@jeanketterling
she/her ✨ Assistant Prof in Political Studies - Women's and Gender Studies at USask✨ Interdisciplinary legal⚖️/pornography🌽/games🎮 studies scholar working on sex in video games ✨ Current work: The Pornography, Platforms and Play Project www.pppproject.com
CFP poster featuring WarGames reference.
STS folks, @alexross73.bsky.social & I are leading an open panel for 4S 2026 (in Toronto!) on games vs./as reactionary politics 🎮 WarGames references & re-imaginations of gamer capital galore!
Submit your 250-word abstracts via the @4sweb.bsky.social system & message us with any burning questions 🔥
Weenies of the world, unite!
Thanks to Ukie for taking our concerns seriously, and a huge thanks to @kendraserra.bsky.social for their tireless legal work on this. They deserve to be considered a folk hero.
Never thought this would happen. Stand up for your rights, folks!
Wooo! Congratulations, Laura!!
Thank you to all the fabulous people who helped make this happen!
I'm in a cool book filled with cool people, come hang out with us at the virtual launch this Friday!
To say nothing of this: "The document says the province is looking to cut $35 to $50 million overall from post-secondary education. Many New Brunswick Community College campuses could also be closed or merged."
"It also proposes ending provincial funding to Mount Allison to have it become 'an independent Canadian premiere university' — in other words, a private institution." ... "
This is shocking and sickening.
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/... @susanholtnb.bsky.social Dear Premier Holt, Mount A has been recognized as the #1 undergrad university in the country for 26 of the past 35 years. Why would the province ever want to give this up? Education is the best investment.
This is the first in a series of four articles coming over the next couple months on The Stacks, because...
💛The Stacks is now open for pitches & paid writing!💛
I'm looking for writing on obscure games history, art history, sex/gender, and more
Full guidelines + rates: thestacks.ca/submissions
With your help we've narrowed the gap to just under $1K with TWO HOURS left to go.
Every bit counts: www.twitch.tv/romchipjournal
👉 Text a friend who loves games.
👉 Post the stream link
👉 Drop into chat and make it lively
👉 Raid us if you’re streaming
👉 Give direct: donate.romchip.org
Spreading the news about a call for submissions, for new kinky queer literary journal called the Orange Hanky Review.
🧡 @whippersnapped.bsky.social
OHR is looking for fiction, poetry, memoir, and essays... previously published work or older pieces are welcome.
www.orangehankyreview.com
*Important* At the Senate on Tuesday, the President summarized the Province's plan to cut University funding across the province by 10%. This is nuclear, amounting to ~50M divided among the four universities. (While Irving pulp and paper is to get +45M for tariff relief.) But it is not yet a done deal. All university and union presidents are responding firmly. Please write to your MLA asap. There is not much time.
Dear Hon. Susan Holt, It has come to my attention that the budget for universities in the province may be cut by $50 million. I am writing to plead with you to reconsider. New Brunswick universities like the University of New Brunswick--recently ranked tops in Atlantic Canada and 14th in the country ahead of Western and Ottawa by TIME Magazine--serve a vital role educating the young people of this province. Our constituency is our own children. These proposed cuts would have a catastrophic impact on institutions that quite frankly require more public investment not less. This would be an incredibly short-sighted decision, with devastating long-term impacts. I hope New Brunswick can count on you to reconsider and put its young people first, ahead of corporate interests. Many thanks, Nathan Kalman-Lamb Associate Professor of Sociology, University of New Brunswick
Catastrophic higher education news in New Brunswick: the Liberal government of my MLA @susanholtnb.bsky.social is potentially going to cut 10% of the budget for universities—$50M across 4 schools when much *more* funding is needed, not less.
The impact would be devastating.
Please share, NBers.
The new torontogamesweek.com site for 2026 is live!
Created by @omarieclaire.bsky.social with assets illustrated by @michaeldeforge.bsky.social, you can play around on the website, while also finding information about our upcoming event!
