For those of you wondering why any of us in the #PulpRev talk about light novels, it's because of stuff like this.
That's the 10th volume in the original novel series for Legend of the Galactic Heroes. The author, Yoshiki Tanaka, is also behind The Heroic Legend of Arslan, so this is not new to him. He's been successful as a novelist for decades, and these are two of the works he's most known for due to their manga and anime adaptations. The last few years have seen both of these series become officially available in English for Western audiences, and I recommend both.
This is part of a wave of official translations and releases of well-known stuff in Japan that's been going on for a while. Getter Robo, Gundam: Origin, etc. have all come out in light novel, manga, or both into the West now. We all know that it goes the other way--Western novels are translated into Japanese and sold there--so what we're wondering is what it would take to do so and can we do it with what we've got.
It's that last part that may well prove to be the problem for now. The rest I think is within our means; we have better intelligence on the markets of the world than ever before, so it's really a matter of being able to act on it.
Because we're not in the business of writing books. We're in the business of entertaining audiences, and that's a global affair now, like it or not. Sure, the odds that I'll go big in--e.g.--Mongolia are slim, but it's no good not trying when all it takes is just being present and spreading word of your existence as far and wide as you can with cheap and easy-to-use tools. If you can access the Internet, odds are good you can find indie SF to buy and read.
Yes, even in deeply censorious regimes. Hello, VPN.
And Japan's light novel scene is a remnant of what used to be the norm for global fiction publishing: cheap genre fiction paperbacks. It still exists, and despite its own big problems it remains a key component of Japan's entertainment business infrastructure- often in the form of A/B audience testing prior to intake to a more popular medium such as manga.
I'll think more about this with my work in particular between now and New Year'.
The dawn of the Xmas Shopping Season is here. Say what you want about it, but you know it's a thing and I'd be remiss if I didn't have something to say about it.
First, I'd be thrilled if you gifted copies of my book to whomever you think would enjoy it. Every copy sold makes more Star Knight more likely to come more quickly. Second, if you haven't already then get up on my fellow authors Brian Niemeier and Rawle Nyanzi to read their takes on giant robots of the not-BattleTech vein. Third, go check out Jon del Arroz's Nano Templar series of Space Opera books.
And here's a short list of fellows who have stuff you might enjoy.
Cirsova Magazine is the best new short fiction magazine around for thrilling tales of adventure regardless of genre. Every issue is worth your time.
Adam Smith's Deus Vult Wastelanders series starts with Gideon Ira: Knight of the Blood Cross and between this series and Nano Templar we got the solidification of what Razorfist coined "Cruci-Fiction".
Alexander Hellene's The Swordbringer series starts with The Last Ancestor and if you're looking for Planetary Romance you'll get it here.
The hardest working writer in the Israeli Defense Force, Yakov Merkin, has a brilliant Space Opera series in Galaxy Ascendant. You can find the first book, A Greater Duty, here and begin catching up fast.
And if you haven't gotten on the mil-SF juggernaut that is Galaxy's Edge, by Nick Cole & Jason Anspach, you're missing out.
There's a hell of a lot more out there, so don't fret if I missed someone or didn't mention something. I didn't even mention comics or more notable authors' works (e.g. Legend of the Galactic Heroes, or other non-narrative media such as videogames and tabletop RPGs. If you want me to post more short lists, say so below.
It's Thanksgiving Day in the United States today. I'll be enjoying turkey with the folks, as will most of my friends and colleagues. Enjoy the day, wherever you are, and for the love of God heed what Oliver Campbell said the other day on Twitter.
If you're the person that gets all excited to go pick fights with your families during the holidays, go to hell.
There are 365 days in a year. Take a day off from being a miserable person, for god's sake. You have 364 more to be awful.
Just don't. I don't care if you want to dunk on Trump or own the libs. SHUT. UP. Pass the potatoes. Enjoy the time with your folks, flawed as they may be, because you do not know when that time will end and you will miss them when they're gone. Be thankful that you can learn from them now while you can, especially the ones you dislike.
This is another presentation by Richard Grove of Tragedy & Hope, talking about something relevant to the interests of a lot of my readers: Autonomy for Parents.
This is not just about getting people out of the 9-5, but going into the hows and why behind this scheme to atomize parents from children and put each into environments that neither have any control over and instead are just to execute orders imposed from above by the pawns of the elite class who seek to turn most men into human cattle to herd or cull as desired.
Well worth your time to watch all the way through, as is to be expected with anything out of Tragedy & Hope.
Today I bring you, again, Richard Grove of Tragedy & Hope. This is his #SmartReads episode on Neil Postman's Technopoly for the Autonomy Project.
Pay attention to what Grove says. Compare the clear claims of technology as moral philosophy, as put forth by Postman in his 1992 book, to Brian Niemeier's posts on the Death Cult and its front the Pop Cult. Both of these are explanations for how an elite that hates Man and seeks to exploit and control Man, as one would a herd of cattle, in defiance of and rebellion against God.
