iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Ryan Thompson @bardicknowledge.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

This unesteemed musicologist had executive level box seats for homecoming here haha; you’re allowed to enjoy football :p

Image of Beaumont Tower in the distance beyond the Jumbotron, taken from the MSU Research Foundation private box seats

Picture of the start of MSU Football from the seventh floor executive suite

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Ryan Thompson @bardicknowledge.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

I'm extremely proud that this debate is happening in my building a few floors beneath me. It's humbling to work alongside the WKAR team that provides a real public service to the region and the state. (If you're local, please strongly consider supporting @wewill2026.bsky.social! :p)

Image of Will Lawrence's post featuring his debate with Tom Barrett today, taking place in the WKAR television studio at Michigan State University's Communication Arts and Sciences building (where I work in a different department).

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Ryan Thompson @bardicknowledge.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Worth a note that I received Startropics and Final Fantasy (the original) on the same 1992 Christmas morning -- that's in conversation for the most important gaming day of my life. I wanted to list Willy the Worm Part II: The Long Journey Home rather than game 1, but this tool could not find it. :(

Matrix of "my 9 games" -- Startropics, Mega Man 3, Final Fantasy III (nee VI), The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, Diablo II, Team Fortress 2, Chrono Cross, Willy the Worm, and Prince of Persia.

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Ryan Thompson @bardicknowledge.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Find us a name of which MSU staff person sent these pictures to random X accounts without permission and fire them immediately. My institution cannot afford more scandals than it already has, and the faculty are out of patience for this horseshit. www.wired.com/story/burner...

Paragraph from the linked WIRED magazine piece, with highlighted phrase "Athletics staffers would even send him photos"

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Ryan Thompson @bardicknowledge.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

No one on the planet I’d rather play N64 with than @hoagietime.bsky.social. Absolutely the best time — and we both cleared the game in a single stream.

Shot of Julianne (top, Switch 2 2026) and myself (bottom, Nintendo 64 1997) playing Starfox 64 and finishing the first stage at almost exactly the same time.

Dana and Karen are also on video commenting on the remake compared to the original.

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Ryan Thompson @bardicknowledge.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Same, this is a good prompt! Here is my play next list, and like Aura, I have played a couple of these on other platforms...but I'm pretty happy Steam thinks I will like this set of games. Some fun trivia: I played through Arkham Asylum via the OnLive platform! Shoutout to grad school budgets.

Image of my Steam account's "Play Next" line, recommending Sonic Frontiers, Persona 4 Golden, Crash Bandicoot, Psychonauts, Batman Arkham Asylum, Cities Skylines, and Payday2.

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Ryan Thompson @bardicknowledge.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

I am so ready — the book and the ocarina sit in my office and will be with me as I play the new game for sure:

Image of Tim Summers’ book on Ocarina of time with a ceramic Ocarina of Time atop it.

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Ryan Thompson @bardicknowledge.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

I know nothing about this except these two screenshots and that I need @momfriend64.northsky.social to be a guest on our Thursday stream to talk about sex and surrealism when whatever this is launches.

Promotional image for the game Slime in the Ice Machine. Man in leisure wear standing next to woman in ping bathroom. Caption reads: "Can Carmen Sandiego save Leisure Suit Larry's dive bar from Baby Jesus?"

Image of Slime in the Ice Machine with German menu labelled "Ein Sexundtodmixgetränk" (translation: sex and death mixed drink)

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Ryan Thompson @bardicknowledge.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

Four words today nobody else has found; high word rarity of 66 with word score 88. Total score on the day: 779. Fight me! playoutlier.com/c/rbkaj9

Picture of "Outlier" score of 779 with today's board consisting of letters as follows:

S I E L E O N R F U A D H W O Y T J M U I G P B A

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Ryan Thompson @bardicknowledge.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

Looks like the database I usually look to for this one doesn't yet have it -- probably worth submitting? Here's two relevant spreadsheets from the community. (Purple highlight in attached image is mine) docs.google.com/spreadsheets... docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

Picture of a spreadsheet of sound sources from Final Fantasy X. Full link in main post.

