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Naomi Clark (@metasynthie) 暗悪直美

@halfrobot.com

5.2K followers 320 following 1.5K posts

Game Designer (Consentacle +37 others) Chair / Director, NYU Game Center ( https://gamecenter.nyu.edu/ ) Founding Collective, Sylvia Rivera Law Project Formerly: Gamelab, LEGO, strap-on.org etc. https://metasynthie.itch.io/ Opinions are only my own!

gamecenter.nyu.edu

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Naomi Clark (@metasynthie) 暗悪直美 @halfrobot.com · 4h

Yeah, I switched a couple months ago for the same reasons, along with switching browsers (to Vivaldi). I’m not 100% convinced about the range/pinpoint of the search results as sometimes I try the same query in Google and it’s more targeted, but for most uses it’s great

Naomi Clark (@metasynthie) 暗悪直美 @halfrobot.com · 4h

I would read the four pieces by trans people linked at the end of the thread. It’s not as simple as “being openly trans is good!” or bad! And it never really was, even though it was polarized as such. And nowadays it’s more complex than ever, and individual.

Reposted by Naomi Clark (@metasynthie) 暗悪直美

NYU Game Center @nyugamecenter.bsky.social · 7d

Announcing:
NYU Game Center Lecture Series Presents Dimma Davidoff
"Minimum Viable Mystery"
Thursday, October 23rd, 7:00pm - 8:30pm
IRL and at twitch.tv/nyugamecenter

Join us for a conversation with Dimma Davidoff, the creator of the Mafia game!

RSVP: dimmadavidofflectureseries.eventbrite.com

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Reposted by Naomi Clark (@metasynthie) 暗悪直美

Hannah Nicklin @hannahnicklin.bsky.social · 12h

📚 My current contract is coming to an end in Dec so I am now looking for new work!

⭐ I am an award-winning & expert/lead game writer & narrative designer.

🌎 I am interested in long & short term contracts & consultancy, ideally remote.

Let's chat!

hannahnicklin.com
linkedin.com/in/hannah-nicklin

A selection of images from games etc. Hannah Nicklin has worked on, a screencap or key art image from: Saltsea Chronicles, Black Mirror: Thronglets, Mutazione; and the cover of Writing for Games: Theory & Practice. Also featured two reviews.

One from Eurogamer: 5/5 Saltsea Chronicles
"Onwards you go in pursuit of your missing crew, then, your story diverging further from mine with every island choice, with every flick of the head or settling of the lips. Memories/Artefacts? Skeptical/Curious? And astonishingly, through all these moving parts, all this phase space, my story still made rich sense, and actually built to a truly devastating climax.

Scream/Weep? Fittingly, for me, Saltsea Chronicles turned out to be a story about choices as well as a story made of choices. It made me think about the big decisions I make in life, but also the decisions that shape a life that I don't even notice having made. Ripples turning to waves and all that. You must play this. It's luminous."

The second of Mutazione from Gamespew, 9/10
"Mutazione is a game that builds up relationships within a community you instantly feel a part of. The main story is secondary to the real drama and the heart of the town, but it’s necessary. It’s extremely well-written, and the hand-drawn environments are beautifully designed. Die Gute Fabrik has crafted a sweet, powerful fairy tale that delves into the human psyche and allows you to reside there for five hours or so."

A virtual biz card on a dark purple background, featuring an image of a white woman in glasses, with blonde hair, speaking at a podium. Next to it is the title Hannah Nicklin, and the details Creative Director, Narrative Lead/Designer, Senior Writer, Consultant.

11+ years experience in interactive narrative

• 3 games shipped as Lead (PC, Console, mobile)
• Many more as consultant
• PhD in Interactive Practices
• Masters & BA in Play/Screenwriting & Dramatic Arts
• GDC Indie Summit Advisor, BAFTA Juror, TGA Future Class
• Author of Writing for Games: Theory & Practice

Black Mirror: Thronglets; Saltsea Chronicles; Mutazione; Saturnalia; Night School (A Netflix Studio); Cardboard Computer; Die Gute Fabrik; Draknek; Twisted Tree Games.

