The Path to D&D's Restoration: Go For The Legitimacy of Real D&D

How do you beat D&D at being D&D?

You have to comprehend how branding works, how the Network Effect works, and how they interact. D&D has the dominant network of users in this category, a position it's enjoyed since its first publishing, and it has so far succeeded in fending off competitors due to exploiting that position to present itself as the legitimate leader of TRPGs.

The curious thing about legitimacy is that it is a contingent quality, and that contingency is the ability to fulfill the needs and desires of a target audience- your key backers, in other words. They support you so long as you support them, because without them you cannot do a damned thing; even Alexander the Great had to end his conquests when his men refused to go further.

If you want to overthrow D&D as the top dog of RPGs, then you have to swing at its legitimacy and that means pointing out how it fails to satisfy the customers that you seek to make your own. This is where "Fake D&D" and "Real D&D" has its substance; by showing how the current edition fails to fulfill the customer expectations of the game, you attack its legitmacy and weaken the brand. When you then follow up by showing how your competitor fulfills those expectations, you can position yourself as "Real D&D" and begin taking those dissatisfied customers away. Eventually Fake D&D collapses and you are D&D.

The cost? That you are not allowed to use D&D, as that's a trademark. You'll have to use surrogates while you usurp D&D as the top dog of the tabletop RPG world. That you have to commit to being what D&D used to be--an authentic adventure experience, deriving from wargames, as it was through to the Dragonlance days--and ride that bronco for as long as you can. That you commit to restoring the entire scene to that standard, and putting to the flame all notion of a "community" (and, therefore explicityly anti-SJW).

Court the boys and their fathers, those seeking to compete and test and strive against uncaring worlds and remorseless odds. Let the rest look on wistfully beyond the gates, gates those same wistful watchers forged by their own refusal to actively participate and take on those challenges, and hear not--hear never--calls for Muh Inclusion ever again. Skin the game or get the fuck out.

Just Say No To Indiana Jones and the SJW Shitfest

The World Class Bullshitters have a morning livestream now, and today that morning show addressed Indiana Jones 5.

While the show doesn't stick strictly with Indy 5, it starts there. It's not good no matter how you slice it, and the fundamental reason is that Harrison Ford is old. He may love Indy as much as he loathed Han, but he's too old for the game now and he knows it; any film featuring him in the role can't realistically push Old Indy as a viable action hero.

Further, the same man who got his writing gig on The Last Jedi via nepotism (Kazdan the Younger) will be on this project, so SJW trash will be in it unless the director and producer ride herd on him hard. Right now, that's Culty Kathy as producer so that's not happening.

There's nothing good to be had from an Indy 5 until Kathy's out at Lucasfilm, and then only if her replacement isn't another SJW shitbag. Until the current corruption is cast out, it would be best that nothing happens at all--not so much as a short story--than to let the convergence consume the other valuable property that Lucasfilm owns.

And the same applies to extant franchise properties across the board, especially now that Disney's moving to buy Fox. Concentration is the path to becoming Too Big To Fail, and getting that big means you become able to ignore your customers in favor of institutional support- something SJWs always go for because they want that insulation effect.

Pray that nothing ever happens to Indy until the SJW menace is put down for the heresy that it is. Trashing one iconic property is enough.

The RPG Pundit Talks Backstories & Other Storygaming Bullshit

It's the Pundit. You know he's not here to tell you how to pick out doilies for your sitting room decor. Time for a reality check, Fake Gamers.

While he talks about how you, as the Game Master, don't need to bother with the players' backstories I would go one step further and just forbid them entirely.

The reason is simple: the revealed pattern of behavior is that backstories are used to shoehorn narrative trope bullshit into what is not a medium of narrative storytelling, but rather a medium of liminal wargaming. That's why the backstory advice is bad; it's the propagation of a long-standing category error meant to push the pussification of tabletop RPGs. (Storytelling as a game is all about avoidance of facing reality as it is, using "because plot" and "because narrative" as justifications for enabling their delusions.)

The Pundit hits on how this should be handled: encouraging would-be writers to stop shitting up RPGs and actually write their damned stories- kick out the frustrated novelists. They have no excuse now due to the ease of independent publishing, so we can skip straight to cowardice and SJW agenda-pushing now for those who refuse to cease and desist.

And that doesn't bode well for Fake D&D and its fellow travelers in the hobby, which means that it's the way to go for Real D&D.

Narrative Warfare: Fake D&D In Action, The Inclusiveness Scam

And folks say there is no SJW push to poz D&D:

So... @Wizards_DnD I have a humble request. Instread of trying to have magic related trans-ish things in the game to just sort if represent trans experiences, could you like...Just have some cool canonically trans figures in the cannon? Just straight up put trans ppl in the game?

— Kikka (@KikkaVO) June 27, 2018

Notice that this conforms to the Fake D&D For People Who Can't Hack Reality post I made recently. This SJW, unable to accept that reality doesn't give two fucks about its hot takes on gender, is so addled in the brainmeats that it makes demands of a publisher of a game of imagination in the wargame mode to conform to its insanity.

Let's list how wrong this is:

• It could just make the necessary "inclusiveness" changes itself, specific to its table and the games it runs. This, however, is not sufficient amgydala relief for its anxiety which is why this measure will not be accepted when confronted with it.
• It could make the effort to jump through the hoops required to write third-party material demonstrated the changes it seeks, but that means competing in the marketplace (and there is one) for quasi-sanctioned material and therefore risk losing to the revealed behavior of gamers who don't have time for this lunatic and its bullshit. They want playable content, not gamified screeds. No relief there. Publishing wholly independent material will be rejected for the same reason.
• It could just form associations with others of like mind and play with them exclusively, making their games conform to their wishes, but see the first point above.

The reasons for pushing this scam is two-fold, both related to amgydala-focused stress. The first is because forcing this from the "official" source grants social proof in the eyes of Mech Pilots and SJWs alike, which means it will be enforced in Organized Play and other official participation events. The second follows the first, in that the official recognition and enforcement is meant to insult and humiliate--to defame and degrade--their opposition; it's "Bake The Cake, Bigot".

And here's how you know it's a scam: much like someone who pursues a hookup only to say they bagged the target, the SJW pushes this scam only to say they got it done. They don't really play, they don't really care, they just want the benefit of the brand association without putting in the work to sustain the substance that made it so hot. That "Fan of the Brand" routinely overlaps with "SJW" is not an accident; they're similar, but not the same- think in terms of cousins in a tight-knit family.

No sooner do they tank the brand like Culty Kathy tanked Star Wars than they flee the brand, disavow that they ever had anything to do with it 1984 style, and move on to suck the life out of another unsuspecting sucker. Fake D&D is the result of Fake and Quisling Geeks making that very change--from substance to identity brand--and letting the frauds eat it from within.

All just to assauge the amgydala and avoid seeing reality as it is. Rabbit-think, not even once.

Narrative Warfare: The Unpersoning of Laura Ingalls Wilder

Those who seek to change the past rarely are as malevolent as the Party of Orwell's 1984 would suggest. Instead, they are cowards seeking to make reality change to conform to their desires- desires for a stress-free life of infinite resources. To that end, they will readily descend into madness and take everyone they can along with them as they create Hell on Earth. Observe. (H/t Men of the West)

Laura Ingalls Wilder’s name will be removed from a major award because of how the “Little House on the Prairie” author portrayed minorities in her novels, the children’s division of the American Library Association voted Saturday.

“This decision was made in consideration of the fact that Wilder’s legacy, as represented by her body of work, includes expressions of stereotypical attitudes inconsistent with ALSC’s core values of inclusiveness, integrity and respect, and responsiveness,” the Association for Library Service to Children said in a statement after the unanimous vote.

According to the organization’s website, “the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award honors an author or illustrator whose books, published in the United States, have made, over a period of years, a substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children.”

It will now be called the Children’s Literature Legacy Award.

The SJWs that pushed this change--this unpersoning, this unthinging--did so out of a pressing need to resolve pressure on their amygdalas. So stressful is the reality of the past, and those who wrote about it, that these rabbits would sooner flee into the waiting tentacles of madness than adapt to the fact that reality is not one big happy party full of pretty people doing pretty things (and other pretty people).

