Mirek Stolee
@mirekstolee.bsky.social
Curator of tabletop games and puzzles at The Strong National Museum of Play | PhD candidate at UCF.
Collecting and researching board games and escape games! (he/they)
Collecting and researching board games and escape games! (he/they)
Reposted by Mirek Stolee
Hurrah! My article on the Twilight 2000 RPG in the Journal of American Studies is now open access (OA), so anyone who wants to can have a read. OA is important to me, as I want my work on RPG history to go beyond the academy and reach the gaming public.
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
When You Say, “Thermonuclear War,” I Think You Mean “the Call to Adventure”! The Twilight: 2000 Tabletop Role-Playing Game and the Postapocalyptic World’s Imaginary Spaces | Journal of American Studie...
When You Say, “Thermonuclear War,” I Think You Mean “the Call to Adventure”! The Twilight: 2000 Tabletop Role-Playing Game and the Postapocalyptic World’s Imaginary Spaces
www.cambridge.org
November 14, 2025 at 11:03 AM
Hurrah! My article on the Twilight 2000 RPG in the Journal of American Studies is now open access (OA), so anyone who wants to can have a read. OA is important to me, as I want my work on RPG history to go beyond the academy and reach the gaming public.
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Reposted by Mirek Stolee
I wrote a book and it has a cover now! (Pre-order up, available Feb 5, 2026)
www.bloomsbury.com/us/fractured...
www.bloomsbury.com/us/fractured...
November 4, 2025 at 3:39 PM
I wrote a book and it has a cover now! (Pre-order up, available Feb 5, 2026)
www.bloomsbury.com/us/fractured...
www.bloomsbury.com/us/fractured...
Reposted by Mirek Stolee
Casual Games for Protesters
Simple games for marches, rallies, and occupations.
www.protestgames.org
October 13, 2025 at 4:08 PM
Reposted by Mirek Stolee
Is this the new Borderlands game everyone is excited about?
Heroes of the Borderlands is an uncharacteristic Dungeons & Dragons starter set seemingly made for board game fans, @ckunzelman.bsky.social writes. www.endlessmode.com/tabletop/dun...
Heroes of the Borderlands Feels Like a Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set for Board Game Fans
Heroes of the Borderlands is an uncharacteristic Dungeons & Dragons starter set seemingly made for board game fans.
www.endlessmode.com
September 11, 2025 at 9:03 PM
Is this the new Borderlands game everyone is excited about?
Reposted by Mirek Stolee
Today, I had students make paper snowflakes to get them to ponder ritual, liminality, play, and making.
Reflections:
-liminal space constitutes the stable space/structure
-rituals can be small and seemingly mundane
-playful making as exploration of uncertain but exciting anticipated outcome
Reflections:
-liminal space constitutes the stable space/structure
-rituals can be small and seemingly mundane
-playful making as exploration of uncertain but exciting anticipated outcome
September 11, 2025 at 9:37 PM
Today, I had students make paper snowflakes to get them to ponder ritual, liminality, play, and making.
Reflections:
-liminal space constitutes the stable space/structure
-rituals can be small and seemingly mundane
-playful making as exploration of uncertain but exciting anticipated outcome
Reflections:
-liminal space constitutes the stable space/structure
-rituals can be small and seemingly mundane
-playful making as exploration of uncertain but exciting anticipated outcome
Reposted by Mirek Stolee
Update to this chart that I share a lot. Not breaking news: Game design teams are still OVERWHELMINGLY all men. About 7% of the top 500 games have a woman or non-binary person credited as a designer. A 🧵of related charts: (1/6)
🎲✂️
🎲✂️
September 4, 2025 at 10:09 PM
Update to this chart that I share a lot. Not breaking news: Game design teams are still OVERWHELMINGLY all men. About 7% of the top 500 games have a woman or non-binary person credited as a designer. A 🧵of related charts: (1/6)
🎲✂️
🎲✂️
Reposted by Mirek Stolee
BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT! @mahliann.bsky.social, @marcuscarter.com, and myself have combined our collective brains and written a wide-reaching introduction to the complex and interdisciplinary field of Game Studies in this forthcoming book for Polity. www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?b...
September 4, 2025 at 4:59 AM
BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT! @mahliann.bsky.social, @marcuscarter.com, and myself have combined our collective brains and written a wide-reaching introduction to the complex and interdisciplinary field of Game Studies in this forthcoming book for Polity. www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?b...
Reposted by Mirek Stolee
Reminder that the best conference for understanding generative systems, and how people play them, is full of kind people, online and you can go to it.
We have a preview event on September 7, 2025 at 3 PM Pacific! Tickets are free here:
ti.to/roguelike-ce...
ti.to/roguelike-ce...
Roguelike Celebration: Preview Event 2025
Roguelike games have been part of gaming culture for over 30 years and they have a deep and special place in our hearts. We'd love to get to spend some time with you all learning about roguelikes and ...
ti.to
August 16, 2025 at 4:27 PM
Reminder that the best conference for understanding generative systems, and how people play them, is full of kind people, online and you can go to it.
