My friend davemakes recently introduced me to the phrase “Year of the Cockroach”¹ when discussing the current status of indie games: that a bunch of the big institutions are collapsing or about to collapse or were simply never that good to begin with, and that the best way to survive the present moment is by being small and indestructible. The idea’s been stuck in my head: there’s no such thing as being too big to fail, but if you’re little and well-carapaced, maybe no amount of chaos can stop you. E3 is gone, long live a million smaller conferences. Twitter is gone, long live a million Twitter clones. Making a newsletter in response to a social media shutdown may itself be a bit of a Gregor Samsa move, but I promised myself that in according with the first rule of social media² I would never write another newsletter about writing a newsletter, so I’ll leave the topic for now. On to what I’ve been making with my prothoracic legs!

Last week, I posted a gif of a book animation I was working on. Now, let’s look at where that animation (and its twin) ended up!

Part of making a fully-fledged metaprogression roguelike is having lots of menus to store and display the player’s growth over time, and part of doing that properly is having cool animations and framing devices. Also I was in a pixel art mood — can you blame me? These turned out great.

The big trick to them is having a secret extra animation that’s just dedicated to the mask for the UI’s actual functionality. You can see in the upgrade screen that the book closes around the UI. Here’s the frame-by-frame with the UI mask overlaid in white: a little crude, but undeniably effective.

Not to let myself be outdone by myself, I also spruced up the main menu and level select…

Yeah, this is good. There’s a little framerate friction between these ultra-smooth tweens and the bespoke pixel animations of the previous gif, but once I get some sound in there, they’ll fit together like a charm.

This game is coming together incredibly fast, which is good, because the demo deadline is coming up even faster! I can’t share specific dates (because I don’t know them yet), but if all goes well, I’d say that the free demo of the game will likely be in y’all’s hands by this time next month. I’ll be working on the trailer soon, so keep your eyes peeled!

Last week, I asked how often people like their newsletters. It seems that the consensus hovers somewhere around weekly to monthly, which is good, because I was going to do weekly no matter what people said. It’s my newsletter, you’re just reading it. To highlight a specific response, though…

Remi AKA remeranAuthor: One thing I do recommend is highlighting and replying to specific replies you get for everyone to see so it can be kind of like a comment section except you'd only be showing off the ones you like so it would be a good comment section.  That might be a bad idea if you ever get very large and it encourages more people to reply than you could ever hope to read, or something, but that sounds like a good problem to have.

Wow, I agree! I’m going to do that. I’ll probably try out a couple different methods as we all get used to this. For now, just know there’s a chance I might ask to highlight your comment in next week’s post.

Questions of the week: How do you feel about the phrase “Year of the Cockroach?” Do you think that size inversely correlates with stability, or does it just mean you’re more likely to get crushed when small things go wrong? How do the platforms we rely on affect our notions of community and success? Is it even possible to be an “off-the-grid” online content creator in the era of platforms?

That’s all for this week! Next week: more Fish Fear Me news, more discussion questions, more of me doing whatever I want forever. Thanks for reading!

— Heather

P.S. So far I’m really digging this whole “think about a single topic for one week and then write something small about it” thing. I think I may have the Newsletterer’s Temperament, which is like the Poster’s Spirit but slower.

By Emily

Objecting to my words being used to create AI hype

I have a lot of respect for the craft of journalism and the work of serious journalists. It has been a privilege to get to see some of this work up close over the past few years as media attention has turned to "AI" and I have had the opportunity to be interviewed---often by journalists seeking a clearer understanding of what's going on in this flood of hype. I am generally happy to take the time to talk to journalists, not least because I see public scholarship as part of my job and value the opportunity to help get clearer, better information out to the public.

However, sometimes I end up getting misquoted and my words, intended to help dispel AI hype, get turned into the very kind of hype I am working against. This is extremely frustrating.

