Steven Stoermer
@stevenstoermer.bsky.social
Curator of fine nostalgia for unhappened things.
Me, trying to get my phone to do anything: TAP TAP TAP TAP
Phone: what's that?
My child: *gestures vaguely at phone*
Phone: let me do every single function immediately!
Phone: what's that?
My child: *gestures vaguely at phone*
Phone: let me do every single function immediately!
October 10, 2025 at 8:07 PM
Me, trying to get my phone to do anything: TAP TAP TAP TAP
Phone: what's that?
My child: *gestures vaguely at phone*
Phone: let me do every single function immediately!
Phone: what's that?
My child: *gestures vaguely at phone*
Phone: let me do every single function immediately!
I appreciated the unique angle @qwertyprophecy.bsky.social brought to The Dark Queen of Mortholme, and the tightness of its execution. @monstertheater.bsky.social a solid addition to your publishing repertoire.
Playing as the antagonist is not a new concept, but Dark Queen of Mortholme puts its own twist on the material in a short, but impactful, game.
@stevenstoermer.bsky.social reviews.
@stevenstoermer.bsky.social reviews.
Review | Dark Queen of Mortholme - Witness Me — startmenu
Playing as the antagonist is not a new concept, but Dark Queen of Mortholme puts its own twist on the material in a short, but impactful, game. Steven Stoermer reviews.
www.startmenu.co.uk
October 2, 2025 at 2:10 PM
I appreciated the unique angle @qwertyprophecy.bsky.social brought to The Dark Queen of Mortholme, and the tightness of its execution. @monstertheater.bsky.social a solid addition to your publishing repertoire.
It was my pleasure to review the excellent @staticdread.bsky.social for @startmenu.bsky.social
Static Dread harnesses the isolation inherent to being a lighthouse keeper and gives it a Lovecraftian twist, making you the bulwark that keeps your community safe from eldritch terrors.
@stevenstoermer.bsky.social reviews.
@stevenstoermer.bsky.social reviews.
Review | Static Dread - Ghosts on the Wire — startmenu
Static Dread harnesses the isolation inherent to being a lighthouse keeper and gives it a Lovecraftian twist, making you the bulwark that keeps your community safe from eldritch terrors. Steven Stoer...
www.startmenu.co.uk
September 21, 2025 at 5:55 PM
It was my pleasure to review the excellent @staticdread.bsky.social for @startmenu.bsky.social
Reposted by Steven Stoermer
Becoming Saint sees you take on the role of a wanna be spiritual leader as you conquer Italy in this roguelike, real-time, tactical RPG.
Will you achieve sainthood in your life or make an early trip to heaven?
@stevenstoermer.bsky.social investigates.
www.startmenu.co.uk/home/review-...
Will you achieve sainthood in your life or make an early trip to heaven?
@stevenstoermer.bsky.social investigates.
www.startmenu.co.uk/home/review-...
Review | Becoming Saint - Have You Heard The Good News? — startmenu
Becoming Saint sees you take the role of a wanna be spiritual leader as you conquer Italy in this roguelike, realtime, tactical RPG. Will you achieve sainthood in your life or make an early trip to h...
www.startmenu.co.uk
August 14, 2025 at 5:26 PM
Becoming Saint sees you take on the role of a wanna be spiritual leader as you conquer Italy in this roguelike, real-time, tactical RPG.
Will you achieve sainthood in your life or make an early trip to heaven?
@stevenstoermer.bsky.social investigates.
www.startmenu.co.uk/home/review-...
Will you achieve sainthood in your life or make an early trip to heaven?
@stevenstoermer.bsky.social investigates.
www.startmenu.co.uk/home/review-...
Rader's machine in Split Fiction is a symbol of the "frictionless cognitive offloading" of our thought processes to for-profit companies that have built a rentier economy within capitalism's aching bones.
stevenstoermer.medium.com/split-fictio...
stevenstoermer.medium.com/split-fictio...
Split Fiction: What does Rader’s machine have to do with AI, anyway?
For a game about stories, the plot of Split Fiction isn’t really the point. The nature of the machine in which heroines Zoe and Mio wind up…
stevenstoermer.medium.com
July 14, 2025 at 9:00 PM
Rader's machine in Split Fiction is a symbol of the "frictionless cognitive offloading" of our thought processes to for-profit companies that have built a rentier economy within capitalism's aching bones.
stevenstoermer.medium.com/split-fictio...
stevenstoermer.medium.com/split-fictio...
@brennanleemulligan.bsky.social's DnD campaigns contain great lessons for anyone interested in narrative design. Episode 49 of @worldsbeyondnumber.bsky.social is a masterclass in leveraging impactful, "weak" characters. Here are some reflections.
stevenstoermer.medium.com/pathetic-is-...
stevenstoermer.medium.com/pathetic-is-...