Reposted by Mirek Stolee
OH WHOOPS. ONE MORE.
(A few weeks ago I was very busy)
(A few weeks ago I was very busy)
On Rascal today, Emily Friedman and Evan Torner talk about the fragility of digital spaces, the danger of letting the market decide who gets remembered, and how history was always more diverse than we might think.
We can’t let the market decide what we remember and forget
Emily Friedman and Evan Torner on why gaming histories matter.
www.rascal.news
August 11, 2025 at 2:21 PM
OH WHOOPS. ONE MORE.
(A few weeks ago I was very busy)
(A few weeks ago I was very busy)
Reposted by Mirek Stolee
One of our goals is to write as if game studies was actually "game studies" and not "digital game studies with some nods towards non-digital games". This is why our examples span from Chess to Formula 1 and from Nomic to Call of Duty.
August 7, 2025 at 6:46 AM
One of our goals is to write as if game studies was actually "game studies" and not "digital game studies with some nods towards non-digital games". This is why our examples span from Chess to Formula 1 and from Nomic to Call of Duty.
Reposted by Mirek Stolee
Much appreciated!
And that's why it's free to download in the link below, we want people to read it and talk about it!
And that's why it's free to download in the link below, we want people to read it and talk about it!
The Rule Book: The Building Blocks of Games
How games are built on the foundations of rules, and how rules—of which there are only five kinds—really work.Board games to sports, digital games to party
direct.mit.edu
August 6, 2025 at 12:15 PM
Much appreciated!
And that's why it's free to download in the link below, we want people to read it and talk about it!
And that's why it's free to download in the link below, we want people to read it and talk about it!
Reposted by Mirek Stolee
Not every board game treats its setting as a condiment. Some are designed to engage on historical, social, or polemical grounds. To evaluate such a game principally as a jumble of mechanisms would fail to engage with it as created, presented, intended, and, yes, as it plays.
August 1, 2025 at 1:24 AM
Not every board game treats its setting as a condiment. Some are designed to engage on historical, social, or polemical grounds. To evaluate such a game principally as a jumble of mechanisms would fail to engage with it as created, presented, intended, and, yes, as it plays.
Reposted by Mirek Stolee
In the article, I address very bluntly why the digital has been privileged over the analog in Game Studies, a move that has had detrimental effects on many designers, scholars, businesses, and communities. The AI Grift could happen because we first fell for the Glowing Screen Grift.
July 25, 2025 at 10:49 PM
In the article, I address very bluntly why the digital has been privileged over the analog in Game Studies, a move that has had detrimental effects on many designers, scholars, businesses, and communities. The AI Grift could happen because we first fell for the Glowing Screen Grift.
Reposted by Mirek Stolee
My article "The Separation of Analog and Digital Game Studies" has now been published as part of this mammoth 781-page edited volume Historiographies of Game Studies.
Congrats to the editors and fellow authors for getting this into the world!
punctumbooks.com/titles/histo...
Congrats to the editors and fellow authors for getting this into the world!
punctumbooks.com/titles/histo...
Historiographies of Game Studies: What It Has Been, What It Could Be – punctum books
punctumbooks.com
July 25, 2025 at 9:46 PM
My article "The Separation of Analog and Digital Game Studies" has now been published as part of this mammoth 781-page edited volume Historiographies of Game Studies.
Congrats to the editors and fellow authors for getting this into the world!
punctumbooks.com/titles/histo...
Congrats to the editors and fellow authors for getting this into the world!
punctumbooks.com/titles/histo...
Reposted by Mirek Stolee
Consume Me just got delisted in a wave of delistings on itchio. It's a semi-autographical game about disordered eating. It won the grand prize at the most recent IGF awards.
When storefronts start mass bannings, everything is threatened.
When storefronts start mass bannings, everything is threatened.
July 24, 2025 at 3:32 AM
Consume Me just got delisted in a wave of delistings on itchio. It's a semi-autographical game about disordered eating. It won the grand prize at the most recent IGF awards.
When storefronts start mass bannings, everything is threatened.
When storefronts start mass bannings, everything is threatened.
Reposted by Mirek Stolee
This is your (and my) chance to catch up with the excellent panels at Generation Analog 2025, the free online conference organized by @analoggamestudies.bsky.social on July 17.
Click on the link below!
www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...
#analoggamestudies #generationanalog2025
Click on the link below!
www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...
#analoggamestudies #generationanalog2025
GENERATION ANALOG 2025 "PUNK" - YouTube
Analog Game Studies and Game in Lab are proud to announce Generation Analog 2025. This year’s one-day conference will be on Thursday, July 17, 2025. The onli...
m.youtube.com
July 18, 2025 at 3:08 PM
This is your (and my) chance to catch up with the excellent panels at Generation Analog 2025, the free online conference organized by @analoggamestudies.bsky.social on July 17.
