Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Evan Torner

@guyintheblackhat.bsky.social

3.8K followers 3K following 3.3K posts

Associate Professor of German, Niehoff Professor of Film & Media Studies at U of Cincinnati; Scholar of East German cinema, science fiction, and role-playing games. He/Him. Bi. Wears a hat.

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Evan Torner @guyintheblackhat.bsky.social · Jan 5

I'd like to think of "dark academia" as "I, a brooding professor who wears all black, have [these clothes] on while I send many emails and update Canvas assignment due dates"

4 10 150

Evan Torner @guyintheblackhat.bsky.social · 5h

I respect Marisa's journalistic work greatly...and this is also *exactly* the kind of usage I was alluding to.

This is a reality TV administration, and if we larpers get to take credit for "reality TV" then FINE but then one must concede that larp is super-fundamental too.

bsky.app/profile/mari...

Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 6h

i feel like everything bari weiss does is treated like she's a network exec in 1973 when she's really just a LARPer at the helm of a particularly irrelevant brand while TV news is dying.

max tani @maxtani.bsky.social · 6h

New: Bari Weiss booked Hillary Clinton, Mike Pompeo, and Antony Blinken for a roundtable on Gaza, her first major move at CBS.

Notably on a CBS call today in which the panel was floated, one producer also repeatedly emphasized the need to hear from Palestinians in Gaza (Weiss did not respond).

Reposted by Evan Torner

Anastasia Salter @anasalter.bsky.social · 13h

My new book Undertale: Can a Game Give Hope? is out today from the @uchicagopress.bsky.social Replay series, which is dedicated to short, personal takes on games. I hope it invites readers to visit (or revisit) the Underground and befriend some fabulous monsters. press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...

Replay book: Undertale - Can a Game Give Hope? with some absolutely fantastic University of Chicago Press wrapping paper.

9 16

Evan Torner @guyintheblackhat.bsky.social · 17h

Lucy, the bookshop owner next door when I was a grad student, was the one who got me reading Krasznahorkai, "the contemporary author that'll most remind you of Thomas Bernhard." RIP Lucy -- these books by this idiosyncratic Hungarian guy, will always be connected with you.

Ben Stanley @benstanley.eu · 17h

When you're winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in the afternoon, but have a gig playing bass with your 70s hard rock covers band in the evening.

Reposted by Evan Torner

jenyth evans @jenyth.com · Jan 4

these thoughts have been rattling around in my brain for about a year and i finally had some time to scribble them down. some thoughts on how games might emulate the act of 'doing' history

jenyth.com/2025/01/03/h...

Historical interpretation as non-linear narrative

How games can reflect history as a discipline, not just historical facts.

jenyth.com

2 18 31

Reposted by Evan Torner

Siddhartha Mitter @siddharthamitter.bsky.social · 1d

Nice piece on the brilliant Igor Simões and the making of "Dos Brasis — Arte e Pensamento Negro," surely one of the best and most important exhibitions anywhere in recent years

www.getty.edu/news/celebra...

Celebrating the Breadth of Black Art in Brazil

How one art historian is expanding the narrative of art history

www.getty.edu

8 23

Reposted by Evan Torner

The Second Mrs. de ShinyGoth👻 @ghostingdani.bsky.social · 1d

I'm in the newspaper again!

(I did not write this editorial I'm just quoted in it) www.theshorthorn.com/opinion/edit...

Editorial: Book bans harm students’ education

Students can benefit from learning about experiences different than their own.

www.theshorthorn.com

1 6 21

Reposted by Evan Torner

Cat Manning @catacalypto.bsky.social · 1d

went to “well actually” my dear colleague over the assertion that it’s basically just us two only to remember that the other person I knew of who did this is in fact no longer living. man

This makes me one of very few living people who've written a large volume of iambic pentameter verse drama for money, on a deadline. Honestly I'm not sure anyone else is there who can say they did this, other than Cat Manning who picked up doing a substantial volume of Tragedian dialogue when I got sick during the production of Pathologic 2.

7 14 160

Reposted by Evan Torner

Robin James @robinjames.bsky.social · 2d

i think what I'm saying is enshittification has hit corporate pop in a very legible way so the biggest stuff rn is v bland even while tons of weird bangers bubble just underneath

2 5 22

Reposted by Evan Torner

Robin James @robinjames.bsky.social · 2d

feels like the "why no song of the summer this year?' and the "why did TS's album flop?" questions are related

1. the chaotic political/econ context & all the noise it makes in ppl's lives puts their attn elsewhere
2. weird music is doing fine (Kpop DH), but gulf grows btw it & bland chart toppers

3 4 32

Evan Torner @guyintheblackhat.bsky.social · 1d

This is absolutely worth doing btw -- it'll teach you what a game is and isn't

Leon Scarillaro 👻 @barilleon.com · 1d

Game Jam called "Make It Fit" where we try to force a system to do something that it shouldn't do at all while still maintaining the ethos of the system. Farming mechanics in Blades in the Dark. Orbital Blues dating simulator. Draw Steel store management sim.

1 11

Reposted by Evan Torner

Wisconsin Games Alliance @wigamesalliance.bsky.social · 1d

"The Midwest has always been a quiet powerhouse in game development.”

