Archive: 2017

260 entries. 183,786 words.

January, 2017

• Returning to Elder Scrolls Online. 2017-01-01 1:36 AM.
  • MMORPG
  
  I’ve been dabbling in The Elder Scrolls Online again. Last time I played it for any length of time was in the two months after it launched, April 2014. It’s one of the better MMORPGs if you didn’t know, undoubtedly in the Top Five. (Obligatory warning that it does not in any way resemble the single-player Elder Scrolls games.) Visually, I would probably rank it second behind Black Desert Online for the best-looking MMORPG out there. 1,158 words.
• On The Radar For 2017. 2017-01-01 3:16 PM.
  • MMORPG
  • Pre-Release
  
  Here’s my annual summary of MMORPGs that are on my radar for the new year 2017. Here is last year’s post. I am only considering “classic” style MMORPGs in this list, not things like MOBAs or brawlers or Diablo-clones or whatever else people call MMOs these days. If it’s not on this list I either forgot about it, don’t know about it, don’t count it as an MMORPG, or haven’t heard enough good things to bother investigating. Unless otherwise noted, I have not backed or bought any of these games yet. 1,451 words.
• Steam Entertainment Value 2016. 2017-01-02 4:08 PM.
  • Musings
  • Steam
  
  Here’s a chart I just made showing all my Steam purchases in 2016. I computed the cost per hour for playing each game, based on the price I paid for the game and the number of hours I played (according to Steam). In this way I came up with a list of games sorted by best entertainment value. If the cost per hour came out more than the purchase price (such as Bastion which came out to $37/hour), then I capped it at the purchase price. It didn’t make sense to me for the mathematical cost to be more than the actual real world cost. 1,017 words.
• FFXIV – Unexpectedly Hard Dungeon. 2017-01-04 7:06 PM.
  • MMORPG
  • Status
  
  Last night I only had time to play one game, so I decided to play some FFXIV again, as part of my as-yet unannounced goal of catching up with the Main Scenario before the expansion arrives. I was stuck at a point in the Main Scenario where the next quest requires level 58, but I was only at about 57.8. So I thought I would do a few quests to start getting a feel for my character again. 496 words.
• Daybreak Closing Landmark. 2017-01-06 5:59 PM.
  • MMORPG
  • Snap Judgment
  
  In the most shocking news heard since WildStar announced they were going free-to-play, Daybreak revealed they will be closing down Landmark in February. I bought one of the $99 Founder’s packs. I don’t exactly remember why, but I remember seeing that video showing them digging holes in the ground and thought that was pretty dern cool. It turned out to be the most ill-advised game purchase decision of my entire life to date. To this day it informs my Early Access buying decisions. Thanks to Landmark, I made a rule that I won’t take a chance on an unknown Early Access game unless it sells for $10 or less. 795 words.
• Top 10 Videos From 2016. 2017-01-07 11:35 PM.
  • Videos
  
  I know blog readers don’t care about videos, but I wanted to record my Top 10 game videos from 2016 for posterity. One day I decided to click on that Analytics tab on YouTube and found there was actually some information there, like which videos people watched. YouTube ranks videos by watch time, not views, which I suppose indicates that these are the videos that people actually stuck around to watch the most, for some inexplicable reason. 493 words.
• LotRO Volume 1, Book 12 – Rescuing Laerdan. 2017-01-08 1:57 PM.
  • MMORPG
  • Status
  
  Turns out this was the only screenshot I took. As part of my continuing efforts to catch up in LotRO, I played through another Book in the Epic Story. In the last book, we were looking for a ring called Narchuil, which is pronounced quite differently from the way it looks, according to not-Ian McKellen Gandalf in the voiceovers. (It’s something like “Nar-wheel.”) 692 words.
• Four Years Of This?. 2017-01-09 1:54 PM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  Meryl Streep gave a speech at the Golden Globes yesterday. Trump wrote a bunch of tweets in response. https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/818419002548568064 https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/818421066859167746 https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/818422930157830144 Is it really going to be four years of Hollywood versus Trump? Four entire years? I’ve never really bought into the whole “ivory tower elites” thing but Hollywood really is acting like a bunch of spoiled whiny children lately. But so is the president-elect so I guess it evens out. 71 words.
• FFXIV – The Level 58 Slump. 2017-01-11 12:39 AM.
  • MMORPG
  • Status
  
  I’m a little miffed that I’ve run out of level 58 quests in the Dravanian Hinterlands only about halfway to level 59. Alphinaud and [redacted] stopped talking to me about the Main Scenario almost immediately after I ascended to level 58 and entered Idyllshire, which is apparently the new Mor Dhona. They now want nothing to do with me until I get to level 59. So I did every level 58 quest I could find around Idyllshire and the Hinterlands, mostly involving the gobbies’ loony adventures building their city government. After that, I followed two racist refugees from Uldah in their misadventures of gobbie mistrust. I thought for sure that somewhere in those quests I would unlock Saint Mocianne’s Arboretum, which is clearly marked as a dungeon on my map, but nope. That blue dungeon icon is still there, and I guess I’m supposed to pretend I can’t see the rather obvious entrance. 442 words.
• LotRO Volume 1, Book 13 – Snowpocalypse. 2017-01-12 4:00 PM.
  • MMORPG
  • Status
  
  I completed a second Book in LotRO over the snowy weekend. Last time we rescued Laerdan and found half of that elusive ring Narchuil. After Laerdan stormed out of the council meeting, Elrond asked me to talk to him. Laerdan believed the rest of the ring could be found in the (presumably dead) hands of a captain whose ship sank somewhere in the north. He asked me to meet a dwarf friend of his in Forochel, because he wanted to stay and patch things up with the Elves. Typical. I always have to do the work. 960 words.
• FFXIV – Finally 60. 2017-01-17 11:49 PM.
  • MMORPG
  
  It was a weekend of big achievements in Final Fantasy XIV. When last we left our intrepid Warrior of Light, she had run out of level 58 quests halfway to level 59. I ended up doing some Clan Hunts, some Battle Levemetes (a word which I still do not think is a real word), and thanks to suggestions from Aywren, a handful of Beast Tribe quests for the Vath and Vanu. That got me to level 59, faster than I might have expected. (I also noticed that Beast Tribe reputation gains in Heavensward are about 10 times faster than … uh … non-Heavensward. What do we call non-Heavensward anyway? Surely not Vanilla FFXIV. I guess ARR or 2.0.) Beast tribe quests got me to level 59. 935 words.
• One Press Conference Later. 2017-01-18 3:15 PM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  I forgot to publish this… So about this compromising information that Russian intelligence has on Trump. My understanding is that Buzzfeed published the compromising info without any shred of corroboration or source-checking, like you’d expect from Buzzfeed, a place with zero journalistic credibility. Then CNN published a fully fact- and source-checked story that there was potentially-compromising intelligence information being passed around, but leaving out the specifics because they could not corroborate it, like you’d expect from journalists with credibility. 580 words.
• Morrowind – Learning The Ropes. 2017-01-18 4:10 PM.
  • Single-Player
  • Videos
  
  I’m trying a new thing here. This is both a diary of my Morrowind adventures and an index to the videos. P. S. Don’t spoil anything for me, I haven’t finished the game yet. :) Morrowind 1 - Arriving in Seyda Neen. Story. I’m a Dark Elf Witchhunter. I was released from prison and transported by ship to Seyda Neen, on the southern coast of Vvardenfell island in the Morrowind district. Apparently I was released by a personal decree from Emperor Uriel Septum VII. After answering a series of questions, I was given some gold and a package to take to a man named Caius Cosades in the town of Balmora, who would have more information [15:20]. I found a healing ring in a barrel. I was told by a helpful stranger that a silt strider (a creature which to me looked like a giant long-legged tick) could transport me to Balmora. I encountered a man named Fargoth [25:45] who claimed the Imperials had taken his healing ring. I said nothing. Tee hee. Eager to find out why I’d been released, I took a silt strider to Balmora for 15 gold. 1,253 words.
• Self-Censored Tweets. 2017-01-20 2:51 AM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  I swear, looking at my Twitter feed tonight, the night before The Inauguration Of Donald Trump, is like staring at alcoholics chugging down mixed drinks. This is probably the closest I will ever come to understanding what it must be like to be a parent to a stubborn teenaged child. It’s soooooo haaaaaard not to intervene and point out factual mistakes, or philosophical mistakes, or logical mistakes, or historical mistakes, or cognitive-behavioral mistakes. (Closing your eyes and pretending that reality doesn’t exist is not a healthy attitude!!) I’m reminded again and again of “dancing mania” and the phenomenon of mass hysteria. It’s fascinating and scary and sickening and discouraging all at the same time. 500 words.
• FFXIV – 3.0 Main Scenario Complete. 2017-01-20 2:00 PM.
  • MMORPG
  • Status
  
