Hi ,

Well time flies... I missed you all, though apparently not enough, that break lasted much longer than originally anticipated! Nearly a month longer than I originally expected. My official excuse is my wifi at my new apartment in Paris only got connected and working a week ago, but it doesn't stand up to much scrutiny, so let's maybe leave it at extra time to settle in Paris.It's been a busy and pretty extraordinary summer folks - and September too, actually. My 40th birthday celebrations in Spain were phenomenal. I spent the whole summer with close friends and family, some I hadn't seen in many many years. I found an awesome apartment really quickly, unexpectedly right in the tourist center of Paris, a stone's throw away from Notre Dame cathedral. I moved in late August and have been settling in for the past month, while slowly beginning to look for new clients and work, opening up for business as it were, catching up with old friends, colleagues, and enjoying Paris.Aside from thinking about any possible evolutions and changes to the newsletter, podcast, translating my website into French, I am doing sensibly the same thing day to day as I was in Chicago: reading up about media, communication, tech, branding, advertising, marketing news; contacting people in the industry and telling everyone I'm available if they're looking for support in figuring out brand strategy questions; pursuing projects like the podcast and newsletter.I'm also newly considering to take up studying again, in part thinking it could be a great structure to pursue and actually progress on my ideas of looking play as human behaviour, gaming mechanics, and linking those to brand strategy and innovation in order unlock exceptional creativity.I am getting involved in tabletop roleplaying again, and delighted about it.What did you get up this summer? Hit reply and tell me all about it!

Cheers,Willem

My birthday cake was amazing, and having so many loved ones there was extremely moving.I received a Pickle Rick T-Shirt for my 40th birthday - more on that below!

 Weekly Combo Two or three flavours, interesting separately, fascinating together 

The #MeToo movement broadly has a whole part going on in gaming, both video and tabletop. We talked about it, and also about this piece linked above. Part one is a long read, and I haven't read parts two and three just yet. The amount of abuse being flung at women and marginalised groups of people in gaming communities is just staggering. And I keep discovering and being shocked by how little I realise this. That's not necessarily a bad thing, I keep learning and hopefully becoming better able to notice anything off going on, calling it out, better able to be an ally. Which is also why I'm sharing this piece here. You don't even have to be participating in gaming communities to be concerned about large and seemingly small abuse laid out in this post, you may well have found this kind of behaviour in your own life - either lived it, or witnessed it. Important stuff.