iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Daniel New @olddannew.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

I very much enjoyed Animal Crossing: New Horizons: Can a Game Take Care of Us? by @n-w-f.bsky.social. It’s a superb exploration of the game, its structure, and its ability to connect—and sometimes manipulate—players. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Animal Crossing: New Horizons: Can a Game Take Care of Us? by Noah Wardrip-Fruin

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markcmarino.bsky.social @markcmarino.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Inventing ELIZA owes a debt of gratitude to two Noahs: Noah Wardrip-Fruin who inspired and encouraged the hunt for the ELIZA code and Noah Springer who shepherded the book along to completion. Many thanks for believing in this project! @n-w-f.bsky.social @noahspringer.com @mitpress.bsky.social

Mark Marino looking confuzzled, a smiling Noah Springer pointing to a tiny Noah Wardrip-Fruin

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Noah Wardrip-Fruin @n-w-f.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

ICYMI, @keefstuart.bsky.social said kind words in The Guardian about Raiford Guins's King Pong and my Animal Crossing: New Horizons

If you want to escape screens for a while, but still read about them, there are two new academic books on video games I’d recommend. Animal Crossing: New Horizons: Can a Game Take Care of Us? by UC Santa Cruz professor Noah Wardrip-Fruin is a fascinating study of what made Nintendo’s cutesy life sim so popular during the Covid pandemic. The author brings in his own family’s experiences, adding a touching personal element to the analysis. Also out is King Pong: How Atari Bounced Across Markets to Make Millions by Raiford Guins, which examines the success of Atari’s first arcade game and how it effectively invented an industry.

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Jen @jkmahal.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

It’s a miracle!! They did it!! After lo these many years, the people at Disney figured out how to make The Muppet Show. Yaaaaaaay!! Appointment TV for Wednesdays.

media.tenor.com

kermit the frog is dancing in front of a red curtain on a stage .

Alt: kermit the frog is saying yaaay and flailing his arms in front of a red curtain on a stage .

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danilynrutherford.bsky.social @danilynrutherford.bsky.social · 15/01/2026

So excited to share a stage with @n-w-f.bsky.social -- whose book is beautiful and so illuminating -- not to mention @djeanneh.bsky.social and @megancmoodie.bsky.social. Thanks so much to Megan, for her hard work making this happen, and to the Humanities Institute for hosting us.

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Noah Wardrip-Fruin @n-w-f.bsky.social · 12/01/2026

Next week I'll be joining @danilynrutherford.bsky.social at UC Santa Cruz to talk about our new books with @djeanneh.bsky.social and Megan Moodie. It'll be a mix of the scholarly and personal, with two experiences of parenting and disability at the core thi.ucsc.edu/event/nurtur...

thi.ucsc.edu

Events for January 2026 – The Humanities Institute

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Anastasia Salter @anasalter.bsky.social · 11/01/2026

As the book exhibit at #MLA26 is wrapping up this morning, consider dropping by to check out the new Replay series from @uchicagopress.bsky.social with my book on Undertale and @n-w-f.bsky.social on Animal Crossing.

The first two books in the Replay series on display at MLA 2026 in Toronto

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Noah Wardrip-Fruin @n-w-f.bsky.social · 05/01/2026

I'm quite curious to hear responses to this.

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Shelley Stamp @shelleystamp.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

Great thread right here. Terrific wisdom for folks on the job market. So much better than reading and reacting to that other crap that’s floating around today.

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Matthew Kirschenbaum @mkirschenbaum.bsky.social · 11/12/2025

New from Colin Milburn and @ritaraley.bsky.social, this rich and extended meditation on the ubiquitous institutional discourse of appropriateness and what it would mean to think “Inappropriate AI”: uchri.org/foundry/inap...

“From this perspective, then, it would never be a question of defining “appropriate” or “proper” usages of AI as such in different contexts—whether corporate, academic, or political—because we would acknowledge that there is nothing proper to AI to begin with. It would always be a matter, instead, of reappropriating or disappropriating whatever the AI has gathered up, decomposed, and transformatively recomposed, as if all on its own.”

