Tuesday, July 31, 2018

My Life in Fandom: Cynical Virtual Meatpuppetry is a Bridge Too Far

The World Class Bullshitters have been on a roll for months now, and their new morning live show today addressed the virtual necromancy performed upon the late Carrie Fischer for the specific purpose of cynically exploiting what good sentiment remains for Star Wars. The Mouse Empire--soon to conquer and consume the FOX Empire--is an evil force and this demonstrates with a clarity that only those stupified by the very media empire that consumes our culture like a World Devastator only to attack us with products it makes using what it takes from us.

The collapse of Mouse Wars, of Lucasfilm, of this entire wretched industry cannot come fast enough. Burn it all to ash. Let the dead rest in peace. Thank God that the Fork & Replace is already underway; it's just going to take several years before it really begins to become apparent. Maybe Star Wars can be redeemed, but it is no longer wise to presume that this can happen; it is now wise to let it go and use that love to build something new- as I, and others, have done.

For more original science fiction featuring giant robot combat, look out for Combat Frame XSeed coming soon from Dragon Award winner and nominee Brian Niemeier. To help me make the Star Knight Saga happen, support my Indiegogo campaign here. We're at 60% to the initial goal, and a new--and exciting--Perk unlocks when we reach that initial goal.

Sunday, July 29, 2018

The Business: What's Coming This Week For "Star Knight"

Campaign Update: As of this post, we're at 51% towards the initial goal of $1K. That's four days in and we're already over halfway to the initial goal. This speed of progress is humbling, and I want you folks to meet the initial goal so I can unlock that hidden Perk and get working towards the stretch goals as fast as possible. This is going to be a fantastic fun ride for all of you, and I hope more of you come along soon. Go here to come aboard.


This post is a head's up for what to expect on the main blog over the next week.

  • Star Knight Lore: I will make a few lore posts this week. I'm focusing on what is featured in Reavers of the Void first, so as to whet your appetite. Pandering? You bet it is. Starships and mecha will follow Burke's Format as seen at one of the best mecha fan sites on the Internet: MAHQ.net I lack (as of this post) line art for the mecha, so I'll edit them in as I get them.
  • Podcast Appearances: One is with Jim Fear on Saturday, and the other is the Superversive podcast on Sunday. I'll post a link to the livestream as soon as it's available, and to the episode after the fact. In addition, I'll be on The Ralph Retort's Killstream for a segment later this week.
  • As soon as we hit the goal, and get into the stretch goals, you'll hear about it here.
  • The Study will feature more excerpts from the manuscript.

Finally, a little something for you to run with: what if you could mount your Real Robot like we see in Tron Legacy? If you're Lord Roland of the Solar Guard (or his peers), you can. That picture of Roland in his battle armor has a baton in a boot sheath, and it is that baton that allows him to mount his Real Robot mecha- Durendal. (His Super Robot works differently.)

Saturday, July 28, 2018

My Life as a Writer: Creating a Feudal Future w/ "The Star Knight Saga"

Friend of the blog Rawle Nyanzi took the time to mark out one key difference between what I'm doing with Star Knight and what most Space Opera stories assume in their settings. Another friend of the blog, Jeffro Johnson, focuses on this key point:

Galactic Christendom turns that idea on its head. Instead of a humanity governed largely by Enlightenment liberalism or its socialist variant, we have a humanity governed by the ideals of Christianity. They’re not even united politically; just as the different factions in Gundam nonetheless share core Enlightenment beliefs that disregard religion or nation, the different kingdoms in Galactic Christendom all share a belief in the Christian God and His morality. Thus Galactic Christendom presents a truly unique take on the space opera genre, one that goes against the prevailing trend in sci-fi and presents a perspective underrepresented in the genre today.

It's the same approach J.R.R. Tolkien took to Middle-Earth: it is presumed, and therefore does not need to be didactically explained to the reader. No one likes to be preached at, so I don't. I merely took a real-world historical example (Medieval Europe, when and where historical Christendom arose) and use that as the example I built upon to create Galactic Christendom.

There's a sound reason for how and why this came to pass, but that's Ancient History for my story and doesn't get discussed. I despise "As you know, Bob..." infodumps, especially if they are not relevant to the story at hand, so I don't do it- you, my audience, deserve to have your intelligence respected. You want to be entertained, so that's what I do; I posted an excerpt at the Study yesterday if you want to see for yourself that I mean business when I say I'm here to entertain you first and foremost.

As of this post, the Indiegogo campaign to complete Book One is at 35% towards its goal. We're on Day Three and we're already over a quarter of the way to meeting that initial goal. That's fantastic, and I hope more of you decide to book your passage to the far future of the 4th Millenium soon; I'd love to have you along for the journey. The sooner we meet that initial goal, the sooner we can really get this going with the Stretch Goals- and the new Perk that unlocks when we hit $1K. (The campaign page is here.)

Friday, July 27, 2018

The Business: Off To a Good Start

One day in, and we're (as of this post) at 16% to the initial goal. Jake, how would you take that result?

Yeah, I would too. That's an encouraging sign, and soon we'll hit that 20% threshold where folks on the fence decide that this is going to happen and jump off to get on the bandwagon. I'm doing what I can to spread the word, and to that end I've contacted Daddy Warpig to get on Geek Gab in a few weeks. (It'll be the 11th as of this post; if that changes, I'll let you know.) I've contacted World Class Bullshitters, and I'm going to email a few others later today to see if I can get on their shows to promote the campaign.

Speaking of promotion, I will post an excerpt from the draft manuscript to the Study (and link to it at the campaign page) later today. Yes, there will be "Subject to Change" warnings, but this will serve to show that (a) I can write and (b) that I'm serious.

My thanks to everyone that's contributed so far. Your faith in me will not prove fruitless. I will do my best to make this happen, and every last show of support strengthens my resolve; showing that you've got my back makes me more determined to follow through and make Star Knight real.

Thursday, July 26, 2018

#AGundamForUs: Star Knight Saga, Launching!


Campaign launching!

It's happening, friends! The Indiegogo campaign to launch the Star Knight Saga is live now, and if you haven't seen it here's the pitch video, complete with all the concept art I have right now.


(Not bad for it being just the second one I ever made, eh?)

I shall make this plain for you now.

The primary purpose of this campaign is to raise the funds I require to hire the help I need to finish the first book out of the nine I have planned: Reavers of the Void. If we hit that modest $1000 goal, then that is guaranteed to happen as fast as I can turn that around.

The first set of Stretch Goals is to guarantee the rest of the series. For every $1000 above the goal raised, one more book will be guaranteed to get put out as fast I can manage it. This set of goals stops at $9000. Additional Stretch Goals kick in at that point, which I will announce if we get that far. There is also a Perk that won't be made visible until we get into this first set of Stretch goals, and if you want to be visible in making Star Knight happen then you want that to get unlocked.

As I said in yesterday's post, I want to build Star Knight beyond a novel series, but none of that is possible if these books don't get written and published. No books? No comics. No books? No anime. No books? No games. This goes nowhere if the books don't happen. Backing the campaign now, even if you're not a novel reader, opens the door to getting those adaptations and spin-offs done down the line- and the bigger the result, the faster that comes.

