The social network is ready for prime time.
I’ve been on Twitter for a long ass time, in fact I first signed up back in December of 2007 — when you could still send a tweet via SMS. In gaming terms, that’s before the likes of GTA IV, Left 4 Dead, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Persona 4, Fallout 3, LittleBigPlanet or Mario Kart Wii had hit store shelves.
In the roughly 17 (yikes) years I’ve spent on the social media site, Twitter has gone from strength to strength to… shit.
It quickly rose to prominence to become the de-facto water-cooler of sorts for the internet at large (rivalled only by Reddit), enjoying an almost ubiquitous presence in the news media. Twitter became the place where news not only broke, but related commentary and conversation happened too — at an almost dopamine-inducing pace. It was, and remains for many, an addictive service for any news junkie.
This addictive nature wasn’t something I escaped. I’d often find myself tapping on the little blue bird first thing in the morning — before my eyes were even fully open — eager to see what the world was talking about. Not always a healthy relationship sure.
Beyond the often depressing mix of politics and current affairs, I was using it, like many others, as a way to keep on top of the very latest gaming news too. You could find trailers for upcoming releases, new software titles being announced directly on the site, a million hot takes on the news of the day, comedic outlooks a plenty, developers sharing behind-the-scenes screenshots of their work-in-progress projects, along with juicy leaks, and lots of rumours too.
This varied mix made Twitter a highly compelling third-place for anyone who plays games and takes an interest in keeping informed on just about everything around them.
I justified my habitual obsession with the service by way of the numerous contacts and friends I made in using it (and I’m far from being alone on this). Beyond the obvious news hook, Twitter provided an easy and immediate way to follow and connect with folks who not only share your interests (no matter how niche), but are in your industry too. Pulling up a chair to follow along with what your peers are saying had never been easier.
Yes, all of this perceived merit is still largely true of the service today — but with one notable and uneasy truth: Twitter has gone to shit.
Now sure, Twitter was never some perfect utopia, far from it. The site often highlights an ugly side of the internet — a place known for pile-ons and hate campaigns. This grim reality has only grown stronger too.
There’s long been a joke about Twitter, essentially being a game that we all play as users — where your sole mission is not to become the main character of the day, and avoid attracting the ire of the malignant mob.
Yet for all the clear ills of Twitter, many (particularly white men such as myself) found that the service mostly offered up an enjoyable, net-positive experience.
But Twitter’s once accepted status as the water-cooler of the internet is arguably no more — the water has gone bad. It was Elon Musk’s troubled takeover of the service back in October of 2022 that marked a clear inflection point. This downfall of Twitter, now inanely known as X, has only worsened in recent months.
The pay-to-win advantages introduced by Musk (offered via once hallmark of trust, now shambolic badge of shame that is the blue tick) have gamified the service in such a way where baiting folks and shock-jock shit-posting play really well. Hatred is amplified. Trolls are thriving. Unfavourable voices are boosted by a skewed algorithm. Conspiracy nonsense is unavoidable. Bots are everywhere, randomly liking old tweets. The block function butchered. Spreading misinformation is a viable, yet amoral, path to finding a vapid audience. X is toxic.
Yes, the water has gone bad, and it’s Elon who’s taken a shit in it.
Twitter is extremely creepy these days because 90% of the responses are bots and it’s not exactly clear why. Usually it’s not even political, it’s not selling anything, it’s just bots pretending to be people. The vibe is like boarding a city bus and realizing none of the passengers have faces
— Alex Blechman (@alexblechman.bsky.social) 2024-10-09T18:36:34.201Z
So, when a site so openly shifts in direction and user welfare suffers as a result, we should probably try and find alternatives — rather than maintain a relationship with a site now so clearly run by bad actors.
It feels like we’ve collectively jumped through a few hoops over the last few years in trying to find such a viable new destination. Be that Mastodon, Hive (remember that), Cohost, or t2. Meta’s Threads has its own issues, and the experience of using it has felt a little superficial to me at least, especially due to the algorithmic feed being the default — but, it has found a decent level of traction overall. However, it’s Bluesky which has truly caught my attention.
