Alright, before this platform implodes here's where you can find me😊
Linkedin:
Mastodon:
Hive:
@CeliaHodent
Web:
In the next tweets you'll find links to my books 😉.
Take care & let's stay connected!
If someone isn’t working on a great single player Mandalorian game where you play a bounty hunter flying your ship from system to system picking up bounties, upgrading your Beskar armor and getting into adventures then I really don’t know what the hell we are doing here. ❤️
@AbeBritishAV
Well, Disney closed LucasArts studios just a few months after buying Lucasfilm. Which is why you didn't get to play SW 1313.. so.. yeah...
My new book The
#Psychology
of
#VideoGames
is out today! (incl. Kindle) If you care about a very approachable yet nuanced exploration of VGs that is neither "games are evil" nor "games are gonna save the world", this is for you! With real science in it 😉.
#UXfail
. We actually discussed this at my
#UX
& cognitive science webinar today on brain limitations. The new icons are bad usability because they aren't distinguishable from one another & they violate form-follows-function principle. I'm available to run
#UX
classes,
@Google
! 😉
In 2010, Ivanka and Don Jr were nearly indicted for felony fraud. The district attorney who dropped the case -- after a hefty donation from Trump's lawyer -- was Cy Vance.
SCOTUS ruled that Vance, not Congress, can access Trump's tax returns.
The other thing that makes me sad as a
#gamedev
is witnessing the bad public opinion on video games. I wrote a short book for a broad audience to hopefully spread a more nuanced public discourse, & so that gamers know what to respond when frowned upon😉
Watch the complete collapse when confronted with the blatant bullshit of his own definitions of “indigenous” populations. You will never see a better example of a journalist allowing a man to hang himself with his own rope than this from
@Mehdirhasan
.
Oula,
@fabienolicard
a publié une vidéo pour ses 2M de followers intitulée “Fortnite a détruit (volontairement) nos cerveaux” (!) où il me met en cause et dit des choses erronées. Je vais donc répondre pt par pt ici, puisqu’il ne m’a jamais contactée 🧵
"Psychological tricks" are used everywhere all the time. Ironically, the title of your documentary "Are you being played?" is literally a psych trick. It's called a leading question & it influences people to think about a topic in a specific way. Thread on the documentary 1/n
Now is probably a good time to inform non-French folks that a man currently under investigation for rape was just nominated as minister of interior in France, so he’s now at the head of the police. It’s the whole society that needs to profoundly change. Impunity still dominates.
Stop treating the guy like he’s a clown or an idiot. Look at what
@leahstokes
is saying below. Read
@sarahkendzior
regarding how purposeful this all is. Realize what is going here. Call it out. Be outraged. (I’m mostly talking to foreign media and influential people here)
While we were busy being horrified by what's going on in the streets, the Trump Admin was busy rolling back *all* environmental reviews for dirty energy infrastructure via executive order.
THIS IS RACIST AND ANTI-DEMOCRATIC POLICY. THIS IS WRONG.
@NJDevil66
@shinobi602
Still working in games but as a consultant. After the tragedy of LucasArts & the intensity of Fortnite, rowing my own boat sounded appealing 😉. Just released a new book for a broad audience to hopefully spread a more nuanced public discourse about VGs🤞🏼
The outpouring reactions to my
#1313
tweet (thanks for all the kind messages!) tell me one thing: video games are an art form crafted with passion. They create deep emotions in many people. It's about damn time for them to be recognized as art in the public discourse. 🎮❤️
Today’s cognitive bias: the optimism bias.
“Normal people don't like to imagine terrible events, which is why autocrats consistently surprise them.” ~Garry Kasparov
Trump always outdoes himself in sinking to new lows, but after praising dictators, attacking veterans, demeaning women, and surrendering to a pandemic, we can hope that he has also undone himself. My new op-ed at CNN.
Elon Musk, the self-styled "free speech absolutist," has fired employees for speaking out; tried to buy the silence of a teenager with a bot; and banned a blogger from owning a Tesla because of a critical *blogpost*.
