Michael Rader
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theoryof.games
Michael Rader
@theoryof.games
980 followers 1.1K following 4.9K posts
chaotic good xennial ND nerd in the coastal empire. vp at Frakture. longtime digital strategist + policy wonk. If we must do without hope, there is always vengeance.
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theoryof.games
just had an incredible idea to safely smuggle drugs into the US
Trump boat. The kind owned by the biggest asshole you've ever met. It looks like it's going to sink from the weight of Trump flags alone. He would never blow it up.
December 9, 2025 at 2:11 PM
theoryof.games
a blank version of the meme where spiderman is arguing with the moron who would rather use his genetic manipulation powers to forcibly make people into dinosaur furries than cure cancer
December 6, 2025 at 3:24 AM
theoryof.games
Here's Sunny chasing a squirrel up a tree.
A white and yellow beagle is climbing in between the split trunk of a medium sized tree next to a brown fence.
December 4, 2025 at 5:24 PM
theoryof.games
When I graduated, Andy bought me a six-volume hardcover edition of Edward Gibbons Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. I remember as he gave it to me, he said something poignant about the timelessness of the human heart.
Inside cover of a book, handwritten in ink: To Michael- Scholar, journalist, friend. In honor of his graduation. April 2007 Andy Robins
December 4, 2025 at 3:23 PM
theoryof.games
My friend Andy Robins passed away. The best boss I ever had. Took a chance on me and stood by me every time I screwed up. A talented journalist with the highest integrity, a kind human, and a great friend. We are poorer for having lost him. His retirement announcement, not even four years ago.
Andy Robins retires from WMUK, January 2022. He worked at the station for 36 years. The announcement noted the numerous journalism awards won by the station under Andy's leadership.
December 4, 2025 at 3:19 PM
theoryof.games
My mom has a collection of artifacts from a trip taken by my great x 3 grandma to visit the grave of her son, who died fighting in WWI. Incredible stuff.
Very old photographs, documents, and a passport sit in an open suitcase. The photos are black and white, displaying a man in a WWI era uniform, and a mother posing next to a grave marked with a cross. A typewritten card, marked Identity Card for an American Pilgrimage for gold star mothers to France. Lists her hotel and instructions for the trip A certificate in memory of my distant relative who died in service of his country, as part of the American Expeditionary Forces, WWI A framed photograph of the US Republic, on a pilgrimage to France, 1930
November 27, 2025 at 8:18 PM
theoryof.games
the classic XKCD cartoon "Duty Calls" with the punchline replaced with "someone made a bad joke on the internet".
November 26, 2025 at 5:03 PM
theoryof.games
In King's Quest II on the Apple IIe, this monk refuses to acknowledge or interact with you, and if you get frustrated an type "hit monk" into the parser, the game responds:

"Anyone who would hit a man of the cloth does not deserve to play this game," followed by a HARD SYSTEM RESET.
a pixelated, 16-color graphic of the interior of a church. a pixel-y guy walks up the between the pews towards an altar, where a monk kneels praying before a golden cross.
November 24, 2025 at 2:15 PM
theoryof.games
Drunk on the Karl Rove Kool aid.
Quote from the Bush 43 era, widely attributed to Karl Rove. Guys like [Ron Suskind] operate in the "reality based community." The gist is that Rove thinks by being president you create reality by acting, and everyone else is just watching. Textbook proto-fascism.
November 23, 2025 at 11:38 PM
theoryof.games
The next paragraph is somehow even more wrong.
"She was sort of a modern-day political version of hunter s Thompson (gonza?)..."
November 21, 2025 at 5:18 PM
theoryof.games
Probably not the first game of hers I played, but I spent a lot of Tass Times in Tonetown. I was learning guitar at the time and I loved that guitar picks were the currency. Hard game too!
November 17, 2025 at 11:41 PM
theoryof.games
ah yes the verbal tic that incels can't hide.
Quark from Star Trek Deep Space Nine, looking skeezy, with "ffeeeemales" in white text above his head.
November 12, 2025 at 2:57 PM
theoryof.games
A deliberate choice here to exclude PC responses from the text scroll. Helps with readability but leads to some disjointed flows.
Some text from a conversation in Citizen Sleeper 2. Paragraph one references a sister, the PC says "you have a sister?" Then he responds "I did, yeah". You can see here that the text scroll doesn't include the PC response.