And Postman, by the by, was not speaking to outsiders. As with Carroll Quigley regarding his Tragedy & Hope, Postman's writing for insiders and fellow travelers- for those doing the exploiting. He's not teaching outsiders how to defy and destroy the control grid; he's teaching his fellows what their tools actually are, how they actually work, and why they work that way so that they can employ those tools most effectively for the end of keeping us in line.
Remember the date, 1992. Bill Clinton wins the Presidency that year, starting the Clinton Years that define the 1990s for American youth of the day. This was the decade that saw the emergence of the Internet as a commercial entity. What Niemeier identifies as Generation Y emerges here, and everything that would prove to afflict them has its roots in what Grove explores in Postman's book; the atomization accelerated here, pulling out parents and leaving only popular culture--carried by technology--to fill that void.
The takeaway here is this: technological changes force cultural changes, changes that are foreseeable and therefore both predictable and programmable. Thus it is irresponsible to introduce technologies without a full accounting of the changes that would result in doing so; the elite, as a class, are aware of this fact and are doing this, and they have weaponized it. (e.g. using porn as a weapon to demoralize target populations)
Watch to the end; cancel your bingewatch for tonight, take notes, and think about what's being discussed here. You really do need to reconsider your use of technology.
You should be able to find this book in your local library. If not, guess what? Amazon has it.
Friend of the Retreat Wolfman at Large put out another of his art compliations set to music today. This is good stuff. Excellent for pre-writing warmup time.
And yes, that is the cover to Reavers in the mix there. If you don't have a copy, links are in the sidebar to your right to Kindle and Paperback versions.
In the realm of Giant Robot anime, we know what the Big Brands are: Mobile Suit Gundam, Super-Dimension Fortress Macross, Mazinger Z, Getter Robo, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. There are several others that are known, but don't have quite the dominance or prominence of those, but some titles that get into Super Robot Wars elicit more of a "What?" than a "YES!" and I'm listing some of them below- with links to storefronts where available, all in the spirit of #BrandZero
Panzer World Galient: A deposed prince takes the controls of the titular mecha and wages war against the man who stole his throne and killed his father- and this was years before the excellent Vision of Escaflowne.
Fang of the Sun Dougram: The son of a despotic planetary governor joins the rebels and steals the title mecha to use in their cause. Source of all the famous units in BattleTech that didn't come from Macross or Crusher Joe.
Giant Gorg: Recently orphaned boy meets mysterious scientist and gets caught up in a fight involving the title robot.
GoShogun: This was half of Macron-1 (Srungle was the other), but the original series actually makes sense.
Space Warrior Baldios: Part of the late '70s deconstruction of Super Robot shows prior to the original Gundam series birthing Real Robots. Expect a downer ending.
SSSS.Gridman: One of the recent mecha shows, an anime revival of a live-action original, and well-received at that (without the Studio Trigger weirdness that became of FRANXX).
Xabungle: Tomino in his happy, manic phase. Comedic in its tone.
Steel Jeeg/New Steel Jeeg: Another '70s Super Robot show that got a recent revival, this one a sequel that disavows Season 2 of the original. Fantastic series, both of them, and the revival has a sweet JAM Project OP.
Majestic Prince: "The original reason for creating genetically enhanced humans was to explore outer space; but when the alien Wulgaru attacked using vastly advanced technology, the Evolved Children were instead turned into Mankind's last line of defense."
Metal Armor Dragonar: A near-forgotten Real Robot show of the '80s. Had a catchy OP, and there's English-subbed copies available someplace. Ask your local Straw Hat.
And you can find their OSTs--at least their OPs and EDs--on YouTube, usually in the form of their opening or closing credits, so you can get a sense of the series if you can't find a trailer or some clips. Some of these also have manga versions, which may or may not be available in English or in print (or both).
Almost time for #Shabbat here; hopefully will be able to rest and finish off this cold or whatever I've got. Back online tomorrow night, and I'll be appearing on Geek Gab! Don't forget to pick up Galaxy Ascendant 4 if you haven't already!https://t.co/tDWJKwoLXO
— Buy A Fiery Reckoning 1 on Amazon! 🇮🇱🇺🇸🍒 (@YakovMerkin) November 22, 2019
And you can find it here below. See you in the chat!
I asked this question of Jon during one of his recent livestreams. He took the time to cut a video to answer it. Thanks, Jon.
The big takeaway here is that (a) he has a routine and (b) he measures by wordcount instead of time allotment. The first is important because it makes what he does a regular habit and not something to do when you're in the mood, and I consistently see successful people talk about their practices in terms of habits and routines. The wordcount works because it compels a writer to hone their acumen and come into the wordcount with a plan because the sooner you hit that goal the sooner you can move on to other tasks, and that practice is verified by past masters like Lester Dent.
