Keza MacDonald
@mackeza.bsky.social
Guardian video games editor, exhausted millennial. She/her 🏳️🌈
Pinned
Keza MacDonald
@mackeza.bsky.social
· Sep 3
My book, Super Nintendo: How One Japanese Company Helped the World Have Fun, is out next February! It is a lively cultural history of the world's most beloved video game company, drawing from 20 years' worth of reporting and interviews. Pre-order here: linktr.ee/super_nintendo
I do not know what editors are supposed to do about the flood of AI-generated pitches. I can't be the only editor who's been caught out once or twice over my career by a writer (or a source) who was making something up. Now you can make up a whole article in seconds.
thelocal.to/investigatin...
thelocal.to/investigatin...
Investigating a Possible Scammer in Journalism’s AI Era | The Local
A suspicious pitch from a freelancer led editor Nicholas Hune-Brown to dig into their past work. By the end, four publications, including The Guardian and Dwell, had removed articles from their sites.
thelocal.to
November 29, 2025 at 6:04 PM
I do not know what editors are supposed to do about the flood of AI-generated pitches. I can't be the only editor who's been caught out once or twice over my career by a writer (or a source) who was making something up. Now you can make up a whole article in seconds.
thelocal.to/investigatin...
thelocal.to/investigatin...
Reposted by Keza MacDonald
To heal our divided nation I propose splitting Game of the Year awards into two categories:
- Game of the Year That’s 3D and You Use a Sword and/or Gun to Explode a Guy
- Game of the Year That’s Some Gay Bullshit Indie Meditation on Grief or Whatever
- Game of the Year That’s 3D and You Use a Sword and/or Gun to Explode a Guy
- Game of the Year That’s Some Gay Bullshit Indie Meditation on Grief or Whatever
November 28, 2025 at 1:49 PM
To heal our divided nation I propose splitting Game of the Year awards into two categories:
- Game of the Year That’s 3D and You Use a Sword and/or Gun to Explode a Guy
- Game of the Year That’s Some Gay Bullshit Indie Meditation on Grief or Whatever
- Game of the Year That’s 3D and You Use a Sword and/or Gun to Explode a Guy
- Game of the Year That’s Some Gay Bullshit Indie Meditation on Grief or Whatever
Reposted by Keza MacDonald
I am a sucker for the holidays, so Post Games is on sale till Sunday night.
$1 gets you all episodes. Videos. Bonus content. No ads. Everything.
(But for real, after this, I need to stop with the sales, because this is a terrible way to make money!)
patreon.com/postgames
$1 gets you all episodes. Videos. Bonus content. No ads. Everything.
(But for real, after this, I need to stop with the sales, because this is a terrible way to make money!)
patreon.com/postgames
November 27, 2025 at 4:55 PM
I am a sucker for the holidays, so Post Games is on sale till Sunday night.
$1 gets you all episodes. Videos. Bonus content. No ads. Everything.
(But for real, after this, I need to stop with the sales, because this is a terrible way to make money!)
patreon.com/postgames
$1 gets you all episodes. Videos. Bonus content. No ads. Everything.
(But for real, after this, I need to stop with the sales, because this is a terrible way to make money!)
patreon.com/postgames
Hell yeah @aftermath.site, we love to see it
Support independent games media! A load of great newsletters/sites/etc have sales and promotions on at the moment 💸
Support independent games media! A load of great newsletters/sites/etc have sales and promotions on at the moment 💸
Exciting news! Thanks to our sale, we've rocketed all the way up to over 4,900 paying subscribers. This means we can cross another goal, a regular columnist, off our list. We plan to sort out the exact specifics in our own time, but for now, who do you think would be a good fit?
November 27, 2025 at 12:39 PM
Hell yeah @aftermath.site, we love to see it
Support independent games media! A load of great newsletters/sites/etc have sales and promotions on at the moment 💸
Support independent games media! A load of great newsletters/sites/etc have sales and promotions on at the moment 💸
In an effort to help out the struggling partners of video game connoisseurs everywhere, @keefstuart.bsky.social and I picked out some games-related gifts we'd actually want (and some stuff for kids and teens too):
www.theguardian.com/games/2025/n...
www.theguardian.com/games/2025/n...
