Saturday, December 31, 2016

Narrative Warfare: My Response to 2016's SocJus Madness (Summarized)

It's New Year's Eve, and I'm not inclined to spend a lot of time posting when there's fun to be had, so I'm just going to get to it:

  • "Social Justice" proved itself to be a death cult seeking only power and blithely ignoring anything contrary to its narrative so long as it serves that end. That it lost so much, and so often, this past year- and flipped their shit every single time. They revealed to one and all who they really are this year.
  • So their demands are invalid, as the experience of their behavior reveals them to be frauds from the start, and so the consequence is clear: there is no obligation to comply with "Social Justice" demands of any sort. I ain't gotta to do a goddamn thing.
  • "White Privilege" does not exist.
  • "Male Privilege" does not exist.
  • "Diversity" does not help.
  • "Representation" is not owned to anyone.
  • "Intersectionality" is utter bullshit.
  • Motherfucker, YOU ARE NOT OPPRESSED!.
  • The real world runs off "Git Gud", and does not give a fuck if you are unable or unwilling to do so. "Equality" (of outcome) is not only a lie, it's a fraud- and therefore "Equality" is a crime, and not to be tolerated. You do what you can with what you've got; if that ain't good enough, motherfucker that shit is on you.
  • Greatness--success, satisfaction, etc.--is won by the sacrifice of your time, your ego, your blood, and your talent. You are owed NOTHING. If you try to take it from me, then I will see you as a thief and a reaver and I will deal with you accordingly- to my satisfaction.
  • You will respect the boundaries of others, one way or another, and I do not give a fuck if that has to be forced on you. The time where you can walk into spaces where you're not wanted and act like you own the place are done. Go carve out your own, like the very men you despise had to do to make the spaces you want to usurp for yourselves.
  • All that you control you run into the ground. You are utterly expendable. You can be replaced. You are being replaced. Now that we know you, we shall not let you in the door again. Fuck off and die in a fire.

Now, good riddence to this year's madness- and welcome to 2017, the year we start cleaning out this crap in earnest. I invoke the spirit of President Andrew Jackson, when he condemned the bankers of his day:

"You are a den of vipers. I intend to rout you out and by the Eternal God I will rout you out."

Friday, December 30, 2016

2016 Retrospective Pt.3: They Can Be Beaten

What we've been fighting is a culture war. Author Brian Niemeier explains here how it happened in his field, and I find this to be the general pattern found throughout the institutions wherein the SocJus death cult took root.

But they can be beaten. Now that we know how they think, they can be predicted. Predictability means defeat becomes probable, because we know the conditions required to do so.

Brian's post includes how Amazon's introduction of the Kindle and Kindle Direct Publishing made both ebooks and independent publishing very easy for individuals to do. This is the shattering of the gates, and overthrow of the gatekeepers, that shitlibs talk about when they blather about "disruption"- and they do NOT like it being done to them. They also don't like it when they can't weaponize feelings and Rhetoric, as is the case whenever they go into a courtroom, and instead have to use logic and evidence. Here is a list of examples of the latter.

This past year saw more such disruption. The Dragon Awards successfully revealed the Hugos as being weak and corrupt, Gab stands to succeed Twitter when the latter's SJW convergence consumes it, and Minds is the first Facebook and Twitter alternative that wasn't total ass. Infogalactic already threatens Wikipedia's place of prominence simply by being an proper fucking encyclopedia and not a warren of warring wankers, and Castalia House is already making the Big 5 traditional publishing clique freakout so hard that its members actively conspire against it simply by being competent at serving those very audiences the Big 5 abandoned.

Expect more in the year to come.

Expect to find opportunities for you to get in on the action. I'm not saying it will be easy, or glamorous, but it will be worthwhile and it will be a hell of a good time. When it's fun, hard slogs become good times, and we're all in for a good time next year. They can be beaten, and therefore they can--and will--be broken. Then we shall have what is best in life.

Thursday, December 29, 2016

2016 Retrospective Pt. 2: The SJ Virus Mutated

So, word got out that Milo Yiannopolous got a book deal with Simon & Schuster, with an advance of $250,000, and so many of the usual suspects immediately flipped their shit and lost their damned minds. Milo isn't even on Twitter and he's trending there, again. We had a classic Point & Shriek attack upon the publisher, hoping to get someone inside the company to cancel the deal, but that ain't happening- and that just got the SocJus mob even more enraged.

This past year saw that these mobs, in the way of SJWs Always Lie, aren't as effective as they once were- and it's been revealed that they only work on targets uninformed as to what the attack really is or how it works. It also showed that the Three Laws of SJWs are confirmable by independent observation; we've repeatedly seen them lie, double-down, and project.

It also revealed that this cult and its fellow travelers cannot operate outside of this paradigm; they are so deep into their own ideology that they cannot think from any perspective but their own. Brexit and the God-Emperor's Ascension demonstrated this fault across the board, including all of the after-the-fact histrionics and vows to resort to total war to stop Trump. (Oh, and the most tortured abuse of the word "facist" I've seen in years.)

As Oliver Campbell has said: Give someone enough time and they will tell you who they are.

There's a corollary to this: You can always trust someone to be who and what they are.

Which is why, when subjected to pressures intended to properly counteract the SocJus cult's mission of convergence, it's become easy to see that what happens is a further upping of the crazy before once more trying to do the same damned thing as last time- textbook insanity. It's like the moment in a zombie game that really hates you, when the zombies mutate into some more dangerous form before trying again to get you- and then get their heads (or whatever) blown off. Cycle repeats until blowout or burnout, whichever comes first, followed by total collapse.

But until that collapse comes, they remain dangerous, and given both the devastation of their losses over the past year and the ferverance of their zealotry, more incidents like those tied to Black Lives Matter (the targeted assassination of police officers, in that case, just for being police officers) are not out of line come next year. We've already had to drop some dimes to the FBI and the Secret Service; expect to do more of that soon.

When someone feels backed into a corner, they get dangerous because they see nothing to lose and all to gain. (It's why Sun Tzu said never to put your enemy there, on Death Ground, but instead to always leave him an out that takes him where you want him to go.) The SocJus cult (et. al.) feel this right now, despite it not being reality (yet), so they're already pushing each other to greater extremes- first with Rhetoric, and then with actions. If we remember that this cult acts like a rabid rabbit warren, then we can predict who's likely to break first and start some shit- and who's going to be egging them to do it.

So yeah, imagine that playground bully brigade, but all grown up and packing heat. That's what's coming because the Death Cult simply cannot comprehend anything other than total victory--that bullshit Whig-style "right side of history" fraud again--and therefore will never back down; they'll keep ramping up the crazy until they collapse. The goal is to get them to collapse faster. How? Keep them riled up and running at targets we designate, while we build up substitutes for what they control out of sight, and then rip the rug out from under them when we're ready to roll it out.

More on that tomorrow.

Wednesday, December 28, 2016

2016 Retrospective Pt. 1: Trusting My Eyes

This line has done more to change me than anything else this past year: Let Reason be silent when Experience gainsays it.

