James B. Jones
@jamesbjones.com
Award-winning video game wordslinger | not-so-award-winning author | Oxford comma enthusiast | baseball nut | son of Detroit | DMs [regrettably] Open
Microsoft making the Zork trilogy open source is pretty daggum groovy.
Preserving code that shaped generations: Zork I, II, and III go Open Source
Microsoft’s Open Source Programs Office (OSPO), Team Xbox, and Activision are making Zork I, Zork II, and Zork III available under the MIT License.
opensource.microsoft.com
November 20, 2025 at 10:46 PM
Microsoft making the Zork trilogy open source is pretty daggum groovy.
So Musk just straight-up had Grok reprogrammed to inflate his ego no matter what the query, I reckon?
November 20, 2025 at 10:23 PM
So Musk just straight-up had Grok reprogrammed to inflate his ego no matter what the query, I reckon?
Golden Joystick spoilers:
Clair Obscur won everything it was nominated for.
Everything.
Clair Obscur won everything it was nominated for.
Everything.
November 20, 2025 at 8:02 PM
Golden Joystick spoilers:
Clair Obscur won everything it was nominated for.
Everything.
Clair Obscur won everything it was nominated for.
Everything.
So, there’s a story from my past that has been percolating in my brain space for years now. It’s basically why I’ve turned away every panel/podcast/interview request for the last decade, but it’s more about my mental health and almost losing the battle.
It’ll wind up on the website eventually.
It’ll wind up on the website eventually.
November 20, 2025 at 5:35 PM
So, there’s a story from my past that has been percolating in my brain space for years now. It’s basically why I’ve turned away every panel/podcast/interview request for the last decade, but it’s more about my mental health and almost losing the battle.
It’ll wind up on the website eventually.
It’ll wind up on the website eventually.
Reposted by James B. Jones
You can’t engage in good faith with people operating in bad faith. They don’t care about facts or logic, just anger and clicks
November 20, 2025 at 12:12 PM
You can’t engage in good faith with people operating in bad faith. They don’t care about facts or logic, just anger and clicks
So, all things considered we can agree that this September Jobs Report is bullshit, yeah?
Hiring defied expectations in September with 119,000 jobs added. The shutdown-delayed report also showed an uptick in the jobless rate to 4.4%.
Hiring Defied Expectations in September, With 119,000 New Jobs
Job growth accelerated in the month heading into the government shutdown.
on.wsj.com
November 20, 2025 at 5:15 PM
So, all things considered we can agree that this September Jobs Report is bullshit, yeah?
Reposted by James B. Jones
remember when SEO ruined most of the internet the first time well in case you hadn't realized the internet is being ruined in new ways now trying to figure out what to put where online so people asking chatgpt for best protein powder or investment company or movie or bread brand get a certain answer
I meet adults who are frustrated by the inability of young people to google things how we did at their age, seems to be from losing touch with how it's all trash now. our lives either don't need it as often or we take for granted we gradually learned to work around slop as it festered
with alt text
with alt text
November 19, 2025 at 9:18 PM
remember when SEO ruined most of the internet the first time well in case you hadn't realized the internet is being ruined in new ways now trying to figure out what to put where online so people asking chatgpt for best protein powder or investment company or movie or bread brand get a certain answer
I know it’s been talked about from time to time and the phenomenon even has a name (The Overview Effect) but I still think we don’t talk enough about how the William Shatner who went into space and the William Shatner who came back down to Earth are almost two completely different people.
November 19, 2025 at 6:41 PM
I know it’s been talked about from time to time and the phenomenon even has a name (The Overview Effect) but I still think we don’t talk enough about how the William Shatner who went into space and the William Shatner who came back down to Earth are almost two completely different people.
Reposted by James B. Jones
when I saw Jack was attached to this, I knew something was fishy about it
November 19, 2025 at 2:40 PM
when I saw Jack was attached to this, I knew something was fishy about it
Reposted by James B. Jones
wrote about the president’s flagrant and destructive corruption in a column that references street fighter, the simpsons, machiavelli, and a host of revolutionary-era americans (gift link)
Opinion | The White House Gold Rush Is On
www.nytimes.com
November 19, 2025 at 11:51 AM
wrote about the president’s flagrant and destructive corruption in a column that references street fighter, the simpsons, machiavelli, and a host of revolutionary-era americans (gift link)
Please stop talking about Keith Olbermann’s sexual conquests my sleep paralysis demon is scared.
