Thank God 2020 Is Over

2020 wasn't the worst year of my life, but it wasn't a good one either. The WuFlu threw off everything, and coupled with other things outside of my control (as well as a brief hospital stay), things I wanted to get done didn't. We'll recitify that soon.

This year has been full of suck and blow and that was on the good days. Some of that has turned to the good--the collapse of DC Comics, Hollywood's theater (real estate) business, the Big Five became the Big Four, indie SF seriously taking off--but much of it was not as the massive destruction of small business and retail-based operations outside Big Corporate Franchises show whenever you get out of your houses and look around the area.

The power grab Corona-chan enabled is far from over, but the resistance is building; we're looking at Prohibition-era levels of utter disrespect for law and government.

We're looking at a remix of the 20th Century, folks. 100 years ago was a very turblulent time as instabilities caused by World War I produced effects with consequences we're still dealing with now, such as Communism being a thing at all and the rise of the Cult of Democracy. It was the time of rising gangsterism in the US and political instability across the globe.

Fortunately the historically-literate are not just aging cripples in wheelchairs like me. They include people with agency and power, like the God-Emperor (soon to begin his second term), and I doubt we'll see the Globohomo elite get their third World War (which they use to cover up their reset of the fake and gay economy they use to control us) due to that very opposition. So no, I don't fear The Great Reset because it's not going to happen.

2020 sucked harder than a black hole, but the Spanish Flu it is not. It'll be fine in time, so calm thy tits and focus on dealing with the overreach from the tyrants.

To send off 2020 on a good note, here's the Pundit talking about long D&D campaigns (and promoting his new gonzo fantasy setting).

And the Black Pants Legion with one final shitpost for the year.

And being that it is Thursday, that means the final Sabaton History episode of the year is now live. Enjoy.

My Life As A Gamer: Remembering "The World of Synnibarr"

Not all tabletop RPGs are equal. There are very bad ones out there. Some are bad because they're bad-faith creations by fetishists that should be put down. Some are jokes in (very) bad taste. Then there are the earnest clusterfucks, and The World of Synnibarr is one of them.

Infamous in tabletop RPG circles online for being batshit insane, it takes the known trends behind playing superhero RPGs and says "We must go deeper!" Ninjas whose swordplay is so fast it counts as shooting a laser. Amazons that are Wonder Woman, The Class. (Hawkeye gets a class also.) Dwarves, Elves, Giants, and Gnomes are all classes. Rules for gods, fighting them, and becoming one. Charts you need a TI-30 or better to use properly. A strict and enforceable rule banning house rules and rulings. Oh, and all of it "rings with authenticity".

This is the game that you love to death when you're a 12 year old boy, you argue if Superman can beat up Goku, and you devour comic books like they're M&Ms. I'll let Mr. Welch take it from here, because I've played this game and I am too sober to go on describing it. This is the Introduction, followed by Welch's musings on the game. Yes, this is the game's Introduction verbatim.

This is all about power-gaming, using scientific calculators, and wondering what the hell McCracken was thinking when he wrote this. Embrace your inner 12 year old who thinks the best Marvel movie ever is Infinity War/Endgame and you can enjoy this for the clusterfuck it is.

Don't take my word for it. See for yourself. If you want a copy, hit the image link and fork over the cash; you might as well buy The Ultimate Adventurer's Guide to max out on the sheer What The Fuck this game gives you (such as Nazi Gestapo Elves).

P.S.: Superman, in Synnibarr, is a viable Mutant class character and Goku is a basic-bitch Tiger (super martial artist). They're nowhere near the top of the heap.

The Business: SCP Is Proof That Making New Stuff Works

The SCP scene began producing more than wiki articles for some time now. First it was an array of YouTube channels taking those wiki articles and making videos about them, and now we have a lot of games and fan films. This one came out a month ago, and it's one of the biggest to date.

The SCP scene is proof that making new stuff to replace what the Death Cult destroyed is viable. This is where all the Weird Fiction energy went, where you'll find people working out their kinks as writers, because there is no one canon of continuity to adhere to and so you can remix as you like while you contribute to the wiki.

The secondary output--the videos--are by folks working out their kinks as they master the skills needed to make good videos. (Some are further along than others.) We'll see this with the fan films also, but this film is by the same guy that did "Dollhouse" and that was a good film.

As author Brian Niemeier stated, much of this is supported by way of crowdfunded patronage. You'll see Patreon links shared often when the channels post videos with the more serious channels and artists, and they're going to be worth the support.

So don't despair over the persistance of the Pop Cult. New stuff is being made, and not just by us, that's gaining traction organically.

Notes:

1. The SCP games are on Steam. Some are free. Some are not. A few have DLC. Quality varies.
2. The best channels on YouTube are The Exploring Series, SCP Illustrated, SCP Explained - Story & Animation, and The Volgun.
3. The wiki is here.

We're seeing participants push slowing towards putting SCP product out where normies can find it. Being on Steam counts. Being on Amazon counts. It's not just merch, as easy as that is now to do; we're going to see more books and comics appear also, and there's already some up for sale.

Yes, there's been some legal issues, and there's bound to be more down the road, but for now we have a scene where people unwilling to leap with both feet into the creative crucible can wade in and learn to swim- and some of it is very good indeed.

My Life In Fandom: Send The Drinker A New Liver

The Critical Drinker saw this coming, and the release confirmed it: WW84 is trash.

This is what happens when corporate filmmaking goes wrong.

And I think we can fix a large portion of the blame on one of the principles: Kristen Whig.

Drinker states that the film tries to put forth that you have to work for what you want. "Tries" is being generous; it's not the actual narrative at all. Remember who the film's target audience is: future SJW RadFems (i.e. girls).

Jenkins may have had creative control, but she's not immune to influence. Whig does know how to write, has influence, and isn't afraid to use it. All of the SJW signals in this film are to the benefit of her character and her espoused political beliefs, including the message of "There is no true consequence for taking the short cut; it's no different than having your appendix removed."

Further, all of the detrimental effects upon Diana are directly tied to her anti-SJW desire to be with a man. This is a direct association of eu-social norms with weakness, dependency, and eventual helplessness (i.e. where Whig's character was pre-wish).

The men are either unattainable fantasies (Chris Pine's Steve Trevor) or Gamma Male wastes of skin (Pedro Pascal's Max Lord), which further associates seeking love and unity with a man with being a failure of a woman.

And then there is the real undermining: the SJW stand-in (Whig's Cheetah) only loses because another woman who ought to know better (Diana) betrays the sisterhood to restore the status quo anti. Had that not happened, the SJW would have soon fully achieved her full innate awesomeness that her oppressors stole from her.

Make no mistake, that's the real message: "You don't need a man. You don't need to do anything to realize your real power, it is as easy as making a wish. Don't let traitors and oppressors get in your way."

And that message does not resonate. That's why this film is a trashfire, and trashfires are best left to burn themselves out. Alas, a third film got greenlit (further showing that there no longer a firm association of commercial success with continued employement), so we'll see down the road if this trend continues or not.

My Life As A Gamer: Some Games Are Better Done In Different Media

It's a nice Sunday, the Sunday between Christmas and New Year's, and the Black Pants Legion delivered another BattleTech episode today.

The reason BattleTech works is that it is a playable giant robot wargame with just enough ability to account for infantry, vehicles, and aerospace to allow for players to do the full military campaign experience if they want. Harebrained's PC adaptation takes this and makes it something most fans want to do--play a campaign, with things carrying over from battle to battle--and makes it practical to do so.

That is because most people can't organize and maintain a tabletop campaign of any sort outside of a club and most players aren't in a club. They play set-piece scenarios, often small in scope and scale, because the tabletop game can go slowly if the players aren't paying attention or don't know the rules well.

Try to play Company-scale fights and you're looking at spending an afternoon--akin to an entire day of football programming on a weekend--especially if you're dealing with urban terrain, interactions with terrain, anything that isn't a 'Mech, or are bold enough to start your campaign with contesting the orbital drop approach. (That's dogfighting in space with fighters and dropships shooting at each other; no 'Mech action at all.)

It's as I said a while ago: some games from the 80s are actually better served in a different medium, and BattleTech is one of them. To play the game as it is at its best, you really do need the medium of a PC to make it practical for most people. Some additional expansions to allow player-controlled aerospace assets, etc. and the full adapatation will be complete.

That said, I do miss doing replays of Tukkayid. Die Clanner scum.

My Life In Fandom: The Shadowcast Returns!

Happy Boxing Day, folks! The Excellence of Elocution returns with Episode 10 of The Shadowcast.