This is why they do it: to remove the threat to their illusions. It's not a calculating, cunning, and cold manipulation; it's the freak out reaction of a spoiled child that knows what terrifying him is reality but won't admit it and does all that is possible to deny it. If it weren't for the fact that their decisions have consequences upon others, especially the generations following them, it would be comical.

But it's not. This move is wrong, and it not only needs to be called out with great thunder, but the hammer needs to come down on them. As they are rabbits, they are vulnerable to shaming, so shame them good and hard for being cowards and weaklings too afraid of words written by a dead woman. Fire up the Rhetoric cannons, go forth into the field, and know no fear for the Emperor Protects. They will move against her further, and when they do- wham!

Narrative Warfare: Yes, SJWs, They ARE Your Customers

Today, Dragon Award winner and nominee Brian Niemeier put down a reality check on Twitter about the reality of what we who entertain have to accept if we are going to succeed. I'll put it together below:

A reality check for writers who may have been taken in by Chuck, The-Evil-That-Devours:

1. The correct definition of "art", universally known before Modernism muddied the waters, is "a work performed to a standard".
2. Painting a fence is no less an art than painting a still life.
3. To qualify as art, a work must conform to an objective standard. Beauty is not in the eye of the beholder. The difference between good and bad art is real and independent of the observer.
4. Consumers of art have a right to hold artisans to the professional standards of their field. A reader is no less justified in complaining about a badly written novel than a homeowner is in complaining to a contractor about a shoddily build garage.

5. A product is indeed judged by how well it serves its purpose.

   The purpose of a novel is to entertain.

   You, the author, are indeed a monkey dancing and capering for the reader's amusement. You are the servant, not the master. You are a clown.

When a reader spends hard-earned money that could have paid for movies, video games, or beer on your clowning, you are to be grateful.

Every author secretly fears he is a fraud. He is right. Heed this advice, or be exposed for the big-shoed, red-nosed joke you are.

The SJWs in our entertainment media, the ones whining about Muh Toxic Fandom, know that they can't compete. What they want to do is take over stuff they think is Too Big To Fail, and find their sustenance by taxpayer subsidies and art grants and so on- just like they're used to from academia.

What this does is shift the criteria for success from merit in competition to satisfy a customer (and yes, you ARE a customer of Star Wars, et. al., contrary to the bullshit spawned by minor Mouse Wars functionaries) to social status signalling and random selection. This shifts the grounds for contention from making something of substance to attention-whoring and ingroup/outgroup politics to game the odds of receiving unearned windfalls from a (seemingly) limitless cornucopia of currency.

(Note: Yes, that's applied r/K Selection Theory, and it's why I accept the theory as valid- it works when in the field.)

This is a consistent pattern. They retreat from reality because they cannot deal with it as it is, and instead of taking up the challenge to adapt to reality as it is and overcome it they flee like screaming children and demand Big Daddy or whatever make the boogeyman go away and then give them ice cream.

The way to defeat them is to deny them the escape they seek. Put them on Death Ground. Either they overcome, or they succumb, and if they overcome the way is open to regenerate their morality and make them into one of us- a real Saul-on-the-Road moment.

The way to deny them is to show them up, loudly and proudly, by demonstrating how you better serve the customer than they do- by making and selling superior alternatives to something that they've hollowed out into a husk wearing a skinsuit that is a formerly good brand. They show up and expect that peacocking will suffice. You show up, lap them several times while drifting and doing donuts around them, and now their customers are yours and they wonder who's going to buy their milkshakes and pay off their student loans.

And the freakouts to follow will be glorious to behold, if the present ones are any indication. If you do your part, those popcorn futures will turn out to be profitable indeed. When it happens, be grateful and give thanks for it. It goes a long way.

Fake D&D: For Those Who Fear Reality

Fake D&D in a nutshell:

DM culture is saying how you're totally gonna kill your players' characters and laughing at their fear but secretly stacking the deck in their favor #DnD5e

— Eva 🌈 (@evaoddveig) June 24, 2018

Yeah, I had an erudite and witty rejoinder full of cleverness to show off how SMRT I am.

HAHAHAHAHAHA!

Nope.

A good DM, a competent DM, is Crom. Breath live into the world, then let them strive for it. Let the dice fall where they may. Victory is only valuable when it's earned. https://t.co/ll8Ex1EA41

— Bradford C. Walker (@MrBCWalker) June 24, 2018

Who the hell actually wants the Game Master to cheat, either for or against them? No one sane, that's for sure.

I got a response from yesterday's post that nicely summarizes Real D&D's essence:

Moldvay D&D, and AD&D, the original “roguelike” games. https://t.co/XNwjp1ixFr

ACKs by @_Autarch_ fits the same bill. They also have a new kickstarter, for a dungeon where a lot of characters are likely to die off.

Horribly.

— LastRedoubt🐻 (@vfm_5411) June 24, 2018

"Rogue-like" is the magic phrase you're looking for. "It's the Dark Souls of (whatever)." is the phrase you're looking for , and if you ever played a Souls game you'll know why its fans love them and keep coming back for more. This is Real D&D in videogame form. It's a real test of player skill first and foremost; the more powerful your character becomes means that you're able to handle more challenges, either on your own or with others- be they other players' playing with you or your Henchmen aiding your man in wrangling a bunch of hirelings to the job site.

And yes, this translates to tabletop RPGs generally.

That Fake D&D shit? "Oh no, I will adjust reality to favor you poor dears." or "WRONGTHINKER! YOU AUTOFAIL ALL THE THINGS!" and so you stop having a proper game and instead this Mother May I bullshit where you have to sync brainmeats with everyone else like you're the fucking Borg or Cybermen and follow the One True Narrative with the One True Party down the Yellow Brick Road (and never look behind the curtain) OR ELSE!. They'll do their damnedest to run a Shame Game on you to make you conform. Such Sparrow. Much Signalling. So Brave.

And if you think that's a stunning rebuke, you're really going to blow your gaskets: Gygax was right about strict time records.

Why?

Because in Real D&D, there is No One True Party.

In a given campaign, you were expected to roll and play multiple characters. Why? Because sometimes your Magic-User wasn't able to go out due to ongoing magic item or spell research, your Cleric is in the middle of a lengthy retreat to undergo a ritual, your Thief is still laid up from the wounds he took previously, and your Fighter is still training after getting enough XP to level up. So you played a Henchman, or you rolled a new 1st level character, and you signed on to tonight's delve into the dungeon or into the wilds.

Gaining new or improved class features? Took time. Recovering from injuries? Took time. Meanwhile NPCs had their own schemes to advance, events beyond anyone's control rolled in and out, and Time Marched On. Skipping shit for narrative convenience damages the verisimilitude that Real D&D demands for it to grant satisfaction from those that face its challenges and overcome them via effort and keen management of risk- by earning their rewards.

Which just goes to show that Feels Trips Ruin Everything, and Real D&D ain't no safe-space Feels Trip like one of those hybrid movie-rides at the theme parks you see on TV. (Insert ticket, ride the monorail, have a spectacle play out before you, buy the merch at the shop on the far end and remember to watch the livestreams on Twitch- you're a Real Adventurer now!) You have to risk, put skin in the game, for the reward to actually matter to you; it's basic psychology.

Lifestyle consumer brands are all about bullshitting you into thinking you're one of the big boys because you feel like it, and you feel like it by watching others do it while all you do is spend money on crap you don't need that has the brand on it in order to (Stop me if this sounds familiar.) signal your identity as a brand-follower.

This is what WOTC and the other SJWs pushing this crap are out to do, and their LOL-meme response to #DnDgate shows that all they care about is Identity Brand Affiliation. "Make friends" is piss-easy; hang out in a chatroom and blather bullshit while watching a show or video. It's much too hard for them to actually take a risk, put some skin in the game, and work for their happy endings so they won't belly up to the table, they won't roll 3d6 in order, and they sure as hell won't accept that their man is not a hero out of the gate totally unearned starring in a drama that's All About Them.

And we are right to exclude them from our ranks. They are fakes and frauds. They are not one of us.

And yet, the path is open to all. Just sit down, and face the game as it is. Not as you want it to be.

