iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Failbetter Games | Wishlist Mandrake on Steam! @failbettergames.com · 12h

We're hiring! We're looking for a Writer and Narrative Designer to join the Fallen London team at a senior or mid level. This position is permanent, remote, and full time, which for us means 35 hours a week. #GamesJobs

Night. The House of Chimes - a tower which you might immediately think of as Big Ben - is adrift in the River Thames. It still seems to be keeping time. In the background, a large, alien building looms over the city of London.

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Jaakko Stenros @jaakkostenros.bsky.social · 12h

Party! Our special issue on party studies is out from Eludamos! Post your fave party reactions!

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Evan Torner @guyintheblackhat.bsky.social · 15h

I've been running games at conventions for 30 years as of this year, mostly my own stuff. There are very, very few "original" ideas in gaming. But *implementation* of ideas is a magical, expressive, wildly variable thing, one that can be appraised and studied. I notice *your* version of an idea.

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(Self) Regulators, mount up! @bankuei.bsky.social · 16h

This is, pretty much the main thing I yell about being the best part of the Moves mechanic. As a player, you have an idea of the range of success/failure. As a GM, you don't have to try to gauge each time, and worry if you've widened/narrowed the scope too much. It removes cognitive burden.

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Evan Torner @guyintheblackhat.bsky.social · 16h

See @bankuei.bsky.social from 2008 (!) "For something to happen, it has to be both mechanically possible and make sense within the fiction for the group. ... [Fictional positioning] is where everything stands in relation to each other in the fiction." bankuei.wordpress.com/2008/03/08/f...

bankuei.wordpress.com

Fictional Positioning 101

The last few months, a lot of folks have been talking about Fictional Positioning. It’s not really a new idea, though, it’s probably one a lot of folks take for granted. It’s also…

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Evan Torner @guyintheblackhat.bsky.social · 20h

"Words are used to disguise, not to illuminate, action: You liberate a city by destroying it. Words are used to confuse so that at election time people will solemnly vote against their interests...[Words] must be so twisted as to justify an empire that has now ceased to exist, much less make sense."

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Jason Pitre @genesisoflegend.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Good news; we are currently running a clearance sale for copies of our SF game of memetic horror, After the War. You can pick up a copy for 50% off while supplies last from @ipr.bsky.social at www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/After-...

After the War: Science-Fiction RPG of Memetic Horror

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Indie Press Revolution @ipr.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

New at IPR! Weird Heroes of Public Access - investigating the bizarre supernatural mysteries of your small town. www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/

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Evan Torner @guyintheblackhat.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

We are opening the "DARE TO STARE" photo exhibit in DAAP this week. Photos of people with disabilities and other othered populations from the 19th Century, now recontextualized by Dr. Theresa Leininger-Muller.

FREAKS IN SIDESHOWS
"A disabled body is a hypervisible body, one that cannot escape being laden with an excess of meaning."
People have gaped at those different from themselves for millennia. Sideshows became more formalized
in 16th-century England and later were part of circuses and dime museums. The heyday of the freak show occurred in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a time of monumental scientific discoveries but also pseudoscience, such as eugenics.
Sideshows, located in their own tents and requiring an extra fee for admission, were among the most popular and profitable circus attractions. Freaks were defined by bodily features spectacular enough to make audiences want to stare. Costumes, props, extensive advertising, and the showcasing of unique abilities and talents turned people with disabilities into freaks.
Some performers had physical differences and abnormalities from birth, some confronted society's perceptions of race, ethnicity, and gender, and others challenged norms with body modifications, such as tattoos or extremely long hair or beards. Those with congenital disabilities were the aristocrats of the sideshow world.
The more unusual their bodies, the better chance they had to control their salaries and working conditions.
Show promoters, such as P.T. Barnum, hyperbolized or outright falsified biographical details of some
performers, labelling them as exotic or primitive wonders of nature, rare specimens, or beasts. Consumers, particularly those in rural areas or those who travelled little, reacted with fascination, curiosity, fear, and awe.
Some entertainers themselves manufactured distorted public images-pure humbug--for advertising and to sell fictional autobiographies in souvenirs called pitch books.
Showmen profited by exhibiting humans. A few took good care of their performers, some of whom outearned them. Others treated employees as property, controlling their earnings and personal lives, cruelly exploiting and demeaning them. In certa…

