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Jack Orchard

@jarona7.bsky.social

1.4K followers 1.6K following 290 posts

Content Editor @ Electronic Enlightenment - Game Studies Events @ Centre for Digital Scholarship, Bodleian Libraries - Researching Video Games and Historical Emotions - PhD on Reading in C18th Women's Letters @ Swansea - Editorial Board @ Multiplay

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Jack Orchard @jarona7.bsky.social · Jan 24

Just pinching some points from an old presentation on 18th century videogames which I made a couple years ago and found this collage - how many c18th games can you name? :)
#historicalgames #c18th #videogames

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Jack Orchard @jarona7.bsky.social · 3d

You've got this - you're already so strong for getting to where you are - sending all my best wishes

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VALUE Foundation @valuefnd.bsky.social · 4d

Second session of the day begins with Jakub Sindelár talking about the polyvalence of historical empathy!

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Jack Orchard @jarona7.bsky.social · 4d

Don't know about double question marks but you're definitely in good company with the em- dashes - Emily Dickinson is famous for them, but Georgia O Keeffe also used them all the time in her letters, which tbf often read like poetry anyway:

www.loc.gov/resource/mss...

www.loc.gov

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Frank Cifaldi @frankcifaldi.bsky.social · 4d

Hey! Did you get an NES Classic mini console but you don't care about the manual/poster it came with? Put it to use supporting @gamehistoryorg.bsky.social! I'm seeking these out for fundraiser autograph opportunities, but need them ASAP. Let me know! Can pay!

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Jack Orchard @jarona7.bsky.social · 6d

c.f. @ckunzelman.bsky.social

Disco Elysium Quotes @discoelysiumbot.bsky.social · 6d

Still, there's something inherently violent even about dice rolls. It's like every time you cast a die, something disappears. Some alternative ending, or an entirely different world...

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Andy Kelly @ultrabrilliant.xyz · 10d

The Japanese Mario 64 official strategy guide is an incredible thing. "Can we make little hand-made dioramas of all the levels?" "Sure, why the hell not."

A model of the first level from Mario 64.

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Jack Orchard @jarona7.bsky.social · 17d

Just defeated the Cogwork Dancers in Hollow Knight: Silksong

a close up of a dog 's face with its eyes closed and looking at the camera .

ALT: a close up of a dog 's face with its eyes closed and looking at the camera .

media.tenor.com

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Mando @mrmandolino.itch.io · 20d

just learned about the content warning that open Silent Hill f and this feels like it comes from a parallel world where AAA games took on a whole different meaning for "mature"

damn. more of this approach please

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Jack Orchard @jarona7.bsky.social · 21d

Good thought but no - I had the word scopophilic in my head, which does have sth to do with Gothic but it's not that :/

Jack Orchard @jarona7.bsky.social · 21d

Brainfart moment I need Bsky's help with here is a word, starting with s, which describes the emphasis on the horror of having a body, emphasis on corpses, skeletons, that sort of thing - the stuff in the basement in Lewis's Monk is an example of this, what word am I thinking of?
#Gothic #Theory

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Jack Orchard @jarona7.bsky.social · 22d

The quotes on this are a delight :)

Ghoula RPGs @gilarpgs.bsky.social · Jun 9

Everyone who plays with me for the first time gets the same quest for their adventure:

Go to the local wizard tower and retrieve an egg.

The egg is cursed.

Screenshot of a reddit post asking " What are your favorite go-to plot points? "

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Julia Carrie Wong @joolia.bsky.social · 23d

this exists it is called thinking

Matthew McConaughey says he wants a private LLM, fed only with his books, notes, journals, and aspirations, so he can ask it questions and get answers based solely on that information, without any outside influence.

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Jack Orchard @jarona7.bsky.social · 23d

Yeah there's the Bitmap Brothers and Ocean software in the 90s - and then this decade big names are stuff like Inkle, Sumo and Failbetter - and all the little ones that splintered off from Bullfrog

Jack Orchard @jarona7.bsky.social · 23d

Random Question - what is the canon of British game studios? I was trying to list the major ones off the other day and realised (a) I couldn't really name as many as I'd thought, and b) I completely missed some absolute classics like Rare - so wanted to see what y'all can think of without googling?