A case in point: I was interviewed by Pádraig Belton, writing for the BBC, back in May for a piece on "AI" recipes. It seemed liked a chance to connect with people who might not otherwise follow tech news. We talked about people using chatbots to generate recipes, and I did my best to explain what the chatbots are actually doing: churning through text collected indiscriminately from the internet and other sources, including things like recipe blogs that represent the work of people, and then outputting likely sequences of words.

I also talked some about how you might go about designing a computer program based on databases of recipes specifically with structured data representations of types of ingredients to create a system purpose-built for generating recipe ideas.

My goal here was to demystify ChatGPT and the like, puncture the hype, and provide the journalist (and thus the public) with better ways of thinking about these systems.

So it was extremely disappointing to find my words twisted into AI hype, when the article went live. Take a close look at what's a direct quote in what is attributed to me and what the journalist (or maybe the editor) had to add in order to make it fit their narrative and their understanding of what "AI" is:

The point about the theft of people's labor does come through here, for which I am grateful. But I never talk about "AI" as if it is a thing, nor about these systems "learning" and "reading".

It gets worse though:

I concede nothing of the sort. I don't describe these systems as AI, nor as sophisticated, nor do I buy into the AI hype trope of constant appeals to a future with "more sophisticated" versions of these systems.

And under no circumstances would I ever talk about giving an "AI" a research question. I was talking about the research question that a hypothetical scientist or engineer seeking to make an automated recipe generation system would be pursuing in working on that system.

But apparently AI hype has so deeply infected this journalist (or the editor) that they could not understand what I actually said. Instead, they had to put words in my mouth---literally insert them into the middle of a direct quote---to make it seem as if I was saying what they wanted me to say.

So, to readers of the BBC and any other journalistic outfit: be sensistive when experts are quoted to what's actually attributed as words that they said, and what's in the journalist's voice. If the journalist has to add something to a quote in square brackets, it could be that they're accurately replacing a pronoun with what it refers back to. Or, like in this case, they could be inserting literally anything.

And journalists: I will keep talking to you (especially if I see evidence of prior serious reporting you've done on this topic). But if you misquote me, and twist my words to turn them into AI hype, then I will push back and correct the record as publicly and as loudly as I can.

Angels are cool. There’s something about their combat prowess and sheer Paladin-energy that brings the heat to any table. They’re also one of the most popular decks to build for Commander, whether in mono-white, Boros, Selesnya, or even three-plus color variants. Here we share 10 of the more underplayed Angels that you should take a second look at… and why.

10 UNDERRATED ANGELS WE THINK ARE COOL

While Angels have many powerful entries, from Commanders like Aurelia and Giada, to Karmic Guide and Serra Paragon’s recursion value, there are plenty that don’t see nearly as much play. Older Angels have some niche and interesting abilities that can really turn the tide in the right deck. Here’s our list – be sure to let us know your underrated picks after reading. 

10. SERRA AVENGER

It’s safe to say that Serra Avenger is pretty iconic. From the Scott M. Fischer art to the time it enjoyed competitive Standard play, people have tried jamming it in their decks. It’s even seen some play in Legacy Death & Taxes in the past year.

We’re here to talk Commander though, and I’m here to tell you that it deserves to be in way more Giada decks than scraping 20%. This is a two mana play, meaning you have mana open to do other things. In any deck like Giada where you can buff your creatures, it’s a no-brainer to run Serra Avenger. This could be a two mana 8/8 with Flying and Vigilance, very easily. 

9. SIGARDIAN SAVIOR

Games of Commander can be quite quick these days. So, while the utility of something like Karmic Guide might be attractive to you in a Reanimator deck or a flicker deck, the fact it eventually leaves play due to Echo means it can be less impactful than you’d hope. 

If you’re in a low to the ground deck that wants to curve out, then it might be better to play Sigardian Savior. While she can’t be flickered like Karmic Guide, she can be a big tempo swing after a board wipe. Getting back two utility creatures with this is a good deal. A 3/3 flier is useful, and in a lot of low to the ground decks, she might be bigger than 3/3 due to buffs.

