Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Jay Brandstetter @jaybrandstetter.bsky.social · 2h

really capturing the vibe of a sweaty slot jockey desperately running out of coins and hoping a jackpot is around the corner

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Jay Brandstetter @jaybrandstetter.bsky.social · 2h

if you're wondering how The Escapist is doing post-Yahtzee, for the past month they've only uploaded compilations of gambling streamers and the Patreon in their bio links to a user page

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Jay Brandstetter @jaybrandstetter.bsky.social · 3h

We're almost two decades into the indie game boom. At this point there are so many high-profile examples of people spending a decade of their life on a game that sells a hundred copies. People are entering this knowing the likely outcome but thinking they're different and being surprised they're not

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Jay Brandstetter @jaybrandstetter.bsky.social · 3h

"I'm not as successful as I think I should be and here's why it's YOUR problem:" is one of those evergreen social media topics that seems to be catnip for fellow frustrated creators but is utterly repellent to me, especially when it's couched as a labor or social justice issue but clearly isn't

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Jay Brandstetter @jaybrandstetter.bsky.social · 3h

Indie game devs complaining about IGN not covering them is just Steam Greenlight all over again. They whine when they're excluded but when they get what they want and the floodgates open and it doesn't make them any more successful or appreciated suddenly the problem is lack of curation

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Jay Brandstetter @jaybrandstetter.bsky.social · 3h

Obama did both those things

Jay Brandstetter @jaybrandstetter.bsky.social · 19h

From the people who brought you "Why does it cost money to advertise?"

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Jay Brandstetter @jaybrandstetter.bsky.social · 1d

Shot of sharecroppers fleeing a pack of flying monkeys as a slow ironic version of Stars and Stripes Forever plays
"A storm is brewing."
Slow-mo shot of tin woodsman that is just Jared Leto in living statue makeup walking towards the camera
"Not a storm. A Gale."

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Jay Brandstetter @jaybrandstetter.bsky.social · 2d

that JRPG book guy is lucky, if there's one thing American fans of 90s Japanese media are known for it's being chill and noncombative about trivial bullshit and being able to walk away from something or someone they find disagreeable

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Jay Brandstetter @jaybrandstetter.bsky.social · 2d

Dorothy: Ares where a super badass tin woodsman is transported into late-1800s Kansas

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Jay Brandstetter @jaybrandstetter.bsky.social · 3d

I already have a few plotted out, it's just not worth the effort of spending months writing so three strangers can read it and two can say "it was alright". I enjoy the story just as much in or out of my head, I could spend that time better elsewhere.

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Jay Brandstetter @jaybrandstetter.bsky.social · 3d

If I ever got into making visual novels I would advertise the fact that they were developed by an asexual. Tired of shit like the elevator scene in 999 popping up in your stories? Not gonna be a problem here!

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Jay Brandstetter @jaybrandstetter.bsky.social · 4d

This could make for a fun episode topic because I would get to talk about Fox's bizarre attempt at making a network television Adult Swim competitor with a heavy internet marketing component.

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Jay Brandstetter @jaybrandstetter.bsky.social · 4d

The kid from Axe Cop is college-aged right now, I really hope he becomes a lefty and starts dishing on his brother because watching that man crash and burn into a conservative grievance guy after getting internet famous off his baby brother was way funnier than anything during his Babylon Bee tenure

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Jay Brandstetter @jaybrandstetter.bsky.social · 4d

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Jay Brandstetter @jaybrandstetter.bsky.social · 4d

As a former teacher I'm very familiar with what powerless people throwing temper tantrums looks like, so "fuck da mods" posturing online is always going to be incredibly embarrassing because at least the students have the excuse of legally not being allowed to leave

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Jay Brandstetter @jaybrandstetter.bsky.social · 5d

Portal of Evil literally namedropped the Prime Directive from Star Trek as its modus operandi regarding interacting with the weirdos they were documenting. The "being mean to artists is actually being kind because if they can't handle your meanness they're too weak" narrative is Simon Cowell to a T

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Jay Brandstetter @jaybrandstetter.bsky.social · 5d

it's kind of a chicken and egg situation but I do see a lot of parallels between television and how people act online. The first online Gen Xers and Boomers were informed by MST3k and Star Trek and their mockery was more siloed and indirect compared to what my generation did.

Jay Brandstetter @jaybrandstetter.bsky.social · 5d

My thesis is that smelly nerds were at the forefront of the convention culture war because nerds wanted to be seen as socially-acceptable and the 2000s was the era of American Idol and Biggest Loser; society was all about being cruel to undesirables under the cover of humor and tough love.

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Jay Brandstetter @jaybrandstetter.bsky.social · 5d

Ironically the only time I had to deal with someone not respecting my boundaries is when a lesbian I was rooming with starting fucking a girl in the bed next to me despite my protests and I had to leave and sleep in a chair in the convention hall

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Jay Brandstetter @jaybrandstetter.bsky.social · 5d

a lot of the 2000s anime convention organizer scene were women and attendance was a relatively even mix gender-wise so it's not even a case of there not being representation, nerd culture was just shittier to women back then. Complaining about sexual assault is very much not being "one of the guys"

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Jay Brandstetter @jaybrandstetter.bsky.social · 5d

My thesis is that smelly nerds were at the forefront of the convention culture war because nerds wanted to be seen as socially-acceptable and the 2000s was the era of American Idol and Biggest Loser; society was all about being cruel to undesirables under the cover of humor and tough love.

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Jay Brandstetter @jaybrandstetter.bsky.social · 5d

It did make it very funny when people online would vent their disgust at those unwashed degenerate furry conventions while I was attending both and nothing was grosser or more offensive to the senses than the combination Smash Bros/DDR corner at every anime con

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Jay Brandstetter @jaybrandstetter.bsky.social · 5d

My late teens and early 20s friend group was a bunch of anime convention organizers so this bonus is going to be a very illuminating comparison of what the most visibly pressing issues in geekdom were 20 years compared to now

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Jay Brandstetter @jaybrandstetter.bsky.social · 5d

People keep making Lowtax comparisons to Bluesky Jay without realizing that makes them the DEAR RICHARD guy

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Jay Brandstetter @jaybrandstetter.bsky.social · 6d

naming something curation related after the louvre is like naming something intelligence related after einstein

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