Feedback Loop Games
@feed_back_loop
Sharing great writing about games.
Hi. I'm a game designer in the Bay Area. I post great writing on games and sometimes share my work. I love games that ask big questions to change how we see the world.
Tim Clare on how playing games to promote brain health is like having sex to burn calories: it’s missing the point Posted Oct 28, 2024 theguardian.com/books/2024/oct…
A poem about the game of go by Jorge Luis Borges. The original Spanish, 1978: borgestodoelanio.blogspot.com/2014/06/jorge-… Translation into English by abstract game designer Luis Bolaños Mures, 2024: boardgamegeek.com/thread/3319663…
Mats Steen suffered from a degenerative muscle disorder, but lived a rich emotional life in World of Warcraft. A remarkable true story about the power of virtual worlds by Ben Machell thetimes.com/article/5ecd28… Posted Oct 5, 2024
thetimes.com
We only learnt of our son’s secret online life after he died at 25
When Mats Steen died from a muscle-wasting disorder, his parents believed that his life had been a tragically lonely one — until hundreds of emails from strangers arrived. It turns out that he’d...
From the depths of BGG: A deeply personal meditation on card games and philosophy by enigmatic pseudonym Marcus Ludicrus: boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/34367… Posted Sept. 29, 2024
How to share painful truths about history without turning people away? Laura Jedeed shares lessons from LARP-museum Colonial Williamsburg: "Only when people feel secure will they feel ready to grapple with realities that might upset them." politico.com/news/magazine/… Aug 31, 2024
From the depths of BGG: What makes traditional card games great? Nate Straight says they are: 1. Fractal, games within games 2. Free-flowing, get you “in the zone” 3. Friendly, loose enough for chitchat 4. Frustrating, dramatic reversals of fortune boardgamegeek.com/thread/3363924…
![feed_back_loop's tweet card. Context In 2000, Mark Thompson wrote a wonderful article "[url=http://jnsilva.ludicum.org/TJ/TJ1920/Defining_the_Abstract.pdf]Defining the Abstract[/url]" in The Games Journal wherein he lays out a...](https://pbs.twimg.com/card_img/1985422903979163648/ODtrK2_c?format=jpg&name=orig)
"May," "must"—game rulebooks often use these simple words in surprisingly precise ways. Confused? Fret no more: Internet Engineering Task Force RFC 2119 defines these words with such force as to be a brand upon the brain. datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc21… By Scott Bradner, March 1997
datatracker.ietf.org
RFC 2119: Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels
In many standards track documents several words are used to signify the requirements in the specification. These words are often capitalized. This document defines these words as they should be...
On bias in game reviews. “Unbiased reviewing” is a fantasy. What matters is whether our biases are handled in a fair and healthy way.
Biases! Everybody's got 'em. In today's special article, I navel-gaze about the many forms of bias that I struggle with when writing about board games. Read it here: spacebiff.com/2024/08/20/tal…
A great pleasure of handicap play: You get to see the reigning champ sweat. Richard Garfield on "Playing on Hard Mode." When the playing field is level, everyone brings their best game. boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/16418… Posted August 19, 2024
An analysis of 50 years of GenCon programs! Neal Baker finds that GenCon is all about education: GenCon events teach how to engage more deeply with the hobby and with fellow gamers, like learning to lead fulfilling RPG sessions. analoggamestudies.org/2024/06/50-yea… June 23, 2024
We will be at SDHistCon this November 💫
Badges are on sale now for SDHistCon Summit 2024! Join us Nov. 8-11 in San Diego for four days of great historical gaming! More information on this year's convention is available here: sdhist.com/badges-sdhistc……. The direct badge link is here: tabletop.events/conventions/sd…
How do you design a strategic card game that can sustain hundred or thousands of plays? Tom Lehmann details the development of Race for the Galaxy: youtu.be/JcyyeAww2wc Presented at GDC 2018
youtube.com
YouTube
Designing Race for the Galaxy: Making a Strategic Card Game
People reject "educational" games. But all games teach. Tom Lehmann (Race for the Galaxy) on a deep moral lesson about luck: Good decisions don't always have good results. sites.google.com/site/ptlehmann… Feb. 22, 2005
From the depths of BGG: Uwe Rosenberg details the history and design philosophy of Bohnanza, perhaps the greatest game about beans boardgamegeek.com/thread/394148/… Posted March 30, 2009
What separates political games from "edutainment?" Perhaps a willingness to fight. @DanThurot profiles three recent political games with teeth August 8, 2024
Apropos of, well, everything going on in the world I've uploaded one of the features from our fifth issue I'm proudest to have published, @DanThurot's call for more politics in tabletop games, for which he spoke to @torylynn, @Drawnonward & @AmabelHolland wyrdscience.substack.com/p/standees-in-…
Is the never-ending gauntlet of corporate IP games just because consumers want a cheap hit of dopamine? I’m not so sure. Recognizable IP solves 2 big problems: trust and marketing Core gamers underestimate how risk averse and not-online most people are
I wrote about why games have so many annoying little numbers: Numbers make people feel safe. feedbackloop.games/posts/safety_i…
United States Trends
- 1. Epstein 516K posts
- 2. Steam Machine 17.7K posts
- 3. Virginia Giuffre 23.7K posts
- 4. #NASDAQ_NXXT N/A
- 5. Rosalina 54.4K posts
- 6. Boebert 8,237 posts
- 7. Valve 13.4K posts
- 8. Steam Frame 12.8K posts
- 9. Brie Larson 19.9K posts
- 10. H-1B 84.9K posts
- 11. Bowser Jr 16.7K posts
- 12. The Devil Wears Prada 2 37.2K posts
- 13. AJ Brown 7,508 posts
- 14. #NASDAQ_MYNZ N/A
- 15. Michael Wolff 12K posts
- 16. SteamOS 2,671 posts
- 17. Steam Deck 5,816 posts
- 18. Steam Controller 11K posts
- 19. GabeCube N/A
- 20. Jeezy 11.7K posts
Something went wrong.
Something went wrong.