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Dr Stephanie Farnsworth-Meek @mutanttheorist.bsky.social · 27d

This Thursday I'll be on the panel of Sunderland's Lit & Phil talking about the games industry in Sunderland, the university's esports course, and my games studies research.

You can grab your tickets here:

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/sunderland...

Sunderland Lit & Phil Society presents The Future of the Gaming Industry

In September, we will explore the world of Video Games and E-Sports as the fastest-growing entertainment media in the world.

www.eventbrite.co.uk

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Megan Peiser @meganpeiser.bsky.social · Sep 11

Good morning fellow #18thCentury #Romanticism and #DigitalHumanities friends! My monograph, British Women Novelists and the Review Periodical will be out in March 2026! I hope you'll request that your library purchases a copy, & snag one for yourself!
www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/...

British Women Novelists and the Review Periodical

How did book reviews shape the fate of novels and their authors during the height of women's literary influence?At the turn of the nineteenth century, British women novelists were publishing more fict...

www.press.jhu.edu

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TACC @tacc.org.uk · Sep 9

We’ve uncovered through FOI that Sex Matters were in direct contact with ONS this year. They attended a Government Statistical Service harmonisation event in April/May 2025 and followed up with their own recommendations on data.

www.ons.gov.uk/aboutus/tran...

Correspondence between ONS and Sex Matters in the last 12 months - Office for National Statistics

www.ons.gov.uk

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Wales in Games @walesingames.com · Sep 10

I cannot wait for this game! It goes overlooked, but Withering Rooms and the upcoming Withering Realms are both set in Wales.

Realms is looking incredibly creative!

Set for Early Access on Steam in Q2 2026. Wishlist here: store.steampowered.com/app/3441990/...

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Polaris Game Design @polarisgamedesign.com · Sep 10

Kind Games: Designing for Prosocial Multiplayer is a game design report exploring "multiplayer games designed from the start with systems that deliberately promote prosocial behaviour".

Come for the charts, stay for the design patterns to use in your own games: polarisgamedesign.com/2022/kind-ga...

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Victor Navarro-Remesal @vthewanderer.bsky.social · Sep 8

"the International Association of Genocide Scholars:
Declares that Israel’s policies and actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide in Article II of the United Nations Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948)"

genocidescholars.org/wp-content/u...

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bri watson 🐝 @brimwats.com · Sep 5

it's aliiiiiveeeeeee!

all 700 pages of my dissertation can be found here: hdl.handle.net/2429/92159

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Trans+ Solidarity Alliance @transsolidarity.bsky.social · Sep 5

The EHRC Code will devastate trans people's lives. This is an emergency.

Here are three ways to fight back.

Take action now:
www.transsolidarityalliance.com/ehrc-code

Three ways to fight back

Email my MP
Call my MP
Meet my MP

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Emily Brand @emilybrand.bsky.social · Sep 5

Hello everyone, I hope this Friday morning finds you as inexplicably happy as this 18th-century sea-lion

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Dr Miranda Kaufmann @drmirandakaufmann.bsky.social · Sep 4

My new book #Heiresses: Marriage, Inheritance and Caribbean Slavery is published today by @oneworldbooks.bsky.social!

Available now from all good bookshops: uk.bookshop.org/p/books/heir... (& Amazon: amzn.eu/d/a7dQQYJ)
#skystorians #historyteacher #18c #history #academicsky #newbooks #slavery #c18

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Jack Orchard @jarona7.bsky.social · Sep 4

I'm happy for myself, but I'm even happier for the people who have been googling and dreaming and combing every pixel of Hollow Knight for 6 years waiting for this - there's so much darkness right now, something that makes this many people happy is to be treasured.

Wario64 @wario64.bsky.social · Sep 4

normal Silksong server load