In the mind of a healthy man, there comes a point where there is sufficient experience to warrant going with it first because it has reliable results for the circumstances it covers. Reason comes second, when experience is insufficient to handle the matter. We are schooled, introctrinated, into reversing this so that authority figures can pull that "Believe me or your lyin' eyes" gaslighting bullshit; it takes time to shake off, but persistence in doing so does shake it off in due time- measured in years.

And that, inevitably, is why the hoaxing media (and the parties behind them) are so insistent upon shutting down and locking out competitors- they cannot maintain narrative control (and thus keep gaslighting us through the abuse of Reason via Rhetoric) when we can talk amongst ourselves and thus bring forth our experience once more.

Which means that a lot of what I've experienced by participating in the Meme Wars of the last two years has finally gone from "know" to "grok", and thus will not untake. The Red Pill, once it sets in, cannot be undone anymore than you can get your virginity back once spent. That change is permanent and marking, and I cannot help but to not only recognize that conflict is now inevitable- but I that I welcome it.

So, since I've finally gotten to this point, what does this mean? Media? Mostly tuned out of the hoaxing media, save for the weather report and to get a feel for what the fake hoax of a narrative is today.

It means learning not only to not give my money to those that hate me, but also my attention (and therefore my time); this is being restrained, because active opposition means finding ways to damage (with the aim of destroying) the enemy's revenue and thus ability to remain operational- not to merely deny it to them.

Why? Because that's what my experience tells me--what my eyes show me--is both true and effective, to a given extent. My experience also tells me that there is a universal solvent, but that has severe costs both upfront and after the fact, and it is not a precise instrument, so it is not to be used lightly- something I will go on about when I find it necessary to do so.

And my experience tells me that it may be necessary sometime in the coming year, because the SocJus Death Cult and its fellow travelers are doubling-down again and that just means the crazy will reach critical mass and explode. More on that tomorrow.

Oh, by the way:

  • The Rules of the Blog have been updated with an "I Don't Care" clause, again taken from Vox Day's blog and adjusted for my purposes.

  • Finally, a note: Cirvosa's review of Rogue One is up here. Go read it. It's like reading the mirror image of my take.

Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Reality Calls: A Voice Worth Heeding

I'm liking what I'm seeing out of Reality Calls more and more. This is a woman who's getting her shit together and making something of herself, and as far as I can tell it's being done by her on her own. In addition to her YouTube channel (below), she's set her own site, and she's giving podcasting a go now. Before she uploaded her pilot show to YouTube, it was up at her site; what's below is the YouTube upload.

Yes, it's not All #PizzaGate, All The Time with her. She's going much further than that one issue (however important it is) and adding her voice to a broader choir of voices speaking out in defense of the West, of Western Civilization, and the stablizing and eucivic influence it has had (and, even now, continues to have despite the globalist traitors) upon Mankind. Watch or listen for yourself.

In addition to her site and YouTube channel, she's got a Gab and a Minds account so you can find her there.

Monday, December 26, 2016

Narrative Warfare: Just a Little Bit of History Repeating - Fake News & Censorship

The more things change...

...the more they stay the same.

The last attempt to stop the technological sea-change in the publication and distribution of information did not succeed--it was merely retarded--but I find it hilarious that the new attempt by the elites to do the same thing with regard to the Internet to be so historically-illiterate. They think this is like radio, or television, with its ridiculous start-up costs; it's not, and it ain't even like a basic printing press either. It's dirt-fucking cheap in terms of physical capital; the skills--the human cost--are more expensive (but not for long). That makes it easy as fuck to get into the game.

It is said "The Internet interprets censorship as damage and routes around it." and that's exactly what will happen. Normies may be affected for a year or so until the workarounds get out far enough, but that's about it. Unlike the attempts to suppress the press (literally), this will fail fast and hard. (Online resistance is already significant, and growing.) Aside from the trappings and the words, all that's different is the pace by which this stupidity comes and goes.

It's fucking stupid. Was then. Is now. Will always be. I'll let Dame Bassey take you through the outro here:

Sunday, December 25, 2016

Rogue One: Better Than "The Force Awakens" (But Still Fan-Fiction)

I've seen Rogue One. That it is better than The Force Awakens is a factual statement. It is also damning with faint praise, as this is not a good movie. I was not satisfied at any point watching this film. I was not entertained. I did not have fun. Instead, I could not help but to think back to afternoons and evenings playing West End Games' Star Wars tabletop role-playing game during the glory days of the now-disowned Expanded Universe when a lot of what would later be recycled into this film, Star Wars: Rebels and related commercial works were instead done for fun by punk kids and kooky college coeds entertaining ourselves with our formalized What If? stories using that game, dice, and all the fanon we could remember.

Let me get to the specifics:

  • Digital Tarkin and Leia fooled the normies in the theater, but not the film buffs or the techies. The teens weren't even aware Peter Cushing was dead; their parents had to tell them.
  • The Darth Vader rampage delivered, as expected.
  • Krennic came off as a despicable weasel of a man, what Vox Day calls a "Gamma Male", and his constant scheming for recognition and undermining his superiors worked very well in showing his villanous nature (when outright dickery would not). As this was intended, good job. Alas, that's the best I can say for characterization.
  • At no time did I feel Jyn to be a real character. Not a Sue, despite the unbelievable Waif-Fu, but still terribly written. (And no, the other Ersos weren't much better.) Also, this part seemed like it was originally meant to be a male character, and changed by Executive Meddling into a female role.
  • No other character felt real either. I did not care one whit about anyone in this film. Neither hero nor villan, major or minor, did I care about. This film's cast, like the film itself, felt entirely disposable and pointless. No one was likable. No one was charismatic (not even Vader).
  • Too much bad pacing early on made the good parts seem either too soon or too late to achieve their dramatic impact, unraveling interesting in the film's events. Until the Dirty Dozen took off for Scarif, nothing worked narratively or dramatically; after that point, I knew I would see as brutal a battle as Disney would allow for Star Wars, and I got that, but it still felt like fan-fiction.
  • There was absolutely no tension at any point in the film. Even if the trailers did not give away key plot elements, and even if the media did keep its fucking mouth shut, there is still no tension. Because we know that the mission succeeds, you have to sell us on who does it and how- something Edwards failed to accomplish.
  • The depiction of the Empire overmatching the Rebels on the ground and in the air is belied by the two useless Star Destroyers over Scarif. Only Vader's ship actually did shit; if it weren't for that, the space battle would've been a clean victory. As for that ground battle, it played out exactly as every other objective raid that ran overtime did- no tension whatsoever. Yes, both inside the base and outside. Also, those TIE variants were utterly pointless; you have a standard TIE Fighter to handle that shit for a fucking reason- USE IT.
  • Yes, it was nice to see Donnie Yen whup the shit out of Stormtroopers. However, he was wasted here; he should've been playing a Jedi or a Sith in an Old Republic film.
  • The Scarif fleet battle and the ground battle felt like something out of a DLC pack for EA's Battlefront. Visually impressive, and full of fan service, but no emotional heft to it. Yes, it was nice to see what you can do to show us a significant war scene where we could follow the action, but by this point I knew it was going to happen and had a good idea of what would come of it so I was disengaged- as I am whenever I already know what the result is but don't give a fuck about who did it, how, or why.
  • Everyone Dies. Meh. I disagree that it HAD to end that way for everyone, especially when--believe it or not--that was survivable (and any fucking installation worth shit would have such capability installed, especially one that fucking important). Sure, those killed in the fight died properly. But Jyn and Cassian? Nope; they could have--and should have--survived; they committed suicide, as Saw Gerrara did, and I can't go for that. Suicide is despair's endstate, and victorious heroes endure in Star Wars.

