If you missed the last reading list, you can find it here.
Links
- MacPad: How I Created the Hybrid Mac-iPad Laptop and Tablet That Apple Won’t Make by Federico Viticci for MacStories
- The Thaumaturge review: a knotty detective RPG brewed in a rich, historical melting pot by Katharine Castle for Rock Paper Shotgun
- Expeditions: A Mudrunner Game review: the dirt’s as good as ever, but the science is a bit too clean by Rick Lane for Rock Paper Shotgun
- I worked exclusively in Vision Pro for a week—here’s how it went by Samuel Axon for Ars Technica
- Workers At The Gamurs Group Of Video Game Websites Describe It As ‘Hell’ by Luke Plunkett for Aftermath
- The U.S. Wants to Ban TikTok for the Sins of Every Social Media Company by Jason Koebler for 404 Media
- Watching Dune during the war in Gaza by Zach Rabiroff for Polygon
- Arranging Love by Usha Raj for The Smart Set
- Tenants See Evictions; Their Landlord Sees a Revolutionary New Business Model by Jay Cockburn for The Local
- How A Small Video Game Narrative Studio Wound Up At The Heart Of A Massive, Anti-Woke Conspiracy Theory by Nathan Grayson for Aftermath
- VICE and Other Endings by Patrick Klepek & Rob Zacny for Remap Radio [This one is subscriber only at their “Library” tier.]
Notes
Federico Viticci’s piece on the “MacPad” is well worth a read if you enjoy consumer technology shenanigans like I do.
Meanwhile over at Aftermath, the good folk there continue to do good work, both of the listed articles are interesting. Though I will say the one on the Sweet Baby conspiracy infuriated me on just how stupid the whole thing is.
Jason over at 404 Media continues to be on a roll:
When Uber, Airbnb, DoorDash and Bird ignore local laws or face the specter of bans or regulation, they use push notifications, email, and popups within their apps asking customers to complain to legislators. When these American apps do this, they are simply leveraging their popularity to “mobilize users.” When TikTok does the same, it is Chinese interference in American politics. When American TikTok users use their platform to share their progressive or leftist politics and TikTok’s algorithms allow them to go viral, that’s Chinese interference. When TikTok deletes content that violates its terms of service, that’s Chinese censorship. When Facebook and Google allow advertisers to create psychographic, biographic, and behavioral-based profiles of their users to target ads to them, that’s “personalized advertising.” When TikTok does ads, it’s Chinese spying. When TikTok users see content that promotes suicide, eating disorders, and makes people feel bad about themselves, it’s China brainwashing our children, undermining America, and threatening our existence. When Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube users see the same, it’s inconvenient and unfortunate, but can be solved with a blasé spokesperson statement that these platforms care about safety and will strive to do better.
Jason Koebler in The U.S. Wants to Ban TikTok for the Sins of Every Social Media Company
Finally, Rob and Patrick reflecting on their time in games journalism and Waypoint/VICE made me a bit nostalgic.
Backups are good, but backups are largely for those who already remember why the work was important. It probably means it’s unlikely to ever find a new audience, because how would anyone even know to look?
Patrick Klepek in VICE and Other Endings
That’s all from me, see y’all later!