And by the time you read this post, I will have sent email (or other messages) out to some friendly YouTube channels to see about coming on to their podcasts or livestreams to spread the word while I engage their audience as best I can. (e.g. talking Star Wars with the World Class Bullshitters) I encourage you to spread the word to every sympathetic ear you can find. If you have any such outlets to recommend, drop a note in the comments (and feel free to recommend me to them; pass my Contact address).

This is the beginning of a fantastic journey of adventure, and I'm inviting you come along- to be my companions as we travel down this long and winding road. Are you up for it? Then put some skin the game and back this campaign. Together we can make Star Knight both #AGundamForUs AND #StarWarsNotStarWars, and build something wonderful for future generations to enjoy. For God and Galaxy, let's do this!

If you haven't already, do sign up for the email newsletter now (Contact tab above); my subscribers got a 48 hour early warning, and if you sign up so will you regarding future developments and announcements. I will make the revised version of "Crisis at Garmil's Gate" available to subscribers, for free, when it's done so you can get a free sample of what Galactic Christendom has to offer.

Wednesday, July 25, 2018

The Business: To Become A Future Super Robot Wars Feature

I have a specific objective that I want to reach for Star Knight. I want to be the first Western property to get into this videogame franchise:

I want to build up Star Knight over the next two years, getting this first series of nine out there in novel format (ebook and POD) first. Then I want to get a comic adaptation done and out there on the shelves. I want to build the hell out of this, because the next step is an anime adaptation- and it's at this point when most new properties get noticed and incorporated into an upcoming game. (e.g. Buddy Complex)

The reason for choosing this as an explicit goal is to give focus and drive to the project as a whole. Yes, I want to make this happen, but there's second-order psychological effects--brain hacks, if you will--that are more immediately beneficial to me as a direct consequence of committing to this objective. It's forcing me to think of what concrete, practical steps I can take to get from here to there- such as networking with YouTube channels to establish mutually-beneficial relationships.

I've been told that this goal is far more difficult that it seems, but I have some reason to believe that it's not impossible. The big reason is that the franchise can only rely on their standby properties for so long; sooner or later they'll have to resort to the means heretofore deemed unthinkable (like figuring out how to work Legend of the Galactic Heroes into a game), and that's the point where someone foreign (like me) can pounce on the opportunity present to get in there.

And no, this doesn't preclude being part of an Original Generation game; Star Knight can easily be an Original Generation game, if it follows the events of the series. If it were to be the host for the usual mecha mashup, there is a consistent premise ready to go, complete with original characters and mecha for the player to enjoy (as we've seen with V and X). Like the Boy Scout I was as a youth, I am prepared.

And if you want to help make that happen, you'll get your chance Very Soon(TM).

Tuesday, July 24, 2018

My Life In Fandom: The Wondrous Worlds of Space Opera

Space Opera needs those fantastic locations to really bring out the wonder in the adventure. That means planets, primarily, because that's what most people think of when they think of "places where adventures happens in space"- and you can't blame George Lucas for that. He just followed the lead of his many predecessors before him.

Space Opera takes its cues from the adventure story genres that preceded it, so the planets are often props as much as the ships are and serve the same purpose: staging and framing for the events of the narrative. It's why Star Wars so often uses them to frame the acts of a film, marking major turning points in the story as major plot elements turned, and so it is no surprise that each turn of events moves things from one place to the next.

The principle is applicable to non-planetary locations, with space stations being the most common substitute followed by stellar phenomena such as nebulae and asteroid belts. The purpose is the same so the reason for selection is the same: does the location serve the needs of the story? If it does then you're looking at a story written by someone who knows how to efficiently use locations to tell the story. Choosing well writes the story for you.

It's telling that a lot of audiences see Space Opera as a mythic genre, and therefore are forgiving to a fault about thematic use of worlds in stories much like they do appearance as visual shorthand for character. The heroes living in shining, gleaming places full of beauty. The villains are in ugly, squalid places or ominously-built domains. The transition between one and the other can be read straight out of Joseph Campbell, so it's easy to half-ass it (and many do).

For Star Knight's first book, there are three locations that matter: House Ireton's homeworld of New Edinburgh, the seat of the Dire March; Hell's Heart, the fortress from which Red Eyes and his pirates sally forth to raid and plunder; and last is an asteroid belt, Dara's Folly- the location of a doomed mining colony. Soon you'll see how I make use of each one, and subsets of each one (such as the orbital colonies at New Edinburgh). I look forward to seeing fan art of these places in the years to come.

Monday, July 23, 2018

Narrative Warfare: Burn, Pedowood, Burn!

The Supreme Dark Lord, Vox Day, spent a half hour in a very late Darkstream talking about the brewing exposure of Hollywood's long-running pedophilia problem tonight. You ought to watch it.

This comes on the heels of a very long report at Neon Revolt collecting the massive infobombing campaign by a retired actor going by the psuedonymn "Renegade". This too is worth your time, and for the good of your soul (and those of your family) you've got to read this article.

The TLDR is this: #GunnControl scared the shit out of Hollywood, as we see by their behavior. Sensing an opening, a retired actor with nothing to lose decides to step up and give confirmation to a lot of other anons' digging activities, creating a historical context as well as confirming well-known allegations on how the business really works.

In a bit of synchronicity, Rick & Morty creator Dan Harmon has a serious pedo problem that he self-inflicted, and predictably the MSM (and the Cuck Right) have come out in support for Pedo Gunn and decried the Right for doing the lawful thing and engaging in reciprocity upon the Left using the Left's own rules to do so. If the chans follow through, then we shall see more to time- and Silverman parroting her masters' orders to stand down to the chans is just blood in the water.

Hollywood (and its counterparts in NYC, London, et. al.) shall not touch my property. No options. No buyouts. Not a damned one of these Satanic actors shall ever touch Star Knight, nor any other property I own or control for as long as they live- this is a permanent ban; I shall presume premeditated felony criminal intent if they violate the ban and act accordingly.

Sunday, July 22, 2018

My Life In Fandom: Spectacular Space Opera Starships!

Space Opera needs spaceships. They come in a diversity of designs that makes plenty of people happy, but overall we can bring them into two general approaches. The terms I'm using got coined by futurist Syd Mead decades ago, as I saw it reported in R. Talsorian's Mekton Empire (1990): Ninja Rocketship (Yamato, Harlock) and Technoform Box (LoGH, Star Wars).

The practical difference is if your ships look and run like wet navy ships in space or not, which is shorthand for how hard your spaceships are. It's why having some familiarity with the properties that go Rocketship matters in making the distinction, and not that much with Technoform properties since they're far more likely to show a lot of range in depiction (compare The Expanse to Dairugger XV).

Ultimately this is a matter of aesthetic preference, but it's clear that most audiences want a softer approach so they can more readily get into the story. The astounding ways that spaceships are shown to readers, and the roles they've been used in Space Opera, means that we've seen a lot of ship designs over the decades- from literal rocketships to what we've got on screens today- and I'm posting some of them here.

I'm talking about this because as Star Knight gets going I'm going to show you some of the ships that will appear in the first book- and they're going to differ significantly in approach. You'll see what pirates usually do to sail the sea of stars, what noble houses do with their navies, and the Solar Guard's own starships- from Lord Roland's personal vessel to the Ships of the Line. I can't wait to share all of that with you.