In short, it's no surprise that the majority of masters are planners and not pantsers even if they started out as such. Mastering the craft, and achieving Pulp Speed, is no different than anything else: first you learn to work smooth, because working smoothly is working fast.
Yes, that's a #QAnon drop. I don't want to hear about your opinion on #QAnon; any comments on that nature will be deleted and dumbasses sperging about it will be banned and spammed. This is not about him; this is about what he said since that's independent of whether or not he is a LARP.
What you're looking at here is that someone in the spook world is spelling out what I've been saying privately and publically for a while now: It's About the Narrative.
What you believe to be true (Narrative), you perform in everyday life (Culture). What you perform as normal behavior (Culture), you will enact as state policy (Politics). This is why control of the Narrative matters, and that means Narrative Warfare is really the secular version of Spiritual Warfare; this is why cults and religions are the bedrock of a nation's identity, and therefore Narrative Warfare is Identity Politics because you're fighting over what the foundation of a given nation--a given distinct body of people, all of whom share the same race, religion, and language--is and whomever has control over that has real power because they have faith on their side.
And faith means religion, and religion means spirituality- performative or not. With the recent revelation that the Glow In The Dark crowd created pedo network cults like The Finders, it's not hard to see that this wisdom is well-established in the Upside Down of Spookland.
The more I ponder this, the less crazy David Icke and those like him (e.g. Steve Quayle) seem. Way to go, Glowies.
Corporate Cancer is now available in paperback at Amazon and Castalia Direct as well as audiobook at Arkhaven. After seeing what Chick-Fil-A and Ford have done this week so far, this book is more timely than before if you run a business in any capacity. Of course reviews are coming in already and two video reviews are below. One is by author David Stewart and the other is by the leading Hispanic voice in Science Fiction, Jon del Arroz.
They'll converge the gun makers if they can, and the ammo makers too. You think convergence is bad for a car? Imagine having to worry that Shaniqua deliberately passed a defective gun to fuck over Whitey because Muh Oppressions REEEEed that she should work a factory job making stuff for Smith & Wesson, and that defective gun is now failing in your hands when you need it to work because Tyrone's playing the Knockout Game with you. Books like this need to get into the hands of vital industry executives and their likely successors now.
Friend of the Retreat Jon del Arroz attended the #20BooksTo50K conference, and while he made the most of his time there the group itself didn't just have a stupid excuse to virtue signal and collude to cancel wrongthinkers; this isn't an OldPub group. This is NewPub, the folks living the return of the Pulp business model, and making a killing doing so in ways that OldPub authors--with few exceptions--wish they could match. These folks, especially the Mil-SF and Space Opera cliques (which heavily overlap), are whom I look up to and learn from- not OldPub.
And you can too. Below is the entire 2019 Conference playlist. Put the games and shows on the backburner and watch this instead if you want your writing to earn you more than some fun money in your change pocket. The Amazon data analysis panel alone is worth your time, regardless of what you write or how you approach it- and you OldPub guys getting the stick end should be paying attention because this is where you're going to go once OldPub pushes you out.
It's been a while since I talked about the man, and there's been some gains in readership since, so it's time to revisit the man who inspired my coining of the term "Narrative Warfare": Richard Grove. He runs a project called "Tragedy & Hope", named after the book of the same name.
Richard got his start with 9/11, which might as well be ancient history in Internet reckoning, and began digging into the hidden history of events that lead up to it. The site aforementioned, its associated YouTube channel, and the podcasts he's done/is doing are all outgrowths of his years of investigation and auto-didactic education on these matters. There are few men alive who are better at Dialectic than Mr. Grove, in part because (a) he knows his limits and (b) he turns those limits into assets that he exploits to improve the effect of his efforts.
If you choose to get into his media works, be prepared to take notes. This is not something to throw on for background noise, and he doesn't play the Rhetoric game of clickbait outrage like the pop culture fan channels do. (They run on Rhetoric; what passes for Dialectic there isn't most of the time.) He makes references to other works on the regular, and to get the most out of his videos and podcasts you need to look up what he's referencing. You can, quite easily, get an informal Ph.D.-level education in the Classics as a by-product of following his work diligently.
Yes, he's clearly a man of the Enlightenment and all that entails, but he is also opposed to the invisible empire running (and ruining) the West. If he's aware of Moldbug and those who came after him, I haven't seen it evident in anything produced yet; he's therefore flawed in being mired in libertarian politics, ignoring the evidence for its failure, as he's still mired in CivNat thinking- as are many in his circles, such as James Corbett of the Corbett Report and James Evan Pilato of Media Monarchy.
But you're not going to find a more accessible source on the real, and verifiable, history of the West online, and for a lot of you looking for something to supplement other homeschooling resources you've got a goldmine here- especially for your adolescents, who are coming into their capacity for higher cognitive thought and the vast increase in their reasoning potential accordingly. Remember that this is the guy who got John Taylor Gatto's final and best interview on what schooling is and how it actually works; he's not a man to dismiss for merely being an idealistic CivNat. It's just that the Internet post-2012 zeitgeist didn't include him and his circles, which is why he seems out of sorts these days.