I mentioned on Threads that I like Bluesky and someone who had tried and abandoned it asked me why I liked it. This was my response.
The fledgling social network recently surpassed 10 million users, and I’m finding it home to a growing amount of great, genuine, and more importantly civil, conversation and discourse. You just follow people, and then see what they’re saying in a chronological feed — what a concept!
Bluesky is funny because I can’t recall any other platform where its growth is explicitly tied to the collective hate for one person.
Sincerely, one of the best things about BlueSky is that I can say
“Holy shit, this hurricane is unprecedented, looks like climate change is afoot”
and I won’t be dealing with knuckleheads who want to debate that.— Technology Connections (@techconnectify.bsky.social) 2024-10-07T21:46:48.412Z
I spoke with Bluesky’s Emily Liu about this potential increase in gaming chatter found on the site, and it’s not something that’s gone unnoticed by my new social network of choice.
Liu mentioned that gaming related discussion across Bluesky is in fact “picking up some steam“, and it’s something that the team at Bluesky is “particularly excited about“. This uptick in gaming-adjacent activity is attributed, in part, due to the relatively recent addition of video support being added to the platform.
“We hypothesize that releasing video affected this, since game devs enjoy sharing clips of their games or works in progress.”
This is something Bluesky CEO Jay Graber has acknowledged too.
Aftermath, a relatively new (and rather excellent) worker-owned website covering video game culture, has also found notable traction on Bluesky. The site, which is home to several former Kotaku writers, has been vocal about the real challenges that are now facing journalism and new media in an era of increasing lay-offs, unfavourable algorithms, and AI. Speaking to Luke Plunkett, co-founder at Aftermath, he highlighted how Bluesky is helping them in expanding their audience.
It may surprise you to learn that the Aftermath site now has more followers on Bluesky than it does on Twitter. Plunkett says this was something the team wouldn’t have expected when they initially launched, but “shows the lengths to which certain parts of the gaming community have committed to making the jump across platforms“. This Bluesky following is described as a ‘win-win’ for the Aftermath team though — Plunkett affirmed that “not only do we get better engagement in terms of raw numbers on Bluesky, but the quality of conversation is also infinitely more interesting (and civil) as well“.
🦋 Bluesky: New Game+
So, there’s a lot to like — and I’ve found Bluesky has a ton of neat ways to actually discover folks worth following, or even just keeping tabs on, via the handy lists and feeds features.
bluesky is commendable in that despite never having been a part of the game develop entire sphere, as soon as I came here, i suddenly am interacting with so many game dev accounts. i actually get stuff that’s relevant to me!
— 🎃 aispooky 🎃 (@prolongedvertigo.bsky.social) 2024-10-01T15:47:37.642Z
For example, I’ve put together a list of Nintendo-related accounts that I want to keep up to date with, and you can easily follow the list too (without the need, should you not want to, to follow each individual account — you just pin it for easy access). There’s a feed of game developers here who you can stay up to date with. Here’s one highlighting gaming history. Here’s another with lots of indie devs. You can make ‘Starter Packs‘ of folks you think are worth a follow.
There’s even tools to help find your Twitter buddies. Basically, it feels there’s now momentum, enthusiasm, and services to make this the time to move if you haven’t already.
You can get your gaming news, random trivia, hot takes, behind-the-scenes tidbits, and much more. It’s good. It’s time.
👋 Bluesky is an open social network that gives creators independence from platforms, developers the freedom to build, and users a choice in their experience. We’re so excited to have you here!
We share Bluesky updates & news from this account. A quick orientation thread: 🧵✨
I find myself increasingly visiting the Bluesky water-cooler. We need a network, so let’s swap the blue bird for the blue butterfly. I’ll see you there.
🎮 Gaming accounts to follow
Join the conversation
🦋 Chris on Bluesky | Kevin on Bluesky | overkill on Bluesky
Bluesky is better. Move there now, and thank me later.
Don’t let billionaires frog boil your brain this October You probably didn’t even notice. But last week, one of the more disgraceful acts in the history of the American elections happened on what used to be Twitter. Hours after he “joked” about Joe Biden and Kamala Harris being assassinated,