  A while back I said I was playing ESO again.. welllll, I sort of lost interest. (I think it’s because I find the quests very depressing, and it also seems like everywhere you go and everything you do is basically the same as what you did before.) So it’s mostly FFXIV and an occasionally foray into LotRO for me these days. I finished the Aetherial Research Facility. I got a nice group with a very “professional” tank, who explained the mechanics concisely and non-judgmentally. Indeed it turned out to be much easier than I feared, and kind of fun. It was another one with a lot of AoEs to dodge, which I like. It’s sort of like a puzzle game, trying to figure out where to run so that you don’t get caught by overlapping or moving AoEs. They’re usually predicable enough that you can plan ahead, but random enough that you still need to think on your feet. 817 words.
• White House Web Site. 2017-01-21 12:26 AM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  I didn’t watch the Inauguration, not for political reasons, but because I was at work. However I saw a lot of tweets related to it. For example, I saw a lot of tweets saying something along the lines of, “It’s only been X minutes and Y has been removed from the White House web site.” Speaking from some personal experience, I was amazed to see that any government staff could make a web site change at all on a Friday. To expect government staff to get such web site changes right on the first try is somewhat like expecting the moon to turn purple. My personal guess is that somebody was just deleting random files on the production web server hoping to get the right outcome, and over the coming weeks, what they actually intended to do will eventually occur as the project leaders return from their extended vacations. [Update: This is a joke. My point is that the government doesn’t have a great track record with web sites. Remember Healthcare.gov?] 403 words.
• Swamp of Ineffectual Presumption. 2017-01-21 2:46 PM.
  • Politics
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  Okay, in case anyone actually is interested in my dumb political commentary, I’m writing at the Swamp of Ineffectual Presumption. It’s guaranteed to offend everyone of every political persuasion, since I tend to write from a perspective outside of all the traditional political ideologies. 44 words.
• That @POTUS Thing. 2017-01-21 4:54 PM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  You may or may not know that in the days before the Inauguration, there was a big campaign on the Twitters to remind everyone to unfollow the @POTUS account. Personally I felt this was silly, and possibly the most ineffective form of government protest imaginable, not to mention irresponsible citizenship. “Hey, we have a frightening president now, let’s not look at anything he’s doing! That’ll keep us safe!” Anyway, roughly the time of the Inauguration, Twitter renamed the @POTUS account to @POTUS44 to keep an archive of Barack Obama’s tweets. It’s apparently run by the National Archives, which makes sense. That action meant that everyone effectively unfollowed Trump’s @POTUS automatically, rendering the whole unfollow campaign beforehand moot. 357 words.
• Behind The Retweets: “Twitter in Trump era”. 2017-01-21 5:02 PM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  I’m going to start this thing where I highlight I tweet I saw going around and then explain why it’s bad to retweet it, highlighting the general misinformation that it carries. I can’t do this on Twitter because, you know, 140 characters. Twitter in Trump era: 1) Trump bans national parks from tweeting, even on safety 2) Twitter forces users to follow Trump, even if they block — Sarah Kendzior (@sarahkendzior) January 21, 2017 659 words.
• Heavy Sarcasm Alert. 2017-01-21 5:17 PM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  I’m really glad to see that “Nazi” is a word that isn’t being devalued. You know, those folks who were generally responsible for 60 million people dying in World War II. I think it’s cool that we now use that same word to describe random people who say dumb stuff. Nothing at all wrong with equating those two things. In a way, it really honors the sacrifice of those 60 million dead people, don’t you think? #satire #sarcasm #wordsdontmatteranymore 79 words.
• . 2017-01-21 11:32 PM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  I support today’s Women’s Marches completely. However I think the gravitas of protests are slightly undermined when all you see or hear about it are the funny signs. It makes it look more like a funny sign competition than a serious political statement. It would have more of a frightening effect if there were no signs at all. Either that or the signs should be, you know, frightening, not funny. I mean, the point of a protest march is the scare the crap out of the government, right? To overwhelm the police force through sheer numbers? To show you have the numbers to literally run over all obstructions, into the White House, to tear the president into little pieces with your bare hands? Julius Caesar style? 171 words.
• What Is Trump Actually Doing. 2017-01-22 12:20 AM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  I was looking around for a good source of what Trump is actually doing in office, in terms of executive orders, bills he is signing, etc. It’s a little distressing to see that even though we know Trump has already signed an Executive Order, that page on WhiteHouse.gov is still very blank. Most of the government sources I would normally go to are still showing Obama stuff. But I found this on VICE: 241 words.
• That Press Briefing, Amirite?. 2017-01-22 8:16 PM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  Well Trump certainly knows how to set a tone, I’ll give him that. I specifically linked to CNN’s YouTube video because if Twitter is to be believed, they did not cover the briefing live, and I give them high marks for that. CNN did not carry @seanspicer’s White House briefing live. — Mike Grynbaum (@grynbaum) January 21, 2017 (Mike Grynbaum is a New York Times correspondent covering media, so I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt on accuracy.) 2,119 words.
• On Alternative Facts. 2017-01-23 1:52 AM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  Kellyanne Conway said on Meet The Press Sunday morning that Spicer had provided “alternative facts” in his press briefing. I just watched the clip for the first time when I embedded it in this post. She is unbelievable. If I had a news show, I would never invite her back. Anyway, “alternative facts” became an Internet meme immediately. In that clip Chuck Todd responded that “alternative facts” were “falsehoods.” 247 words.
• FFXIV – The Road To Void Ark. 2017-01-24 11:31 PM.
  • MMORPG
  
  Thanks to a bunch of tips, I learned that what I should have been looking for as a Crystal Tower-replacement is called Void Ark, not Alexander. It took me a little time to figure out how to unlock it, because the quest that takes you to it starts out in Foundation with some random guy on the street who doesn’t look like he would ever lead to anything good. I found him from the 3.1 Patch Notes. 801 words.
• Spicer, Take Two, and Executive Actions. 2017-01-25 12:32 AM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  Sean Spicer’s second press conference (23 Jan) was considerably better than the first one. His tone was much more moderated and he seemed more in command of the proceedings. Oddly, he called on the New York Post first, which I understand in some circles is considered a newspaper. One rather obvious thing I noticed about Spicer’s second press conference: Everyone asked really good questions about Trump’s plans and policies … except the major television news networks. They all insisted on talking about the inauguration crowd and “alternative facts.” (Spicer walked back his comments from Saturday quite a bit, by the way, admitting that he had given incorrect facts regarding the Metro-you’d never know that by looking at Twitter.) 490 words.
• Twitter and Censorship. 2017-01-26 12:11 AM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  It’s time for some basic education on what censorship means again. News came out yesterday (24 Jan) that the EPA had received a directive to cease using its Twitter accounts. Censorship! Well, no. That is not censorship. It’s more like risk management. The government is legally accountable for everything that goes out on those Twitter feeds. They are well within their rights to set a policy for how they are used. The government would also be within their rights to fire people for misusing those Twitter accounts. It’s probably one of the few things you could do to actually get fired from a government job. (Hey-oh!) 465 words.
• Behind The Tweet: Silencing of federal government. 2017-01-27 12:18 AM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  Here’s another tweet I saw going around: Silencing of federal government Gag rule Actual Nazis Threat of martial law $20b border wall Goldmann-Sachs cabinet State Propaganda pic.twitter.com/Xu5hEsTo4P — Mikel Jollett (@Mikel_Jollett) January 25, 2017 Again I’m all for keeping an eye on what the president is doing, but … “Silencing of federal government” doesn’t even make sense. “Gag rule” is wildly out of context. “Actual Nazis” is actually not true because actual Nazis are registered with the actual NSDAP party which actually dissolved in 1945. 162 words.
• Behind The Status: Trump Wall. 2017-01-27 12:31 AM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  In case you think I only rag on liberal viewpoints, here I will passive-aggressively respond to a very conservative Facebook post: The true purpose of The Wall is to create a government welfare program for construction companies. Zing! (Apologies if that person does happen to read this blog someday, but I don’t engage with politics on Facebook ever, for any reason.) 61 words.
• Behind the Status: This is funny to us. 2017-01-27 8:15 PM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  Note: This is my first post after making some changes to the site’s infrastructure. I hope it’s still working. Here’s another fun bit of conservative propaganda I found on Facebook: Once again I have to point out that you can make any political point with data and statistics, liberal, conservative, or any variation between. And here’s another reminder that I still don’t know the source for that picture of the National Mall or when it was taken. However, calling it “not accurate” is … not accurate, as I’ve discussed before. 329 words.
• Executive Order On Immigration. 2017-01-28 8:54 PM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  I’m not pleased with Trump’s Executive Order restricting immigration. It runs contrary to the spirit of America. I understand the need to vet immigrants, but a universal ban on immigration, particularly banning refugees from war-torn Syria, sends a really bad message to the world that I’m embarrassed to be a part of. I’m particularly embarrassed by the priority given to Christian immigrants. That, in my opinion, is the work of Mike Pence, who I’m increasingly worried is pulling Trump’s puppet strings. 349 words.
• Behind the Tweet: Rumors are true. 2017-01-31 1:20 AM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  Here’s another beauty: That’s completely preposterous. Pure fear-mongering. Throwing gasoline onto a fire. Whatever other metaphor I can think of. I don’t believe these “rogue” government Twitter accounts are real for one second. I was instantly suspicious the moment I saw them. Why? Because real government whistle-blowers go to the press, where they get protection. Also, you know, I read some of their tweets. Like the one above. They aren’t credible. They’re probably the same anarchists who protest in the streets regardless of who wins an election. 214 words.
• Weekend Immigration Protests. 2017-01-31 1:37 AM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  By the way, there is much more to talk about regarding the Executive Order on Immigration and its impact over the past weekend (detainees at airports, ACLU, stays, etc.), but the news is flying around so fast and furious that it’s basically impossible to sort out what’s real and what’s fiction right now. Depending on who you listen to, everything is either back to normal, or there are armed stand-offs between all three branches of government. (That is an exaggeration for comedic effect, I have not actually heard that-either claim, actually.) 102 words.
• FFXIV – Void Ark and Weeping City. 2017-01-31 9:57 PM.
  • MMORPG
  • Status
  
  First there was Void Ark. I watched a guide on YouTube but I didn’t understand much of it, so I just jumped in. (It’s easier to learn mechanics first-hand.) It turned out to be fairly straightforward to get carried through there. Just like the Labyrinth of the Ancients raid at 50, everyone is so over-leveled that you hardly even see the mechanics, and mostly all you have to do is follow along, avoid AOEs, and pick up the loot. I got most of the Bard 200 gear (except the belt) and moved on to the next tier. 545 words.

