Sunday, July 31, 2016

My Life as a Gamer: Making the Magic Happen (Literally)

I find that most players do not properly appreciate the practice and usage of supernatural power in the form of magic. Getting too focused on the mechanics of play, especially when playing a tabletop RPG, denigrates the power of this specific genre of game. As I said yesterday, RPGs in particular are an unstable mix.

Just as too much Story--narrative logic--perverts the gameplay by damaging the vitally-important sense of verisimilitude, ignoring the milieu and how the player-character interacts with and experiences that environment by focusing too much on the mechanics of gameplay also perverts the gameplay by removing the focus of player attention upon natural-language engagement with the milieu as the primary mode for the RPG Gameplay Feedback Loop (aka "What do you do?"). You can't get emergent phenomena in virtual experience if you're too concerned with the code for the program (mechanics) or fixing the results (story).

Nowhere is this more of a problem than when dealing with supernatural power or items that wield it (and yes, this includes science-fiction RPGs, but we're using magic because Fantasy is the RPG standard). "My Wizard hit 5th Level, so I'm taking Fireball because Page XX says I can." is bullshit, and the games that make this a thing do so because they do not trust the Game Masters that run them. (Such rules have a place in convention-based Organized Play environments, which is as close as tabletop RPGs get to videogames, but home games are not that and TRPGs need to stop writing on that assumption.)

The study, practice, and use of magic should require the player to engage with the milieu through their character. Acquisition of new spells, rituals, items, etc. are--and should be--viable gameplay scenarios at the table. They should be played out at the table. Finding the relevant information, dealing with someone else who knows what they seek, or putting in the work to figure it out for themselves are all interesting and relevant objectives that should not be waived away. Knowledge of consequential things is a treasure unto itself. It should be handled accordingly, both at the level of player engagement with the milieu and at the level of Game Master adjudication of gameplay.

(Yes, this should be done with non-magic things of similar consequence; again, magic used here because Fantasy in the standard for RPGs.)

The result is that the player is required to think and behave in a manner consistent to what his character would have to think and behave in order to succeed, which is why the RPG is the best medium of Virtual Life Experience that gaming has yet produced. You play the way your character would act..

(Yes, it's a variation of "Train the way you fight.", and that's a proven method for getting proper mindset established in good habits.) You want to play a Wizard, then you damn well better start thinking like one and not like a robot jock whining about upgrades to his mech chassis.

The reason I'm about this right now is that ignoring it plays into the hands of those who cannot distinguish tabletop RPGs from their alternatives, and therefore favor those because the alternatives do what they think RPGs are better. I'm staking out turf that, to this day, only a tabletop RPG can do well: natural-language emergent-gameplay sandboxes with no metagame-defined conclusion, the Virtual Life Experience effect at its fullest power. Narrative logic perverts this as surely as mechanic-obsessed autists do, to their detriment and those of the hobby as a whole.

But when that player, playing that wizard, finally groks what his character's mindset and paradigm is about fucking miracles happen. He sees from a perspective that (a) is NOT his own, and (b) is no less real than his own. It is the application of the same psychology behind initiation rites, but for a related purpose. Gaming, remember, is derived from training exercises; failing to embrace this as a desirable thing is failing to make the most of what is on offer- and I want that magic to happen. Literally.

Saturday, July 30, 2016

Games Need No Stories

Story and Gaming don't mix well. Story is Rhetoric, Gaming is Dialectic. Feelz vs. Reals. The reason most people suck at gaming is because they can't parse Dialectic at all; "Git Gud" helps because it's a Rhetorical hit where it counts, making gaming better by shaming the suck players into not-sucking.

Where Story takes priority, the gameplay always suffers and replayability really takes a hit. As there is a definite end, and as players are expected to reach that end normally, the effort (and therefore skill and determination) required is nerfed to the ground. (And yet, many STILL fail to Git Gud enough to meet even that made-for-retards level of expectation.)

This is why gaming and story are unstable at best, and when push comes to shove the way to go is to ditch Story- and gaming companies really do need to kick it to the curb because they're gaming companies and story is not their core competency. Every spinoff of the RPG favors one or the other, to the commercial benefit of those who do so, while shirking the commercial space for this unstable hybrid.

Similarly, RPG users favor one or the other, to the long-term detriment of the publisher since they never get clear feedback (nevermind those who only read RPGs; those fuckers need to be taken out back and shot, in terms of publishing consideration) so they waste resources on products that can't justify the expense of creation (and refuse to use a fucking Wiki for most of this anyway). This just proves that most tabletop RPG makers are fucking retards and shouldn't be in business, and most TRPG users are similarly incompetent and should be mocked for their "intelligence".

Proper games are derived from the training exercises meant to teach children the skills, habits, and knowledge that they will need in their adult lives, especially boys (which is why gaming is, and must remain, male-dominant; even now, they are training aides at their core). Story "logic" interferes with this Dialectic process, corrupting the mastery of the skills, habits, and knowledge such that real life application will result in counter-productive results.

Most at risk is the necessary cultivation of "Git Gud", the patience and persistence that serve as the foundation for everything else. Story logic has success as presumed, as the minority of stories where the protagonist fails shows (and most of those who fail fall into "Horror" or "Tragedy", presumed to be cautionary tales of Things Not To Do). If success is presumed, then there is no concept of persisting in the face of adversity--you're the Hero, so you just do the thing and move on--especially if the scenario is a Solved Problem (so all you have to do is follow the checklist and execute on que; this is why Storygames and other weaksauce shit is so bad).

No resilience means no persistence means quitting when things turn difficult. Story is passive by design, and story in gaming makes a medium of active participation and virtual life-experience into a medium of passive spectation and spoon-fed emotional manipulation. To ensure the ending, player choice has to be truncated or made irrelevant, killing the agency required of good gameplay. ("I kill the Rancor!" has to be a thing that can happen, or the RPG experience is fucking pointless; similar requirements of agency exist in other gameplay genres.)

And here's the kicker: you can have one of the most fulfilling gaming experiences of your life without once having any form of story structure or logic imposed. I have, so I know from first-hand experience that RPGs in particular (and all gaming in general) doesn't need any story whatsover. Instead, your lived experiences (however virtual) become the fodder for post-facto stories when you recount the events to others- just like in real life.

Gaming is about Virtual Life Experience. Life Experience is Dialectic, Not Rhetorical.

And now you know why so many RPG people are terrible game makers: they're really frustrated storytellers working in the wrong medium. These people, both in vidya and in tabletop, need to be named and shamed until they're driven out. Once out, they need to STAY out- for life.

Friday, July 29, 2016

Even The Aliens Guy Has Limits

That's the Aliens guy, the one with the Centauri hair whose really benefited from the whole Ancient Aliens thing. You read that right, there are things in Crazytown even he doesn't cotton to, even if he know them well enough to discuss them in depth. When it comes to Crazytown, I'm someone who loves the theories for their value as mythology, and use as entertainment fodder. What I believe is far less than what I know; like Giorgio, I too draw lines and mine is well before the reptilian thing. Those limits are my borders, and I defend them.

