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Will Borger

@edgarallanbro.bsky.social

2.5K followers 1.7K following 3.6K posts

Pushcart Prize-nominated fiction writer/essayist. Co-founder/Editor-in-Chief @skyboxcritics.com. Words: MLR, Purple Wall, ASP, The Rupture, YourTango, Vet. Life. Games: IGN, PC Gamer, Digital Trends, Shacknews, Unwinnable, Restart, TechRadar, Spine+

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Will Borger @edgarallanbro.bsky.social · Feb 6

I interviewed several members of the VF community about why VF5: R.E.V.O. matters for @pcgamer.com. VF is so important, and it's so good to see that community get their moment and help them tell that story.

Big thanks to @wes.readonlymemo.com for the opportunity.

www.pcgamer.com/games/fighti...

Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. isn't just a PC port of a 19-year-old game: it's the reason a diehard fighting game community can 'finally reach out and play with each other across the world'

Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O's arrival on PC marks the start a new era for the series that pioneered 3D fighting games.

www.pcgamer.com

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Will Borger @edgarallanbro.bsky.social · 12h

7. Trick 'r Treat (2007)

Never seen this one. Kind of a weird, non-linear anthology, but it comes together. Surprised it never got a theatrical release given how popular it is now, but studios, amirite?

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Reposted by Will Borger

lincoln carpenter @lincolnhello.bsky.social · 19h

I feel like I'm losing my mind. This is like reviewing a restaurant's food based on the menu pictures

Morgan Park @morganpark.bsky.social · 20h

I'm a little surprised so many sites are publishing final reviews of Battlefield 6. Unless everybody was finding full lobbies I could not...I'm not sure anyone has *really* played multiplayer yet. It was 90% bots.

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Will Borger @edgarallanbro.bsky.social · 19h

If I could press a magic button and change one aspect of video games, I would make all games interesting immediately. Not fun, mind. Interesting.

Not "oh, it's good 40 hours in once you get the Wizard Strangler and you can perform the Ritual of Eldritch Root Beer."

Immediately.

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Reposted by Will Borger

Will Borger @edgarallanbro.bsky.social · 21h

Anyway, I will absolutely be one of the lower scores for Absolum and if you need to understand why you can imagine the word "roguelite," realize that the game chops off core parts of your characters' kits so it can feed them back to you as a progression system, and then look at this image.

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Reposted by Will Borger

Jennifer/Aster Unkle 🏳️‍⚧️ 🔪 @spookycutewitch.bsky.social · 21h

“Why isn’t anyone covering our indie games?”

1. The gaming press has been decimated by business suits, and the whims of an uncaring search engine behemoth
2. Doing the job means you get death threats and harassment
3. There are more games released in 1 week than there were in entire months in 2015

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Reposted by Will Borger

good hyuck, babe! @markpopham.bsky.social · 1d

of the moral conundrums you will be presented with, as an adult, "stop buying these specific children's toys" is like. the easiest possible

Jess O'Thomson @jessothomson.co.uk · 1d

It cannot be made clearer.

If you continue to support the Harry Potter franchise in any way, you are directly funding the removal of trans people's human rights in the UK.

JK Rowling pledges to keep up fight against SNP trans policies

Author vows to bankroll campaigners after Scottish government fails to pay group's legal fees in Supreme Court equality case

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Will Borger @edgarallanbro.bsky.social · 20h

It's also, as a freelancer, not a thing you can do.

Will Borger @edgarallanbro.bsky.social · 21h

Yeah several hundred news posts a day about game announcements is not realistic.

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Will Borger @edgarallanbro.bsky.social · 21h

Who cares?

Will Borger @edgarallanbro.bsky.social · 21h

We may have found the exception.

Will Borger @edgarallanbro.bsky.social · 21h

Like... I'm going to die some day. I really don't have patience for stuff that wastes my time to pad out a runtime, even if there is eventually a cool narrative justification for it.

Your time on this Earth is limited. There is nothing worse than arbitrarily wasting it.

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Will Borger @edgarallanbro.bsky.social · 21h

It's worse, I think. I can choose not to play a multiplayer game. With this you are arbitrarily locking progress behind grinding for numbers and it just makes me want to stop playing.

Just crazy. I get that some people like some of this but my time on this Earth is limited, man.

Will Borger @edgarallanbro.bsky.social · 21h

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Will Borger @edgarallanbro.bsky.social · 21h

The narrative bits are cool but there's just not enough meat on that bone until the late game and it drives me insane waiting for enough currency to unlock more whatever so I can survive long enough to progress.

Great premise. Cool narrative idea. It does go places. It just wastes too much time.

Will Borger @edgarallanbro.bsky.social · 21h

Remember when we played games because we enjoyed the act of playing them, and not because we were being drip-fed dopamine and 25% more X? Good times.

I cannot imagine what that's like on the dev front.

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Will Borger @edgarallanbro.bsky.social · 21h

The narrative stuff is cool, but man I wish there was more narrative in-between runs, especially early on. Mostly it's die, get a little stronger, nothing changes from narrative perspective, go do it again.

Like I wish the characters talked to each other more between runs.

Will Borger @edgarallanbro.bsky.social · 22h

It does some interesting things with the premise narratively, I'll grant, but I don't think it gets there fast enough or does enough Before It Does The Thing.

Still good. Still worth your time. Just some missed opportunities.

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Will Borger @edgarallanbro.bsky.social · 22h

Man, I'm glad you liked it because I thought the roguelite bits sucked.

Will Borger @edgarallanbro.bsky.social · 22h

The video is still cooking, but my words are hot and ready. I reviewed Absolum for @ign.com. It's an exceptional beat 'em up and a middling roguelite. I enjoyed it, but I wish it hadn't wasted so much of my time forcing me to get my numbers up to progress. Death to RPG elements in action games.

Absolum Review - IGN

An excellent beat ‘em up let down by a roguelite structure that doesn’t serve it.

www.ign.com

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Reposted by Will Borger

Rami Ismail (رامي) @ramiismail.com · May 8

You all helped make 19-year old Ahmed's from Gaza's dream of enrolling in game artist studies come true. Now, he needs additional funding to pay for living expenses. Let's prove this industry tries to take care of anyone that shares our dream of making games.

www.gofundme.com/f/help-ahmed...

Donate to Help Ahmed study & pursue gamedev outside Gaza, organized by Ahmed Matar

Update! (May 2025), The journey continues! The past year has been wild!… Ahmed Matar needs your support for Help Ahmed study & pursue gamedev outside Gaza

www.gofundme.com

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Will Borger @edgarallanbro.bsky.social · 22h

Yeah, like... I don't sleep. None of us do.

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Will Borger @edgarallanbro.bsky.social · 22h

All good strategies! We *want* to do this stuff! We really do! We just need to appease the Evil God of Numbers.

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Will Borger @edgarallanbro.bsky.social · 22h

Oh, I know. There’s just no budget for it and not enough staff to do it. It sucks. I wish I had a better answer for you. But there's just not enough of us or enough money.

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Will Borger @edgarallanbro.bsky.social · 22h

It might be covered as news. I don't make those decisions. But I can tell you that for previews/reviews, it’s a combination of trailer numbers + that site's audience interest + money + time.

If you’re an indie releasing in a busy period (like right now), it gets a lot harder.

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Will Borger @edgarallanbro.bsky.social · 23h

Yup. But I can tell you from experience that doesn't matter to a website as much as what *its audience* will click on. It's metrics all the way down.