I wouldn't be talking about the man if I wasn't going to show you some of his stuff, and these are two of his recent videos regarding his Autonomy Project. If you're ready and able to put down the easy dopemine hits, and get into some deep history and analysis--real analysis, not woo--then Grove is your guy and you can kiss your binge watching of Pop Cult crap goodbye. At the very least, watch the Bernays video; he's the villain who co-created the media propaganda machine that the Death Cult now operates worldwide.
Today in "This is why you gatekeep your hobbies", this stupidity from Josh Campea.
Installed Jedi: Fallen Order. Played for 3 minutes and couldn't figure out the controls. Frustrated, I proceeded to uninstall Jedi: Fallen Order. God I wish I had more patience with video games pic.twitter.com/ZSBRfNrCGd
Yeah, that's retarded. He got roasted good and hard, as he should, for saying this. The controls are stupid-easy to learn and reconfigure; the man couldn't be bothered to open up the Options menu and read World's Simplest Infographic. The most charitable light suggests that he is literally retarded and should be under supervision due to being unable to properly handle his own affairs. The most likely take is that he's a lazy shit who expected mindless game-plays-itself levels of (dis)engagement in his entertainment and got mad when his expectation got thwarted; the man should stick to movies and TV instead, where all he has to do is hit "Play".
In short, he's a fake- not a gamer.
And for the record, the game is a decent product; it plays a lot like Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and it's playtime is short for my takes (about 15-20 hours, so a third of my preferred 1:1 ration of hours per US Dollar). If he had grokked the controls, he would've quit a few minutes later when he had to actually learn how to read someone trying to melee him to death instead of mindlessly mashing buttons. Games in the style of Demon Souls and Dark Souls are not forgiving or merciful.
He doesn't have patience. He has expectations, and those expectations are wholly misinformed due to his own willful ignorance. To quote Oliver Campbell, He did this to himself.
It's good that he's getting roasted for this. Such willful displays of stupidity and ignorance should be mocked without pity or mercy; he did this to himself, and expected to be lauded for whining about it- much like the Devil Mouse itself these days. Yes, he should be; he's a grown man, well past any need for someone to hold his hand and baby him through this stuff. He should be capable of finding out what he needs to know on his own, to adapt to the situation as it is, to learn his way around and improvise a path, and then to overcome it- something that the MMA fighters he claims to enjoy make a matter of daily discipline if they want to master themselves and their sport.
Keep those gates against the fakes and phonies who want to destroy them and all that makes them valuable in the culture. No one's going to do it for you.
Between these two videos by Black Pigeon Speaks and The Quartering, I have sufficient material to substantiate a connection I've been pushing on Twitter for a little while now. First, the videos.
Here's the take-away: The Chinese Communist Party is actively opposing sexual degeneracy using anti-Western Rhetoric. The result is that it exercises this censorious policy on all media allowed in the People's Republic of China, both foreign and domestic, which is why you're seeing degenerate sexuality being scrubbed from Western corporate media properties that are allowed in China.
This is not just anti-homosexual censorship. This is also anti-miscengenation censorship, which is why the Finn/Rose romance (and, to be fair, any Rey/Finn potential) got nixed. Both are in accord with the Party's anti-degeneracy policies. The useful idiots in the trenches fighting for the Death Cult are just now starting to become aware of this fact, and they are confused in their reaction because the Hive Mind hasn't issued any updates on what to think yet.
Which leads to an inescapable conclusion: The canon of a corporate IP is dictated by the most intolerant party involved. This is entirely in line with David Stewart's video explaining corporate ownership of such properties; they want to maximize profits from these properties, so that means getting into China, and the Party knows this so they exert this control accordingly using gatekeeping as leverage.
This is why China had Blizzard purge Overwatch of the gay to get into the country; Tracer and Soldier 76 are actually Gay For Pay, meaning they're really straight as a board but do the gay for Western rubes--that's you, SJWs--because it's currently cheaper to do so than to not. (That time, by the way, is fast approaching its end; once the Blizzard beancounters see how toothless you are, they'll stop pretending to pander to you and everything else China doesn't like will also be purged.)
And we're seeing now on a global scope and scale what the observant have already seen in the United Kingdom with the Muslims: the intolerant hold the high ground. Good luck shaming the Chinese Communist Party into bending the knee to SJW Death Cult dogma; they may, ultimately, serve the same master but they won't be second-fiddle to a bunch of limp-wristed sissies and their loud-mouthed busybody fuckbuddies.
And I have but one recommendation for everyone not a ChiCom or Death Cult asset:
It took a while, but here's episode 3. Have a good weekend, folks.