Click on the link below!
www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...
#analoggamestudies #generationanalog2025
Click on the link below!
www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...
#analoggamestudies #generationanalog2025
Reposted by Mirek Stolee
The HGN’s next panel discussion on gender, history and games is coming up in 2 weeks!
Sign up via the post below, and read more about the theme (and our brilliant speakers) here:
www.historicalgames.net/gender/
Sign up via the post below, and read more about the theme (and our brilliant speakers) here:
www.historicalgames.net/gender/
July 15, 2025 at 10:16 AM
The HGN’s next panel discussion on gender, history and games is coming up in 2 weeks!
Sign up via the post below, and read more about the theme (and our brilliant speakers) here:
www.historicalgames.net/gender/
Sign up via the post below, and read more about the theme (and our brilliant speakers) here:
www.historicalgames.net/gender/
Reposted by Mirek Stolee
Find your way to our excellent Generation Analog 2025 online conference with the topic of PUNK, next Thursday July 17th *all day*.
FREE to all!
Program and registration here:
analoggamestudies.org/generation-a...
FREE to all!
Program and registration here:
analoggamestudies.org/generation-a...
July 8, 2025 at 10:16 AM
Find your way to our excellent Generation Analog 2025 online conference with the topic of PUNK, next Thursday July 17th *all day*.
FREE to all!
Program and registration here:
analoggamestudies.org/generation-a...
FREE to all!
Program and registration here:
analoggamestudies.org/generation-a...
Reposted by Mirek Stolee
Last year's hit GDC Spreadsheet panel is looking for a whole new row of spreadsheet enthusiasts!
In related news, I’m looking for a couple folks interested in being part of next year’s top rated microtalks about spreadsheets
🔈The future of GDC starts with you.
#GDC2026 is breaking new ground with ONE unified program that connects the broader game ecosystem. Whether you're a studio lead, indie dev, marketer, or investor: This is your moment.
Submit your proposal by August 7!
#CallForSpeakers
gdc2026.gdc4p.com
#GDC2026 is breaking new ground with ONE unified program that connects the broader game ecosystem. Whether you're a studio lead, indie dev, marketer, or investor: This is your moment.
Submit your proposal by August 7!
#CallForSpeakers
gdc2026.gdc4p.com
July 7, 2025 at 8:17 PM
Last year's hit GDC Spreadsheet panel is looking for a whole new row of spreadsheet enthusiasts!
Reposted by Mirek Stolee
What is Zohran’s plan for the humidity
July 1, 2025 at 10:24 PM
What is Zohran’s plan for the humidity
Reposted by Mirek Stolee
So, here it is. Thanks to a new state law that was NEVER DEBATED, Indiana University has committed itself to abolishing majors in African-American/African Diaspora Studies: American Studies; Art History; French; Italian; Religious Studies etc. DOZENS of majors. www.ipm.org/news-section...
Indiana public colleges cut almost 20% of degrees
Public Indiana colleges and universities have eliminated 19 percent of their degree programs to meet requirements added to the state’s budget, according to the Commission for Higher Education.
www.ipm.org
June 30, 2025 at 9:12 PM
So, here it is. Thanks to a new state law that was NEVER DEBATED, Indiana University has committed itself to abolishing majors in African-American/African Diaspora Studies: American Studies; Art History; French; Italian; Religious Studies etc. DOZENS of majors. www.ipm.org/news-section...
Reposted by Mirek Stolee
MASSIVE good news for trans people in the United States.
A federal judge has just granted class action status to transgender people looking to update their passports.
This means that very shorty, the window will open to update your passports with the correct gender marker.
A federal judge has just granted class action status to transgender people looking to update their passports.
This means that very shorty, the window will open to update your passports with the correct gender marker.
June 17, 2025 at 9:34 PM
MASSIVE good news for trans people in the United States.
A federal judge has just granted class action status to transgender people looking to update their passports.
This means that very shorty, the window will open to update your passports with the correct gender marker.
A federal judge has just granted class action status to transgender people looking to update their passports.
This means that very shorty, the window will open to update your passports with the correct gender marker.
Reposted by Mirek Stolee
Gov. Walz: “I’m just going to say it, shame on any of us who throws a trans child under the bus for thinking they’re going to get elected.” www.startribune.com/gov-tim-walz...
Gov. Tim Walz backs transgender kids as Democrats grapple with debate over bans in sports
The Minnesota Democrat has been critical of other members of his party who are retreating at a time when the issue has become a political lightning rod nationally and in Minnesota.
www.startribune.com
June 4, 2025 at 10:42 PM
Gov. Walz: “I’m just going to say it, shame on any of us who throws a trans child under the bus for thinking they’re going to get elected.” www.startribune.com/gov-tim-walz...
Reposted by Mirek Stolee
reading dorian gray the way oscar wilde intended
June 2, 2025 at 5:22 PM
reading dorian gray the way oscar wilde intended