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Robin D. Laws @robindlaws.bsky.social · 05/12/2025

A lot of the other faces of Nyarlathotep try to keep it subtle but FIFA Nyarlathotep is “hells yes I’m Nyarlathotep!!”

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Noah Wardrip-Fruin @n-w-f.bsky.social · 03/12/2025

In normal academic writing, we use brief discussions of games to help us make a point. Writing a whole book about ACNH instead gave me an opportunity to explore complex, ambivalent experiences with the game — some of which I recently got to talk about with Emily Cerf news.ucsc.edu/2025/12/anim...

news.ucsc.edu

Ahead of new game release, Animal Crossing: New Horizons book reflects on comfort, community, and capitalism

Professor of Computational Media Noah Wardrip-Fruin speaks on themes explored in his new book

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Sam Shields @smshieldsy.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

My work concerning the use of LLMs for authoring interactive narrative has just been published in Transactions on Games! We explore if LLMs could produce writing for IDNs, and if we SHOULD use LLMs in this creative writing from perspectives of actual authors. I'll let you explore our findings :)

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Hungriger Henry Zhou @normandhaw.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

Haven't read the paper yet but in my experience LLM is just terrible at picking up what makes writers actually proud of their work like proses, themes and very tailored moments of obfuscation and reveal. Glad there's a study on it now!

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Noah Wardrip-Fruin @n-w-f.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

I'm honored to be included in this exciting collection of new university press books!

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Association of University Presses @aupresses.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

#TeamUP and #ReadUP in the arts, performing arts & media studies with works by @uchicagopress.bsky.social, @n-w-f.bsky.social, @cmupress.bsky.social, @nupress.bsky.social & more in the #UPWeek Gallery bit.ly/3WTl7XD

#TeamUP in the Arts, Performing Arts, and Media Studies, University Press Week, featuring 3 book jackets:
-Animal Crossing, New Horizons: Can a Game Take Care of Us?
-Time Well Spent: An American Architect in Europe, 1893
-We Are Civic Media

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Elizabeth Swensen @swensen.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

Reposting! Do you know someone working at the intersection of Interactive Art, Performance, and Games? We’re hiring!

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MegueyB 🔜Metatopia @megueyb.bsky.social · 06/11/2025

Here We GO! Come along, my dearies! www.kickstarter.com/projects/lum...

kickstarter.com

Apocalypse World: Burned Over

The 3rd edition of the groundbreaking original.

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Jen @jkmahal.bsky.social · 06/11/2025

Bribing people to donate to @ucscmonsters.bsky.social . We’re raising money for the 2026 Festival of Monsters and the $ is matched. So, if you would like me to make you an emotional support ghost, donate $30+ and send proof/address to ucscmonsters at gmail and I’ll make you one! bit.ly/monstergive

A crocheted ghost with a UCSC Center for Monster Studies button on a table with marigolds and candles.

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Center for Monster Studies @ UC Santa Cruz @ucscmonsters.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

Bring the 2026 Festival of Monsters to life! It's Giving Day at UC Santa Cruz and monster matches magically turn $1 into $2. bit.ly/monstergive Your support means the monsters live to lecture another day, #give2ucsc @dsas #monsters

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Liverpool Distribution Services at Liverpool University Press @lupdistribution.bsky.social · 31/10/2025

👻 Happy Halloween! What better time to discover the inaugural volume in Lever Press's film|minutes book series?: 'Bride of Frankenstein' by @shanedenson.bsky.social dissects the 1935 classic through sound, technology, and time itself minute-by-minute.🎃 🍿 bit.ly/3JzEdPr @leverpress.bsky.social

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Dr. Rachel Kowert @drkowert.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

🚨CALL FOR PAPERS 🚨 The Psychgeist of Pop Culture: Chrono Trigger playstorypress.org/2025/10/30/c...

playstorypress.org

Call for Papers! The Psychgeist of Pop Culture: Chrono Trigger – Play Story Press

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Everest Pipkin @everest.bsky.social · 31/10/2025

Come work with me!   We've opened the search for a full time, tenure-track Assistant Professor in Game Arts at Pratt Institute.   A good match would be an artist, game developer, or educator with an active creative practice in indie games, game studies and theory, playful coding, or art games.

schooljobs.com

Assistant Professor Digital Arts, Game Arts 2026 (71102)

The Department of Digital Arts at Pratt Institute invites applications for a full-time, tenure-track position in Game Arts at the rank of Assistant Professor, beginning in Fall 2026. The successful ca...