The only ones keeping the gate--as one should expect of SJWs--are the fakes. They fear the fires that forge the soul into steel as much in the virtual worlds as they do in the real one, so they fear those who come forth forged into souls strong as steel and seek to keep it from the people.

To Succeed In Worlds Real and Virtual: See Reality AS IT IS!

It's Saturday. Who wants some irony?

When I got word that Ivan Throne got deplatformed from Twitter hours after hitting 13K Followers, I had to laugh. I did not need to read Ivan's next email to know what the motivation for the move was, or that the excuse was the use of Schrondinger's Rules to make an account clearly dead. He got deplatformed for the same reason that Milo Yiannopoulous and Vox Day got deplatformed: he gainsayed the SJW Narrative, did so early and often, and acquired an audience strong enough that he could not be ignored anymore.

Not that it matters. Ivan's anti-fragile, as his site makes quite clear. He's fine.

I mention this because there a thing I like about Ivan, and those he routinely associates with: They insist upon dealing with reality as it is. No should haves, could haves, would haves- none of that. Only as it is, regardless of how they feel about it. They see things as they are, decide what to do about it, and then get on with doing it. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Proper, real, authentic D&D operates on the same principle.

Remember that one phrase that encapsulates real D&D: "What do you do? That is the call to deal with the situation as it is, not as you or your man wishes it were- which is exactly was Narrative Storytelling Bullshit (i.e. The Feels Trip) is about and does in play.

Before those damned Dragonlance modules and the novels that accompanied them began the degradation in earnest, the wargame ethos--which is the same principle--demanded that you play this way. (Why else would warfare be based on deception? To make you think that reality is not what it is; "gaslighting" is older than dirt.) You had to work within the constraints at hand. Didn't pack that wand? Too bad. Didn't notice those orcs circling around to flank you? Not my problem. Accidentally fireballed your own side? You dun goofed. Run into something you can't handle? Can't escape? Sucks to be Hapless Adventurer's Corpse #42; now roll 3d6 in order and get on with it.

You're expected to get better at the game, because this is a game and games have win and loss conditions. This requires that you get clear information on how you fucked up so that you know why you fucked up, and then go about fixing what you did wrong so that you do not fuck up the same way twice. Feels Trips don't do this; you magically go "Could Woulda Shoulda!" and POOF! the Narrative shifts so that something Mary Sueish happens instead ("consequences" without teeth that only enforce Suedom)- and that assumes that results have any connection by merit to gameplay. (Narrator: They often do not.)

Fake D&D does its best to deny the necessity to deal with the reality of the situation as it is. Metagame mechanics of all sorts, official and otherwise, foster this delusional paradigm. Muh Storytelling inevitably demands that you go to the point where nothing you or your man does matters, so long as it contradicts Muh Narrative. All within the Narrative; none without the Narrative. It's Commie through and through, as one expects from a paradigm inspired by a political philosophy written by an utterly incompetent con-man.

Fake D&D is all about the denial of reality, and demand that the world change to confirm to your desires Because Reasons, which means that since denying reality always ends in delusions like "D&D is what I want it to be!". They wonder why the gamers that made the game profitable and influential drop the game like the zombie it's become (one in the head, two in the chest) and walk away to find (or make) a real game to play.

Real D&D recognizes a simple truth: Gaming is a hobby that demands active participation. If you don't play, you're not one of us. Git Gud or Get The Fuck Out.

You don't have to be an expert out of the gate, but you do have to have a commitment to improve yourself every step of the way- be it as a player or as a Game Master. You don't shame the guy showing that commitment; you cheer that guy on, honor his effort, and as he is willing to learn teach him what he needs to know and show him how it's done.

Ivan, I'm sure, would recognize that ethic- as would his allies. It is this ethic--this commitment to deal with reality as it is, and build up others ability to do so--that Fake D&D hates and destroys as surely as SJWs and Leftists hate and destroy the same in real life. Same process, same motivations, same solutions.

This is why the SJWs in tabletop gaming came at it to begin with: it held, and holds, cultural influence far disproportionate to its actual presence. The unquestionably masculine--authentically masculine--quality derived from its wargame origins gave boys that otherwise had no route to manhood a way to get there. The early generation, before the first attacks and the internal warfare that led to Gary Gygax's ouster, turned out well enough overall; the "gamers are losers" thing came after that, when the pozzing began, and now the generation raised in that poisoned environment are now in control of the legacy companies.

And they're failing.

Not that trying to turn the game into a lifestyle brand wasn't tried before. Even Gary made this mistake, because That's How Things Were Done then. Gamers didn't go for it; the kids--that would be my cohort--who came into it with the Basic sets of 1981 and 1983 were the targets (but we already had far more appealing options, so chose those). But once those attempts marked out as failures, they got cut fast. Only the novels had any purchase, and even then they soon outstayed their welcome; the novel trade was a big reason for TSR's demise. Gamers want to game, not read or watch or whatever.

You misspelled "Deliberately and arbitrarily changed to suit a fucking retarded conception of what the business is."

Put another way, the changes made over time are exhibitions of a persistent failure to see reality as it is in favor of some fake idea of what it should be. Ryan Dancey's production of D&D's 3rd edition was the closest the game's business got to that ruthless ideal, and even he cucked in the end. (But not before he snookered the moneybags into allowing the Open Gaming License.) Good thing he's more involved in poker now; it's a better use of your money than tabletop gaming's legacy business bullshit anyway.

And, as we've seen, this delusional mindset has done nothing but make things worse--for D&D, for TRPGs, for the hobby--as those steeped in the first round of dazzling bullshit took over the reigns and decided that Feels Trump Reals. The ramping of D&D as a lifestyle brand found its genesis then--what is a futile ad campaign attacking World of Warcraft but "D&D as Identity Brand"--and now those gamers who would play properly either use competing media alternatives or (increasingly) independent TRPG alternatives (i.e. the Old School Renaissance).

Because no one sane wants to associate with a delusional mob that riots over a condiment- or those that would, like Fake D&D.

As Ivan would say (and, I think, appreciate), look well oh wolves! Few understand this. (But those who do, well...)

Narrative Warfare: The Gamma Tell (#DnDgate)

Earlier this week, Dragon Award winner and nominee Brian Niemeier wrote an entertaining and instructive post on how to deal with SJWs. Last last night, within an hour of dawn, I got one of the more erudite RPGNet SJWs coming into my Google Plus feed.

...who is actually claiming that the D&D community has "a leadership and a government with coercive power"?

Notice the utterly disingenuous way he came into the thread. This is a clear tell of the Gamma Male, coming in with a psuedo-dialetic opening because the follow-up is a pure Rhetorical attack all about Muh Intellect and Muh Superior Acumen. This is pure Gamma behavior, and after all this time reading and listening to the Supreme Dark Lord, Vox Day, address the matter you're damn right that I've picked up on the tells. Gammas are reliably SJWs, and we all know that SJWs Always Lie, Double-Down, & Project.

What he betrays by coming into my feed (and into Brian's clone of the post) is that he is one of the very people assuming those fraudulent gatekeeping positions. By acting like a typical backbiting woman, freaking out over trigger words and demanding a direct response, he intends to (a) initiate a Point-And-Shriek swarm attack and (b) use the expected response from me to Discredit & Disqualify my assertion through a Rhetorical display of Sophist wordsalad. It's pure academic Baffle With Bullshit. (And, as Jurgen has a PhD, he's very skilled in piling it higher and deeper.)

Because he can't get to the Pundit, or Venger, or Grim he's coming after me with the aim to shame me into line.

This is how the governance occurs. They apply social pressure via Shame-based Rhetoric, in an Area-of-Effect fashion, to weaponize emotions against the target and the target's associates- mostly the associates, by making an example of the target. (This is how the thought process of de-platforming, unpersoning, and unthinking operations work.) So long as the target can be shamed into compliance, the SJWs can and do govern what "community" they converge with their cultish crap.

If you need an infographic, then this one below will do. Remember: SJWs Always Project. Hence, this they throw at us is what they routinely do in turn. You won't unsee it once you do.

My Life as a Gamer: Gaslighting the Hobby (#DnDgate)

Gaze upon this cancer, friends. Gaze upon it, and know it for the disease it is. Nothing good comes of this.