Here's a takeaway: Gibson writes a lot of these stories as crime stories where the bad guys win on the first draft. Then in the rewrite he inserts The Shadow to ruin their day at critical moments. Remember that he's writing two novels a month, so we're talking levels of Pulp Speed most people today can't even fathom to exist. It's a hell of a way to figure out how to structure your writing process for maximum efficiency; Gibson had a background covering real crime stories, in addition to his stage magician history, so using the mindset of the latter to inform the narrative work of the former had to come naturally.
This, folks, is "Write what you know" done right. He took what knew in terms of subject matter (crime) and acumen (magic), applied his technical skills (writing), and churned out one satisfying thriller after the next for years on end- two a month! And he did it on a manual typewriter, in a day when "doing research" meant hoofing it to wherever that information rested- libraries, archives, subjects, etc. when you couldn't get someone on an analog landline phonecall to do it for you.
Think on that, fellow writers. Think on that prepare-to-write structure, especially if you aspire to Pulp Speed.
Razorfist has words about Hideo Kojima and Death Stranding.
In terms of his talk regarding media bullshitting their way around covering up contra-Narrative developments, he's accurate. They can, and do, employ all sorts of word-magic to baffle with bullshit those they're told to protect. They are doing this with Death Stranding. Reception, in the U.S., is not what some would like to see. That's all factual.
But I think he's jumped the gun. The game's not been out a week yet and only now are the serious players, those who blitzed it, finishing up full and complete playthroughs on anything harder than Babby's First Bideogame. As such, some of the criticisms are not warranted. Summarizing it as The Postman by way of Metal Gear does toss out some important details, naming that what you're set out to do isn't what's going on, and all the weirdness isn't the allegory he's after. The connections talked about are cast in interpersonal terms, but what's going on the larger cosmic connections and the rightful order they bring; when that's disrupted, the system falls apart and a hard reset is ordered. That's what the game is about.
Oliver Campbell said it best in a recent livestream. Kojima is like George Lucas; he's a fantastic producer, a great idea man. Get him quality talent to execute those ideas, and exercise restraint over him, and you get some S-tier results. Let him run things, and you get something narratively dense with pacing problems but otherwise is a fine example of the form; most of Kojima's career since Metal Gear Solid has been the latter, which is why he gets knocked around like he does.
In short, the man needs an editor who knows how to say "No" to him and get him to write cleaner and leaner narratives with better pacing. His current famous associates are none of this, which is not surprising when looking at who is in this game and how they are used. His past associates were no such help either. This is a consistent pattern; the games he puts out are not nearly as difficult to comprehend as they're made out to be. They're just densely packed and poorly paced.
From what I watched, this game is worth playing, but not at $60. Wait for a price drop, buy used--should be a copy available soon--or get a good discount.
What does get me is that Kojima is both worshipped and shat upon in manners one might say were fannish in nature. He does have a tendency to be needlessly obfuscatory about his work, both in talking about it and in the playing of it. He is fixated upon Cold War era fears of annihilation and control by shadowy elites with manipulative practices, a thing that Death Stranding didn't change. That doesn't change that he consistently creates gameplay experiences that do approach the High Art ambitions he aspires to, and we still talk a lot more about the Metal Gear games than their competitors; he ain't Kurosawa, but denying that he's not a legit heavy weight in world culture, and has the output to back that claim up, especially as shit he talked about over a decade ago comes to pass here and now and the last proper game had a thread about language control thought straight out of 1984 with "parasites" as allegory for "cultish paradigm control".
In ludological terms, there's nothing unusual. Non-lethal play is given early and always an option, especially given the consequences for sloppy lethal violence here; damage done to the landscape is permanent regardless of when in the game it occurs, so it persists into the open world post-game state. The Asynchronus online play succeeds in creating the sense of others being present while you--in active play--are alone and have to handle things on your own; you can see others contributing to the infrastructure enabling play on the map, but you still have to do the hoofing it to link up regions to the network and bring them online- doing so phases you into the shared world state therein. You also have to do certain unlocks before you can make and use certain things, like ziplines (and you do want those; gets you around massive regions like mountains fast and easy).
While the narrative has the aforementioned issues, the gameplay is solid and truly What You See Is What You Get. The mechanics of things is explained in a far cleaner manner than the narrative itself, and by the time certain items are obtained or temporarily disabled you should have learned enough about other mechanics (e.g. enemy tells) to make the most of the gameplay changes. Sure, you can't Fulton an entire base of Russians and their gear back to Mother Base, but being able to 3d print a highway so you can speed across a plain is just as fantastic. The game is fine. The hype's the problem.
So lay off the hate, and the worship. He's just a man, flawed like all of us, but still a bright and observant man who's trying to use what he has to say what he's got.
He just needs a manager to rein in his excesses. If he can do that, count on the next game being a awe-inspiring masterpiece, and not a scuffed one like this game is.
Not invented here (NIH) is the philosophical principle of not using third party solutions to a problem because of their external origins. False pride often drives an enterprise to use less-than-perfect invention in order to save face by ignoring, boycotting, or otherwise refusing to use or incorporate obviously superior solutions by others.