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Ryan Thompson @bardicknowledge.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

One highlight picture from the trip courtesy Sarah -- sunset at Grand Haven is absolutely spectactular.

Image of sunset in Grand Haven, Michigan before the musical fountain show began.

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Ryan Thompson @bardicknowledge.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

I am on a beach vacation and get to miss all of the politics this week. Headed to the boardwalk for Pronto Pups and fried pickles instead before the fountain show. If you can similarly escape, do so. Here is last year:

Grand Haven Musical fountain light show, 2025

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Ryan Thompson @bardicknowledge.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

Traveling the world with your two best friends is highly recommended. And in @musicologess.bsky.social’s words, taking in the Burkian sublime with them is a step beyond. Incredible Sunday for us all.

Myself with Dana and Sarah at the bottom of Niagara Falls’ tunnel

Image of Niagara Falls, taken by Sarah PC

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Ryan Thompson @bardicknowledge.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

age verification I lost my manual for Prince of Persia between moves and didn't learn the cheat code for a full year afterword -- the hardest stage in the game is definitely guessing random letters in the hopes the door unlocks. (There's no best letter to pick, many have two entries in the table.)

Image of copy protection micro-stage in Prince of Persia 1.3 -- the correct letter to drink is "K" for this example and presumably it is on the screen to the right.

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Ryan Thompson @bardicknowledge.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

It's my favorite day of my Wwise course here at @mediainfomsu.bsky.social! My students are making bird canopies today! Full assignment in the image + alt text. Thanks to @berrak.bsky.social for selling a great set of bird sounds, and to @damiankastbauer.bsky.social for being so supportive.

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Ryan Thompson @bardicknowledge.bsky.social · 29/03/2026

PSA for tech things: Genki has really stepped up the quality of their products for this go around. I liked the Shadowcast 2 Pro and the first few covert socks but these look and feel great — and came with matching international adaptors to boot. Highly recommend them if you’re in their market.

Image of the Genki Covert Dock 3 and the Genki Shadowcast 3 Pro, both of which I just received in the mail.

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Ryan Thompson @bardicknowledge.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

I posted the following to the MSU students who asked about it and I can’t believe this wasn’t at least raised internally. It looks terrible IMO and not just the first image.

Full text of the image as follows:

I am going to voice an uncomfortable thing here, and be advised I will moderate commentary on this relatively heavily.

*Lots of training data for what computers think women should look like come from spaces where female body representation is something directly curated for straight men. Think Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition, Maxim / Playboy magazine from the 20th century, and even less savory sources from the 21st.*

This filter is revealing and reinforcing these biases. Like many others here, I am of the opinion that the original image on the left looks much better than the filtered one as a result.

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Ryan Thompson @bardicknowledge.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

the Marcus Rhoades early career award! See picture, ica! :)

Picture of Addie Thompson with her early career award, given to her during a recent trip to Germany.

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Ryan Thompson @bardicknowledge.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

This site needs a break. Post 3 good things, none of which are the cessation of a negative. 1. I was just at the GDC concert! See pic of Jillian and I. 2. I’m having fun on an asynchronous Archipelago.gg game! 3. My wife won an international award in plant genetics last week! Addie is a rockstar.

Ryan with fellow musician Jillian Aversa, watching the GDC concert together

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Ryan Thompson @bardicknowledge.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

My return to GDC after twelve years of not being there was exceptional. The game audio community remains the most welcoming and most inspiring group of professionals I work with. I might wear the shell of a Spartan for work, but underneath I'm in the mix together with all of you, always.

Photo of Ryan wearing an MSU Spartan quarter-zip pullover with a VGMTogether shirt underneath, overlooking the Moscone Center carosel barely visible in the distance.