Want to pre-order RICK and MORTY VS DUNGEONS & DRAGONS (issue 1 in August)?
Take this handy-dandy order form to your favorite local comic shop!@PatrickRothfuss @meanwhilestudio @jameslucasjones @sarahgaydos @DavidHedgecock @RickandMorty @Wizards_DnD @IDWPublishing @OniPress pic.twitter.com/UWD1P52QQR

— Jim Zub (@JimZub) June 21, 2018

This is what WOTC wants you to accept as being part-and-parcel of being a D&D gamer now. I've mentioned this previously, thanks to a YouTube user called "BOOFIRE191" and his video, "Fans of the Brand":

As all things in the emerging #DnDgate go, this is tame--we're all expecting more feminists and SJWs to turn out to be sex pests and similar offenders soon, just like everywhere else--but nonetheless important. Why? Gaslighting.

The scam relies on getting you to buy into the lie of there being a "D&D community", which implies that there is a leadership and a government with coercive power. The SJWs have already assumed these fraudulent positions, and by consistently acting as if this has always been the case they seek to cause gamers to doubt their own memories of how things really are and accept this fake vision as the real one.

And, just like the convergence process within a formal organization, once SJWs acquire gatekeeping positions within a hobby or scene they seek to use it to purge everyone that won't bend the knee and drink the demon's blood. The means is rigid ideological conformity used to provoke reactions by dissidents, and then used as a club to beat them into submission or destruction; the deplatforming, unpersoning, etc. stems from this weaponized psychology.

Which makes the SJWs into dishonest actors. There is no dialectic to be had, because neither data nor facts mean anything; only the raw power present in rhetorical action has any effect. Brian Niemeier's gone into this in some detail at his blog here and here over the last two days; read them and gain from his wisdom.

You might as well deal with them as you would zombies or Terminators, because you're facing threats just as relentless. Once you see their pattern of behavior, you can't unsee it- and you won't dismiss them as harmless ever again. Memorize this infographic; it can save your job, your career, even your life (since they have an armed wing in Antifa).

WOTC staffers, D&D streamers, etc. are all pushing this Fake Gamer gaslight campaign. They're claiming that just consuming the stuff is enough; it's not- you have to actually play to be a player, and make it your hobby to be a gamer. That's the difference between Brand Fans (passive, easily led consumers) and Substance Fans (active, engaged participants in a scene).

It is not a surprise to find the SJWs pushing the brand scam because those "fans" are easier to control. It's the same concept, and execution, as the population replacements being pushed by traitorous governments across the West and it has the same aims, and goals. That's why #DnDgate is necessary; to openly and publically push back against this fraud, just as #comicsgate is doing now and #gamergate did before that.

And the key to victory is the same, starting with Not Being PayPigs. Don't give money to those who hate you. At all. Ever.

My Life In Fandom: What The Hell Am I (Not) Looking At?

This is something so bizarre that I have to make a post about it here.

As I noted the other day at the Study, I'm taking this whole independent author thing seriously. So when I listen to Nick Cole and Jason Anspach talk about the importance of having the right cover for your book--that it must tell the reader, at a glance, that your book is This Specific Thing--I immediately went to Amazon and looked over the niches where the big authors in Space Opera roam like the apex predators of the age.

Uh, what.

My criticisms in detail I will save for a future post at the Study, but for now I want to point out the following:

• A distinct lack of man-sized beam swords. East OR West, I saw one cover that wasn't Star Wars have such a figure.
• The mecha depicted are distinctly following BattleTech's lead in their original mechs. We're deep into the Real Robot end, where we're more in the Walking Tank than the Giant-Sized Soldier model of design.
• Space warships are routinely in the Technoform Box model, aping Battlestar Galactica more often than not.
• You never saw a cover with a space battleship, a giant robot, and a guy wielding a beam sword.

It's the last one that really got me. Not from trad-pub. Not from indies. Not from Western outlets. Not from Eastern ones. No one's ever made that mix on a cover. Yes, even after looking at games and movies and so on. No one's done it. After all of the elements that would go into Space Opera and its Planetary Romance predecessor, no one's mixed those things together. We haven't even seen ship plus mech plus swordman, and that means Aura Battler Dunbine never did it despite having all three. (The ship on a technicality, but still.)

Hell, I thought Palladium might have blundered into it. Nope.

It feels so petty to admit this, but knowing that no one's ever done this before gives me even more energy to see this writing project through- and on that I'll have an announcement on the Study come Friday, so watch that space.

Narrative Warfare: The Stripe Affair, It's About Gatekeeping In Financial Services

The situation with Freestartr getting screwed by its payment processor is a political one, but not on the part of the processor as such. A report at PJ Media reveals the following:

The notice he received from Stripe was strange, filled with rambling excuses for termination with no specifics. Stripe employee "Gus" wrote:

Unfortunately, we won't be able to overturn our decision regarding your account. Our financial partners have some fairly strict limitations on the type of businesses we can work with, and sadly your business type falls into a category which our financial partners consider to be high-risk. I'm truly sorry about that... this is a restriction imposed upon us directly from our financial partners, who use have [sic] an archaic and frankly antiquated view of non-traditional businesses.

Stripe refuses to say who the "financial partners" are. PJM also reached out to Stripe but received no response.

To which the Supreme Dark Lord, Vox Day, said:

This tends to indicate the situation is as I suspected. Stripe is looking to cash in, so they are doing whatever their investors and prospective buyers want them to do. Which, in this case, is shutting down the services that allow people to bypass both the ideological gatekeepers as well as the financial gatekeepers.

It's not an accident that they are attempting to shut down the crowdfunding sites, beginning with the alternative ones. That's primarily what this is about. Rest assured, they have their sights on Kickstarter and Indie-Go-Go too.

And both Kickstarter and IndieGoGo are far more amenable to this sort of SJW pressure than Freestartr, so when that pressure comes they will fold faster than Superman on laundry day. The SJWs are not blind, whatever else their flaws are, and the leadership cadre is not stupid. They have taken notice of the ability of crowdfunding sites to allow enemies of the SJW Death Cult to circumvent control of the mainstream businesses that dominate a culture niche, primarily in the way that it allows their enemies to raise capital and make contact outside their control.

They saw a threat. They're moving to destroy that threat.

Because of existing regulation, it is very difficult to get Alt-Banking off the ground, and if successful all it does is shunt the point of conflict bank another step. Ultimately, any serious Alt-Banking fork will have to fork the independent central bank system that controls world finance because the masters of the SJWs can and will use their power over credit and currency to gatekeep threats to their dominance and control of this world-bearing pillar of Civilization.

Which means that the practical thing to do now is to start dropping lines to Federal agencies (such as the Federal Trade Commission) demanding that (a) this be investigated, and (b) while under investigation all such discriminatory action be stopped under penalty of arrest and imprisonment (if nothing, for interfering with the investigation). For you folks outside the U.S., please push for your government to do likewise.

Why?

Because establishing your own payment processor is not a sure solution. Those "financial partners" are likely the banks proper, and are in such a dominant position that they can dictate terms to their "partners" if they so wish. Even using a credit union is no guarantee of financial security; if the credit union's access to currency is cut off, its principles will be jettisoned in favor of survival, exactly as what Stripe did in this situation.

And yes, that's now on the table. Banking is a converged sector, and has been for a long time before the Red Menace as a thing. (As in "Before Andrew Jackson fought the banks.", so over 200 years ago.) If it weren't for the God-Emperor in the White House, we would have no realistic course for redress outside of a Class Action suit- and most people are too fragile to benefit from that.

For my part, as with a few others, whether or not Freestartr can pull themselves out of this mess is irrelevant. For one reason or another, things are far too time-sensitive to allow us the luxury of waiting this out and alternatives need to be exercised. I have received very good advice as to how to proceed, and I will act on it.

But I want this predatory practice to be put down, hard, and to that end I want to see the Feds move to act on this matter. Drop those lines; complain good and loud, so we can get the dread machine moving to crush this practice under its wheels.

Red Pill Relgion: "How To Publish and Sell Science Fiction in the 21st Century"

Last night I caught a fantastic episode of Red Pill Religion. Rather than what the title implies, this episode was all about how to make it as an independent author these days. The podcast episode is just under an hour, so it won't take up that much time; if you are at all serious about publishing your work and having it actually make you money then make the time to listen to it, and give it your full attention- you'll want to take notes.

