Rainforest Scully-Blaker (he/him)
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rainforestsb.bsky.social
Rainforest Scully-Blaker (he/him)
@rainforestsb.bsky.social
560 followers 320 following 64 posts
Critical Games + Tech Researcher 🖥️✒️
@ Intersectional Tech Lab (U. Michigan)

Comms Officer 🎤
@cgsaacej.bsky.social

Writing a book on games and exhaustion that's under contract with Duke University Press!

Find me at https://www.rainforestsb.me/
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rainforestsb.bsky.social
Here's the abstract :) #gamestudies
The abstract for my paper: This paper discusses truckers who play games (including Truck Simulator) while on the road. Inspired by the concept of “container technologies” and more recent work which distinguishes between containers and containment I ask how these trucker-simulators and their assemblage of concentric machines variously hold, filter, and leak the logics of neoliberal capitalism. To do so, I explore the work and play of the trucker-simulator through three relations of containment that increase in scale from one to the next. I begin with American Truck Simulator (ATS) itself, a game that I argue is designed to be a container of neoliberal, capitalist ideology. Next, I move from the game to the truck cab, which I frame as a physical site of containment for both the trucker-simulator and their gaming battlestation. Finally, I discuss the wider trucking industry as one arm of the organizational network known as logistics. This represents a return to containment-as-ideology, but instead of examining how a game like ATS is informed by culture, I show that is also an artifact that informs culture. I conclude with a discussion of capitalist realism and the ideal of convenience to ask whether we can conceive of other relations to work and play.
November 13, 2025 at 6:17 PM
rainforestsb.bsky.social
Ready for Part 2?

After much writing and re-writing, I'm thrilled to announce that my first book, "Gaming Exhaustion" (working title) is now under contract with Duke University Press.

There are too many people to thank for this in 140 characters or less, but know that you're all so appreciated <3
September 16, 2025 at 10:08 PM
rainforestsb.bsky.social
Ok here's Part 1:

My Finnish postdoc is now my finished postdoc, but I'm thrilled to announce what's next:

I'm now a Research Associate at the U of Michigan's School of Information, where I'm proudly working with the Intersectional Tech Lab! ✨🖥️

www.kishonnagray.com/lab-staff

Part 2 coming soon!
Screenshot of my bio from the Intersectional Tech Lab website. It reads: Rainforest Scully-Blaker (he/him) is a Research Affiliate in the Intersectional Tech Lab. He earned his PhD in Informatics from UC Irvine in 2022. He has since worked as a Lecturer in Game Design at Uppsala University and a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Centre of Excellence in Game Culture Studies at Tampere University. His research concerns critical approaches to the study of games and those who play them, and he is interested in exploring how play can both uphold and dismantle hegemony. His current book project is about exhaustion as a systemic feature of neoliberal capitalism and how video games enable and may yet work against the exhausting status quo.
September 4, 2025 at 7:53 PM
rainforestsb.bsky.social
I now have a website!

It's pretty bare-bones, but at least it rhymes! I'm hoping to get more stuff on there in the next month. Give it a look if you're so inclined - www.rainforestsb.me
A picture of me!
July 31, 2025 at 5:35 PM
rainforestsb.bsky.social
Been too busy running around to do any shoutouts to all the amazing talks, but I've been helping to run a conference!

@cgsaacej.bsky.social 2025 is (almost) over and every year it's a reminder of how cool and supportive a scholarly community can be <3

My title slide (cute mode):

#gamestudies
Games Capitalism and Fear by Rainforest Scully-Blaker, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Tampere University The background image is a spooky yawning face with some pink flowers crudely pasted around it to cute effect.
June 10, 2025 at 6:47 PM
rainforestsb.bsky.social
Talking about this is how I remember that @sabha.bsky.social exists on this website! Despite a stubbed toe, the talk went wonderfully and my meme (see below) got a healthy dose of laughs, which is all that matters, right? .......... right?

#nordicdigra25
A screenshot of a slide from the presentation. It features my face crudely photoshopped over a cartoon office lady's head. In one panel, Andreas Malm's "How to Blow Up a Pipeline" says, "I want to change the world" to which I respond "Awww you're sweet". In the other, Jane McGonigal's "Reality is Broken" says the same thing and I am on the phone saying "HELLO, HUMAN RESOURCES?!" implying that version of the message is more distressing and so on. This is a joke of course and in no way reflects my feelings about Jane McGonigal as a person but rather is my way of asking if we can do games research that threatens to change the world in lasting ways as Malm suggests.
May 28, 2025 at 6:16 AM
rainforestsb.bsky.social
Rolling in to sunny Turku 🌞 for Nordic Digra 2025! Really excited for our talk exploring what we mean when we say "critical" game studies 🔥

#gamestudies #nordicdigra25
Title slide from the talk titled "Critical Game Studies" and the Politics of Hope? by me and Sabine Harrer
May 26, 2025 at 9:14 AM
rainforestsb.bsky.social
📣Gooooood Morning #SCMS2025 ! 📣 I hope to see some of you at today's panel on cozy games featuring work from cool people that I am so excited to listen to and speak alongside! Catch us at session K2 🦋 #GameStudies
K2 The Comforts of Play: Cozy Games and Gaming FAIRMONT Royal B2 LEVEL CHAIR Andrea Braithwaite • Ontario Tech University TALKS Andrea Braithwaite • Ontario Tech University •  “Supercute Crimes and Cozy Mystery Games” Adrianna Burton • University of California, Irvine •  “Reimagining Typical Adventures: Narratives and Aesthetics in Popular ‘Cozy’ TRPGs” Christina Fawcett • University ofWinnipeg • “Death’s Cozy Embrace: Death and the Afterlife in Cozy Gaming” Rainforest Scully-Blaker • Tampere University •  “Happiness is a Warm Mug? Coziness as Late Capitalist Power Fantasy” sponsored by Video Game Studies Scholarly Interest Group
April 5, 2025 at 12:12 PM
rainforestsb.bsky.social
After more tries than I'd care to admit... hope to see some friends in Chicago!! Our panel on wholesome games is going to be a certified club classic 🔥 #scms2025
November 25, 2024 at 8:11 PM