Based in: Sheffield, United Kingdom
Work in: Remote, CET-PST
LinkedIn.com/in/hannah-nicklin
hannahnicklin.com

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Naomi Clark (@metasynthie) 暗悪直美 @halfrobot.com · 12h

Yeah I mean why would you, even in 2024 (which is when most of the data is from)

Naomi Clark (@metasynthie) 暗悪直美 @halfrobot.com · 12h

I guess I’ll see you all when we’ve regressed to the early-2000s form of intra-community outreach/resource sharing: “virtual drive-by of the misogynist transition forum to yell at any people under 30 that they should get in the back quick ‘cause we’re going to strap-on.org to talk about queer shit”

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Naomi Clark (@metasynthie) 暗悪直美 @halfrobot.com · 13h

In any case: read the stories, pictured at top of thread, by four thoughtful writers about the state of public life and resources for trans people on the internet
www.theverge.com/cs/features/...
www.theverge.com/cs/features/...
www.theverge.com/cs/features/...
www.theverge.com/cs/features/...

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Naomi Clark (@metasynthie) 暗悪直美 @halfrobot.com · 13h

The semi-stealth vibes are especially notable given the unhinged frenzy on X about data where the biggest-looking spike shows... a difference of about ~80 prep-school students checking "non-binary?"

Yes, Matt. It's all over, you won. Go back to sleep, transgenders are gone... don't worry about them

Matt Walsh post on X declaring that conservatives have "won" now that "Transgenderism is effectively over" due to data gathered by Unherd, which seems to show a drop in students checking a gender box other than male or female

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Naomi Clark (@metasynthie) 暗悪直美 @halfrobot.com · 13h

Mattilda got the timely Miss Major quote handy right here
bsky.app/profile/mbsy...

...and this points out that the reason to be noticeable is not primarily about mainstream tolerance, it's about resources; redistribution; relationships; reducing isolation; and sharing paths through life.

Mattilda B Sycamore @mbsycamore.bsky.social · 2d

"Mainstream visibility hasn't helped our community at large. It's actually *more* to our detriment"💥
Miss Major spoke the unvarnished truth until the end, long live her legacy💥 (From MISS MAJOR SPEAKS: Conversations with a Black Trans Revolutionary, Toshio Meronek/Miss Major @versobooks.bsky.social)

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MISS MAJOR SPEAKS

Motherfucker, you brought me here to show the public you care about the gurls and you don't--there's no honesty or transparency in that. And how about let sex workers be sex workers, because whoever's dick they have in their mouth is bound to be a whole lot cleaner than a hidden agenda of some obnoxious gay guy or lesbian who woke up in 2019 and saw a billboard for Pose and thought of calling up their minions: "Maybe we should put a Black person on a float during the Pride parade."

It was really cute when they put Laverne Cox on the cover of Time magazine back in 2014, but I can't help but think, what has that done for the average gurl on the street? Mainstream visibility hasn't helped our community at large. It's actually more to our detriment. The images that the cis people have of the community, they're images that aren't real to the gurls who are barely making a living. It's not real life. It's not keeping us alive. It hasn't slowed the murders, or the abuses.

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Naomi Clark (@metasynthie) 暗悪直美 @halfrobot.com · 13h

None of this is wrong -- being Very Public and Loud about a marginalized, threatened identity has long been counter to safety and mental health, and fruitless micro-celebrity is not the only way to seed resources, models and community. But also, I imagine a terrified trans teenager reading all this

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Naomi Clark (@metasynthie) 暗悪直美 @halfrobot.com · 13h

Look, I've been one of the rearmost advocates of "visibility sucks" for decades, but wow... the Verge really waited three whole days after National Coming Out Day to launch the Hide Hide Right Away Everybody Hide special issue huh? I'm sorry, I mean the Being Trans On the Internet special issue

Four headlines from the Verge's "Being Trans on the Internet" series with unifying visual styling:

* Doing it for themselves by S.E. Smith - How do resources on transitioning survive the era of surveillance and AI slop?