November 19, 2025 at 8:30 AM
Please stop talking about Keith Olbermann’s sexual conquests my sleep paralysis demon is scared.
Reposted by James B. Jones
Listing any one of her accomplishments feels like it it does it justice, and listing all of them would take hours. What a legend, what a loss.
Obituary: Interplay co-founder Rebecca Heineman has passed away at 62
Obituary: Interplay co-founder Rebecca Heineman has passed away at 62
The ground-breaking programmer and game designer heralded as the 'first-ever video game champion' has passed away.
www.gamedeveloper.com
November 18, 2025 at 10:01 PM
Listing any one of her accomplishments feels like it it does it justice, and listing all of them would take hours. What a legend, what a loss.
How this doofus (the guy being quoted, not the post I’m quoting) takes a film with as many interpretations and readings as American Beauty and states, confidently, the one read that absolutely everyone else would agree “ain’t it” is honestly kind of impressive.
MAN WHAT?
using kevin spacey for a comparison or example here is definitely… a choice
using kevin spacey for a comparison or example here is definitely… a choice
November 18, 2025 at 10:09 PM
How this doofus (the guy being quoted, not the post I’m quoting) takes a film with as many interpretations and readings as American Beauty and states, confidently, the one read that absolutely everyone else would agree “ain’t it” is honestly kind of impressive.
At this point Microsoft is turning Windows 11 itself into malware. They are making it actively unsafe for your layman user to use.
"Microsoft warns that Windows 11's agentic AI could install malware on your PC: 'Only enable this feature if you understand the security implications.'"
bro what--
what are we doing here, exactly, how can you--anyone be okay with this?
bro what--
what are we doing here, exactly, how can you--anyone be okay with this?
November 18, 2025 at 7:45 PM
At this point Microsoft is turning Windows 11 itself into malware. They are making it actively unsafe for your layman user to use.
So I fell down a rabbit hole of looking through old YouTube channels that I used to be subscribed to and landed on Screen Junkies. I'd never call them a "cinephile" channel, but they were able to bundle news and discussion in a generally entertaining package, clearly made by people who loved film.
November 18, 2025 at 6:37 PM
So I fell down a rabbit hole of looking through old YouTube channels that I used to be subscribed to and landed on Screen Junkies. I'd never call them a "cinephile" channel, but they were able to bundle news and discussion in a generally entertaining package, clearly made by people who loved film.
Reposted by James B. Jones
authors you have the chance to do the funniest thing right now
AI advocates have warned that if every author in the class action filed a claim, it would "financially ruin" the entire industry.
Authors celebrate “historic” settlement coming soon in Anthropic class action
Advocates fear such settlements will “financially ruin” the AI industry.
arstechnica.com
November 18, 2025 at 4:35 AM
authors you have the chance to do the funniest thing right now
Lost in the confusion of Olivia Nuzzi's latest literary bong rip is the fact that this is one fucking sentence.
ok, i'm calling it, Olivia Nuzzi is not real. she is a Markov chain text generator. we've been duped.
November 17, 2025 at 9:54 PM
Lost in the confusion of Olivia Nuzzi's latest literary bong rip is the fact that this is one fucking sentence.
Considering that fifteen months ago Game Informer was quite literally dead, this is some wild news. Congrats to everybody over there - y'all deserve it!
Coming this December: Game Informer will be available in major retailers – including @barnesandnoble.com, GameStop, WH Smith, Books-A-Million and more – in the US and internationally. Learn more: gameinformer.com/letter-from-...
November 17, 2025 at 8:57 PM
Considering that fifteen months ago Game Informer was quite literally dead, this is some wild news. Congrats to everybody over there - y'all deserve it!
