Twitter is dying? - Jack Blair's games newsletter

I really have no idea what to do with this twitter nonsense. Like none. I don't even really know if I need to do anything at all. That doesn't make me special. But damn, if it isn't hard. In other news, today was my Mum's birthday. Happy birthday Mum!

I wanted to spend this issue digging into my promptober entries. and then I realised I'd gotten so caught up in other shit on halloween that I never did the last entry. So here goes.

31 - Forbidden Books.

Game idea. Kind of a lyric game. Not intended about any particular book series. Take a book you loved once, but are scared to read again now that you know more about the world and what hate looks like. Read it anyway. Did you enjoy yourself? Did your knowledge of the world make each turn of the page a chore? If so, you don't have to love that book any more. Break up with it, tell it not to call you again. You don't have to stay with anything that makes you feel like that. You can leave.

If the book carried embers of love still burning with nostalgia, but hurt you all the same, maybe try only visiting it on holidays. Like when you're sick, and you need something to comfort your inner child.

If you love the book still, and reading it warms you through to the bone, your fears unfounded, then keep it close. You can always play this game again if anything changes.

The rest of my promptober entries can be found in this kind of broken thread

Now here's the thing about twitter. I'm using it to make this newsletter. I used it to find Promptober in the first place. I use it to market my games, I use it to tell people about my streams. I use it to talk about my experiences as a disabled trans person trying to exist in the world. It's not my favourite social media site (im a tumblrina at heart) but it's sure as shit the most useful to me. Aside from The Dracula Effect happening to me on tumblr that one time, twitter is the only place I know I can reach people who will buy and read my games. I'm not really comfortable enough in front of a camera to do tiktok or instagram with any success (also I abhore any sort of post production), and facebook just fills me with dread. So I'm not quite sure what to do with myself or my "business" (such as it is). For now I'm sticking it out on twitter, at least until there's consensus on which platform people are migrating to.

Fuckin' hell though, I wouldn't mind if I didn't have to try and make money by getting attention on the internet. If my health would let me take a normal job...

And to be clear, I like the internet. I like streaming, I like making games, I even like social media sometimes. But I don't love having to grit my teeth to buy brunch for my mum on her birthday, or the uncertainty of how I'll pay for ongoing healthcare when I leave Aotearoa.

This isn't a "give me money" speech. I know that nobody reading my newsletter has enough to be throwing it around. This is commiserating, and a reminder that we really need UBI.

Anyway....

I'll head off now. Thanks for reading, best of luck dealing with the [gestures at everything], and I'll see you next week to ACTUALLY dig into my Promptober entries, and maybe talk NaNoWriMo.