Thursday, July 28, 2016

Paul Joseph Watson & Tommy Robinson: The 'Religion of Peace'

Tommy Robinson - the most "hated" or bravest man in Britain, discusses the beheading of a French priest in Normandy, as well as the "religion of peace" and how Europe is being culturally enriched by millions of Muslim migrants.

He predicts a "revolution" is coming as a result of this massive upheaval.

Tommy on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TRobinsonNewEra

Get his book - Enemy of the State - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tommy-Robinson-Enemy-State-ebook/dp/0957096496/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1469575291&sr=8-3&keywords=enemy+of+the+state

I am familiar with this problem. I am intimately familiar with it, as I lived this sort of insanity for 10 of the first 13 years of my life.

This is how bullying works, and bullying works on basic predator-prey psychology. These "Syrian" (as The Syrian Girl rightly points out, few of them are actually Syrian) invaders are predators that operate both as individuals and as packs. They sense that Europeans (and we, their counterparts worldwide in the rest of the West) are weak, and so they treat us as prey. They mock us as bullies mock the weak, because they see the West as weak and hold us in contempt. Only might matters, raw might makes right with them, and so The Rule of Law is meaningless- they don't subscribe to it, so they use it against us as they see it as weakness.

As I have said more than once now, The Rule of Law is not a suicide pact. We are not obligated to abide by rules that hobble us in effectively and efficiently exterminating threats to our continued existence. Doing so is insanity, and insanity is weakness. That the State, in all countries of the West (save Eastern Europe), dare to insist on this insanity says that the State is unfit for purpose and must be put down for the good of the Nations of the West and their posterity.

As I have said previously, The Peace of Westphalia is not a suicide pact. We are not obligated to abide by conventions with those who have not subscribed to them and cannot be held to them, be it an alien or foreigner or a treasonous national or agent thereof. As the State insists on the Rule of Law against those who gleefully use it against us to exterminate us, so the State insists on Westphalian conventions to deal with enemies who don't subscribe to them and cannot be compelled to do so- and use them against us with equal glee.

Treasonous globalists allied with murderous aliens against the Nations of the West, aiming to destroy Civilization and all that made it possible, means only that two seemingly-separate social-political death cults are really different fronts serving the same demonic master. Islam is the Enemy Without, a false religion aping Christianity in Arab drag. "Social Justice" and Regressive Leftism (aka Cultural Marxism) is another false religion, claiming to be rational atheism, but nonetheless serving to destroy Christianity and the Civilization it fostered.

War is now inevitable, first civil wars to remove the 5th columnists running the State, and then Reconquests against these hostile aliens. If we are fortunate, these will be mostly bloodless. However, I have greater reason to believe that they will not, and many will suffer and die before this is over and the Cosmic Order inherent to Creation is once more recognized and restored throughout the West.

Wednesday, July 27, 2016

The DNC Walkout The Establishment Media Wants To Ignore

The Democrats are fucked. The Republicans can and will recover after purging the Neo-Conservatives and other Globalist traitors from their ranks, but the Democrats are so thoroughly riddled with Globalism and its Social Justice/Neo-Liberal offshoots that the party will be mortally wounded once Hillary either loses to Trump or wins by the same fraud that got her into the party nomination.

And it gets a lot worse for the Dems, as this Ben Swann video makes clear:

If the Dems would do this to their internal primary process, then there is no reason to not presume that they would not try to fix the General Election. Daddy Warpig called for election monitoring at every precinct in the country, and he's not wrong to do so; many states--Minnesota being one of them--allows for such monitoring and (speaking as a serving Election Judge) I encourage you to do so if your state allows you to under the relevant election statutes.

And, for the love of God, stop listening to the establishment media. They're lying to you; why do you believe them?

Tuesday, July 26, 2016

The War In Europe Is Already Here

In Normandy, France a Muslim on limited release due to previous Jihadist deeds stormed a church and killed the elderly priest, beheading him with a knife.

There has been some Jihadist attack in Europe every day or so for over a week now. Some use firearms (which are difficult to acquire legally in most European states), some used knives or similar tools, and some (such as the attack in Nice, France) used ordinary civilian automobiles as kinetic-kill weapons. This escalation in the frequency of attacks is no accident; it is intentional, and its intent is to destroy the native nations of Europe by breaking their will to resist.

The frequency of incidence has greatly accelerated from the Bataclan attack in Paris last year. Yet the European elites in government and the media, mirroring their North American and Australian/New Zealand counterparts, insist on the narrative that blames the West and Civilization for these attacks- they blame the victims. Even the current Pope gets in on the treason. They would rather make common cause with the very aliens and foreigners committing these attacks than serve the nations that put them into power.

The European elites, and their media friends, are traitors to their own nations and countries- to Civilization and the West. They are the 5th Column against Europe itself, in league with the invasion from the Muslim world--the Orcs at the Gates--and work with it to exterminate Europe's native nations for its own ends.

When the State betrays the Nation, the State's legitimacy no longer exists and need not be obeyed.

The State is your enemy, my European cousins. You are on your own, able only to rely on those of you who remain true to yourselves and take your own side first and foremost. If the State dares say you cannot arm yourself, then the State is your enemy- arm yourself. If the State dares say you cannot defend yourself and your own, then the State is your enemy- strike the traitors down for your own safety. Deal with the orcs as you must until you have dealt with your rogue States, because without a loyal State you will be pressed on two fronts and will be unlikely to win against either. Not all of your elites, however, are traitors.

This is why I say to you to deal with your States first, so that those loyal still can seize power and wield the resources of the State as they are meant to be used: for the sole benefit of the nation and its posterity. The orcs will be sorted once you bring the State to heel and once more yoke it to your will.

You are at war, my European cousins, as we are. It only takes one to start a war, and they started it. If you don't want to be utterly exterminated, then you must take up arms and fight back. You're on Death Ground: FIGHT!

Monday, July 25, 2016

The DNC Meets In Philadephia. Popcorn Sales Spike.

Oh look, it's Monday and the Democratic National Convention is already on fire and looking like something Snake Pliskin would blow up.

With Wikileaks looking to hit the Dems again this week with yet more emails exposing how they and the media establishment are arms of the same death cult, we're looking to see some epic levels of DARVO and flat-out fuckwittery as desperate cultists try not to fry their own brains keeping up with the narrative shifts done in the style of a crackmonkey having seizures.

With yet more terror attacks coming out, and yet more reports getting past foreign media establishment suppression of the real reactions (e.g. Europeans want their own guns now since their states cannot--and often will not--protect them) and go viral, the call for Nationalism and the sort of strong leadership Nationalism demands will grow. Then the Saxons start hating, and their counterparts elsewhere start hating, and Shit Gets Real.