8. ANGEL OF GLORY’S RISE

Speaking of tempo plays, let’s go to Angel of Glory’s Rise. Whether you prefer the high-octane visceral action of Andrew Mar or the pastoral Romantic beauty of James Ryman’s original piece, this Angel is a huge tempo swing when you’re running humans. Sure, it’s played in Humans decks often, but I contend that even if you’re running 10-20 Humans as part of a Soldiers deck, for instance, that this is worth running.

And occasionally, you’ll manage to exile someone’s Zombies for massive value, which will be frickin’ hilarious. 

7. ANGEL OF INDEMNITY

A newcomer on the block, Angel of Indemnity is one more than the classic Karmic Guide, and trades in freedom to reanimate whatever you want for the ability to get back anything from a Panharmonicon to a Smothering Tithe out of your yard. 

Don’t underestimate a 5/5 Flying Lifelink either. That’s the statline of stabilizing, and you can claw back a game you were losing with this six mana play. The Encore is something I’ve not had the chance to use yet, and that’s in large part due to the fact that just casting this can help you win a game. If you do Encore? Well, that’s eight mana well spent.

6. WOJEK INVESTIGATOR

I am a huge fan of the 2/4 statline in 2024. It blocks like a champ, and it can attack like a champ too, able to survive first strike a good proportion of the time. The only thing that makes it better is making it Flying or Vigilant, and this Angel Detective has both. Wojek Investigator is a perfect statline for the early-to-midgame, and it brings with it some hand token generation and eventually card draw. 

Any white deck that wants to play its hand out to curve out should enjoy this one.

5. RESOLUTE ARCHANGEL

I’ll never forget the time that I played Resolute Archangel against a Purphoros, God of the Forge deck. I got put down to something like 6 life, untapped, and windmill slammed this card down. My opponent could have brined a tuna. A whole one, at that. 

Commander decks these days have no issue outputting a chunk of damage, and the ability to negate some of the damage should not be underestimated. If you’re playing reanimator, or you can ramp, this card gets even better – likewise when it can be used for synergy, in decks like Lathiel or Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim. 

Plus, the Winona Nelson prerelease promo is gorgeous. 

4. WINDSHAPER PLANETAR

Speaking of negating combat damage, how about negating being attacked? Windshaper Planetar is white’s version of Portal Manipulator/Portal Mage. It comes rocketing onto the battlefield in a Flash to reselect where attackers are headed. This is the perfect political card, and serves to help you get around a Ghostly Prison or Propaganda in a pinch, too!

3. BLINDING ANGEL

Speaking of negating being attacked, how about just negating someone’s entire combat step? Well, it seems like there’s a tendency on Angels to be able to do exactly that. Blinding Angel from way back in Nemesis has a combat damage trigger that can stop someone having a combat phase entirely. This is a little on the rude side, but given you need to connect with a five mana 2/4 for it to happen? It’s a lot fairer than Stonehorn Dignitary, that’s for sure.

2. ANGEL OF SUFFERING

Angel of Suffering is a card I… suffer, through, quite regularly. It’s something of a Kryptonite card for me, necessitating removal, as I love my combat decks. It goes to show that white isn’t the only color with great Angels, it’s just the color with the most. 

While this ostensibly reads as a reanimator/graveyard deck card, I just think its a solid fog effect in any black deck. Which is why it should see more play.

1. SIGARDA’S VANGUARD

The number one underplayed Angel today is one that I don’t actually recall playing against, ever. It can go in any deck, Angels or not, and is a great tool to manipulate combat. Like the Windshaper Planetar, Sigarda’s Vanguard can mess with an opponent's combat, but it can also buff your own combats, too.

As long as your creatures have different powers, Sigarda’s Vanguard can give any number of them double strike when you attack. She can also come in at Flash speed and do the same for anyone’s attackers, making her a potent way to disrupt combat. What a cool card!

END STEP

Angels are undoubtedly one of the coolest creature types in Magic. They have stellar art and can provide quite the beating. While Angel typal remains the most popular way to play them, they can fit into countless other decks as roleplayers. Consider some of these underappreciated picks, and let us know yours. 