16 brilliant Christmas gifts for gamers
From Minecraft chess and coding for kids to retro consoles and Doom on vinyl for grown-ups – hit select and start with these original non-digital presents
www.theguardian.com
November 25, 2025 at 3:33 PM
In an effort to help out the struggling partners of video game connoisseurs everywhere, @keefstuart.bsky.social and I picked out some games-related gifts we'd actually want (and some stuff for kids and teens too):
www.theguardian.com/games/2025/n...
www.theguardian.com/games/2025/n...
Reposted by Keza MacDonald
Reposted by Keza MacDonald
“Meta shut down internal research into the mental health effects of Facebook after finding causal evidence that its products harmed users’ mental health, according to unredacted filings in a lawsuit by U.S. school districts against Meta and other social media platforms.”
Meta buried 'causal' evidence of social media harm, US court filings allege - The Economic Times
Meta reportedly halted internal research into the mental health impacts of Facebook and Instagram after finding causal evidence of harm. Internal documents revealed users reported lower depression and...
m.economictimes.com
November 23, 2025 at 4:46 PM
“Meta shut down internal research into the mental health effects of Facebook after finding causal evidence that its products harmed users’ mental health, according to unredacted filings in a lawsuit by U.S. school districts against Meta and other social media platforms.”
Reposted by Keza MacDonald
'Keza writes brilliantly about video games.' Charlie Brooker
A joyous exploration of the cultural phenomenon that created Mario and Pokémon, Super Nintendo by @mackeza.bsky.social is out in hardback from 12 February. Pre-order your copy now 🎮
linktr.ee/super_nintendo
A joyous exploration of the cultural phenomenon that created Mario and Pokémon, Super Nintendo by @mackeza.bsky.social is out in hardback from 12 February. Pre-order your copy now 🎮
linktr.ee/super_nintendo
November 20, 2025 at 6:00 PM
'Keza writes brilliantly about video games.' Charlie Brooker
A joyous exploration of the cultural phenomenon that created Mario and Pokémon, Super Nintendo by @mackeza.bsky.social is out in hardback from 12 February. Pre-order your copy now 🎮
linktr.ee/super_nintendo
A joyous exploration of the cultural phenomenon that created Mario and Pokémon, Super Nintendo by @mackeza.bsky.social is out in hardback from 12 February. Pre-order your copy now 🎮
linktr.ee/super_nintendo
Reposted by Keza MacDonald
Podcast: Are The Game Awards becoming too safe?
@jordanmiddler.bsky.social and @scully1888.bsky.social are joined by @mackeza.bsky.social to chat about this week's news.
Watch: www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkP4...
Listen: lnk.to/VGC
Plus: Keza forgets a Nintendo classic from her new book
@jordanmiddler.bsky.social and @scully1888.bsky.social are joined by @mackeza.bsky.social to chat about this week's news.
Watch: www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkP4...
Listen: lnk.to/VGC
Plus: Keza forgets a Nintendo classic from her new book
November 21, 2025 at 1:53 PM
Podcast: Are The Game Awards becoming too safe?
@jordanmiddler.bsky.social and @scully1888.bsky.social are joined by @mackeza.bsky.social to chat about this week's news.
Watch: www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkP4...
Listen: lnk.to/VGC
Plus: Keza forgets a Nintendo classic from her new book
@jordanmiddler.bsky.social and @scully1888.bsky.social are joined by @mackeza.bsky.social to chat about this week's news.
Watch: www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkP4...
Listen: lnk.to/VGC
Plus: Keza forgets a Nintendo classic from her new book
Reposted by Keza MacDonald
Jennifer English realizing she's a lesbian and falling in love with one of her mocap directors (Aliona Baranova) over the course of making BG3 and seeing all the queer folks embracing Shadowheart and the impact the game had is genuinely one of the best stories in game production in a long time
Congrats to Jennifer English for winning the Best Lead Performer award at the 2025 #GoldenJoystickAwards!