In trying to reach out to fan channels at YouTube who claim to be open to any science fiction, I run into something similar. These channels are focused on audio-visual media, often Big Brand media, and increasingly complaining about one or more Big Brands while doing nothing useful to solve the problems that they decry. The parallel is that "here" means "Big Brand media", and "not here" means what is outside of that.
Because of this media bias, they are often wholly unaware of what is going on in the wider field. They don't know about the book world in particular, so the disruption of the publishing world they are dimly aware of due to Big Brands leeching off generations-old classics such as Dune has escaped their notice; they still think OldPub is all that exists, when all they need to do is skim the Kindle Store on Amazon to see that everything they claim to want is there in abundance.
They claim to want it. They don't. They want the Brand. They are not fans of the genre; they are Fans of the Brand. They are true Pop Cultists, and getting them to go outside the brand is exactly the same as getting them to leave a cult like Scientology.
"Not Invented Here" in this content is not hard to see. If it isn't from the Brand--and thus in the media they see as high-status and legitimate, from the sources that validate their existence--they aren't interested and are dismissive if not hostile to everything outside that cultist context. This makes these channels good gatekeepers. By letting these channels complain about the Brand, yet shut out off-Brand alternatives, the Brand benefits by keeping people on the reservation and those people usually--reliably--end up playing the paypig because whatever resistance they may put up is easily worn down.
They are, in effect, playing the same game that Cuckservative Inc. does in the political realm. They just don't know it, and wouldn't grok it if confronted with it. Yet. But the result is the same, and so is the conclusion: they hold the gates to the wider audience. Those that are not hostile to us are wholly uninterested; it is better to route around them for now than to confront them. They have to face the collapse of their cult before they will be open to persuasion otherwise.
The Supreme Dark Lord has a book for all of you looking to purge your organizations of the SJW Death Cult: Corporate Cancer: How to Work Miracles and Save Millions by Curing Your Company.
Here's the pitch:
"The corporate cancer of social justice convergence is costing corporations literal billions of dollars even as it drives both productive employees and loyal customers away, destroys valuable brands, and eats away at market capitalizations. From Internet startups to entertainment giants, convergence is killing corporations as they focus on social justice virtue signaling at the expense of good business practices, sales, profits, and retaining loyal customers.
In CORPORATE CANCER, Vox Day explains how you can fight social justice convergence in your own organization for both personal and corporate profit, and why you must do so if you want to keep your job."
Get it today on Kindle below at Amazon or in Kindle or Epub at Arkhaven.
Last night on Twitter, Jeffro Johnson answered a question about how to explain Science Fiction is a subset of Fantasy. I reproduce the text below in its entirely; the Twitter thread starts with the question here.
When mots folks talk about mechs in tabletop gaming, you hear one of five names: BattleTech, Robotech, Heavy Gear, Jovian Chronicles, or Mekton. This is, in large part, because these are the only tabletop games you can readily find, even if Mekton is all but out of print. (It's not, but its invisibility in retail means it might as well be.) and Robotech is in a licensee changeover from Palladium Books to Strange Machine Games. But there are more, and here's a few you might want to keep an eye out for when hunting at book and game stores or scouring online storefronts.
Macross II. This is a long out-of-print licensed RPG done by Palladium Books. While the rulebook and the first sourcebook are standard Palladium faire, what makes this remarkable is that an early Dream Pod 9 did the art for the rest of the line that focused on the warships of the Zentran fleet as appearing therein- stuff that you can use in any Macross game regardless of rules. As one expects, this is a Real Robot style of setting.
The Mecha Hack. "Suit up with The Mecha Hack! If you're a fan of Gundam, Robotech, Pacific Rim, BattleTech, or Transformers, this is the rules-lite robot RPG you've been waiting for. The Mecha Hack is a tabletop roleplaying game of titanic warmachines and their intrepid pilots, made with The Black Hack. The Mecha Hack is fast, fluid, and fun, with a focus on cinematic, narrative gameplay inspired by anime and other mecha properties. Inside this A5-sized, 40-page book, you'll find the complete Mecha Hack ruleset; four mecha chassis and four pilot archetypes; over a dozen add-on modules for your unique mecha; GM tools and mission generators; more than 30 enemy statblocks; printable monsters, mechs, and objects; and so much more! Build your mecha. Form a fireteam. Drop into the combat zone. It's time to suit up, pilots."
GunFrame: Anime Mecha Battle Game. "GunFrame is a fast-playing, exciting and tactically challenging miniature wargame. It has been built from the ground-up to let you play out the spectacle of mecha-on-mecha combat as portrayed in your favourite anime. Use any mecha miniatures to engage in small clashes between a handful of robots, or all-out battles with mecha supported by conventional units including infantry, tanks and aircraft. This complete game also includes rules for building your own units, transforming and combining mecha, unusual environments including underwater and space, and more than seventy upgrade abilities to customize your mecha and pilots."