TL/DR: Rogue One is a bad film. Better than Episode 7, but still not good. Get someone else to pay for it if you must. (I did.) But I would recommend instead watching it for free online, or buying used if you buy at all. Stop giving your money to people who won't deliver, and stop giving money to people who just make crap fan-fiction (however sanctioned) instead of true successors or worthy additions to the corpus. (And if you want to argue that point, then you don't know the difference- and I do not give a fuck who you are, you don't. You get to sit down, shut up, and learn from the adults.)

Saturday, December 24, 2016

The Christmas Eve 2016 Post

It's late on Christmas Eve for me. I've had dinner, exchanged presents, and I'm looking to get up early tomorrow. Suffice to say that I've had a good day, and I intend to have a good day tomorrow. (Yes, I will post.) So, I'm getting to it.

It's that time of year again, where it's time to take the last week of the year and spend some of it reflecting back and commenting on The Year That Was in the run-up to New Year's Eve and the turn of the year. No, I won't start doing that here and now (plenty of time in the week ahead), but I might as well give the heads-up now.

But tonight? Tonight is a night of good will, good cheer, and good times getting familiar with the new toys. That is all. Now, get back to your fun times with family and friends you goof balls. It's been a good year, and I'm grateful to all of you for spending time reading this blog.

Friday, December 23, 2016

FFXIV's Stormblood: The Hype Is Real

Final Fantasy XIV is the one MMORPG that I want to play, but don't because I don't have room in the budget for another subscription fee at this time. (I say another because I do pay for World of Warcraft, albeit with in-game gold at this time, but I've previously hustled my as to afford gametime via cards.) I thought A Realm Reborn was a good re-launch of the game, enjoyed vicariously what Heavensward had to offer, and I'm crossing my fingers that Stormblood will be good.

Well, there's hope: the Fan Fest in going on in Tokyo, Japan right now had a keynote that dropped some confirmations for new Jobs and Beast Tribes (and other things, but the one making the rounds is that the Red Mage (as a Job, base level 50) will (a) come with Stormblood and (b) be in one of the old ARR zones so it may not be gated. Nova Crystallis's article on it is here.

In the meantime, why not watch the official Twitch stream of the producer's Live Letter from said location? (Or, watch the VOD afterwords.)

Watch live video from finalfantasyxiv on www.twitch.tv

Thursday, December 22, 2016

Prepare Your Wallets. It's Steam Sale Time!

The Steam Winter Sale is here.

Yes, a lot of stuff is discounted. Some of it is deeply discounted, and some is that pussy bitch bullshit that gets you mad at how weak it is. (Dark Souls is only 45% off this time? Come the fuck on; you were 75% off last Summer.) Some of the notable offerings I'll list below:

  • Final Fantasy available on Twitch are decently discounted, and that includes both of the MMOs: Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV.
  • Star Wars games include all of the good ones put out over the years, and some dogshit, at good to great prices- including the bundles.
  • Elder Scrolls fans should be pleased with the prices of what Steam has available, assuming that they don't already have them for PC.
  • Fallout fans should likewise be pleased with what's for sale on Steam right now, also assuming that they don't already have them for PC.
  • Sniper Elite fans will be happy with the deep discounts that Steam's offerings on the first three games. Sure, the upcoming 4th game is full price, but you're not dumb enough to pre-order are you?
  • Like your brawlers? Castle Crashers is $3 right now, Viking Squad is just under $10, Chronicles of Mystara (the Dungeons & Dragons brawlers), the brilliant Mother Russia Bleeds is at $7.50, and Zombie Vikings is $6 (and has a free PVP arena variant available).
  • Darkest Dungeon is half off. Get it. You won't regret it.

Yes, there's more. A lot more. If what I list here isn't to your liking, go to the Steam store and search for it. I'm not a big shooter, racer, or fighter fan but there's plenty of all of that for sale on Steam. Fill your wallet, double-check your PC specs, and treat yourself- or me, if you like, because you CAN gift what you buy, and my Steam Wish List is here. (Seriously, though, you can gift what you buy; this is a good way to gift games to your PC-playing pals.)

Wednesday, December 21, 2016

Soon 2016 Will Not Be The Current Year

2016 wrote a lot of names in the Death Note. Fortunately, it also wrote SocJus into the Death Note- it's just being a drama queen about dying.

And I look forward to seeing other parts of the shitstorm afflicting the West to get crippled or killed in this coming year. The invasion has to be stopped, the traitors rounded up and shot, and and the delusional dogma allowing both beaten down, doused in jet fuel, strung up high, and then torched.

Because it's time to stop being nice about this shit. It's time to go ham.

And that is the best present I've gotten this year: hope for revival and renewal of Civilization and the West.

Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Narrative Warfare: Virtual BattleMechs Have No Sex. Hustling Crooks Do.

Tracer is not gay. Tracer is not straight. Tracer is not female, British, or even alive. Tracer is a fictional avatar controlled by a player in game about objective-focused arena combat. Tracer is nothing more than a virtual BattleMech.

That's what I find most bothersome of this non-news about the sexuality of a character in a first-person shooter, a genre of game wherein most players could not--and do not--give a shit about anything that does not directly impact gameplay. They aren't reading comics. They aren't watch lore videos. They aren't reading threads about anything but playing the game because the game matters and everything else does not.

So, I'm with the others rolling my eyes over SocJus cultists jonesing for another hit of the Outrage drug. I don't care because Tracer is a robot, and all I care about with my robots is that they do the job that they are designed to execute. There's no story in a combat arena shooter, so all the lore is pointless bullshit; it's as relevant as it is in DOTA 2 or League of Legends (i.e. not at all)- and man, Tracer's been shipped with Widowmaker since at least the Beta, so where the fuck have these shitstains been?

Thus, I find that there is something else at work here: building a brand.

We've been on this wild ride to know long enough when someone's lying and when someone's blathering like they've seen Cthulhu. When it comes to the crooks fraudulently passing as "journalists" and "critics", they're lying. Yes, even #FullMcIntosh. It's never enough for them because they've built a brand upon being outraged, so they can't ever be satisfied or it damages their brand and thus their ability to function. (It also damages their identity, but that's part of the issue in tying your brand to your identity; don't do that.) That's why the ride doesn't end; they need to be outraged or everything about their lives collapses.

The narrative push here is to gaslight people into thinking that something that doesn't matter actually does. The pushback is to point out the bullshit and then show by example that this is irrelevant. Meme Masters and Shitlords, you know what to do. Have at it.

I'm done with this cult. Time to bake them like we do the Clams.