And her acceptance speech about queer joy was a love letter to @aliona.bsky.social 🥹🌈
And her acceptance speech about queer joy was a love letter to @aliona.bsky.social 🥹🌈
November 21, 2025 at 1:55 AM
Jennifer English realizing she's a lesbian and falling in love with one of her mocap directors (Aliona Baranova) over the course of making BG3 and seeing all the queer folks embracing Shadowheart and the impact the game had is genuinely one of the best stories in game production in a long time
Two of the best puzzle games you'll ever play
We are delighted to team up with the genre-defying atmospheric adventure @blueprincegame.bsky.social to introduce The Blake & Blue Bundle available now: store.steampowered.com/bundle/63704...
November 20, 2025 at 4:52 PM
Two of the best puzzle games you'll ever play
What happens in the video game world often happens in the wider world later - which is why anyone interested in the impact of AI should be looking at what's happening in games right now. We're seeing lines being drawn about what is and isn't culturally acceptable
www.theguardian.com/games/2025/n...
www.theguardian.com/games/2025/n...
How generative AI in Arc Raiders started a scrap over the gaming industry’s future
The use of AI in the surprise game-of-the-year contender has sparked a heated cultural and ethical debate, and raised existential questions for video game workers
www.theguardian.com
November 20, 2025 at 12:18 PM
What happens in the video game world often happens in the wider world later - which is why anyone interested in the impact of AI should be looking at what's happening in games right now. We're seeing lines being drawn about what is and isn't culturally acceptable
www.theguardian.com/games/2025/n...
www.theguardian.com/games/2025/n...
Big big night in the MacDonald household
November 18, 2025 at 10:06 PM
Big big night in the MacDonald household
@nicoleclark.bsky.social I read your Silksong article on Aftermath today - I have also been recovering all year from a nerve injury that affects my right hand/arm. Not being able to finish Silksong has been one of the most frustrating things about it, but your article has made me think differently
November 18, 2025 at 5:34 PM
@nicoleclark.bsky.social I read your Silksong article on Aftermath today - I have also been recovering all year from a nerve injury that affects my right hand/arm. Not being able to finish Silksong has been one of the most frustrating things about it, but your article has made me think differently
Reposted by Keza MacDonald
Hey authors! Check to see if Anthropic stole your book to train their slop generator on. You’re entitled to $1500 per stolen Work.
Look up your work, and if you’re in the database, file a claim
secure.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com/lookup/
Look up your work, and if you’re in the database, file a claim
secure.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com/lookup/
Submit a Claim
secure.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com
November 18, 2025 at 7:39 AM
Hey authors! Check to see if Anthropic stole your book to train their slop generator on. You’re entitled to $1500 per stolen Work.
Look up your work, and if you’re in the database, file a claim
secure.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com/lookup/
Look up your work, and if you’re in the database, file a claim
secure.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com/lookup/
Reposted by Keza MacDonald
I hate that AI has made me approach cute animal videos with an air of suspicion. I resent having to harden my heart to the possibility of an unlikely friendship between a very large dog and a very small one
November 14, 2025 at 2:01 PM
I hate that AI has made me approach cute animal videos with an air of suspicion. I resent having to harden my heart to the possibility of an unlikely friendship between a very large dog and a very small one
This is powerfully embarrassing
November 16, 2025 at 9:22 AM
This is powerfully embarrassing
Reposted by Keza MacDonald
lately i've been thinking about how LLMs must feel really amazing to use if you're a dumbass, but incredibly frustrating if you're just basically competent in life.
Is AI making job recruitment less meritocratic? We're getting some v interesting research studies on this question now, and the news is... not good. @jburnmurdoch.ft.com & I dive in, in the latest edition of our newsletter The AI Shift www.ft.com/content/e5b7...
November 14, 2025 at 12:55 PM
lately i've been thinking about how LLMs must feel really amazing to use if you're a dumbass, but incredibly frustrating if you're just basically competent in life.
