End of 2024 Edition

A Thought Roundup and some games, books and articles to read over a winter break.

It’s cold, y’all. I’m sure some of you are in the tropics or southern hemisphere but where I’m at, it’s cold and its dark. One of the pieces of wisdom I learned working in Finland is that it’s not really the cold that gets to you, it’s the dark during the winter solstice. That said, it’s cold and my blood feels slow and muddy. It’s the end of the year and there’s always a tension in this culture between being productive and getting things done, and the very real physiological fact that your body wants to get cozy and rest.

This year, there’s additional tension - we can already see that a lot will happen in 2025… After the year with the most global elections in history, people want to get into the next phase of whatever government that was selected (80% voted out incumbents) , Google just announced massive advances in quantum computing, and companies are investing inconceivable amounts of money on supporting AI development with new nucelar power plants.

For those of us who like making experiences and stories for human audiences, it was a rough year - the value of cable TV was written down to a tiny percentage of itself, tens of thousands of people were laid off from major studios as they consolidated, and interest rates have cooled new projects. We’ve gotten a chaotic stew of economic conditions for Christmas and as folks are rounding out the year looking at their 2025 budget planning… it’s hard to say what’s next. We all know its messy right now and it’s a good time to sit back, rest your brain, and ready yourself for opportunities because we’re still here and there will be plenty of opportunities coming our way in the new year to help others, make cool things, and figure out how to sustain ourselves.

I’m looking back and a lot of exciting things have happened for me this year:

BATMAN: THE LEGACY COWL - DELUXE EDITION
The original Batman comic series based on the votes of fans I’ve been working on for the past 3 years is finally released in print. You can pick up a digital + hardcover version until January 25, 2025. This beautiful publication also covers the stories and expereinces that fan votes inspired and have allowed them to play along as citizens of Gotham City.

IMAGINING TRANSMEDIA - MIT PRESS
I published a chapter in Imagining Transmedia - focused on how different industry types make decisions. It’s packed with great writers and interviews with names you should know like Maureen McHugh Yeager, Henry Jenkins, Jennifer Pallonis, Yomi Ayemi and more than a dozen others covering the intersection of experiences and communication types in a wide range of industries and settings.

PLAY STORY PRESS
I’ve joined the editiorial advisory board for a new open community publishing resource. Check it out for monthly publications and books on pop culture, games, medai and play for free. It’s been live for a few months and the publication list is growing all the time, and seeking new writing to publish.

There is of course, more I could recap, but those three are things that might add to your end of year reading list, along with this dump of articles I hope help you understand your past year and prep you for whatever schemes, shennanigans and endevours the new year brings you.

END OF YEAR RANDOM THOUGHT ROUND-UP:

• The next Payday Game is a Roblox fan creation that already existed. It’s so exciting to see the time and energy fans put into creating in storyworlds being celebrated. Platforms like Roblox and Fortnite have made these more brand-safe for IP owners - whose business models rely on ongoing control of the permission to use that IP - to celebrate the hours/days/months people spend creating out of love, and find a path to mutual benefit. Another example of this might be the new TMNT island in Fortnite, a clearly licensed product where players can create their own challenges and courses. It’ll be fascinating to see what players do when they can play with the world in this way.

• Monument Valley 3 is out in the world. Jennifer Estaris is an incredible game designer, and if you enjoyed the soothing puzzles and suprisingly emotional stories of the previous chapters of this game, you know you’re in for a treat. If you haven’t give yourself the treat of playing these games. This lovely recap describes a bit more about the concept drawn from Estaris own experiences living with her daughter in a danish canal community.

• Take a quick look at Ruff Ruff Danger Dogs - an original kids series from my CMA mentees over at stop motion studio, Apartment D films. 2024 showed us that high quality shows can be distributed on available online streaming platforms, and get picked up on higher budget platforms. Hazbin Hotel being a an aspirational stand out releasing season 1 on Amazon. Regardless of your taste in animation - I dare you to keep the RRDD theme song out of your head, and support the artists and check out the Goodest Heroes on Four Legs in episode 1.

• Venezualan journalists turned to AI to avoid political persecution. While we’ve been seeing people use filters forever, they’re easier and easier to create as avatars for real humans, or as fully virtual humans. Related: CNN had its lowest viewership week since 1991 in 2024. And news network viewership dropped 50% after the US election. This years US election pointed out pretty starkly just how OLD tv news consumers are - and how critical social media and social video especially is to the near future of journalism. It’s not going to get easier to discern what is and isn’t traditional “real” online and its going to create opportuntiies for new trustworthy, and less trustworthy brands to emerge that people will rely on for cohearant, verifyable information. Currently, people turn to human influencers, if that becomes perilous - expect the embodiment of truth to be a bit more artificial.

• The brand, Enron was purchased by the Birds Aren’t Real guy who staged himself getting pied in the face, knowing that everyone would like that. Perfect move. No Notes.

• Disney fans are getting older, Roblox fans stay younger - All Audeinces demographics are harder and harder to inspire and maintain. Simple answers are never simple, but for anyone trying to reach audiences in 2025 and beyond, complex strategies and careful analysis of where the people you’re looking for actually congregate is more than just important, it’s critical.

• Lost Wisdom, Recovered! I saw a really insightful post, and then struggled for 18 months to remember the keywords it was talking about because it was a concept that comes up A LOT when thinking about audiences and technologies. Familiarize yourself with the Trust Thermocline. I finally found this again this year, so if I was struggling to find this term in conversation with you since 2022 - that’s what I was trying to say.

• One Internet Recap to Rule them All. Garbage Day is a newletter I read every issue. Here’s their recap of 2024. While we saw some big shifts in the landscapes where we connect, share and discover information - humans are looking for something to replace xTwitter, and Reddit has been on the rise. Garbage Day tends to cut through the noise for me, and also has a great compilation of weird internet stuff - for which I think we are all craving even if we don’t know that’s what were looking for. When in doubt, get weirder.

I hope you’ll share some of your own 2024 cool stuff in the comments, or @ me on one of the dozen social networks we’re all trying to use these days. If I don’t send a new post your way before the end of the year, Happy Holidays. I hope you all get opportunites to rest and recover this season. Next year promises to be full of events, and I hope you’ll join me in seeking out your weirdest self to take it on.

The song I couldn’t get out of my head this year, and didn’t really mind.

Last Note: historic internet culture event par excellence