February, 2017

• Snap Judgment – Conan Exiles. 2017-02-01 6:43 PM.
  • Steam
  • Survival
  
  I wasn’t going to buy Conan Exiles right away, because I could tell from the streams and the early gameplay videos that it wasn’t ready yet, but I bought it anyway because I just didn’t feel like playing FFXIV. $30 isn’t too much to waste on a game, right? Eventually they’ll fix it up into a finished game, surely? To nobody’s surprise, I should have waited for a sale. Let’s start with the bad stuff. 785 words.
• Conan Exiles, Part Two. 2017-02-05 11:14 PM.
  • Status
  • Survival
  
  For some weird reason I’m still playing Conan Exiles. Probably some misguided need to get my money’s worth out of it. Also it’s a fairly relaxing game world to be inside right now. I can safely ignore everything in the real world while I’m breaking rocks. (And that is a big chunk of what you do-everything requires tons of stone.) However, I will continue to list everything that’s wrong with the game, hopefully to shame Funcom into feeling bad about releasing their game too early. Let this be a lesson to you game developers: I will say bad things about you if you release too early! 1,367 words.
• Can’t Keep Up. 2017-02-07 12:47 AM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  It’s official: I can’t keep up with Trump anymore. Every day he signs new orders, says new things, writes new tweets, and I don’t have time to keep reading them and trying to figure out what the heck they mean or whether to push the panic button or not. This was undoubtedly the plan, the way to keep us ordinary citizens from keeping an eye on the government, forcing us to rely on media organizations to distill it down for us, which they always do wrong. 117 words.
• Fun with 8 US Code 1182. 2017-02-08 12:23 AM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  I watched Sean Spicer’s press conference when I got home tonight, and one part struck me as information I had not heard before. He cited 8 US Code 1182 as the president’s authority to suspend immigration in his Executive Order (around 7:00 in the video). He read it out loud, and it sounded pretty clear-cut to me. It was the first time I heard any mention of where they derived their authority. 305 words.
• What Makes A Good Survival Game?. 2017-02-10 12:24 AM.
  • Survival
  
  My recent test drive of Conan Exiles and a comment from Jeromai reminded me of a topic I once started writing about but never finished, which I will now take up again: What makes a good survival game? What defines a survival game? The Forest (way back in 2015) What prompted me to visit this topic was a comment from Jeromai: That he became more interested in Conan Exiles after hearing you could play it solo. I think it highlighted one of the current problems with the survival genre: There’s a perception that survival games are defined as PvP last-man-standing games like H1Z1 King-of-the-Kill, ARK Survival-of-the-Fittest, Rust, etc., where your only goal is to log in and try to murder everyone in sight, basically like Quake Deathmatch in 1997, only using stone knives and bear skins instead of rocket launchers. 1,275 words.
• Confidence in Separation of Powers. 2017-02-10 2:04 AM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  With all the celebration I’m seeing about the 9th District Court’s ruling this evening, I can’t help wondering: Where was all this confidence in the separation of powers back on election day? And can we maybe back off on the Hitler and fascism talk now? 45 words.
• Piers Morgan Demonstrates Centrism In America. 2017-02-13 8:07 PM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  On Real Time with Bill Maher, Piers Morgan did an excellent job of demonstrating what it’s like to be a centrist white guy in America right now. The above clip is just one example. Say something completely reasonable and true? Get shouted down, because it doesn’t fit the left’s current narrative that the world is ending. And because it comes from a white guy, the opinion is automatically invalid (because the narrative is that of course white guys don’t get it because Trump’s agenda won’t hurt white guys). 114 words.
• Conan Exiles, Part Three. 2017-02-14 8:25 PM.
  • Single-Player
  • Survival
  
  You might be wondering why I’m still talking about Conan Exiles after trashing it for two posts in a row. Welllllll, see, it’s still kind of fun. :) Some random shrine of some random priest. It has that same sort of addictive crafting progression treadmill that ARK has: I want to see everything you can craft, so I have to keep leveling up and unlocking new recipes and finding more and more resources. And every time you craft something new, it helps speed up the leveling and searching for more resources. And there’s always something cool to craft just out of reach. So it’s kind of a vicious cycle that will continue until I either run out of things to craft and/or can safely walk anywhere on the map. (I quit playing ARK after I could craft winter-weather protection and a rifle which could kill any dinosaur I encountered.) 851 words.
• On Sally Yates. 2017-02-15 12:30 AM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  From old drafts, c. January 31, finally remembering to post: Regarding the firing of Sally Yates as temporary Attorney General: I don’t like the ugliness of it, but Trump is well within his rights to fire her or anyone else who refuses to carry out his directives. He could have done it gracefully or like a big old meanie, and of course he chose the latter, sounding very much like a tyrannical dictator in his statement. The clear intention is, “You will be loyal to me or you will be fired.” He’s trying to run the federal government like a private corporation. 205 words.
• Behind the Tweet: Possibility of New Election. 2017-02-16 2:04 AM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  It’s time for another episode of Behind The Tweet. This time, another “rogue” account: “GOP worried if they press Rus-Pres ties & impeach, possibility of new election could occur; smartest play for dems - promise no redo.” - @RogueSNRadvisor If you still held any lingering doubts about whether these rogue accounts were fake, this should seal it for you. Either it’s fake, or senior White House advisers are dumb as rocks, which would be even more alarming. 270 words.
• 7DTD – A Forge Makes All The Difference. 2017-02-21 9:06 PM.
  • Survival
  
  I played a large amount of 7 Days To Die this weekend. I finally discovered some things to make the game more enjoyable beyond the 7th day. A trip to the market. I bought 7DTD way back in February 2015 for $25. That must have been before my $10 rule or a random exception, because I don’t think I’d heard about the game beforehand. I didn’t play it very much in 2015 because it was still early, but it was fun, and I liked what they were doing with it. It’s been on my desktop pretty much all the time since then. 3,025 words.
• Revelation Online’s Stealth Launch?. 2017-02-28 6:21 PM.
  • MMORPG
  
  Stolen from their web site because I don’t have any pictures for a post about this game. As I was catching up on MMORPG news story titles in my feed reader, I noticed that Revelation Online had started Early Access on February 27. For all intents and purposes, this is what we would normally call a game launch. You have to buy a Founder’s Pack to access the game “early,” but supposedly there will be no more character wipes, which sounds a lot like a launch to me. Certainly plenty of other MMORPGs have made a huge deal about this kind of event (eg. ArcheAge). 360 words.

March, 2017

• 7DTD – New Game, Treasure Hunt. 2017-03-02 4:00 PM.
  • Survival
  
  So I’m going to write some more about 7 Days To Die since it’s all I’ve been playing lately, and there’s this weird expectation that bloggers are supposed to post things occasionally. I gave up on Conan Exiles because I already feel like I’ve done everything in the game, or I should say I’ve seen all the game mechanics that are in the game. Those mechanics are: Gather stuff, build stuff, and kill stuff. Everything you gather is gathered the same way: Either pick it up by hand, or hit it with a tool. Everything you build is built the same way: Put the component in your hot bar and place it where you want it. (This includes thralls.) Everything you kill is killed the same way: Shoot it with a bow or crossbow, or hit it with a melee weapon. (Or hit it with a club if you want to drag it back to base and make a thrall out of it.) 1,387 words.
• The Repopulation Worries. 2017-03-03 4:00 PM.
  • MMORPG
  
  _Rescued from the drafts folder…_ Blatantly stolen from therepopulation.com because I don’t have any screenshots. I was initially glad to hear that The Repopulation will be coming back. I splurged in a moment of weakness and bought it for $20 on Steam back in February 2015. I don’t remember why I bought it. I think I had heard some positive feedback about it, and I had heard also it described as being heavily inspired by Star Wars Galaxies, and I was curious to see what a SWG-like game looked like. (I’ve never even seen SWG, let alone played it.) 465 words.
• Games Played – January 2017. 2017-03-04 4:00 PM.
  • Progression Report
  
  Bust of Janus, from Wikimedia Commons. Get it? Janus? January? Hey any picture is better than nothing. Better late than never, here are the games I played in January, according to ManicTime: Final Fantasy XIV <td> 76 hrs </td> Elder Scrolls Online <td> 15 hrs </td> Lord of the Rings Online <td> 12 hrs </td> Morrowind <td> 7 hrs </td> Novus Inceptio <td> 2 hrs </td> Star Wars: The Old Republic <td> 2 hrs </td> (Only games played 2 hours or more shown.) 117 words.
• Games Played – February 2017. 2017-03-05 4:00 PM.
  • Progression Report
  
  It’s a heart. Valentine’s Day? February? A perfectly logical picture for this post. Games played in February, according to ManicTime. A pretty strong survival game theme here. :) 7 Days To Die - 67 hours Conan Exiles - 62 hours* Rise of the Tomb Raider - 9 hours ARK - 4 hours The Secret World - 2 hours ESO - 2 hours * Conan Exiles approximated since ManicTime counted every new version as a different game. 76 words.
• LotRO Volume 1, Book 14 – The Sloggiest Journey. 2017-03-06 4:00 PM.
  • MMORPG
  • Status
  
  Another post rescued from my drafts… Book 14 begins with Laerdan preparing for a journey south. He asked me to collect a bunch of gear for him that he left strewn around Eriador, because the hero’s journey always involves fetching stuff. It was a lengthy, boring scavenger hunt. When I returned to Rivendell, Laerdan was gone. In a note, he said he sent me away so I wouldn’t interfere. I spent all that time collecting his gear for nothing. But I wasn’t bitter about it. Much. 628 words.
• Amazon’s New World, Part Two. 2017-03-07 4:00 PM.
  • MMORPG
  • Opinion
  
  From a draft written somewhere around October 2016… I finally got around to watching Amazon’s teaser video, thinking that it would erase my earlier skepticism and soften my opinion about their upcoming games, and maybe even start to get excited about the possibilities. Unfortunately it only pushed my skeptical buttons even harder. “What if a game was built for Twitch,” wonders a voiceover 12 seconds into the video. Instant buzzkill. The video goes on to mention Twitch about five times in the first 60 seconds, before anything about games. If we go with the assumption that what they put into the very beginning of their video is the “hook” and therefore the most important message they want to deliver, we have to assume that Twitch integration is the most important part of their design philosophy for these games. And if Amazon making games to target Twitch viewers is not a corporate-synergy-driven game design, I don’t know what is. It’s as if they accidentally put the video meant for their shareholders out to the public. 317 words.
• Snap Judgment – Revelation Online. 2017-03-08 3:31 PM.
  • MMORPG
  