For now, some more of my favorite ships in Space Opera, because you're going to see these influences across the whole of the Star Knight Saga's nine books.

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Saturday, July 21, 2018

My Life in Fandom: Humanoid Mecha For Heroic Men

Humanoid mecha are the kings of the genre, both Real and Super, for one reason: it allows you to depict human action without concern over depicting the consequence of that action. It's why humanoid mecha routinely become a character unto themselves in a way that non-human mecha do not, and media producers (and their friends making the merchandise) are well aware of that fact.

The most obvious example of this fact in action is the routine depiction of violence upon a humanoid mech in ways that, if it were a person, would result in howls of outrage from Concerned Citizen astroturf groups. (Yes, this is why no one died in the 80s G.I. Joe cartoon unless the plot literally demanded it, and why the TMNT cartoon had robot ninja in it.)

Instead, you can get away with a brief show of the doomed pilot and a flash-to-white as they died.

That Super Robots assumed this form as a matter of dogma isn't surprising when you see the robot as a substitute for man-to-man action, for the above reasons, and it shows in how the early ones were not that different from the Fighting Man heroes that their pilots clearly are descended from.

Put simply, you can trace a direct line from Beowulf to Koji Kabuto (that will run through John Carter and Kimball Kinneson), and if the former got moved to the latter's milieu it wouldn't take the man long to become a competent Mazinger pilot. That carries over to the Real Robot side, albeit often more subdued these days, but Ace Pilot is a contemporary Fighting Man archetype for a good reason- and it exists in the real world.

This is why mecha shows so often stick with a humanoid unit for their heroes and villains, even when otherwise they'd be in a GERWALK or other non-human unit (e.g a four-legged unit, such as those of Fang of the Sun Dougram), and those that do vary from this norm tend to be the ones that aren't as successful.

You definitely see this influence in original designs for properties such as Super Robot Wars, and even BattleTech)--among the realist of Real Robots--has humanoid designs for its top-tier figures- yes, even Clanner scum. It should be no surprise to you then that my own Star Knight Saga follows this norm for my hero, his allies, and his enemies-with a justified reason for why those humanoid mecha exist.

I think a lot of people who do mecha fiction forget the roots that give substance to the fiction they're writing, and in this case it is vital to remember the heroic roots of giant robot shows, comics, and prose. When you forget, you get forgetable dreck- or worse.

I have not forgotten.

Friday, July 20, 2018

My Life in Fandom: "In Case of Customer Revolt, Revive Clone Wars"

The San Diego Comic Con began and word's coming out on things of interest. Yesterday Lucasfilm dropped this trailer:

There is no avoiding the feeling that this was not one of those "Break in case of colossal fuckup." moves and because of that feeling I have good reason to be wary that somehow the SJWs at Lucasfilm will poz Uncle George's only real success with the prequel era. It depends on if they adulterated the unshot scripts leftover from the series run or not. All this and more gets addressed by this week's episode of World Class Bullshitters.

This is a Buying Time play while they try to salvage Episode 9 and get the company back on track, likely due to Disney CEO Bob Iger dressing Culty Kathy down during a conference call (featuring Marvel's heads in attendance) and demanding swift action OR ELSE. If the Kathy Krew can rein it in on this Clone Wars revival, they expect to be able to get enough breathing room to make the final Sequel Trilogy film not crater like a colony drop.

I'm still not giving them any money until the SJWs--every last one--are purged and the gates shut behind them for good.

Thursday, July 19, 2018

My Life as a Gamer: The Critical Role Meltdown

A character on the popular D&D show Critical Role died, and people lost their fucking minds. The Pundit comments:

The Pundit is correct. This episode exposes that Critical Role's audience is dominated by non-gamers who have no interest in ever playing any form of RPG (nevermind Dungeons & Dragons) and thus approach this show as they would any other television show. The reaction is not out of line to the sudden and unexpected death of a character on any other adventure series, especially one that doesn't conform to audience expectation of what deaths are permissible and what are not.

This is only a problem because Wizards of the Coast wants to turn D&D into a Lifestyle Brand, and these upset watchers are not gamers- they're Fans of the Brand. Real D&D has characters croaking on the regular, often permanently, as one would expect in any game derived from wargaming. If anything, Mercer's been a softy and there should be a small stack of corpses by now.

The only good response here is "It's a game. Characters die. It happens. (Player) will just go roll up a new man and get back into it." but the soy had its way and here we are looking at grown men and women having a fucking meltdown like toddlers. WOTC has to know this doesn't make their brand look good, and they ought to be stepping in to do damage control; play the Lifestyle Brand game, get the Lifestyle Brand bullshit.

What is clear here is that neither Critical Role nor any of its fellow reality shows are Real D&D. They're all Fake D&D, pushing Fake Gaming (see the previous posts on the tells; we're seeing them here), and facilitating the fraud that is D&D as a Lifestyle Brand by allowing this farce to continue. (Look, there's going to be D&D-branded shoes for sale at the San Diego Comic Con; how fucking more obvious does it need to be that WOTC wants to make this pivot?) Frank, what time is it?

Indeed, Frank. It is time to stop- to stop merely tolerating Fake Gaming, especially Fake D&D.

Wednesday, July 18, 2018

Narrative Warfare: WE'VE GOT YOUR PLAYBOOK, SUCKERS!

We've got the playbook now, gang. The SJWs are done, as they are unable to sway from this playbook anymore. World Class Bullshitters gets it out there, one of a few to do so, and now Vox Day is entirely vindicated. Everything we suspected is confirmed.

Just as we now know that Fake Journalists routinely coordinate hitpiece campaigns in private email lists, we now have the playbook they use to execute and manage convergence campaigns in their entirety. My fellow #Gamergate and #Sadpuppies veterans will recognize the steps being used against us, and now we're seeing it come out in #Comicsgate and it will show in #DNDgate and #Animegate as those fronts develop.

Pay attention to key points:

  • Every step is coordinated behind the scenes, the same way the initial attack is.
  • The campaign always pushes for establishing SJWs as gatekeepers to shut out the real fans and drive them out.
  • Censorship is required for SJWs to win.
  • Winning is replacing the real version with their fake ones, even if it destroys the IP.
  • This checklist might as well be a softer version of the cultural replacement conquering cultures do to conquered ones.

You really ought to watch this a couple of times or read the article it references. Learn the playbook, folks, and develop strong Rhetorical counters to every one of them. We've got 'em! Time to finish them.

Tuesday, July 17, 2018

My Life as a Gamer: Fuck This War, I'm Out

Today is Pre-Patch Day for World of Warcraft. All of the systems, etc. for the next expansion goes live without any of the content; this way all the devs need to do is flip a switch and the new content is live for players to swarm and consume.

And I don't give a shit.

I am not impressed or excited by a god-damned thing coming in Battle For Azeroth. Nothing that's come across during the Alpha or Beta phases has given me reason to think this isn't Warlords of Draenor redux, and I'm not falling for that twice.

Try as they might, the expansion's Horde-v-Alliance theme (which we all know won't survive past the first raid tier, Old Gods being in the wings yet again as the real threat) is tone-deaf and woefully past its sell-by date (which was Vanilla). The faction war hasn't been a real part of the game for years, and every attempt to revive it has been half-assed and insincere; now the players are, by and large, past it- what we see is vestigial trash-talking. The time for an all-out war was 2006, as what to do instead of The Burning Crusade, or immediately after Wrath of the Lich King (when the real substance of the game got consumed) in 2010. Now? Way too late, and yet again half-assed.