* Only out online by Jude Doyle - The anonymity granted by the internet is a lifeline to many trans people. What happens when that privacy disappears?

* The return of the trans underground by Janus Rose - The internet once helped trans people connect and organize. Now it's a dangerous liability. What comes next?

* How trans visibility became a trap by Parker Molloy - People who have documented their lives online are discovering the dark side of digital permanence

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Naomi Clark (@metasynthie) 暗悪直美 @halfrobot.com · 13h

Yes! ♫ It's the power of plaaa---bzzt
♬ Power of pl--bzzzzzt!!
♪ Power--bzzt--♪ power--bzzt

JuniperTheory @bimbo.city · 17h

Unfair flips, more then anything, proves that if you trap people in a room with nothing but a machine that shocks them for no reason, within 3 days they will have found 15 fun new little games and activities you can play just with this machine.

Naomi Clark (@metasynthie) 暗悪直美 @halfrobot.com · 1d

can't believe i'm about to get a flood of support calls from people who don't even know how to turn a computer on

innes @innes.bsky.social · 1d

Text: A computer can never be horny, therefore a computer can never make art

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Naomi Clark (@metasynthie) 暗悪直美 @halfrobot.com · 1d

I've noticed a huge number of releases this year but of varying scales and started in various years. It's like a convergence of streams, somehow

Reposted by Naomi Clark (@metasynthie) 暗悪直美

Yussef @youmeyou.bsky.social · 1d

Pretty hard not to see the validity of @platanoranger.bsky.social's argument:

bsky scroll with post asking for aid showing person sitting on gazan rubble right above a post by moises taveras on battelfield 6's destruction mirroring images from gaza

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Naomi Clark (@metasynthie) 暗悪直美 @halfrobot.com · 1d

How Research Actually Works
1. something washes up out of the endless muck of memory
2. "where the heck did this float in from?"
3. dredge to find answer
4. cite it

Naomi Clark (@metasynthie) 暗悪直美 @halfrobot.com · 1d

I traced the exact provenance of the long-term memory reference which unexpectedly surfaced yesterday to influence this pumpkin. It turns out it's page 33 in the appendix to the instruction manual for Sorcerer (1984), the Field Guide to the Creatures of Frobozz, which I viewed once in the late 80s

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Naomi Clark (@metasynthie) 暗悪直美 @halfrobot.com · 1d

Ugh and I guess the joke author, Gillen

Naomi Clark (@metasynthie) 暗悪直美 @halfrobot.com · 1d

P.s. please forward gay residuals (one toast soldier each) to Lumpley, Care Boss and Alder

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Naomi Clark (@metasynthie) 暗悪直美 @halfrobot.com · 1d

I'm putting the mailing label on your bonus "knowledge production" toaster right now

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Naomi Clark (@metasynthie) 暗悪直美 @halfrobot.com · 1d

11-year-old me, insufferably: "A grue only has two jobs that I know of: caring for baby grues and waiting two turns to eat adventurers. However, most of the time an adventurer leaves the dark or turns on a light after one turn. Therefore, grues mostly wait around and must be very bored."

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Naomi Clark (@metasynthie) 暗悪直美 @halfrobot.com · 1d

Yeah, it's centripetal enough that it would be simple to just stick it into the indie RPG study & design curriculum at NYU, effecting compulsory understanding for 16-18 new people annually, right @sharangbiswas.bsky.social? Thus descends the patina of immortality for the micro-conceptual

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Naomi Clark (@metasynthie) 暗悪直美 @halfrobot.com · 1d

Now that I consider this in daylight, I'm almost certain this is my semi-conscious impression from childhood of what a grue looks like, a topic I spent a decade thinking about from 1983-1993

Naomi Clark (@metasynthie) 暗悪直美 @halfrobot.com · 2d

did a 2025 mood pumpkin

Photo of pumpkin painted black with tired eyes and a bloody mouth

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Naomi Clark (@metasynthie) 暗悪直美 @halfrobot.com · 2d

Yeah definitely, long ago

Naomi Clark (@metasynthie) 暗悪直美 @halfrobot.com · 2d

Thanks Sharang!