  Yes, that’s a miniature panda on my head. Last night I took a look at Revelation Online for the first time. I played for about 45 minutes. I don’t have much to say about it, except I didn’t particularly care for it. It’s a solidly average anime-style MMORPG that takes no chances. It’s an Asian version of a WoW-clone. (A Lineage-clone?) I saw nothing that advanced the MMORPG genre in any way. 692 words.
• 7DTD – The Great Minibike Catastrophe. 2017-03-10 4:00 PM.
  • Survival
  
  I’m now 56 days into my Navezgane 7 Days To Die game. I’ve built a forge and a workbench and a cement mixer and my base is getting upgraded to concrete and reinforced steel. Just in time for the bigger zombies like policemen, soldiers, and weird alien “feral” zombies. I also found some iron veins to mine. I had a hard time finding them because I kept hearing that you’re supposed to dig where you find gravel but it’s not actually “gravel” that comes out of the ground, it’s sand and stone (which combine to make gravel). 1,208 words.
• Snap Judgment – Shroud of the Avatar (Free Trial). 2017-03-13 3:00 PM.
  • MMORPG
  
  I read on MassivelyOP that Shroud of the Avatar was having a free trial “test” (whatever that is) so I downloaded the game and tried it out last weekend. I’ve seen increasing buzz about the game and I was curious to see if there was anything to it. I only played for about an hour, and while I can’t say I was dying to play more, I did find it interesting enough to leave it on my games to continue watching. It had a number of things you just don’t find in traditional MMORPGs. 1,012 words.
• Mass Effected. 2017-03-15 3:00 PM.
  • Single-Player
  
  Over the weekend I tried to do three new gaming things: Play Mass Effect 2 (to finally finish it), play Mass Effect 3 (for the first time), and play Mass Effect 1 (over again). I installed Mass Effect 2 from Steam, hoping beyond hope that by some magical time-space temporal vortex I would be able to pick up where I left off years ago (probably at least two computers ago), but of course I had to start over. My goal was to play through the game quickly so that I could then finally start Mass Effect 3, a game I’ve had for years but never played. 710 words.
• Secret World Legends Announced. 2017-03-29 3:13 PM.
  • MMORPG
  
  Totally ripped off from https://secretworldlegends.com/ There is some interesting MMORPG news out! Well, “shared-world” news, that is. Some time back, Funcom mentioned in an investor report that they were planning to “re-launch” The Secret World, and Internet speculation ran rampant. Nobody knew what that actually meant. Today, we found out. Funcom is planning to launch a new free-to-play game called Secret World Legends (the official acronym is apparently SWL, judging from my Twitter feed). This game will be a “shared-world action RPG.” You can read all the announcement information yourself on their site. 333 words.

April, 2017

• Mass Effect 1 Replayed (Spoilers). 2017-04-03 3:00 PM.
  • Reviews
  • RPG
  • Single-Player
  
  I’m writing this draft on March 21, launch day for Mass Effect: Andromeda. I probably won’t post this until much later, because I’m very paranoid about exposing myself to Mass Effect story spoilers right now, and my vivid imagination sees everyone running to the comments to post their Andromeda thoughts even though this post has nothing to do with Andromeda. Not only do I not want to hear about Andromeda, but I also don’t want to hear about Mass Effect 2 and 3. 1,572 words.
• Mass Effect Andromeda Impressions. 2017-04-04 3:00 PM.
  • Reviews
  • RPG
  • Single-Player
  
  No razors in the future. There are no story spoilers below, but I totally understand if you’re on complete blackout and want to skip. (I was, and did, and still do.) I finished the first three Mass Effect games and finally started Andromeda. First, if you’re like me and were way behind on the series, there is no connection between the original trilogy and Andromeda. Much to my chagrin, there is no need to play the first three or know anything about the previous story. I can’t explain why without spoiling the very beginning of Andromeda, but it’s a clean break and the start of a brand new thing. (And it makes sense, too, it’s not something like, “It was all just a dream.”) You don’t get to import your game from Mass Effect 3, so it doesn’t matter what you did in the past. 982 words.
• Mass Effect 2 Halfway Point (Spoilers). 2017-04-05 3:00 PM.
  • RPG
  • Single-Player
  
  Continuing with Mass Effect week here on the ol’ blog… I’m starting this draft on March 22, but again I probably won’t publish it until after I finish Mass Effect 3. There are story spoilers below if you haven’t finished the game. Mass Effect 2 is a much, much larger and longer game than Mass Effect 1. I’m well over 20 hours into the game, and I don’t even think I’ve gotten to the halfway point yet. There are a lot more opportunities to get distracted with side missions. Omega, The Citadel, Illium: All teeming with entertaining vignettes to watch and interact with as you pass by. 829 words.
• Mass Effect 2 Replayed (Spoilers). 2017-04-06 3:00 PM.
  • Reviews
  • RPG
  • Single-Player
  
  Continuing with Mass Effect week… I’m writing this Mass Effect 2 “review” on Tuesday, March 28th. I finished ME2 on Saturday. It took 31 hours, according to ManicTime, which is actually a lot less than I expected. I thought ME2 was huge compared to the first one and would take at least twice as long, but apparently it only felt bigger. There were definitely more cut scenes to watch in ME2. 1,187 words.
• Mass Effect 3 Halfway Point (Spoilers). 2017-04-07 3:00 PM.
  • Reviews
  • RPG
  • Single-Player
  
  Mass Effect week continues… I don’t know how far into Mass Effect 3 I’ve gotten at this writing (March 29th), but I’ve just gotten the Quarrians on board the Normandy. Percentage-wise, I have no idea where that is in the game. I’m just guessing it’s the half-way point. I have some initial impressions which I’ll write down, and as usual, I’ll follow it up with another post when I finish the game. 1,849 words.
• Mass Effect 3 Finished (Spoilers). 2017-04-14 3:00 PM.
  • Reviews
  • RPG
  • Single-Player
  
  Whoops. Forgot to publish this dramatic conclusion to Mass Effect week. I finished Mass Effect 3 on Friday night, March 31st, completing my play through of the original trilogy. I spent a total of 42 hours playing it, but I restarted it twice so you can probably throw 6 or 7 hours away. (And if you’re keeping tracking of days and hours played, yes I played these games a ton in March.) 1,367 words.
• Behind The Tweet: Crucify Him. 2017-04-14 8:38 PM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  Tonight, on a Very Special Episode of Behind The Tweet, we look into one of *my* tweets. I’m sure everyone’s heard about the Sean Spicer Incident of 4/11/2017, the one where the press secretary mistakenly tried to compare Syrian dictator Assad to Hitler. I listened to snippets of it, and it’s very clear to me what he was *trying* to say, it’s just that he got tongue-tied, because he was aware that he had suddenly stumbled onto dangerous ground, and his attempts to extricate himself came out really badly. (Seriously, who *wouldn’t* be alarmed if they accidentally started talking about Hitler?) He apologized and corrected his remarks immediately after the press conference, from what I understand. 1,662 words.
• Mass Effect Andromeda – 50 Hours In. 2017-04-15 4:28 PM.
  • Reviews
  • RPG
  • Single-Player
  
  Possibly some spoilers below if you haven’t reached Kadara. So this game has pretty much taken over my life, as I figured it would. Honestly I think this is why I put off playing Mass Effect 3 for so long. These Bioware games are really hazardous to your health. :) The first three games took over my life, too, but I played them more quickly than I might have at the time they came out. With Andromeda, I can savor it at my leisure, because it could very well be another five years before the next one. 1,395 words.
• Persona 5 and Streaming. 2017-04-17 3:00 PM.
  • Discussion
  
  Streaming… get it? [via Wikimedia Commons][1] I saw that the makers of Persona 5 made the odd choice of limiting streaming of their game. (I use the word “streaming” here to include Twitch and YouTube Let’s Play videos.) Liore and Eri also weighed in on this with contrasting viewpoints. I’d never heard of Persona 5 before this, and never heard of or played Persona 1 through 4, either. (I think it’s a console game from The East.) I don’t even know what kind of game it is. The point is I don’t have a dog in this fight. I’m only interested in the intellectual property angle. 762 words.
• Games Played – March 2017. 2017-04-24 3:00 PM.
  • Progression Report
  
  Why yes, I *am* still looking for a picture for these posts. From [Wikimedia][1]. I strive for timeliness here at the ol’ blog, so here is what I played in March. You might possibly detect a theme. Besides the nearly 100% lack of MMORPGs. Mass Effect 3 - 42 hours 7 Days To Die - 39 hours Mass Effect 2 - 31 hours Mass Effect 1 - 23 hours Mass Effect Andromeda - 2 hours Factorio - 2 hours Shroud of the Avatar - 1 hour Revelation Online - 1 hour Just for the record, I also spent 39 hours in Movie Studio Platinum. And then my USB hard drive crashed and I lost every bit of that work. 119 words.
• International Grammar: Punting. 2017-04-26 3:00 PM.
  • Musings
  
  Risking military action by the NFL by showing this picture of Drew Butler. Here’s a grammar thing I learned, regarding the word “punt.” I’m American, so the word “punt” has always meant exactly one thing: Punting a football, as in kicking the ball to the other team. (American football, that is.) Occasionally I also see “punting” used metaphorically, as in something like, “I’m going to punt on making that decision.” In that sense, it means you’re going to put off making the decision, or give it to someone else to make. 439 words.
• Story In Video Games. 2017-04-27 3:00 PM.
  • Discussion
  
  A while back there was an article in The Atlantic with the rather controversial title Video Games Are Better Without Stories. I didn’t even know about the article-who looks for gaming articles in The Atlantic?-until I started to see tweets about it filter through my feeds, and I got the distinct impression that it was polarizing the gaming community (again). On one side, there are people saying, “Of course games are better with story what a dumb article.” On the other side, there are people saying, “Finally someone said what we’re all thinking.. story sucks!” There are literally no other opinions. Well, except this one. 1,086 words.
• Rogue One (Spoilers). 2017-04-29 4:00 PM.
  • Media
  • Musings
  • Reviews
  
  I did not see Rogue One in the theater. I regretted that decision for a day or two, then felt good about it. I decided that it was “fan fiction”-a term I don’t use in a particularly positive sense. (Sorry superfans.) I waited until it came to FIOS VOD. Then I forgot about it. Then I remembered it. I went into the movie with very low expectations. I wasn’t expecting “real” Star Wars. (I am expecting to repeat this behavior for the “Han Solo” movie.) 550 words.

