My Life As A Gamer: How To Piss Off Your Audience (World of Warcraft Edition)

Late last week, the World of Warcraft team's leader (Ion Hazziikotas) joined Blizzard Community Manager Josh Allen (aka Lore) for another Q&A livestream. The questions answered were already selected, meaning that answers were also likely prepared beforehand. Of course this community engagement went over with the usual grace and dignity, which means that it was a shitshow- obviously. (h/t to Taliesin & Evitel for the catchphrase)

Asmongold (pictured) and McConnell (offscreen) express common sentiments in the playerbase, which is why I'm using this long clip from the former's livestream of the Q&A as it happened. (For something closer to, say, The Alt-Right DM's takedowns of D&D5 and its terrible take on RPGs, HeelsvsBabyface will scratch your itch.)

This is how you piss off the audience that pays your bills and justifies your existence. There is a pattern expressed here that I need to spell out, and this is the pattern:

• Game Dev makes a thing.
• Players meet challenges in the thing in a manner wholly unintended or undesired by devs.
• Devs condescend to Players instead of taking the hint and changing course to cater to clearly expressed Revealed Preferences.
• Players say "Fuck This" and disengage increasingly until they go play something else that does cater to their preferences.

The key tell here is all about this Azerite Armor issue. (WOWHead's guide on Azerite Armor is here.) Because the devs screwed up the rollout, the intended process--farm up multiple sets, one for every Specialization your man will play--got junked by the Players in favor of going to the Reforging NPC and just re-selecting armor powers as necessary. Due to the escalating costs per Reforge, this got into the hundreds of thousands of gold for the most frequent users very fast; these users were also hardcore top-end raiders.

The Dev response, as seen here and in the Reddit AMA, is tone deaf; the correct response was to accept the players' preference as valid and tank the reforge costs down to trivial levels of expense. (Otherwise known as "Turning into the skid".) Look, when you make a widget and it turns out to be a better hammer than a wrench, you're a fucking retard to refuse to accept the reality that your widget is a hammer, but that's exactly what the WOW Team's doing here- and they wonder why there is so much acrimony over Battle For Azeroth.

The Devs are not fixing the problems because they refuse to admit that they are problems, or that the problems are what the players correctly identify as the actual problems, and this is very similar to tabletop RPG devs being tone deaf to what their audience actually wants (assuming that they're not out to replace the real audience with fakes like themselves).

The game isn't fun when the systems do not work. The error is compounded when those responsible for fixing it refuse to solve the problem properly, which is the case here, and until the circumstances allowing this cancer to persist change then the negative feedback loop will continue- and that means watching the biggest MMORPG ever collapse in real time. The possession by their own egos is the fault here, and until humility returns the problems cannot be solved properly, and if they won't seek it (and they won't) Nemesis will force it upon them.

And when I get to Island Expeditions, you'll see how this is not just about one key feature.

Narrative Warfare: Tragedy & Hope On "A Casual View of America: The Home Letters of Salomon de Rothschild, 1859-1861"

It's been a long while since Tragedy & Hope put out something normie-friendly on their YouTube channel, but that happened a few days ago. It's relevant to our present situation in the United States, and thus throughout the Western world in varying degrees. At just under 90 minutes, this podcast is less than your average Premier League match and a far better use of your time. Not light viewing, so be clean and sober; have your notepads handy. You're going to learn something today.

Book Tour of "A Casual View of America: The Home Letters of Salomon de Rothschild, 1859-1861" Edited by Signumd Diamond and Published by Stanford University Press, 1961.

The video description has links to Richard Grove's sources as well as the gear he used to make this video happen. If you prefer BitChute, there is a link at the YT page to the BitChute account.

This a Narrative Warfare post because the podcast is about how one of the most influential families in world history manipulated what information gets out, how, and why regarding a past event (The American Civil War) and compares it to contemporary parallels threatening a repeat of that event. That is the essence of what Narrative Warfare is, so that's why it has that categorization.

