iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Austin Bridges @austinabridged.bsky.social · 17h

It turns out a fun thing you can do with haunted house scare actors is occasionally ask them where some good late-nite food spots are because they WILL respond to you with recs in a scary voice

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Brennan Lee Mulligan @brennanleemulligan.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

I am thrilled and proud beyond measure to support the amazing workers who create and design the games I and my loved ones have spent a lifetime playing. I implore everybody to sign the petition and signal boost the campaign as far and wide as we can!

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Austin Bridges @austinabridged.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Deeply thrilled and honored to be a small part of this monumental effort, standing side by side with some of the most talented and kind creatives I've ever met. We love making games for you and hope to keep doing it forever. Please consider signing the public petition!✊️

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United Wizards of the Coast - CWA @uwotc-official.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Curious how you can help? We ask that you sign our petition for Wizards to voluntarily recognize our union, share it with your communities, and keep an eye on this account for future updates! actionnetwork.org/forms/uwotcp...

actionnetwork.org

Stand with Dungeons & Dragons and Magic Workers Forming a Union!

The Dungeons & Dragons team and Studio X (Magic: The Gathering; Duel Masters) are forming a union! We are joining the ranks of United Wizards of the Coast - CWA (UWOTC-CWA) and following in the fo...

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United Wizards of the Coast - CWA @uwotc-official.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

This morning, the D&D team and Magic's Studio X informed our leadership of our intent to unionize. We love the games we make and the work we do, and unionizing is how we protect that work. unitedwizardsofthecoast.com/news/dnd-stu...

unitedwizardsofthecoast.com

Dungeons & Dragons and Studio X Join United Wizards of the Coast - CWA

Today, October 6, 2026, the designers, artists, writers, producers, and workers behind Dungeons & Dragons, Magic: The Gathering, Duel Masters, D&D Beyond, and countless other games are uniting in soli...

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Austin Bridges @austinabridged.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Modern Star Trek horror episode plotline where the replicator malfunctions and only makes AI monster food

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Austin Bridges @austinabridged.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

As soon as something happens in MTG story that I don't like, @grayhaem.bsky.social...

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Jiikae @jiikae.com · 10/09/2026

The “Big 3” gaming platforms are actually Nintendo, PC and a Chinese emulation device of your choosing.

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daryl "rupert pumpkin" b 🏳️‍⚧️ @hypercubexl.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

GDT's reddit AMA spitting fire www.reddit.com/r/movies/com...

reddit comment:

Hello! Did you intend the ending of Pan’s labyrinth to be real or in Ofelia’s mind?

Guillermo Del Toro's reply:

My interpretation, and it's exclusively mine, is that it's real.

Because there's two things. One is what people call “The Shining Question.” The Shining Question is, Who opens the door for Jack to get out of the fridge? And Ofelia is in an attic with a guard outside her door, and she draws the door with the magic chalk, and she shows up in the labyrinth. So, the only way she could have gone into the labyrinth is the magic chalk. And the flower is real at the end. The flower that blooms in the dead tree. And the reason I think it’s real is because—and this is why I'm in favor of the human factor in art—I think that art does transform the world. You know?

Think about it for a second. One of the goals, with all this movement, is to make you believe that art is vulgar. That art is nothing special, and anybody can do art. That is like me telling you that I'm faster at running than Usain Bolt but I “run” in my motorcycle. Well, that's not the same. That’s not the same at all.

Art is important, and they want you to believe it isn't. It's part of the idea of control. The goal is not to have artificial intelligence. The goal is to foster natural stupidity. The goal is to foster you not looking for answers, and to trust yourself entirely to an engine. Look at the way we are dipping our toes into these things. We are starting to ask the machine, Is this true? For now, there's a correlation between reality and what the answers of the machine are. For now. But soon, we won't even investigate further. We will be told it's true. And if the machine is in the hands of somebody who should not be trusted, then your reality has been completely and utterly fucked. Because your intelligence ends at the question. You don't seek the answer. It's given to you.

Q: You recently mentioned that AI creates 'semi-compelling screensavers' and that you'd 'rather die' than use it. As a filmmaker who relies heavily on practical effects and creature design, what do you think is the biggest thing lost when a computer generates an image instead of a human hand?

GDT:

The three quarters of the process that gave you the chance to think of the idea that people don't think about without that process. Meaning, AI can get you to the middle really fast, but there's a dialectic with the process that gets you to that top 10%. I'll give you an example with the Pale Man.

We sculpted it as an old man, with a face. And then I said, Let's take out the face. This happened because I saw a photo of a manta ray and the poster for Don Coscarelli’s Phantasm. That combination, which happened at two different times during a week or a month, are not permutations that are chemically part of an equation. They are alchemy. And then I said, Take out the face, and then I said, Let's put the eyes on the hands. This triangulation happens because I spent a month or two months living with the idea of this creature. And it's not linear.

AI is like a super-fast engine that makes semi-sentient permutations of things that are already done. Creation is things that have never been done. Coming to exist.

And the second thing is the loss of the apprenticeship that one has as an artist. You're never a master; you're always an apprentice. This is a kinship I have with, for example, Chris Nolan. When he showed me The Odyssey, there’s a scene when Matt Damon is floating in the stormy ocean and I asked him—because we were talking about practical effects, and how great it is and that we both always use a maquette or a model—and I asked him, How did you do it? He said, “We put him in a storm in the ocean.”