The classes are still not balanced. The specializations are still not balanced. They still haven't squared the issue with levels and gearing as dual character progression paths, forcing stat and item level squishes every few years lest they break the game. The game's far too much about the fucking narrative, and all of the challenge is being bled out step by step for a mythical "casual" that isn't there. Meanwhile, the elite cohort that drives the economy and serves as aspiration for the rest are constantly shat upon and kicked in the nuts with demoralizing mechanics changes.

We know that Blizzard has a SJW problem, but this is more than just SJW incompetence. This is institutional stupidity, going back to Vanilla, and it's still there ("You think you do, but you don't."- words that had to be eaten) fucking shit up now. Bit by bit the fun's been bled out.

And the net result? I'm following Saurfang and saying "Fuck this war, I'm out." Call me when you've proven you know what makes a game--especially a RPG--fun, and I'll bother to update my PC (another complaint; the PC specs went up, again, to stupid levels for a genre of game that requires masses of players on toasters to be financially viable) to log in and play.

Games have to be fun to be worthwhile. That means challenging the player to deal with a scenario, a set of constraints, and the dare to solve it given those conditions. It's not about a fucking story; the "LORELOL" people, as revealed behavior shows, are right when it comes to all forms of RPG. The further you get from the wargame roots, the greater the suck becomes- and that's why I hold out hope that Classic will be worthwhile. Otherwise, I'll leave retail behind and go play Vanilla private servers- if I do WOW at all.

Monday, July 16, 2018

Narrative Warfare: The Other Fake Gamer Tell

Jeffro Johnson dialed in on a point that The Alt-Right GM made recently. He then points to this comment that Lewis Pulsipher left on a post recently: I’m afraid you’re left behind in the last century, Jeffro. Contemporary gamers *don’t* like constraints (which is kind of funny, since a game is merely an agreed-upon set of constraints).

Which lead to Jeffro making this comment:

Yeah, my first instinct here is to tell a person with credits in the original Fiend Folio to get off my lawn… but notice what this guy that spends a great deal of time designing games has to say about the marketplace of today’s gamers. They don’t actually like the thing that games are on an intrinsic level. That’s far more damning than any of the more outrageous things that I’ve ever said on this blog!

Now, I can see that if you were in the business of selling boxes of cardboard and plastic bits to people why you might want to pay attention to that. Speaking as a guy that likes just playing games a great deal, I have to wonder if it might just be easier to just say that large swaths of these “contemporary gamers” aren’t really gamers at all!

That second italicized bit? That's the other tell.

And yes, they are related. We have a term for people who want the glory and social status that being a combat veteran imparts without actually risking one's life in combat: Stolen Valor. It's taken seriously by veterans and their families, with consequences that start at a ruined reputation and go all the way to "found dead of suicide by being beaten to death".

Fake Gamers are cowardly at heart, and avoid confrontation because they avoid challenges. That's why they neuter competitive gaming in all niches. That's why they claim that being a Let's Play watcher makes you a gamer (Stolen Gaming) and counts as playing yourself. That's why refuse constraints, cheat readily, prefer Storygame bullshit over real gaming, and otherwise shuck and jive their way out of playing the fucking game.

Kick these punters to the curb. They're fake and lame, unworthy of your time and attention, and should be outed accordingly. Stolen gaming has to stop if gaming is to survive and thrive, at all levels; the least you can do is expose the fake gamers and close your table to them henceforth. It doesn't help that most are also SJWs. Cultures don't cure themselves, folks. Find the fakes and bring the pain until they either flee or flip: Git Gud or Get The Fuck Out!

Sunday, July 15, 2018

Narrative Warfare: The Fake Gamer Tell

Tonight on the Metro City Boys podcast, the crew (with a very special guest), they got on the topic of watching vs. doing in gaming. It came up here and there, so I'm just embedding the episode.

There's a difference between watching someone else play a game, and playing a game. The latter makes you a gamer. The former is just you watching a gamer get their game on. If you are one of these retarded Rhesus monkeys claiming that you don't have to play games to be a gamer (or, similarly, that watching someone else do it means that you did it), you are a Fake Gamer.

Skin in the Game, folks. The real deal has it. The fakes don't. It's one of the most reliable tells around across the board. Anyone that says you can be a gamer without playing games is lying to you, and likely has something worse in mind for you and for gaming, so punt that fucker to the curb.

Saturday, July 14, 2018

My Life a Gamer: The Pundit on the "Equal Time" Fraud

The RPG Pundit is back with a third video in his series on the lies Fake Gamers Tell You. Watch and learn.

Jeffro Johnson's take mirrors my own, so I won't repeat the substance of his post; click through the link, read it, and come back.

There's something a lot of the naysayers to Real D&D and Real Gaming miss: doing things the Old School way is simpler, easier, and far more accessible to normies than Fake Gaming could ever be. The reason? It's built to be popular entertainment, and popular entertainment doesn't deal in catering to snowflake bullshit. Be it Literary Realism, Hipster Nihilism, or Muh Storytelling the rot is the same and so is the effect: to take something with popular appeal and closing it off into a ghetto for degenerates.

The murder of the pulps in the 1940s, the installation of the gatekeepers in the 1980s, the SJWs in the last decade- all following that same pattern. Pervert it, close it off, gatekeep for freaks and failures until the degeneracy is normalized and then use that thing to spread the disease.

No wonder the SJWs hate the fact that fandoms are not so easily converged without first integrating them heavily with centralized institutions (conventions and publishers for SF/F, comics, and gaming); without some form of central command-and-control you can't do the takeover and make it stick- the real deal always escapes and rises again.

So not only is what they tell you wrong, they're outright lying to you to sucker you into fronting for them. Fake Gaming is nothing more than a front for the Death Cult, just like what you see with Scientology. That's yet another reason to kick the crooks turning tabletop RPGs (especially D&D) into a fake lifestyle brand to the curb, and then shut their own gates behind them to keep them out.

Gaming--in all media--must become explicitly and avowedly anti-SJW, for its own good, or it's done.

Friday, July 13, 2018

Narrative Warfare: Indies Doing It For Themselves

Independent authors don't need to deal with the mainstream media anymore to promote their books or themselves. It is now viable and easy to do this exclusively through independent media outlets that lie outside the mainstream, thanks to YouTube and its competitors (as well as similar companies like SoundCloud) to replace TV and radio as well as blogging to replace magazines. I'll refer mostly to YouTube, but this also applies to other such outlets.

YouTube channels, like blogs, need to release content on a regular basis to attract and retain an audience. This means that they are always on a search for sources that they can turn into content that they can release through their channel to serve that audience. The audience for a given channel can be small, in absolute terms, but that audience is far more likely to be friendly to what you write; the trick is to scout out a channel before you decide to approach them, because not every likely channel is actually good for what you want- to grow your audience and expand your reach.