If you've caught Nick Cole's appearance on Geek Gab where he talks about this topic, you'll likely have heard a lot of this before, but it is illustrative to see examples of his lessons in actions. Take particular note of those examples, and the tools used, because you'll want to avoid those pitfals- and using the tools will help you to do that.

Learn from the mistakes of others. You don't have the time to make them all yourself. That's how Nick Cole and Jason Anspach refined what they got from Chris Fox, and you're a fool to not take advantage of it. The same applies to other things that are the reality of the scene now. Sure, it may prick your ego some, but no one deluded their way to victory; they saw reality for what it was, sucked it up, adapted and overcame.

On Father's Day for 2018

Happy Father's Day, folks. I hope that all the rad dads out there had a very good day. My old man is a permanent resident at Fort Snelling National Cememtary, and I have no children of my own, so I can only participate by proxy these days. Hug your old man, and appreciate your children, while you can. It's too late once they--or you--are gone.

This past week we saw a lackluster E3 show, especially in the public conferences that set the stage for when the show floor opens, and some information people expected (e.g. Ace Combat) got buried into the pile of press releases pushed out during the floor show, but that did not take away from the fact that this year's show was mediocre at best. Not much quality to hype about, and not much more crap that doesn't deserve the hype; I've been far more satisfied eating a basic pepperoni pizza from Little Caesar's.

So to rectify this I've embedded this week's Metro City Boys episode. Some E3 talk, some Rad Dad talk, and a lot of the goof that we should have gotten from start to finish at E3 but didn't get. Enjoy, folks, and again- hug your dad while you can.

Narrative Warfare: The Marvel Cinematic Universe Is Kill

You knew it was coming sooner or later. Here's all the sign you need to bail on the Marvel Cinematic Universe after Avengers 4.

"Damned white men and their..."

*shuffles cards*

"Movie reviews!"

*looks at card again*

"Really?

*looks off left*

"They're reviewing movies wrong now?" pic.twitter.com/uWoITiS5mL

— Plippy McGee (@Plipster) June 16, 2018

That's Brie Larson, star of the upcoming Captain Marvel. She's already gotten flak for failing to protect the necessary heroic stature for the title role, and instead of saying "I will do better so I can entertain you properly." she's virtue-signalling like the usual hateful, bile-filled bitter-shitter we see too much out of Hollywood these days.

That MCU head Kevin Feige has not come out and dropped the hammer on Larson says enough, but if that wasn't enough then word of SJW token Ms. Marvel (the Muslim girl and SJW mouthpiece) being on the deck for introduction in the wake of Cap's debut should be plenty of warning that the MCU is about to be fully converged. Bail out now. Skip the Ant-Man sequel (it's as you expected) and start making your way out entirely.

The MCU is Kill. Walk away.

The RPG Pundit Presents: D&D Things They Taught You Wrong On Purpose #1

The RPG Pundit launched a video series. The title says it all, so I'll just get to embedding it below.

Fuck Game Balance.

The point of playing a game is to be entertained by facing a challenge to your skills as a player. In tabletop RPGs, this comes down to the fundamentals--the OODA Loop--with your constraints being your man's deficiencies in his abilities and attributes, and his limited resources. What the Pundit refers to as Emulation is what is meant to come about when you faithfully engage the game, as it conforms your perceptions to that of your man's in an approximate sense.

Part of the emulation is the verisimilitude of a real environment, and real environments are neither fair nor balanced. That the usual suspects insist on these things shows that (a) many who ought to know better don't and (b) there's far too much nannyism in the hobby.

The entire point is to make the best of the situation with what you've got. Sometimes you succeed. Sometimes you get eaten by a grue. Rub some dirt on it, walk it off, then get another sheet and start rolling 3d6 in order again. It's just a game. Why you get so mad? as a wise man once said.

I'm looking forward to what else the man has to say in this series. If you're wanting to show your appreciation, and you've got some sheckles to spare, buy a copy of one of his games or subscribe to him on Patreon. He does good work, puts out the sort of culture he wants there to be, and I am glad for it.

My Life as a Gamer: "Secrets of the Nethercity", Autarch's New Hotness

In case you missed it, the folks at Autarch Entertainment publish a fantastic alt-D&D game--Adventurer, Conqueror, King--have a crowdfunding campaign going now for a new product: Secrets of the Nethercity.

The glorious thing about what Ryan Dancey did back in 2000 with the Open Gaming License is that it ensured the continued existence of a poz-free D&D. Why? By sticking the rules and mechanics of D&D 3rd Edition into a perpetual copyleft, it allows anyone to publish that version of the rules without legal issue; it also allows the reverse-engineering of any possible edition of the game, and then to publish that as well- which is the genesis of the Old School Renaissance.

Autarch's contribution is the aforementioned game, which does a bang-up job of making explicit and desirable what was implicit in the old days: the shift in play emphasis as your man develops in power and prestige from the individual (Adventurer) to the leader (Conqueror) and then to the sovereign (King). For that progression to happen, there needs to be opportunities available to work your way up.

That's where Secrets comes in. Modules are pre-fabricated playable content meant for Game Masters with limited time, talent, or both and as such are important commercial products for a tabletop RPG as a business. Making a single module that can give a group a full campaign's worth of play for users who are not adapt at rolling their own content is a good thing to have on the shelf, and Secrets does that.

And because the folks at Autarch are stand-up guys, I think they are worthy of your consideration. We've got to support those that create the things we want to see, that make the culture we want to have, and Autarch's doing that for tabletop gaming just as I'm doing that for Space Opera.

Sift Wheat From Chaff: Towards Culling Not-Games From Gaming

I'm seeing the institutional incompetence too common in tabletop RPGs is now present in videogames.

The tell? The production of things that call themselves games, but are not.

A game has a few defining characteristics:

• A defined scenario, putting out what the playable space is and what constraints bind it.
• A defined objective- a win condition.
• Limited resources--including time--to achieve it.
• Systems for interaction between player(s) and the situation as it develops.
• Defined loss conditions.
• No reliance on narrative or other non-gaming practices to produce a satisfactory experience as well as to avoid detracting from same, because the point is to challenge the player, to see if he can face adversity, and then to see if he can adapt and overcome to achieve the objective.

This is why the classic arcade games of the 1980s get such long-standing loyalty. They do all that very well, as do later followers such as Ikaruga. It's also why Storygaming is so corrosive; it replaces facing challenge as a player with experiencing a pre-set narrative. The former is inherently and always active and requires facing facts as they are; the latter can be a passive thing and relies on getting their feels validated.

Are getting proper games this year? Yes, and some of them are coming from the big boys. I am not claiming otherwise.

I claim that there are "games" that are not actually games, some of them getting big hype from the Usual Suspects, and this year's E3 showcases had more than a few we're expected to believe are proper games instead of tech demos, frustrated novelist bullshit, or glorified toys. These need to be identified, called out, and ridiculed into leaving the stage. This is the gaming world; sell your toys, your movies, your not-games elsewhere. Stop lying.

Look at who's pushing these not-games, and claiming that they are claims, and you'll see a positive correlation to SJW convergence in gaming. Not just videogames, but also tabletop games, but the greater prominence of videogames means the problem is worse there; I think it is useful going forward to start splitting the not-games (and the not-gamers that push them) from the games and gamers. This slicing out of the rot will be beneficial going forward, as it will focus energy and attention on the roots of gaming once more, which lead to a healthy hobby and business down the road.

E3 2018, Day Four: The Nintendo Conference

Today, technically, is when E3 opens its floor to the public, but for most of us it's Day Four due to the conferences being the source of the hype (or lack thereof) for this event year on year. Solo here, so after this hit up Niche Gamer for more detailed info nuggets.

• Daemon X Machina. I'm listening.
• Xenoblade Chronicles 2. All right.
• Pokemon Let's Go and Go 2. The hype is real.
• Super Mario Party? You know it'll be good.
• Fire Emblem, Three Houses. Now we're talking.
• Fortnite. Of course.
• Overcooked 2. Good move. The first was fun.
• Killer Queen Black. Joust spiritual sequel. Yes.
• Hollow Knight. Good choice.
• Octopath Traveler looks like it will deliver.
• Bunch of previously announced stuff. Monster Hunter will make Oliver happy. SNK Heroines should find an audience.
• Super Smash Brothers for Switch. So much hype. They went all-out here. If this doesn't move units, they failed. They put in a lot of work for this version of the game and they are not being shy about it.

