Eric Lang
@eric_lang
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Following
882
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Statuses
15,791
I make games. he/him Also on @ericlang .bsky.social
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Joined June 2009
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"Strategically naive" is such a great encapsulation of too many game industry leaders.
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I paid more than $750 in annual taxes when I was broke and could barely afford rent.
The phrase "socialism for the rich, capitalism for everyone else" really needs to catch on.
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Hi everyone! I'm back from Twitter jail.
Thank you so much for your outpouring of support. It's humbling and moving. You're all amazing.
Thank you.
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“You’ll get more conservative as you get older/richer”
Nope.
I haven’t been poor in over 15 years, but I acutely remember what it’s like to be poor.
This perspective - and empathy for my younger self - drives me further economically left by the year.
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Conservative followers: We don't agree politically, but I recognize the majority of you as kind, thoughtful humans.
You're welcome at my game table any time.
Human rights, however? Non-negotiable.
Nazis, bigots, racists, sexists, trolls and transphobes can fuck right off.
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Convention Organizers: If you want to promote diversity, props to to you. However, you don’t need to run “diversity” panels. Just seek a diverse range of guests and run “regular” panels.
We would all rather be just talking about game design and industry issues, believe me.
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Trolls want your exhaustion. Harassers and abusers want your fear. Both want your silence.
Block trolls. Report harassers. Eject abusers. Protect your friends and followers.
Reclaim our social space.
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The trans 'debate' is today's "jewish question" or "negro problem"
It can't be a _debate_ because framing it as such means that human rights for trans people are up for debate.
They are not.
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Attacking all game designers:
Your game is much harder to learn than you think. Your game relies too much on a litany of mechanical knowledge most people do not have.
Teach your game to several smart non-gamers. Not once! Consistently.
Reset your standards for "easy to learn"
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Board Game iteration:
1. Build a prototype
2. This is awesome!
3. Play test prototype
4. This is trash.
5. I am trash
6. Gaming is trash
7. (Wake up at 3AM): Eureka!
8. Oh yeah, we got this.
9. Goto 1
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To be 100% clear: It was Twitter employees, friends of one of my good friends (who shall remain nameless for their protection) after much work and escalation, who got my account unlocked.
Thank you, twitter employees!
And trolls: to hell with you.
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The term "woke" comes from the black AAVE community from as early as the great depression. It's been used by the black community with varying degrees of regularity since.
It means "alert to social and sociopolitical injustice." That's literally all.
Why does it suck now?
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THREAD: Here's the thing about racism in North America.
It's only a little bit about hurling rude epithets about skin colour. That’s barely the tip of the sword.
Racism is conditioning. It's impulse.
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I put my pronouns (he/him) in bio, despite not being trans:
1) Trans creators I follow clearly state that it's helpful to normalize and avoid the stigma of those posting their pronouns being assumed as trans
2) Those offended by "pronouns in bio" can unfollow and be spared.
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Do you design games? You are a game designer.
Don't be this gatekeeping yahoo.
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Here we go:
The Last Jedi is my favourite movie of the three trilogies.
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It's harder to be a woman, non-binary, POC or LBGT creator in Western society than it is being a white hetero dude with the same level of talent, connection and upbringing.
It just is.
Happy to start the conversation there, but I'm no longer going to debate the starting point.
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I have so much to say. But first:
It's amazing that so many of you put so much energy into helping me get my account back. Love you all.
Can you do me a favour? Please keep that energy, and direct it to helping those with smaller followings who are harassed every single day.
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If you enjoy playing games, any games, for any reason, I want you as a customer.
If you contribute to making this hobby more welcoming, I want you as a friend.
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Who would have guessed that calling Lovecraft racist would summon the endless legions of racists? 🤔
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Lost a few hundred followers this morning.
It's probably for the best.
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People who play only Monopoly every week with their friends are gamers.
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Folks decrying Rage Against The Machine for "going woke" is peak twitter.
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Y'all are going to see more and more victims of abuse in this industry coming out and telling their stories.
Not because there's suddenly a new epidemic of abuse, but because more women finally feel safe enough to come forward.
Let's respect this trust with support and kindness
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Employers do this now, widely, without $15 minimum wage.
Libertarianism is tyranny by the already rich.
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When some of you saw the news story of a black man shot in the back seven times by police, your first instinct was to search the internet to find reasons the shooting was justified.