With that in mind, I want you--my fellow independent SF/F authors, #pulprev and #superversive and #noblebright--to consider the following:

  • When creating our SF/F works, we come up with a lot of material--lore--that is necessary to get the work done but doesn't get a lot of attention in the presentation of the narrative. This is usually set aside in your Notes folder or junk drawer, until you get a hit like Uncle George and decide to publish all the ancillary materials to satisfy the audience.
  • There are YouTube channels that focus their content production on the lore of a given property, some with more narrow focus than others, and we're now seeing some of these channels collaborate. These channels tend to be very hungry for content, and are likely to be open to collaborating with creators like us.
  • If you do your part and know how to appeal to the focus of a channel, you can reach out to their audience and promote your stuff to their audience while giving them new and exciting lore content to do videos about. You win. They win. The audience wins. Everyone benefits. If you can find an alliance of channels and can work with the alliance as a whole, the synergy really takes off.

We have three channels that are now in an alliance that are likely to be favorable to us: The Templin Institute, Spacedock, and Eckhart's Ladder. Templin likes to talk about factions, locations, notable people, and so on; they're the big player of this three-party alliance. Spacedock is a gearhead-focused channel, and has already done paid collaborations to promote properties (New BSG and The Expanse). Eckhart's Ladder is mostly Star Wars, but open to others, and his "Battle Breakdown" series is fantastic for adventure-heavy creators.

We should reach out to this alliance and offer to collaborate with them. We have exactly what these channels are hungry for, and if we can successfully reach out to them then the win-win synergy will become apparent as we take the material we otherwise would never get the full benefit from and put it before the audiences that want exactly that sort of thing.

The goal is to drive more people to our email newsletters, and convert those subscribers to regular book buyers and readers in turn. This is not a one-time affair; this is going to be an ongoing relationship, one that can (and will) turn into opportunities to return the favor as these channels in turn want to begin producing original content- opportunities we would be in a prime position to exploit. (Spacedock is doing this now, "The Sojurn", and Templin's been making similar noises; Eckhart will follow presently once the bug bites him.) If nothing else, being in position to readily offer to do the novel adaptations is invaluable and serves to keep the relationship healthy via returning value for value.

Yes, I will do this once I am ready regarding Star Knight, but some of you are already in position to hit this hard here and now. Go to their YT pages, hit up their contact emails, and introduce yourselves. You've got lore; they want to talk lore. Start making it happen. (Good God, if Nick & Jason did this all three channels would explode yet again and thrive.)

Thursday, July 12, 2018

Narrative Warfare: And Rohan Will Answer

A few days ago, I made a post where I point out that we have sufficient independent media outlets (each with sufficient audience sizes) that we no longer need to put up with the mainstream. We can--and we should--network among ourselves henceforth and cut the MSM out entirely.

So I decided that right now we're in a position where the various clusters I see as being close enough together to benefit from this sort of move, and this morning I did take that first step: I made sure I was in the livestream for Morning With Pop Culture, the new morning show that World Class Bullshitters now puts on during the week. I lucked out today; Jeff (the host) decided to do an Ask Me Anything segment and I got the question answered:

There it is, folks- asked and answered. World Class Bullshitters WILL talk to us, both in terms of taking ads and in terms of being a guest. If you've got something of interest to their audience, especially if it's the #StarWarsNotStarWars sort--Nick Cole, Brian Niemeier, Jon del Arroz, myself--then you've got someone willing to have you on and present you to people who may not have heard of you or your stuff (but are fed up with Mouse Wars and would be open to alternatives). You can reach WCB by email at worldclassbs@mail.com, and on Twitter (@TheWorldClassBS); take the time to catch some streams or watch some videos so you can get the vibe. (If you like Razorfist, you'll likely find these guys to your liking.)

World Class Bullshitters is part of The High Council, a group show done with Ethan Van Sciver and the Geeks & Gamers channel. Those two are also worth approaching, likely with similar caveats. Ethan in particular is someone we should get into contact with for making connections with other comic people. Why? Independent comicbook adaptations of our novels, and independent novel adaptations of their comics.

Here, this is tonight's live show (yes, separate morning and evening shows how; that's how explosive the growth's been), so you can get acquainted with the crew and see why Space Opera writers in particular ought to get to know this crew and reach out to them to be a guest and/or take out an ad. In particular I think Nick Cole & Jason Anspach will find a welcome reception for Galaxy's Edge with this audience.

And come back tomorrow, folks. I have a proposal for approaching another set of associated YouTube Channels who seem to be right up our alley: The Templin Institute, Spacedock, and Eckhart's Ladder.

Wednesday, July 11, 2018

My Life in Fandom: Return of the GERWALK

The 1980s were a golden time for giant robot fans. While the number of Super Robot shows decreased, the rise of the Real Robot subgenre that debuted in 1979 with Mobile Suit Gundam exploded in earnest with Super Dimension Fortress Macross in 1982. That series's signature mecha, the VF-1 Valkyrie, is famous for being a Real Robot with three modes: Fighter, GERWALK, Battroid. That middle word is in all-caps because it's an acronymn, and the Macross franchise isn't the only mecha property to use it.

"GERWALK" means: ...Ground Effective Reinforcement of Winged Armament with Locomotive Knee-joint. The GERWALK form allows flight, VTOL (vertical take off and landing) and walking on the ground., and this quality came out in full force in the studio's second "Super Dimension" series: Super Dimension Century Orguss

Orguss heavily features GERWALK mecha designs, as noted at GEARS Online's collection of imagery from the series and its concept artwork. Though not mentioned explicitly, there is one big reason for why GERWALK style mecha are so prominent in this setting: they are cheap as hell to construct.

Why? Because GERWALK is one step away from BattleTech's paradigm of Mech-as-Walking-Tank; put a cockpit and an engine in a box, bolt on a pair of legs, and GO! There is no need even for the expedient of allowing the legs to fold back and make the mech have a Fighter mode- something Macross did with the Zentran Reguld Battle Pod. The Crusher Joe movie (one of BattleTech's image sources) also had such a mech.

But the concept didn't stop with Orguss. While the name went away, the idea matured a little more with the production of Aku Daisakusen Srungle While the title mech, a true transformable super robot, only uses that mode part of the time the pilots at its controls use GERWALK mecha ("Trekkers") when outside of the hero unit. The enemies, naturally, have their own; it's the last time GERWALK style mecha get so prominent a display for a long time after that show's conclusion.

Not that they'll ever be gone for long. I'm not the only one to notice how cheap and easy GERWALK mecha are, which makes them ideal mook mecha across the board. It's what I'm doing with my own Star Knight Saga, and I'm not skimping on the easy transition to flight mode.

Hell, even Uncle George noticed back in the days with the AT-ST and the AT-PT (the latter for the prequels, and one of the more interesting personal-scale mechanical designs). So yeah, I'm giving GERWALK its due- and that includes the word itself (and what it stands for); I'm adding this to the setting bible, including its real--Real World--origins. I'm writing my stories in part as loving homage, so why not give some overlooked ideas some time to shine?

If you're looking forward to seeing the GERWALK return, then watch out for my IndieGoGo campaign to crowdfund Star Knight's first entry, coming soon.