Receipts from me on
@MaddowBlog
:
It should not fall on users' shoulders to protect themselves against hate raids or any form of disruptive behavior. Again, this is why
#ethics
in tech and
#gamedev
is so important.
#UX
is about improving people's lives with tech, not creating new problems users then need to solve
In case anyone is wondering, this is against the
#UX
mindset because customers (advertisers) are favored apparently against users’ best interests. Without even trying to define what “safer” means here, mere ethical considerations are part of the job. We need
#ethics
in tech. Now.
“Facebook has realized that if they change the algorithm to be safer, people will spend less time on the site, they'll click on less ads, they'll make less money,” says Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen.
Excuse my French but this is such a fucked-up take. If “stress & burnout related to the increasing pace & intensity of work are on the rise globally”, why the hell should we tolerate it & “learn to build resilience” for that crap? How about breaking the downward spiral instead?
Why do I want to pay full price you ask,
@lyft
? Well because your drivers already aren’t paid enough. A $15 drive to LAX airport is not much for such a long drive. That’s why your drivers and
@Uber
’s are on strike. And I support them. Pay them properly.
#UberLyftStrike
You can now preorder my new book The Psychology of Video Games, out in Oct. Meant for a broad audience, it explains the
#psychology
of making games (
#UX
) & playing them. Includes an analysis of the beneficial & detrimental effects of certain
#videogames
.
It’s easy to say why things have become a shitshow in hindsight. It’s much harder and impressive to predict the shitshow, yet this is what
@sarahkendzior
has been doing for YEARS. I would recommend you to follow her and to buy her books.
I love those people at
@SonySantaMonica
!! I get rarely credited with my consulting work. This is really lovely, thank you! 🥰❤️
And I'm among super cool folks!
It’s more than time to adopt a code of ethics in the game industry, for players as well as employees. This is sickening yet sadly not surprising.
#ethics
#gamedev
Woohoo! My new book is
#1
hot on Amazon! 😍😍😍
I hope that you don’t regret not learning how to make people laugh instead 🙃
Thank you so much, y’all, I’m very grateful ❤️🌹
I reported this
#bullshit
tweet as harmful because it encourages self-medication with a treatment that so far is NOT PROVEN TO WORK & can be DANGEROUS. Let researchers figure this out. Listen to the scientific community, not to shitfunnels who know fuck all.
Good morning btw 😬
When Kimia was forced to leave Iran, she publicly denounced compulsory hijab & how she was a “slave” in the hands of Islamic regime to promote hijab.
Shame on
@RefugeesOlympic
for promoting forced hijab! Replace it.
Don’t demean millions of women’s fight against forced hijab.
Apparemment mon livre Dans le cerveau du gamer a passé les 1.000 exemplaires vendus en quelques semaines !! Ce qui est franchement pas mal pour un livre spécialisé comme celui-ci. 🥰 Merci beaucoup à toutes et tous pour votre soutien et votre intérêt !! 💕
My new book is finally in my hands!! This one is for a broad audience (NOT for professionals): anyone interested in understanding how video games are made & the impact of playing them. Short & sweet 😉
#ThePsychologyOfVideoGames
#CovidBook
Get it here —>
Regardez le poignant documentaire
@ARTEfr
sur le combat de
@AlinejadMasih
et de nombreux iraniennes et iraniens pour exercer leur droit de vivre, rire, chanter, danser et d'avoir le choix de ne pas porter le hijab pour les femmes. Quel courage ! 💚
This is not ok. Yet not surprising. I worked at Ubisoft for about 4 years and was credited for *checks notes* 0 of the games I participated in, directly or indirectly. 🙃
That was back in 2008-12. This needs to change indeed.
This needs to be part of a wider discussion. Anyone who put work in on a project deserves to be credited. Game development breaks people, and you can’t even give them credit for their work? Disgusting, honestly. This has to change.