And yet we've already seen that the Dems, and Hillary in particular, act as if they own the West and can do what they want with it. Nevermind the screams of those outside and the protests of those inside--the double-levels of walling off is very telling--or the incessant Narrative Warfare by the very mainstream media implicated by Wikileaks as being corrupt and biased in ways Goebbels would never imagine. The result? Get used to the following sentiment, be it earnest or ironic, building to President Trump.


SIEG MEIN KAISER!

In the meantime, invest in popcorn stocks. You'll get a YUGE return by the end of the year.

Sunday, July 24, 2016

My Life in Fandom: SDCC Reveals Bore Me

Meh.

That's what I've gotten out of the reveals. Nothing seriously blew me away. Nothing excited my passions. No "FUCK YES!" moments. Some cringing, but that's about it. Nothing like the Deadpool reveal. Nothing like Fellowship of the Ring or An Unexpected Journey. Nothing that grabbed my attention, seized it with a death grip, and compelled me to go see it.

I would rather watch Mobile Suit Gundam again, either the original series or one of its many offshoots. I will, in a heartbeat, go watch Legend of the Galactic Heroes in its entirety than see any of these films or shows- and fuck the comics.

Marvel's got nothing I haven't already seen on show, and the crap is starting to seep through. (Yes, Agent Carter went to crap fast and I'm glad it only took two miniseries to get it killed; Agents of SHIELD is also turning to crap, but it's a load-bearing pillar so it's not likely to get canned soon.) DC's trying hard to catch up in quality, but they're still trying too hard. The comics need to be thrown into the chambers and gassed, across the board.

Rogue One lost my interest, and Episode 8 has yet to be anything but rumors and speculation. The new Rebels season brings Thrawn back, which should be good if they don't fuck it up. Young Han Solo is a cypher at this time, so I don't care.

At least E3 had a few titles to get my attention. SDCC had sweet fuck-all, and I'm expecting GenCon to be just as great an exhibition of the utter uselessness of most "creators" in that field as SDCC was to film/TV/comics/SF&F.

Fuck this. I've got reprints of The Shadow to enjoy.

Saturday, July 23, 2016

Narrative Warfare: Wikileaks Exposes the DNC/MSM Axis of SJWs

Wikileaks released about 20,000 emails from the Democratic National Committee the other day.

The accusations of collusion and fixing between the DNC and the mainstream media establishment are now proven beyond reasonable doubt. Email after email, searchable at the above link, reveals collusion and collaboration between the media outlets and the Democratic Party about fixing all part of the cultural and political narrative required to rig the election in favor of Hillary Clinton.

Of course, said media establishment isn't reporting on it. They're scrambling to fix the narrative shift back into their favor. Meanwhile, the social media outlets reveal their own concurrence with this convergence fixing by removing links and posts as well as suppressing algorithm-based searches for it. Social Justice death cultists within and around them swarm to defend the shuddering narrative from this assault.

Cernovich and others have had good articles on the matter, which includes spotlights on unethical and illegal behaviors (such as these below).

Wikileaks is based enough now, after seeing how wretched the establishment is, to give zero fucks about their reactions.

What we see here is clear evidence that the DNC is wholly SJW-converged, the MSM is wholly SJW-converged, and the big social media outlets are also SJW-converged. They are SJWs, and SJWs Always Lie.

Let's review then:

  1. SJWs Always Lie.
  2. SJWs Always Double-Down.
  3. SJWs Always Project.

As a natural, and inevitable, conclusion to this behavior I add the following:

SJWs Always Sacrifice YOU For Power.

See that? That's how the Dems see you: Human Fucking Cattle. To be herded while useful, consumed, and then discarded when inconvenient. As we see here in these internal party emails, we see in their policies and in their actions. (Most notable recent example: Benghazi.) They are willing to commit whatever violation, great or small alike, to fix the fight in their favor- and then throw you on the altar slab to have your blood shed and your heart cut out to be sacrificed to their masters. They are Gul'dan's Shadow Council writ large and in the real world; at this point, I'd not be shocked to find literal human sacrifices to be a thing they do.

If you have the good sense God gave to a retarded Rhesus monkey afflicted with Syphilis and suffering seizures while strung out on meth, take your own damned side for once and don't vote for Hillary Clinton. Stop listening to the mainstream media; don't even believe their damn weather forecasts. They're a bunch of lying, thieving degenerate death cultists out to kill you and corrupt your children into more of them. Defend yourselves.

Friday, July 22, 2016

Gul'dan the Secret King: The Gamma Fantasy

World of Warcraft, to promote the upcoming Legion expansion, released the first in a series of motion-comic videos today. This one focuses on returning villain and antagonist Gul'dan, specifically the version of Gul'dan from Warlords of Draenor. As I've said previously at my writing blog, Gul'dan (both this version and the original one, now deceased in the lore) conforms to the archetype of the Secret King, the fantasy of a man who is so low on the social hierarchy that he deludes himself into thinking he is really the top dog. The tell: "I'll show them! I'll show them all!"

That exact tell is what this video displayed. Been shit on for years, finally got cast out formally, bitter and resentful about it, could not stop backbiting the clan's leadership, and when he had the means he showed them all by incinerating them- those that did now bow down before him, making him king in all but name.

Vox Day has a model for this social hiearchy that reliably works in reality, and therefore will for fiction. Gul'dan falls into the Gamma category, which is one step from the utter bottom, and while the linked post has a good definition the following summaries are more useful for this post.

Gammas refuse to accept their place, but they also lack the alpha goods to be the leader. Hence their dishonor - a perpetual pointless rebellion.

Gamma: He will inject unnecessary drama into situations, refuse to back down when he is wrong, and sacrifice the company's interests to his own feelings. If he finds himself in a position of power, he will become paranoid and dictatoria.

This is both versions of Gul'dan. Original Gul'dan was the Secret King in his Shadowy Figure archetype, using puppets he controlled (or thought he did) to run the Horde. Warlords Gul'dan is similar, but Garrosh's intervention ruined his attempt to use Grommash Hellscream as such a puppet and he had to pull a coup to get control back and thereafter wielded his power openly. Mind-control, rape and degradation of females in his power (that hatred of women thing again), paranoia, and irrational dictatorial control-freak behavior is every fucking day for Gul'dan.

Gul'dan "unnecessary drama" manifests in the timing of his betrayals, both those he does by his own hand and those he orchestrates for others to execute. He tries to make these into something of tactical or strategic significance, but rarely does this work as he claims; most of the time the betrayal is for reasons of his ego being out of control and his subsequent refusal to acknowledge reality and conform himself to how things really are. (When Grommash Hellscream, Notorious Hot-Head, is better at that then Gul'dan is you know you've got a serious delusion problem at hand.)

It also shows up in the objects of his ire. He targets the leaders--the Alphas--first and foremost. He targets the strong, the beautiful, and the sacred. Unwilling to acknowledge the truth about himself, he degrades as he destroys that which he cannot admit: that he is not what he thinks he is, and by destroying them he proves his true place through throwing them down.