Tuesday, July 10, 2018

Those Heartless Husks Erased Even The Memory of Him

Karger w/ Harambe & Grape-kunWhile on World of Warcrat late last night, I was on my Hunter character for a half-hour to do some stuff. I rolled this character just to do meme stuff, so I tamed a gorilla and named him "Harambe". WOW!Harambe, named in memory of the slain zoo gorilla (and to refer to the meme), had been around since shortly after the real one died. We're talking a couple of years of me running around in-game with this pet and only getting laughs and cheers.

It was a harmless way to keep the memory alive, much like how I tamed a pet penguin and named him "Grapekun". Harmless fun.

No more.

I got disconnected out of nowhere. Not unusual; it's weekly maintenance time as I write this post, so in the hours preceding it I'm not surprised when connection hiccups happen. But when I logged back in, I noticed that my pet lost his name; it was just "Gorilla"- and that's when I figured out what likely happened.

I checked my email inbox. Confirmed; someone reported the name and the GMs decided it was "Harassment" or some bullshit and forced a reversion. RIP Harambe, again; some killjoy got triggered at the very mention of his name and got assmad at someone having harmless fun that they didn't like.

How petty are you to get offended at someone naming a NPC pet animal after an Internet meme? I've saved some folks' asses with Harambe over the last few years, notably during the prepatch event for Legion. He was a hero, and now he's gone.

Dicks out one more time, my dudes.

Fine, I'll just have to come up with something better. I dare you joyless fucks to get mad over "Koko".

On a serious note, I want you to remember this: a core component of Narrative Warfare is manipulation of the past via control over what is made available to the population. Martyrs are easily controlled because they are dead and cannot defend themselves, and so is everyone else who's dead or dying. It is for the living to defend the dead from the defilement that is what happens when SJWs (or their masters) do a 1984 job on the facts- on the truth. If they're comfortable enough to do this in a game, they'll do it to unperson a world-important author (H.P. Lovecraft, Laura Ingalls Wilder) Because REEEEEE!

We can't let them. That way lies madness. It is the refusal to see reality as it is, even in the small ways, that allow greater evils to happen.

Monday, July 9, 2018

Narrative Warfare: The Price Is Right (To Blacklist SJWs)

Today's topic comes courtesy of the Mombot, whom you should follow if you're on Twitter and you're not following her. Behold:

Remember the Three Laws of SJWs: They always lie, they always double-down, and they always project. In the Polygon puff piece, we see all three exhibited like a battle flag in a thunderstorm.

She calls herself a developer. That's a lie; devs code, and she can't. She's a writer, a basic bitchwork one at that, who's job (and history) is of doing bitchwork unskilled writing crap like flavor text and branching dialog lines. In short, she oversells how good she is to puff herself up. She puffs herself up due to status anxiety, classic r-selected psychology, which she also exhibits when she gets all mad and throws around BadFeel bullshit to shame her targets.

When called on her bullshit, she doubles-down; this article is her doing this in a big way, repeating her lies and compounding them to keep her scam going. If she wasn't well-ensconced in the Sea-Tac SJW Clique she would've been rightly blacklisted and run out of the business entirely years ago. (Even then, she managed to fuck up a sure thing with Paizo.)

And look at all that projection! "He's unprofessional!" "You're entitled!" Trump should draft this broad for the Space Force- as a Ground-To-Orbit Launcher. (She's actually have a job suitable for her talents.) She's been like this for years on end, and she's not stopping now because she's so delusional that reality might as well be a flavor of ice cream to her. No matter how hard she screws herself, she always finds someone else to blame for her failures and fuckups. She refuses to see reality as it is.

Everyone in the gaming world needs to know this woman's name and memorize her face. She's done nothing but cause unnecessary issues wherever she goes, costing her employers time and money while damaging their brand and reputation- excusing her unprofessional behavior entirely with her being woke and doing Social Justice. Blacklist this bitch already.

The Church excommunicates the unrepentant delinquents and reprobates, casting them out utterly and cutting them off. Why in the world would this not be done for more ordinary chronic offenders? It is necessary and proper to establish and maintain lists of folks who are nothing but trouble regardless of what they can do or who they know. (It's also already done by her and her allies, and they do not shy away from calling this a good thing.) While you're at it, take note of others like Price and put them on the list also.

No "But"s. You know damn well that these SJWs do nothing but start shit and try to steal employers from their owners Because Social Justice. It's long past time to tag them, nag them, and run them out of town- tarring and feathering optional. You have to do it to them because they will do it to you as soon as they get the chance. This is War To The Knife, Knife To the Hilt; purge them or get sacrificed to their demon god.

Sunday, July 8, 2018

Narrative Warfare: I'm Lighting The Beacons

It's time, folks.

We've got the writers eating the lunch of the SJW-dominated tradpub world of SF/F novels and also, slowly, trying to find a way to bring back the old magazines so that short fiction can find a market again. Across the street (so to speak) we've got the comics guys kicking the SJWs in the crotch and taking their milkshakes. In both vidya and tabletop, SJWs are losing ground as their antics keep showing the customers how fucked in the head they are- opening the door to sane competitors like Alexander Macris and the Pundit.

And behind the scenes, grinning with satisfaction as it all unfolds, is the Supreme Dark Lord sipping his wine while atop his skull-adorned throne.

We're doing all right, folks. Despite setbacks and foibles, we're actually mounting a real resistance and winning some fights. It's time to consider something that the smarter minds on the other side have already considered, and shit themselves trying to keep calm enough to find ways to prevent it: joining together for cross-media collaboration.

I can design a tabletop RPG to exploit Star Knight Saga, but why do that when I can make a win-win deal with the Pundit or Macris or whomever to do that. They get something they can sell, I get valuable expansion of my IP to a related audience, and I can focus on writing the books while they focus on making the game. Likewise, I can take the time to teach myself how to draw, ink, and color in the style I'd want for a comic version Star Knight Saga, but why do that when I can link up with Ethan Van Scrier or Richard Meyer or whomever to do that. Same division of labor, and win-win collaboration, applies.

And if you somehow think I'm going to create my own anime version, you're mental. If, by the grace of God, I catch the eye of (for example) Shoji Kawamori and he decides he wants to do that, you're damn right I will--at the least--entertain the man's offer and let him show me how he and I can win from letting him do that. (Doubly so for the music; if Yoko Kanno wants to do the music, I will have a hard time saying "No".)

And I don't want to leave the podcasters and livestreamers out. World Class Bullshitters, Geek Gab, Geeks & Gamers, The High Council, The Quartering, EVS and D&C's channels, even (believe it or not) Ethan Ralph's Killstreams have all have all taken their place in the shield wall and done their part to get this resurgent cultural resistance going- and they're not the only ones. (If I missed you, it's not a slight.) Their role, collectively, in being a viable alternative to the SJW-dominated media (and the cultural influence that they exert) is not to be dismissed.

If we are to truly Fork & Replace these degenerate death cultists, then we've got to start networking among our own and cross-promoting. While our audiences are not all the same, we have enough to offer to one another to make win-win collaborations not only a viable course of action going forward but a necessary one. I am not mincing words when I say "Fork and Replace"; we have to fill the void that the SJWs will leave behind when their collapse is complete- and we must explicitly shut them out hereafter, permanently, or we will do this dance all over again down the road. That's not winning; leaving them behind to choke to death on our dust as they wither in the desolation of irrelevance is winning.

I can be reached private as per the Contact tab above if any of you want to start this ball rolling. In short, this:

Saturday, July 7, 2018

Classic Mecha Anime Coming West!