May, 2017

• Mass Effect Andromeda Halfway (Spoilers). 2017-05-03 3:00 PM.
  • Reviews
  • RPG
  
  This post is going to be a brain dump of my thoughts about the Mass Effect Andromeda story at what I’m guessing is around the halfway point. Spoilers, obviously, if you haven’t gotten to and completed Kadara in the Priority missions. I’ll wait until I finish the game before posting this, in case anyone feels compelled to jump into the comments and explain how everything turns out. Yes, that means I’ve finished the game as I’m posting this. Another post is coming tomorrow with my final thoughts on the game. 2,074 words.
• Mass Effect Andromeda Completed (Spoilers). 2017-05-04 3:00 PM.
  • Reviews
  • RPG
  
  Not a Movie Night picture! Instead a random frame of video from early in the game. I declared myself finished with Mass Effect Andromeda on Saturday, April 29. I finished the Priority missions and basically everything else except the sillier busy work under the Tasks section. ManicTime shows that I played for 99 hours. I reached level 59 in the end, and the save page showed I completed 92% of the game. 3,078 words.
• The American Health Care Act, Part Deux. 2017-05-04 10:02 PM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  There is a lot of consternation about today’s House vote on H.R. 1628, the American Health Care Act (AHCA). Back in April (I think?), Republicans pulled the bill before voting because they didn’t have enough votes, and the world rejoiced. This time, the rumor mill says that it might pass by as little as 1 vote. Activists have been out in force imploring people to call their Representatives. Update: H.R. 1628 passed 217-213, with 20 Republicans voting no, and 1 Republican not voting. (All Democrats voted no.) The bill now has to go to the Senate where it will undoubtedly undergo further changes, then it goes back to the House to approve the Senate changes. 723 words.
• Ashes of Creation – Mandatory Post. 2017-05-05 3:00 PM.
  • MMORPG
  
  Blatantly stolen from their web site. I feel like I should write something about Ashes of Creation’s successful Kickstarter campaign, although to be honest I don’t have much to say about this game yet. Wilhelm’s post on it is actually a great summary of my thoughts, and I should probably just link there and call it a day. I’m not on the hype train by a long shot. Not that I see anything particularly wrong with the game, it’s just way, way too early to even think about commenting on it. I’m glad they got their funding, but this game is still years away from being playable. I would be amazed if they have anything but a barely functional alpha by the end of 2018. 699 words.
• 13 Reasons Why (Spoilers). 2017-05-06 3:00 PM.
  • Media
  • Musings
  
  After Two Episodes I have seen a number of people on Twitter talking positively about the new Netflix show 13 Reasons Why, so I watched the first two episodes last night. I expected it to be a touching drama about a teen suicide, but it appears to be more of a tense psychological thriller, somewhat in the vein of I Know What You Did Last Summer (except that we, the audience, don’t know). 2,963 words.
• Games Played – April 2017. 2017-05-08 3:00 PM.
  • Progression Report
  
  This one should be pretty simple. Mass Effect Andromeda - 97 hours … and that’s literally it. 17 words.
• FrostKeep’s Rend Announced. 2017-05-09 3:00 PM.
  • Survival
  
  This post sat in my Drafts folder for nearly two months waiting for me to add that picture… I’m hearing reports (from my super secret source known as “the Internet”) of a game called Rend revealed at PAX East 2017. Rend is a self-described “hybrid survival game” from FrostKeep Studios, a studio I’ve never heard of, but which supposedly has a good pedigree. It’s largely being reported as a “survival sandbox” game like ARK or Conan Exiles, but MassivelyOP also compared it to Crowfall and Camelot Unchained. I submit that a better name for this kind of game would be something like “tribal warfare simulator” or “multiplayer online persistent team PvP” (MOPTP pronounced, obviously, “moptop”). 332 words.
• Battlefield 1 Authenticity. 2017-05-10 3:00 PM.
  • Shooter
  
  Here’s a timely post written about six months ago, which sat in my Drafts folder lacking not only a picture, but also some links. I started playing the Battlefield 1 single-player campaign on a Friday evening, and finished it the next day, on Saturday night. There were six missions. I recorded 12 videos, averaging about 35 minutes each, for a grand total of about 7 hours of gameplay. Let’s be extremely generous and say I cut out an hour of video, so let’s round it up to 8 hours. 2,016 words.
• Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb. 2017-05-11 3:00 PM.
  • Media
  
  This is another in my recent series of posts that I’m calling, “What in God’s name can I possibly find to schedule for publishing today.” I saw some folks on Twitter talking about the Farseer books by Robin Hobb, and since I’ve been looking for new stuff to consume, I bought the first book on Kindle, Assassin’s Apprentice. I almost used an Audible credit on it, but I have some complex rules about whether to get books in text format or audiobook format, and this one came up as text format. Besides, it was only $1.99. 836 words.
• ArcheAge – Random Screen Shots. 2017-05-12 3:00 PM.
  • MMORPG
  
  Here’s an oldie from Drafts… and I didn’t even have to find pictures for it! Here are some screen shots that didn’t fit anywhere else. I quested for quite a while in Hellswamp without being accosted by anyone. Reds and greens wandered around doing their own thing for hours even while the zone was in conflict. Me and the puppy questing out in Hellswamp, not getting ganked. 390 words.
• The Shannara Chronicles. 2017-05-13 3:00 PM.
  • Media
  
  Continuing my pseudo-regular new series on television shows and movies I’ve watched recently, because … well, it’s something to write about. These are not “reviews” per se, but merely thoughts and observations. You can assume, though, that if I’m writing a post about a thing, it’s notable to me in some way, either especially good, or especially bad, or otherwise relevant somehow. Today I’d like to talk about a little show called The Shannara Chronicles. 1,277 words.
• Snap Judgment – Quake Champions (Open Beta). 2017-05-15 3:00 PM.
  • Reviews
  • Shooter
  • Snap Judgment
  
  I don’t know how many people know this, but I used to play a lot of Quake CTF with Crayola Clan in the 1990s. Back then, “eSports” were community-run tournaments with no stakes and no prizes and barely any organization. We played mostly NetQuake, QuakeWorld, and Quake 2. We played a little bit of Quake 3 Arena but I personally never liked it and by then gaming started to get commercial with sponsors and cash prizes and it was more work than fun and it was all too stressful to deal with. 707 words.
• Off To Be The Wizard by Scott Meyer. 2017-05-16 3:00 PM.
  • Media
  
  I needed to use up some Audible credits, so I picked up an audiobook called Off To Be The Wizard by Scott Meyer. I found it by looking up the works performed by Luke Daniels, one of my favorite audiobook readers, ever since I discovered him from listening to the Iron Druid Chronicles by Kevin Hearne. (If you like the Harry Dresden books, you might also like IDC. It’s the same sort of thing, but with an Irish wolfhound.) 819 words.
• Grimdark. 2017-05-17 3:00 PM.
  • Media
  • Writing
  
  Grimdark TMNT from [1d4chan][1]. Artist unknown. A tweet caught my attention Friday and I thought about responding, but it was a topic that would fill a lot more than a couple tweets and I was looking for something to write about anyway. i'm never going to understand why people keep writing grimdark shit all the time. the world is miserable enough as it is. don't add to it. 995 words.
• Wild West Online Announced. 2017-05-18 3:00 PM.
  • MMORPG
  
  I complain a lot about a lack of gaming news (to myself, at least) but I completely overlooked the recent announcement of a new MMORPG called Wild West Online (WWO) from new studio 612 Games. It will be set in … wait for it … the Wild West. Taking a cue from Wilhelm here and screen-capturing their web site. :) 358 words.
• Accountant, Bourne, 10 Cloverfield Lane. 2017-05-20 3:00 PM.
  • Blog
  • Media
  
  Last weekend I rented The Accountant on Verizon VOD. It was decent, but not quite good. I felt a pretty strong connection to Ben Afleck’s character because I can identify with many of the symptoms he reeled off about “high functioning autism.” I’ve never been diagnosed but I’ve always assumed I’m on the Asperger’s spectrum somewhere, enough to be recognizable, but not enough to be debilitating. The plot that went on around him, though, wasn’t all that interesting to me (corporate accounting woohoo). Still, there were good performances all around. 310 words.
• Destiny 2 Gameplay Reveal Event. 2017-05-24 2:30 PM.
  • MMORPG
  
  The other day saw one of the biggest MMORPG* events on the Internet that I can recall in recent memory: Bungie’s Destiny 2 Gameplay Reveal Event. Since some of us have to work, I didn’t actually see it, but almost everyone in my timeline was watching it and commenting on it. It had the feel of an Apple event. I never played Destiny, since I don’t have any of the new generation of consoles. (The newest console I own is a PS3, which has remained unplugged and in a box for several years. The only hope it ever has to see the light of day again is that one day I plan to buy and play Demon’s Souls.) 331 words.
• Cryptonomicon by Neil Stephenson. 2017-05-25 2:30 PM.
  • Media
  