DARE TO STARE:
19th-Century Circus and Sideshow Portraits
A FotoFocus Venue
Sept. 28-Nov. 10, 2026
Step right up! Dare to Stare examines celebrity culture in 19th-century circus and sideshow
portraits and how these once-ubiquitous cartes-de-visite, tintypes, and cabinet cards entertained, educated, and served as memory aids.
Enormous crowds engaged in bold looking at circuses and sideshows.
Thrilled by colorful
spectacles, death-defying acts, exotic cultures, wild animals, rousing music, and amusing clowns, audiences savored both watching dynamic performances in person and sustained gazing at performers privately afterwards by buying their photographic portraits, sometimes autographed in person.
Featured are bearded ladies, living skeletons, fat people, tattooed bodies, clowns, conjoined
twins, armless/legless people, a three-legged boy, a four-legged woman, snake charmers, elastic skinned men, albinos, knife throwers, acrobats, aerialists, excessively hairy folk, bicyclists, contortionists, fire eaters, jugglers, little people, giants, sword swallowers, levitating performers, strong men, trapeze artists, a double-voiced singer, a human pin cushion, and an impresario. Trained animals include elephants, big cats, horses, bears, dogs, birds, goats, and pigs, as well as snakes.
Such performers wanted people to look at them. They made a living by appearing publicly on stage and by selling their likenesses. For some, such imagery led to both fame, fortune, and a measure of immortality as generations continue to pore over details of their portraits.
We marvel at the
obstacles they overcame, the skills they perfected, the exhausting travel they undertook, and the relationships they forged with each other and society at large.
The three-part exhibition in three different wall cases-
outside the DAAP Library, inside
opposite the circulation desk, and outside Rm. 5401--includes 240 photographs by 86 artists, as well as pitch books, souvenir rings from giants, and colorful sil…

Dare to Stare: 19m-Century Circus and Sideshow Portraits
FotoFocus exhibition at College of DAAP Library, UC, Sept. 28-Nov. 10, 2026
Aronoff Building
corner of Clifton and Martin Luther King, Jr.
ALL EVENTS ARE FREE AND WHEELCHAIR ACCESSIBLE.
T, Sept. 29
Gallery Talk, 12:30-1:30 pm, just outside the DAAP library
Curator and Professor of Art History, Dr. Theresa Leininger-Miller, will walk visitors through the exhibition themes, offering details about individual cabinet cards, cartes-de-visite, tintypes, and pitch books, featuring mini-bios of performers and photographers.
Film screening-- The Greatest Showman (2017, 105 mins.), 3-5 pm,
DAAP seminar room, Rm. 5480B
Th, Oct. 1
Th, Oct. 29
F, Oct. 30
The Greatest Showman is a 2017 American musical period drama film, a heavily fictionalized depiction of the life of P.T. Barnum, a showman and entertainer who created the Barnum Bailey & Circus, and its premiere attractions, such as bearded ladies, little people, trapeze artists, and Jenny Lind. The film stars Hugh Jackman, Zac Efron, Michelle Williams, Rebecca Ferguson, and Zendaya.
RECEPTION, DAAP Library, 5:30-7 pm—light refreshments
PowerPoint Presentation--"Dare to Stare: 19"-Century Circus and Sideshow Portraits"
12:45-2 pm—3800 Victory Parkway, an OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning) event, both in person and online
Step right up! Enormous crowds attended circuses and sideshows to engage in bold looking. Thrilled by colorful spectacles, death-defying acts, exotic cultures, wild animals, rousing music, amusing clowns, and people with distinctive physical characteristics, audiences savored watching dynamic performances in person and sustained portrait gazing afterwards. This presentation by Theresa Leininger-Miller, Ph.D., explains the FotoFocus exhibition on view at the DAAP Library, UC, this fall.
Leininger-Miller is Professor of Art History at UC.
This project shifts the focus of cvs, cabinet cards, and tintypes from spectacle to
empathy, examining sitters' and photograp…

Display of DARE TO STARE outside the DAAP Library

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Evan Torner @guyintheblackhat.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

You attain Full Manhood when you advocate on behalf of women and the marginalized, intervening and speaking up, and accepting zero reward or social accolades for doing so. Basic decency should be the default among men, not the exception.

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Evan Torner @guyintheblackhat.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Insurance companies are like "95 million Americans don't have life insurance! Think of the children!" Then they turn around and support fascism so that more children are endangered. They screech "Socialism!!" when a real, public-sector-provided solution to the 95 million is on the table.

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David McDarby @mcdarbygames.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Hey Chooms, We’re looking for another nova Game Designer with narrative chops to work remotely on Cyberpunk TCG at WeirdCo! So delta on over to the link, check it out, and if you think you’re the right Solo for Gig, apply! Let me know if you have any questions. www.weirdco.net/careers/game...

weirdco.net

Game Designer — WeirdCo

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Evan Torner @guyintheblackhat.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Alright -- I got tapped to run D&D 5E (the actual game) on Wednesday for several students. I have basically 90 minutes, so it's a convention demo of a game I haven't run since it came out in 2014. I pretty much know what I'd do with this TTRPG situation, but what would *you* do?

