Commentary and reviews on games and gaming of all types.
2023 was a pretty good year for my personal relationship with immersive media, though. I enjoyed a range of new-to-me books, games, movies, and TV, while also uncharacteristically diving back into some old faves when I needed a bit of comfort food.
"Culture handbooks don't produce culture, people do." Five things for November 16, 2023.
"The music I write can inspire the artists and writers." Five things for October 12, 2023.
No two games of Football Manager are ever alike, and the “true ending” is largely up to you. If you like multiple overlapping systems with a depth and complexity that can’t easily be min-maxed, Football Manager’s got that in spades. Praise RNGesus!
"On book bans, Google Fusion, car-free cities, cars as spyware, and a podcast recommendation." Five things for September 21, 2023.
"On Gen Z, hip hop, Netflix games, Football Manager, and my film nerd son." Five things for August 23, 2023.
Some people play games to relax, to escape the tedium and/or stress of their jobs, to challenge their reflexes — physical and mental. Football Manager is a bizarre combination of both, which really should not be appealing at all. It can be stressful and tedious, while also challenging your mental abilities because, at the end of the day, it's a glorified spreadsheet with multiple pivot tables — and I love it so much, it's taken me a week to stop playing it long enough to write this post about it!