The Culture: Cutting Out The Corporate Gatekeepers, Part One (#BattleTech)

Convergence has consequences. Catalyst Game Labs are pushing the poz into BattleTech.

Battletech Owners Catalyst Game Labs Admits To Firing Reddit Mods Over Politics https://t.co/sVwwYMKs88 pic.twitter.com/kOu7fmXwAI

— Fandom Pulse (@fandompulse) March 23, 2024

But simply ceasing to play the game is not the answer. This is not the first time that BattleTech fell victim to corporate fuckery. The people that matter, the audience, responded with a masterclass in how to deal with this shit. Razorfist explained this well a while back.

And in light of the above recent development, Razorfist revisited the topic last week.

Buy used. Share PDFs. Rewrite the manuals (they could use it) and share those manuscripts. Done and dusted.

Maps? Don't need them. Miniatures? Don't need them. Record sheets? Available online. You can print them out as required for free, all of them, and you don't require minis to play- counters do just fine.

And MegaMek is a thing, is free, and replicates the tabletop experience to a tee- something even Harebrained's adapation does not.

And do I need to remind you of the ever-expending array of lore channels? The Black Pants Legion sets the gold standard, followed closely by Sven van der Plank, with the next few to watch being Big Red-40Tech, Mechanical Frog, and Mage Leader. All of them are backed up the the wiki, Sarna.

Used book stores not only have plenty of used game manuals, but also used novel tie-ins. Go read those; they're fun reads.

You don't need to give Catalyst a penny to play the wargame or the RPG addon, especially if you get really bold and recognize this as something you can run with Classic Traveller.

Which also means that you don't need to bother with Catalyst for making and sharing your own stuff. The aforementioned Black Pants Legion memed new stuff into the game AS SHITPOSTS. (The latest? The Urbanmech LAM.) Don't be cucks and wait for approval from hostile chokeholders; just make shit and GO!

And if you think this can't be applied to other games, you really are a Tourist that doesn't belong here.