You might even find a few easter eggs if you click around 👀
A piece from Kangoo in direct conversation with Morgan K's essay "Bad End: The Seduction Of Game Over" exploring the use of player agency to repeatedly & deliberately be punished in "ryona" games. - An exploration from Stanley Baxton on why adult games seem to be one of the only kinds of games that play with the expectation of a player wanting to lose, why there needs to be effort in losing, and why "good" game design makes developers shy away from being experimental with gameplay expectations. - From Passionfruit comes a look at why horror and porn so often seem connected and what the player gets out of combining scares and eroticism, with a focus on games that are horror first and foremost. - An essay by MxMorganic about Dark Hero Party, an NTR RPG whose devs manage not only to mercilessly cuck the protagonist in their narrative, but even to cuck the player out of their agency to impact that narrative. - A combination interview/retrospective from Hunter on developer Roksim and their Lizzy series, examining the games' bizarre mix of tone and subject matter, and the audacious way they manage to create arousal BECAUSE of the disconnect therein. - A discussion by Kastel about the challenges inherent to writing, filming, editing, and publishing video essays about erotic visual novels, including an interview with popular video essayist Amelie Doree. - A personal reflection by Darling Demon Eclipse about her excitement around erotic TTRPGs and her feelings around having her own erotic TTRPG removed by Itch.
Writing from Eternal_Savvy on finding the space to openly love and respect porn games such as Hazelnut Latte during a time in which said games are being actively attacked and censored. - A critical look from A. J. Malachite at "slippery slope" approaches to censorship (both from payment processors and from queer communities) and the importance of exploring oneself through sexual fantasy. - A historical overview from Perez Karina on porn game bans and their place in a long legacy of censorious moral panics (as well as how said moral panics have been resisted and overcome). - An analysis from Fsyco on the ways sex does and does not integrate with the rest of the story of a porn game, looking at games such as Subverse and Nekopara as examples. - A look at the emerging genre of "AI girlfriend/boyfriend" porn games from Joseph Wales, arguing that they represent the final form of gamified intimacy - not as relationship simulators, but consumption simulators. - Commentary from Croomfolk on the specific brand of puritanism that sees any sexual content in video games as needing to 'serve the story' to justify its inclusion. - A discussion from Gwyndolyn Marchant on how the nature of play allows for engagement with pornographic games to act as a form of shared intimacy in a committed long-term long-distance relationship.
We've got FOURTEEN new essays coming in the next issue! Returning writers and new! A broad range of subjects, from the encroaching wave of censorship and its history, to interviews with developers and video essayists, to AI-generated intimacy, to horror, NTR, TTRPGs, and so much more! Aaaaaaaaa!!!!
Sharing this one last time before the survey closes at the end of February. If you had an NSFW game posted to Steam or itch.io in July, consider participating in our survey.
💾The Games & Storage special issue of Critical Studies in Media Communication is officially out!
📚Thanks to editors @nickttaylor.bsky.social, @thechristinet.bsky.social, and Robyn Hope for putting this together.
📡Be sure to check out my article on Satellaview restoration, 𝘚𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘈𝘳𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘦𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘪𝘦𝘴!
Incredibly timely and powerful report out today from @publicpubics.bsky.social and @internetmaggie.com laying out the debanking challenges faced by adult industry workers in Canada
🔥new report on debanking in Canada by @internetmaggie.com and @publicpubics.bsky.social
We are hiring at UNB Law! Contact me if you’d like more information. www.unb.ca/hr/_assets/d...
Was your pornographic, lewd, erotic, NSFW, or sexual game hosted on Steam or itch.io in July 2025? If so, consider participating in our online survey about the impacts of the changes to NSFW platform policy. More info about the project, the research team and how to participate at www.pppproject.com
fwiw, I would gently suggest that spaces (especially academic spaces) that have dedicated NSFW channels use this as a reason to consider whether those are genuinely needed and the impacts/implications of cordoning off sexual content in this way.
Discord is "rolling out age verification on its platform globally starting next month, when it will automatically set all users’ accounts to a 'teen-appropriate' experience unless they demonstrate that they’re adults."
www.theverge.com/tech/875309/...
Want to come work in my Film Studies department in Ottawa, Canada, for a year? Application deadline is March 6. All areas of specialization welcome. Please spread the word! @carleton.ca carleton.ca/deputyprovos... #filmstudies #jobopportunity
"This will be great, if the funding comes through."
You can also always email me for more information! My institutional contact information can be found on my USask profile: artsandscience.usask.ca/profile/EKet...
Was your pornographic, lewd, erotic, NSFW, or sexual game hosted on Steam or itch.io in July 2025? If so, consider participating in our online survey about the impacts of the changes to NSFW platform policy. More info about the project, the research team and how to participate at www.pppproject.com
Make bad art! But make art!! Art good!! Making art good!!
"The line in the sand continues to shift...We don't know how these rules might evolve, and what type of online content might be next."
A great article on debanking by @raxsha.bsky.social ft @publicpubics.bsky.social (qtd above), @internetmaggie.com & @acvalens.com
mashable.com/article/adul...
On this frigid winter's day, I am once more asking you to follow these cool Canadian game scholar.
You can also let you know if you ARE a cool Canadian game scholar.
