nathaniel
@pedrothedagger.bsky.social
game developer (derogatory). Lead Systems Designer at Epic Games on Lego Fortnite
February 10, 2026 at 4:06 AM
This talk is fantastic, you owe it to yourself to watch if you like rap or linguistics! Seems obvious now but had never considered how every vowel rhyming in Japanese might make pose a problem for rap lol.
Also memories of talking with @jessethorn.bsky.social back in college re OutKast paper lol
Also memories of talking with @jessethorn.bsky.social back in college re OutKast paper lol
Had the honor of sitting down with Dr. Shigeto Kawahara of Keio University to discuss his work on the linguistics of #Japanese hip hop. Check it out:
youtu.be/55oLVaVwgS4?...
youtu.be/55oLVaVwgS4?...
The Linguistics of Japanese Rap: Interview with Dr. Shigeto Kawahara of Keio University
YouTube video by Scripting Japan
youtu.be
February 10, 2026 at 12:11 AM
This talk is fantastic, you owe it to yourself to watch if you like rap or linguistics! Seems obvious now but had never considered how every vowel rhyming in Japanese might make pose a problem for rap lol.
Also memories of talking with @jessethorn.bsky.social back in college re OutKast paper lol
Also memories of talking with @jessethorn.bsky.social back in college re OutKast paper lol
Reposted by nathaniel
If it's happening, bunnies are doing it. Probably.
Players discover once again that World of Warcraft is powered by invisible bunnies that make everything work
Great truths are only briefly forgotten.
www.pcgamer.com
February 9, 2026 at 11:01 PM
If it's happening, bunnies are doing it. Probably.
it’s even funnier because if you know the part of the game where this happens it actually works
February 9, 2026 at 9:43 PM
it’s even funnier because if you know the part of the game where this happens it actually works
I really fucked my language acquisition journey when I decided in high school “oh I really wanna learn Japanese” and “I’ll start on other languages once I feel comfortable in Japanese” lol
it's also a pretty damn easy language to learn, coming from english, too
February 9, 2026 at 9:37 PM
I really fucked my language acquisition journey when I decided in high school “oh I really wanna learn Japanese” and “I’ll start on other languages once I feel comfortable in Japanese” lol
I mean 2XKO is free to play so comparing it to SF or Marvel doesn’t work. SF and Marvel both extract a door fee from the audience. For a F2P game to succeed, since not everyone pays you either need many multiples more people to play or you need a biz model that encourages whale behavior
the entire foundation of Riot's success as a studio is to essentially copy and remake other proven popular games so I could see them panicking believing 2XKO is a failure because it hasn't outperformed the lifetime sales of Street Fighter and Marvel in three weeks
February 9, 2026 at 9:22 PM
I mean 2XKO is free to play so comparing it to SF or Marvel doesn’t work. SF and Marvel both extract a door fee from the audience. For a F2P game to succeed, since not everyone pays you either need many multiples more people to play or you need a biz model that encourages whale behavior
not at all a mark against 2xko devs who did a fantastic fucking job. But the idea of spending 10 years of even a relatively small Riot team burn rate on a fighting game - a genre which I love but which does not in any way have F2P CCU audience numbers - feels like product/biz model malpractice imo
February 9, 2026 at 8:54 PM
not at all a mark against 2xko devs who did a fantastic fucking job. But the idea of spending 10 years of even a relatively small Riot team burn rate on a fighting game - a genre which I love but which does not in any way have F2P CCU audience numbers - feels like product/biz model malpractice imo
Reposted by nathaniel
Ten years on 2XKO, 12 at Riot and I got laid off with 30min notice lol
Gonna take some time.
Gonna take some time.
February 9, 2026 at 7:45 PM
Ten years on 2XKO, 12 at Riot and I got laid off with 30min notice lol
Gonna take some time.
Gonna take some time.
also been thinking about this re: ado lately. Knowing the lyrics helps you fully understand the details of the emotions but you definitely get the gist here without knowing Japanese youtu.be/x1UsJ2Znjk0?...
February 9, 2026 at 8:42 PM
also been thinking about this re: ado lately. Knowing the lyrics helps you fully understand the details of the emotions but you definitely get the gist here without knowing Japanese youtu.be/x1UsJ2Znjk0?...
been really obsessed with ado lately and I think something I love that she does better than almost anyone else I can think of is like… voice acting the lyrics to songs? Like her voice and versatility is insane but her ability to morph her voice to embody a character & interpret a song is magic
February 9, 2026 at 7:56 PM
been really obsessed with ado lately and I think something I love that she does better than almost anyone else I can think of is like… voice acting the lyrics to songs? Like her voice and versatility is insane but her ability to morph her voice to embody a character & interpret a song is magic
dandadan isn’t really like a subtle show but when momo did the lil blush when okarun offered to try to help keep evil eye under control that was great quiet storytelling imo
February 9, 2026 at 6:40 AM
dandadan isn’t really like a subtle show but when momo did the lil blush when okarun offered to try to help keep evil eye under control that was great quiet storytelling imo
you know the internet is pretty bad for society on the whole
but I did just have the YouTube algo recommend a mandarin nightcore dub of “we are Charlie Kirk” from account “jorkin depeanus Vance” and you know what? the old networks still got some life in there
but I did just have the YouTube algo recommend a mandarin nightcore dub of “we are Charlie Kirk” from account “jorkin depeanus Vance” and you know what? the old networks still got some life in there
February 9, 2026 at 3:10 AM
you know the internet is pretty bad for society on the whole
but I did just have the YouTube algo recommend a mandarin nightcore dub of “we are Charlie Kirk” from account “jorkin depeanus Vance” and you know what? the old networks still got some life in there
but I did just have the YouTube algo recommend a mandarin nightcore dub of “we are Charlie Kirk” from account “jorkin depeanus Vance” and you know what? the old networks still got some life in there
Reposted by nathaniel
I added a Japanese What's Hot feed recently and I feel like we're really all the same. it's just porn and being sad about elections. Bluesky users of the world, unite
February 8, 2026 at 9:49 PM
I added a Japanese What's Hot feed recently and I feel like we're really all the same. it's just porn and being sad about elections. Bluesky users of the world, unite
Reposted by nathaniel
Seen on Mastodon. This is by Dutch cartoonist Tjeerd Royaards.