This is why we need to make
#ethics
in tech a priority. Defining where the line is and enforcing a code of conduct cannot wait until an “unprecedented violent situation” happens. Designing is about anticipation.
#UX
OMG!!! I received a
#Devcom
HEROES Award today!! I’m deeply touched and just stunned. It’s such a tremendous honor. 😳😃🌹 Thank you so much to the Devcom board and anyone who voted for me, and thanks to all of you
#gamedev
heroes out there. ❤️❤️❤️
Seeing a bunch of UX professionals discussing the merits of Myers-Briggs personality test and I'm going to lose my shit (bc this is sadly a recurring topic). UX is grounded in science, unlike MBTI. To me it's like astrophysicists discussing the merits of the horoscope...
My new book, What UX Is Really About, introducing
#UX
in a short & approachable way to curious readers or UX beginners, is out!
- UX is human-centered
- UX is grounded in science
- UX is a collaborative process
- UX is benevolent
Under $20 on Routledge:
"A pro-Trump billionaire who spends his millions funding candidates who push the Big Lie; who invites to dinner a white nationalist; who said he doesn't believe in democracy...shouldn't we be paying more attention to Peter Thiel?"
My deep-dive on Thiel:
After being published in Korean and Japanese, I am thrilled to announce that next year my book will be published in Russian and.. wait for it... French!! (c’est pas trop tôt, je sais 😉). Can’t wait for the
#ux
love to be spread in more languages. Thanks a lot for your support!🌹
Same. It’s time for
#UX
folks to put an end to the bullshit. We don’t trick anyone in doing anything against their best interests. Our goal to improve people’s lives with tech. That’s in essence what HCI is all about. We need to reclaim our values.
#ethics
Bonjour
@lemondefr
&
@magcarti
, je voulais prendre le temps de vous expliquer ce que les "psychologues cognitifs" font dans l'industrie car votre article laisse penser que vous ne connaissez pas la discipline UX (user experience) 1/10
Il est grand temps d’en parler si plus de médias français veulent bien s’en donner la peine au lieu de trop souvent diaboliser les
#jeuxvid
éo. Ils sont une forme d’art, créés par des personnes passionnées, dont des femmes qui trop souvent vivent l’enfer.
From a behavioral psych standpoint variable rewards are ethically questionable when used to encourage players to buy (or spend more time in game to earn the needed currency), especially in a game played by minors who don’t have a fully mature self-control. Aka
#lootboxes
.
#ethics
Not to mention that the Halo effect is a bias. No one person or group is perfect. Critical thinking requires the ability to embrace nuances. Shutting down sound criticism hastily is a sign of cognitive dissonance. It’s hard to acknowledge that something we like is flawed.
I really do pity people who spend huge chunks of their time online blindly defending or promoting a particular politician or government online. That’s not patriotism, that’s tribalism. Tribalism and nationalism are among the most damaging trends in our world today - and online.
In case some people doubt that video games are art, here is a game that helps us understand loneliness and touches players deeply. Great TED talk by
@CorneliaGeppert
about her game
@seaofsolitude
It pains me a bit to realize that the difference between game design & ux design still isn’t clear for many gamedevs... Alexandria says it well. UX design is about figuring out how players will perceive, interact with the system so that they can have the game experience intended.
Guess what? My new book "What
#UX
Is Really About" is coming out! It's an INTRO book to (re)explain that:
- UX is human-centered
- UX is grounded in science
- UX is a collaborative process
- UX is benevolent
It's a mindset meant to improve people's lives.
@moreelen
Game design is about WHY: why features/mechanics/system matter for the gameplay & why would players care.
UX design is about HOW: how we can convey said features properly to humans & how players will interact with the system to accomplish their goals.😉
It pains me a bit to realize that the difference between game design & ux design still isn’t clear for many gamedevs... Alexandria says it well. UX design is about figuring out how players will perceive, interact with the system so that they can have the game experience intended.