Monday, December 19, 2016

My Life as a Shooter: Wish List Addendum

So, since you can't order firearms from Amazon, I'm doing this as a Wish List addendum. I have no expectation that anyone will be so generous as to make them happen, but I've been a really good boy this year and Santa is welcome to leave a rifle under the tree for me. Yes, this is me doing a not-that-serious post.

  • Mauser K98k: Yeah, I want a Mauser. Duh. This specific model most of all, but any decent shooter will be welcome. Yes, including those Spanish Mausers in 7.62.x51mm NATO and those Swedish Mausers in 6.5x55mm. Yes, including those Yugoslavian models. Accessories and ammo welcome.
  • SLME No.4/Mk.1: Also in that "Duh" category, and much the same here. No.1s are welcome. No.5s are welcome. So long as it's a decent shooter, I'm happy. Just throw in a box of ammo.
  • Mosin-Nagant M44: I have a 91/30, so I want the shorter ones (so a M38 is fine), and more ammo is welcome.
  • CZ 527 Carbine: I want this specifically in 7.62x39mm, for the reason I mentioned previously. Extra magazines, a sling, and ammo are welcome.
  • Marlin 336/Winchester 94: In short, I mean "lever-action rifle in .30-30 Winchester with a side-loading gate on the receiver" because this is meant to be built into a lever-action scout rifle. Ammo and other bits for the built quite welcome. Such a rifle in .357 Magnum is fine, but not top on the list.
  • Ruger 10/22: I don't have one. I have two other rifles in .22 Long Rifle, but not one of these; prefer to have it set up for Appleseed. It's a good rifle, Brent, so why not?
  • CZ 455: I have a friend with the 452, and it a fantastic squirrel rifle. Hard to find now, but the 455 seems to be just as good if not better, so why not?
  • Marlin 39/Winchester 9422/Henry Small Game Rifle: I mean "lever-action rifle in .22 Long Rifle", and I prefer a 20" barrel (which is why I specified the Small Game Rifle for the Henry), but any decent shooter is welcome and you can't have enough .22LR ammo on hand.
  • I don't have any ARs, AKs, SKS (et. al.). Not high on the list, but not going to be turned away so long as it's a solid shooter.
  • Mossberg 500/Remington 870: I mean "pump-action shotgun in 12 gauge with full-length magazine tube". #1 or 00 buckshot please for ammo.

Okay, longarms sorted. Now, handguns.

  • Ruger Mk.IV Target: Oh hot damn, this pistol puts a smile on my face and a spring in my step. It looks and feels like a perfect bottle-popper, and I want one something fierce. A few spare magazines wouldn't hurt, along with more ammo. So long as it's the Target model, I don't care if it's Blued or Stainless.
  • CZ 75 SP-01: Look, if I'm going for a solid service pistol, I want one with style- and the CZ SP-01 has it in spades. (As does the 75B, which I will also welcome with a smile.) In 9x19mm Luger, should anyone doubt that; for you .45 ACP supremists, get me the CZ 97B instead. Mags, ammo, etc. welcome.
  • Ruger GP100: By this, I mean "a service revolver in .357 Magnum or .38 Special", so 3-4" barrel- no snubs or long barrels. .45 ACP fanboys, go with a Smith & Wesson 625. .45 Colt fanboys, just get a Single-Action Army type w/ a 5' barrel. Ammo, etc. welcome.
  • Coonan: Yes, the semi-auto in .357 Magnum, because if I'm wishing then I want a moonshot mixed in and this is mine. This specific model with adjustable night sights is what I have in mind.
  • Browning Hi-Power: I prefer the Practical, but I don't give a fuck about specific models, or even if they're licensed knockoffs (e.g. Israeli Kareem), so long as they're Hi-Powers that are good shooters. 9x19mm Luger, of course.

Okay, sorted. Here's hoping that my firearm fancies become rustless realities. If you're wanting to make something else happen, hit up my lists at Amazon and Steam.

Sunday, December 18, 2016

Star Wars: The Lost Character Archetype - The Tough Native

So, Rogue One had an opening weekend that more-or-less met insider expectations. I'm watching the Original Trilogy as I write this post, and Steam has a Star Wars sale going on until tomorrow sometime. (I hope that either gets extended or resumes when the Winter Sale starts on the 22nd.) So, naturally for this gamer, I'm reminded of the original tabletop RPG published by West End Games in 1987.

They made that game with total noobs in mind. You only needed to raid a Yatzee box to get the dice you need (and in a pinch, just one will do), and instead of agonizing over classes and such you just picked a pre-built Character Template and got on with the gameplay. You had plenty there that you would've expected in 1987--Smugglers, Wookies, Bounty Hunters, (Not-Quite) Jedi, Senators/Nobles, etc.--but they were not afraid to throw in some oddball character archetypes. Of all those oddballs, the one that stuck out most for me is one called "Tough Native".

The idea here is that you came from a planet that was pre-spaceflight (nevermind starfaring), contacted by some party sympathetic to the Rebel Alliance, and your sovereign sent you as your world's liason to the Alliance to learn what could be had (and do what could be done) from them- as it seemed that the Empire could not be tolerated for its inevitable offense to the sovereign's authority.

The character you played, out of the box, was a European cavalry officer from the 16th-early 19th century: black-powder pistol, sword, dashing heroic character (maybe local nobility), and a love of country that many Rebels could appreciate. Chances were that you were also an accomplished rider, leader, etc. and so you were sort of John Carter figure.

Alas, as the Expanded Universe spread--a thing that West End's RPG is credited for founding--this archetype disappeared not only from the game, but from the fandom entirely outside of niches like the Ewok. The post-Disney reformation of the canon hasn't helped matters, yet, but it could (and Disney is stupid to not take that chance now that Rogue One succeeded).

Don't tell me that it couldn't work. Much of Return of the Jedi is "Starfarers recruit natives to fight Empire", and that worked well (because it did what it was meant to do: impress kids and sell merch). It would take a little work to ensure that you could execute this while retaining the core sensibility of Star Wars, instead of retreading A Princess of Mars in Star Wars drag, but that work would be worth it when the payoff comes.

As for the gaming end of it, I am pleased to see that the dedicated fans of West End's RPG lives on a fan-written unofficial edition: Revised, Expanded, and Updated. In that volume, in the Character Templates, is the Tough Native template- all that's changed is the profile pic. You too can get your John Carter on, (or, for you Dishonored fans, either of the sequel's playable characters) and with some allowances you can even make this character stand up to lightsaber duelists (just find a way to get him something with Cortosis or something like it).

Star Wars is about heroic adventure (as it is Space Opera), so take a shot at one of the oldest heroic adventure archetypes there are when next you play- or write.

Saturday, December 17, 2016

Narrative Warfare: SocJus, Git Gud, & What Makes a Gamer

The History Channel in the United States began airing a program called "The Selection". This is a Reality TV show where 30 volunteer civilians attempt to complete a training regimen based on elements of several U.S. Special Forces units' selection protocols. You want Muh Diversity? You want Muh Representation? You'll get it here, and you won't like how it works under high stress conditions. Two episodes in, and half of them are already gone.