The inaugural Shadow trilogy concludes with climactic chapter "The Shadow Laughs!" in December's edition of The Shadowcast! A dark, mysterious work in which The Shadow's signature twin .45 automatics make their debut, and Lamont Cranston... meets "Lamont Cranston"!

A true classic you'll need to hear to believe.

We conclude with a bit of disquieting news about Condé Nast's incoming Shadow relaunch, and wash the bitter taste out of our mouths with one of the greatest Mystery Horror masterpieces ever aired, 1940's "The Laughing Corpse", featuring a series of serial murders where people laugh themselves to death and die with a morbid grin.

(You're welcome, Joker!)

Besides being a reminder that you should get your own copies of the reprints while they're still available, and to track down the old radio show (because they are as good as Razorfist says), the big takeaways here are about the development process Gibson went through in creating his most famous character.

These first three novels are where we see the roughness carved away and the edges rounded off as the craftsman bring his vision to life. Several tropes don't appear until the second or third novel, such as Cranston being himself an agent of The Shadow (and not exactly by choice), or the preference for a pair of 1911 semi-automatic pistols chambered in .45 ACP. (Yes, there is a choice; .38 Super is an alternative until recently, when 9mm NATO became common.)

The other thing to take away is how Gibson wasn't going into this committing to a monthy workflow cycle. It's because of Street & Smith's reaction to the explosive response to the character that S&S decided to go monthly and thus commit Gibson to that schedule. Gibson would keep at it for 18 years, and, well, I'll let Razorfist finish this:

At age 80, Walter B. Gibson complained he could "only" write 5 books a year.
In the '30s/'40s, he wrote 24 Shadow novels a year AND most of The Shadow comics. Earning enough to afford a 2-story, 5-room apartment in Manhattan at the height of the Depression.
Step your game up. pic.twitter.com/JTU6J3KPOc

— RazörFist (@RAZ0RFIST) December 26, 2020

The man made bank during the Great Depression and throughout World War II, a time when many struggled to make ends meet and had to deal with the return of war coming to their door. The only problem he'd have today is that most people wouldn't consider his books to be novels, and balk accordingly at what they would sell for. (I write at about the size he did, so I know.) Blame that on the bitter Lit majors running the publishing houses, who decided to allow for literary obesity as a competition strategy for shelf space, and thus warp the perceptions of generations of readers.

Merry Christmas

And now a word from the God-Emperor.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 25, 2020

2020 has been quite the year, but like the Wu Flu 99.7% of us have recovered from it. Now it's all over but the big ball drop, however muted that may be due to tinpot dictators power-tripping like mad.

2021, from my perspective, is looking like a good opportunity to break out. The remainder of this year, when not dealing with taking the meds I'm on and dealing with dressing my wounds, will be putting together a plan given what I have to work with for time and workflow for at least six months. I'll talk more about that over at the Study soon.

And now, something from the Black Pants Legion: a new Scrombles the Mechwarrior episode. Eps. 14-16 dropped yesterday. That's about 5-6 hours of Tex playing BattleTech (badly) for your entertainment.

My Life As A Historian: Sabaton History Talks "Swedish Pagans"

On this Christmas Eve, Sabaton fans get a present in the form of a Sabaton History video about "Swedish Pagans", one of their most popular songs.

I do not understate the popularity of this song. It's a staple of their setlist in concert, and now that Vinland Saga has been animated it's gotten a resurgance in popularity due to its use in fan music videos.

It's also not surprising to see Norse paganism resurge in popularity. Call them LARPers if you like, but they're just trying to find alternatives to Globohomo like the rest of the dissidents. Having spent some time among them, the most sincere are those who focus on the pro-social/eucivic virtues of the Norse, and the worst are just grifters trying to work their hustle among a more naive crowd, and as usual both examples tend to be among the folks most prominent in the scene.

I have nothing against them as a scene. The honest ones will, in time, work their way through what that paradigm means and therefore figure out how the machine (as it were) works; either they make their peace with and accept the ultimate impotence of that paradigm against evil or they do as their forefathers did and change to one that actually solves the problem of evil: Christianity.

Still a great song.

My Life As A Gamer: Turning Your RPG Into A Little Red Book

The Pundit's talking about RPGs, Furries, and Commies.

He takes his time getting to the point, but the point is that the endstate of the poz is that RPGs--D&D in particular--is to be nothing more than reification of Commie dogma, and the rules will be enforced by nascent Karens who might as well be Commissars. The endstate is not a game. It's a Struggle Session disguised as entertainment, and deviation from the dogma gets you the Full Commissar treatment.

The inversion of reality that the poz promotes will be normalized in the game if the Death Cult keeps getting its way. Each table will be a freak show of players playing a freak show of characters pantomiming a freak show parody of a proper game. This looks trivial, but what goes on in tabletop RPGs is part of the larger entertainment complex and the reach of D&D in particular is far disproportionate to its actual size. What is normalized in D&D becomes normalized elsewhere within a few years.

Remember that people who wrote for or worked on this one game have gone on to bigger things and network across media boundaries, and others who got started in tabletop RPGs are now shaping the global corporate landscape (e.g. Jeff Gomez, started at Palladium and went on to found Starlight Runner). The game itself prompted reactions that in turn created massive franchises (Warhammer, Warcraft, Record of Lodoss War, Dragon Quest, Ultima, and more). This medium matters.

The change of the game to stop being a game, where you have to take risks with limited resources in pursuit of goals you choose and accept responsibility for when you fail, and instead become a Mary Sue simulator for spoiled brat narcissits. This is not just a difference of taste; this is the enforcement of a hostile alien and Satanic culture by way of the backdoor, and it must be stopped.

The Business: Don't Champion Battleships In 1940

Carriers, and the ability to project air power at sea, was a technological breakthrough that changed naval warfare. This is underestimated by many now. A reminder.

The video above talks about one specific and concrete example of a paradigm shift and its consequences. There were others within the living memory of those that fought World War II (e.g. tanks), and since then there have been more (e.g. long-range anti-ship missiles). Failing to comprehend what changes in technology allow is how people get screwed by those very paradigm shifts.

Again, I point to the above video. The debate over carriers was not just confined to the Imperial Japanese Navy. American, British, French, German, and other powers also had their arguments over naval air power, carriers, etc. vs. battleships. You can tell who the winners at sea were by those that adopted carriers and made the effort to adapt to the new reality of the dominance of air power at sea; those that did not became also-rans and non-entities. (Notable exception: Germany, due to its massive submarine fleet and how that got used, but also fell off quick once said fleet got neutered.)

This is a necessary lesson to take in. Paradigms change, and not always for the better. Survival means seeing it coming and adapting to the changes so it, at the least, does no harm.

In the publishing world, we see with the collapse of the Bigs from Six to Five and now to Four as their old model focused on paper distribution is contracting hard while the digital technology takes off and eats their lunch- a change accelerated by other changes like the rise of Amazon.

The digital media shift has also impacted film, television, videogames, and other entertainment media such that corporations are shifting to a rent-seeking model where you only pay access and not to own a copy of the media.

This concept is itself often difficult for people to comprehend. "Things just happen" is the cope, and it leaves folks scrambling for cover because it doesn't help deal with it, which makes the next step--that there are folks who get it and use it to their advantage--a bridge too far and you can see the brains short-circuit if you try to explain it.

And we're in the middle of a big one now.

If you want to get in front it this, find out who benefits from the present trends, then decide if you want what they want or not.

More than that, I can't advise in this post.

My Life In Fandom: What Our Favorite Doog Reveals

Everyone's favorite doog has managed to make a meme of herself this year. The following video from November recaps the big events for her.

We can be cynical and say that this is just corporations exploiting opportunities for easy marketing, and no doubt that's a factor, but I think we can depreciate that motive here. Not everyone in corporate entertainment is a total bastard, and the international positive reception of Korone is an earnest reaction to an earnest feminine persona that is sorely lacking in much of the world.

That's what this is all about. People seeing a happy girl--even if it's a fictional persona--being happy playing games and singing, often in a goofy manner, is a big draw. That's the Hololive formula, and it works; Gawr Gura's the current best example (at 1.7 million subscribers as of this post), but Korone's got serious meme status to make up for being well under 1 million and that draws in the attention of people with clout.

You'd think that people would make the obvious conclusion here, but no.

These virtual idols--those of Hololive as well as indies such as Pikamee (she of the Kettle Laugh)--quickly acquire massive army-sized followings of (mostly) men that throw all the money at them. Why? Because, in varying ways, they are feminine and unashamed of it. Sure, it's a persona, but it resonates and in a daily life where common Western women (and increasingly other women) are pushed to be masculine (and thus unappealing) it is no surprise that men want and crave actual femininity.

