blogs i followed in 2025

Happy new year, everybody. Unlike last year's extremely pensive and inconclusive post, this year I have real, actionable advice for you. That's growth! I mean, I still don't have definitive answers for most of last year's questions, but we're still gonna call it growth. Anyway.

2025 was the year I finally started using a RSS reader, and if you, dear reader, do not use one, 2026 could be your year. Seriously, go download one right now. It doesn't really matter which one; if you ever want to switch, you can very easily export all your feeds. I've been mainly using the Feedbro extension for Firefox, which seems pretty good, though I really don't have much of an opinion on how it compares to other readers, since I don't feel the need for any features beyond "can read RSS feeds" and "has folders".

RSS makes it super easy to keep up with all kinds of websites and blogs. The hard part is finding things to subscribe to in the first place. So, to hopefully get you started, here's a selection of blogs, websites, and independent publications I subscribed to in the past year, very loosely categorized by subject. Sites that do roundups of recent posts they've read are one of the best ways to find new blogs to follow, so I've marked those with a *, and linked to their most recent roundup at the time of writing. I've also linked to the actual RSS feeds so you can right-click "copy link" and add them to your feed reader.

video games journalism/criticism

Aftermath (feed): "a worker-owned, reader-supported news site covering video games, the internet, and the cultures that surround them."

* Critical Distance (feed): This site was going to be my top recommendation, due to their regular This Week In Video Game Blogging posts, but their RSS feed is currently on the fritz. Still, their weekly roundups are a great way to find more games writers to follow.

Pixpen (feed): "dedicated to providing games criticism, with a focus on how narratives are developed through the intersection of many aspects of videogames."

Sidequest (feed): "critical deconstructions, personal essays, poetry, comics, and anything else you can imagine on the subject of games."

Stop Caring (feed): "an attitude based on the idea that videogames are valid and sophisticated artistic expressions, filled with as much cultural sinew as any other art-form."

TIER (feed): "writing on independent, obscure, and/or retro games."

personal blogs (still mostly about video games)

All Time Bangers (feed): Blog about playing through a bunch of RPGs, in release order. The Introduction probably explains it better than I can.

Aurambles (feed): Personal blog of Aura Triolo, who is, among other things, an indie gamedev, IGF judge, and Atelier fan.

Buried Treasure (feed): "John Walker reviews undiscovered indie gaming gems."

Dungeon Trawler (feed): "summary and critique of JRPGs, DRPGs, and more."

Florence Smith Nicholls (feed): Blogs mainly about gaming, archaeology, and their overlap.

No Escape (feed): "digital culture and its discontents."

* The Virtual Moose (feed): Posts a lot of game reviews, particularly adventure games. Also does an Indie Game Roundup and Blog Roundup.

Thrilling Tales of Old Video Games (feed): Examining why That Thing from That Video Game is the way it is. Lots of discussion on references, influences, and names.

transgamerthoughts (feed): This one is actually a tumblr blog, but you can still subscribe to those with RSS!

ttrpgs

* Explorer's Design (feed): Targeted towards game designers, but there's plenty of interesting thoughts for GMs/players here as well IMO. Also the home of The Explorateur, a monthly newsletter of TTRPG-related posts, reviews, and events.

Prismatic Wasteland (feed): Blogging about various aspects of elfgames. (Yes, that's vague, but that's what it is.)

Puzzle Dungeon (feed): "OSR puzzle theory and tabletop shenanigans."

Rascal News (feed): An independent news outlet about TTRPGs. This one is a bit of a special case, since you do need an account (and occasionally a paid subscription) to read the full version of most articles. I'm including it anyway because even before I caved and made an account, just subscribing to the feed brought me a lot of TTRPG news I otherwise would've missed.

* Seed of Worlds (feed): Blog which regularly posts Shiny TTRPG Links, a roundup of ttrpg-related posts from the past week.

& more

From the Superhighway (feed): "a monthly newsletter dedicated to bringing you the best kept secrets of the indie web."

Paged Out (feed): "a free experimental (one article == one page) technical magazine about programming (especially programming tricks!), hacking, security hacking, retro computers, modern computers, electronics, demoscene, and other similar topics."

disclaimers

First, the usual stuff: I have not read all these blogs thoroughly, and I don't necessarily agree with every single opinion they hold. You know the drill.

Second, this list is, of course, extremely skewed towards my own interests, as well as towards the interests of those I subscribed to: people who blog about specific topics are mainly going to link other blogs on that specific topic, after all. This is how I ended up following so many OSR-focused blogs, despite not being an OSR gamer. Still, even if the topics are somewhat limited, I'm getting a pretty regular supply of posts I find interesting. Hopefully you also found something worth subscribing to here. If not, don't give up— plenty of other people on the internet have blogrolls, many of which are probably a lot more comprehensive than mine.

I'm also always looking to branch out and find new sites to follow. If you have a blogroll of your own, or know a site I might be interested in, feel free to send me a link, and I'll add it to this post! :-]