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Matthew Kirschenbaum @mkirschenbaum.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

In happier news: for Critical Inquiry, I reviewed @hagenblix.bsky.social and Ingeborg Glimmer’s WHY WE FEAR AI, which has just lately been catching some deserved hotness. 🔥 Read my take here: criticalinquiry.uchicago.edu/matthew_kirs...

criticalinquiry.uchicago.edu

Critical Inquiry

A journal of Art, Culture and Politics, Published by the University of Chicago

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Felipe Pepe @felipepepe.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

So, today I'm announcing a new book project... and doing a call for papers: crpgbook.wordpress.com/2025/10/31/t... It's an anthology of video game history outside the usual US perspective - an accessible & exciting panorama of different realities - and I'll pay 300 USD per article. Please share :)

crpgbook.wordpress.com

The Video Game History Expansion Pack – Pitch your story

Today I’m putting my money where my mouth is and launching a new project — a book focused on game history outside of the usual North American perspectives.

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Kitten Cup Studio @kittencupstudio.bsky.social · 29/10/2025

We’re playing the Ghost Town Pumpkin Festival tomorrow! 🎃 And we've got a SPECIAL GUEST... Join us LIVE this Thursday on Twitch as we play with the game’s CREATOR, @adamgryu.bsky.social at 8:30pm EST for a fun Halloween hangout full of ghosts, pumpkins & secrets! ✨Follow on Twitch buff.ly/JFTqgrY

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Dr Holly Nielsen @hollynielsen.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

Just yesterday I was talking about starting a new Animal Crossing island and wondering what that said about the state of my mental health, and now Nintendo are full on enabling me

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Adam Summerville @autumnsburg.bsky.social · 28/10/2025

I have to know some people for whom this role would be fitting -- come work with me (and other great people) as a Lead Narrative Designer on Project Sirius jobs.smartrecruiters.com/CDPROJEKTRED...

jobs.smartrecruiters.com

Lead Narrative Designer

Company Description: To create revolutionary, story-driven RPGs which go straight to the hearts of gamers — this is our mission. Want to dive deeper into our company’s culture? Explore our social medi...

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Molleindustria FUTURE? NO THANKS! OUT NOW @molleindustria.org · 28/10/2025

There is something truly remarkable about Generative AI. Several years in this revolution, half of the US GDP dumped to make these tools free, and i can't think of a single generated artifact, text, image, sound, video that had a significant cultural impact.

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Dr Holly Nielsen @hollynielsen.bsky.social · 28/10/2025

So excited to be contributing an essay to this book. I’ll be covering one of my all time favourite games, Year Walk I’ll be discussing memory, perspectives on inevitability, folklore, and (of course) history

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Noah Wardrip-Fruin @n-w-f.bsky.social · 28/10/2025

It's a good time to write a book about a single game/series! There's the great work being published by @bossfightbooks.com And now three of the best scholarly presses have joined in ...

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Kat Schrier @katschrier.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

Want to teach? Make/research games? Apply to teach at Marist #Top50 #GamesProgram. It's for: 🎮 People who make games. 🎲 Game researchers who also love to teach. 🕹️ Those who love both. Review of applications begins on November 1st. careers.marist.edu/cw/en-us/job... #facultyjobs

careers.marist.edu

Careers at Marist - Marist University

Thank you for your interest in a career with Marist University!

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Mike Cook @mtrc.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

PROCJAM - the Procedural Generation Jam - is back for another year! Join us on itch.io this November for another week of making something that makes something - a bskybot, a videogame, a digital artwork, a dice table or something else! 🗓️ Nov 21st - Dec 1st 🔮 itch.io/jam/procjam

itch.io

PROCJAM - The Procedural Generation Jam

A game jam from 2025-11-21 to 2025-12-01 hosted by PROCJAM. Let's Make Something! PROCJAM - the Procedural Generation Jam - is a creative coding jam about making things that make things. This normally...