Fathers, tell your daughters--show your daughters--this before it's too late. They win when they play to their strengths, and it's not in the masculine realm.

My Life As A Historian: Where Fleming Got Bond

This one is for the James Bond fans. Meet the man whom Ian Fleming based his most famous creation: Duško Popov.

Specifically, this is the Bond of Fleming's books and the early Connery movies and not that of later writers and actors. All Fleming did was to change some details (but not enough to avoid angering Popov) and emblesh some others (ditto) to make his superspy come to life. As Indy's video shows, what Popov did could be directly translated to film and not miss a beat, and that includes Popov's less-than-fruitful relations with the F.B.I. during his wartime experience in the United States.

And yes, like Audie Murphey, the man wrote an autobiography after the fact.

This is the sort of book that I would like someone like Mystery Grove Publishing to pick up and republish, as the prices of the used copies out there are Collector's Grade levels, and as with the recent republishing of other lost men of the 20th century Popov deserves to be returned to popular attention.

Signal Boost: Krampus Kristmas 2020: An Anthology

Need something to get under the tree for that voracious reader? Like holiday-themed anthologies? David V. Stewart has you covered.

Celebrate Christmas Mourning 2020 style, with this collection of tales both dark and wistful, intense and introverted, all from the dark mind of David V. Stewart!

Includes the brand-new novella, The Wasting Desert, set in the universe of the Eternal Dream, along with numerous rare short stories, melancholy fables, and the complete Gen Y Chronicles. Also includes the complete, unabridged text of:

• Voices of the Void
• Eyes in the Walls
• City of Silver
• Tyrant’s Gallow
• Muramasa: Blood Drinker.

Krampus is coming!

Click on the image to hit the store page. This is a big book, suitable for keeping on the coffee table (or next to your D&D rulebooks), and a thick one also. You're getting big value for your dollar, folks. The hour may be late, but you can count on Stewart delivering the goods as surely as you can on Amazon getting it to your by Christmas if you order now. You won't be disappointed; you will, instead, be wanting to get more of his stuff while leaving reviews for what you've enjoyed.

My Life In Fandom: Tex Talks The Rifleman

Those mad lads at the Black Pants Legion finally dropped their next BattleTech video, and it's about the Rifleman.

As with the previous video about the Mackie, this is a long and lore-filled video that takes a while to get to actually profiling the subject, but you won't care because Tex's smooth delivery coupled with their use of art assets will have your attention. There's some overlap with the previous video, acknowledged as such, in the historical recap that led to the Rifleman's development but it's needed to put said development into context.

(TLDR: People wants more and different 'Mechs. This lead to rapid role specialization, which means rapid design variation, and the Rifleman took up the anti-air/fire support role and design flaws ensure that it runs hot when going all guns blazing.)

It's unfortunate that the rules don't back up all this lore without using options that most players don't even recall to exist. The rules make the Rifleman out to be a terrible 'Mech in the default 3025 setting, and other eras don't let up on this much (aside from the Clan-specific IIC model, which still is flawed). That Tex and the gang sell this 'Mech is testament to their ability to sell this game. (Cut them a check, Catalyst Game Labs.)

And yes, they will be back with one of my favorites: The Marauder.

My Life As A Historian: Sabaton History Talks Firebombing In WW2

If it's Thursday, it's time for Sabaton History.

At the end of July 1943, Hamburg burned. A fleet of British heavy bombers had dropped thousands of incendiaries over the city, turning it into a hearth of unprecedented dimensions. Numerous major fires merged together into a single storm of fire. Structures combusted under the immense heat, as strong winds drove the inferno through the streets at rapid speed. Craving for more oxygen, the firestorm sucked human bodies into the flames and immediately incinerated or mummified them. Thousands of others died slowly of carbon monoxide poisoning in their shelters. By the end of the raid, 60% of Hamburg had been burned out and more than 35,000 of its inhabitants were dead. But while the Germans were shocked to disbelief, for the British the firestorm has worked as intended. And this was just the beginning.

I am unconvinced that this firebombing--in Europe or in the Pacific--of urban centers was actually effective at anything but wanton slaughter and destruction. It didn't even do much to damage enemy morale. Folks adapted as they could to go about their lives, and otherwise fled into the countryside- and that was certainly an option at the time. The bombing that worked targeted strategic assets: industrial output, transportation hubs (ports, airfields, etc.), government headquarters, etc. and eschewed non-combatants otherwise. This was terror, nothing more, and more counterproductive than anything else.

In addition to the song and the events it covers, this video spent considerable time talking about what to do next now that all of the regular songs are covered. That's a lot of goofy talk, but after talking about firebombing that levity is needed.

My Life As A Gamer: An Open Letter To CDPR & R. Talsorian Regarding Mekton

Dear CD Projekt Red & R. Talsorian Games:

Congratulations on the release of Cyberpunk 2077, despite present difficulties. You managed to take the story of a tabletop RPG and bring it to life in a manner that even long-time fans of the tabletop RPG did not expect and nonetheless delivered on.

If I recall, the agreement between your two companies includes other R. Tal titles. I have previously been quite vocal about making a Mekton game. Rather than try to use the same design paradigm, I suggest that you shamelessly copy a formula that mecha gamers have enjoyed for over 20 years- and recently went big into the West: Super Robot Wars. On the offchance that you don't know what these recent titles were, allow me to show you.

When I say "shameless", I mean it. This is exactly the thing needed for a Mekton game, and I'd be happy if you openly partnered with Bandai Namco to do it.

Build the game around Operation: Rimfire as your base for your narrative and scenarios. It's literally a design document in tabletop form; convert and animate into the SRW format and you're golden.

Might as well commission a tie-in anime series while you're at it, using the narrative flashes from Mekton II's Technical Manual as its basis, to lead into the game's events. Do not cheap out on this if you do; it's meant to drive people to the game, so it has to be quality. A short high-quality production is better than a long cheap one.

There is a massive opportunity for merchandise to be had here. Don't leave that on the table, especially the mecha designs.

Oh, and if you can somehow get JAM Project to do the game's OP, seize that opportunity. No one gets the genre better than them.

Sincerely,

--Bradford C. Walker

My Life In Fandom: Sentai Filmworks Sale Going On

Sentail Filmworks has a holiday sale going on. This includes stupid deep discounts on shows that you ought to have on hand like Aura Battler Dunbine. For my mecha fans, here's a Search page of what's available (and a few that aren't). Even on backorder, it's a steal to get Dunbine for $18 plus Shipping & Handling (because normally it's $100).

Right Stuf and similar places like Discotek should be running sales now.

And yes, you can still get that Premium boxed set of Legend of the Galactic Heroes right here.

And speaking of Discotek Media, they did a big release announcement stream last night. Lots of good news.

Of that bunch, Arion is the big win here and as soon as it's available it's going on my Wish List.

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That movie is fantastic.

And if you're looking to get me something for Christmas, that Dunbine set is ideal.

Admin: We're Back Under Control

I'm home from another stay in the hospital, and now moving to outpatient treatment, due to something unreleated to the last hospital trip. (That's right, all new mistakes.) I'll find out tomorrow how much of a bother that will be, and thus how badly this cuts into me getting things done.

Admin: We Have A Problem

Literal massive pile of asshurt appeared. Hopefully not meritting a hospital trip. Will update.

Admin: We've Hit A Delay

Despite going nowhere for months, I caught a cold. Before my last stay in the hospital, I would think nothing of it; take the 'Tussin and soldier on. Now, when I'm operating with a damaged body, nope. No superhero shit. Until I recover, all the projects are going on hiatus.

So here's Razorfist ranting about Cyberpunk. Enjoy while I deal with this damn cold.

My Life As A Historian: Pearl Harbor As It Happens w/ Indy Neidell

Part of his Time Ghost operations, of course. Begins at 6:10 a.m. Hawaii Time, which magically translates to 10:10 for me, but whatever.

I have a major complaint: I didn't even SEE this in my feed until 15 minutes after it started. FFS, what a shit operation YouTube, you incompetent faggots.

My Life In Fandom: Let The Corpse Collapse Already

Jon's on a role with these videos lately.

Yes, it really is this bad in American Big Two comics. No, the show itself is fine; that's some '80s fun. It's the creepers and freaks and losers with issues sufficient to be graphic novels themselves that are the problem and this wanker from CBR is just one example of many.