But that's not why I'm writing about it. What I'm writing about is what the instructors--all U.S. Special Forces veterans--say in the interview segments that get cut in to provide commentary on the hows and whys of what they are doing to the trainees. They're talking about maturity, about self-knowledge, about the courage to face the reality that is and not retreat into delusion, about emotional self-control. That's what we say when say "Git Gud, scrub."

Two of the 15 people culled from the group do so against their will. The rest quit of their own accord. One of the two dropped does do despite giving it all because he is too short, too thin--too weak in body--to withstand the physical challenges before him. The instructor who drops him takes the time to explain that very point: he's got the heart, but heart is only necessary- NOT SUFFICIENT! This is a big deal: it shows that, regardless of how you feel about the thing, there is an objective reality out there that does not give a fuck about your feelings and if you can't measure up then nothing you can do will ever beat it. There are real, hard limits to what you can do with what you've got, and there is no dishonor in accepting those very limitations.

The same applies to the man dropped for medical reasons; his body gave out, so to preserve his life the instructors--acting mercifully--opted to cut him from the program. He had the heart, and until his body's flaws rendered him unable to continue he had a good chance of making it. Something unexpected occurred and it fucked him over; that too is beyond your control and therefore unworthy of undue attention or focus, so there is no good reason to feel bad when it happens. Never give focus to what is beyond your control.

Those two men who got dropped? Their gamer counterparts are the guys who fail, and fail, and fail, and fail until they figure out how a given part of the game works and devise a strategy that beats it. They may need to take breaks, or handle something else, but they keep coming back until they beat it. That's "Git Gud", folks, and "Git Gud" is what makes you a gamer- not just sitting down to play.

Those other 13 people, the quitters? They let their ego get in the way, producing delusions about who and what they are that did not withstand the challenge of an objective reality. When confronted with the threat of failure, they made excuses and quit. When confronted with actual failure, they made excuses and quit. None of them faced up to the reality of the situation, assumed responsibility for themselves, and did what it took to adapt to what really exists.

And yes, you find the same thing for any fandom; gaming just brings out the purest form because it is so close to athletics (where it, being derived from martial arts, is purest outside of warfare). Git Gud requires commitment and passion--heart--but you need to have both the skills and the mindset to truly breakthrough. Other fandoms have their places for these traits; learning about the skills and crafts needed to fully bring forth the power of a medium (if not a practitioner oneself). So, again, just showing up is not enough.

Listen to the SocJus whines, and you see a pattern: "Why can't I get the same result without putting in the same work?" Muh Diversity and Muh Representation are just that- getting the same outcomes without paying the same costs. Muh Sexism and Muh Racism are denials of the fact that you have to be able to perform to get the reward (and denial that you're not entitled to be there at all; you have prove your worth- initiations are justified and ancient).

Being present IS NOT ENOUGH! You have to commit, you have to adapt, and you have to accept that some challenges are beyond you no matter what you do- and to stop worrying about when you actually hit a hard limit imposed by reality and not some ego cop-out you're doing to yourself. So take all your "inclusiveness" and shove it out your ass- especially you virtue-signalling cunts denying what you know to be real because you feed yourselves serving it. Fuck all of you, sideways, with a shovel covered in shit and burrs, right up your asses.

Friday, December 16, 2016

Go Make Your Own Thing. Blackjack & Hookers Optional.

For all the talk about Rogue One and the SJWs making it something other than a fun feature film for fans and families, there is one thing said that I must agree with: if it's really that bad, then that means that there is an audience that isn't being served, and unserved audiences are opportunities for disruption and replacement by ambitious upstarts.

Don't think this is new. It's not. People writing "(X) but (Y)" stories is as old as storytelling, and that mean people writing poems, making movies, and now making games that are "(X) but (Y)" is well within the boundaries of acceptable practice. You see this every single motherfucking time someone really gets into a thing, but can't be satisfied (for some reason or another) with fanfiction, especially when it involves getting paid somehow.

So do it. If you don't like how Rogue One goes, then learn how to tell stories and show me you can do better. If you don't see something out there, and you think there's demand for it, then make it yourself and stop fucking whining about it. You did not get those works you complain about from fucking nothing; they did it for themselves by themselves- and if you want it then you also have to do it by yourself for yourself. Git Gud or GTFO!

Thursday, December 15, 2016

Narrative Warfare: Reality Calls on Media Matters, #PizzaGate, & Financial Shenanigans

British YouTube user Reality Calls is on a useful, actionable line of inquiry: following the connections and the money flows that follow them, unveiling in turn who benefits from the #FakeNews narrative and how they're tied to George Soros.

The owner of Comet Ping Pong, James Alefantis's homosexual partner David Brock founded an organization called Media Matters for America which has a huge amount of influence over the mainstream media.

Now this entire freakout over Russia, the #FakeNews thing, and the blatant lies in the hoaxing media make sense. This is intended to misdirect attention away from what the Establishment wants ignored, while with the other hand build the justification for locking down media that they do not own or otherwise control. This is all about control over what information gets out, and how it is directed.

This is the second video I've done with Andrew Kerr. We discuss more goings on at Media Matters, how they are behind the Fake News agenda designed to shut down alternative media, and what we need to do to expose their corruption.

The emphasis upon these regulatory matters is not useless. Al Capone got nailed for tax evasion, but otherwise he was untouchable. The same is at work here: in the arrogance of assured (if delayed) victory, attention to detail gets neglected to the point where it becomes an exploitable liability. By discovering these violations of regulations regarding such organizations, and seeing that they are legally vulnerable due to being acts open to state enforcement, all that is necessary is for ordinary people--you and me--to gather the relevant facts and levy pressure upon the government agencies tasked with such enforcement.

And, as with Capone, this is about tax avoidance- and there is no government on this earth that does not get violent when it's denied its cut. There is no gangster more dangerous than the government. Drop that dime, and make the IRS do its job.

Wednesday, December 14, 2016

It's Never Too Late To Come Home

I got good news today. One of my uncles--the man who got the Navy to give my great-uncle his headstone for the cemetary just outside his hometown of Clarksfield, MN--called my mother today to tell her that not only has said great uncle's remains been found and identified, but that it looks like they're going to be recovered. That means we can finally bring him up from the wreck of the U.S.S. Oklahoma and bring him home one last time.

That's a Christmas present I did not expect, but nonetheless welcome and am grateful for. Well done, Uncle Blair, and I look forward to seeing the great uncle I never met come home at last. I would like to think that his shipmates, those who died with him, would also be welcome back home- assuming their families still remember them. Far too many men went off to war and never returned. Worse are that they are forgotten, their families long ago passing them out of mind. That's the second death, when the memory of you is gone and no relics of your existence remain. Dying isn't the worst fate; the oblivion of memory is.

Bring them home.

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

Narative Warfare: Fake News Is Not New

Paul Joseph Watson has a nice little rant about #FakeNews and the hoaxing mainstream media. Have a look, and then I'll get on with it.

As the rant mentions, we've had #FakeNews going on well before the God-Emperor Ascendant won the general election and became President-Elect. What it doesn't mention in specific in that video, but Paul (and his associates at InfoWars) have gone into in the years previous, is that making #FakeNews is all that the hoaxing media does. They are there to control information, not provide it cleanly and clearly. They are the primary organ of Narrative Warfare.