And you're gonna find that 30% of a great image occurs accidentally. You know, either a drop of water hits the lens, or the camera shakes. I remember when in 1993, '94, Jim…

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Austin Bridges @austinabridged.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

This is why you need triples of the Nova

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Katie 🔜 ATL @legdotegg.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Ugh the Theorist and Vraska as the cover to Rumours #mtgart #vraska #jace #realityfracture

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Austin Bridges @austinabridged.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Also I'll continue to add this came out four days before the Mario movie

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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

we have immigrant concentration camps, diarrhea lettuce, zillion dollar gas, suicidal soldiers, measles resurgence, national park land sold to the highest bidder and teachers crowdfunding school supplies, but the real problems facing our country are a muslim senate candidate and an influencer

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Arya (hogpog_98 elsewhere) @aryawrites.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

This was released yesterday, and just wanted to say I'm profoundly grateful for the amazing and welcoming trans community in magic. I look forward to many years of the community staying that way. #wotcstaff www.npr.org/2026/08/26/n...

npr.org

How 'Magic: The Gathering' creates transgender community

Magic: The Gathering, the fantasy card game with over 50 million enthusiasts worldwide, has become an important social outlet for some real people: the transgender community.

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kylie b @roguesquirrel.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

tim curry had with miss piggy what the cowardly fraud geoff keighley craves but will never obtain

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Austin Bridges @austinabridged.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Was at the game last night and had to capture this amazing moment on the jumbotron

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Austin Bridges @austinabridged.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

My most anticipated feature that I hope is in Kingdom Hearts 4 is the FFXVI ability to pause a cutscene and decode the lore in real time

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Robert Komaniecki @komaniecki.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

How do I explain to small business owners that the menu on the left is one billion times more appealing than the one on the right

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Austin Bridges @austinabridged.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

I'm gonna call these AI slop markers "attention whiskers" because every goddamn flyer and sign seems to get them now

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Reo Eveleth @reveleth.com · 17/08/2026

Another great example of:

A screenshot that says "Opinion: Guest Essay" and then "You Were In For a Dipshit Take As Soon As You Saw This Font"

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Lee Cronin’s Pablo Hidalgo @infinata.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Reading about tank genders.

Text that says: The tank was made in "male" and "female" versions: males carried two 6-pounder guns and three machine guns, while females had five machine guns.

Female tanks were considered more useful, since machine-gun fire was effective in pinning the enemy while friendly troops advanced; male tanks also had to stop to allow the 6-pounder gunner to aim. After April 1918, "hermaphrodites" with one male and one female sponson were built.

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Brandon Sheffield @brandon.insertcredit.com · 09/08/2026

I've upped the goal one last time!! Can we get this fund for out of work game developers to $250k in the next four days!?

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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 29/07/2026

I 100% have not changed a single goddamn thing about how I write here in the age of "AI." I write how I write. If the "AI" writes anything like how I write, it's because it stole from me. I'm gonna use any punctuation I like, and if it looks "AI"ish to you, you can go fuck yourself.

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Dan Sheehan @dansheehan.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Goddamn, RIP. I was introduced to his stuff after seeing the all-time melancholy classic ONCE in high school and getting sent down a massive wormhole of what was already a massive career all those years ago. So awful to see him go so young.

nytimes.com

Glen Hansard, Frontman of Irish Band the Frames, Dies at 56

The Irish singer-songwriter, who won an Oscar for the song “Falling Slowly” from the movie “Once,” died in a motorcycle crash.

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Austin Bridges @austinabridged.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

I'm just gonna say that you're extremely not done with the game

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Austin Bridges @austinabridged.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

Did you uh... only get to room 46 or have you done more

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Austin Bridges @austinabridged.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

I've arrived at ✨️ Efteling ✨️

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Austin Bridges @austinabridged.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Not greatest by any stretch, but I love a good chewy chunk of lyrics that rolls off the tongue. The one that comes to mind is from Hunchback of Notre Dame, where Q says "Out there among the millers and the weavers and their wives" I dunno what it is but it's like a verbal stim

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Austin Bridges @austinabridged.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

Hague day, but for completely NON-WARCRIME reasons (i am innocent)

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Austin Bridges @austinabridged.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Update - this is indeed a thing in Dutch

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Austin Bridges @austinabridged.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Really hope he doesn't end up having bad political opinions

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Austin Bridges @austinabridged.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

I can't tell if the plural apostrophe is somehow grammatically correct in the Netherlands or everyone is letting it slide but regardless this is my personal hell

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Austin Bridges @austinabridged.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Anyway I'm gonna get another stroopwafel

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tappytoeclaws.bsky.social @tappytoeclaws.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Signal boost for lost deck from #MCAmsterdam

Well - this sucks. Unpacked my bag and can’t find my tall UltraPro yellow deck box. I have no idea where I could have lost it but likely culprit is the pro tour area on MagicCon. Obvs low chances of finding it now but if someone did - I would be very grateful :(

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Austin Bridges @austinabridged.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

Stumbled across an extremely cool karaoke bar in Amsterdam, they decorated the FUCK outta this place

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eshpur @eshpur.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

✣ Medieval Jimothy ✣

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Magic: The Gathering @magic.wizards.com · 17/07/2026

Our third Magic Mutliverse set of 2027 is one of the most anticipated settings we've ever had. Zhalfir releases on October 1st, 2027! #MTGZhalfir youtu.be/ZaUhdKIc-yQ

youtu.be

Zhalfir Announce Trailer | Magic: The Gathering 2027

YouTube video by Magic: The Gathering

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Magic: The Gathering @magic.wizards.com · 17/07/2026

Our third set of the year is a return to a fan-favorite plane under siege. Kamigawa: Titanbreach releases June 4th! #MTGKamigawa youtu.be/cC6ebvZg-_Q

youtu.be

Kamigawa: Titanbreach Announce Trailer | Magic: The Gathering 2027

YouTube video by Magic: The Gathering

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