If it's not self-hating Fuck You Dad sorts (especially the half-breeds; no one self-hates like halfies) then it's the degenerate freaks like this guy. All of them conveniently use Muh Leftism to cover up that they are degenerate freaks ("Muh Oppressuns!"), and at least this useless walking target isn't actually making any comics- but many like him are, and all of them hate you. This is why Big Two comics are full of suck and blow, unworthy of your time or money, and you should have stopped buying anything years ago. Even reprints of the old stuff still ends up feeding their delusional, degenerate fantasies of conquest, defilement, and humiliation.

Stop bankrolling the bad guys. They hate you. You have better options.

My Life In Fandom: Brian Niemeier Returns To Geek Gab To Talk XSeed Again!

Dragon Award winner Brian Niemeier returns to the Gab to talk about all things XSeed.

My Life As A Gamer: Gamers Can Suffer Foolish Games, But...

I gave the expansion a shot.

I'm done.

Bad expansions are tolerable so long as you have friends. I don't anymore; the core of my guild, a guild I co-founded, upped and left without saying a word. Now I have sweet fuck-all odds of being able to play the actual game. So fuck these chores, fuck this Games As Service bullshit, fuck dungeon runs where I get nothing- the bullshit ain't worth it.

And no, I ain't gonna play any MMOs for a while, so don't ask.

My Life As A Historian: Sabaton History Talks About The Other Aces Of The Great War

They're following up on the other aces of World War I this time.

They were the Aces in the sky - proud knights who flew their planes into deadly combat. Loved by the public, feared by their enemies, the victorious pilots of the Great War rose to prominence as gallant heroes. But the personal stories of those celebrated pilots were also memories full of excruciating pain, of terrible loss, and inner struggle. Body and mind of those aces were broken by the constant danger of fighting in the air. Those who survived bore more than a few scars.

You'll find similar stories in other aces of the period. That romanticism was part of the culture for pilots of the day, and those who survived the war would often find life after the war to be a very difficult beast due to dealing with the consequences of their actions- including, for many, the inability to return to the cockpit. These real life heroes would also serve as the basis for decades of pulps focusing on aerial adventures with daring flying aces, which would in due course inspire the next great cohort of aces to step up come World War 2.

Remember that real life is not bound to plausibility, but actual reality, and as such can produce incredible tales that fiction authors envy. World War 1's war in the air is full of them. Go find them.

My Life As A Gamer: The Pundit Again Makes Plain The Superiority Of The Old Ways

The Pundit cuts another video.

This is nothing new for the Pundit, or those of like-mind such as Jeffro Johnson and the rest of the OSR. Tabletop RPGs are a wargame derivative, and as such are properly run when approached as such; the magic does not happen any other way, and it never has.

Of course the Fake Geeks projecting hard enough to be launch vehicles for NASA call this "gatekeeping". In addition to projecting their own desires to subvert and destroy what was never theirs, they demonstrate their own fear of their own inadequacies to handle proper RPG gameplay when they REEEEEE about Muh Gatekeepers.

The sad thing is, it's actually a lot easier to play properly than the retarded Rhesus Monkey method they use for Muh Story. It's easier to play, easier to run, and easier to play/run on a pick-up basis (which all long-standing games possess; you don't need to book yourself for a poker game or a chess match). In short, the Old Way is Superior Gaming, and Fake Gamers can't handle that shit.

And the continued resilience of the Old Ways prove their superiority. Long after the trashfires burn out, 3d6 In Order (No Mulligans) will remain.

Admin: Welcome To Padoru Season

This is an admin post.

• All Star Knight Lore now redirects to the Study, and future Star Knight Lore posts will be there.
• The Amazon and Steam Wishlists found on the Gifts & Support tab are up to date. Thanks to the anon that bought me Char's Counterattack. Regardless of whom you're ordering for, you should order now if you want to guaranteed delivery by Christmas.
• Palladium's Grab Bags are still available until Christmas. Great deal. (If you want to get one for me, throw on books from my Wish Lists.)
• Year-end review comes on New Year's Eve.

Not much else to say right now, not in this capacity.

My Life As A Gamer: Fixing The Game At The Source (Code)

I saw this on DEVGAME, which in turn got the below from Crazy Days & Nights (and is far more accurate than other blind gossip blogs, which is why folks like me pay attention to it).

This A list gaming company which is a merger of two big companies has a patent in which their match making services (traditionally random based on certain parameters) can be rigged in order to influence in game purchases. If one reads between the lines, this implies that all random events in their games are determined server side.

The ramifications of said patent were present for all to see at the online collectible card game world championship in 2019. In said tournament, the company fully rigged random results left and right in order to obtain political favor with China. This incident occurred within a few weeks after the company banned multiple players for speaking out against Chinese oppression of Hong Kong.

Examples of rigged events on behalf of the Chinese player included always having certain key cards in her hand by X turn, always going second when playing a deck that greatly benefits from going second, or random results from cards played always swinging significantly in her favor.

Many people who watched the live stream of the event suspected the fix was in, but had no proof. It is unknown if the player herself was in on it (assuming no due to innocent until proven guilty).

This is potentially the worst scandal in esports history.

Here’s the patent that can prove the fix is in. The one that by reading between the lines, a lot can be inferred. I also quoted some of the more disturbing passages that prove that the company can rig random events (quotes are about matchmaking, which is supposed to be random).

“In another example, if a player has been performing poorly (e.g., getting killed at a rate higher than the player's historical rate), the scoring engine may dynamically adjust one or more coefficients to match the player in a game that will improve the player's performance. For example, the player may be matched with easier opponents, matched with better teammates, and/or placed in a game that is more tailored to the player's preferences (e.g., players that play in games more closely aligned with their preferences tend to perform better).

To fine-tune the matchmaking process, the system may include an analytics and feedback engine that analyzes player and match data to determine whether a given match was good. A match may be deemed "good" when a player is determined to have enjoyed gameplay associated with the match based on one or more quality factors that are used as a proxy for player satisfaction. The quality factors may include, for example, a duration of a gameplay session (e.g., via analysis of player historical data), player psychological state (e.g., frustration level), and/or other information.”

The only thing I changed was adding the link to the patent in question, exposing that this is indeed Activision Blizzard. Nevermind that this is covered by calling it Skill-Based Matchmaking; the problem is that the ability to fix results is literally in the source code, an ability that immediately invalidates all esport events run by AB or otherwise actively managed by them.

This needs to be a much bigger story, but we all know what most Games Journalists are like. (Sophia, you want this one?) We're on our own, again.

My Life As A Gamer: They Couldn't Copy Themselves Competently

Remember when I mentioned the "Threads of Fate" for Shadowlands? Turns out it's not as good as I hoped.

I will gainsay my video insertion here. For solo players, the most efficient leveling method is to replay the campaign until you're almost at the cap. Once you're in that last five percent or so, go back to Oribos and opt into the Threads of Fate system. By this time you will have already tried all of the Covenant abilities on that character and you will know which Covenant is the best pick for that character. (And yes, that means "Which one will be least likely to get me excluded from playing the actual game." because that is a thing.) Pick up those side quests you left behind leveling up via the campaign and complete those until you hit the cap, then get on with endgame.

The reason for replaying the campaign is because, being on rails, it gets faster with every subsequent run. You quickly learn what to do and how to do, where to go and when, and that is much faster than the botched Adventure Mode that Threads of Fate is for anyone not running in a dungeon grinding group. Throw on the Azeroth Auto-Pilot addon, and you take all of the risk out of the run; the addon auto-accepts and auto-completes the campaign quests, so all you need to do is go there and get quest objectives.

This is not a good sign. All they had to do was copy how Adventure Mode works in Diablo 3. They botched it. It's not faster than replaying the campaign. It's not more covenient than replaying the campaign. It's not more fun than replaying the campaign. It's a massive cockblock put in to punish players that don't want to be on rails, which is the entirety of their leading cohort as well as a plurality of the players at-large (if not a majority).

It's why I'm not using it that way. Best to use its functionality of auto-completing the campaign right at the end to skip some tedious bitchwork that comes at the cap, and as there is plenty of makework as it is that's a good thing.

My Life In Fandom: The Music of "Legend of the Galactic Heroes"

For Sunday I thought I'd share some music playlists regarding Legend of the Galacitic Heroes. Most of the classic series uses Classical music as its score, so that stuff is in the Public Domain and easy to find. It stands to reason that someone would have identified all of the pieces used and collected them into a playlist, which has been done.

As for the original music used, most of that is limited to a few key leitmotif image songs and the usual Opening and Ending theme songs.

As the second video--collecting all of the original music together--shows, the musicians hired to do the original themes (not the pop songs, the leitmotifs) really are good enough to stand with the masters they used to score most of the series. (I cannot get enough of "Valkyries Love They Bravery", the Galactic Empire leitmotif.)