No Animal Crossing or new Zelda stuff, but I'm good with what they gave us. Classy as always, Nintendo. Well done. And Reggie, I so want to play with you sometime. You didn't win E3, but you finished in the Top 3 again.

E3 2018, Day Three: The Sony Conference

Metokur is bad for the last one of the day.

Summaries:

• Last of Us pt2. Expected. It's a Tomb Raider reskin. Wait for a full review due to a red flag or two, but at least Ellie isn't stronger than the men she faces.
• COD:BLOPS4. Sleep.
• They have nothing. They're killing time with highlights from the preview from last year. What a shitshow.
• Destiny 2. Nathon Fillon Robot got ganked in a trailer. I sleep.
• Ghost of Tsushima. Okay. Wait for a full review.
• Control. Trippy trailer that looked like better tech-power games. Meh.
• Resident Evil 2 remake. Something interesting at last.
• Kingdom Hearts 3. Now with more Live Action derivations and AC4 gameplay.
• Death Stranding. Still weird as fuck. Oh hey, a woman. Nothing makes sense still. No gameplay still. But there's something that opposes you, so we've got a game. Still waiting on what that game is.
• Nioh 2. You are the demon.
• Spider-Man. Straight to gameplay. This is how it's done, folks. This is how you actually sell a fucking game. This is the only finished product on display, and that is not acceptable Sony.

Weak. Coffee in a Lutheran church weak. They had sweet-fuck all and had to stretch the time. Epic Fail, Sony. Epic Fail. Sony, you're just another bitch now. Don't be surprised that everyone openly treats you like a bitch from here on out, especially Kojima.

E3 2018, Day Three: The PC Gaming Show

No assists this time. It's all me, so I'm cutting to the Summaries.

• Day9 is back as the host. Oh boy.
• Oh look, another base builder game. Satisfactory. No gameplay shown; it is a toy, as there's no adversity to overcome.
• Neo Cab. Ugh, what? Uber Driver Sim. Feels like a shit mobile game with Gone Home vibes. PASS.
• Mavericks. Battle Royale. HARD. FUCKING. PASS!
• Forgotten City. Remake of a mod. (Saitama) Okay. (/Saitama)
• Star Control: Origins. Finally, something worthy of hype.
• Hunt. From last year. No date. Still looks good.
• Mech game. PVP. Multiplayer. Not BattleTech. Okay. Early Access? Wait.
• Sinking City. Open investigation. Okay. Puzzles and such? Pixel-bitching inevitable. Lovecraftian? Wait for deep discount. Folks who try it too often fuck it up; wait for players to solve that problem and post guides.
• Warframe update. I sleep.
• Sega's putting out Yakuza Zero & Kiwami, Valkyria Chronicles 4, Shining Resonance and Shemue. All right then.
• More Killing Floor 2 stuff. Okay.
• Maneater. Could've been Dead Island, but no, Jaws sim.
• Host cringe.
• Some shit indie crap. Bravery network online. Morning star.
• Overwhelm may not suck.
• Jurassic World Evolution. Because we need that tie-in, eh?
• VR game. Stormland. Pass. Fuck VR.
• Another noir game set in a cab. This time Paris, in the past. Night Call. Not interested.
• Sable. Art show. No gameplay shown. Exploration game; it's a Walking Simulator. HARD. PASS.
• Star Citizen. Give up; this is a scam turned Pyramid Scheme. Walk away, now. If you gave money, complain to the FTC.
• Hitman 2. It'll be fine.
• Just Cause 4. Already commented.
• Telltale Walking Dead. Thank God it's coming to an end.
• Hardware trends. Or "time to get a drink".
• Genesis Alpha One. Totally Not Aliens.
• Overkill's Walking Dead. Uh, okay.
• Noita. Terraia-like game. Okay.
• Some hospital game. Sleep.
• Some other battle royale. Sleep.
• Ooblets. Gonna hit with the chicks.
• Anno 1800. A proper strategy game. About fucking time.
• Rapture Rejects. Sacriligious. Still looks fun.

Load up your Steam wallets, put some cash on your GOG account, and buy those PC upgrades. There's going to be something for you over the next year, likely several, and at least one is demanding enough to warrant new hardware. The cohost added nothing; axe her and don't replace her- Day9 can do this on his own just fine.

E3 2018, Day Three: The Ubisoft Conference

Let's see what everyone's favorite Off-Brand Frogs are up to this year. Once more, Mister Metokur delivers.

Summaries:

• Oh no, they brought their own hosts. A furry leading a marching band. Cosplayers. A musical number with dancing. Just. STOP.
• Just Dance again. October. Get the fuck out already.
• Beyond Good & Evil sequel feels all Captain Harlock. Jade's gone Space Pirate. Oh, and they want fans to be free testers and content creators for the game- via HitRecord. Nope. Hard Pass.
• Rainbow Six Siege. "Community". Yeah. Fuck that bullshit. I'll put the RPG Pundit's video on "community" below because that's a fucking scam- it's a means for SJWs to converge a scene. Oh, and a documentary on eSport bullshit no one asked for or cares about. FAIL.
• A new Trials release with more Evel Knievel. Yawn. I can't be bothered to give a shit about this at all.
• Division 2. Let's set the sequel in the other American city with fucking retarded strict gun control laws that nonetheless has a civilian militia that's armed to the teeth with weapons that you can't fucking own legally now without spending a small fortune and putting your prints on file with the ATF. Also, still bullet-spongy. And they added 8-man raids. Fuck this game.
• Another MarioRabbid game. Also a new Donkey Kong game. I didn't care last year. Nothing changed. Enjoy if that's your thing. The live music demo is a stunt that just gets in the way and signals that you don't have confidence in your game, which isn't a good sign (duh).
• It's the pirate game we saw last year, the one derived from AC4 Black Flag. With more ripped-off Pirates of the Carribean stuff. Oh, and this time we get some bullshot fake gameplay tutorial footage.
• Last year's horror title by Frodo & Friends is back. Still don't give a shit.
• It's the Space Opera ripoff of The Burning Crusade, again. Still got the toy tie-in too. Oh, and randomly Star Fox is in this shit as a Switch-exclusive crossover. Fuck this game.
• For Honor. Not dead, inexplicably, given how well it went over.
• Crew 2. Don't care.
• Assassin's Creed: We're Not God of War. Well, let's see if this is less of a shitshow than We Wuz Kangs was. More bullshot gameplay footage. More liberties with history and mythology taken for Socjus reasons. Nope.
• No Splinter Cell. Razorfist rant incoming!

Oh, I feel a week's ranting coming on.

E3 2018, Day Three: The Square Enix Conference

Let's get to it.

Summaries:

• Shadow of the Tomb Raider: Meh. It's more of the same, with Lara doing shit real women can't do without superpowers, so I'll just wait for a sale or a giveaway. Eidos Montreal still doesn't get this property. At least the Sourcemaker porn crews will have fresh assets to work with.
• FF14 Stormblood Patch: It's FF 14. I'll punt this over to those actually playing to comment.
• Captain Spirit: Not Life Is Strange 2, but just as shit. Rancid motherfuckers like this need to be dragged out, beaten into a pulp, and then drawn and quartered before a live audience. I am sick and fucking tired of storytellers wanting to make movies shitting up the gaming world. FUCK OFF YOU FAILURES!
• Dragon Quest 11: If it is as good as Ni No Kuni 2, it'll be a pickup on sale. Otherwise, meh.
• Babylon's Fall: Pretty trailer. Now tell me something important, like how it plays.
• Nier Automata: You already know this is the shit. Now with additional platform options and extras added.
• Octopath Traveler: For all your FF Tactics needs.
• Just Cause 4: Already commented. Goof potential is high.
• The Quiet Man: Deaf vigilante. Snore.
• Kingdom Hearts 3: 10 years too late.
• And that's all folks.