That is racism.
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I like to use “defenestrate” in casual conversation, whenever a window of opportunity presents itself.
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Luke Crane is a friend and esteemed industry peer, who is doing a big thing very badly.
I hated writing every single word of this, but when it comes to protecting our community, you don't get to cherry pick:
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My wife’s constructed language, Toki Pona, has been recognised by the ISO as a world language with its own code.
I’m so damn proud.
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Industry men: "But women aren't telling me who the problem men are."
If women never talk to you about problem men, it's entirely possible they don't trust you with that info.
That's not on them, that's on you. And it's a good idea to reflect on why that may be.
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Here's a spicy one for y'all:
The hobby game industry's Overton Window of "gateway game" is utterly ridiculous.
Pandemic and Ticket to Ride are great strategy games. Not gateway games.
UNO is a gateway game.
Time to recalibrate.
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I know my partisan Democrat friends don't want to hear this, but Pelosi's "Thank you George Floyd for sacrificing your life for justice"
is not only ghoulish, it's ... unsurprising.
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It's also important to highlight positive interactions:
Rodney (
@WatchItPlayed
) reached out to me out of the blue. He did the work, followed with action, and made things right without being asked.
He did it quietly, without expecting a cookie.
(posted with permission)
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I'm stepping down in my role as Game Director at CMON as of Sept 1st, and returning to freelance. It's 1000% amicable, and we will continue working together for years to come.
Please read the official release before any "journalistic" speculation.
).
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Inclusiveness in practice:
Them: “what do you do?”
Me: “I design board games”
Them: “Cool! Like Monopoly?”
Me: “Yeah kinda! You like Monopoly?”
Them: “Yeah we had some good times.”
Me: “Yeah board games are fun. There are so many great games out now, too”
Them: “Tell me more!”
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God mode made Hades playable to me, and now I never want to play another video game without smart dynamic difficulty settings.
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My favourite thing about Wordle?
Made by folks who wanted other folks to have a fun thing, with no monetization, vitality, or blockchain designer in sight.
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Getting my first haircut in over a year.
So I leave you with the last day of the “radioactive cauliflower” look
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I like dungeons. I also like dragons.
There must be some kind of game that combines these two.
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GAMA did the right thing to cancel Origins Online, and made a bold and righteous statement to meet the moment.
However, their official statement unintentionally erases the POC who took a stand, and this is teachable.
Long form response attached:
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By the way, just in case it wasn't abundantly clear:
Trans rights are human rights.
And JK Rowling can go fuck herself.
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Wanna see me lose hundreds of followers with a single tweet?
I like Ewoks.
Like, a lot.
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"But the gatekeeping racists and sexists are not common in gaming."
I invite you to read the comments to any woman or POC tabletop game content creator on social media.
Once you've picked your jaw up from the floor, I invite you to support them financially. They deserve it.
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Insisting you "don't have a racist/sexist/homophobic bone in your body" likely makes many POC/women/LGBT+ people nervous; maybe even distrustful.
You may not mean it, but you're communicating that you are unwilling to work on or even examine your behaviour, as it is perfect now.
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My wife is smarter than me but doesn't have patience for complicated board games. She understands them, just doesn't enjoy the work involved.
I think about that a lot.
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Hey game designers: make mediocre games. Make bad games. Make great games.
The market does enough gatekeeping; ignore shitty voices that seek to hold you to some inscrutable standard.
More importantly: don’t gatekeep yourself.
Make games.
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Health care is universal, or it is uncivilized.
This is not a radical position.
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I will not attend conventions in 2022 that do not require proof of vaccination.
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If you believe "people who play Monopoly aren't real gamers" you probably shouldn't follow me, because I think your belief is poison.
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White person: (says something racist)
POC: "That was racist"
WP: "I AM NOT RACIST!"
POC: "Okay-what you said was racist"
Observer: "Stop attacking his character!"
Ob2 "God stop making everything about race"
Ob3 "WP is a good man!"
Ob4 "Just be civil"
Ob5 "Stop being divisive!"
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Thread about personal and resonant feedback.
Years ago, I was flying home from Gencon. My seat mate was a TV writer and gamer, so naturally we ended up talking shop.
He was more interested in learning about the craft of design, and I was of course more interested in his craft.
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Dear Hasbro
I hope you printed 20 million copies of this trash, and the free market noisily rejects it in the ultimate display of irony.