And I'm sharing all of this because we could all use more music to stir the soul, especially if you're like me and rely heavy on imagery to drive your creative efforts; music is imagery in audio form, painting with sound by using number in time, so it isn't surprising to think that some of us would rather put on the headphones to listening to music that fits the mood of whatever we're creating when we do so.

And it's bombastic enough to drive out the crap that passes for music in Clown World.

My Life As A Gamer: "Games As Service" Is Predatory & Degenerate

"Games As Service".

That's a very fancy way of saying "Making you do bothersome, tedious bitchwork before you can play the actual fucking game (including those you pay for)."

As with more obvious examples, all of which are mobile trash, such as the smartphone-based gacha games, the business model here is based around making you waste your time on things you don't want to do and have no business doing in order to maximize your odds of success doing what you're actually there to do. The gacha games are more honest in that they let you throw money at them up front to speed this shit up or skip it entirely; implementations such as in MMORPGs are just displaying contempt for your audience.

I've talked at some length about Shadowlands, so let me use some previous examples to illustrate the point.

Battle For Azeroth and Legion had an Infinite Grind system (respectively, Azerite and Artifact Power); you needed to do this grind to get your main source of Borrowed Power (Azerite Armor/Artifact Weapons) powered up enough to let you complete in a viable manner in what you want to do. This was inspectable; other players could click on your character frame and see if you had these powers or not, prompting them to accept or reject you from raids or PVP teams and thus soft-locking you out of endgame content. Therefore, you did the grind if you wanted to go do anything that was relevant at the time.

(This is where GAS intersects with the player culture of "Best Or Benched", but that's for another post.)

The Infinite Grind has diminishing returns, in the form of making it take more and more points to get a new level of power while the amount gained for doing X activity remains the same. (This also functions as a catchup mechanic, so those coming in late can get up to speed fast.) In both of the aforementioned expansions, hardcore raiders and PVP players spend part-time and full-time sessions online grinding out all available sources of said Grind rewards every day, promoting dysfunctional and degenerate habits in the elite cohort- habits then pushed by the metagame on to the population at-large. ("You must have 54 Traits on your primary weapon by Nighthold's release or you're benched.")

The alternative to this soft timegating (and that's what it is; heavy diminishing returns to create a Pareto-optimal state where sensible players know where it stops being worth it to grind in a day or week) is brick-to-face hard timegating (hard caps per day or week to doing a thing), and these are now in the game again due to the soft measures not working as intended.

That's right, four years of soft limits proved insufficient to keep the leading cohort--the people who define what is normal and acceptable for everyone else--from diving deep into behaviors that are deleterious to themselves. Why? Because the results of those behaviors maximize their odds of success in playing the actual game, and deriving the prestige for that success.

This is not trivial. The top world guilds get corporate sponsorships, allowing the members to get paid to play the game and avoid having to work a real job, and the ambitious among them can take advantage of that situation to expand their personal brand for greater business opportunities. Well-known players like Bajeera, Swifty, Sco, Sloot, Nagurra, etc. all get opportunties for sponsorship or game-related contract work (such as sport-casting esport events, something Sloot and Nagurra did and did well enough to do it multiple times) This also includes massively better results in crowd-sourcing direct support by livestreaming (plenty of tips and payouts due to sharing channel membership revenue) and merchandise sales.

In short, a small handful benefit from this and it's not just Blizzard. The majority who behave in this manner do not, and it contributes to the ongoing issues Blizzard has with maintaining and growing their primary metric: Monthly Average Users.

The contrast is a player population that only logs in for a few hours a week to raid or do PVP, then disappears; we call this "raid-logging" and the devs regard this as a very bad thing for some reason. They want people on daily doing chore and other bitchwork because that MAU metric somehow goes up when they do this and HQ is happy.

It's predatory because the devs know and desire the degenerate effects, including the second and third order effects, but because it's not flat-out gambling like loot boxes it's brushed off as "Just The Way It Is". There is no healthy middle; either you're all-in as Hardcore Lifestyle or you're Summertime Casual Player that shows up for a month or so twice a year overall. That's the end result of GAS in the MMO space, and with WOW still being the leader you can count on this degenerate influence being present for years to come.

There is nothing wrong with raid-logging, other than showing you that your game doesn't have a healthy gameplay loop. Adding GAS mechanisms doesn't solve that problem; it's like solving your energy issues by taking up Crystal Meth- you'll be going, at the cost of your long-term health and well-being, and at the end you'll just be a broken wreck unworthy of respect.

There is a better way to address the matter. Tomorrow.

My Life As A Gamer: Shadowlands- Should You Play It?

Question: Is it worth your time and money to play World of Warcraft: Shadowlands?

Short Answer: Not yet.

Longer Answer: If you don't mind Games As Service mechanisms with aggressive timegating and a player community that is very tryhard, you'll be fine. If you're very casual and don't care about the endgame, you're fine. If you're anywhere between these two ends, you're better off doing something else and taking that money with you.

Let me break this down.

World of Warcraft is not the game it was betweeen 2004-2006 (thought that is available; play Classic). It is not a proper RPG. It is not really a proper MMORPG. It is a series of poorly-connected minigames, whose audiences don't crossover much and thus don't tolerate each other much; there are people who care only for PVP or raiding (etc.), hate everything else and resent having anything to do with it- and if those players didn't drive the metagame (and thus developer attention and resources) it would be hilarious in that black humor style seen in warzones.

When I say "minigames", I mean it. Earlier this week I said that what you experience leveling up is not what the endgame is like. That's because leveling is a minigame to itself, just like how PVP is a minigame to itself, raiding is its own thing, and dungeons only vaguely related to anything else. Professions? Definitely its own thing. We do not have a cohesive and coherent whole game here that everyone plays; we have a game as fractured as the dysfunctional culture that created it.

The leveling minigame might as well be a single-player game, as that's how it is designed and experienced now. That experience, from Level 50 when you enter Shadowlands to the cap at Level 60, is a single-player experience that just happens to go on where you see other players doing stuff that you may opt to participate in here and there. This experience took me about 12 hours on my first playthrough, and I expect if I play through it again it will be faster now that I know what not to do.

Yes, this experience is on rails and mandatory your first time through. It is optional on follow-ups with other characters; you have to do the introduction sequence involving leaving Azeroth for the Shadowlands, but once you arrive at the new hub of Oribos your screen goes all Black & White for a moment and a NPC gives you a choice: replay the campaign, or go into a Diablo 3 style of Adventure Mode called "Threads of Fate". (You can opt into ToF at anytime, but it's a one-way trip; ToF auto-completes the campaign and pushes you into an endgame state, replacing leveling with "fill the progress bar" bonus objectives that pay off with massive XP gains and unlocks all dungeons at once.)

Most of the quests you need to do to fully unlock and enable your endgame gameplay loop is likewise entirely a single-player experience. You do not need other people at all for anything that isn't an Elite quest target or a dungeon- depending on your character's Class, Specialization, and gear level. This endgame gameplay loop is where the timegating kicks in good and hard, locking you into daily and weekly loops with hard caps; if this is not your thing, wait until a major patch between six months and a year from now when that gets relaxed or eliminated and you can go as fast as you like.

No, you can't fly in the Shadowlands- not now. When Flight is enabled, you'll see that the zone design is deliberately aimed to waste your time going around obstacles and take the long way around to avoid stupidly-dense hostile mob packs. (Seriously. I would get jumped by one mob, kill it, take two steps, get jumped again, repeat until you're dead or you fled.) No, they don't put Flight Masters right next to the dungeons most of the time. No, the Flight Whistle doesn't work in Shadowlands so you'll have to fight your way out of wherever you went to if you can't teleport out and your Hearthstone is on cooldown. This timewasting is deliberate design. It is a loathesome practice and should be condemned.

In short, the experience goes stale fast. You'll enjoy the first playthrough. Watch the cutscenes, see the sites, etc. but getting things done is bothersome, tedious, and meant to waste your time. This does not stop once you reach endgame; you have a Covenant Campaign to do, and that is very strictly timegated in several ways so you can't go at your pace and get it done as you like.

Meanwhile, the actual gameplay part of the game--the dungeons, the raids, even PVP--is not nearly so gated. Normal and Heroic Dungeons as well as unrated PVP are available now, Normal and Heroic raiding opens next week after reset, and Mythic Raiding as well as rated PVP the week after- by which time Mythic Plus is available to provide stopgaps where the main rewards are not forthcoming.