The CIA's Operation Mockingbird got exposed in the 1970s--before many of you reading this were born, I suspect--and with it came the revelation that the CIA inserted many plants into the media establishment and used them to promulgate social, cultural, and political narrative favorable to the agency's interests. In short, the very propaganda operations authorized for use outside the United States had also been used inside the United States and with great success.

Not that Mockingbird had much resistance in the U.S., for Hollywood had long been a willing collaborator by then, and the media corporations in New York City (and Chicago, et. al.) before that; Walter Lippman and Edward Bernays didn't get their experience as propagandists in World War I from nothing. Public Relations (and therefore Advertising and Marketing) is nothing more than the same #FakeNews techniques employed specifically to shill shit people don't need to them by lying to them about that very fact.

Before that, we had the incident that coined "yellow journalism", the Spanish-American War and the destruction of the U.S.S. Maine used by the media to incite it. The contempt expressed by Mark Twain for the media did not come from nothing, and that should be telling for you as to just how long #FakeNews has been a thing- especially with the New York-based publishing world in the U.S. and its London counterparts for the rest of the Anglosphere.

This is not beyond their notice, institutionally; media literacy is something they actively discourage. Why do you think they are so desperate to establish and maintain themselves apart and above common people (despite being no better)? So they can tell is black is white and expect us to comply. Journalism schools as a credentialism scam, official sanction by the state, tight integrate with the state--especially the Deep State--and now yet more pushes to use state power against competitors all reveal just how vulnerable these #FakeNews hucksters really are. Time to get rid of all of them- and be our own media.

TL/DR: The hoaxing media's been lying and hoaxing for generations. We're only now getting savvy to it in critical numbers and are able to do something useful about it- and that has them scared shitless.

Monday, December 12, 2016

My Life as a Gamer: Embrace the Meta-Character

When I was a young man, a pair of college students--John Tweet and Mark Hagen--published a tabletop historical fantasy role-playing game by the name of Ars Magica. The concept was that you played medieval European magicians, their companions, and their servants but the world conformed to the popular beliefs and metaphysical paradigm of the time. So no, things did NOT work as they really did- only as believed.

While that's interesting in itself, what I want to draw your attention to is how gameplay is meant to be organized: every player has a Magician (Magus) character, a Companion character, and contributed to a common pool of Servant (Grogs) characters. The Magicians were the lords of the manor, known as a Covenant, and each adventure had the players taking turns playing their Magicians, Companions, or one or more of the Servants. The reason? Because different sorts of adventures require different sorts of individuals to deal with them properly, and dealing with them can and does take time so you can't do everything with one character. (In addition, research is a big deal and healing often requires downtime.) In order advance the Covenant, players will need to shift roles (via shifting which character they play and when) to best meet the challenges put to them and their Covenant.

Groups of magicians are not the only ones that benefit from this perspective. So do (para)military organizations, the archetype being mercenary and trading companies. Noble houses, for all you Game of Thrones and Pendragon, also fall into this paradigm. Since I've been thinking in terms of giant robots lately, let's do in those terms.

A BattleMech mercenary unit (for BattleTech and MechWarrior) has more than 'Mech pilots in it. You have technicians, medical personnel, staff personnel, security/auxillary personnel, etc. and they collaborate to fulfill different necessary functions required to keep the mercenary company operational and viable as an entity- the unit itself is a player-character. A meta-character, if you will.

So why not do much the same thing? Have each player make a MechWarrior, a key auxiliary, and contribute to a pool of henchmen or minions. While not a direct translation of how Ars Magica's Covenants work, you can see the parallels and apply them in the obvious manner. The unit is the real character here, one shared by the players, and thus deserves its own character progression and development emphasis; this makes the loss of any given individual player's characters a little easier to bear.

You can use this for Macross and Gundam campaigns just as easily, since your pilots are going to be focused on their duties (and need to be combat-ready). I need not go on with specific examples; the point is clear- by embracing the organization as a shared meta-character, much as the Estate is in Darkest Dungeon, and allowing players to source individual PCs from it accordingly, you can maintain suspension of disbelief while allowing players to engage in a wider array of playable scenarios.

And yes, you the GM can do this too. It's how I get the players in my homebrew D&D campaign invested while rolling and running multiple characters- by letting each one contribute to the progression and development of the colony in concrete ways.

Sunday, December 11, 2016

My Life as a Gamer: The Chronicles of Mystara

Of all the classic brawlers done by Capcom, the licensed Dungeons & Dragons brawlers were the best by far. Yes, even over one of my favorites, Warriors of Fate. Pick a console or PC, and you can get it now. I have it on my Steam account; get it when it's on sale.

This duo in particular is what Atlus invoked with Dragon's Crown, and has definitely influenced Behemoth's Castle Crahsers as well as newer brawlers such as Viking Squad as some degree of removal simply because the D&D arcade brawlers were so popular in their heyday. We can now relive them via PC and console ports, so we're seeing more and more people experience the magic without draining their wallets. Until Wizards of the Coast cuts a deal to make a new one--and good God, WOTC, do that--this is as good as it's going to get.

It's also a fun way to get people who may not like the arcade pace to get sufficiently interested to try the original tabletop game and its much slower pace of play, which is why I'm glad that more and more of the classic 80s Red Box D&D series (the Mentzer Basic D&D series, aka "BECMI" for its boxed set series, or "RC" for the Rules Cyclopedia) is available as PDF and POD from places like this one legally. (Yes, you can buy used off Amazon, but it's not cheap.)

I don't care to buy PDFs since it's so easy to find them for free, but POD? That's cool, as physical product actually means something worth paying for. If official D&D isn't necessary, try the retroclones; their PDFs are often freely available legally, and in print the price is quite reasonable. As for Mystara itself, the official products aren't necessary if you can read overviews on a wiki someplace and extrapolate from there.

So, until we get more D&D brawlers, or spiritual successors such as Dragon's Crown, roll your own on the tabletop- the basic D&D editions play faster than even the most skilled DMs using the friendliest newer editions (D&D3e and later) ever run, so very newbie friendly. Play, enjoy, and game on.

Saturday, December 10, 2016

My Life as a Gamer: (WOW) Yes, Mythic+ Replaces Raiding. Fucking Duh.

Lots of people that play World of Warcraft claim they don't raid for power (i.e. gear). They say that. They said it for years. Their behavior made liars of them then, and it does now. Asmongold's video below explains why:

People will take the path of least resistance. Gear is power at endgame, so people will take the least resistant path to gearing up. Once geared up, they will use that gear to exert dominance over others in PVP--instanced and open world--and try to be the biggest badass around. This is observed behavior going back to 2004 just in World of Warcraft.

So yes, when presented with a faster path to Real Ultimate Power, the vast majority of players will take it. To stay competitive, the raiders and the PVPers have to do it too- and better. It's no secret raiding's degraded, and the top-end declined, since Cataclysm brought in Looking For Raid (and before that, with the 10/25 split in The Burning Crusade), but there were sweet fuck-all for viable gearing paths until now. The results? Not hard, and contributing to burnout issues to boot, to foresee.