Narrative Warfare: Arkhaven Deplatformed From Indiegogo

I was going to do a post about game design today, built around yesterday's Q&A by the leader of the World of Warcraft team, but then this happened:

That's right. Hours after Bleeding Cool published an even-handed interview with Vox Day, Indiegogo not only shut down the already-concluded and very successful campaign for Alt-Hero: Q, they also refunded every backer (when that money should have already been disbursed to Arkhaven Comics) and perma-banned Arkhaven Comics from the platform altogether. The Supreme Dark Lord decided that this need immediate addressing, and so took it up during last night's Darkstream.

One does not cross the Dark Lord like this and expect impunity. The Vile Faceless Minions have been unleashed with orders to dig, and dig they shall. What they find will only strengthen the eventual choice for reprisal, as it is highly unlikely that what Indiegogo did is wholly legal- not with that much money involved, and certainly not when it should have already been in Arkhaven's hands. SJWs are stupid motherfuckers, so the odds of them being so thorough are slim to none; it's only a matter of time before the crack is found and then leverage can be applied- and I think a crack's already been found (a likely prior example already came up before 11pm Central Time last night).

Get your popcorn and notebooks ready folks. This will be both fun and educational.

The Anime Informing #StarKnight: The Mecha

The Giant Robots are on parade here in #StarKnight, and one doesn't need to look long or hard to see both the Real and the Super versions out there. That means that you're going to find influences from the big boys on both sides--Gundam, Macross, Mazinger, Getter Robo--because it's impossible to avoid them; I won't get into them here. Instead, this is going to talk about lesser-known shows/manga/etc. that went into what's going down.

For the Real Robot side of things, the Knights In Giant Robots thing is what you should be noticing. That means Dunbine, Galiant, and Escaflowne (albeit with beam swords) because these heroes and villains get into sword fights in and out of their mecha. Just swap to lightsabers and you can see how and why I did just that with #StarKnight. Juxtaposing them are the GERWALK-style mook units such as the Goblin and Hobgoblin that Red Eyes makes his men pilot into battle (and, like their namesakes, die in droves), taking their cues from Orguss and Srungle.

For the Super Robot side, where some say "They're superhero stand-ins." I went one step further and (following Mazinger) made them mythology references. There's two in Book One, both are not subtle about what they refer to, and they do all sorts of Laws-of-Physics-Are-More-Like-Suggestions sort of shenanigans. Sure, you'll get your blazing swords and rocket punches and called out attacks, but there's a little bonus for those who know their mythology/history. They're at the level of plot-devices in Book One, but you'll see more of them as we go along.

Being that Book One is our introduction, the crazier stuff mecha shows have done are left out; gotta save something for the sequels. I'm doing some avoidance of well-known tropes in many of these shows, Super and Real alike, while changing others to suit my purposes. (If you're looking for Typical Mecha Protagonist, you want to keep an eye on the page--Creton--as he grows over the series; Roland's more like The Shadow or James Bond in that he's an Iconic Hero.)

Speaking of Later Books, here's something you can look forward to seeing, in terms of inspirational images:

Narrative Warfare: Peterson Is The Enemy's Asset

Jordan Peterson is not an ally against the SJW Death Cult. He is an insane fraud and has value only to the cult in the form of discrediting opposition. Once more, this time regarding the Kavenaugh matter, the Supreme Dark Lord hammers this witch good and hard. Tie the bent leaf to a stake and strike a match already.

While Peterson is insane, the rest of the Intellectual Dork Web figures are garden-variety frauds that know full well what bullshit they're spewing. All of them should be dealt with accordingly as frauds engaging in subversion of the nation and the country on behalf of hostile powers, and nothing less will get the job done at all- nevermind done properly.