No long address. No hype machine. Just a few featured intros, and then a massive trailer machine. You can't win E3 this way, but you can't lose either. They still don't get why Lara Croft is popular and loved, and they would rather ride or die on the strength of their trailers than their public speaking skills. 30 minutes in total, and no Metro City Boys show to go with it, so enjoy Mister Metokur instead.

E3 2018, Day Two: The Bethesda Conference

Okay, on Bethesda, featuring the Metro City Boys:

Summaries:

• Starfield? Okay. I hope something interesting and useful about it comes out later.
• Elder Scrolls 6? See above.
• Rage 2. (Saitama) Okay. (/Saitama)
• All the card games and mobiles and VR. No.
• Wolfenstein. Co-op. One shoots. One stabs. Could be good, but there are red flags up for me and that means I need to see both top gameplay and a lack of poz before money leaves my wallet. I'm not down for Literally Whos Do Paris.
• Todd has jokes. Meme magic is real and it works.
• Fallout 76: Pass. Always online? That worked so well with Diablo 3 and others that also forced online connection just to play the game you bought. No, I don't care if I can go solo; group play trumps solo play in a shared open world environment, and as nukes are on the table that means you group up or get ganked. Can't control who's in the game with you? Hard. Pass.
• Everything Elder Scrolls that isn't ES6: Pass.
• Doom Eternal. See Starfield.

This was far better than EA and marginally better than Microsoft, but if not for the teases at the end it would've fallen flat. Far too many bad ideas put out there, or good ones does poorly, and Andrew W.K. deserves better than that- and I'm not a big fan of the guy.

Note: If you want the Devolver "conference", go to YouTube. This is a comedy show disguised as a conference, so you need to see it to appreciate it. Also, buy their stuff. They do great work. They win E3, again, and you'll see why when you watch their show.

E3 2018, Day Two: The Microsoft Conference

It was better than EA's show by a lot. Oliver Campbell's summary works for me:

Microsoft out here reloading its fucking arms like Henry Cavill

1. All games, no bullshit
2. Shit people actually wanted to hear about
3. CUPHEAD SALT
4. DO YOU GUYS HAVE BATTLETOADS

Like... well then. GOOD JOB MICROSOFT. I'm actually impressed this year.

— Oliver Campbell (@oliverbcampbell) June 10, 2018

I can tell the general trend of my takes thusly: if there is more storytelling than gameplay, then the game is shit. Also, this being Xbox, I can safely wait for everything to come out on PC sooner or later. If you missed it, here;s the Metro City Boys' take:

Summaries:

• PUBG: That's bullshot footage. It's still unfinished, so fuck this pile of crap.
• Ori 2: So far, looks like the Steam version will sell well, and is exactly what folks want- more of the same, with one new widget.
• DMC 5: Not feeling it.
• Gears 5: Gynos of War can get the fuck out. Gears Mobile can get the fuck out. Gears Tactics? Holding judgement.
• Battlefield 5: Still Hard Pass.
• Jump Force: The crossover game that will make all the money, just not on this platform.
• Dying Light: Will be fun to watch Oliver plat that shit.
• Metro Exodus: Interested.
• CP 2077: I played this over 20 years ago, as a tabletop RPG. CP Projekt nails the aethetics; gameplay--the important part--remains to be seen, and I expect Maximum Mike to be hauled out to shill it next year.
• Fallout 76: Cautious.
• Forza 4: Go call up The Grand Tour, make a deal, and get the boys into the game already.
• Kingdom Hearts 3: Don't care.
• Just Cause 4: See Dying Light.
• Battletoads: The hype is real. RIP Gamestop employees.

Unlike last year, I'm doing each conference as a separate post, so expect two more today and a few more tomorrow.

UNRELATED NEWS: The campaign for my debut novel project--as of this post--has five backers and raised $70. Still got a ways to go, so you can still help Make Space Opera Great Again by going there and pledging your support. If you haven't yet, sign up for the newsletter and get advanced notice of updates and other opportunities.

E3 2018, Day One: The EA Conference

The annual E3 conferences started today, and being a gamer--you know, someone who actually bellies up to the table and plays games--this is of interest to me. Since Twitch is allowing users to host their livestream and play along in their own chat channels, I got up and made sure to sit in with the Metro City Boys during the Electronic Arts presentation.

I did fine despite the lack of booze, popcorn, or pretzels. EA did not.

The Metro City Boys hosted the livestream on its Twitch channel (and will do so for all of them). We had a good time

Summaries:

• Unravel 2 is the only game displayed that is worthy of attention. (That still for A Way Out doesn't count; it might as well be a teaser poster.)
• FIFA and the rest of the sports games still feel like bribe money being laundered.
• The SJW bullshit is clearly a bunch of fronts laundering money, because you know damn well no one's actually benefiting from them.
• They reduced Command & Conquer to a shit mobile game. Fuck you, with a shovel, covered in shit and burrs, shoved up your asses, sideways.
• They brought out the soyest of soyboys to shill for Star Wars Battlefront II new apology attempt, promptly spoiled by adding Soylo bullshit. Too little, too late, too-ta-loo!
• Battlefield V is SJW Bullshit. Hard. Fucking. Pass. Give it away and I won't touch it with a ten foot pole.
• That Becky they had hosting? That's what a Fan of the Brand looks like. Fake Geek, get away from me!

In conclusion, I have only this:

Making The Move: Launching The Campaign

I want you to go over to the Study and read today's post. Then I want you to consider the following:

• This is me pushing out of my comfort zone. I know I can write, but can I handle the business side of being an indie author? I don't know, and there is no other way to find out than to do this. I've chosen, after consideration, what I know for certain that I can deliver upon. If being conservative the first time out is wrong, this is how I'll learn that lesson.
• Ultimately this is no-risk. If the project doesn't meet its (modest) goal, then no one loses money and I can go back to revising another manuscript and building up my newsletter subscribers until I'm ready to try again. This avoids one of my biggest fears, which is to go down like Porkins at the First Death Star; if I fail, I fail fast and at no loss other than to my pride- and pride recovers.
• If it succeeds, I can immediately shift everything around to begin fulfilling my end of the bargain; being a lone gun has some advantages. Unlike certain individuals I know of, I won't be keeping you dangling for years waiting for a fulfillment that will get to you after Godot arrives.
• If you want to see stuff that isn't SJW-converged, then you've got to put your money where your mouth is and support it. Here's a crystal-clear chance to do just that. Don't tell me about your character, show me; if you're loyal to me, I'm loyal to you- it's that damned simple. Few understand this, but those who do reap the rewards.
• If you believe in this project, spread the word. Ain't no one here going to whine if you spread that link to the project campaign far and wide, so do it and be shameless about it.

I Have a Newsletter Now: Walker's Publishing

I have a newsletter now.

This newsletter is meant to be in service to my other blog, the Study, and the original writing work I'm shifting towards doing as more than just a hobby. If you want me to offer one for Narrative Warfare, something like the Daily Meme Wars list that Vox Day does, or some other option then say so in the Comments below.

As this blog gets the most traffic, and I have something special for the Study tomorrow, that's why I'm posting this notice today here. I shall repeat the offer on the Study tomorrow, just in case.

You can sign up here, and I'll move that link to a Contact page presently.

Narrative Warfare: SJW Locust Methodology Summarized, "Fans of the Brand"

The pushback against the SJWs in our culture industry is spreading. The failure of Solo is, in part, due to channels such as World Class Bullshitters, Geeks & Gamers, BOOFIRE191, and others that rallied Star Wars fans against Mouse Wars. The first hit was The Last Jedi, and this is the "two" of the one-two combo. I fully expect Episode 9 to be the knockout blow now, as this pressure will only increase between now and then. We're seeing similar things happen in #comicsgate, and so on. This effort can't help but to come across discoveries.

One such is the video below, coming out of the Anti Mouse Wars league. If you want a concise way to explain the "how" part of how SJWs denigrate, damage, and destroy what they converge then here you go. It's not the only tool, but it's a big one, and once you see it you won't unsee it.

Note what his emphasis is about: people who are brand-identity consumers acting like locusts descending upon a crop. That's what he's talking about here. They just want the social cache associated with the brand, and don't give two shits about the property that gives the brand its power and prestige. To that end, they drive out the fans of the property because they don't like the property; they just want the results of the property.