Anime Expo 2018 is going on, and in a synchronicity that I never saw coming a whole bunch of classic '80s anime series got new North American licenses. These are for streaming as well as home video releases (and some are streaming now, usually via HIDIVE or Crunchyroll), which means that some anime we never got brought over back in the day are finally coming West. Below I'm summarizing who snagged what, and linking (rather than embedding) their opening themes:

This builds on Sentai Filmworks acquiring the rights to Aura Battler Dunbine (streaming and home video planned there also) earlier this year. It's a sign, folks- a sign that #AGundamForUs is the right move at the right time, so we've got to follow through.

It's a synchronicity due to the rising prominence of mecha-focused Western SF, especially in the indie field, as we can see at Amazon. While most of what's available follows BattleTech's lead of "lumbering tin cans with guns" (aka Walking Tank) instead of the Giant Soldier model of the Macross, Gundam, and indeed most mecha anime franchises (including BattleTech's source material), or are actually Powered Armor instead of proper mecha, it is interesting that a lot of the stuff that inspired the current Western outpouring--including our own #AGundamForUs projects--is finally coming to the West now that there's some indication of an audience for it.

Sure, plenty of other series are missing stuff (or only in their Mackered forms), but just as you must stop giving money to people who hate you you've also got to put your money where your mouth is- something SJWs fail at frequently. We're not going to get Fang of the Sun Dougram, Panzer World Galient, or the original OVAs of Legend of the Galactic Heroes if this stuff doesn't move massive amounts of discs or bring in plenty of streaming subs. That's how it is; we just got to deal with it.

And I do hope to hear more such announcements before this year's convention season is over. Making this happen means that there will be more people willing to take a chance on original mecha fiction such as my own Star Knight Saga and Brian Niemeier's Combat Frame XSeed. This is a golden opportunity that cannot be passed up, and if we play our cards right we can build up to some epic East-West collaborations of global impact.

Friday, July 6, 2018

Well Above Par: The Failure To Face Reality As It Is

ArenaNet fired SJW hack Jessica Price. She went after one of the partnered streamers for Guild Wars 2 due to the partner's mild and measured criticism of Jessica's take on writing for a MMORPG. This firing included a white knight co-writer, and both writers falsely presented themselves as "game devs" prior to getting the axe. (No, you're not; devs code.)

Being part of the SJW Clique in Seattle, she instantly had her fellow death cultists come to her defense. In the display of media coordination that's now too obvious to ignore, coordinated hit-pieces came out doing just that- starting with PC Gamer and covering as much of the Fake Gaming News as could be had on that notice. (Which is why I'm only linking to One Angry Gamer's article, as I can trust them.)

Writing psuedo-prose in gaming is one of the closest things you get to a sinecure in the gaming business, and twice now she's managed to fuck up a sure thing by being a sand-spewing thundercunt. That level of stupidity takes talent, something else I notice the Sea-Tac Sect of the SJW Death Cult is fond of fostering among its circle. This takes "You played yourself" to heretofore unseen levels; run for office, Jess, the Dems need you.

And kudos to ArenaNet for having a leadership that doesn't have its head completely up its own ass. Yes, firing her summarily was the correct decision; she interfered with a key business relationship without leave, cause, or excuse and threatened to damage that relationship by her ego-driven incompetence. Only in a business environment does this not merit sabotage and insubordination, both of which allow for punishment by summary execution. As it is, I can only agree with the Pundit: Karma is a bitch. (Shouldn't have slagged off Totalbiscuit when he died, Jess.)

The common thread here: the woman isn't the least bit professional, but instead driven by a swollen ego to act on her delusions.

Everything about this incident, and previous ones feeding into it, show that this woman is delusional. She refuses to face reality as it is, and it starts by over-estimated her worth. Writing for hire is not a high-status position regardless of who you write for or what you write about; you're a specialized burger-flipper, not a master tradesman, and you can be easily replaced by someone who is no less competent but far less of a hassle. Parre somehow fails to comprehend this.

(Side note: this is another reason gaming doesn't need story, because it's a clear avenue for SJW entryism.)

You don't attack someone who responds to a claim you make, in public, in good faith. Especially when that someone is a business partner to your employer, as was the case here. (Partnered livestreamer on Twitch, to be exact.) This behavior is stupid, and what she got is a mercy that she cannot comprehend (and so is wasted on her); I fully expect her and her fellow travelers to demonstrate this to we who remain able to see reality for what it is with great fury before the day is over.

What should you take away from this? First, never hire delusional people; they will inevitably fuck things up for you good and hard, so miss that mess and say "God Bless!". Second, if you've got such whackjobs and you're able to axe them (by whatever means), do so as early as you can to minimize the odds of getting screwed by them. Third, don't associate with them, for the aforementioned reasons. Last, ensure that everyone else notices that they are delusional and dangerous; don't be shy to let fly when they look at the sky and call it a pie.

That last bit? That's not for you, and certainly not for them, but for those looking on; they have to see these SJWs fly their freak flags furiously in public to get the message, but once they do the disgust kicks in and those on-lookers will heed what you have to say about them. It's worth it over the long-haul to cull the delusional from the rest of us who aren't messed up.

Thursday, July 5, 2018

Incoming Colony Drop: Legendary Making a Live-Action Gundam Film

Not this shit again.

For those who're late to the party, Legendary's PR guy included this summary:

The original Gundam series is set in the Universal Century, an era in which humanity’s growing population has led people to emigrate to space colonies. Eventually, the people living in the colonies seek their autonomy, and launch a war of independence against the people living on Earth. Through the tragedies and discord arising from this human conflict, not only the maturation of the main character, but also the intentions of enemies and the surrounding people are sensitively depicted.

The last franchise that needs adaptation to live-action feature films is Mobile Suit Gundam. Previously, we saw the production of a live-action version of Space Battleship Yamato, which you can find clips of freely on YouTube, and my God is that a trainrwreck- and that was by a Japanese studio with intimate familiarity with the source property. Prior to that we had the utterly disastrous G-Savior adaptation. The former did far better financially than the latter, but neither were needed nor wanted and are ignored by the franchise's audience. (Killing off most of the cast didn't help for Yamato.)

This stupid insistence upon making live-action adaptations of anime classics demonstrates the failure of the corporate stewards to comprehend what the hell they're stewards of, or how that property works. It's animated for a reason, and that reason is because you can do things in animation that are impractical or impossible to accomplish with live-action- like giant fucking robots.

Which inevitably means that the adaptation will fail to appeal to the core franchise audience. Either through incompetence or the proper playing to the medium you're adapting the property to, you cannot avoid deviating from the success strategy that made the source property popular and successful in the first place. In this case, there's no way you're not going to turn away from the giant robot action (and space opera action generally) that this franchise is famous for in favor of character melodrama. Why? Costumes and sets are far cheaper and easier to write and produce in live-action film and television; it's why soap operas, sit-coms, and procedurals are so commonplace.

The Gundam franchise is a world-famous and respected franchise because it exploits the animeation medium's strengths well, using the fact that animating character drama and massive fleet actions are the same expense of resources from a logistics perspective, so why not make the best damn science fiction adventures possible? It's not like you can't also have tense character drama, as both the classic and the recent successes demonstrate very well, and by doing so you create and sustain audiences that you cannot possibly maintain with live-action. (Proof of concept? Animated Star Wars does the property better than live-action does.)