Spent some of the most miserable gaming hours of my life trapped in Sinner's Road in Silksong. After about 16h in this game I honestly thought I might be nearly finished. Now at 30h 🙃
November 14, 2025 at 11:55 PM
Spent some of the most miserable gaming hours of my life trapped in Sinner's Road in Silksong. After about 16h in this game I honestly thought I might be nearly finished. Now at 30h 🙃
I read this entire thing so you don't have to. Charitably, it's about how scarily opaque places like Discord are to parents of teenaged boys. But also: it draws a line between Sea of Thieves and "left-wing violence", at which point it leaves any credibility at the door
nypost.com/2025/11/13/t...
nypost.com/2025/11/13/t...
Exclusive | Inside the world of Discord and the far-left-coded games radicalizing young boys
What is really happening on these gaming and chat platforms?
nypost.com
November 13, 2025 at 7:02 PM
I read this entire thing so you don't have to. Charitably, it's about how scarily opaque places like Discord are to parents of teenaged boys. But also: it draws a line between Sea of Thieves and "left-wing violence", at which point it leaves any credibility at the door
nypost.com/2025/11/13/t...
nypost.com/2025/11/13/t...
“Don’t gather some of the most brilliant activists in the industry, treat us like crap, and then expect us to do nothing about it.” After the Game Awards cancelled its Future Class programme, @alyssamerc.bsky.social talked to its former honorees
www.theguardian.com/games/2025/n...
www.theguardian.com/games/2025/n...
“We were effectively props”: young stars of game development feel let down by the ‘gaming Oscars’
Announced in 2020 by the Game Awards as an inclusive programme for the industry’s next generation, the Future Class initiative has now been discontinued. Inductees describe clashes with organisers and...
www.theguardian.com
November 11, 2025 at 12:33 PM
“Don’t gather some of the most brilliant activists in the industry, treat us like crap, and then expect us to do nothing about it.” After the Game Awards cancelled its Future Class programme, @alyssamerc.bsky.social talked to its former honorees
www.theguardian.com/games/2025/n...
www.theguardian.com/games/2025/n...
The true cost of the trans "conversation", which is and always has been just another name for trans persecution. I hope that all the columnists who are obsessed with dissecting trans people's right to exist and participate in all aspects of life see this and examine the harm they're doing.
For @teenvogue.com I wrote about the death of trans athlete Lia Smith and how trans youth kind themselves with central pillars of their lives being constantly ripped away from them because of politics. www.teenvogue.com/story/politi...
Politicizing Transgender Athletes Is Dangerous. Lia Smith Deserved Better.
"Let her passing be an inflection point for how you think about trans rights and trans people more generally."
www.teenvogue.com
November 9, 2025 at 1:32 PM
The true cost of the trans "conversation", which is and always has been just another name for trans persecution. I hope that all the columnists who are obsessed with dissecting trans people's right to exist and participate in all aspects of life see this and examine the harm they're doing.
Reposted by Keza MacDonald
pre-writing a devastating obituary for your enemy is god-tier hating of a kind you don’t often see anymore. renaissance haterism. beautiful stuff.
A Sharon Begley byline, almost 5 years after her death.
Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written."
Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating.
🧪🧬🧫
Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written."
Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating.
🧪🧬🧫
James Watson, dead at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers
James Watson, the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA who died Thursday at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers.
www.statnews.com
November 9, 2025 at 12:55 AM
pre-writing a devastating obituary for your enemy is god-tier hating of a kind you don’t often see anymore. renaissance haterism. beautiful stuff.
20 years ago today I was trying to find a dodgy little import game shop near Bournemouth with printed-out directions from Google Maps, so I could spend half my meagre pay from my first job on a plastic guitar. Here's Chris Lord on one of the all-time great games:
www.theguardian.com/games/2025/n...
www.theguardian.com/games/2025/n...
Guitar Hero at 20 – how a plastic axe bridged the gap between rock generations
Guitar Hero’s controllers let anyone become a star in their own living room – and made the bands featured in the game household names again
www.theguardian.com
November 8, 2025 at 12:06 PM
20 years ago today I was trying to find a dodgy little import game shop near Bournemouth with printed-out directions from Google Maps, so I could spend half my meagre pay from my first job on a plastic guitar. Here's Chris Lord on one of the all-time great games:
www.theguardian.com/games/2025/n...
www.theguardian.com/games/2025/n...