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Dr. José Zagal

@jzagal.bsky.social
679 followers 805 following 381 posts

Game scholar, professor, & director of Interactive Games and Media (IGM) at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) Author: Seeing Red: Nintendo's Virtual Boy mitpress.mit.edu/author/jose-p-zaga… www.pillowfort.social/jpzagal Comics

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Dr. José Zagal @jzagal.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
If you stretch the timeline a little… OSR Bullwinkle? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullwin...
en.wikipedia.org
Bullwinkle and Rocky Role-Playing Party Game - Wikipedia
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Dr. José Zagal @jzagal.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Wow, never thought you’d link to Chilean rock! 🇨🇱
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David J Prokopetz @prokopetz.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
While some purists restrict the "OSR" label to games emulating OD&D and/or Mentzer Basic, others consider anything from the hobby's first decade fair game; thus, having first been published only six years after OD&D, under the broader definition you could technically write an OSR game based on this:
The cover of "Dallas: The Television Roleplaying Game", a licensed RPG based on the 1978 American prime time soap opera of the same name. The cover depicts Larry Hagman in the role of J R Ewing, dressed in a business suit and a large cowboy hat, surrounded by inset photos of the remainder of the show's principal cast. The cover's promotional blurb reads "All the drama and power, the wheeling and dealing, the loves and lives of TV's greatest family are yours to enact in this fun-filled, fast-playing game."
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Mike Cook @mtrc.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Every AI/HCI paper I review now just sounds like this.
Research [25] shows that people [26] enjoy the feeling of winning games [3,5,19]. Enjoying things can lead to longer life expectancy [2], higher economic productivity [9,22,33-40,302] and improve mental health [9]. Yet many games still include losing players [67,4]. A recent study showed that less than half of the players in a Chess [1] match win on average [42]. We have developed an LLM-driven co-creative [66], user-led [11], mixed-initiative [80] assistant for Chess [2], through which players can redefine the rules of Chess [3] using generative AI prompting such that they are the winner of Chess [4]. A study (n=3) showed that 100\% of people felt better, healthier and more self-actualised after using our tool, showing that this may be the way forward for games and human culture more broadly in the future.
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Molleindustria FUTURE? NO THANKS! OUT NOW @molleindustria.org · 30/09/2026
The new issue of @jacobinmag.bsky.social just arrived!
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Dr. José Zagal @jzagal.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
I’d bet money you rarely half-ass anything game related…. Those kinds are in for a hell of a ride (of their own making..)!
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Nathan Altice @altice.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Ian's analysis about a longstanding internal tension in American universities, increasingly laid bare in the past years due to external pressures, is astute, and rings particularly true with my own experience as a 'teaching professor' in the UC system over the past 10 years.
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Dr. José Zagal @jzagal.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Wait, who’s saying that standard-ass dungeon crawls are not good? Let me at ‘em with my 10 foot pole…
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Dr. José Zagal @jzagal.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Curious about getting a PhD here at @rittigers.bsky.social doing technically oriented games research? - Check out www.rit.edu/events/gccis... Feel free to DM if you have questions!
rit.edu
GCCIS PhD Information Sessions | Events | RIT
The Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences (GCCIS) at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) invites prospective students interested in applying for Fall 2027 to join our upcoming Ph....
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Dr. José Zagal @jzagal.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Buns and Roses
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Dr. José Zagal @jzagal.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Now that I think about it a bit more - it prolly makes most sense as a "tournament" (a game that contains other games). See my other comment... (the tournament has it's own rules, goals, etc.)
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Dr. José Zagal @jzagal.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
That's fair. As another wrinkle with MtG, draft/sealed are tournaments/competition - a form of game-within-a-game (playing "chess" vs "chess world championship tournament"). (Also, decathlon as a game made up of other games).
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Dr. José Zagal @jzagal.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
For added context, in my game design class we discuss the play-before-play and the play-after-play (and also in-between) as forms of play you can design for. And how some games have a natural cycle here - e.g. managing inventory/loot "post-play" in Diablo, following a "meta" pre-play in LoL
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Dr. José Zagal @jzagal.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Ah, ok. I misread it as referring to deckbuilding as a general mechanic/process across all games, not narrowly to TCG/CCGs only. I agree with you broadly! Recognizing that "typical" "before-play" activities are sometimes play is a thing! (copying another decklist would not, but it's an edge case?)
