Ever since Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter was approved and finalized late last year, I and many part-time Tweeters worried about the influence Musk would have on the platform. Plans were drafted to flee, but the community I’d spent the last decade-plus building was just too much to cut off. I’d made a Mastodon account, posted content on both services for a few months, but still kept coming back to Twitter again and again. Then, suddenly and silently, Twitter cut off API access for third party clients like Tweetbot and Twitterific. In that moment, I learned I wasn’t so much a Twitter user anymore, but a Tweetbot user. I downloaded the official app, bemoaned using it, and almost overnight quit the platform. I primarily transitioned fully to my Mastodon account and went from Tweeter to Lurker in the blink of an eye. But I can’t lie: my Mastodon experience has been less enjoyable than Twitter ever was.
Continue reading “Microblogging has some new Threads”Starfield: potential Game of the Generation?
Every once in a while, a video game comes along that has the potential to define the medium not only in the moment, but for years or decades to come. I’ve been playing video games and following this industry for my entire life, and these games don’t come around often. Grand Theft Auto 3 redefined what an open world video game could be, and over a decade later Grand Theft Auto 5 expanded that to the online arena. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim redefined what an open world RPG with a “player freedom”-focused sandbox could be over a decade after Daggerfall established the foundations of the open-world RPG. Halo redefined what a console FPS could be, a decade after Doom defined the FPS genre. Breath of the Wild abandoned the established tropes of the Zelda franchise and ripped apart the standard open world formula, and this years Tears of the Kingdom expanded on those new ideas to great effect. The Last of Us defined what a narrative-focused game could be. After watching last week’s Starfield Direct and seeing the absolute ambition on display, could Bethesda Game Studios’ next game join this short list?
Continue reading “Starfield: potential Game of the Generation?”A new era
It’s 2023. The bird site is on fire. Real life Tony Stark has turned out to be an egomaniacal narcissist. An extinct relative of the elephant is our great new hope for a decentralized public square. People are using Bing, unironically. And in the middle of this whirlwind, I decided to sit down at my desk and put my thoughts on the internet in the oldest, most tried and true way: blogging.
Unburdened by character limits and free from what we’ve pleasantly described as “discourse,” blogging gives me the outlet I’ve always wanted. A place for me to share my thoughts as they are, without sparking flame wars. Not that I don’t want to spark discussions: I do. I think the best part of the internet is its ability to allow for a melting pot of ideas, where everyone can contribute and consensus can be born. I believed social media would benefit that, but instead it has turned the firehose of ideas into a firehose of shit and we’re all paying the price.
So, I unburden myself of the Twitters and Facebooks of the world. I’ve moved my primary social outlet to Mastodon, where I’ll continue to post my random thoughts and engage in discussions. But for longer and more developed thoughts, the kind of stuff I want to spark conversations, I’ve decided to begin posting here. This journey will be rough – finding time for blogging in a busy 24/7 world will be tough – but I hope that I can rise to the challenge. And I hope you, dear reader, will join me on this journey.
Tylor Sweeney 