February 8, 2026 at 2:15 PM
Seen on Mastodon. This is by Dutch cartoonist Tjeerd Royaards.
realizing that one thing I love about freiren is how it epitomizes what quest design in RPGs needs to do way more of. literally the very first quest chain I did in WoW (MoP questline where you help a village hold a funeral for a villager killed by pirates) is extremely freiren coded
February 8, 2026 at 9:10 PM
realizing that one thing I love about freiren is how it epitomizes what quest design in RPGs needs to do way more of. literally the very first quest chain I did in WoW (MoP questline where you help a village hold a funeral for a villager killed by pirates) is extremely freiren coded
The funny thing is that these dumbass streaming services do prove how you could use digital distribution in a fairer economy to run a publicly funded arts program, but because the incentives are fucked you get this
fuck this lady, fuck the nyt reporter, fuck all of this. fuck amazon for introducing the KU page read model that makes this possible, fuck our tech overlords.
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/08/b...
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/08/b...
The New Fabio Is Claude
www.nytimes.com
February 8, 2026 at 6:59 PM
The funny thing is that these dumbass streaming services do prove how you could use digital distribution in a fairer economy to run a publicly funded arts program, but because the incentives are fucked you get this
Reposted by nathaniel
I'm coming around to the view that video games should simply not be adapted to the screen, both because those adaptations are still almost always bad but also because there's no mechanism for the industry to pay game developers for the reuse of their work in these shows.
February 8, 2026 at 2:44 PM
I'm coming around to the view that video games should simply not be adapted to the screen, both because those adaptations are still almost always bad but also because there's no mechanism for the industry to pay game developers for the reuse of their work in these shows.
Please show the slop factory enthusiasts a single supply/demand price curve
I'm going to win.
February 8, 2026 at 4:21 PM
Please show the slop factory enthusiasts a single supply/demand price curve
SF is a nice place that tech and insane home prices have deeply fucked up in serious ways, but it's still a nice place, if you can afford it.
SF is the most beautiful major American city. Very funny/good to see people who thought it is hell discover this objectively true fact and other amazing things the city has (burritos).
San Francisco is actually beautiful Super Bowl fans discover
This week, the fake narrative of San Francisco as a failed city was laid to rest.
sfstandard.com
February 8, 2026 at 3:02 AM
SF is a nice place that tech and insane home prices have deeply fucked up in serious ways, but it's still a nice place, if you can afford it.
Reposted by nathaniel
the traitors finales always drive me insane because they offer the end the game/banish vote and there is no game theoretic reason to not just always vote to banish. the prize fund should diminish if you choose to banish!!!
it's hard for me to watch game-based reality shows because i always get mad that they obviously didn't hire anyone who even knows what narrative design is
February 8, 2026 at 2:22 AM
the traitors finales always drive me insane because they offer the end the game/banish vote and there is no game theoretic reason to not just always vote to banish. the prize fund should diminish if you choose to banish!!!
Hideo Kojima got his hands on the historical record
Gunstein Oldbitch
United States, Panama Canal Zone, Employment Records and Sailing lists, 1905-1937
United States, Panama Canal Zone, Employment Records and Sailing lists, 1905-1937
February 7, 2026 at 5:52 PM
Hideo Kojima got his hands on the historical record
imo it is actually more revolutionary in one aspect- the application of physics to gameplay. It’s the first game in my eyes that really executed on the dream of physics engines, it’s kind of the first really successful example in a 20 year quest to make actual gameplay out of physics
i get why people have cooled on Tears of the Kingdom but “it wasn’t as revolutionary as BotW” is unreasonable criticism to me. that’s just not a standard you can expect anything to meet
February 7, 2026 at 5:50 PM
imo it is actually more revolutionary in one aspect- the application of physics to gameplay. It’s the first game in my eyes that really executed on the dream of physics engines, it’s kind of the first really successful example in a 20 year quest to make actual gameplay out of physics
wow you do not expect to open one of these articles and see a name you know
You've heard of semaglutide (Ozempic/Wegovy), tirzepetide (Mounjaro/Zepbound).
But there are new drugs coming, ones that leave these in the dust, and leave clinicians and scientists asking: Can people lose too much too fast? www.scientificamerican.com/article/new-...
By me.
But there are new drugs coming, ones that leave these in the dust, and leave clinicians and scientists asking: Can people lose too much too fast? www.scientificamerican.com/article/new-...
By me.
The next wave of GLP-1 drugs are coming—and they’re stronger than Wegovy and Zepbound
The upcoming drugs CagriSema and retatrutide target multiple gut hormones and could cause twice as much weight loss than current treatments. But experts wonder how much is too much
www.scientificamerican.com
February 6, 2026 at 10:53 PM
wow you do not expect to open one of these articles and see a name you know