We’re thrilled to announce that Gordon Bellamy, Executive Director / CEO of the Gay Gaming Professionals and Director of Cinematic Ethics at USC, will headline MDEV 2025 as our Day 1 Keynote Speaker!

#MDEV #WisconsinGames

2 6

Reposted by Evan Torner

Xalavier Nelson Jr. @writnelson.bsky.social · 1d

You would not believe how many stories like this have been popping up over the last ~5 years

Not just full games cancelled—entire characters and plot lines removed or changed, leaving less time for making the *rest of the game better*, to try avoiding a small and malicious contingent of voices.

Stephen Totilo @stephentotilo.bsky.social · 1d

SCOOP: Last year, Ubisoft cancelled an Assassin's Creed game set during Reconstruction. Was to feature a Black Assassin who, among other things, fought the rise of the Klan

Sources: Leadership nixed it over concerns re: U.S. political climate, backlash to Yasuke

www.gamefile.news/p/scoop-ubis...

Scoop: Ubisoft cancelled a post-Civil War Assassin’s Creed last year

Company leadership deemed the project too controversial for the moment, sources tell Game File

www.gamefile.news

24 560 1.6K

Evan Torner @guyintheblackhat.bsky.social · 1d

I think you've nailed it, yes.

Evan Torner @guyintheblackhat.bsky.social · 1d

This is US-internal "Our Secretary of Defense is cosplaying/larping as a combat soldier" when, technically, he *has* earned that distinction and he means the performance quite earnestly. In this use case, "dressing up" or "performing as" wouldn't be directed at a particular practitioner community.

1 1

Evan Torner @guyintheblackhat.bsky.social · 1d

All play is political -- sure.

I am saying that there is an idea of "larping" or "cosplay" that directly invites a bad-faith reading, which does not help recruiting new larpers or cosplayers.

1 1

Evan Torner @guyintheblackhat.bsky.social · 1d

I believe you!

Evan Torner @guyintheblackhat.bsky.social · 1d

"Cosplaying" and "larping" are real activities done by real people, and using these terms as slang for "pretending to be someone you're not, for political purposes" does indeed alienate those of us who take part in these activities.

9 10 83

Evan Torner @guyintheblackhat.bsky.social · 1d

Now that lots of y'all have listened to The Album, may I now submit for your consideration Alessandra's hilarious take on Grieg's Peer Gynt

music.youtube.com/watch?v=SyDK...

Queen Almighty

YouTube video by Alessandra - Topic

music.youtube.com

Evan Torner @guyintheblackhat.bsky.social · 1d

The book cover + the graphic novel at the beginning convinced young me that W:tA was super-awesome.... and *all about* the Crinos form. Indeed: my players always tried to get to that point of the session ASAP.

Evan Torner @guyintheblackhat.bsky.social · 1d

If you do everything based on GPA and SAT scores, both of which are directly correlated with whiteness, citizenship, and wealth, then you will simply be leaning on the scales in favor of whiteness, citizenship, and wealth.

(And discrimination is their explicit goal!)

Evan Torner @guyintheblackhat.bsky.social · 1d

I think it's the 30-year anniversary of me *receiving* my first black hat, I think, as a hand-me-down from my dad or brother, because I "liked to dress up anyway."

Reposted by Evan Torner

The Golden Cobra Challenge @goldencobra.bsky.social · 1d

ssssssssss

Gamess are due THISS coming Monday, the 13th.

Let'ss ssee your larp ideasss cook!!

www.goldencobra.org

Golden Cobra Challenge

www.goldencobra.org

8 9

Evan Torner @guyintheblackhat.bsky.social · 1d

explain your username:

I've been wearing a hat as my hairstyle, when I could get away with it, since 1997, so everyone knew me as the "guy in the black hat" at least a heartbeat before black hats became associated with A Certain Type of Person, and I will still be wearing it when I'm gone.

James Mendez Hodes @lulavampiro.bsky.social · 1d

explain your username:

all capoeiristas formally receive an insulting nickname based on their idiosyncrasies. my wrestling background led to several awkward in-game grappling situations, so mine is "lula" ("squid"). b/c that username's often taken online i further specified it to my favorite squid.

Courtney Milan @courtneymilan.com · 2d

explain your username:

short version: it’s my author pen name

long version: I was going by the initials “CM” on a message board for writers, because it stood for “Chicken Mafia.” People knew me as CM and then suddenly I needed a real name for human interaction purposes.

1 3

Evan Torner @guyintheblackhat.bsky.social · 1d

Long live Nobilis, the Werewolf: the Apocalypse with the raised-claw-mark cover, first ed Unknown Armies, the Italian edition of 1001 Nights, and of course Yazeba's for being BOOK TTRPGs where the book itself will change your life.

Asa Donald | Backwards Tabletop @backwardsttrpg.bsky.social · 2d

"A thing that I'm really thinking about is the holistic quality of the game. This is a game that, even if you don't ever actually get a group together to play it, it enriches your life and it provides you with meaning and you can sit down with it and engage with it."

Interview: Jay Dragon on Bookplay

An interview with Jay Dragon about how ttrpgs play with books

www.backwardstabletop.com

1 6 29

Reposted by Evan Torner

Liz Alfos @touloutoumou.bsky.social · 2d

this meeting could have been a failed Hades 2 run

15 59