Ultimately, he chafes as serving his demonic masters, the source of the power that lets him act on his delusions. He plots to throw them down also, and become the lord and master of the Burning Legion. This hubris undoes him time and again, but what saves him is his proven potency; the fools at the top repeat the cycle by humiliating Gul'dan somehow, then putting the yoke back on before sending him forth again thinking they will always be able to handle the sudden, but inevitable, attempt at betrayal and usurpation. We'll see soon how this plays out in Legion.

Gul'dan is the fantasy that real Gammas aspire to fulfill.

You should, as the old-timers who founded this Evil Sorcerer archetype (and I do mean old, as it "millenia old" old) intended, take this as a warning. You know real people who's psychology is the same as Gul'dan's. They may be men or women, but you know damn well--even if you have not the words to say so--that they're just like him and would flare out just like he does when given the means and opportunity to do so. You likely have already encountered real-life counterparts of varying similarity (psychologically speaking), so don't lie to yourself that this is just a fantasy; good literature builds itself on the timeless truth of reality. Beware those like Gul'dan, and don't make the mistake of casting them out: put them DOWN.

Thursday, July 21, 2016

Hillary Clinton Is Fucked

I just finished watching Donald Trump's speech at the Republican National Convention.

One part Teddy Roosevelt, one part Franklin Roosevelt, and one part John F. Kennedy blended well together is what I got from Trump. He's the sort of candidate I haven't seen in a very long time, not since I was a child: a proper American statesman. The last time I saw this was when Ronald Reagan spoke, and I remain convinced that this is 1980 all over again.

With every terror attack, Trump gets stronger. With every cop attack, Trump gets stronger. With every revelation of Obama or Hillary's misdeeds, Trump gets stronger. With every incident of foreign policy failure, Trump gets stronger. With every expression of Nationalism, and every display of Globalism, Trump gets stronger.

Hillary has to have Trump assassinated to win now. Not even an election theft will do now, because if she tries that she's provoke an uprising the likes of which haven't been seen in living memory. This is successful counter-action in the realm of Narrative Warfare, folks. Let's see how incompetently the Dems respond to it, starting with their water-carriers in the Mainstream Media Establishment.

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Legion Hype: Blizzard Does a Q&A Over New Mechanics

World of Warcraft took its pre-patch for the upcoming expansion, Legion, live yesterday in North America. It should be like in the European region today. All of the revised Classes and Specializations are now live. All of the itemization changes are now live. The pre-expansion event is NOT live yet, and that's the preview we're getting of the new World Quest system that's going to be the world content at the cap come Legion. So they did a Q&A livestream, which is archived as the video below. Enjoy.

Notice the big points:

  • They liked how daily quests worked in Mists of Pandaria, especially during 5.1 and 5.2, so that was the starting point of their design.
  • They deliberately designed the World Quest system to not penalize players who don't log in to play every day.
  • They deliberately made this a viable endgame play scheme in its right, but with the multiple rotation schedules for various kinds of World Quests they managed to strike a balance between those using this as a sideline to Raiding or PVP and those that don't.
  • They put in PVP stuff that focuses more on fun and spectacle over death-grip-tight balancing, and like that sort of thing for overworld stuff.
  • They're watching for feedback and will use it to guide refinement of the system.

They're paying attention now. They know that Legion has to hit, hit big, and sustain that big hit over its lifetime. This shows that they grok the need to do so between their ears. Now we'll soon see how well they delivered on that requirement to rebuild the game from its fallen state. This is a trend that, by and large, I'm hearing consistently in these promotional videos. (By the way, watch the previous ones if you missed them; worth while.)

I'm looking forward to seeing them deliver on this promise.

Tuesday, July 19, 2016

On Success: Know When NOT To Roll The Dice

The flipside of being willing to take risks is knowing when you should not do so.

The bad news is that there is no way you can get this knowledge without the experience of failure. The good news is that you don't have to do that failure experience. The capacity to review the failures of others, analyze what went wrong and why accurately, and then assimilate what you learn into your own practices is a vital component to lasting, long-term success.

One of those lessons? Recognizing when the risk is not worth taking. Maybe someone's trying to scam you. Maybe the info is misinformation or disinformation, in whole or in part, and therefore unreliable upon consideration and analysis. Maybe the conditions changed and now it's beyond your capacity to execute or your ability to absorb failure. Whatever the reason, knowing when you should not take the risk is as important as being willing and able to take the risk.

Know when to walk away.

Monday, July 18, 2016

Legion Hype: Pre-Patch Tomorrow!

I'm about done with all I want to do pre-patch, and what's left I'll get done tonight. So, after maintenance tomorrow, I'll be ready for a very different game. Rather than gush about it more, I'm going to post two videos. One is from Blizzard giving an overview. The other is from Asmongold about one of those changes, and how you can deal with it.

Blizzard: Learn the most important changes and new features in the Legion Pre-Expansion Patch.
Asmongold:

Sunday, July 17, 2016

The Similarity Between ISIS and BLM

I come home to find that several cops got ambushed again today. Some are dead. More are wounded. Suspects are still at large as of this post, but it is hard to not presume that this is the "Day of Rage" operation promised out of Black Lives Matter social media postings. Not confirmed as such, but that's the way folks bet as I write this.

But that's not what I'm writing about today. Not that specific thing. Rather, about the uncanny similarity between Black Lives Matter and the Muslim terrorist network known now as ISIS.

Both groups enjoy popular support from their respective source populations, as the organizations are feared or respected more by those populations than said populations fear the government. Both groups are social-media savvy, using media to spread their message and define their brand in terms favorable to their ends and detrimental to the rest of us. They both enjoy the tactic or explicit support of mainstream media and political establishments, such that it is a 5th Column in all but name. They use "moderates" as cover for their "radicals", enjoy foreign support in both financial and political matters, and are said (variably) to be Intelligence community fronts in the mode of Operation Gladio.

Look, some of these similarities are due to the nature of the operation. Any organization that operates as an insurgency in the targeted territory (the West) and is serious about it has to look, feel, and operate in this manner. That's the nature of the beast, and there is no getting around it.

It is also the nature of the beast that insurgencies are rebellions against the established authority, and rebels--like bandits and pirates--are free and fair game for those targeted by them. So are the allies of these insurgencies, as they give aide and comfort to those rebels. Since we're not in a position where we can rely on the State--our agent--to do this on our behalf, we're on our own and have to do this ourselves.

That, if you have any sense, should scare the living shit out of you.

Let me give you a hint: Fixing this requires doing Sherman's March to the Sea again, and acknowledge that what we're told is true is a lie, and reform our country to conform with reality and its cosmic law. That means paying a price of blood, bone, and fire. If we're fortunate, we can do so with a minimal amount. I doubt that we will be so.