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Ryan Thompson @bardicknowledge.bsky.social · 02/03/2026

Going to be very mean for a second: the only people I have seen excited about this are the same people online excited by an ad for a mobile phone game entitled "Click this link and we promise you can fuck this fantasy armor-clad lady" (and yes it is always a young lady advertised to straight men)

Image of a post by NBC discussing the AI / fake actress persona "Tilly Norwood," a character that does not exist and is being positioned as a replacement for working actors.

The link is not clickable because I do not want to encourage visitors to the site and purposely captured the screen rather than a more traditional quote affords.

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Ryan Thompson @bardicknowledge.bsky.social · 02/03/2026

I am spending my first day of spring break reading a lovely book by @mikedrucker.bsky.social and boy did I pump my fist in delight for Past Mike when I arrived to this page knowing that just after writing this book he did, in fact, get to meet Roberta Williams. (Link to interview in alt-text.)

Picture of two pages from Mike Drucker’s excellent “Good Game, No Rematch: A Life Made of Video Games” where Mike describes doing an elementary school presentation on the career of game designer Roberta Williams (one of gaming’s most influential designers) and having the project dismissed as not being focused on someone important.

Mike went on to very recently interview Williams for Game Informer magazine shortly after this book was published: https://gameinformer.com/feature/2026/01/01/roberta-quest

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Ryan Thompson @bardicknowledge.bsky.social · 30/12/2025

Repaying cat photos with more cat photos -- here's Link! (And happy holidays, glad to see you over on Bluesky more regularly.)P

Ryan's cat Link lounging on a red blanket atop a blue couch, with lit fireplace in background.

Link the cat stretching out on a green blanket, arms in front of his head.

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Ryan Thompson @bardicknowledge.bsky.social · 06/12/2025

This image set plus “Challenge the Sea” by Home Free.

List of albums I bought this year (photo 1):
Stress Fracture (DiscoCactus single), Hades II, Timespinner, Eternal Strands, Blue Prince, Gathering Sky, Ori and the Blind Forest, Dust: An Elysian Tale, Yooka-Laylee

List of Bandcamp albums I bought this year: Songs for the Cure Esuna, Distant Worlds, Chicory, Garden Story, Moonglow Bay, Final Symphony, Arcology, Super Guital Bros. (single)

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Ryan Thompson @bardicknowledge.bsky.social · 05/12/2025

Okay, Trader Joe’s, you don’t have to lie to me, I know what I’m buying (and also having lived in the Philippines for a year I am now eternally snobby about any fruit that is simply better there)

Image of Trader Joe’s dried mango being described as “soft and juicy,” neither of which is particularly true of any dried fruit

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Ryan Thompson @bardicknowledge.bsky.social · 19/11/2025

My ten year-old child knows the correct response to this dinner invitation:

Picture of the Dragonlord from Dragon Quest offering to share his rule of Alefgard alongside the Scion of Erdrick with a yes/no prompt. (It, like allyship with Trump, is a false, illusory choice.)

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Ryan Thompson @bardicknowledge.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

This shot of the player looking into a mirror from the new release of Dragon Quest II has tenor energy (thanks to @doodlyroses.com for the core concept). Also I cannot recommend this collection enough. Every note the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra circa 1988-1990. It is the realization of a dream.

Picture of Dragon Quest II's Prince of Midenhall (given the name Ryan, as I am playing the game) looking into a mirror, "delighted to see he's handsome as ever."

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Ryan Thompson @bardicknowledge.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

Counterpoint: seeing the snow-kissed orange and yellow trees during a long drive through Michigan was amazing yesterday:

Snow-capped autumn trees with a combination of orange and yellow leaves mixed in alongside evergreens in a muted color combination, as taken from Interstate 94 near Lake Michigan.

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Ryan Thompson @bardicknowledge.bsky.social · 04/11/2025

Hey AMS / SMT gamer friends, check this out! (And thank @jessicagetman.bsky.social for pointing it to me). I will be on the road and miss it but it looks super fun.

