It’s Friday and you’ve had the most difficult week of work! All you can think about is loading up @GhostRecon #Breakpoint and playing some PvP to tame the beast! You get in the PvP lobby and hit search.... 1 minute, 2 minutes, 3 minutes go by with no games found. (1/10)

🎉Global Game Jam Online Sponsor Appreciation thread 2021!🎉

Please support our sponsors this year if you are able as GGJ could not happen without them. Give them a like, RT an @, follow, download or subscribe. Show them how much #GGJ means to the community!! 👏👏👏 #ggjonline

First a huge thanks to @CoreGames for being our Headline Sponsor! 🤍💛💙Core is a radically accessible game construction kit, content exchange, and game-playing platform, all in one. Get started here

Our Empower Sponsors this year are @Microsoft & @unity3d

Unity believes the world is a better place with more creators in it. Game jams and hack weeks are part of Unity’s DNA, so they are proud to be able to help continue the tradition. Visit

The biggest games in the world run on Microsoft Game Stack but Game Stack was born to democratize game development and even the playing field by giving all developers the same powerhouse toolsets as big studios, so they can create the games they want.

Our Diversifier Sponsors for #ggjonline: @IGDAFoundation @Sony/@PlayStation @NextNav @virtuosgames @EpicGames @EndlessOS @CalPoly DxHub & Carina Fund

Early this week I ranted about a @nytimes editorial misrepresenting the scientific literature around video game uses and effects.

It's one thing for an editorial piece to mishandle scientific information, but it is another when an “educational” organization does it.

A thread.

A new training from @childrenscreens was announced called BLOOD, SWEAT, and FEARS: Understanding the Psychological Effects of Graphic and Violent Media on Children and

What a title. One that is clearly meant to instill fear, shock, awe, pearl clutching… moral panic.

For a primer on the history of the moral panic see here:

There are many points to discuss in their advertising, but for the sake of time I’ll focus on a few. Starting with this gem of an anonymous quote.

First, games are not addicting in the way as cigarettes or any other chemical addiction

See:

@Karnythia Staying warm while sleeping: use lots of blankets/comforters. Don't wear lots of layers to bed, they can trap sweat and oil and you'll kick off the blankets then get cold. Wear a toque or "beanie".

Use rolled up towels or t-shirts as draft excluders on your windows and doors.

If your bed is against an outside wall, move it away from it.

If you have some, hang rugs and spare blankets on the outside walls in your house. It's old school in the extreme, but it will create an air barrier between the cold transfering through the wall and the warm air in the house. Covering windows on the inside has the same effect.

Whatever you do, DO NOT burn charcoal of any sort inside your house. Or wood if you don't have a fireplace. The chances of suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning are huge and this kills whole families every year. Don't do it.

Past that, drink lots of hot drinks and warm water. You'll burn less energy than if you drink cold drinks.

And for clothes, layer up. Sweatpants and sweatshirts/hoodies are going to be your new besties.

OK, we're going to go through this and explain why it sucks.

War *is* political machinations. That's the entire thing about war. It's politics that leads to people killing each other. The entire point is political gain or the diminishment of the other party's political power.

In the case of Iraq, it was neither: the US made up a reason.

Engender sympathy for US troops? Excuse the fuck me? When you look up the casualty statistics for the Iraq war you'll find US deaths, but you could barely *find* Iraqi victims, civilian or resistance or insurgent or terrorist. They're all defined "terrorist" or "collateral".

How about the experiences of that individual that was just living there & they & their kids and husband tried to flee but men of military age were refused escape from the besieged city by the US before the US went door to door & killed anyone that was looked at them wrong.

This is literally the least interesting part of the entire conflict: between kill and be killed, people tend to opt to kill. We can play that in DOOM. We can play that in Quake. If you leave out the context of knowing the war is wrong, you might as well not make this.

Sega Ages are on sale again on Switch & someone asked me about the enhanced features—I feel like ppl might be sick to death of me talking about em but otoh, there are plenty of ppl who didn't follow them at all, so here's a rundown of what's new for all 19 Sega Ages Switch games:

Sega Ages Sonic the Hedgehog includes both the OG Mega Drive game & the obscure remixed Mega Play arcade version (with score attack leaderboard), Sonic Mania's Drop Dash (& spin dash, ofc), a "ring keeper" helper mode, a Green Hill act 1 time attack & more

Sega Ages Thunder Force IV (aka "Lightening Force"), the first-ever international reissue, includes the extras from the 🇯🇵-only Saturn port—the addition of the Thunder Force III ship & a more friendly "Kids Mode"—plus slowdown options, leaderboards & more

Sega Ages Phantasy Star includes tons features that make it a much friendlier modern experience: an "Ages Mode" with improved encounter/xp/money rates, a walk speed booster, a dungeon automap, detailed item/gear/monster glossaries, FM music toggle & more

Sega Ages Outrun includes many of the enhancements added for the 3DS version—60FPS+widescreen, car upgrades, JP/US ROMs, two brand-new arcade-authentic FM tunes etc—as well as gyro controls & 4 extra FM & non-FM arranged tunes from across the Outrun series