Saturday, July 16, 2016

Legion Hype: The Pre-Patch is Tuesday

The pre-expansion content patch, ending Warlords of Draenor as a relevant thing and beginning the pre-launch for Legion, hits the live servers on the 19th of this month. That's Tuesday. Fortunately, for me, I have only one thing left that I care about to do: wreck Brawler's Guild. I'm after the Follower exclusive to it (Meatball), and for my Death Knight it's the epic gem module that you have to go there to get it. I'm not that bothered about finishing it entirely, but for my main I'll go for it; for my alts, I stop at Meatball or the module.

So that means when Tuesday comes, all of the new versions of the classes and specializations will go live also. The time-limited pre-launch event will also begin on Tuesday, so the time to dust off neglected alts and level them to 100 will come. Why? The event drops very good gear that will let those alts leap into Legion content without worry of being pasted by it due to being too weak. It's also an introduction to how World Quests will work in Legion, so it's worth doing in any event.

Whatever you want to do in Warlords, do it now. Right now. It's done as of Tuesday, so get on it. Otherwise, see you in Legion.

Friday, July 15, 2016

World War Three Is Here

This is where I tell the well-meaning people like James Corbett that no one cares about their False Flag videos when they have a clear, present, immediate, and immanent threat to their lives attacking them and killing their friends and family in their backywards. The intricacies of global geopolitics, and the scams of Globalist elites intended to steal power and wealth from the nations of the world, fall on deaf ears in the face of the very threats that such individuals describe (accurately) as pawns in the game.

Not that the folks in that part of the Internet are wrong, merely misguided in their present efforts. Luke Rudkowski of WeAreChange did a smart shift to his message that gets the point across in a form that people riled up by terror attacks and retarded banditry will receive and accept:

The takeaway from these is obvious: The royal family of Saudi Arabia finance Muslim terrorism worldwide, a pattern easily followed by diligent and competent research of the political and financial influencing that parallels terrorist operations worldwide by Muslim operatives. Don't think this is irrelevant; both the exposure of Taqiyya (Muslim deception of outsiders as operational practice) and exposure of Muslim populations' support of terrorism are in part due to investigative efforts of people like Luke, Bill Still, and other alt-media operations like theirs.

The moderate Muslims are the popular support for the "radicals" that do the killing, and the governments give them political cover while going after those resisting the Muslim invasion. Non-Muslim operations against the West are beginning to copy this scheme, as the ties that Black Lives Matter to George Soros (a notorious Globalist billionaire, whose seditious operations are legion) show. Globalists (the home of Feminism, Marxism, and other dyscivic frauds) in league with Muslim power-players, against the West and its allies in the East, make up this war's fronts.

As I write this, the secular military of Turkey are attempting to take out Islamist Erdogan and remove that threat to internal as well as international stability. I hope it succeeds, as Erdogan is no friend of the West or to Civilization in general. The war is here. It's global. Expect to hear more out of the East in months to come, as their own circumstances come to light. Globalism is the threat, allied with Saudi-backed Muslim terrorism, and only renewed Nationalism ending with proper ethno-centric nation-states can save any of it.

Thursday, July 14, 2016

The Crowns of the West Are Traitors

In Nice, France a truck drove through a crowd celebrating Bastille Day. Furthermore, shots fired are reported. As of this post, 60 are dead and many more injured. Unsaid, but suspected, is that this is attack is yet another Jihad operation against the West out of the Muslim population firmly ensconced within France and other European nation-states.

Meanwhile, German security forces raid 60 homes enforcing an Orwellian statute on "hate speech" posted online. In the United Kingdom one city dares call "misogyny" a "hate crime" making those arrested open to fines and imprisonment. Both cases rely on subjective (i.e. "Muh Feels!") criteria, making them primed for abuse via (very) selective enforcement. Meanwhile, Muslim populations threaten violence against Englishman's beloved dogs under cover of "Muh Culture!"

My fellow Men of the West, the states we established to be our agents--the Crowns of the West--have turned their coats. They are traitors, in thrall to the Social Justice death cult, and are 5th Columnists in league with the orcs that they let through the gates. They betrayed the trust we placed in them, are refusing to do the jobs we demand of them, and are even so brazen as to punish we--their masters--if we defend ourselves from these enemies of ours.

A state is the nation's agent. If it does not serve the nation, then it is not legitimate and must be dealt with.

Remove the crowns from the traitors, and seize back the powers delegated to them, for otherwise you will have two fronts in the war against the orcs- and I need not tell you how difficult it is to win such a war when you're fighting your own rogue agents within as well as the savages without. Clean house, then push out from there.

Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Narrative Warfare: Breitbart Strikes Back (Again)

It's been known for some time that, in a show of hubris and incompetence, Facebook actively manipulates user feeds to slant political opinion and therefore discussion. Milo Yiannopulos, Editor of Breitbart Tech, had something to say about that today.

About fucking time.

You have to be a complete fucking retard to think it's a good idea to take your social media site and turn it into a propaganda machine. As I've said previously, active intervention of this sort is a show of incompetence. Why? Because you abrogate your position of neutrality (and thus have no liability) in traffic, where all you need to do is safeguard the integrity of your communications network (simpler, easier, far more acceptable to others, far easier for others to comprehend) and instead toss that so you can play favorites and thus thus try to pick winners and losers- the move that always ends up in a serious (and ultimately successful) threat to destroy or usurp your network.

Nevermind the politics. I support Milo and the gang doing this just to punish Zuck the Cuck's grotesque stupidity and incompetence. The shitlib politics are just gravy on the potatoes at this point. Facebook's value is in its network of users, and thus the users' confidence in the network as a means of communications and connection. Playing favorites violates that value, same as in other telecom media (including print), because the network's value--derived from its advertising and datamining functions--cannot withstand a loss of confidence for long, especially when there are alternatives waiting in the wings to eat Facebook like a ravenous zombie horde. And those alternatives do exist.

Godspeed, Milo and company. Give Zuck the Cuck the reaming he deserves.

Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Bernie Endorses Hillary. I Know Those Feels.

Sanders sold out, as some of us called over a year ago.

Now, a lot of you Sanders supports who truly believed in him are somewhere between drowning in your tears and mad enough to be the Hulk. You put in a lot of time, a lot of money, and--and this matters most--a lot of energy into a belief in a man whom you wanted as President of the United States. You wanted what he offered to you, and now--whatever you're saying--you know you ain't getting jack shit.

Look, I feel you. Been there, many years ago, with the other Clinton. In 1992 I graduated from High School. The Reagan-Bush years drew to a close, as even by this time in that year we knew Bill Clinton was going to be George H.W. Bush. I turned 18 about a month before the General Election, so I voted for the very first time in that election.

My father was a Union man, so I grew up in a Democrat household. While never much more than a guy in his local, my father truly believed in the Labor Movement, something that rubbed off on me. (I was one of the first Boy Scouts to get the American Labor merit badge.) So when, after 12 years of Republic occupation of the Presidency, a Democrat sat poised to take it of course I got wrapped up in it.

