The "Community First" mirage: From marketing jargon to meaningful action
True "Community First" development is the art of bridging the gap between cold telemetry and human passion, moving beyond marketing jargon to build a culture of trust where active listening informs the "why" behind the data.
Many studios today adopt some version of the phrase "Community First." It’s a beautiful intent: the idea that a studio will walk hand-in-hand with its players, listening and evolving the game based on their voices. Having worked with gaming communities since the ARMA 2 days, and communities in general since the 90s. I’ve seen this ideal succeed brilliantly and fail spectacularly.
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Why the war over NVIDIA’s "AI Slop" really is about control
This article explores the polarizing debate over AI-driven visual manipulation, arguing that "authenticity" is often a subjective preference for the familiar, and that the ultimate solution to the clash between artistic vision and algorithmic enhancement is individual user agency.
Authenticity in imagery is a hot topic right now. To be fair, it was a hot topic yesterday, and it will be a hot topic tomorrow, too. Seldom are emotions stirred up so quickly as when someone does something "people" do not like with visual media.
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How to convince your players that you're worth their time
Players don't just buy games; they allocate their scarcest resource: time; to ecosystems that offer a return on that investment through transparency, trust, and long-term respect.
If there's one thing I wish more people involved in making the big decisions in the game development industry understood, it's this:
Players don't just buy games; they allocate their scarcest resource: time; to ecosystems that offer a return on that investment through transparency, trust, and long-term respect.
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Welcome to my ARG
Before the Internet, I used to run and join Bulletin Board Systems. I've created an ARG based on the appearance of one of those. Why not try it out?
My latest personal project is something I love to tinker with both professionally and for fun: an ARG. It becomes even more exciting for me when it's also using old-school aesthetics. Need a brain-teaser? Want to solve puzzles together with others? Check it out!
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Neutralising toxicity in modern gaming communities
Finding the proper solution to toxicity requires understanding where the toxicity is coming from. In this article I navigate the complexities of managing the toxic parts of a gaming community.
In the contemporary landscape of interactive entertainment, a studio’s greatest asset—and its most volatile liability—is its community. We often throw around the term "toxic" as a catch-all descriptor for any friction within a digital space, but to manage a community effectively, one must move beyond generalisations. True community stewardship requires the surgical precision to distinguish between a "disappointed idealist" and a genuine bad actor.
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The Great Narrative Myth in Game Dev
"Players don't care about story. They just want the gameplay."
It’s a phrase thrown around constantly in development cycles and boardroom meetings to justify cutting corners. But let's be completely honest for a second: the people who say nobody cares about narrative, stories, and character backgrounds in games... usually just can't write great narrative, stories, or character backgrounds.
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The story of the in-between
I was let go by Sharkmob due to redundancy, and am now looking for new opportunities with the same curiosity and passion as always.
I have one foot in the old, and another in the new. In a way a familiar feeling, as this was what set me on the journey to Malmö once upon a time.
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Why are so many new games bad?
It seems like the game-development industry is churning out bad game after bad game, why is that? Or perhaps a more relevant question is: why do we think that's the case?
Making games isn't just hard, meeting the players' expectations is incredibly difficult, especially the majority of them. While there indeed are incredibly well-made games out there (several receiving >90% positive ratings) the overall perception is that games are getting worse.
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The chaos that is gamedev and Community roles
Coming up with names for roles in the world of game development is littered with confusion, and how does it all translate? What responsibilities does each role have?
When I think about, and dig into the utter chaos that is community roles across the gaming-industry I'm sometimes flabbergasted by the complete confusion that is rampant.
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The inner critic
Most of us have an inner critic, who questions our capabilities, that seemingly sets traps for us. But what's the purpose of this? Is it all self-sabotage?
You're in a situation where you have an idea of some kind. It could be a creative endeavour, or a plan for something you wish to accomplish. But there it is... the internal voice that suddenly undermines your idea. Let's examine where it comes from, and how you can deal with it.
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Tinkering and building on things
Do you ever have this tendency to start a bunch of projects that turn out to take a lot of time?
Well, that's how this website started sometime back in 2021. I was expanding on my skills in PHP and wanted to create a classic website, like in the early days of the Internet, except more modern.
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Crossplay and aim-assist, a never ending feud?
How aim-assist isn't what you think it is
The debate surrounding aim-assist in crossplay multiplayer games is among the most persistent and polarizing in modern game communities.
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Anti-Cheat and the Misconception of Developer Reassignment
In the domain of multiplayer game development, few topics provoke more impassioned discourse than anti-cheat.
Players, understandably frustrated by cheaters, often demand that studios shift development priorities. One of the most persistent misconceptions—echoed both within and outside of the development community—is the belief that developers should be reassigned to work on anti-cheat instead.
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The Art of Game Music
In this article I analyze how music can enhance games by giving three great examples of how the soundtrack improved upon Rogue Trader, Baldur's Gate 3 and Bloodhunt.
This article highlights the crucial role of music in gaming, drawing parallels to essential elements in other media forms.
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The Grimdark
In the dark and desolate expanse of the grimdark universe, where the very fabric of reality strains under the weight of unrelenting conflict.
I continue my journey down W40K-land by trying to summarize what Grimdark is about, based on the continued reading from Dan Abnett.
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The Keychron Q5 Pro
So, after about one week of use, here's my review of the Keychron Q5 Pro.
They Keychron Q5 Pro is a custom keyboard, this means that it's made in a way so that you can customize it to your hearts content.
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Gallery Updated
The image gallery has been updated with some images from both past and present, click the gallery button above to find it.
I have well over 60000 photos taken throughout the years, and unfortunately most of them have lost all their development settings recently.
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Why ARGs are so compelling
Alternate Reality Games are great fun both to participate in and play, I've done both.
The first ARG I played was probably 20 years ago, it was in the early stages, and let's be honest. It was mostly hidden pages, some early ECMAscript and a digital rabbit hole.
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Solem Game Insights
Changes have happened on my YouTube-channel, which is a good thing.
Let's be honest, my YouTube-channel Tobias Games and Photography Education was a mess.
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Warhammer 40K
Warhammer 40K is by no means a new acquaintance, I've known about the universe for a long time, but never quite dug deep into it. I felt it was about time I did.
I recently spent roughly 100 hours in the lovely game Rogue Trader made by Owlcat Studios.
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The making of this website
The making of this website started in 2021, and the codebase was completed in 2024. It was a major undertaking to say the least!
This website was programmed in PHP8.3, Javascript, CSS3, MySQL and HTML5. It's taken me almost three years to get everything from the first draft to a working version that I like.
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