An update...and reset

I have a lot on my mind

👋🏼Hello JOMT Reader!

Living life on the proverbial edge is equal parts exhilarating, terrifying, and exhausting. And on that edge, I’ve been forced (in a good way) to evaluate how I approach my writing on Just One More Turn.

Let me clear the fog first: Just One More Turn isn’t going away.

But it is changing.

There’s a myriad of reasons for the change. It’s partly driven by how the gaming research world is slowly shifting, or more accurately, slowing down. There haven’t been as many exciting-to-me studies being conducted that I have access to read. And if it isn’t exciting to me, I don’t think I can make it exciting for you.

Another reason is my own shifting priorities and interests. Responsible integration of AI at work has been occupying much of my time and mental bandwidth. It’s been hard (as evidenced by the past two months) to devote much time to interacting with you all on Substack. But it has sparked the fire beneath me to finally start on that game dev project I’ve been wanting to start (more on that below).

So bear with me as I set a new course with JOMT and you, my readers.

😪 The exhausting

My current Learning from Games series and the apparent lack of interesting research is what is driving my exhaustion. So, it needs a change. I’m not sure exactly how this will change but I do want to talk a bit more about the two way street of learning and games: as much as we learn from games, we also inform game development and the industry.

My brain has been on overdrive thinking about plans and benchmarks for AI tools. In the world’s mad dash towards less hours and more efficiency, it feels like the humans, who are at the center of all of this, have been forgotten. Has the Matrix already happened and my human colleagues are actually Agent Smiths pushing for maximum efficiency?

🫣 The terrifying

Many of you are here because of the science and gaming perspective you’ve come to know me for. And it’s terrifying to think that I might be betraying that by switching things up a little. But I think it’s the right thing to do…which amplifies the terrifying-ness.

I’ve also been very careful about writing too deeply on the application of games to health. It’s terrifying to think that my wishful thinking on the application of games might be mistaken as facts out of context.

🤩 The exhilarating

Many of you have heard me talk about an idea for a roguelite turn-based tactics game, borrowing some thematic elements from Altered Carbon. I’m excited to announce and take you all on a new journey with me as I document and write about the game dev process.

Expect plenty of science mixed in throughout the development process as I’m finding that it has a very heavy hand in how I think through the process of developing a game. I also fully admit I have no idea what I am doing so if you read anything that seems off, please let me know as I am a complete newbie when it comes to making games.

I’m also excited to try writing more speculatively about the research findings, applying them in a sort of thought experiment. Some of my best-performing articles (like the Addictability Score) were early experiments before I let terror take over me. It’s time to bring back some of that adventure and explore more deeply!

That’s it for me this week. A rollercoaster two months on Substack and at work but I’m hoping to get back on the train, starting next week.

Thank you all for sticking around and as I just realized today, hitting another subscriber milestone of 600! I can’t believe there are that many of you interested in what I have to say and truly thankful that you have chosen to carve out a portion of your time to read my ramblings.