Within a year, that ended and the very disappointment you're feeling now hit me. I need not review here the known issues of the Clinton Presidency. Suffice to say that the same feeling of being conned and betrayed is not new at all.

So no, I will not mock you for your disappointment. Go on, take a moment and let that pass through you- and it will pass through you if you just let it do so. Then, when it's passed and you're able to collect yourself, I've got a question for you: What are you going to do about this now?

No, I won't give you an answer. I will tell you what I did. I wanted to know why. I knew I got lied to, about something important, so I wanted to know why. In time I got my answer, but that was well after the fact, and the process led me to where I am now: a man in his 40s who feels like a latter-day Cassandra (able to see, unable to have others heed).

How you deal with this is on you, Sanders Survivor. All I ask is that you take your own side first and foremost, and don't turn your coat.

Monday, July 11, 2016

My Life as a Gamer: Fuck Game Balance

Tabletop RPGs have no need to be balanced out of the box. That job is on the Game Master running the game at the table. The job of the Designer is to provide a reliable mechanical framework for Game Masters to employ when running their games, because the only game that exists is what goes down at the table.

This is why I keep coming back to games like RIFTS. All that unbalanced stuff, that isn't because I take the time to curate what I will allow players to access at my table. A game of Coalition soldiers on foot in occupied territory is not a game of Tolkeen operatives conducting an espionage campaign against Atlantis. I just need the rules to work, and I need not massive module series to do run that game.

I control what is at my table. I don't need the Designer to do that job for me. What the Designer needs to do is to make the rules work, and to clearly say that it's on me to make the content that the game requires. Tabletop RPGs began as tinker-friendly wargame derivatives, and they still work best that way, so stick to the proven success that made RPGs great. Do the engine, and leave the games to the tables.

Sunday, July 10, 2016

You Are Not Oppressed

You are not oppressed.

I've heard the woe-in-me narratives. I've read the histories. Tumblrinas and other grievance-mongers whine about their oppression, yet they do so while making use of technologies and infrastructure that they could build and maintain to earn a living and contribute to the well-being of the country, and only running afoul of them law when being seen doing so in the presence of Law Enforcement.

You are not oppressed.

Poor present conditions are not oppression. Those conditions can be fixed, but that requires effort and sacrifice on their part which is why it does not happen; the cost for making that change is one they dislike more than their disapproval of said conditions, so they blame someone else for what is within their power to control and get indignant when called on their dishonesty. Likewise, they can move from those conditions, but far too often the source of those conditions--the beliefs that create them--go with them and thus only spread the issue in time. That's on them.

You are not oppressed.

They live in the West. Things are messy. Things are complicated. Things are not amenable to easy solutions that sell well but work terribly. Yet it remains possible to thrive here, but no one will do it for them. It's on them to learn how the systems work, both theory and practice. It's on them to make the connections required to get things done. It's on them to learn the skills and master the knowledge required to find good-paying work, build a business from nothing, gain the levers of power, or do whatever else one can do in the West. Difficult, tedious, boring, and fraught with risk- but possible.

You are not oppressed.

The real warden for this farce of a prison they claim that they're in is the one in the mirror. But they don't want to take on that warden, as they know the truth, but would rather live as they are now rather than pay the cost to get the changes that they say that they want--and thus put an end to the conditions they claim to exist--and that, right there, tells you all you need to know about what this really is.

You are not oppressed.

Saturday, July 9, 2016

Razorfist: Deeper into THE SHADOW - Razör vs. Comics

Movies! Comics! Pulps! Radio! You name it, The Shadow has done it. RazörFist recommends 10 of his personal favorites.

You've seen The Shadow in comics. Now, in the second part of this two-part series on the character, The Shadow falls over ALL Media!

Shadow Pulps can be found (for less than on Amazon) here!

Shadow Radio Shows can be found here.

This, again, demonstrates why Razorfist is up for a Hugo award. He deserves it. More than anyone else in his category, he deserves to win that award. This is the sort of material he releases on a regular basis, especially where genre fiction media is concerned. I've taken the liberty of making his links above in the quoted part easier for you to follow, and I urge you to do so.

This video should amaze you. It's him and his editor buddy doing these videos, folks. Two men, yet slick and professional in quality. You too can do this, if you are willing and able to put in the work that they did to Git Gud enough to pull videos like this off, and that should be putting your mind on fire with the possibilities for you to find your own success.

Friday, July 8, 2016

The American Fabric Unravels

I am witnessing the first shots of the Second American Civil War, and it is happening as I expected that it would. The previous war was a very civil affair, as monstrous and bloody as it was, compared to what is now coming about. Vox Day has good posts up at his blog. Go read them, as they are very good reading on the matter at hand.

The ambushes on local police in the wake of the Baton Rouge and Falcon Heights killings of blacks by police are escalating in frequency. Soon they will escalate in violence, making the Dallas incident seem quaint. Expect this to continue through the Summer in the United States. (I'd be similarly wary throughout the Western world- especially if existing tensions can be easily inflamed and thus escalated.)

Once enough cops get the business end of guerilla warfare, the Feds will escalate it further and then the Feds get shot and blown up. This will push a Martial Law initiative, and if that goes through there is no coming back. The war is here, and it has to be played through to end it. That is the bitch of this situation; even if you know what the real deal is, you still have to play along if you want to stay alive because being dead is useless to you and yours.

Let's see how this Summer shakes out, and hope that by the turn to Autumn we still have something to work with.

Thursday, July 7, 2016

A Brief Message for Creators, Gamers, and Others Bothered by SocJus Cultists

It is this simple, folks: you don't have to do a god-damned thing.

"Muh Diversity!", "Muh Representation!" and all that are worthless mindfucks meant to allow people who are not you to fuck with what you make and share with the world. Fuck them, sideways, with a shovel covered in shit and burrs.

They're out to fuck with your head because they suck ass and refuse to Git Gud. They won't put in the work to do what they demand out of you, and they fear that they'll fail in the attempt, so they want to seize what you've built and make it satisfy their desires above all others. The suck rivals you have turn to the cult to bolster their flagging fortunes, in the hopes of either putting you under their thumb or taking you out.

Fuck ALL of that. You don't need a single word of that crap. It's not their thing. It's your thing. Fuck them. Your thing. Your creation. Your game. Your fun. Not theirs. NEVER theirs. You do what YOU want!.

Be true to yourself and your vision for your thing. Let them howl impotently. SJWs always lie, double-down, and project. But that's about all they do, because they are cowardice and dullards consumed by envy and poisoned by jealousy. Hold fast and you will break through. Break through and you will break away from them.

Wednesday, July 6, 2016

My Life as a Gamer: After the 2016 Steam Summer Sale

As I said over the weekend, I did manage to get in some buys before the sale ended. With my aging laptop specs in mind, I still managed to knock my wishlist down by a third and not go past $20 spent. I focused on series titles that I did not have, avoided anything where I couldn't do fine with keyboard & mouse, and avoided anything I'd seen played to my satisfaction to date. Most of what I bought were single-player titles.

