Here are some of my favourite places on the internet. I've kept this strictly to sites I actually repeatedly visit. In some cases I link to a particular piece by the person in question, if I feel it stands above their more recent work.
- Fabien Sanglard
- Analysis of 90s 3D game graphics technique, the stuff they call "deep magic".
- Jay Barnson
- Game developer, Mormon. Now mostly writes genre fiction.
- Jim Leonard
- An old-school cracking/demoscene/retrograming head. Brilliant programmer with a taste for subversive culture.
- Legowelt
- A Dutch techno producer whose music I don't much like, but who has an awesomely 90s-feeling site packed with fun stuff like samples, synth reviews and artwork. Check out his zine too. 10/10 for attitude.
- Liz Ryerson
- Leftist, contrarian critic who's into Doom and music.
- Loren Schmidt
- Exuberantly original maker of games, figurines, concepts etc. She also likes things like lichen, caterpillars, cracked concrete and so on.
- Mountain Man
- Unbelievably cool old-school personal site covering spiritual, programming and general consciousness-raising topics in depth. Esoteric awesomeness.
- My Friend Pokey
- A blog written by Stephen Gilmurphy, who releases work as thecatamites and Harmony Zone. Critical, wide-ranging explorations of weirdness and poignant failures in game aesthetics and distribution. I very much like how this person thinks.
- Nathalie Lawhead
- Promoter, creator and historian of software that blurs the line between games and tools, commercial and amateur. You get the impression of someone remarkably forthright and intense.
- Programming in the 21st Century
- This is one I don't actually read much any more but I'll link him in thanks for instilling in me a positive, exploratory attitude to programming.
- Robert Yang
- Gay art-game maker who has written some top-notch cultural analysis of level design.
- Scott Aaronson
- Senior computer scientist and liberal. A large brain. Humanist and Jewish.
- Shamus Young
- A well-known content creator specialising in games programming, game reviews and D'n'D. Good vibes. Engaged in a touchingly hopeful attempt to steer a middle course between reactionary and woke elements of gaming culture, a bit like Scott Aaronson does in the academic world.
- The Digital Antiquarian
- Jimmy Maher is a digital culture historian who has done the world a huge service with his on-going superbly-researched history of gaming spanning the 70s to the early 90s.
Also, here are some newsletters I read (some of the time):
- Avik Das
- This fellow puts out nice pieces about different facets of interviewing for tech jobs.
- BIG
- Matt Stoller's non-partisan, very well-informed, power-to-the-people anti-monopoly periodical. Great insights into American capitalism and political workings.
- First Floor
- Thoughtful, progressive commentary on dance music with links to the tastiest recent releases. Shawn Reynaldo is a nice fellow.