  I wrote this pseudo-review sometime in 2016. I finally got around to reading Cryptonomicon by Neil Stephenson, which had been sitting in my Kindle library for years. I knew basically nothing about the book, except that it was one of those books that comes up a lot in geek circles, so I felt like I was obligated to read it. Neil Stephenson is a hit-or-miss kind of author for me. Snow Crash is the only other book of his I’ve read. I only read that one because, again, I felt like it was one of those books that a modern nerd simply had to read. I remember almost nothing about the story now, but I remember enjoying it up to a point about two-thirds of the way through, when it took a weird turn and/or ground to a complete halt and I lost interest and put it away. 485 words.
• Behind The Tweet: Constant Diet. 2017-05-25 11:19 PM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  Here’s a sequence of tweets that caused me to snort with laughter: NEW: Source close to Gianforte campaign says it's raised $100K+ online in last 24 hours — most of it coming after reporter "body slam." — Peter Alexander (@PeterAlexander) May 25, 2017 This is what a constant diet of propaganda and conspiracy theories do, turn conservatives into the kind of people who cheer assault https://t.co/ixyBVR5BgE — Stonekettle (@Stonekettle) May 25, 2017 331 words.
• Chris Cornell and Audioslave. 2017-05-26 2:30 PM.
  • Media
  • Musings
  
  Today’s writing topic is: Chris Cornell, who sadly committed suicide. I might be a smidge older than some of the other folks reminiscing on Twitter about Soundgarden and Chris Cornell in the wake of his recent death. My memory of Soundgarden is limited to exactly two songs from 90s radio: Black Hole Sun and Spoonman. I liked both songs, possibly even loved Spoonman. I remember vividly where I was the first time I heard it, actually. It’s an enthralling song. 674 words.
• The Man In The High Castle, S01E01. 2017-05-27 2:30 PM.
  • Media
  
  The other night I discovered that Amazon Prime has a long list of original shows just like Netflix. I don’t know how this escaped my attention. Actually I do know: I usually find something to watch on Netflix before I click the Amazon button on my Vizio remote. Anyway, scrolling through the Amazon Originals list I spotted The Man In The High Castle, which is a show I’ve heard about often but never realized it was an Amazon show. I don’t know where I thought it was. I just assumed it was on some channel I didn’t have, like Showtime or Starz or something. 726 words.
• Why Solo MMORPGs. 2017-05-30 2:30 PM.
  • MMORPG
  • Responses
  
  Another one rescued from my Drafts folder, from February 2016… I’m in the camp of people who primarily play MMORPGs solo, so I guess I can speak a little on this topic. I wouldn’t say that I “demand” solo content from MMORPGs, though.* And it’s not that I’m against group content. I just prefer games where I can log in and do interesting things without having to form or join a group all the time. Because if I had to do that, I probably wouldn’t log in very often unless I had the time to idle a lot. 925 words.
• Note on Comment Approval. 2017-05-31 12:00 AM.
  • Blog
  
  I apologize, but at some point in the last couple of weeks, WordPress decided that I needed to approve every single comment regardless of who it came from, so you may see some delays with comments showing up. I have no idea why it’s doing this. I can only assume some random thing changed with WordPress or Akismet or Jetpack recently. I’ve fiddled with some settings again tonight to see if it helps. 73 words.
• SEVENEVES by Neal Stephenson. 2017-05-31 2:30 PM.
  • Media
  • Reviews
  
  I’m back with another book report. This time it’s SEVENEVES by Neal Stephenson (I have to look up the proper spelling of his name every single time), which I read sometime last year. (Hey, at least I’m writing this post this year!) In my Cryptonomicon review, I said Neal Stephenson is hit-or-miss with me, but this time he delivered a solid hit. I loved this book. It’s about the moon breaking up and destroying the world, and the steps taken to save the human race. I have always been a sucker for “disaster” stories so it had me as soon as I heard about it. (I can’t remember where I first heard about the book.) 730 words.

June, 2017

• Far Cry 5 Outrage Hype!. 2017-06-01 2:30 PM.
  • Pre-Release
  • Single-Player
  
  Hey look, I downloaded the fan kit with ready-made images for blog posts! There wasn’t much happening Friday the 26th except some kind of Far Cry 5 reveal, so I’ll see if I can summon up some words about it. From what I can tell, Far Cry 5 is going to be essentially the same gameplay as Far Cry 2, 3, 4, and Primal, except it will be set in America with a Christian cult as the bad guys, and of course, that’s where the controversy begins. 799 words.
• Games Played – May 2017. 2017-06-02 2:30 PM.
  • Progression Report
  
  After completing four Mass Effect games in a row, I fell into a rather large gaming slump in May. Many, many days had no gaming whatsoever. DiRT Rally - 13 hours Dark Souls III (The Ringed City DLC) - 7 hours Mass Effect Andromeda - 2 hours Quake Champions - 1 hour ESO - 1 hour 56 words.
• Behind The Tweet: Twitter Suspends RC Cola. 2017-06-02 8:01 PM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  I saw a retweet complaining: “Twitter suspended the RC Cola twitter account over this tweet yet racists and other Rubes can post anything!” It got my attention because, like the retweeter, I too thought that sounded awfully hypocritical. But *unlike* the retweeter, I decided to dig a little deeper to find out more, because it didn’t quite sound right. It didn’t pass the “smell test” so to speak. It doesn’t make sense that Twitter would shut down the account of a major brand just for mentioning covfefe. 262 words.
• Is This The Life We Really Want? by Roger Waters. 2017-06-03 3:00 PM.
  • Media
  
  I’ve been trying to write about a movie or television show every Saturday, but I didn’t have anything ready for today. So you get an album review! I’ve mentioned before that I’m a long-time Pink Floyd fan, so when I saw that Roger Waters would be releasing a new album, I instantly clicked that pre-order button on Amazon. The CD and AutoRip MP3s both arrived yesterday, Friday, June 2. I was very nervous to hear this album. After all, Waters’ last album Amused To Death is a masterwork of musical perfection. It would be hard to top it. Also, the only criticism I ever had of ATD is that Waters’ voice didn’t sound that great compared to his earlier stuff, which I chalked up to the ravages of the aging process. That was way back in 1992. 407 words.
• Stormblood’s a’Comin. 2017-06-08 2:30 PM.
  • MMORPG
  
  FFXIV’s Stormblood expansion is arriving on June 16 for head start players, so I figure it might be a good time to talk about it. I pre-ordered it a long time ago, but I haven’t commented much about it. I did at one point write a post about some of the early feature announcements, but naturally, I never got around to publishing it, and it’s super obsolete now. When last we left our intrepid main character back in January, she was sitting at ilvl 224, having just geared up with ilvl 230 items from The Weeping City. She was avoiding the Antitower dungeon in the Heavensward Main Scenario, and wondering if there was an easy way to upgrade her pathetic bow beyond ilvl 210. I’ve logged in for maybe a grand total of 15 minutes since then (just long enough to keep the game client updated and verify that it still works). 589 words.
• Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence. 2017-06-09 2:30 PM.
  • Media
  • Reviews
  
  I bought Prince of Thorns back when it was relatively new on the market (a few years ago?). I read the first chapter, didn’t particularly care for it, put it away, and moved on to something else. Recently I found it again in my Kindle library after I wrote that bit about the grimdark genre, remembered that I’d only read a single chapter, and decided maybe I didn’t give it a fair shot. It’s at least popular enough to have spawned two sequels, so somebody must like it. 853 words.
• Cryptic’s New MMORPG. 2017-06-15 2:30 PM.
  • MMORPG
  
  Literally a screen capture of the web page, since there’s nothing else to look at. Last Wednesday, Cryptic announced they are making an MMORPG based on Magic: The Gathering with help from Wizards of the Coast. As yet it apparently doesn’t have a title. That’s basically where my interest ended but in the name of thoroughly documenting the event and making a more appropriately-sized blog post, I’ll add some more thoughts. 443 words.
• Fractured Announced. 2017-06-16 2:30 PM.
  • MMORPG
  
  Blatantly stolen from fracturedmmo.com In addition to the bizarre announcement of an MMORPG based on Magic: The Gathering, last Wednesday we saw our first news about another new MMORPG called Fractured. (Not to be confused with The Repopulation’s survival spinoff of the same name. Seriously, do people never even look at the names of other games anymore?) Once again, it’s way too early to say anything good, bad, or indifferent about Fractured. It’s going to be a sandbox. But better than any other sandbox. For reasons. Reasons that will certainly work out exactly the way they are planning them, because games never change in response to early player feedback. 358 words.
• Stormblood Very First Impressions. 2017-06-17 3:00 PM.
  • MMORPG
  • Reviews
  
  Glad I got the memo about the dress code here. It’s here! Well, if you pre-ordered. Upon first logging into Stormblood, I was greeted by this very prominent window explaining the new Song Gauge for the Bard job. “Here we go,” I thought, sighing heavily. This was exactly what I was afraid of: Huge changes to my class that will require mental energy and work to learn. The FFXIV equivalent of a talent point respec. I skimmed the window but didn’t really absorb any of it, so I took a screenshot, closed it, and hoped that, by ignoring it completely, it would magically go away. That didn’t work, so a bit later I decided to bite the bullet, picked a spot in the world, picked some random mobs, and started attacking them. 1,207 words.
• FFXIV – Finding Fun Without Instances. 2017-06-19 2:30 PM.
  • MMORPG
  
  You’ve probably heard that there were one or two significant technical issues with FFXIV’s Stormblood early access over the weekend. Aywren summed it up pretty well. Even outside of the Stormblood content gate where I am, most times I tried to venture into an instance of any kind (dungeon, job duty, anything except PotD for some reason), I was disconnected from the server and couldn’t log back in with that character for up to an hour because of the dreaded Error 90002. This happened to me three times I think. 1,322 words.
• FFXIV – Antitower and 3.2 Finished. 2017-06-20 3:00 PM.
  • MMORPG
  