In short, all this cockblocking is just a way to keep people from doing what they actually want to do because the devs can't be bothered to use proven solutions to the problem of players just wanting to focus on the actual game and not the makework bullshit that the devs think is required.

Verdict: If you don't mind Genshin Impact, play it. Retail WOW is not that far off from such games now.

Bonus: The narrative has Death Cult signs--Blizzard is a California company--but nothing concrete Clown World yet.

A Brief Thanksgiving Post

Now that the evening is here, and dinner is concluded, I am all warm and comfy at home with coffee in hand and a piece of pie next to me.

I live in a manner that generations previous would rightly call "kingly", a not-uncommon sentiment among my fellows, and I am indeed grateful that I can live so well despite suffering a literally crippling injury that heretofore would have me condemned to being destitute if not dead. (Try being a working class man when you can't walk; I'd consider myself fortunate to find a place in a monestary after such a wound.)

Whatever else is going wrong right now, it goes wrong in a time of material advancement that was science fiction generations ago for most, and the wealthy of yesteryear would wonder at what we take for granted--even depreciate--now. This is madness, but sadly not uncommon either, but also not impossible to rectify.

And, for those chomping at the bit for big trees and tinsel while singing caroles and listening to Elvis sing the standards of the season, hold on just a bit longer. December 1st is next Tuesday.

SOON!

My Life As A Historian: Sabaton History Returns To "Attack Of The Dead Men"

This is a follow-up to a previous episode (here), so enjoy this episode where the Germans apply what they learned from using gas previously.

On 22. April 1915, a wall of greenish-yellow fog, up to 2m high, was slowly creeping towards the Allied lines on the Ypres salient. A sweetish-chloric smell preceded the horrific effects of the deadly gas. Coughing, spitting, and retching, men were abandoning their trenches, hurrying to the rear, or falling to the ground, clutching their throats. It was the same desperate, gruesome scenery, the Russian soldiers at Osowiec Fortress had to fight through. From then on, a scientific race to counter and protect against those deadly chemicals began.

There's a reason most people regarded World War I as "The War To End All Wars", and things like the widespread use of poison gas played into that. That you didn't see such gas being used so much in World War II (it was used; it was not nearly so extensive or on the front lines) should tell you how much of an impact it had on the elites and the common people alike.

The takeaway here should be the how and why for its widespread use and subsequent depreciation: the ability of the elites to avoid repurcushions. They employed this weapon with the aim of winning without risking themselves; just gas the enemy, have some tea, then send in the corpse retrieval teams to clear out the dead and Bob's your uncle. When they got on the wrong end of these gasses, and found themselves vulnerable to death or worse if they so much as noticed it, that's when the scramble to self-protect began; when that proved insufficient, as it became clear after the war, that's when gas got depreciated.

It's also why these days you see it used almost entirely by internal security agencies and terrorists. Properly employed, it's an IWIN button. (Just check Antifa's riot manuals; they know how effective tear gas is.)

Regardless of what you think of "The Great War" as an album, Sabaton's single-handedly returned a period of time before the lives of most fans' grandfathers to life in a way that others either did not (Battlefiend 1, looking at you) or could not (just about any media made before 2000). Call temporal chauvanism if you like, but it is fact that the band's relently history focus has had a positive impact on keeping vital events alive for young cohorts deliberately denied their rightful connections to those events- willfully so most of the time.

That is why I love this band, and I am glad to see them continuing to work with Indy on this side project.

(N.B.: Shadowlands roundup pushed tomorrow.)

My Life As A Gamer: Shadowlands Follow-Up 2

It's done. My main is now Level 60.

Now that I'm into the early endgame, I can give a preliminary assessment.

World of Warcraft: Shadowlands follows the idea that the process of leveling to the cap is nothing more than a very long tutorial. On your first time through, you are locked into a very specific order of events that is nothing more than introducing the player to the new factions in the expansion, the new Borrowed Power mechanics, and by the end you are also introduced to the endgame gameplay loop for solo players. This is all disguised by covering it up with narrative conceits.

Unlike the last three expansions, the introduction is more like it was in Mists of Pandaria. The first zone you travel to--The Maw--is an actual zone and you will be returning to it twice before reaching the cap. They used phasing technology extensively to reuse created assets in differing contexts, and other clever tricks are also behind things like not allowing flight at launch. (You'll be able to later.)

You will travel through each of the four new faction's respective zones. You will try out each of their abilities. You will not explore all of their zones; some subsets are for Level 60 characters, and some auto-flag you for PVP. You will visit what will be the hub for each of the new factions. All of this is Try Before You Buy (Into One Of Them).

The narrative itself is simple: Final Boss has plan for Existential Threat. Suckers one Faction's leader to go along with it. That man subborns the henchmen of another to do the same, betraying their master. A third is beset by another group of Final Boss's allies last seen in the previous expansion in a single zone and dungeon. The last is beset by a real traitor using dissidents to wage a color revolution. You experience this in reverse order, and witness some lore character assassination along the way.

And yes, this being set in the Lands of the Dead, you better believe there's fan service in the form of returning (dead) lore characters. Those encountered as you level up are, for the most part, either Dead In The Prequel (Draka) or villains you ganked in old raids (Mograine, Vashj) with a couple of glorified cameos (Ysera, Ursoc). Yes, you encounter yet more once you start the endgame. (Kael'thas and Kel'Thuzad, for example.)

It's a mostly pleasant experience, and a mostly bloodless one. So long as you're not a games journalist, you should be able to reach the cap without dying once. Only quests marked for a group will threaten you; get help or wait to join in on another's attempt. Do not expect this at endgame. Provided you stick mostly to the campaign, you should hit 60 at the end of the Revendreth leg of the campaign and move on to early endgame.

That means choosing which Faction--"Covenant"--to align with. I will give the devs credit here; when you start in on the new Borrowed Power mechanic, they explicitly say that they are lending you their power, and it is valid only so long as conditions require it. (Yes, you can switch; no, it's not easy- just bothersome and tedious.) All of the things put into the game since Warlords of Draenor now appear: a Hall to work from, a Mission Table to manage, NPCs to use on that minigame (which now works like an autobattler like Combat Chess; this is meant to tie into the mobile app), and World Quests unlock as well as an a PVE version of the PVP Renown system.

So, as it has since launch, the game at the cap is not like the leveling experience. If you like the latter, resubbing now isn't worth your time and money; wait for a major patch release so there's more of that sort of thing to do. You also cannot skip the initial introduction quests involving The Maw yet; if you love your alts, log into them once so they can begin accrusing Rested XP but otherwise leave them benched for now.

Which leads me to the TLDR: Good leveling experience, but still unfriendly at endgame to playing more than once character at a time unless you're a no-lifer like Asmongold. All of that Games-As-Service timegaing kicks in then, and that's before accounting for the player culture. Unless you really want to bust into Mythic Raiding or Rated PVP when it gets unlocked in early December, take your time leveling up. You'll be better off for it, assuming you want to play at all.

And more on the endgame tomorrow.

My Life As A Gamer: Shadowlands Follow Up 1

On the main blog this week I'll be following up on Monday's post with observations on my experience. Let's get on with it.

• As of this post, my main is Level 55 and I should hit the cap of 60 later today. (Do not expect to do so this fast if you're playing with IRL responsibilities.)
• Yet again, the aesthetics hard-carry the game for Blizzard. See the screenshot below.
• This is not a Christian afterlife. It's not even Islamic. Doubt it's Jewish either. Feels very Eastern with some pagan Western tropes patched in.
• As expected, all Borrowed Power from all past expansions are disabled in the new zones.
• The User Interface has a separate and distinct icon for quests that are part of the campaign narrative to separate them from side quests that don't progress it. You still have exclamation and question marks; campaign quests are marks in a shield, sidequests are as they have always been.
• You cannot access a given dungeon until you unlock the zone that it resides in; no dungeon-grinding to the cap.
• You will not complete all of a zone before the campaign narrative moves you on; some areas are meant to be visited only at the cap. (Already ran into L60 mobs while questing.)
• For those coming in late, your first playthrough is on rails; you must progress exactly as instructed. Subsequent playthroughs are not restricted in this manner. I expect that the ability to skip the introduction questine and skip to leveling in the new zones will be enabled after your first playthrough.

If you're serious about playing, bookmark WOWhead and check it daily before logging in; news like the changeover of how the addons for the game work are covered there.

I'll have more to say tomorrow, and by this weekend I'll give my recommendation for if you should play this now.

My Life As A Gamer: Going To The Shadowlands

The second filler expansion for World of Warcraft ends at 5pm Central Standard Time today, when Shadowlands goes live. Time to say goodbye to the hub I operated from for two years. (Yes, for you new folks, I play Horde and that is my main character of 15 years.)