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Dr. José Zagal @jzagal.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Hi @ckunzelman.bsky.social Enjoyed your deckbldng paper (escholarship.org/uc/item/2gt8...) Was surprised by: "[...] everyone seems to agree that deck building is not part of gameplay" Maybe I misunderstand. Deckbldng seems obviously gameplay in: MtG draft and sealed, Dominion,Slay the Spire,etc?
escholarship.org
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Simon Parkin @simonparkin.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
1988. New York. Invention, betrayal and a court case brought by Nintendo that profoundly reshaped the video game industry in ways that have, until now, been kept secret. Read more about ‘Trial of the Space Invaders’ here: www.patreon.com/myperfectcon...
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Dr. José Zagal @jzagal.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Oooh I had the same thought! Also, GitS… so good…
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Molleindustria FUTURE? NO THANKS! OUT NOW @molleindustria.org · 04/09/2026
Future? No Thanks! IS OUT NOW ON STEAM An open-world comedy adventure about workable utopias, the twilight of patriarchy, revolution, and the horrifying possibility that the younger generations might be right. 💀 Windows + Mac 💀 6+ hours of gameplay 💀 20% off at launch futurenothanks.com
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Molleindustria FUTURE? NO THANKS! OUT NOW @molleindustria.org · 04/09/2026
Solidarity with my fellow games-and-politics scholars who will have to play these racist slop games because they represent some kind of landmark in the form.
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psudonym @psudonym.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Found it! it's not exclusively about that trauma tho, it's about the other big thing people remember kirk for medium.com/@GregPogorze...
medium.com
The thing about the Kobayashi Maru
“The thing about the Kobayashi Maru,” said Jim, “is you have to remember it’s a simulation.”
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Dr. José Zagal @jzagal.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Paper’s still in process… (as in, not yet formally published… but maybe sometime not too soon…). (Academic publishing is wonky sometimes)
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Dr. José Zagal @jzagal.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
🙋🏽‍♂️most recent i remember was for a paper on referees in sports videogames.
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Richard Fisher @richardfisher.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Recently I went to Chile to see the Extremely Large Telescope being built in the Atacama. The BBC just published my feature about its construction challenges, the discoveries to come, and its fun name...the result of what I call telescopic "nominative magnification". :) www.bbc.com/future/artic...
bbc.com
In the otherworldly Chilean desert, this huge telescope could reveal alien life
In Chile's Atacama Desert, the biggest telescope ever built is taking shape – and it could radically change our view of the Universe.
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Dr. José Zagal @jzagal.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Hey, I know that game! @rittigers.bsky.social
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patrickcarlson @pjcarlson.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
GTA VI, sure, but have you ever played Steve Jackson’s SORCERY?
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Marcus Carter @marcuscarter.com · 26/08/2026
We have a new game on Ludolio today , The Masters Pupil by Pat Naoum, a hand-painted puzzle game set inside Claude Monet's eyeball. Think Limbo but beautiful and calm, rather than harrowing.
screenshot from the game The Masters Pupil, a hand-painted puzzle platformer.
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Bobby™ @schwbby.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
I'm bad at promoting my work. So, in addition to saying "buy my book!" (a chill game design textbook using Bitsy) I'll share some of my favorite writing from the book. www.amazon.com/Storytelling... link.springer.com/book/10.1007... (save 20% with code PALAUT and I earn a pittance of commission!)
Pixelated clouds and mountains blanket a landscape punctuated by a dragon soaring above a castle decorate the cover of my book Storytelling for Video Games Using Bitsy: A Guide for Aspiring Designers.
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Dr. José Zagal @jzagal.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
True. I bow in the face of a true tea drinking master. I have much to learn.
static.klipy.com
Nicolas Cage's Respectful Bow
ALT: Nicolas Cage's Respectful Bow
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Dr. José Zagal @jzagal.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Is it wrong that I first read this as “plastic lips” and thought, is this how people are drinking tea now? What?!
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Jeremiah McCall (he/him) @gamingthepast.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
Hey friends, how about a Designing Historical Games for the Classroom edition of ask-me-anything ? So that would be designing boardgames, interactive choice-based history texts, rpgs, (videogames of course but that is not core to this book)and/or helping students design them in for classes.
routledge.com
Designing Historical Games for Classrooms: A Practical Guide for Educators
Designing Historical Games for Classrooms: A Practical Guide for Educators is a complete introductory guide for designing analog games and interactive choice‑based historical texts for history classes...