  Sunday afternoon I finally completed something I’ve been putting off for about six months now: The Antitower. I wasn’t planning to, it just sort of happened. I had just gotten back from the grocery store Sunday afternoon. I sat down to figure out what to do for the rest of the day. My mood was better than usual for the waning hours of a weekend, and I was wondering if instances were still broken (I had heard they weren’t but I suspected they might go bad again as server congestion ramped up), so as an experiment I queued up for my nemesis The Antitower. The stuff of nightmares. This … thing … was waiting at the end of The Antitower. 1,802 words.
• FFXIV – Sohr Khai and Palace of the Dead. 2017-06-21 2:30 PM.
  • MMORPG
  
  I started Monday evening with what I thought would be a quick trip through the level 54 job duty for the Samurai. I failed it three times. Apparently I haven’t learned nearly as much about playing the Samurai as I thought I had. The instance first has you fighting a lot of opponents simultaneously. They hit you for a lot of damage, too. Of course our fearless samurai trainer from the East just stands there and watches while you struggle. Somebody threw a regeneration heal on me, though, because I noticed my health going up occasionally. (Maybe that was the “Echo” bonus you get for subsequent tries.) 1,540 words.
• FFXIV – Stormblood Launch Day PvP. 2017-06-22 2:30 PM.
  • MMORPG
  
  I was dragging most of the day Tuesday so when I got home I stuck to simple, low energy tasks on Stormblood’s official launch day. Being launch day, I first had to enter a code on my account page to activate the game again. Square Enix somehow continues to have one of the worst systems for activating your game account in the history of the universe. You have to enter a code to get into the early access (two of them, in fact), then you have to enter another code to get in on launch day. It’s craziness. It’s hard to believe that average game consumers put up with it. It’s a process that takes a relatively high degree of technical saaviness to get through. (Maybe this is why people play it on console instead of PC.) 1,104 words.
• FFXIV – Heavensward, What Happened?. 2017-06-23 2:30 PM.
  • Blog
  • MMORPG
  
  Still bumping around doing miscellaneous tasks of little import in Stormblood. But lately I’ve been thinking about Heavensward, the previous FFXIV expansion. I pre-ordered it early and was in there on early access launch day, but looking back on it two years later, I didn’t play it very much at all. (Yet for some weird reason, I remained subscribed the whole time.) In FFXIV ARR (2.x), I leveled all of the following jobs to 50: Bard, White Mage, Dragoon, Black Mage, Miner, Botanist, Carpenter, Weaver, Alchemist, and Leatherworker. I had no jobs below level 15, and most jobs at least 25. Heavensward provided plenty of great screenshots, if nothing else. 687 words.
• FFXIV – Dun Scaith. 2017-06-26 2:30 PM.
  • Blog
  
  It was a big weekend for me in FFXIV, as I managed to finish up the Heavensward Main Scenario Quest, so I stand ready to begin Stormblood this week (just in time for everyone else to be finishing it :). However, since there is usually a two or three day lag between my gaming events and posts about them, let’s continue with last week’s adventures… Normally I try to stay semi-focused on meaningful progress when I’m in an MMORPG, but I had a bit of time to kill Thursday so I started wondering if I could pick up two more points of item level so I could check out Dun Scaith, the final alliance raid in Heavensward. It would do little or nothing for me at this point, but I had a couple of quests in my journal that required it, and I just wanted to see it. Kitty saves the day! 799 words.
• Secret World Legends, A Quick Look. 2017-06-27 2:30 PM.
  • MMORPG
  
  I spent a little bit of time Friday evening checking out the head start for Secret World Legends. I was actually surprised how many people on Twitter were downloading it. I don’t remember seeing more than a couple people express much interest in The Secret World on my timelines before. Let me be blunt, like a politician: It’s the same game. It has slightly more action-y combat, in that you no longer have to hit the tab key to select targets. Instead, you point at the target you want to hit. (And when you point at a target, it “highlights” just as if you had tab-targeted it.) In my opinion, this does not fundamentally change the game at all. The animations are the same, the models are the same, the movement is the same. 942 words.
• FFXIV – Heavensward Completed. 2017-06-29 2:30 PM.
  • MMORPG
  
  I’m going to squish my entire FFXIV weekend into one post. The short version is that I finished all of the Heavensward Main Scenario Quests so I can begin the Stormblood expansion. This required completing all of these instances: Final Steps of Faith. A mostly-FC group got me through this trial pretty easily, except for one flashy lightning thing that zapped me dead in the second half. I’m not sure but I think Aymeric was hitting on the Warrior of Light. 756 words.
• Defining Single-Payer. 2017-06-29 2:59 PM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  I finally looked up what “single-payer healthcare” means. I’ve seen this term “single-payer” bandied around in the healthcare debate for years but I’ve never been able to wrap my mind around what it meant in the context of these debates. I’ve always assumed that it was a debate over how to implement health insurance. Thus I’ve never really cared that much about it, because it felt like an “inside baseball” topic. 258 words.
• Virginia Primaries. 2017-06-29 4:45 PM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  Time for an incredibly late recap of the Virginia primaries! This didn’t get nearly as much national attention as the Georgia 6th District Special Election, but Virginia held their primaries for governor and lieutenant governor on Tuesday, June 13th. The winners were: Governor:Ed Gillespie (R)Ralph Northram (D) Lt. Governor:Jill Vogel (R)Justin Fairfax (D) At this moment I don’t know if there are any third party candidates and I don’t know who is running for Attorney General. 369 words.
• FFXIV – Stormblood Begins!. 2017-06-30 2:30 PM.
  • MMORPG
  
  I officially started the Stormblood Expansion on Monday night, by which I mean that I’ve finally started into the Stormblood Main Scenario Quest. I’m trying something I’ve never done before: I’m recording my MSQ adventures. I very rarely record MMORPGs, because frankly I find MMORPGs are among the least interesting kinds of games to watch. I constantly wonder why people stream them. (Most of what you see on the screen is just the UI.) The only thing I can figure is that there is so much idle downtime that it leaves the streamer plenty of time to chit-chat with the audience. New zone is new! 1,063 words.

July, 2017

• Games Played – June 2017. 2017-07-03 2:30 PM.
  • Progression Report
  
  That’s a dragon, not a xenomorph from Alien. With the release of Stormblood, Final Fantasy XIV returns to become my most-played game of June. The hours below are padded a bit because I frequently left the game running while I was AFK. Final Fantasy XIV - 70 hours Dark Souls III (The Ringed City DLC) - 9 hours Secret World Legends - 3 hours 64 words.
• FFXIV – Stormblood In Pictures. 2017-07-04 2:30 PM.
  • MMORPG
  
  Too busy playing to write anything. As of now I’m about 3/4 of the way to level 65, plugging away at the Main Scenario Quest in Yanxia. (See YouTube for excruciating detail.) Here are some screenshots. This anonymous lalafel photobombed my shot of the Kugane market. Arriving in the underwater village of the Kojin (I call them ninja turtles). 120 words.
• FFXIV – More Stormblood In Pictures. 2017-07-05 2:30 PM.
  • MMORPG
  
  Still too busy playing to write anything. I’ve reached the Azim Steppes and level 65. Here’s some more screenshots. :) The picturesque part of The Fringes. Not sure if floating or crucified. There is a very tall stack of rocks in The Ruby Sea. UFO sighting in Yanxia. 87 words.
• FFXIV – Stormblood Snippets. 2017-07-07 2:30 PM.
  • MMORPG
  
  I won’t try to summarize the entire Main Scenario-I’ll just say that I’m completely hooked and invested in the story as of level 66 in the Azim Steppe. The hokiness and stiltedness of the FFXIV-style cut scenes that most people complain about are completely unseen by me. If canned emotes and stoic nods-essentially the 3D equivalent of a puppet show-is what they have to do to deliver quality storytelling at a consistent pace, I’m fine with it. 573 words.
• FFXIV – Responding To Criticisms. 2017-07-10 2:30 PM.
  • MMORPG
  
  I see a lot of people on Twitter and at least one person on a certain MassivelyOP podcast mention that they keep trying to play FFXIV but they just can’t get into it. I consider myself a pretty jaded MMORPG player, and I can certainly understand the reasons people don’t like FFXIV. But I thought I would try to document here how I personally overcame the biggest criticisms people have with the game. 3,029 words.
• FFXIV – Even More Stormblood In Pictures. 2017-07-11 2:30 PM.
  • MMORPG
  
  Puffy sheep with rat tails! Wait I thought there weren’t supposed to be any horses in Eorzea? Wait is Eorzea a continent or a planet? I don’t know this game very well apparently. *scratches head, looking puzzled* 134 words.
• On Side Quests. 2017-07-12 2:30 PM.
  • MMORPG
  
  I didn’t intend to weigh in on @Sypster’s post about side quests, but apparently I did. :) In An Age and GamingSF also had some good responses. I think the basic argument Syp made is that side quests distract him from the main story, so he would prefer to eliminate them and boost the experience gained from the main story. I can understand that perspective. I’ve forgotten what’s going on in the main story of MMORPGs plenty of times. (In those cases I might argue that the main story isn’t worth remembering, though.) Syp didn’t mention which games were problematic for him, but I’ve had trouble keeping up with the main story in the later expansions of Rift and of course WoW, in which I never have a single clue what is happening story-wise. ESO used to have a main story issue, at least prior to One Tamriel, when you could only do one piece every 5 levels. 750 words.
• Solving Long DPS Queues. 2017-07-13 2:30 PM.
  • MMORPG
  
  I saw someone somewhere (FC chat maybe?) mention that they wished FFXIV would make their dungeons 5-man instead of 4-man so that DPS queues would go faster. (Belghast also recently lamented over the problems of leveling DPS.) It’s an interesting idea but I don’t think going to 5-man would significantly help the problem of slow DPS queues. I’m quite sure the ratio of DPS to tanks and healers in any given MMORPG is probably something like 25 to 1, if not 100 to 1. They would have to make dungeons into 10-man affairs with 1 tank, 1 healer, and 8 DPS to have any significant effect on DPS queues right now, in my opinion. 404 words.
• FFXIV – Stormblood Story Complete. 2017-07-18 2:30 PM.
  • MMORPG
  
