Ruth Cassidy

@velcrocyborg.bsky.social

307 Followers 137 Following

games critic and journalist · excessive use of Emphatic Title Case · bylines including Unwinnable, Eurogamer, Rock Paper Shotgun, and more · they/them · linktr.ee/ruthvcassidy

"Adjacency bonus: It's time to finally put the deck of cards to one side: tiles are the foundation of a burgeoning new genre"
A screenshot of the 'welcome to Sims 2 Apartment Life' blurb
“It’s not a bad impulse to want to soothe ill-will from fans, but when a game is patched with what feels like its own fix-it fan fiction, it makes me wonder about the closing distance between fans and a creation: why is the response to a disliked, ambiguous, or challenging ending a requirement that it be fixed, instead of processing those feelings of dislike in critique, reflection, transformative fan-made works, or myriad other ways that aren’t directly addressed to developers?”
Description of Leigh Alexander's talk, "McMansions of Hell: Roguelikes and Reality TV" Reality TV shows are actually constructed realities with their own emergent narrative systems. In this talk, I'll share how my teammate Brian Bucklew (Caves of Qud) and I are working to translate the language volumes and behaviors of mid-2000s "celebreality" shows set in McMansions, into a generative story environment with Macintosh-inspired B&W graphics. Are all reality shows actually roguelikes? Absolutely, and I'll also share some fun examples of how the world of PCG connects to the age of character-driven social media and performance, microcelebrity and the contemporary reality TV renaissance.
25 games grid from topsters.org. the games are: Disco Elysium, Dwarf Fortress, Portal, Slay the Spire, Stardew Valley, Pentiment, Signs of the Sojourner, Elsinore, The Beginner's Guide, The Talos Principle, Norco, Frostpunk, Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator, Tyranny, Citizen Sleeper, The Blackwell Epiphany, Paradise Killer, Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations, 80 Days, Firewatch, Wildermyth, Dragon age 2, Pillars of Eternity, Pyre, Baldur's Gate 3.
Screenshot of my games library, with 140 hours played, and it last being played 2 years ago