The reason? Simple: alternatives to World of Warcraft, and secondarily to anything that requires a connection to use at all. I think the most recent game I bought was The Witcher 2. Should I decline to buy into Legion right away, this will be my way of playing until I either buy in or exhaust what I've got in my Library.

So, what did I get? Fair enough:

  • The Witcher
  • The Witcher 2
  • Dungeon Siege
  • Torchlight
  • Chronicles of Mystara
  • Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light

I already had Torchlight 2, as well as Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris. Dungeon Siege I picked up because I played it years ago and wanted another go, as was the case with the two games making up Chronicles of Mystara. (I do love side-scrolling brawlers.) A few others I wanted to get exceeded my budget after getting these, and I expect another major sale before too long. I'm fond of the Sniper Elite series, so I hope to snag the first three soon as I wait for Sniper Elite 4, and I want to scratch my warrior fantasy itch while I wait on For Honor (and hope it doesn't blow goats). In terms of console games, all I really way is Dragon's Crown for my PS3.

Not bad this time around, and that should keep me entertained through the end of this year.

Tuesday, July 5, 2016

The Clinton Announcement is a Dangerous Folly

So, the FBI talks to Hillary Clinton within days after Bill Clinton talks to U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch. Today it's announced that no prosecution will come to Hillary despite breaching national security, and abandonment of U.S. diplomats to torture and death. Confidence in the government, already lacking, cannot afford further undermining like this. Yet this decision makes it clear to those with ears to hear that those entrusted as public Agents to serve the Principle that is the people will refuse to do so. When the Agent refuses to serve the Principle, then the Principle must serve itself.

Monday, July 4, 2016

Thoughts This Independence Day

Today is Independence Day in the United States of America, marking the signing and announcement of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, and thus the moment when American commitment to Independence from England happened. The price was in the blood, bone, treasure, and fires that this war consumed. Many who signed the Declaration did not live to see its realization, and of those who survived not all did intact- not physically, not mentally, not morally.

That time is soon to come again. A lot of forces came to confluence with American Independence, some sudden and many long in the making. This is again the case. Only what is to come this time will not be the renewal of a republic based on an aspirational ideology, but instead the restoration of Natural Law's demand for nations to live apart from each other. The nation-state, at best, is what will emerge; what is more likely will be a return to the Age of City-States, where a nation dominates a handful each in a loose affiliation against other nations and acts as a central hub around which the nation's life revolves in that region.

For this to occur, and it will, a global civil war must occur and it must be a hot one. This is ongoing now, and will go hot soon. This will be a mess. It will be a tragic, horrific, bloody, wasteful mess and not all of us are going to survive it- and a lot of us who do will not survive intact. However, it is going to be bloody necessary if anything worth a damn is to become of us in future generations.

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." is not some poetic triviality. That shit is real, as gravity is real, and not to be shat upon. Neither is the utter uncertainty of what the price (always paid in blood, bone, and fire) will be this time. But it must happen, and I can make this educated guess: those who hold a love for their people will do better than those who do not. So, more of what we see in the video below, and less of the multi-culti globalist cosmopolitan insanity.

And, once again, a reminder that we are able to make this happen.

Sunday, July 3, 2016

CONvergence 2016: No Day Four

I saw nothing to attract me back for Sunday. Instead, I slept in back home. I got myself a Steam card, made use of the Steam Summer Sale to knock my Wishlist down by a third, and begin recovering from the convention sooner than otherwise I would.

The reason has far more to do with the obsolesce of the fan convention itself, than any Social Justice convergence bullshit (though that does not help at all), coupled with the decline in the quality of the convention itself since its 10th Anniversary in 2008- a noticeable one since its 15th in 2013, which is when the rot firmly took hold.

But that's not the big point to make here. This is: every quality that made fan conventions appealing is now obsolete and already being replaced. As previously mentioned:

  • Panels/Readings: Videos and livestreams are superior in every way to in-person panels.
  • Cosplay/Masquerade: You're safer to do this as a photo gallery, use video, or livestreams.
  • Dealer Room/Artist's Alley: You're better off setting up a site with a blog, and selling via Amazon.
  • Gaming: Go to their house. Meet online. Play at the store. Only events like The International merit a con-like approach, and you're not going to get into those events. You do, however, have superior quality control.
  • Movie/TV viewing: Netflix, Amazon Prime, and other streaming sites beat ALL convention offerings- and you can play as you like, carefully screen your guests, and eat/drink what you like without getting dogged for it.
  • Socialization: If you go to a con to see people you otherwise wouldn't, then you don't want to see them badly enough to actually fucking visit them. Quit being a bitch, admit that you'd rather do something else, and move on already.

This is one of the justifications for the spread of Narrative-pushing content, and Sunday had plenty of it. You want disrupt this crapfest of a convention scene? First, ensure free speedy Wi-Fi for all to enjoy. Second, have URLs handy to point people to over your Wi-Fi; let Amazon deliver to their homes or their phones. Third, provide services vs. goods; folks pay BIG for massages, for example. You want to milk this ride as it goes down? That's three things to do, as they are in demand or provides superior value to what's usually done.

Other Thoughts

I care not about the SJWs I may or may not trigger. They keep no gates from me. They can't dis-employ me or otherwise ruin me; you can't exile someone to the wasteland who's made it his home. They are just another punk bitch to me; they eat, sleep, shit, piss, fuck, breed, and are mostly idiots like everyone else. I don't care about their fame, wealth, opinions, or glamour; they have a narrow range wherein I care to hear what they have to say, and outside of that are no more valid than myself- and that's if they aren't incompetent shitheads. They are disposable, expendable, and fungible and have no hold over me. I see them for the fools that they are, and regard them with indifference if they are lucky. Otherwise, I make sport of them at my pleasure.

Similarly, I can take or leave CONvergence. The function, and value, it once provided has been superseded by cheaper, easier, and decentralized alternatives. Furthermore, those clustering around fan conventions are very much a malfunctioning cult of dullards run by child-rapers and their apologists and being used by counterparts in other sections of society. If I didn't go this weekend, I had plenty of options for entertainment- more than the convention presented. There was no one and nothing there I could not see or get elsewhere. The value is gone, and if I don't see it restored soon I'm done altogether. I have no time anymore for that which doesn't provide the best value I can get. Let it burn, and take the death cult with it.

This Week in Stupid with Sargon of Akkad for July 3rd, 2016

I'll have another post presently, but I'm using this one to embed Sargon of Akkad's This Week in Stupid because it's rather timely and relevant to what's going to only get worse as the Summer wears on in North America and Europe. The retarded bullshit of the past week, when seen in like of Black Lives Matter shitting all over the Toronto Pride event, needs to be taken as the danger that it is.

Saturday, July 2, 2016

CONvergence 2016: Day Three

I had one panel to do today, an inoffensive panel about trade routes:

Trade Routes

Most people think of trade routes as means to exchange goods and money. They are also the roads of culture and influence. Let's talk about the power trade route have exerted on history and in genre.

