In 2025, I reflected on how the boardgame Maracaibo cloaks colonialism in peaceful feelings by making it feel like bloodless economic advancement.

If this doesn't seem relevant in 2026, I'll just leave this here.

👀

#boardgames

I'm going to be doing a book talk for Unsettling Catan with @ruelgaviola.com next Saturday at OrcaCon!

If you're attending, drop by for a fun chat!

tabletop.events/conventions/...

@orcacon.bsky.social

While I don’t condone bullying, research suggests the “other reindeer” have a reasonable case for not wanting to expand their "reindeer games."

Data pulled from the boardgamegeek.com database using bgbester.netlify.app

#boardgames #xmas

I immediately disabled the AI setting (which they defaulted to active without my permission), so the review should be deleted now.

But it had just enough detail to make me think they have more than the blurb to work with. We're trying to figure this out now.

Disappointed but not surprised academia.edu wants to peddle AI slop reviews of my book.

Disappointed and very surprised they generated an AI review of a book that’s not out anywhere. The publishers and I have no idea what they based it on.

#AcademicSky #AI #writingcommunity

(1/5)

Took a minute, but I finally cracked triple digits!

#boardgames #railroadink @horribleguild.bsky.social

Just finished recording the audiobook for Unsettling Catan 🎤

There was definitely a learning curve but I had fun with it!

If editing goes smoothly, this should be released alongside the print and ebook editions in November.

#boardgames

Just got my advance copy!

Unsettling Catan releases Nov. 4

lookingglance.com/unsettling-catan/

#boardgames @uofmpress.bsky.social

When I talk about #boardgames not being immersive, that's relative to media designed for total absorption. This comic just wouldn't work for boardgames.

*Panels from a chapter in "The I Wonder Bookstore" by Shinsuke Yoshitake, maybe my fav children's book author (though this one's for grown-ups).

This is actually a solid adaptation because it understands that #boardgames aren't just about strategic choices or simulating systems.

Like the game, the characters just go from color to color marveling at how cool a candy world would be. Nothing wrong with that!

(2/3)

Thoughts on the Candyland Little Golden Book:

1. It makes the rainbow shortcut a choice instead of pure luck.
2. The characters willfully choose the longer path because it seems more fun.
3. It's fine to choose a suboptimal path for thematic reasons. Kids know what's up.

#boardgames

🧵(1/3)

Feeling unsettled by current events? Want to be unsettled by #boardgames too?

Unsettling Catan, the first entry in a new series on Tabletop Games edited by @pbooth81.bsky.social and @aarontram.bsky.social, is releasing Nov. 2025.

Link: press.umich.edu/Books/U/Unsettling-Catan

🧵(1/3)

I'm not much of a revolutionary, but I'm really sitting with this today.
#martinlutherkingday2025