Åsa

Åsa

@devilkitten.bsky.social

UX designer. Opinions are my own. Prev: Avalanche Studios, BioWare, Sharkmob Current: IO Interactive, 007 First Light Game developer since 2001, feminist, nerd, snarky person w. many opinions. She/her. Known as a feminist armored fist in TTRPG circuits.

659 followers225 following2.6K posts

Åsa
@devilkitten.bsky.social

The worst part about being me is that I devour books. I can read two to three books in a day if I don’t have work, one book if I need to work and we’re not talking audiobooks. Yes, I am complaining that I finished Astarion the same day it dropped in Sweden but I’m doing it in a roundabout way.

Åsa
@devilkitten.bsky.social

We’re back to 2004 in the games industry. You know, when Erin Hoffman posted the EA spouse letter. It’s worse now, though. We cannot blame ignorance. Crunch can incapacitate people and it’s not even very efficient as a tool for productivity. What is efficient is frameworks, planning, management.

Åsa
@devilkitten.bsky.social

I’m not getting married and I haven’t had sex or a relationship in twelve years, so I’ll happily keep gobbling romance books as if they were popcorn. (For clarification, I’m asexual and autistic. I have the superpower of not needing any of the above - there’s zero need to feel sorry for me.)

Robin Marty @robinmarty.com

"For married women, it gives unrealistic expectations of sex, often leading to disappointment in our marriages...For unmarried women, these books will do nothing but give you unrealistic expectations for when you do get married."

Åsa
@devilkitten.bsky.social

Astarion _finally_ released in Sweden and I’ve been reading and giggling all morning. @tkingfisher.com so far this book has been, in the words of Astarion, delicious. Also I can’t help hearing Astarion’s voice while reading. No, I’m not listening to the audiobook.

Åsa
@devilkitten.bsky.social

"Heartwarming" BioWare story. All those D&D quotes - they're from a group of former BioWare co-workers that I still play with. We've been running through several ready made campaigns (BECAUSE WORK!) and some one shots by another player that were a lot better than my DMing. We've played for years.

Åsa
@devilkitten.bsky.social

A session usually consist of: 20 min - ranting about the games industry 1 - 2 hr - playing 20 min - someone's cat throwing up (usually mine) The lack of long sessions is entirely up to the time difference between Sweden and Canada. By the time they wake up, I'm almost ready to go to bed.

Åsa
@devilkitten.bsky.social

The save Mass Effect thing that's happening right now? It doesn't mean anything _without the people_. BioWare is not coming back.

Åsa
@devilkitten.bsky.social

There’s a guy sitting on the train, talking about TTRPGs and he’s SO pretentious. And also wrong about the rules he’s being pretentious about 😄

Åsa
@devilkitten.bsky.social

I just left silversmithing with another sort of failed and somewhat clumsy… thing, but it’s fun to do stuff again even if I’m not super fond of my own aesthetic.

Åsa
@devilkitten.bsky.social

There are a lot of voices out there blaming BioWares demise on Veilguard one moment, EA the next, Andromeda etc. The reasons behind BioWare’s demise are many and quite complex, but rest assured there isn’t just ONE reason. (Thread ->)

View full thread
Åsa
@devilkitten.bsky.social

Gamer culture and the culture around despising anything EA and anything BioWare - this is a HUGE reason why EA started to get antsy around BioWare even when I worked there. BioWare - the studio and leadership are not without blame. Internal culture, informal power hubs - politics.

Åsa
@devilkitten.bsky.social

I’m not even covering everything The people going Veilguard was too woke are not seeing their own complicity in the situation. The people blaming EA are infantilising the leadership at BioWare and devoiding them of agency. Also capitalism. Which is the underlying reason for most things going wrong.

Åsa
@devilkitten.bsky.social

There are a lot of voices out there blaming BioWares demise on Veilguard one moment, EA the next, Andromeda etc. The reasons behind BioWare’s demise are many and quite complex, but rest assured there isn’t just ONE reason. (Thread ->)

Åsa
@devilkitten.bsky.social

The obvious baddie - EA. Yes. EA made demands and sometimes drive games in directions that maybe they shouldn’t have gone. Veilguard and Andromeda - no actually, i don’t think they had such a big influence, however in connection with those games …

Åsa
@devilkitten.bsky.social

Meeting Karin and Caroline for the first time was as close as I’ve ever gotten to losing my cool*. Why Caroline and Karin you ask? Because I seriously considered a career as dialogue coordinator. I also had to edit so many Mad Max texts that I got a real appreciation for how hard it is to write.

Karin West-Weekes@karinww.bsky.social

My first BW staff badge, 2006. It was a huge privilege to be a small part of something that brought so many people together all around the world. The thriving relationships made through BioWare games are a comforting legacy today. Here’s to the good times. 🍻

Åsa
@devilkitten.bsky.social

Do eet!