So, what do?

You back the fuck up immediately to the last stable iteration of the thing. That's not a gaming thing. That's everything. When shit breaks, you revert and remove. This is why you do NOT fix what is NOT broken; you just fuck it up and cause far more problems (costing you time and money while customers dip the fuck out for unbroken competitors) than you ever expected. That the developers for World of Warcraft--some of whom have been there all this time--still haven't figured this out (when I got it back in fucking elementary school makes me wonder just how competent adults in general are. (I am not confident.)

So, what was the last stable state for endgame power progression? Overall, it's been a mess since they got away from Raid or Die, so that's where you revert to and you remove ALL options that don't require raiding. Endgame crafted gear? Requires materials only gotten from raids. Gear drops from bosses? Only in raids. You get the idea.

This means restoring the original play paradigm (that got junked early on, sadly): you raid for gear to get the power you need to dominate in PVP to establish control over vital resources in the open world and maintain access to instances (and the teleporters go away; no more LFR or Dungeon Finder, leaving only the Group Finder- everyone has to go to the open world locations to access the instance). This means making all of the servers one type so everyone plays by the same ruleset: PVP. (Ideally, RP-PVP, with very strict rule enforcement.) The ability to soft-merge all servers already exists, so we do that and solve the population problem both in the short term and with one policy change (strict faction population limits per server) in the long term as well.

To truly fix the game, you have to eliminate leveling and make endgame THE game, but that's for another post.

Friday, December 9, 2016

My Life as a Gamer: A Quick Hit For You BattleTech Fans

BattleTech really does lend itself to playing a wargame/RPG hybrid campaign, built around a mercenary or special operations unit, as your default mode of play. With that in mind, I'm going to dump a scenario here:

It is 3025. You are a MechWarrior, but not a wealthy or prominent one. Your family's fortunes fell well before you could do anything about it, so now like the freelances of old you sell your sword to make your way. Garrison contracts, training contracts, rearguard contracts- the glamor is always with the House regulars, who disdain you. Until they need you, of course.

One of your House contacts offered you a deal you could not refuse: high pay, high prestige, and with it a chance to get out of the mercenary grind and back to respectability. One of the House's most brilliant, and therefore valuable, Mech engineers fell into the hands of a Periphery pretender. Get him back, and you win. Fail, and they disown all knowledge that this ever happened.

No Guts, No Galaxy.

Thursday, December 8, 2016

My Life as a Gamer: Razorfist's "Make RPGs Great Again: A Rant"

Yep, I'm giving Razorfist time on my blog again, because he's talking RPGs and I like what he's got to say- so listen.

Sure, he's talking videogames, but the same applies to tabletop RPGs. In a field still dominated, more than 40 years after first publication, by one game--Dungeons & Dragons--with only a handful of also-rans worthy of mention (Shadowrun, Traveller, RIFTS, Call of Cthulhu, Pendragon, GURPS, HERO/Champions that aren't licensed from other media (e.g. Star Wars, Robotech, Star Trek) and more dead end than a Choose Your Own Adventure book it's also long past time to not only define some shit, but to fucking enforce it.

So, let's define shit: A RPG is NOT a storytelling medium. It's derived from wargames, so it's built around those conceits: objective-based problem-solving, from which you use imperfect information filtered by perspective limitations when employing limited resources to do so. In short, it's a fucking sandbox where you determine what you want to do and how you do it, and you're working with sad or bad intel and only what you've got with you.

The injection of narrative logic into a problem-solving, wargame-derivative medium is the first big mistake a lot of people--including the so-called "professionals"--make. Once you introduce narrative logic, you inevitably have to fuck with player agency (including denying it altogether, albeit under an illusion of choice), which is the same error videogames make (for technical reasons, usually). Why accept a false limitation?

I'll tell you why: most people are long-habituated to be passive in their entertainment. RPGs, like real life, reward pro-active people who take charge- they encourage the bold, the daring, the entrepreneurial, in short leaders. And guess what? Most people are not leaders. If there is a fatal flaw to be had, there it is.

All of the changes made to RPGs to make them more mass-audience friendly also make them more passive-follower friendly because, quite frankly, that IS what most people are and will ever be. The few who rise above this are those who see the leadership potential and step into the role. Until we stop bullshitting ourselves and face up to this, the problems at all levels that tabletop RPGs suffer from--and have for decades--will endure. Shit games, shit players, shit cons, shit business- all endures until you face up to the reality of what this fucking medium IS and DOES. Once you do, shit unfucks itself overnight.

Let the videogame RPGs be passive-friendly. They have to; the technology demands it. Tabletop? Let it be bold: "Show up with a plan or not at all." So what if this means the scene shirks? This the age of the Internet; so long as you have a decent connection, you're good to go and can play as you please. (Yes, even with your crazy homebrew; Tabletop Simulator and a VOIP app of some sort will handle your shit like a champ.) If you want to take on a challenge, belly up to the bar and break out the dice because here fortune favors the bold willing and able to Git Gud. Only a Souls game approaches what tabletop does natively. so embrace that shit.

Wednesday, December 7, 2016

Narrative Warfare: Why History Repeats (A Pearl Harbor Day Special)

I won't spend most of today's post talking about how Pearl Harbor directly relates to me. I did that on this day last year, and I don't like repeating myself, so I won't.

What I want to focus upon is the effects of an event upon a nation over time. In short, they are not permanent, and thinking so reliably leads to massive historical reversals. Yes, like Trump's election- and that won't be the last. Last year, I said that the peace we've enjoyed in the West since World War 2 came at the price of the blood, bone, and fire sacrificed to pay for it. Well, peace is a utility and utilities have recurring billing cycles. You can pay more frequently, at lesser cost, or less frequently at far greater costs- but one way or another, you must pay.

The smart move, of course, is to pay more frequently at the reduced cost. The cost, in this case, is the sacrifice of time and ego required to maintain that peace by putting in the necessary maintenance work required to keep that peace useful and relevant. It's not just remembering what happened--all the History Channel programs in the world cannot do that--or finding how you connect to that generation that paid the price, but to see how what they did then matters to you here and now.

That price, as I now know, cannot be paid by everyone. It requires a degree of empathy and intelligence that most people lack, which is why such sacrifices tend to last only until the generation that made it dies off. It requires fidelity to fact, truth, and reality that often contradicts convenient narratives promulgated by parties seeking to wield feels for power-play objectives (which means that the majority capable only of Rhetoric are often the reason for why history keeps repeating; History outside of living memory is Dialectic in nature).

What you need to recognized is that the majority of the population alive today is outside of living memory of World War II. Anyone in their family with such ties is dead, so no one alive has any connection to it and they are unable to place themselves--even with all the media about it to watch, read, or play--so they have no immediate or visceral connection that makes them give a shit. That's what we mean when we say that, for all intents and purposes, World War 2 is ancient history- something to enjoy as entertainment, but nothing more (if that).

And that's just the historical Western nations. Outside of the West? If you're not Japanese, you really don't give a shit. (And them? Not so much, and then only insofar as it matters to their national narratives.) We've already got this disconnect with regard to World War 1; it's going to become increasingly obvious that it's there with World War 2 and the Cold War. Without that emotional basis, the world order we've had since cannot possibly endure.