Far more common, however, is that mecha are a supplementary element of a broader game. RIFTS, After The Bomb/TMNT, every omni-superhero game ever, 40K (Dreadnaughts, Imperial Knights, Titans), and even some takes on the above titles take this approach. Mecha gamers have long become accustomed to this, much like superhero gamers who want to focus on particular takes on that thing do, so don't be dismayed if that's how you have to go about it.
This may not seem like a #BrandZero post, but within this specific context it applies; there are very few tabletop brands for mecha fans, and most of those are almost invisible in the retail space unless you do DriveThruRPG on the regular, hit up Kickstarter/Indiegogo, or scour the used bookstore/gamestore on the regular. One of those is derived from a long-standing goat-screwing of a Japanese property that's still on-going, and continues to skirmish with the big dog in this small space. Therefore, it's not out of line to throw in a forgotten licensed RPG in this mix; Palladium certainly forgot.
And that's before talking about the problems that adapting various sorts of mecha tropes to gaming, a medium that greatly favors Real Robot style approaches over Super Robots for several reasons. It's why you don't see them as the main feature of tabletop gaming very often, but flourish in other media, such as novels like my own Reavers of the Void which you can find in the sidebar for Kindle and below in paperback.
Over at The RPG Site, on October 25th, Alexander Macris wrote a fantastic post explaining the core of good Game Master practice for tabletop RPGs. I quote entirely here.
Anyone who has read my games know that I'm no fan of "mother-may-I" type mechanics. My game gives you rules for as much as I can think of. But 2,000 years of organized practice of law has found that there are no systems of adjudication that do not require a human adjudicator's involvement. The only argument is over how the adjudicator should be involved.
For my last comment I would just like to say that all three #AGundam4Us stories are missing a crucial component to the mecha formula! Where s the rocking theme song to get the audience excited? Singers and songwriters, get out there and show us what you got. Until then we're going to have to make up our own.
Well, until I can get the muse herself--the Living Goddess Yoko Kanno--to do one for Star Knight, we're going to rotate between these.
The Supreme Dark Lord made this observation, after seeing the following from Mark Dice, on his blog today:
Keep in mind this guy is not only representing Eric Ciaramella, fake whistleblower #1, but also Mark Waid of Marvel in Richard Meyer's tortious interference lawsuit against him.
The whistle blower's attorney @MarkSZaidEsq has scrubbed the link from his website that went to his YouTube channel.
Here's the archive showing it was there: http://archive.is/zzikn
Now it's gone: https://markzaid.com/zaid/
Here's the YouTube channel: http://YouTube.com/MarkSZaidEsq
Strange, is it not, that all these nominally elite attorneys have such a strong interest in, shall we say, the younger kind. It's almost as if some of the strange stories about how these losers obtain their positions are true....
As those who follow Nick Rekieta will affirm, Zaid is not the only weirdo with a law license in play. Nick constantly mocks a Mr. Lemone--Wheezy McLawdude--over his sex-obsessed line of thinking, especially in service to Vic Mignogna's enemies, who is just as given to observable sketchy behavior as Zaid and yet also keeps getting these well-paid gigs. He may be a lesser tier than Zaid, but the idea's the same.
Physiognomy is turning out to be real after all.
With counsel like this, no wonder the Death Cult has to rely on nepotism and other forms of fixing to get ahead. In open combat, they can't help but to lose; they have to play dirty to win.
With last weekend's Big Brand marketing event masquerading as a fan convention came the announcement--with no release date--of the fourth installment of its iconic isometric dark fantasy action RPG franchise. You know which one I'm talking about, and it's not the MMORPG. I thought I'd take the time to give you all some alternatives that you may have overlooked or forgotten about, beside Path of Exile and adaptation of other Big Brand properties. This is not an exhaustive list; most of these will be linked to their Steam entries, but I advise you to look at GOG also if you want DRM-free versions or see if you can buy used physical copies.
Grim Dawn. Enter an apocalyptic fantasy world where humanity is on the brink of extinction, iron is valued above gold and trust is hard earned. This ARPG features complex character development, hundreds of unique items, crafting and quests with choice & consequence.
Titan Quest. In this epic quest of good versus evil, players will encounter the greatest villains of Greek mythology, brave the attacks of Cerberus, and hazard the banks of the River Styx. Players will interpret the prophecies of the blind seer Tiresias, fight alongside Agamemnon and Achilles, and use the wiles of Odysseus to conquer this dark new adventure. Paid DLC incorporates Norse myth.
Victor Vran. Victor Vran lets you decide how to play the game. Forge your own personal version of Victor thanks to a vast array of powerful weapons, game-changing outfits, wicked demon powers and destiny cards. Use special moves, combine skills and weapons to wipe out hordes of hideous beasts and clever boss monsters.
The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing. Put on your wide-brimmed hat, grab your weapons and embark on an incredible adventure in the gothic-noir world of Borgovia, where mad science threatens the fragile peace between monster and mortal.
