hopes up too much, prepared for disappointment. And then since that afternoon he beat Cuomo's ass TWICE hahaha