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gamera obscura @ohrobin.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Google earth has updated its satellite images of Gaza. The destruction is almost incomprehensible.

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Analog Game Studies @analoggamestudies.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

"The entire biological world runs on analog computation." N. Katherine Hayles confirms that any digital future requires serious engagement with the analog present. youtu.be/1zdEMdzaYz0?...

youtu.be

N. Katherine Hayles: LLMs Are Hideously Inefficient | Future Takes

YouTube video by Futurology

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Erin Grievances @erinbartram.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Also you do not have to go to a SLAC to get a liberal arts education or major in one of the fine humanities or social sciences on offer these days. But you do have to start from a position of thinking there's something inherently worthwhile to them and powerful people don't want you to think that.

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Erin Grievances @erinbartram.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

One reason to learn about things outside your major is so that you have something to talk about with people at parties and on dates. No amount of money will make up for you being a crushing bore. History majors learn this early but I guess it takes other people longer.

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Analog Game Studies @analoggamestudies.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Gyaneshwar Singh and Raghu Dharmendra invite you to the Board Game Studies Colloquium 2027 in Mysuru, India, on February 22-26, 2027. Submission deadline: Nov 15, 2026 Registration deadline: Jan 15, 2027 boardgamestudies.site/colloquium/b...

boardgamestudies.site

BGSC 2027 - Board Game Studies

In 2027, the Board Game Studies Colloquium travels to the historic “City of Palaces,” Mysore (Mysuru), India.

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Evan Torner @guyintheblackhat.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

We've been headed for this garbage for decades, a disaster paved by the mendacious No Child Left Behind Act, which bonded school funding to test scores in a way that nuked teacher autonomy from orbit. They've just come back with digital poison to finish the job.

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Elizabeth Boyle @thecelticist.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Substack post by Ranke de Vries which not only shows that AI won't be taking over Medieval Irish Studies any time soon (thankfully), but also makes an eloquent case in favour of sitting with the difficulty of manuscript transcription. #MedievalSky rankedevries.substack.com/p/ai-and-med...

rankedevries.substack.com

AI and medieval Irish manuscripts

Just no.

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Dillin Apelyan - Bob the Builder's #1 Guy @superdillin.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

One Shot: Last Train to Bremen took home the award for Outstanding Drama, and I was awarded the William Dufris "Those Who Dare, Win" Achievement Award yesterday and I wrote a big sappy post about it on the pictures app. I'm feeling very good and warm. www.instagram.com/p/Dd1alTwEf6...

An octagonal glass award with the red new jersey webfest laurel in the center. Award titled William Dufris "Those Who Dare, Win" Achievement Award.

an oblong glass award with the red new jersey web fest laurel in the center. Award titled Outstanding Drama in the Actual Play category.

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Evan Torner @guyintheblackhat.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

People keep checking in on me about how I'm doing, when I can point to the VERY CONCRETE source of my distress: the wholesale dismantling of US higher education by hostile actors, who are then enabled by compliant administrators on the ground. Int'l students. Curriculum. Financing. Accreditation.

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Dean Barker @deanbarker.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

The plan is unconstitutional, the acting on it a crime, the actors requiring impeachment and prosecution.

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niclyx @puffycurry.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Protoss who keeps calling the process of becoming a Dragoon "goonification" and the other Protoss keep telling him to stop.

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Dave Gilbert @wadjeteyegames.com · 27/09/2026

Nighthawks has sold TEN THOUSAND copies in less than one week! For a tiny studio like ours, this is a huge milestone. To all the supporters, backers, wishlisters, and everyone who believed in this game and us, thank you so much.

Lux and Becca from Nighthawks, with the text "10,000 copies sold."

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Rüdiger Singer @rudysinger.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

"[A] lot of GIs in Korea (...) saw this novel , beautiful, gifted group. (...) One GI sent a letter, signed by 30 other GI fans, to an agent, with his primary goal to get the Kim Sisters on the Ed Sullivan Show. It worked" jackohman.substack.com/p/have-you-e... @romanlach.bsky.social

jackohman.substack.com

Have you ever heard of The Kim Sisters (and brothers?)...the first K-Pop band!

I had not, but these singers always cheer me up...and who couldn’t use that these days?