Now we see if the cycle I said was the case is the correct take or not. That take is that the game has degenerated into a Good-Bad cycle, where their development team is no longer capable of consistently delivering a high-quality play experience within the time alloted for development per expansion, so one expansion is now consistnetly bad and filled with filler bullshit to keep people busy while they finish the stuff that matters to them.

This is the cycle that played out after Mists of Pandaria (which was a good expansion), where Warlords of Draenor was an unqualified disaster followed by a well-received Legion expansion that everyone agrees was a good time. (Not flawless by far, but good.) Now that Battle For Azeroth--again seens as a pile of filler full of suck and blow, despite some good elements--is over we are expecting Shadowlands to be an overall good experience.

I am tell you now that if you are not already subscribed and ready to go that you should wait. Let those of us suffering from Sunk Cost be that first wave off the boats to Omaha Beach. Watch our streams, watch our videos, read our blog posts and articles, etc. before you decide to jump in or not. There are bad signs of degenerate gameplay and these need to be investigated.

The first, and biggest, is that we have Yet Another Borrowed Power Mechanic. Replacing the Artifact Weapons of Legion and the Heart of Azeroth/Azerite Armor we have Anima Power and Covenants. The second is that we have a new iteration of the Garrison/Order Hall/War Campaign. These are timesucks meant to keep you not only from playing your alt characters, but from play anything but the main specialization of your main character. This contradicts official statements on making the game friendly to playing anything but mains on main spec.

As author David V. Stewart has said, this is a consequence of Games As Service as implemented. The business model is meant to timegate players to extract maximum revenue, either by paying to bypass timegates (not an option in World of Warcraft, aside from levelling up) or by ensuring recurring revenue via subscriptions (what WOW does). We'll see how hard the timegating is shortly, but if it goes as those reporting from the Beta state, don't expect to do anything but playing your main character in their main specialization for at least three months- not if you have a real life away from the game like a full-time job, a spouse, children, etc.

We'll see if I'm wrong about this, but I have plenty of experience informing my assessment and I've learned not to get my hopes up.

And as for why I'm still playing? Because I've been able to play without me spending any real money for six years due to the game allowing you to buy store credit with in-game currency, and that credit in turn buys game time and expansions. I've even been able to buy other games for sale by Blizzard in this manner. Take a look at your gaming expenses; it's stupid-cheap to play WOW once you know how to make gold efficiently, which is why I kept doing it this long.

But if this is another two-year suck stretch? Nope.

Will report back soon.

My Life As A Gamer: Meet Mr. Welch

"Mr. Welch" began as a meme on RPG Net, as an adaptation of old military memes about "Things Private Bob Is Not Allowed To Do". It's taken a life of its own, surpassing the military original in gaming circles. It even has a site of its own now.

Sooner or later, someone was going to appropriate the trope to use it for their own purposes and that time came years ago. The playlist comes from a YouTube channel using the Welch persona to comment--more or less accurately--on tabletop RPGs. This playlist in particular covers three of the worst TRPGs ever published: FATAL. The World of Synnibarr, and Phoenix Command.

The other games he's mused about are also interesting, and I'm familiar with most of them if not well-experienced. Some are good, some are bad, some are just odd. Most of them have issues that cause them to play badly somehow. You'll be entertained with this Welch.

My Life As A Historian: Pearl Harbor, Minute-By-Minute, In December

If you watch Sabaton History, then you know of Indy Neidell's other history channels on YouTube. One covers World War Two, and he's got a doozy coming next month.

On YouTube on starting December 7, 2020 Indy Neidell hosts a TimeGhost and World of Warships five hour documentary on the attack on Pearl Harbor 1941 in ways and detail never seen before. Subscribe and activate all notifications at World War Two in Real time to be the among the first to see the video when it goes up.

Fine, World of Warships sponsored this. I don't care; this is a far, far less intrusive use of corporate funding than what is more commonly done. It's as close to completely harmless as it gets; remember that they also sponsored Sabaton's official video for Bismarck, and that got nothing but praise. You can not-suck with these deals; you just need to choose partners and negotiate deals carefully.

Pearl Harbor documentaries are harder for me to watch these days, but I'll give Indy a go because he's shown me that he's good enough to do it properly.

My Life As A Gamer: Don't Neglect Your Partners CD Projekt Red

CD Projekt Red cut a big promotional video for Cyberpunk 2077 and released it yesterday. I'll post the only part that matters.

Let's make this clear: you, the player, are not the protagonist here. Silverhand is; this game's narrative is his story, and you're the sidekick.

This is a big deal, because it means that the development team actually listened to Maximum Mike and spent time pouring over old Cyberpunk 2020 materials when putting this game together.

That includes the lore, lore that--in all likelyhood--will show up when you see the flashbacks of Johnny's life between 2013 and 2020ish. That clip your man steals and then slots into his brainmeats? That's from first edition Cyberpunk, when Silverhand's ex-girlfriend Alt got sucked into the prototype chip and became a ghost AI like Silverhand is in this game.

Arasaka? They're the megacorporation that snatched Alt and sucked her into that chip. Silverhand got mad, and shit went down.

That they kept him on ice in another, better version of that same chip technology is nothing more than latter-day permanent imprisonment. Your man didn't just snatch some hot tech from some corporation, you busted a big player out of prison.

And all of us old-timers, making comments about all of this, are getting the same reactions: "How do you know so much lore?" Then these same folks who never paid attention to anything not right in front of their noses and couldn't be bothered to do a simple search get their minds blown by being told that CP2077 is based on CP2020 (because We Do Not Talk About CPv3) from 30 years ago.

Which then leads to us old-timers linking them to DrivethruRPG to see the line for themselves. (And you can too; click the picture of the CP2020 cover.) It's clear that CDPR is not doing right by R.Talsorian Games by not being explicit about where the source material comes from or how you can get to it; this may not be required by contract, but if you're leaning on your sources for marketing, the least you can do is acknowledge them and promote them in turn even if in passing (and link to their landing page). If it wasn't for we old-timers filling in the blanks for the normies, the confusion would be much worse.

I don't know what's going to be more disappointing in the end. Will it be the game not living up to the hype, the developers not being good to their sources, the audience being oblivious sheep, or the press being their usual piss-poor excuses for failure. At least we're getting the cyberpunk we deserve, not what we need, but without any of the shining cyberware chrome- and I could use a proper cybernetic leg.

My Life As A Historian: Sabaton History's Early Modern Sweden Trilogy (Part 3)

I'll let the boys do the talking.

The defeat in the Battle of Poltava had shattered the Swedish Army of King Charles XII. Retreating south into the territory of the Ottoman Empire, the "Northern Paladin" becomes the honored guest of the Sultan. But Charles XII. is restless. Despite the comforts and luxury, he enjoys at the fortress of Bender, the King yearns for a chance to regain the initiative. More and more he gets involved in Ottoman politics, urging the High Porte to renew its enmities with the Russian Tsar. But even a famous King has to learn that hospitality has its limits.

And here's the video.

The adventures of Charles XII are an epic tale of their own, and this should be taught as an epic take of heroism. I fully comprehend the exhaustion and frustration that comes with dealing with a popular insanity of self-hatred in one's own nation, and Joachim's talking about how this went down back home should feel familiar with a lot of nationalists out there living under occupation. (Sabaton? Muh Right Wing? Please.)

The result is that Sabaton has done more to honestly present Swedish history to a nation in dire need of it than the Swedish government. No wonder they get shit on at home when they make music about it, because the Globohomo traitors in the Swedish state rightly perceive this as a threat to their generational gaslighting and want it shut down. Sabaton may not be Muh Right Wing, but you can bet that their audience leans that way; Nationalism is inevitable, so don't be surprised to see a future Swedish nationalist come to power with "Carolus Rex" as his theme song.

My Life In Fandom: Animelog Is Live & Active

Remember when I said that Japan has options? Well one of them has finally made good on the attempt. Animelog is live on YouTube, providing free and legal English-subbed anime, a mix of new and classic stuff. Sure, nothing in the way of the stuff I prefer as yet (gotta hit up Bandai Spirits, Gundaminfo, etc. for that), but let me point out one classic you folks won't want to miss.

That is the series that Disney all but ripped off to make The Lion King. ("All-but" because they skirted the legal line, but you're not likely to be able to prove they crossed it.) Because it's subtitled into English, you can watch this with the kids--albeit older ones with the patience and reading speed for subtitles--and if you're serious about raising multi-lingual kids then child-friendly subbed anime is the funnel into learning Japanese- with, of course, proper external educational support.