November 5, 2025 at 12:07 AM
theoryof.games
CS2 also does a better job of communicating the relative urgency of things to the player. Kept the cycle wheel indicators from the first game (effectively a countdown), but the narrative and the art better reinforce it. This water hauler is visibly leaking, only a few cycles to repair it.
A large white and gold spacecraft is venting small particles of water out its front end. The user interface shows several options for the player to help repair the ship.
November 4, 2025 at 11:08 PM
theoryof.games
Too real.
Some text from Citizen Sleeper 2, describing the PC experiencing pain, disconnection from their body, numbness. The titular Sleeper, the PCs artificial body has a number of deficiencies; one of the main goals of this series is to address or mitigate them to allow the PC true freedom.
November 4, 2025 at 1:26 AM
theoryof.games
Your character sheet. 🤩
An illustration of a genderless humanoid, clearly artificial, floating in zero-g. Some of their internal mechanical organs are exposed, and they are dressed in a mish mash of loose fitting clothes and accessories. Their arms are out of their jacket sleeves, with one hand adjusting a cybernetic interface extruding from their head, and another operating a floating tablet. Their eyes are closed. On either side of the character are menus showing the gameplay attributes of the character that affect skill checks and dice rolls.
November 4, 2025 at 12:45 AM
theoryof.games
I am choosing to be circumspect with this guy. He may have saved my ass, but I also have memory loss and he's just cutting me loose.
One of CS' famous character illustrations by artist Guillaume Singelin. A young man with blue pants and boots and an open orange jacket appears to float in zero-g, a sling bag over his chest. Some text on the side explains he's ditching us (temporarily) to try to find some work.
November 4, 2025 at 12:33 AM
theoryof.games
Almost every button and icon has a lovely little hover and click sound to it. The squishy sound the Drives menu makes is particularly pleasing.
November 4, 2025 at 12:24 AM
theoryof.games
The UI in Citizen Sleeper is a standout feature. Beyond being beautiful and supremely practical, they are as tactile and responsive as any craftsman could make them. @jumpovertheage.com rocks at this stuff.
Screenshot of a basic screen in Citizen Sleeper 2. A closeup of a small spacecraft docked at a flat space station, lots of blinking red lights. Some text describes the ship smoothly docking, and a sense of relief.
November 4, 2025 at 12:23 AM
theoryof.games
First written line of the game. Not bad.
A paragraph of text in a sci-fi user interface reads, "In the moment before waking, the dark space before conscious thought, you struggle to find the pieces of yourself." In a sidebar, your location reads, "Unknown. A vast and dark interior "
November 4, 2025 at 12:04 AM
theoryof.games
Finally sitting down with the sequel to one of my indie favs.
Splash screen for Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector. Interactive fiction, ttrpg-inspired.
November 3, 2025 at 11:57 PM
theoryof.games
I've got the jumbo version. Love it.
Wooden bookshelf with two shelves, angled up so you can easily read all the spines.
November 1, 2025 at 3:45 PM
theoryof.games
One of my fav Halloween experiences was walking from my apt in CoHi to your place in my Rorschach costume.
Closeup of my Rorschach costume from Halloween 2017 in DC. I walked in this mask through Columbia Heights on my way to my friend's party. The mask uses thermochromatic paint, so when I breathe out, the black patches disappear, my attempt to mimic the moving patterns of the "real" mask.
October 31, 2025 at 10:04 PM
theoryof.games
A good mug is worth its weight in gold.
closeup of an oversized black mug with an engraved NASA logo below a silhouette of a shuttle orbiter. many scratches, much used. a fantastic mug.
October 29, 2025 at 8:10 PM
theoryof.games
Putting on my Political Strategist hat to write "DON'T LISTEN TO LOSERS," in big letters on the chalkboard.
A closer look at the PAC's history will similarly reveal anything but won campaigns. In 2022, the group put on a series of press conferences in Ohio with Republicans and former Republicans who were supporting Democratic Senate candidate Tim Ryan over JD Vance. Tim Ryan lost the election. That same year, WelcomePAC supported California Democrat Will Rollins in his House campaign against Republican Ken Calvert. Rollins lost. Last year, the group ran ads for Democrat Sherrod Brown in Ohio's Senate race. Brown also lost.
October 29, 2025 at 8:00 PM