I did this one with a friend of mine (Michael Carus), the authoress Emma Bull, and a history buff in Sigrid Ellis who loves her Kindle app. No signaling, and a very lively discussion on signature routes and how they worked for those involved and impacted by the effects. We had some good questions from the audience, which was packed for a midday panel on such a boring topic for most people. Not much talk about fiction, but that's fine; folks can figure out applications to fiction or gaming on their own. Great time, and would do again.

Other Thoughts

The D&D's Many Flaws panel was (a) rather tame, and (b) still demonstrating a lack of comprehension for why the older edition's mechanics work as they do (and therefore a lack of appreciation), resulting in (c) adherence to the Build mindset that results in PC-as-FleshMech gameplay that they so dislike. The "How AT-ATs Turn" panel was a fun bit of snarking at silly stuff in SF stories, light but worth having around as relief from the bullshit Narrative-pushing crap and the heavier topics also on the schedule. The Tim Hunt panel's very premise approaches a criminal offense in Minnesota, and the convention committee would be wise to avoid any liability issues henceforth by ensuring that line isn't crossed.

The Mega Panel delivered, even without Romeo there. FUCK MASQUERADE!

I did read SJWs Always Lie out clear as day for all to see. NO ONE CARED! Not in person. Not on Twitter. Not on Facebook. No one, nowhere, cared. The majority of attendees couldn't care less, so the anti-Vox Day shit is just more virtue-signaling by CONvergence's resident SocJus cultists so they can maintain ties with the Puppy Kickers (as the Helsinki WorldCon was well-represented here, and MidAmericaCon II getting a full-page ad in this year's Souvenier Programming Guide. If I were so inclined, I'd be thinking of ways to culture-jam next year for Team Blue SF. Only the cultists at the con's core give a shit about this; the majority couldn't be bothered, and therefore will be open to what Castalia and allied authors have for them.

The Erotica Fanfiction panel featured a live reading of a new Chuck Tingle story sent to him for that purpose. I'll embed the video by Mark Oshiro below:

This video was recorded live at Convergence 2016 in Bloomington, MN. Thank you to everyone who participated in this magic.

Friday, July 1, 2016

CONvergence 2016: Day Two

Today I sat on two panels. I recorded both. I attended a few more, some of which I should have recorded. I also should have taken photos, but I am so used to not having a camera that I forget that my phone and my tablet can do that. Maybe if I attend next year, I'll do more of both. Anyways, the panels I did:

Playing Historical Fictionl History in Tabletop RPGs

A band of brothers off to take out Hitler; a fantasy realm like 15th century France; zombie apocalypse in the trenches of World War I. Real history presents unique challenges to players and GMs alike. Where your balance of reality and fiction?

I sat on this panel with Cam Banks (see previous post), his wife Jess Banks (confirmed SJW), and Sarah Ravely (lib, but not a cultist). Of the lot, Sarah impressed me and Jess sadly conformed to my expectations. I'd be down to talk shop with Sarah some other time; her historical RPG campaigns made use of resources and techniques to achieve a verisimilitude sufficient to achieve virtual comprehension of the horror that was World War I, and that's something to praise. She did Git Gud. Bravo, Sarah. Bravo.

Meanwhile, Jess virtue-signaled like a crackwhore pretending to be a tuning key. "Muh Diversity!" "Muh Representation!" You know the routine by now. So, when she made a late browbeat for that SocJus bullshit in a thought-police attempt, I stepped in: You Do Not Have To Do A GOD-DAMNED THING! Your game, your players, your fun- not hers, not mine, nor anyone else, so make your call and go with it.

The panel ended amicably, but I sensed the passive-aggressive brushoff from Jess. So, when I got home I searched the convention's Twitter hashtag and sure enough she threw shade at me. (Archived here!) Of course I did not let that go without a challenge.

There was no follow-up engagement. She did the classic Gamma Tell of the Secret King (or Queen, for her): run like the little bitch she is, and then declare victory. Honestly, I would rather had the confrontation then and there, before the audience, and demonstrate that her insistence is thought (and fun) policing. Nonetheless, that outed her as a Death Cultist, so consider Atlas Games converged and add them to the boycott list. Fun fact: As of this post, still not blocked either; StoryMangler--whoever that is--has, and so far as I know we've never met or interacted before.

Westerns in Sci-Fi and Fantasy

These days, the Western is the genre equivalent of peanut butter; not often served on its own, and yet it seems to go with just about everything. Why is the Western so appealing and adaptable, and what are the best examples of great Western fusion?

Only one confirmed cultist, and only one suspected one, so I expected a far more fun experience here and I was right. Abra-Staffin-Wiebe was the resident Firefly booster on the panel and a L'amour fan, Eric Heiderman is a local SMOF and Western fan, William Leisner is another fan, and then Camille Griep showed up (see previous post). Cammy kept her freak flag down this time, while the other men and I tended to talk a lot about the historical West, its mythic counterpart, and the more popular fusions (e.g. Firefly, Cowboy Bebop, Outlaw Star, Outland)- we would've gotten into other similar eras had we more time. No virtue-signaling this time. Overall, a clean panel experience.

Other Thoughts

Today I noticed that K. Tempest Bradford was also in attendance. I made certain to get a good look at her, so I'd remember her face (something I am very good at; tying names to faces and remembering them) in case I had reason to deal with her some other time. She struck me as very much as ugly on the outside as she is within; that she dared say "Don't read white men for a year" with a straight face now makes sense as I read on her face the envy and resentment she has for the men who built the field (and world, and civilization) that she eagerly shits upon. The contempt she gets is entirely deserved.

The Risk of Going Nowhere panel virtue-signaled like mad; with Rebecca Watson on the panel, it couldn't be avoided. I regret not recording it, and I hope someone else did. Mykeru and Thunderfoot would love to see that footage or hear that audio. The Libertarianism in SF panel also fell to virtue-signaling, including one woman's proud proclamation of being a literal book burner. The live Xanadu Cinema podcast recording with Greg Weisman was entertaining, and wisely avoided any political bullshit.

The incuriosity I noticed previously is now obvious in the convention's programming and in the assumptions of the core participants. The writers still talk about getting agents, getting a house deal, etc. and ignore going wholly independent as Brian Neimeier has. Vox Day is still regarded as Satan, and Castallia House is thought of as a joke (when not feared as a threat). Shitlib regressive leftism is presumed as both inevitable and normal, as is the retarded atheism of the Atheism Plus crew (because CONvergence is also Skepticon, and the Skepchicks as well as Freethoughtblogs are always in force). Put short, the stupidity that allows Minnesota to be dominated by the shitlibs in the Twin Cities (as the GOP are cuckservatives here) is concentrated into Lovecraftian levels here. However, the majority of attendees just give lip-service and ignore it otherwise; I bet that if I just read SJWs Always Lie in public, no one will care.