I bought a copy of Hasbro's mean-spirited and woefully ill-informed "MONOPOLY: SOCIALISM" board game so you don't have to - a thread 1/
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"I'm against cancel culture"
is code for
"I just want to keep saying shitty things and face no consequences or criticism of any kind."
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Peaceful BLM protests are still happening all over the country.
You're not hearing a lot about it because media tends to fetishize violence only.
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I'm finally allowed to tease about this!
It's a big deal, y'all.
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For consideration:
I'm half black, half white. 50/50, even split.
I'm constantly referred to, without question, as a "black designer in the industry."
I have never, not once, been referred to as white.
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Punching up is not bullying.
Meeting an abuser’s aggression with force is not harassment.
Jesus god the leftists going after Greta for her imperfect response to Tate have some tiresome myopia.
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Men. In the games industry.
All of us.
We collectively suck at treating non-men with the respect and dignity they deserve.
We collectively suck at protecting vulnerable people from abusers and predators.
Can we acknowledge this, and clean our damn house?
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I still do racist things.
I absolutely still do sexist things.
I still do homophobic things.
I am still terribly ableist.
Hopefully I'm better than I used to be.
Working on it.
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On the flight home I was passed a note from a fellow game designer and 😭
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Cancelling a convention, even for the best of reasons, is a nightmare. And right now organizers are taking it from all sides: financial pressure from stakeholders and legal obligations to partners, hate mail, etc.
I stand proudly in support of those with the courage to do right.
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BGG was able to showcase one (or more!) black creative industry professionals per day for 28 days straight.
The significance can't be overstated.
Five years ago this would have been impossible.
This kind of progress takes work. Real. Hard. Work.
And it's only begun.
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Two (three?) years ago I predicted that Wingspan would sell well (like 50-100K units) but not break out because both the MSRP and game complexity were too high.
At 1.4 MILLION units sold, I've never been so happy to be so wrong.
This is potentially game-changing huge.
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The blue guy is gonna be president. Your relief and joy are valid.
I'm solidly here:
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Games Workshop stating "we don't want fascists and those wearing hate group propaganda in our stores" ain't 'controversial' or even political.
It's the social equivalent of like "no weapons or violence allowed on our premises."
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Cat is out of the bag!
Modiphius announced a MASS EFFECT BOARD GAME co-designed by yours truly and
@ithayla
This is the "gamer game" I've been teasing about for the last couple years. It's finally releasing in 2024 :)
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Lots of dudes with Very Strong Opinions about how women are allowed to feel about the depiction of women in board game media today 🙄
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I love talking about games. It's my favourite thing.
Not this week, though.
Black lives matter.
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The publisher of Kids on Brooms RPG will donate all of today's sales to the Silvia Rivera Law Project, an organization that works to guarantee folks' ability to self-determine their identity without fear.
I will personally match donations up to $3,000.
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Friends: If you must reply to obvious trolls, please note that they are tagging an abusive troll account into the mentions. Please remove the troll account from mentions.
Let's reclaim our social space. Thanks!
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Strong opinion: 20+ page rulebooks are unacceptable for games intended to have broad appeal.
In the pursuit of clarity and thoroughness, we ignore brevity at our collective peril.
Reading rules is _not fun_ for the vast majority of the market. Learning new games is a barrier.
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Let's get this out of the way:
Howard Phillips Lovecraft was a racist piece of shit. Fuck him. I'm not going to debate this.
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Industry professionals: There is enough talent out there that you don't need to work with toxic individuals.
If you need help navigating the talent pool for alternate sources of great games, art, etc, I'm happy to help.
Seriously.
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Welp, deleted a thread for the first time ever.
Locking down for a couple of days just to clean out the trash.
Fuck terfs. Always.
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For security and safety reasons (particularly on behalf of my friends and followers), I am blocking every account that follows [account below], and insta-blocking any account that tags them unwanted in mentions.
The account is a source of rabid harassment and dogpiling.
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You: "nazis are bad"
Centrist: "so is antifa. All extremes are bad."
You: "The two can't be compared."
Centrist: "Yes they can. All extremes are bad. You have to meet in the middle."
You: "What does meeting in the middle look like with nazis?"
Centrist: "Don't be irrational."
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I'm afraid I'll be stepping down as a guest of Origins TV, in solidarity with fellow POC hosts and guests who have also stepped down.
Sorry all.
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