I got SO frustrated at one point at #amaze2024. There was a great panel about how we don't have control over the engines and tools we use. About how small, open source engines are the way to do that.
They lamented the closure of walled gardens like Flash (I fear for Dreams in a hopefully far future), and how much culture is lost to the whims of the market.
They mentioned the contradiction of user vs corporate interests. They mentioned open source as an example to follow.
At #Amaze2024, at a talk about solarpunk and Games for Future. Speaker talks about positive change needed for decarbonization and gives the historic examples of women's suffrage in 1918 (1971 in Switzerland), indoor public place smoking bans starting 2017... and the closure of the nuclear plants last year. In a talk about the future and climate change.
There's an exercise about imagining a better future in 2048. Speakers talking about urbanism were all pastoral about it - small towns, not large transit-oriented cities. @cidney, who was the only woman speaking publicly, talked about reduced electronic clutter - no need to go through 10 generations of XBox by then. Talking privately to me, she pointed out how tech is changing analog gaming in that most tabletop RPGs are done on Roll20 or Discord right now. #Amaze2024
We broke into groups and now people are summarizing for everyone, and in one group people lamented the decline of third spaces. This is getting me thinking - at least in my experience, there's a bigger third place culture in the North American cities I've lived in than in the European cities - the neighborhood-scale cafes in Berlin close earlier than in New York and Vancouver and aren't as set up for multi-hour socializing or working. There are bars, but drinking is expected. #Amaze2024
The AMaze Fest is starting tonight - and with it an ULTIMATE historic #Steam sale with a lot of nominees and winners of the past years - like our own SOLITUNE.
I can't wait to meet lovely people, play games I would've missed otherwise, and attend some of the talks and workshops (there's one about game design for BDSM I'm particularly excited about)!