Sound familiar? Someone who wants the results of the work without doing the work, and drives off those who do the work because they don't want to be bothered by those they consider beneath them or a threat to their social status. It's pure rabbit psychology, and the solution is to deal with them in terms of r/K Theory: erect barriers to entry and enforce them with the fist of an angry god. In short, be exclusive and elitist--create K-selection pressures and enforce them--and you drive off SJWs because the environment is too harsh for them.

Entryism is the means to get into a position to consume the wealth. Brand-focused non-fandom is the means to consume it. This is the explanation for all forms of Fake Geek Syndrome, because it's built on Fan of the Brand mode of operation. Insisting on authenticity, and enforcing standards, is the only way to drive out entryists and keep them out. Same as it is in any other institution or group. You must protect your tribe, or it will be stolen from you.

Razorfist: Hollywood Was Always Red - A Rant

Razorfist spends 30 minutes explaining how what you've been told about McCarthy, Hollywood, and Communist entryism is wrong.

You got lied to.

Fixing this blatant fraud in the historical record will take at least a generation, and that's assuming that Civilization doesn't collapse first. As good as Razorfist is here, consider this:

• If Hollywood was always Red, then how Red was the entertainment business before Hollywood became one of the axis of Western media influence? Plenty, because they came from New York City- and if you think the media outlets there are bad, you don't know how long or how deep the rot goes. Start comparing QuQu's video on SF getting taken by them to Hollywood's rise and you'll start seeing how Red they've been.
• If Hollywood was always Red, then how Red was American politics? Worse than you think, and for longer. The Communist presence in the union scene goes on far longer than that of Organized Crime, and the use of grievance-based politics just as long; entering a scene, taking it over and weaponizing it to further Party goals looks to be standard procedure since the 19th Century.
• If Hollywood was always Red, then how Red were its overseas counterparts? Have you seen pre-WW2 European film?
• If Hollywood was always Red, then why is it not obvious that the very media we rely upon to record and transmit our history would not to a Treehouse job and deliberately mistranslate the truth and the facts to conform to the Narrative?

It's bad. Very bad. If they lied about what is clearly in their self-interest to full-title bullshit us, then what else have they lied to us about? (Everything.) They are truly of their sire, the Father of Lies, and should be handled accordingly.

Just as you should not trust the mainstream news media, neither should you patronize the entertainment mainstream. They hate you; stop giving them money. Give to the alternatives instead; get your news and entertainment from people that aren't pozzed, that did not drink the demon's blood, and will not lie to your or hate you. Take your own side, for God's sake!

You'll get a chance to do just that later this week here. Stay tuned.

Narrative Warfare: Replacing Culture is an Act of Conquest

Before I went to bed I got on Twitter and began this thread.

YT dude talking How To Do Good Media: *practical semiotics lesson*

Also dude: "Why do people gets so mad at TLJ?"

*triple-handed facepalm.jpg*

Motherfucker, DO YOU LISTEN TO YOURSELF?

— Bradford C. Walker (@MrBCWalker) June 4, 2018

This came after I got a thank-you note from Alexander Macris. He went over to Empire Must Fall, where he read this post I wrote back in January of this year about The Last Jedi.

Both of which, in a bit of synchronicity, came after the last Darkstream of the past week:

Now the SJW methodology comes into focus.

Conquest of another nation has two things done to cement the gains: replacing the conquered nation with the conquerors' own, and replace the conquered's mythology with the conqueror's own.

What SJWs realized that, of the two, the latter is far more powerful so long as it's done quietly enough, for long enough, to accomplish most of it before being discovered. Hence the use of Narrative Warfare, and the need to have a stranglehold on media; this is how they're doing the conquest of the West and the destruction of Civilization.

And now you see why there's so much blather about the Internet and slapping controls on it. They're losing narrative control, and they aren't in control of the orc hordes so they're nervous about unleashing them, hence we get half-measures and gaslighting that only undermines what influence they've got. (Expect more financial fuckery to come next.)

It's the culture, folks. Secure that and the politics follows; everything else that needs to be done stems from this vital need.

Kenichi Sonoda Returns!

Japan's master of urban action storytelling< Kenichi Sonoda, wants you to know that he's bring the Bean back.

All scan data used in the production process.Pledge added.
アニメ制作に使われた原画、作監修正、動画、仕上げ、全データがダウンロードできるプランを追加しました。
Kenichi Sonoda’s Bean Bandit New Anime Project https://t.co/giLbP5eu4H

— KenichiSonoda"BEAN BANDIT"@KICKSTARTER (@Anime_ProjectBB) June 2, 2018

That's right, the man behind Riding Bean and Gunsmith Cats wants to make new stuff. So long as Rally still rocks a CZ-75 (not a 75B, a 75), Bean's Mustang is a custom ace beast machine, and Minnie's got grenades for days I'm looking forward to it.

You can find the Kickstarter page here. Spread the word. I want to see this happen.

Narrative Warfare: Stepping Up My Game

Yesterday, Jon del Arroz posted this to Twitter:

And look at this. Military. Adventure. Space Opera also dominate. It's almost like the audience has definied tastes and publishers/agents are intentionally ignoring the markets. Weird! #PulpRev #IndieAuthors pic.twitter.com/4IpPdb48uT

— Reverend Jon Del Arroz (@jondelarroz) June 1, 2018

That's an opportunity I cannot ignore. It is also an opportunity I am undercapitalized to exploit. To remedy this, I set up at Freestartr. I will add this link to the Gifts & Support tab today, right at the top, for future convenience. My post at the Study yesterday addresses the immediate uses I have for this account.

At this point, I'm far more concerned about being able to produce a proper product than any ongoing support; I'd like to pay for a quality cover and a competent editor- neither of which are cheap if you want good and reliable. This also serves to measure just what you folks want to see out of me; if, for some reason, you'd rather see me write about tabletop RPGs than stories about space knights in giant robots, showing me that I'd make more money doing so is a language any man understands.

In closing, I'm grateful to all of you readers; I'd like to keep doing this for as long as I can, and some sheckles thrown my way makes that possible. Just as you don't give money to people who hate you, support those who have your back and deliver what you want. The enemy does this. So should you.

Patterns in Revealed Preference: Conclusions

I think that the example from the SF episode had consequences in the form of echos going forward, recreating the pattern when the conditions originally engineered deliberately for SF re-occurred emergently. These copycat patterns were not intended; the cabal that engineered the coup in SF had no clue that tabletop or MMORPGs existed and could not imagine their creation. It's akin to how Stand-Alone Complexes work, but not an exact fit.

But, once the villains that stole SF recognized what happened, they moved to exploit the opportunity. Therefore I can conclude that the original is a "Made It Happen" thing, while the latter two are "Let It Happen" opportunist affairs. Furthermore, the effectiveness of the scheme declines over time with exposure, documentation, and the consequent success in resistance. What worked generations ago in SF doesn't work now in tabletop RPGs or in MMORPGs; time change, media difference matter, and the business models aren't as friendly to SJW convergence.

I also conclude that this pattern has become a tell for SJW convergence. Not the tell, but a tell and a reliable one at that; if you see it happening, then you can start looking for other tells- and I think that you'll find SJW entryism and convergence going on. All of you involved in #comicsgate now have something to look for, and tracing the progression of the pattern will tell you how bad things got and when they got there. (The breakout success of indie comics serves the same purpose as the OSR in tabletop RPGs, #PulpRev and similar movements in SF, and Classic servers in MMORPGs.)

Finally, I conclude that these patterns reveal that "progress" or "evolution" in such things is a fraud. The current form of a game, a medium, etc. is not an improved form. It is something altogether different; it shares a seeming and a brand, but it actually another thing entirely (as revealed by behavior). It's gaslighting writ large, and SJWs seeking to exploit the pattern for their own ends will lean hard on this false claim to legitimize their claims to power.

I doubt I've done anythng here but to clarify existing phenomena regarding SJW behavior and psychology, especially as it pertains to how they operate, but I do think that I've got something useful here going forward to apply towards putting down this theft of culture and putting an end to the thieves seeking to steal it. Maybe even be the rope to hang them with.