Shadows: Awakening. Shadows: Awakening is a unique, isometric single-player RPG with real-time tactical combat. You embark on an epic adventure with challenging gameplay, a gripping storyline and enchanting graphics.
Torchlight/Torchlight II. Likely the most well-known competitors to the Big Brand you all know about, as it was made by some of the same people, and it is a worthy competitor. If you can find this used in physical form, do so.
Dungeon Siege/Dungeon Siege II. Another old franchise that's gone to the wayside, but still worth playing the first two games. (After that, it gets iffy.)
Divine Divinity. This is the origin of the Divinity: Original Sin property, and it's as old as the aforementioned Big Brand property I've been referring to. You can run this on toasters, and when on sale it's cheaper than dirt to get off Steam.
While these, by and large, are fantasy titles there are science-fiction ones out there. There are also turn-based games if you don't care for real-time gameplay, such as the early entries in Bethesda's post-apocalyptic Big Brand and an underrated title called UnderRail. Part of #BrandZero is to divert attention from those who don't need it to smaller, or forgotten, ones that do. Here's another post on that signal. If you have others--not a Big Brand; smaller or forgotten--to contribute, post them (with links) in the Comments below.
Today in "This is why you have to gatekeep the things you love."
Your TTRPG setting doesn't need... • Sexism • Racism • Homophobia • Transphobia • Ableism You can create a wonderfully immersive and enjoyable experience for your players without any of those things. Let your players escape the nastiness of the real world for a moment.
It is nice when the Fake Gamers out themselves so readily, but this performative virtual signalling is really meant to be part of the gatekeeping campaign to push their enemies--those not of the SJW Death Cult--out of the subculture and hobby, or at least its public-facing elements, so that they can control the narrative surrounding tabletop RPGs. Narrative control then becomes cultural control and feeds into political control.
This does matter. Remember that while the cultists you encounter on Twitter aren't the shot-callers, the ones working the meme machines do call the shots and they play the long game. They know that if they control perception, they can control intake into a subculture and arrange intake into indoctrination. They know they can do this because this is how they seized control over academia, and via academia control over everything else.
What they can't control, they destroy. (e.g. the recent Big Brand crashes) What they can't destroy, they wall off; this is what they are attempting to do with anime access into the West via controlling localizers and media outlets, driving folks into piracy and importing, and if you think there isn't a plan to suddenly become very effective at enforcing piracy via Big Tech snooping you haven't paid any attention.
So it needs to be resisted and destroyed, and at the street level that means taking their social displays and upending them. Outgroup them--they hate and fear that--at every turn, demonstrate proof over them, and watch them flee back to their bubbles. Lather, rinse, repeat; the objective is to hijack their amygdalas and force freakouts because their r-select psychologies can't handle the K. And remember to apply the Witch Test when they inevitably resort to moralist positions to attack you; nothing outgroups like forcing them to reveal that they reject God's mercy by rejecting his son Jesus.
Vigilance and ruthlessness is require to preserve what you love from those who would take it from you. Do it, or lose it.
Friend of the Retreat Rawle Nyazi wrote a wonderful post regarding Reavers of the Void and its heroine, Countess Gabriela Robin. Read that here. What interested me most was what he put in at the end, where he quoted this article at Smithsonian Magazine, which said:
Recently, [Austin, Texas-based company StoryFit] used the software to analyze gender in some 2,000 film scripts and 25,000 characters from between 1930 and 2018. It looked at things like what the characters talked about, who they talked to, and what emotions and personality attributes they displayed.
The results give a nuanced picture of the inequality issues that have plagued Hollywood since the dawn of the industry. Female characters are much more likely to be agreeable than male ones – 80 percent of female characters have agreeableness scores of 85 percent or higher, compared to only 27 percent of male characters. Female characters are also less open (a measure of curiosity and receptiveness to new experiences) – only 6 percent of female characters have openness scores of 60 percent or higher, compared with 54 percent of male characters.
I knew it was bad. I didn't know it was this bad, or this incompetent. I made a good call in preemptively closing off any Hollywood adaptation of Star Knight in favor of being friendly to anime adaptations, because this sort of Looking To Be Offended abuse of statistical analysis is a giant red flag that you're dealing with the Crazy and we all know what not to do with the Crazy.
It's increasingly clear that #BrandZero will have to incorporate #ForkAndReplace of every element of the business to make the objective happen. Even if some of us do make it happen with getting manga and anime adaptations, that's still relying on a big corporate entity to get before an audience and as such remains vulnerable to pressures that any corporation has to contend with. Only by helping each other get the attention we need to succeed will this happen.
Fortunately we have some examples to show the way forward. It's just a matter of bridging these examples together and putting them before the eyes of those seeking them, and that's something we can do by and for ourselves with ease.
Such as recommending works worthy of that attention. Remember that friend of the blog? Rawle's got his own book out, Shining Tomorrow, available in Kindle and paperback at Amazon.