I would rather that Legendary focus on acquiring/producing Chinese properties for export to the West, since it is owned by the Chinese and inevitably will be used to push their agenda anyway, so why not be honest about it and so that chauvanism openly? (Or did you think that movie about lizards attacking the Great Wall was Matt Damon's idea?) This announcement isn't just a warning of a shit film coming to theaters, it's very likely a shot across the bow that China's going to use cultural capital to reassert its influence across the region. (Since they can't do so militarily, and won't ever due to their own issues.)

So this film won't just suck, it'll be deliberately sabotaged to suck for effect. We in the West aren't the only ones engaged in a culture war, and Japan's going to learn the hard way that they're going to get it from both ends: the Chinese and the Western Left.

Let's hope this deal collapses before they can do any real damage to the property. You don't have to be the owners to do critical damage, if whom you license from is sufficiently inattentive to what you do with their toys until after you break them good and hard.

Wednesday, July 4, 2018

Narrative Warfare: Marvel Comics Pays Vox Day a Supreme Compliment

How do you know when you're winning? When your enemies try to make you look and feel bad by doing a Take That Straw Man villain of you in their material, but overdo it and make you cooler than Char Aznable and thus them look like the pathetic shits they really are in the process. Behold the epic own-goal that is Marvel's attempt to make Vox Day look bad:

Of course the Supreme Dark Lord noticed. He's flattered, and I concur that this is an "of course" move by SJW-converged Marvel Comics that they do take Arkhaven Comics as a threat. Why? This comment at Vox Populi nails it:

Given the lead times of most comics of around 6 months, the FreeStartr campaign ending in October (and the several months lead up to that), we're right in line with them deciding to make Vox a villain when he moved to get into comics.

This is intentional. And some free advertising.

This is another sign that the Culture War in the United States turns against the Left. Decisions like this are freak-out reactions, not logical policy moves. What this decision reveals is that the SJWs use the Inhumans much like they use the Mutants: as stand-ins for themselves collectively. ("We not normal! We're special and unique individuals who have to get away from the normies to survive and thrive!") Just as anti-Mutant genocides are used by SJWs as Rhetorical screeds against Civilization (whatever the actual substance may be), so is this a veiled screed by the SJWs against Vox Day- and the confirmation will be if any other related tells show up. ("Vile Minions", "Dread Ilk", etc.)

Now to see if DC Comics, Image, or IDW put out something similar. SJWs tend to coordinate their hit-pieces, so if Marvel's doing this then we can expect more of the same to come out of seemingly-independent (even opposed) outlets in short order. I hope they do; nothing would make me happier than knowing that the SJWs in comics fear Vox Day and what he can do- having seen what he's done to their friends in Traditional SF/F Publishing to date. Go on, SJWs. make me laugh like Ivan Throne.

Tuesday, July 3, 2018

Narrative Warfare: SJWs Say We're Dead, Again.

Where have I heard this before?

Wolfgang's Twitter thread is an epic fisking of some shitstain SJW doing another Gamers Are Dead whinefest/hitpiece by the cuck that goes by "Film Critic Hulk". Go on, read the thread, it's hilarious and cringy.

It's also telling, because you do not go to this length unless the damage done is so severe that the leadership freaks out and goes Full Retard in response. This is word-salad trying hard to mask the REEEEEEEE going on behind the scenes, and once you see the tells you don't unsee it.

The pressure has to keep up, and ramp up, because the signs of brains blowing out under the stress are now appearing. This repeat of a failed narrative control tactic demonstrates that Culty Kathy and her fellow travelers have no plan to do anything about how they drove Star Wars into a cliff. They aren't even preparing for the inevitable firings. The delusion is so deep that they're acting out of nothing more than to make the BadFeels stop; rational thought has left the building.

In short, this is a sign that we're winning. Keep it up, fellow shitlords. Soon they'll burn themselves out and we can effortlessly take over.

Monday, July 2, 2018

Narrative Warfare: IDW Publishing's Implosion Reveals a Key SJW Tell

The Quartering--he who broke the story of pedos in Magic: The Gathering--has a story on the woes of IDW Publishing and how SJWs steer that company into the ground just like their counterparts in Lucasfilm.

That's right, "Get Woke, Go Broke." strikes again.

What Marvel and DC suffer now is important, but the fate of IDW will come to them when the corporate masters of the Big Two realize the damage that the SJWs do to the property means that the company's ability to meet corporate profit expectations--the drivers of the corporate economy--is diminished or exterminated.

Marvel, in particular, has to be aware of this fate right now. Their leadership was on the conference call where Disney CEO Bob Iger dressed down Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy; he made an example of her before the rest of Disney's corporate vassal lords, and it is not to be dismissed as posturing. That's a big deal.

The continued freakout reactions by SJW "creators" in the comics business shows that the combination of comics readers checking out of SJW-converged titles coupled with the presence of clean independent alternatives (Richard Meyer's "Iron Sights" passed over $10K in under eight hours; that's incredible.) demonstrates that the pressure from the marketplace to disavow SJW bullshit or die keeps ramping up.

So it is not surprising to see the SJWs doubling-down faster and faster as the pressure rises; we now have a clear demonstration of a tell that shows us when resistance to SJWs is successful. The acceleration of the known behavior patterns, and the increasing levels of erratic manner in expressions thereof, is something we can use to track the success of our counter-attack against them. Take that away and keep it on hand henceforth, folks; once you make them freak out, you pile that on until their brains explode from the pressure.

We have a viable, practical, and simple foundation now: Make the SJWs freakout, then use what freaks them out to build pressure on their amgydalas so they accelerate the cycle of behavior (lie, double-down, project) past the point of coherence, and keep ramping it up until they implode. Clear them out, build the wall behind them to keep them out henceforth, and restore the concern to its mission- a mission that now explicitly includes "SJWs are our enemy".

This means doing something long disdained: blacklisting. SJWs, once driven out, must be shut out permanently or you'll have to do it all again down the road. You must actively and permanently discriminate against them because they have proven to be deleterious and corrosive to any concern that admits them in any capacity. Until they take their helicopter ride away from it all, that's what must be done to all SJWs, lest they break what you need to survive.

Sunday, July 1, 2018

Let The MCU Burn Itself To Ash

I told you the MCU was Kill. Here, have it rubbed in your face.

That's a promo for the upcoming TV series.

And they waste valuable time on Muh Privilege, signalling that this show, MCU TV, and increasingly all of the MCU is not to be taken seriously as entertainment. If you want your money to go to people who hate you and want to lecture you to death, you're a damned fool; crazy street preachers do that for free and you can troll them back.

You've got Ethan Van Scrier, the Diversity & Comics guy, Arkhaven Comics, and more out there keeping alive the real comics that entertained generations before the smart money left and the SJWs arrived. Find something one of them does that you like and give your money to that guy instead. Turn your back on an MCU that doesn't care about you and let it burn itself to death by its incompetence.

In the meantime, at least you've got My Hero Academia and One-Punch Man to keep you busy until the new and faithful indies produce a renewed wave of TV and film adaptations. Go read and watch those for your superhero itches.