I'm starting to write a short book for a broad audience:
#UX
101 (this is not the title but the intention). Not specifically gamedev but the idea is to define what UX is / is not, & to debunk misconceptions. So, tell me, what are the main questions / misconceptions about UX?../..
So there's a shit hot take about
#crunch
in
#gamedev
today. Crunch is about min-maxing: minimizing the rights & well-being of workers to maximize studio profits. Many industries do this but in creative industries we say "but, passion!" That's some manipulative bullshit. 1/2
For my
#gamedev
peeps, here's a challenge: do you know of game covers featuring a group of (human) folks (not just one person) that does NOT contain a white male. Go!
(it's for my next GDC talk)
The large majority of people all around the world do not want war. They want to live in peace. It's time to build a world on the shoulders of the peaceful majority. Not the very few elites who care about nothing but power & money, and who exploit the majority for their benefit.
Protests are erupting in several Russian cities tonight against Putin's large-scale invasion of Ukraine, along with attempts from police to forcibly suppress them. Here's his hometown of St. Petersburg. I'll be threading videos below as I find them.
Proud to announce that Game Usability (2nd ed.), which I edited with the amazing
@kcisbister
, is finally out! HUGE THANKS to all the contributors!! I hope that you will enjoy it 😊. Here's a sneak peek of what's inside 1/n
#ux
#gamedev
Star Wars: First Assault (LucasArts, canceled in 2013): Tech beta
Unfortunately often forgotten in the shadow of SW 1313. However, First Assault was a very different case because: this game (whose release they were about to officially announce) was more or less finished.
Fun fact: I'm not listed on the credits of any the games I've worked on (either directly or indirectly) while at Ubisoft. And the games I worked on at LucasArts got cancelled of course. 🙃
#gamedevcredits
I watched
#CowboyBebop
again over the weekend (the anime) and it's such a masterpiece. Pure perfection with Yoko Kanno's music. If you've never watched it, now's the time (on Netflix)! Make sure to at least go until episode 5 (extremely powerful imho).
See you, space cowboy.✨
Mmm.. You're not going to like my next book then 😜.
Improving people's lives with technology IS our ultimate goal as
#UX
professionals. Convincing stakeholders is one of the numerous challenges we need to overcome to achieve this goal.
Lol literally using the Black Power fist to signify "insincere populist uprising manipulated by secret cabal of chaos agents" great work guys 110% not political
Je suis pour l’information sur les dérives des dark patterns, mais l’utilisation de neuro-inepties et de stéréotypes pour “capter” l’attention des gens et les encourager à regarder une émission me pose problème. Et c’est assez ironique je trouve d’abuser de ce dont on dénonce...
That feeling when your editor doesn't have any queries about your new book because they find it great and "exceptionally well-organized" 😎 (it's about the psychology of video games, for a broad audience -- release date in October!)
We need to reclaim the term
#UX
(or human factors). Maximizing profits at the expense of users is NOT user experience. It's business intelligence without a care for users. With UX comes ethics, accessibility, inclusion, respect for users and their privacy: It has to be win-win.
@CeliaHodent
@LindaKKaye
I’m a strong proponent of ‘positive technology’ putting tech to the service of people’s goals, interests and wellbeing. But in my experience, many clients simply pay ‘user experience’ people to help them sell more, more often, to more people and for more money.
Calling
#UX
#gamesUR
#gameUX
folks! I'm excited to help
@kcisbister
w/ the new ed. of the book Game Usability. We seek new chapters (esp. esports & mobile): if you or someone you know could be a contributor, please poke me. We also want diverse & new voices, so do reach out! ❤️
@JamesBergCanada
I loved every minute of my time at LucasArts. The people were amazing, the games so cool. I was hyped the whole time. And living in San Francisco was such a treat. Sigh..
I was informed today that
#TheGamersBrain
will be translated & published in China in about a year or so, & it should also be available in Russia soon (April).
#ux
#gamedev
This feels so good! 😍
Thank you so much to all of you for the continued support. I'm eternally thankful ❤️