Pathetic is Poignant, in Brennan Lee Mulligan’s Campaigns
In his Dungeons and Dragons game “The Wizard, The Witch, and The Wild One,” Brennan Lee Mulligan introduces the witch’s apprentice Nif as…
stevenstoermer.medium.com
July 1, 2025 at 3:18 PM
@brennanleemulligan.bsky.social's DnD campaigns contain great lessons for anyone interested in narrative design. Episode 49 of @worldsbeyondnumber.bsky.social is a masterclass in leveraging impactful, "weak" characters. Here are some reflections.
stevenstoermer.medium.com/pathetic-is-...
stevenstoermer.medium.com/pathetic-is-...
An upcoming piece I wrote relates the game Split Fiction to generative AI based on similar insights. I'll be writing a companion piece focusing on AI out of what wound up on the cutting room floor.
I'm biased, but this report is a must-read for anyone looking to understand the state of AI in 2025.
It explains how AI is entrenching power for big tech and the oligarch class, speeding deregulation, dislodging human expertise and threatening workers—and how there's still time to refuse all that.
It explains how AI is entrenching power for big tech and the oligarch class, speeding deregulation, dislodging human expertise and threatening workers—and how there's still time to refuse all that.
NEW REPORT: Artificial Power, our 2025 Landscape Report, is out.
Today’s AI isn’t just being used by us, it’s being used on us. We urgently need to reclaim public power over the future trajectory of AI. Another path is possible.
Read the report: ainowinstitute.org/2025-landscape
Today’s AI isn’t just being used by us, it’s being used on us. We urgently need to reclaim public power over the future trajectory of AI. Another path is possible.
Read the report: ainowinstitute.org/2025-landscape
June 10, 2025 at 7:54 PM
An upcoming piece I wrote relates the game Split Fiction to generative AI based on similar insights. I'll be writing a companion piece focusing on AI out of what wound up on the cutting room floor.
Required reading for this era of games criticism.
We're stronger and better together. The friction can be good but only when it doesn't lead to infighting that supports the corporate interest.
But in order to dethrone that interest we are going to need to learn to fight more effectively and stand together more efficiently.
But in order to dethrone that interest we are going to need to learn to fight more effectively and stand together more efficiently.
"We’re going to need a new kind of solidarity. One that stands for more than platitudes and posts."
@unwinnabledavid.bsky.social stresses the importance of solidarity in the current era of videogame and pop culture criticism:
@unwinnabledavid.bsky.social stresses the importance of solidarity in the current era of videogame and pop culture criticism:
June 4, 2025 at 3:33 PM
Required reading for this era of games criticism.
This might be "The Critic As Artist" for games criticism. Part 2 is an incisive look at the issues plaguing games criticism today: noescapevg.com/the-spectacu...
June 3, 2025 at 8:44 PM
This might be "The Critic As Artist" for games criticism. Part 2 is an incisive look at the issues plaguing games criticism today: noescapevg.com/the-spectacu...
It only took me 750 hours in Paradox's Victoria 3 to figure out why I can't stop playing it.
stevenstoermer.medium.com/the-digital-...
#victoria3 #paradoxinteractive #videogames #strategygames
stevenstoermer.medium.com/the-digital-...
#victoria3 #paradoxinteractive #videogames #strategygames
The Digital Brittleness of Victoria 3
In 1994, John Meriweather founded Long Term Capital Management on the basis of a computer program that looked for discrepancies in expected…
stevenstoermer.medium.com
March 8, 2025 at 2:26 AM
It only took me 750 hours in Paradox's Victoria 3 to figure out why I can't stop playing it.
stevenstoermer.medium.com/the-digital-...
#victoria3 #paradoxinteractive #videogames #strategygames
stevenstoermer.medium.com/the-digital-...
#victoria3 #paradoxinteractive #videogames #strategygames
The economy of long and short rests in Dungeons and Dragons is famously kind of broken. Can using some optional rules as limited resources help? @sherlockhulmes.bsky.social thought so in the latest High Rollers campaign, and I think he's onto something.
medium.com/@stevenstoer...
#dnd
medium.com/@stevenstoer...
#dnd
Modified Heroic Long Rests
This is an expansion and refinement of the “Heroic Short Rest” proposed by Mark Hulmes, which is itself a refinement of the Heroic Rest…
medium.com
January 24, 2025 at 5:11 AM
The economy of long and short rests in Dungeons and Dragons is famously kind of broken. Can using some optional rules as limited resources help? @sherlockhulmes.bsky.social thought so in the latest High Rollers campaign, and I think he's onto something.
medium.com/@stevenstoer...
#dnd
medium.com/@stevenstoer...
#dnd