And so, the conditions for reversals is now present. Trump's election, Brexit, the No win in Italy, Le Pen's threatening Frexit if she wins, the increasingly obvious corruption in Austria, the exposure of global media hoaxing and fraud worldwide, and (of course) the looming death of the debt-based global banking system all look to fall like dominos over the next few years. World War 3 is NOT off the table yet; only one possible cause removed. The reversals not only of the post-WW2 order, but of far older elements of regional and world oder, are now coming- what we'll see on January 1st of 2101 will more resemble 1801 than 2001. (And that, if we are lucky.)

Why? Because, well...

And memory ends with death.

Tuesday, December 6, 2016

My Life as a Gamer: FBI Closes The Book On Gamergate

It's done. The FBI finished their investigation into Gamergate. How do we know this? Twitter user Livebeef filed a Freedom of Information Act request, and just got the results. Discussion is (as of this post) ongoing in this thread at KotakuInAction. The revelations are interesting, but one thing is clear: the anti-Gamergate narrative is now proven to be bullshit, conclusively.

In short, the hoaxing media lied about and hoaxed Gamergate all along- just as the movement had claimed. No ethics in journalism then, and none now. (And, quite frankly, none ever; "Remember the Maine!" was a media hoax that got the U.S. into the Spanish-American War.) I would expect that any follow-up pieces will double-down yet again on officially-discredited claims with some sort of stupid sophistry.

I'd like to believe that it's over. I know that it's not. SJWs Always Come Back For More.

Monday, December 5, 2016

The Christmas Season Is Upon Us

Well, it's that time again: Christmas shopping.

Fortunately I have only two people to shop for, both of which are easy to handle. I have my budget and I know what I intend to do with it, so it's now just a matter of getting out and getting it done. I know that at least one of them is already doing her shopping, and likely the other is also, since we tend to get things sorted in the time right after Thanksgiving so we have time to actually enjoy the Christmas season.

And yes, that is important. Even if you live someplace where snow isn't a thing at this time of the year, the ability to sit back and just enjoy a holiday season for what it is--and thereby appreciate what the spirit of this season is--and be glad that you've got what you've got. It's that simple, folks.

So, have yourself a Merry Christmas this year. Or Krampus will find you. Don't let Krampus find you. He'll make you watch movies so bad that Mystery Science Theater 3000 would never touch on grounds of sanity retention, or stick you in a room with people who think Rey isn't a Mary Sue and will browbeat you without mercy to show it.

Sunday, December 4, 2016

Bitchwork Bots: Not Terminator, But Might As Well Be

So, I see that recently another push in the hoaxing media for a $15 minimum wage. Usual retorts--robots, software, etc.--get said, but there is something left out. The workers are protesting, sure, but they have one valid point: not everyone can get past this level of unskilled, often menial, bitchwork.

It's not just a few. The majority of people across the globe will never become good enough to qualify for something better than bitchwork jobs. The rampant issues with academic fraud in India, China, and so on exists not merely for family and individual status, but also due to the fact that bitchwork in most places might as well be fending for yourself with a side of serfdom. The corruption and incompetence that comes from such issues arises because basic work is so ill-paid that you would better off staying on the farm or tending the flock/herd than ever go anywhere else or do anything else.

Don't tell me that this ain't so. I've ghosted amongst them, listening to them talk frankly during their daily hustles, and I talk with others who've walked among them--here and elsewhere--be it as cops, missionaries, medics, managers, etc. and eventually we all have our stories of how we come across someone who just can't do a goddamn thing without supervision. My time in the bitchwork trenches showed me plenty of people who never would leave them; they lacked the ability, the mindset, the skills, or (often) some combination thereof. For them, the only hope they had was to increase their wages or dip into crime to satisfy their image of how life should be, or (often) both.

Automation is an existential threat to billions of people because it takes away the only things they will ever do. Bitchwork is called that for damn good reasons, but it's something, and those thinking Basic Income will come are delusional: those who own the machines will never be so magnanimous.

So, what do you do with a massive base of people who are incapable of honest upgrading of their capacities to get useful work in an age where all of the bitchwork is done by robots and software? Governments are already straining (where they are honest, which is few) to deal with those on assistance as it is; this will not endure after any economic collapse. We're going to see balkanization regardless of how successful automation is, but automation will only make it happen worse and faster, because those permanently displaced by bitchwork bots will have all the time in the world to fight against the diversity in proximity that competes for what remains in terms of viable paths to securing food and shelter.

It turns out that there is a choice to make here: go with the bots (and end up killing billions) or scrap them (and accept limits to technological growth). Count on the corpse piles.

Saturday, December 3, 2016

My Life in Fandom: Marvel's Teasing a Guardians Sequel

Yeah, Marvel Studios has SJW problems, but so far they're managing to deliver. Guardians of the Galaxy was one of their best received films since Iron Man and Avengers, so I have some reason to hope that this sequel delivers. Also, Baby Groot is as awesome as Groot was in the original.

I got a lot of shit in University when I argued that the first duty of literature is to entertain, as nothing else matters if the reader quits reading. I know that plenty of people got shat upon for saying that the first duty of film and television--and games--is also to entertain, for the same reason. Well, someone at Marvel Studios got that memo which is why the MCU films usually deliver on said entertainment- and the first film was one of the best to do so. This sequel looks, at the very least, to do the same.

So yeah, expect another fun film for May of next year, with Thor: Ragnarok coming into view thereafter. When the full trailer comes, let's hope that the optimism is valid.

Friday, December 2, 2016

The Game Awards Are Fucking Useless

In the continuing attempt to mainstream and pacify a thing that needs neither, Spike aired their game awards show this past week. Geoff Keighley, the Doritos Pope, hosted again. No one cared, again, but some folks took the time to turn this ridiculous exercise in entryism and idiocy into something entertaining. Sooner or later, and with greater frequency, this leads to reactions like this by Shiba In Beige:

Fuck that. Fortunately, while it's all messy as fuck, this IS being resisted successfully as more and more of this lying shitstains get cut out of the loop and the links directly between Game Maker and Gamer get stronger. As for other reactions, Totalbiscuit's Snarkathon isn't unusual.

More and more of the makers are getting the message: Dump The SocJus Shit. More and more entryists are outing themselves as their freakout and meltdown in public, allowing gamers and makers to effortlessly cut them out of their lives- and thus out of the loop. Let None Survive. With the will go such useless things as award shows. The only awards that matter are "Pay To The Order Of" followed by "That Was Dope! More Plz."

Thursday, December 1, 2016

My Life as a Gamer: The Moments That Make It Worthwhile

It's moments like this that keep me gaming after all these years:

The streamer--Cathisrad--had been chasing this mount for most of a year, since Timewalking got added to the game. It dropped for her tonight, the night before her birthday, in what is the last stream of the week for her due to work obligations. I'd been following her channel for much of this time, and I'd been joking that this was "The Mount That Never Drops" and she's chasing the dragon (pun intended). Well, that quest is over. Time to see what's next.