Getting stuck. And getting through.

Why people get stuck: in games, in systems, in transitions.
And what helps.

I write and report on fric­tion: the moments where play­ers quit, com­mu­ni­ties turn hos­tile, sys­tems fail, and peo­ple in tran­si­tion lose their foot­ing. Waycleft.com is where I col­lect that work: essays, field notes, research threads, and the projects grow­ing out of them.

What I study

Games

How do play­ers get stuck in videogames? And what hint design, grad­u­at­ed sup­port, and thought­ful mechan­ics can do about it.

Communities

How do online com­mu­ni­ties become tox­ic? And what mod­er­a­tion, facil­i­ta­tion and organ­i­sa­tion­al design can change.

Institutions

How do organ­i­sa­tions freeze instead of adapt? And what par­tic­i­pa­to­ry for­mats,
tran­si­tion design, and OE prac­tice can enable.

Transitions

How do peo­ple arrive in new roles or places with­out tru­ly belong­ing? And what
for­mats, reflec­tion spaces, and peer process­es can sup­port.

Ongoing work

SurvivalFox

An AI-pow­ered hint com­pan­ion for videogames. Sta­tus: Pro­to­type

[Read more →]

Toxic Spaces

Research into why online com­mu­ni­ties turn hos­tile. And what changes that. Sta­tus: Research phase

[Read more →]

LandingSoft

An emerg­ing research inter­est on arrival process­es for mobile adults in Euro­pean cities.

[Read more →]

Recent Writing

  • With­in Earshot, Out of Reach
    Text chat gets mod­er­at­ed auto­mat­i­cal­ly, voice almost nev­er. Who does the work when harass­ment runs over the open voice chan­nel? Four modes, com­pared.
  • Where the "Killer­spiele" Went
    Two decades of Ger­man youth pro­tec­tion made the game eas­i­er to check. Help­ing the per­son inside it runs on fund­ing with an expiry date.
  • Two in the Morn­ing, No Call
    Desert­ed street in Tallinn at night, lit by a sin­gle street lamp with warm light. A dark, qui­et row of hous­es, no peo­ple.
  • I Can Be There in Eight Days
    Two game devel­op­ers talk about mov­ing abroad at Game Access in Brno. A relo­ca­tion's dif­fi­cul­ty is assigned long before any­one packs the first box.
  • Built for Dis­tance
    A field note from Tallinn: e‑Residency is built for dis­tance, not for arrival. On the gap between log­ging in and belong­ing.
  • A Foy­er and a Tram in Brno, and the Gaps In Between
    Two con­ver­sa­tions at Game Access 2026 in Brno, one in a foy­er and one in a tram, and the pat­tern they revealed: an indus­try that is learn­ing to lis­ten, but not yet in the moment when it mat­ters most.

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