I don’t know how else to articulate this but I feel like I should be wearing a black turtleneck, a pair of John Lennon’s too-small-for-my-skull sunglasses, and slappin’ a pair of bingos while I read this.
I’ve been writing for twenty five years and that paragraph short-circuited my brain.
I’ve been writing for twenty five years and that paragraph short-circuited my brain.
The prose is incoherent & the only way to make it through a paragraph is to rely on the North Star or her self-pitying narcissism. The gist of this graf is “strangers obsess about me, must be because I work so hard,” but it is almost immediate lost in the morass of “typed on notes app while hiking”
November 17, 2025 at 7:17 PM
I don’t know how else to articulate this but I feel like I should be wearing a black turtleneck, a pair of John Lennon’s too-small-for-my-skull sunglasses, and slappin’ a pair of bingos while I read this.
I’ve been writing for twenty five years and that paragraph short-circuited my brain.
I’ve been writing for twenty five years and that paragraph short-circuited my brain.
I don't work in marketing anymore so I don't have to pretend to care about The Game Awards.
Wake me when D.I.C.E. and the GDC Awards come around.
Wake me when D.I.C.E. and the GDC Awards come around.
November 17, 2025 at 5:36 PM
I don't work in marketing anymore so I don't have to pretend to care about The Game Awards.
Wake me when D.I.C.E. and the GDC Awards come around.
Wake me when D.I.C.E. and the GDC Awards come around.
A couple months back I reactivated my Threads account to see how the website has evolved.
Today I deactivated my account. Again.
That website’s algorithm is finely tuned to maximize your anger. Even if you don’t engage, it seems that if you block something it’ll just feed you more until you break.
Today I deactivated my account. Again.
That website’s algorithm is finely tuned to maximize your anger. Even if you don’t engage, it seems that if you block something it’ll just feed you more until you break.
November 17, 2025 at 3:20 AM
A couple months back I reactivated my Threads account to see how the website has evolved.
Today I deactivated my account. Again.
That website’s algorithm is finely tuned to maximize your anger. Even if you don’t engage, it seems that if you block something it’ll just feed you more until you break.
Today I deactivated my account. Again.
That website’s algorithm is finely tuned to maximize your anger. Even if you don’t engage, it seems that if you block something it’ll just feed you more until you break.
Yesterday a gifted musician and truly unique storyteller, Todd Snider, died. I discovered his music thanks to his appearances on a morning radio show I’d listen to when getting ready for school as a kid, Bob & Tom.
There are numerous songs of his I love, but this one is very probably my favorite.
There are numerous songs of his I love, but this one is very probably my favorite.
D.B. Cooper
YouTube video by Todd Snider - Topic
youtu.be
November 15, 2025 at 10:02 PM
Yesterday a gifted musician and truly unique storyteller, Todd Snider, died. I discovered his music thanks to his appearances on a morning radio show I’d listen to when getting ready for school as a kid, Bob & Tom.
There are numerous songs of his I love, but this one is very probably my favorite.
There are numerous songs of his I love, but this one is very probably my favorite.
Pope Leo, you continue to rack up the Ws.
Pope Leo returns 62 artifacts to Indigenous peoples from Canada
The Vatican returned 62 artifacts to Indigenous peoples from Canada, a historic restitution that is part of the Catholic Church's reckoning with its role in helping suppress Indigenous culture.
www.npr.org
November 15, 2025 at 8:36 PM
Pope Leo, you continue to rack up the Ws.
Reposted by James B. Jones
3 years ago today, Riot Games offered me a job making more money than I ever thought I’d make in my life. I had 19 interviews over 2.5 months to get it. Partner and I were moving to LA for it. I put in notice at my job and apartment.
2 weeks later they rescinded the offer due to “headcount issues”.
2 weeks later they rescinded the offer due to “headcount issues”.
November 15, 2025 at 2:07 PM
3 years ago today, Riot Games offered me a job making more money than I ever thought I’d make in my life. I had 19 interviews over 2.5 months to get it. Partner and I were moving to LA for it. I put in notice at my job and apartment.
2 weeks later they rescinded the offer due to “headcount issues”.
2 weeks later they rescinded the offer due to “headcount issues”.