Image advertising a D&D adventure on Sunday November 9th from 10:00 AM — 2:00 PM at 416 Cedar Avenue South, in Minneapolis

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Ryan Thompson @bardicknowledge.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

Few hours in the Denver airport with a pastrami sandwich and then onward to #GameSoundCon

Image of Ryan sitting at a comfy table in the Denver airport

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Ryan Thompson @bardicknowledge.bsky.social · 07/10/2025

Amazing stir fry for supper tonight. Lucky for me that Addie is pretty darn great!

Image of stir fry with meat, broccoli, red peppers

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Ryan Thompson @bardicknowledge.bsky.social · 22/09/2025

It did! House re-sided at cost of all our money (only half joking; we’re happy).

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Ryan Thompson @bardicknowledge.bsky.social · 24/08/2025

The worst cost is really time. School year starts Monday here, of course. Contractor hit a pipe so at least we will have some help taking things out of the basement I guess? Once this is all done the house will look great though! See pictures in progress (moving to red).

In progress picture of house being re-sided.

Second image of garage and house being re-sided.

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Ryan Thompson @bardicknowledge.bsky.social · 24/08/2025

If anybody needed anything from me tonight or tomorrow, uh…

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Ryan Thompson @bardicknowledge.bsky.social · 21/08/2025

Unless I have to wear an MSU Esports jersey, it’s this shirt all the way. @lauraintravia.bsky.social laughed at me wondering why I even bothered to ask her if I should order it. I am wearing it to meet all the new freshmen tomorrow lol

Brown t-shirt with lute and message: You have died because you talked over The Bard’s super helpful song!

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Ryan Thompson @bardicknowledge.bsky.social · 19/08/2025

Posting a fun thing in addition to dour news: I just closed out Rockman 4: Minus Infinity. Holy buckets.

List of stats for my playthrough. Score: 82.

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Ryan Thompson @bardicknowledge.bsky.social · 09/08/2025

It got 6 / 16 ordered correctly. Two of the wrong answers were close (correct order but wrong starting stage). The Game Boy games didn't even have the right stages listed! That is a 37.5% grade, or 50% if I am feeling extremely generous. Both are failing grades. Don't use ChatGPT as a search tool.

Short Excel chart listing what ChatGPT 5.0 thought was the correct order of Robot Masters for each Mega Man title. Six of sixteen (or thirty-five point five percent) of its suggestions are correct.

Mega Man 2 is the worst entry: Air Man is completely immune to the Metal Blades (not that we need to get into the weeds here).

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Ryan Thompson @bardicknowledge.bsky.social · 30/07/2025

Today has already been A Lot professionally and personally and I am so thankful both to have this book to read and to @victoriatran.bsky.social for writing it. Cannot wait to find a few minutes of break from *looks around* to dive into it.

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Ryan Thompson @bardicknowledge.bsky.social · 16/07/2025

Eleven months ago, I wrote to Matt Miller thanking him and the @gameinformer.com team for everything they had done over the years for both the field and me personally. It feels impossible to be able to post this cover today. I'm so thankful that @brianpshea.bsky.social and his team are still here.

Email from me to former editor Matt Miller, thanking him for helping launch my own career during graduate school (I was featured in an interview on the Game Informer website many years ago).

Image of the newest Game Informer magazine, featuring Borderlands 4 as the cover story.

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Ryan Thompson @bardicknowledge.bsky.social · 30/06/2025

Reminder my wife is a corn researcher; like, her parents saved this issue of The Iowan for her and she was delighted. She is as offline as we Are Online, which is probably for the best haha

Issue of The Iowan from many years ago with image of harvest-time corn. Title: “In Praise of Corn”

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Ryan Thompson @bardicknowledge.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

Victory! And now sleep as a reward.

Image of Ryan with a day-one Switch 2 hidden in his bathroom cabinet (where child presents live).

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Ryan Thompson @bardicknowledge.bsky.social · 28/05/2025

Just saw this and what an agonizing headline, I hate it here right now. @brittney.bsky.social did you see this?

Image shows a post from IGN advertising that Vivi-shaped coffee mugs (adorable, ahhhh!) are available for pre-order everywhere except for the United States.

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