Ryan Thompson

Nintendo is suing the US government for a refund of Trump’s illegal tariffs FedEx has sued the Trump administration over the tariffs, too.

Well, I wasn't expecting that for 2026:

www.theverge.com/games/890861...

My mind exploded here; crushing the crackers into powder was a core childhood kitchen job for me

okay but the ceiling for that is, uh, vaulted hahaha

I'm reminded of an old Reddit story about a cable repairman who said the worst calls were made by women who reported some variant of "my husband needs Fox News on to hate something, because if he isn't angry at that, then..." etc.

Putting it into the air without asking you for a specific answer here (they're...worrisome)

As almost every industry -- tech, science, humanities -- loses funding and shift money towards C-suite / investors, into what industry do men retreat if this model holds? (Most can't choose "executive.")

Quick note for men: I have lifelong friends in both my fields who are women, folks I text their relatives random stuff — and even with them I ask permission to go from point A to B.

Do not follow ladies around, full stop. Have your own agenda and do not cling. Read the rest of the tips here too.

Buy Rabbit and Steel from the Humble Store RABBIT it's a roguelike! Start a run, pick a class, invite friends to your lobby and you're raiding in seconds. Anywhere from 1 to 4 rabbits can embark together. If you venture out alone, mechanics t...

A _lot_ more people need to buy and play Rabbit & Steel in my circles. It's wildly excellent, with exciting music to boot!

I want to get a Thursday stream of four players up and running soon...

www.humblebundle.com/store/rabbit...

More live tweeting my WKAR.org radio show — @johnrobertmatz.bsky.social’s score to Tchia is wildly, impossibly spectacular, and his talk on how he worked with New Caledonian locals to create it is one of very few industry talks I’ve watched multiple times. See yourself:

youtu.be/OhRZWuuBN8w?...

Final Fantasy: Solo Piano, Vol. 2 by PurpleSchala - Apple Music Classical Listen to Final Fantasy: Solo Piano, Vol. 2 by PurpleSchala. 2017. 16 tracks. 57 minutes.

Haven’t said as much in a while but @purpleschala.bsky.social is in easy conversation for the best piano player in the entire VGM community — the Besaid arrangement we just heard is part of many FF piano albums she’s recorded:

classical.music.apple.com/us/album/132...

Story time, y'all, about the time I witnessed nearly this exact scenario play out in real time.

It's 2003 or 2004. Serena, Venus, Anna Kournikova, and Brenda Shultz-McCarthy played an indoor exhibition event at Rupp Arena.

Both Williams sisters had won majors at this point. 🧵/x

Need a break from winter?

I have an hour of beachside game music for you over at wkar.org right now!

(We did winter last week and we’re making up for it :p)

Image of a post by NBC discussing the AI / fake actress persona "Tilly Norwood," a character that does not exist and is being positioned as a replacement for working actors. The link is not clickable because I do not want to encourage visitors to the site and purposely captured the screen rather than a more traditional quote affords.

Going to be very mean for a second: the only people I have seen excited about this are the same people online excited by an ad for a mobile phone game entitled "Click this link and we promise you can fuck this fantasy armor-clad lady"

(and yes it is always a young lady advertised to straight men)

Civilization VII Mixing: A Sound Strategy. Kadet Kuhne, Dmytro Nebesh, Joseph Marcus, Dylan Escalona-Sandoval. March 11th, 2026.

Ever wonder how Civilization VII handles the chaos of thousands of real-time audio events?

Next week, join Firaxis Games' audio team & learn about scalable #Wwise systems, core mix philosophies & more!

📍 AMC Metreon 16 (Theatre 14)
🎟️ FREE Entry
🔗 RSVP: hubs.ly/Q045bFDr0

Picture of two pages from Mike Drucker’s excellent “Good Game, No Rematch: A Life Made of Video Games” where Mike describes doing an elementary school presentation on the career of game designer Roberta Williams (one of gaming’s most influential designers) and having the project dismissed as not being focused on someone important. Mike went on to very recently interview Williams for Game Informer magazine shortly after this book was published: https://gameinformer.com/feature/2026/01/01/roberta-quest

I am spending my first day of spring break reading a lovely book by @mikedrucker.bsky.social and boy did I pump my fist in delight for Past Mike when I arrived to this page knowing that just after writing this book he did, in fact, get to meet Roberta Williams.

(Link to interview in alt-text.)

The Legend Of Zelda didn’t create a genre, but it did help define it 40 years ago The Legend Of Zelda helped introduce the then-young action RPG genre to a generation of video game fans.

My latest for @theavclubgames.bsky.social is on the 40th anniversary of original The Legend of Zelda, and its role as a streamliner of the complicated, demanding, and burgeoning action RPG. This classic did not come out of nowhere, but was to action RPGs what Dragon Quest was for turn-based ones.

Interesting take. Prior to streaming, there was the Clear Channel era and national shows...

And prior to that, the local DJ was the tastemaker who shaped (and refined) our ears.

You're on to something, I think. Maybe it wasn't just stan culture! I'm listening...

Insofar as I have authority to say so, you're an honorary musicologist today! :p

I would be interested in exploring how/if social media has flattened regional expression of (esp. Black) culture here. Was 1990s Detroit farther removed from 1990s St. Louis, Atlanta than the same cities in 2015-2025?

dang that coat is just fantastic -- the "extra" curve at the bottom?

I missed the drama but hope it passes soon for you, esp. if you’re filling out a GDC calendar for next week.

(my sole useful thing on that front for you: if you want to meet any audio folks there is a big and public fundraiser at CPK on Tuesday after the concert.)

At the very least, you've always got a place with your fellow music scholars here -- I hope things improve for you soon, whether that's personal, politics, work, or the intersection of all three. Hang in there!

haha, more than a fair reply, and I'm not saying otherwise!

It’s absolutely fantastic. We have sixty books from her!

But it does sadden me a bit to think we must rely on the extraordinary charity of our best citizens to do things — provide medical care; books to children; fund vaccine research — that our government at state and local levels should be doing.

None of my followers had better be complaining about that Iranian school's proximity to military anything as a justification for bombing a school.

I attended an elementary school on a US military base. And my own military just made kids like me -- our soldiers' children -- far less safe.

Thompson NACVGM Lightning Talk 2018 YouTube video by Ryan Thompson

I always go to Audiosurf here so I can choose the soundtrack:

youtu.be/IjxxnXG6MFs?...

Yeah, this is a real thing! We teach it here on the games side of my job

Here’s hoping!

oh my God Bobby I’ve been playing super Metroid longer than anyone on this chart has been alive, to dust I shall return etc

Kat the “you wouldn’t download a car”-adjacent font got me, well done.

(I like your policy and platform too fwiw but needed to laugh today and you’ve delivered on that front also - thank you)

Hey now, The Onion is only supposed to reprint _one_ headline every few weeks.

(sigh)

Any US politician that doesn’t start with some variation of “we bombed a girls’ school” should be lucky to leave their office under their own power.

I am so fucking tired of people without even the slightest moral standard.