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Noah Wardrip-Fruin @n-w-f.bsky.social · 26/10/2025

ICYMI, my new book on Animal Crossing: New Horizons is 30% off (w/ free shipping) It's a scholarly book, looking at ACNH through lenses like craft, compulsion, and community. It's also a personal book, about playing with my kids during the pandemic More details: press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/vi...

press.uchicago.edu

Subject catalog: The Chicago Booth at SHOT!''}

Subject catalog for The Chicago Booth at SHOT.

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Stephen Ware @sgware.bsky.social · 26/10/2025

Really enjoyed my first time at @roguelike.club! If anyone is interest in my talk, "Planning and Replanning Structured Adaptive Stories: 25 Years of History" it's here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikrP...

youtube.com

Planning and Replanning Structured Adaptive Stories: 25 Years of History

YouTube video by Narrative Intelligence Lab

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Matthew Kirschenbaum @mkirschenbaum.bsky.social · 25/10/2025

It was pretty much one year ago that @ritaraley.bsky.social and I published “AI and the University as a Service,” a first draft, if you will, of the everyday history we’re seeing playing out all around us. www.cambridge.org/core/service... Here’s just a bit—we think we got a few things right.

In this, our own sector of the economy, we can now begin to apprehend the true and actual foundation model subsuming the disciplinary ones we were at such pains to enumerate above: the university not in ruins but as a service. The idea of the University as a Service (UaaS) extends the model of Software as a Service (SaaS) to education: physical institutions (for now) provide the lecturers, content, and degrees; in turn, the technological infrastructure, instructional delivery, and support

services are all outsourced to third-party vendors and digital platforms.® Licensing and subscription agreements favor short-term budget planning; so too do they enable an administrative vision of universities as customizable, scalable, cost effective, and available on demand. And thus the decision-making is too often exclusively in the hands of CIOs, IT staff members, and instructional development, with academic affairs relegated to the position of managing the implementation of commercial ed-tech applications that promise continuous pedagogic improvement, which is now to be accelerated by new Al features, all of them generating revenue through the generation of data.

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Cat Manning @catacalypto.bsky.social · 24/10/2025

This is all a question of the pleasure of responsiveness, and for me the best model of this is in @stcymsn.bsky.social’s dissertation. It’s been incredibly influential to my thinking on narrative satisfaction.

escholarship.org

Responsiveness in Narrative Systems

Author(s): Mason, Stacey | Advisor(s): Mateas, Michael | Abstract: While game studies and interactive narrative communities have developed a rich body ofresearch around agency in our interactions with...

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Noah Wardrip-Fruin @n-w-f.bsky.social · 21/10/2025

I think Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a *paternal* game. It wants to take care of us — and it assumes it knows better than us. Back in 2020, that hit very differently, depending on how you were experiencing the pandemic.

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Dr. Nic Junius @quakefultales.bsky.social · 19/10/2025

I think one of the underrated pieces of developing game AI is knowing what the game is fundamentally *about*, like what is its model of the world

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Christoph Salge @christophsalge.bsky.social · 19/10/2025

Are you interested in doing a funded Phd with me on AI in Games at the University of Hertfordshire, UK. Check out the details below and feel free to share. Deadline for applications is 14th of November. docs.google.com/document/d/e...

docs.google.com

Artificial Intelligence in Games, Phd Call

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Ghoulish Delights @ghoulish-delights.bsky.social · 19/10/2025

Pat Harrigan (@patguy.bsky.social) presents a chilling meditation on getting rid of things in "Pollution," the latest installment in his Sunday Scaries! "Used to be, here was a house of a hundred rooms. A sprawling, crumbling old pile of shit." www.ghoulishdelights.com/the-sunday-s...

ghoulishdelights.com

The Sunday Scaries - Ghoulish Delights

THIS WEEK’S STORY THE SUNDAY SCARIES ARCHIVE ABOUT THE AUTHOR Volume II, Number 41 – Content Warning: Language and Horror Every night about this time I wake up and, trying not to wake Clarissa, I cree...

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Charlie Stross @cstross.bsky.social · 17/10/2025

New blog entry: The Pivot: www.antipope.org/charlie/blog...

antipope.org

The pivot - Charlie's Diary

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