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Robert Yang @radiatoryang.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

if you’ll be here for #NZGDC come roll thru!! I’ll be running an IRL #ManifestoJam and I’m even bringing a door to nail your manifestoes onto

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Thorsten Mense @mense.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

In dem Papier ist übrigens auch die Rede von „belastenden Ausländern“ mit Aufenthaltsrecht und „nicht-assimilierten Staatsangehörigen“, die ebenfalls vertrieben werden sollen. Es ist ein Plan für eine ethnische Säuberung.

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Jennifer Adcock @jenkatwrites.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Just got to play a little truncated game of The Price of Coal with @scorchadoom.bsky.social tonight and it was such a treat! I should actually play the game I made more 😂

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Evan Torner @guyintheblackhat.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Anyone know who or what the VIP movement was about?? They held up O'hare traffic for an hour and now, the result of this One Neat Trick, there's an airport filled with angry travellers!

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Evan Torner @guyintheblackhat.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Big Corporate Ad: "We guarantee your cybersecurity!" Me, eyes projecting a figure borne back ceaselessly into the past: "In the 1990s, the main person who guaranteed our cybersecurity had a ponytail, a DC subscription at his mom's address, and multiple BBS usernames."

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Shannon Appelcline @shannonappelcline.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Given Wizards' abandonment of D&D fiction, it's great to see Hachette Partworks bringing back 100 classic D&D novels—even better, all in a gorgeous HARDCOVER format. If they were more easily available in the US, I suspect I'd be looking for shelving to fit 100 books. 🧵1

dungeonsanddragonsfan.com

UK Publisher Brings Back Over 100 Classic D&D Novels

UK-based publisher Hachette Partworks has just unveiled its new Dungeons & Dragons Novels Collection, which features over 100 classic books from D&D history.

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Jax Romana, Bimbo Reprobate ✨🌹🌈 @rufflejax.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

This is more of the critique I'd like to see around sex in TESCREAL spaces tbh. It's not perfect but it really does hit at the core of the issue, which is "this space is for cis men and those who are not "one of the boys" regardless of gender are expected to be available at all times"

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Evan Torner @guyintheblackhat.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Narrative-material troves from the past

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Iain McAllister @giantbrain.co.uk · 25/09/2026

@ava.foxfort.net presents a new episode of "But, Why Vikings?" with very special guest host @ecfriedman.com They discuss community building and using games in an educational environment. Please share! Dr. Emily Friedman - Teacher at Large share.google/nCgL8Nnt7vO2...

share.google

Dr. Emily Friedman - Teacher at Large

Podcast Episode · But Why Vikings? · 25 September · 1hr 26min

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Cinder (it/its) @dollcinder.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Fleetwood Mac was a CIA experiment to see if straight people could survive the average queer friend group dynamic

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MIT Press @mitpress.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

"The emphasis on bans has come at the cost of progress on platform policies and features that make the online world better for people of all ages."

thereader.mitpress.mit.edu

Teen Social Media Bans Miss the Point

Instead of treating platforms as monoliths, adults and policymakers should listen to the young people who know them best.

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Leigh Alexander @leighalexander.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I think the loss of privacy for adults is the actual intention; they want all our movements linked to our state ID like most moral panics “the kids!” is a bad faith smokescreen for the encroachment the fascists desire

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Evan Torner @guyintheblackhat.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Literary scholars Groundhog Day rediscovering that "video games grant players a limited, designed agency" has defined games-in-humanities panels I've attended for the past 15 years ans I increasingly hate it

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michael lutz @ztul.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

very very very common practice in the gambling industry, developed through casino loyalty rewards programs and seamlessly making the jump to digital gambling platforms in the past half-decade. vile stuff

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Pupperpotamus @pupperpotamus.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

My hot take is that fandoms have always been a majority of nice people with a subset of absolutely rancid, judgemental arseholes that never got bigger, just louder, but because platforms learned that arguments drive engagement and therefore you see more ads, they tailored algorithms towards that

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Prism @prismreports.org · 26/09/2026

“Authoritarianism has always been part of our government. … We’ve just been very good as Americans at not seeing it.” In a Q&A with Prism, Indigenous journalist @rebeccanagle.bsky.social explains why the history of Indigenous dispossession is essential to understanding the U.S. democracy today.

prismreports.org

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Evan Torner @guyintheblackhat.bsky.social · 23/08/2025

A specific East German / Polish co-production from 1960 puzzled me after the DEFA Film Library put it out on DVD, and I gradually became one of the few world experts on the film. The rest, as they say, is history. www.everyscififilm.com/the-silent-s...

everyscififilm.com

The Silent Star | Every Sci-Fi Film

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