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@DiceinMind @diceinmind.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Join us as we chat with Dr. José Zagal about games research...and RPGs in Chile! @jzagal.bsky.social @rittigers.bsky.social #gamesresearch podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/d...
Photo of José Zagal
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Konstantinos Dimopoulos @konstantinosd.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
Making a proper FPS fit in 64 kilobytes... youtu.be/qht68vFaa1M?...
youtu.be
How I made a shooter game in 64 KB
YouTube video by daivuk
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Dr. José Zagal @jzagal.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
Getting buzzed on my way to @rittigers.bsky.social campus today! Am I saying it right? Buzzed by jet planes!
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Phil Salvador @philsalv.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
@kelslewin.bsky.social all the way back in 2019
A presentation slide that says "Oh my god, shut up. No, he was not killed by the Yakuza. This is the dumbest rumor."
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Nintendo of America [Twitter/X Mirror] @nintendoamericax.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
These previously unreleased Virtual Boy games are now available to play on Virtual Boy – Nintendo Classics for #NintendoSwitchOnline + Expansion Pack members: ☑️ ZERO RACERS ☑️ D-HOPPER
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Dr. José Zagal @jzagal.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
I’d roll a die to pick - and then roll again because I didn’t like the result. And then I’d shrug and say, “you pick”. And it would be great regardless.
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Dr. José Zagal @jzagal.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
Hmm. I’m still waiting for a tactical loofah. You know, for us manly men. Probably branded as a “hoorah”..
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Dr. José Zagal @jzagal.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Sold! I mean, pre-ordered!
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Dr. José Zagal @jzagal.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Is the "study" part of the lifepath generation also in there? My scholarly bias and curiosity would love to know more about what @ckunzelman.bsky.social and @mmcwh.bsky.social learned about lifepaths in TRPGs! (is there a paper in the works?)
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Dr. José Zagal @jzagal.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Yes, and so much more! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken...
en.wikipedia.org
Chicken Tax - Wikipedia
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Molleindustria FUTURE? NO THANKS! OUT NOW @molleindustria.org · 23/07/2026
For every day Steam delays the release of Future? No Thanks! I will add another derpy little vehicle to the game. Your move, Valve.
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Dr. José Zagal @jzagal.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
It was a super interesting episode!
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Dr. José Zagal @jzagal.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
Congrats Aditya K. for your work on Demon Slayer 2! It arrived just in time as I was almost done at the U of Utah (notice the empty window). Thank you! I hope it's not the last @utah.edu alumni I can celebrate - though I'll now also be cheering @rittigers.bsky.social game alumni achievements!
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ROMchip: A Journal of Game Histories @romchip.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
🎮📜 A new issue of ROMchip: A Journal of Game Histories is here! 📜🎮 This summer we're traveling from 1980s China to the 1990s cable wars, with stops in Switzerland and the UK along the way! 🕹️📖 www.romchip.org 🌟 Get cozy. Get reading. SUBSCRIBE: eepurl.com/crCul1 DONATE: bit.ly/4wmQqKC 🧵⬇️
romchip.org
ROMchip
ROMchip: A Journal of Game Histories is a platform designed for the advancement of critical historical studies of games.
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Greg Costikyan @costik.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
Weird Game Designer Facts #62 Noah Falstein Noah got his start at Milton Bradley's short-lived videogames division; his first published game was the arcade title SINISTAR (Williams Electronics, 1983), famous from the eponymous opponent's synthesized audio, "I live! Run run run beware coward, run!"
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Dr. José Zagal @jzagal.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Love this paper by Ellie Cohen - compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... Also, "loyalty mongering" is a great term to describe the exploitation of attachment or loyalty. @marcuscarter.com, @leonxiao.com, and others in the videogame ethics space - you might find it interesting?
compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Video Game Design Ethics
This article introduces video game ethics as an emergent field. It then focuses on some of the pressing issues distinctive of video game design, issues which arise predominantly from the making rathe...
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Brendel @brendelbored.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
My favorite thing at the start of videogames is adjusting brightness until the image at the side is barely visible and then always feeling like I’ve somehow answered wrong
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Dr. José Zagal @jzagal.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
The OG. Original grognard.
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blaine @jblainefoster.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
need you all to see this deeply indescribable cooking video
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