Justin (J. M. L.) Whittington

Saw "Media Criticism" trending and clicked only to be met with literal media criticism, not the fun kind. I'm not sure this counts?

Here’s the thing though. The oil either goes through the strait or it doesn’t.

"It's a lot more justifiable if you think about it in terms that may justify it."

The Gulf War Did Not Take Place - Wikipedia

Another of relevance, particularly being on the "other side" as this has been applied to the Russo-Ukrainian War and Israeli-Gaza War:

An oldie but a still-relevant goodie:

People fail to realize war and gaming are always related.

It's so wholesome!

Hot Shots Golf Fore! (PS2; 2003 JP [released as Everybody's Golf 4], 2004 NA, 2005 EU [released as Everybody's Golf])

Along with another talk on planning a study of off-roading through the lens of play, just more #AppalachianGameStudies!

As with a lot of my work on games, I put in light-hearted things like this to balance out my critiques. In this case, of paranormal tropes of Appalachia. Like White Wolf Publishing's "hillbilly" werewolves in the "Rage Across Appalachia" sourcebook or Call of Duty: Black Ops 6's Zombies gamemode.

Amagon (NES; 1988 JP, 1989 NA)

Tomodachi Life (3DS; 2013 JP, 2014 NA/EU)

Shin Megami Tensei V (multiplatform; 2021)

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (N64; 2000)

Super excited to give a talk next week on how, among other things, Japanese game developers have loved Mothman and the Flatwoods Monster enough to put them in games for decades with little to no context.

I desperately need the response to "How are our lootboxes any different from Pop Mart's products and Pokémon cards?" to be "Y'know what, you're right. I guess they're next."

screenshot Instagram Post by Sean Ferrick „Don‘t ever take this site or anything it publishes seriously . It is actively looking to hire people who hate Starfleet Academy to write about it. As of 8 PM on 10.3.2026 this is live on LinkedIn. Ask me again why I think the anti-SFA sentiment is manufactured. Screenshot of a job ad by Entertainment News Writer „About the job: Starfleet Academy Haters Wanted As Writers for Geek News Website“

This is so wild

"How can companies better collaborate with existing fan communities and cultural institutions to preserve and revitalize classic IP?"

Garrett: "This is probably the #1 question we get. [...] We have proven over the years that we [the industry] suck at preserving games." The solution: devs/publishers should listen more to what the community is doing! #GDC2026

A bunch of metadata fields related to Ratchet and Clank.

Internal PlayStation tool called MetaGen for organizing game development artifact metadata, for reference within their studios without having to share 100s of GBs of files. They're exploring open-sourcing this tool! #GDC2026

"How can the industry address legal barriers - like expired licenses or outdated contracts - that block re-releases or remasters?"

"You will not believe how many games are not available because of a simple mistake [with rights agreements]."

GOG gives an example of an unnamed game that can't get re-released because of a mistake in the publishing contract 🫠 #GDC2026

"Why are younger players gravitating toward retro titles - and how should studios respond to this trend?"

Heroes III is the top-selling retro game on GOG... and almost half of buyers are under the age of 25.

GOG's theory: for younger generations that grew up with Minecraft and Roblox, graphical/technical fidelity *does not matter*, which is a huge market shift #GDC2026

probably also worth noting that i remember /very clearly/ that machiavelli explicitly categorises states into states where this is likely true and states where this will never be true

local techbro discovers CK3 not a manual

Oh, how angry this is going to make a lot of unsavory purists.

The Unmaking of the American University For decades, research universities have relied on federal funding, with no guarantee that it will last. Now their survival may depend on compliance with the government.

Long, detailed Nicholas Lemann on the state of American Universities.

I'm giving away the kicker. "The golden era of autonomy for universities is probably not going to return."

game character is at the bottom of what looks like some stone steps, close to some trees. they are saying: this looks like a tree from far away, but it's just more of that computer generated crap. this comes from the point and click command 'look at the trees'. down the bottom of the screen is a face portrait of the character and the point and click commands: walk to, look at (highlighted), take, use, talk to, swallow, give, push. to the right of this is mostly blank boxes for inventory.

harlan ellison: i have no mouth, and i must scream, screenshot, macintosh (1995) www.mobygames.com/game/617/har...

I was today years old when I learned that they're called en dash and em dash because they were originally the width of an N and an M.

Y'know, I have my second candidacy exam later today through Thursday. I'm obviously imposing a media blackout on myself. I'm horrified at what I'll learn when I come back.

"In some action games, your trigger finger is disabled if you aim your gun at your NPC allies, making it impossible to shoot your story-critical friends. In Resident Evil Requiem, you cannot shoot the Porsche."

Please keep in mind nearly 150 children were murdered.

Maybe it’s because I’m a colonial historian but so many of these white nation states seem to behave exactly like they did in the 19th century: ‘your leaders aren’t right for you,’ ‘we’re only killing you/colonizing you/installing puppet leaders for your own good’

a 2 nov 2015 tweet from me: I have lots of stupid opinions and often make the mistake of expressing them on the internet

a reminder

In case anyone was curious about the ad:
www.mearsheimer.com/wp-content/u...
foreignpolicy.com/2002/09/26/t...

I apologize for breaking my regularly scheduled programming. This has just been increasingly irking me the last few weeks re: the Epstein files and now Iran.