What Animelog isn't doing is putting out the stuff that's already licensed in the West and appearing on Funimation, Crunchyroll, Hi-Dive, Amazon, et. al. so don't expect Your Favorite Genre Show to appear here. Expect more normie-friendly, family-friendly faire that you can watch with Grandma and the kids.

As with other efforts out of Japan, it looks like they're following a release schedule that mimics what you'd get from a Japanese TV airplay schedule. If you're interested in a series, but you want to binge it, watch something else and come back in a week or two. Some of this is in Spanish, and some of it is region-locked (have VPN ready), but there is a large enough to get started and sub to the channel.

And Animelog needs that support here and now to make it worthwhile over time. Good luck, because we need them to work around Western gatekeepers because things like we're seeing out of Capcom will spread faster than we can do anything about it.

My Life In Fandom: To Grok BattleTech, Watch Dougram

Speaking of BattleTech, there is one old anime series that every fan of the game ought to know: Fang of the Sun Dougram. Not only do most of the classic Mechs of the game come from that series, so does the mood therein- especially if you're a Marik fanboy or you like the Black Pants Legion stuff. In Dougram you will find all of the power plays, political intrigue, melodrama, and Real Robot warfare (often Combined Arms) that you otherwise need to hit up Armored Trooper VOTOMS to see. It's a shame that it is unlikely to ever get officially released into the West, and not just due to legal issues akin to Harmony Gold's legal fuckery, but fansubs exist and can be found.

The OP alone demonstrates my point. Sure, '80s Japan despair issues, but still worth your time (and imagine actual BattleTech moving this fast in actual play).

You can see why this series didn't have the fandom that Gundam or Macross did. Gundam hits all its narrative themes earlier and just as hard, if not harder while Macross was a more joyful and uplifting series (believe it or not), but I think the largest issue is this: Combat Armors are SLOW. You want the BattleTech feel in anime? This is your Huckleberry, as most Dougram mecha are the walking tank sort of machine and not the walking fighters of more popular anime. That didn't play so well with a target audience that took well to the robot-as-fighter paradigm, but because of a lack of competition in the gaming space it worked for FASA.

My Life As A Gamer: Scrombles, A BattleTech Story

I've said previously that Tex and the Black Pants Legion are single-handedly bringing masses of new people to BattleTech, the West's premiere mecha franchise. He, and they, are once against doing what Catalyst Game Labs should be doing but aren't and ought to be getting fat sacks of cash for their efforts from said company. This time you can also add Harebrained Studios to the list of companies being hard-carried by Tex & Company because this is a playthrough of the PC game of the same name and it looks like Tex will go the distance as all the DLC is on the schedule.

BattleTech should be much bigger than it is. Sure, Harmony Gold, blah-blah-blah. I can bag on CGL all day, but it is what it is and I'm not calling the shots. What is good news is that the new starter boxed set is a fantastic New Player acquisition unit to funnel prospects into the property and sort them as their interests compel them. If the tabletop game isn't enough, there's the existing videogames to try (which CGL, eventually, gets a piece of one way or another). There's decades of novels to plow through. (We don't talk about the cartoon or its toys.) And the existing tabletop supplements, along with those out-of-print but available used, have lore aplenty- lore Tex & Company draw deep upon for their videos like those on the Amaris Civil War.

The true irony would be if the property went full-circle and got an anime adaptation. (Which reminds me, folks: watch Fang of the Sun Dougram and you'll see that it's been done before BTech was a thing.) Until then, playthroughs like this will have to do. (Because we do not talk about that cartoon.)

And now he's on the Renegade HPG podcast talking about it.

My Life In Fandom: Harlock Helps You Find "The Five Star Stories"

I've said previously that you folks ought to get familiar with Mamoru Nagano's Five Star Stories, so let me help you out there.

I'd help with the prequel, Gothicmade, if I could. I'll follow-up when that info comes my way.

My Life As A Gamer: Rifts Dark Conversions

If there is any subset of supplements for Palladium's flagship line, RIFTS, the Conversion Books are it. You do not ever need any of these to make the most out of your game, and I say that as someone that likes them overall.

That positive sentiment includes the third in the series, Dark Conversions, which focuses on supernatural evil entities that originate in other Palladium lines such as Nightbane.

That said, if you do want to make use of Palladium's other offerings in RIFTS, this sort of thing should be on your acquisition short list. They're best considered as ready-made conversion notes, taking a lot of the guesswork and bitchwork out of your hands and making it easier to employ them in your game.

The entries, by and large, are a big heaping plate of copypasta with some editing here and there to give context for use in RIFTS and as such if there was ever a product to not bother with unless you're running the game this is it.

But there is something good here, and that's the rules for Nightbane in RIFTS. These shapeshifters come in a diversity of forms, so I find that their real value is not as beings from the stand-alone game of the same name, but rather as a ready-made Random Monster Generator alternative that's going to keep players who read too many books on their toes.

If you're wanting this sort of thing, throw it on your Wish List for a Grab Bag. Curate your list well and you'll get it.

Today's also Geek Gab day. See you folks in the chat.

My Life As A Gamer: Black Fortresses & Zombie Apocalypses - "Chaos Earth: Resurrection"

Palladium's flagship game, RIFTS, has a prequel line: Chaos Earth. CE focuses on the period immediately after the Coming of the Rifts, which is about 300 years before the default time of the main game. It's considered a playable stand-alone line, but in practice it's best considered a parallel line for the main game, and these products show it.

Again, we see the lagging indicator thing at play. This was a 2015 release, coming after the last major wave of zombie films and just as shows like The Walking Dead made their mark. Palladium loves their mashups, often giving the impression of being that guy at the all-you-can-eat buffet that throws all the things on one plate and ends up with a stack of food a good two inches tall, so it's no surprise that they decided to do the zombie apocalypse here.

The premise is that an extra-dimensional techno-necromantic construct--The Black Obelisk--pops up and begins doing techno-woowoo in the form of an elecromagnetic signal that makes all corpses animated and go all Night of the Living Dead in the area. Once scoured of people to kill, the dead scavage all useful tech and bits and take it back to the Obelisk. They they march inside and get necro-borged into killer zombie cyborgs with the ability to boost the Kill All Living signal, march forth and repeat; usual "stop it or all life on Earth dies" ensues.

To its credit, there is no pre-determined outcome this time. There are win conditions. There are loss conditions. Players have agency to determine the outcome. There are also extensive notes on using this with the main game as well as with the stand-alone zombie game in Palladium's roster, Dead Reign; this, along with the beastiary, is what gives the supplement its value.

If there is anything to criticize, it's that they spent a bit too much space explaining the antagonist--and there is one; this is not Le Mindless Horde--because so much of what drives this antagonist simply will not come up in play. It is unlikely that players will even know that a specific sentient individual runs this threat until they encounter him directly; the only use for knowing the antagonist's story is to give Game Masters a persona through which to filter Opposing Force actions, and that's done with just a terse psych profile of a paragraph or two. It worked for Walter B. Gibson; it works for you too.

A lighter criticism is too much space wasted on things players will never see, and Game Masters will not put on the table, such as narrative introductions. RPG products are technical manuals. Do not waste the user's time; get directly and immediately to the point. The supplement is an addon to a thing--a tool, a machine--that the user uses. Tell him what it is, how it works, and--and this is key--how to use it properly to achieve the desired effect. Be clean, be concise, be consistent; get in, get out, get on with it.

TLDR: Worth it if you play any of the three Palladium RPG aforementioned.

My Life As A Historian: Sabaton History's Early Modern Sweden Trilogy (Part 2)

Part Two of Sabaton History's trilogy on early-modern Sweden continues.

The Swedish Empire was on the verge of collapse. After years of mismanagement and neglect, King Charles XI. could only stand and watch as a huge Danish army invaded the realm from the south. Fortress after fortress fell in front of the Danish advance into Scania. With his back to the wall, King Charles XI. had only one option left: To fight! The Swedish Empire rallied its remaining forces and prepared to strike back with the fury of desperation. With the future of Sweden on the line, the two armies met on the frozen battlefield of Lund.

The story is what happens when you allow the ruling class to become weak through allowing venality and pettiness to supercede the proper perspective of ensuring that your new king--your nation's father, reflecting the Father--is properly groomed into the patriarch he must be to succeed. At that point out, when the crisis inevitably comes because your enemies notice that you're weak, you find out if the blood of your would-be king is true or not. Fortunately here, Sweden did have a man who--despite his defects--was a true king and rose to the challenge.

Let's see where this concludes. Next Thursday should be interesting.