The post 10 Spicy Angels You Should Play More in Commander appeared first on Card Kingdom Blog.

 

Subjected to weeks of public ridicule and internet harassment instigated by transphobic celebrities, Imane Khelif’s lawyer has announced that they’ve filed suit in France against X and those who bullied her.

  

by Alyssa Steinsiek

Now that she’s won gold at the Olympics in welterweight boxing, Algerian fighter Imane Khelif is turning her attention to a new battle: Taking on the many famous and rich loudmouths who thought it was a good idea to publicly defame her on social media for weeks.

That’s right, freshly minted Olympic gold medalist Imane Khelif has filed a lawsuit against X, formerly known as Twitter (I admit, begrudgingly), alleging “acts of aggravated cyber harassment,” according to her legal representative in Paris, Nabil Boudi. The suit mentions some high profile names, but was filed so broadly against the social media platform to ensure that prosecution could pursue the many people who participated in Khelif’s internet harassment, including anonymous posters, according to Boudi.

Two of the most significant names mentioned in the suit are JK Rowling and Elon Musk. Last week we commented on Rowling’s participation in the witch hunt against Khelif, and how she repeatedly and incorrectly identified Khelif as transgender. Rowling’s most egregious post about Khelif on August 1st described her as “a male who’s [sic] knows he’s protected by a misogynist sporting establishment enjoying the distress of a woman he’s just punched in the head, and whose life’s ambition he’s just shattered.”

Rowling was remarking upon Khelif’s fight with Italian Angela Carini, who gave up after taking a blow to the head forty-six seconds into the fight. She refused to shake Khelif’s hand after the bout, and initially remarked she had “never been hit so hard in [her] life,” and that quitting the match was necessary to “preserve [her] life.” Less than a day later, Carini recanted and expressed a desire to apologize to Khelif, accepting the IOC’s ruling on her opponent’s eligibility to fight.

Elon Musk, meanwhile, shared and supported a message from failed collegiate swimmer turned professional transphobe Riley Gaines implying that Imane Khelif was a man. We’ve penned far too many articles about Gaines’ bad behavior at Assigned Media, and as far as Musk is concerned… well, maybe he should keep quiet after lying quite loudly about his trans daughter, who revealed that Musk was an absentee father who, when he was present, relentlessly bullied her for her femininity.

The controversy surrounding Khelif, as well as Taiwanese fighter Lin Yu-ting, is part of a larger movement against the participation of transgender athletes in sports. In particular, the topic of transgender Olympians has been generating headlines for years now, even though you could count the number of trans Olympians to ever compete on one hand, and only one of them was pursuing medical transition and competing in a category opposite to their gender assigned at birth.

Unfortunately for Rowling, Musk, Donald Trump and other defamers, neither Khelif nor Yu-ting are transgender. They have never identified themselves as trans or intersex, and only the spurious claims of ousted former Olympics boxing governing body, the International Boxing Association, suggest otherwise. No material proof of either competitor’s chromosomal composition or testosterone levels have ever been presented for unbiased review, and the IBA was banished from the Olympics last year for a lack of “integrity and transparency.” Suffice to say, the IBA’s trustworthiness is suspect.

Like any journalism outlet worth their salt, Assigned Media is keenly aware of the risks associated with slander and libel. Though journalists can and frequently do provide their own opinions when reporting, making harmful and baseless accusations about strangers is, simply put, a big no no.

With that in mind, we wholeheartedly support Imane Khelif’s legal inquest against these losers, and hope she’s vindicated in a timely and spectacular fashion!

---

Alyssa Steinsiek is a professional writer who spends too much time playing video games!

 

Several countries have recently blocked Signal, leaving their residents without a trusted and safe place to communicate.

To help in this situation, Signal provides a built-in censorship circumvention feature and also includes support for a simple TLS proxy that can bypass these blocks in many circumstances and let people communicate privately.

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