From the Supreme Dark Lord's own post

Let me make it clear for you: Jordan Peterson is a used car salesman, except the used car he is selling is himself. Okay? He's not your dad, he's not your uncle, he is somebody who is making a lot of money off of you and people like you because you're dumb enough to fall for this guy! Look, I'm a writer, I am an editor, and I knew before I finished the first chapter of 12 Rules of Life that Jordan Peterson was an intellectual charlatan. Now, I will admit that I wasn't aware that he was a complete lunatic until I read Maps of Meaning. I didn't realize that there was something genuinely wrong with him until I read Maps of Meaning and I didn't realize how totally full of bullshit he is until I watched some of his videos.

On The (Slow) Demise Of Google Plus

Google Plus will be shut down in August of next year. Folks are panicking about finding and getting alternatives up and running, suggesting this or that; I advise caution and making transition plans now while executing them slowly over the next 10 months. There is no need to hurry, folks, so calm down and take it nice and easy.

Most of the groups affected are tabletop RPG groups, who were among the few to find Google Plus sufficiently useful to stick around. Finding another place with sufficient similar functionality, especially if files are involved and privacy is a concern, is not an idle matter. Going off half-cocked, as I'm seeing some folks doing, is ill-advised; fortunately, it's also easily remedied at this point just by slowing down. Take the time to talk and consider your options, folks; you need to handle this like you would buying a car- decide what functions you need fulfilled, then pick the option that best does that.

As for myself, I've been asked for what social media services I can found at; this is now in the Contact tab, with the caveat that Twitter is the only one I'm actually active at as of this post (the rest, for the most part, are to drive traffic here). I don't even use my YouTube account for much other than chatting in others' channels when they're live, aside from the video I made for the campaign. (And yes, I've been told I should do more with it; I don't have a clue as to what.) I'm an old-timer in Internet reckoning, so I prefer blogs and email over most social media tech.

Which means I like a good rant, so here's Razorfist doing one on Ubisoft being Woke. That's where I'm taking off for today.

My Life As A Gamer: Battle For Azeroth - Warfronts Wanting

When I said that the World of Warcraft team consistently nails aesthetics but has lacking gameplay, these two videos showing what's coming in the 8.1 patch demonstrate this with aplomb. These are from the Public Test Realm, put up on WOWHead's YouTube channel, so things are (in theory) subject to change (but in practice it won't until it goes live and users find the bugs) but this looks feature-complete so at most it's tweaking and inserting cinematics.

What is only touched upon briefly, and only on the Horde video, is that all of this is a set up for the new Darkshore Warfront scenario. This requires remaking the overworld version of the zone (which will be phase-locked so characters below 110 won't be affected) into a mirror of what you get in the scenario; this has already been done with the Arathi Highlands. The new version is an end-game content zone, filled with rarespawn NPCs to farm and (hopefully) World Quest targets to kill while you wait for your faction to actually do the scenario.

Yes, Warfronts are a clusterfuck of a new content type. He's hyperbolic about it, but Az of HeelsvsBabyface isn't out of line with his rant about Warfronts.

There's nothing fun here. It's already a Solved Problem, so all you do is follow the known sureshot strategy and speed-run to victory and your welfare epics; you can chain-run scenarios, so you can gear up a character from the 320 item level minimum to 340+ in a few hours while watching Netflix (or whatever). The dumpster fire that is Looking For Raid isn't this easy (or boring). This should have been Player Versus Player, and the replacement for Battlegrounds, but no we get this instead; one look at the map for Arathi (and its clear rooting in Defense of the Ancients, the original MOBA map, down to Creep Waves and the win condition being the destruction of the enemy's core- personified in the enemy commander) makes this crystal clear.

They're a fuckup of a system, and Darkshore won't be any better. It'll just be the same thing with a new skin, and that's what is so disappointing. They could have, and should have, done this as a wholesale replacement for the old-and-busted Battleground system. That they didn't do this displays institutional incompetence far beyond what led to Warlords of Draenor because this was such an obvious course of action to take, and you can count on this bad influence showing up elsewhere.

Like the Island Expedition system.