North Mist Studios@northmiststudios.bsky.social

Very heavy news as our former studio, BioWare closes its doors today. It was a formative place for many. However, many former BioWare devs are scattered around the industry. Find them, support them. Like, follow, comment and help us prove there is still support for the types of games we make!

Åsa
@devilkitten.bsky.social

100% this.

Jasper Miller 🐦‍⬛@jaspermillerart.com

Dragon Age has become a huge part of my life right now and seeing the news that Bioware is shutting down sure stings. But remember that a lot of the devs are off starting their own projects and opening new studios - there are still stories to be told. Go out and find them, support them.

Åsa
@devilkitten.bsky.social

Also I don’t want someone to pick up the skeets without my approval and create an AI slop article about how a former dev bashed the studio after it closed etc etc.

Åsa
@devilkitten.bsky.social

Anyway I was only there for six years, none of what I did there ever made it into the games (or stuck around very long) and I’ll shut up now.

Åsa
@devilkitten.bsky.social

Now I feel like a heartless bitch because I can’t be sad about BioWare. I am, though. But not in the sense that I believed that the next great story driven game would come from that studio. I don’t believe those games would have come from there. ->

Åsa
@devilkitten.bsky.social

-> I believe those games will come from the outrageously talented developers who are bringing with them what BioWare used to be to other projects. So the sadness I feel is more for the people let go in an uncertain job market, and maybe some nostalgia for a better time.

Åsa
@devilkitten.bsky.social

I can’t really feel sad about BioWare closing because I grieved years ago. Signs that it wasn’t really working were there when Anthem was being made. There was still some magic in Veilguard, but ultimately the people with the power failed to see the strength of the studio - inclusivity and emotion.

Åsa
@devilkitten.bsky.social

Obviously I’m not a monster. I’m still sad that a lot of devs lost their jobs and it must be devastating for many of them, and my heart goes out to them.

Åsa
@devilkitten.bsky.social

BioWare is shutting down. I’m not surprised. I did meet some of my favourite developers there. Emily, Kelsey, Gabe, all the Chrises - Kris included. Karin, Trick,Caroline and May and Jenny. Brianne, Mary, Colin, Norman, Randal. People that made working fun. Those people are still around.

Åsa
@devilkitten.bsky.social

Some are still making games. Just not at BioWare. Some have found other outlets. BioWare in it’s final incarnation was a shadow of its former self, mostly because the people left at the studio weren’t very interested in games about emotions, or at least that’s the impression I had. I may be wrong.

Åsa
@devilkitten.bsky.social

It’s official. Autism level 1 (Swedish system) and mild ADHD. I also did a cognitive test, WAIS-IV and I’m above average for my age. Verbal ability significantly above average. Working memory is total shit. Like president Trump, I am a very stable (not quite) genius. My cognitive test says so.

Åsa
@devilkitten.bsky.social

The "controversy" around Astarion, the book by T. Kingfisher, is now reaching my bluesky. I can only shake my head and say that fandom is reaching epically stupid proportions in many corners of the internet.

Åsa
@devilkitten.bsky.social

I have no idea where game development is going, but I do know that something has to change. When I started out, projects were messy, sure, but there was still some sort of organization involved. The longer I’ve worked, the more dysfunctional and disorganized the projects become. ->

Åsa
@devilkitten.bsky.social

-> The culture in and around games is not healthy. The co-dependency between developers and players has started to insulate triple-A more and more to the point where new ideas are almost impossible. The working conditions are also deteriorating, with a return to the pre-EA spouse era, despite ->

Åsa
@devilkitten.bsky.social

-> attempts to unionize. We’re slipping downhill. As with so many other situations in the world today, the only thing that can stop the decline is if the people with money decide to fix it. I’ve been working with games for 26 years. I’ve been trying to fix as much as I can for just as long.

Åsa
@devilkitten.bsky.social

”We made it with a core team of twelve!” is the next version of this where the core team is the team of directors 🙄

Bryant Francis@bryantfrancis.me

This “core team” rhetoric is getting really weird. Games that take hundreds of people to make take hundreds of people to make. Just say it! We’re reinventing “QA is in another building and aren’t real devs” from first principles

Åsa
@devilkitten.bsky.social

GM: "Her mentor was a lamia." Player 1: "A llama?" Player 2: "A were llama!? Now I want to meet a were llama. I hear it spits."

Åsa
@devilkitten.bsky.social

Mycket fattigare imho. Han var skarp och snäll och smart som fan.

Johan Erlandsson@skolbyrakraten.bsky.social

I dag är det 41 år sedan Tage Danielsson lämnade oss och gjorde världen lite fattigare. 😢

Åsa
@devilkitten.bsky.social

When you think about it, Trump calling LLMs Super Intelligence makes sense. What most publicly accessible LLMs like ChatGPT and Grok have in common is that they’re sycophantic, they flatter the ego and they hallucinate facts.

Åsa
@devilkitten.bsky.social

Soft skin, good veins and apparently I look younger than I am with about 10 years. I’m thinking vampirism is a given. I bet this is how Elizabeth Bathory got started.