  I reached Bard level 70 Sunday afternoon. Yay! But that’s not all that much of an achievement in FFXIV. You can’t do much of anything with the endgame until you finish the Main Scenario Quest. And… I finished the Main Scenario Quest Monday night! After reaching level 70, you need to do the Ala Mhigo 4-man dungeon and the Menagerie 8-man trial. I finished Ala Mhigo with a relatively uneventful PUG Sunday night. Then I tried a PUG for the Menagerie, which immediately follows-this has become a tradition of sorts in FFXIV. A final 4-man dungeon followed immediately by a final 8-man trial. I think both ARR and Heavensward ended this way. In those cases, the final 8-man trial was a pushover. You just showed up, dodged a few AoEs, and won the game. Roll credits. 1,042 words.
• FFXIV – Stormblood Story Summary. 2017-07-19 2:30 PM.
  • Blog
  
  I’m going to make an attempt here to summarize the FFXIV Stormblood story for my own future reference. There are going to be spoilers ahead if you haven’t played, although I’ll try to keep it fairly high-level and leave out every detail of how everything turns out. (That means I’m not going to tell you who lives and who dies, muhahaha.) (You can consult any of a wide variety of Wikis if you really need all the details, and may I also suggest the 58 video series I uploaded to YouTube if you get really bored and need to see all the spoilers? I just may.) 1,053 words.
• LotRO – Mordor Is Here Too Soon. 2017-07-20 2:30 PM.
  • MMORPG
  
  Standing Stone Games started taking orders for the Mordor expansion in LotRO, which is “expected” to release July 31. $40 for the no-frills version.* The moment is finally here. The moment I’ve been dreading for so long: The moment when everyone else will get to experience the MMORPG cultural event of the decade, while I sit on the sidelines, peering longingly through the cracks in the fence, trying to catch a glimpse of the prize at the end of the rainbow. Or some metaphor or another like that. 927 words.
• Ranking My Play Personalities. 2017-07-21 2:30 PM.
  • Discussion
  • Musings
  • Responses
  
  Thinking Play had a very interesting post recently about Play Personalities, something I had never heard of before. I recommend reading it. It’s a bit like a Meyers-Briggs test for how you spend your leisure time, or the Bartle Test. Here’s my self-assessment of how I fit the different play personalities: The Joker. Nope. Well, maybe a little. Sometimes I do like to poke fun at things that other people find deadly serious, much to my own detriment on Twitter. Although I am not a “class clown” by any stretch of the imagination. 508 words.
• FFXIV – Collectables Grokked. 2017-07-24 2:30 PM.
  • MMORPG
  
  I’m going to try to document here what I’ve figured out about gathering collectables in FFXIV, because there is almost a 100% chance that I will forget this someday and a future version of me will need to re-learn it. Collectables are similar to the Grand Company Provisioning missions you can do once per day, which look like this: Collectables are a bit better, though, because you can hand in a lot more every day. (By the way, my spellchecker insists that I should be writing “collectibles” but the game spells it “collectables.”) 1,157 words.
• Shelf-Life of an MMORPG. 2017-07-25 2:30 PM.
  • MMORPG
  
  “Remember when we used to talk about Three-Monthers? Ah, those were the days!” -Bhagpuss That quote from Inventory Full made me chuckle, because I had recently been thinking that it took me precisely three weeks to play through the Stormblood expansion story. And that was going slow, recording everything, talking to everyone around the quest givers, and reading all of the unvoiced text out loud for the video. I could not possibly have done it any slower. 561 words.
• FFXIV – Bard 4.0 Thoughts. 2017-07-28 2:30 PM.
  • MMORPG
  
  I posted a comment on Aywren’s blog that made me think I should write a short post about what I’ve learned about the Stormblood Bard job. Then I wrote a way too long post about it, because that’s what happens when I’m bored for long periods of time. I’ve leveled a Samurai from 50 to 55, but other than that, I’ve been playing the Bard almost exclusively in Stormblood. I’ll admit the new abilities were a bit tough to grasp at first, but fortunately it wasn’t an impediment to playing through the content. I got through the whole MSQ story without doing much of anything with the Ballads, and it wasn’t until after I got to 70 that the new stuff started to “click.” 1,139 words.

August, 2017

• Games Played – July 2017. 2017-08-01 2:30 PM.
  • Progression Report
  
  Final Fantasy XIV and the Stormblood expansion dominated the month of July. Final Fantasy XIV - 154 hours Secret World Legends - 3 hours Lord of the Rings Online - 2 hours 32 words.
• Guild Wars 2 Path of Fire Announced. 2017-08-01 5:22 PM.
  • MMORPG
  
  Since I’m home this week (see tomorrow’s post :) I had a rare opportunity to actually watch the Guild Wars 2 Path of Fire expansion announcement live today. (Those things are usually timed so that only the unemployed can watch them.) Not only that, but I could write a post about it and publish it with a screenshot all in the same day! Path of Fire is scheduled to release September 22, 2017, less than two months from now. 475 words.
• FFXIV – Latest Adventures. 2017-08-02 2:30 PM.
  • MMORPG
  • Healing
  
  To make a long story short, I left my old job and will be home all this week before starting a new part-time job Tuesday. (Technically it’s in the same building.) Being home is weird. I’m not quite sure what to do with myself. I haven’t had a full week off of work since the last time I changed jobs, which was in July 2014. That means I’m writing this post on Tuesday morning on my gaming PC, which is a very strange situation for me. Most of my posts are written in a text editor when I’m bored at work, so it feels very strange to be “working” in the place I normally reserve for goofing off. 1,183 words.
• FFXIV – Thoughts On 1.0. 2017-08-03 2:30 PM.
  • MMORPG
  
  I mentioned a Let’s Play series showing Final Fantasy XIV 1.0 in my last post: Out of intense curiosity, I’ve been watching this series for a while, trying to take some notes about what I like and dislike about 1.0. The YouTuber showers praise on the game while he plays, more than it deserves-to the point where I wonder if Square Enix actually paid the guy-but he’s at least enthusiastic. He is more of a talented radio-voice-guy than a talented gamer though. It’s very humorous to listen to him talking about mining like it’s some kind of exciting baseball game. (Also, I don’t want to brag, but I did way better at reading quest text in my Stormblood videos. :) 1,443 words.
• Snap Judgment – Dark and Light. 2017-08-04 3:30 PM.
  • Survival
  
  I didn’t know much about Dark and Light except that I had a vague sense that it was a PvP-style MMORPG that had been cancelled and then salvaged. Yesterday I saw a screenshot of the game float through my Twitter feed that looked amazing, so I totally broke my own rules and impulsively went to Steam to buy the Early Access version for $25 (on sale). Dark and Light - Today's Minor Patch Paves Way for Larger One Coming Soon https://t.co/BS0kW8ZRuu #Gaming #News pic.twitter.com/FJ0d7CM6N0 598 words.
• LotRO – The Road To Mordor, A Tweetstorm. 2017-08-05 2:30 PM.
  • MMORPG
  
  I haven’t yet bought the Mordor expansion (I probably will, despite the hype-destroying trailer), but it dawned on me that LotRO is one of those rare MMORPGs where you can actually explore the world without having to unlock zones by completing quests. So I decided that I wanted to run my 95 Runekeeper as close to Mordor as I could get. I made it all the way to the Black Gate. 217 words.
• Meet-Cat. 2017-08-06 11:39 PM.
  • Musings
  
  So Tuesday afternoon I went out to my garage to get some tools, and a very friendly cat popped out from beneath my car and meowed. I meowed back and the cat went on to explain with a long series of meows that he was very hungry and he further asked if I might have some extra food please? Now I’ve seen probably a half dozen different cats wandering around the vicinity of my house in the last year, not to mention packs of stray cats hanging around the cul-de-sac where I last lived (I am pretty sure a neighbor across the road fed them). Not one of these cats has ever walked up and started a conversation with me. They’ve always run away, like outdoor cats usually do. 730 words.
• LotRO – Mordor Expansion Thoughts. 2017-08-07 2:30 PM.
  • MMORPG
  
  I did indeed buy the $40 edition of the Mordor Expansion, and boosted a Hobbit Minstrel from level 24 to level 105 so I could actually play said expansion. (Folks on Twitter seemed to think Minstrel was a good solo class to play.) Once again the gear you are given looks awful, like a suit of white underwear. I guess they really want people who use level boosts to look like total newbies compared to the people have been playing all along, which I suppose isn’t entirely inappropriate. At least this time they gave me a neat-looking pony, though it is literally only like 5% faster than the blond sorrel pony I had at level 24. 914 words.
• The Thirteenth Doctor. 2017-08-08 2:30 PM.
  • Blog
  
  Here are just a few thoughts about the announcement of The Thirteenth Doctor, Jodie Whittaker, because I wanted to schedule a post for today, my first day back at work (yuck), and this was the only text I had available. I don’t have a problem with a female The Doctor. Whittaker was very good in Broadchurch. And that’s about the extent of my thoughts about the announcement. I’ve never looked up to The Doctor as a male role model, and can’t even conceive of anyone who has, or what it might be like to be a man who believes they’ve lost their favorite male sci-fi role model. 682 words.
• LotRO – Mordor to Moria. 2017-08-09 2:30 PM.
  • MMORPG
  
  I was having some fun in the Mordor expansion, bopping up to the Black Gate, talking to Gandalf … pardon me, Mithrandir … meeting those four “adventurers” with different personalities. It seemed like they were setting up those four folks as characters we might see again throughout Mordor, following their adventures so to speak, and it seemed like a good story idea. They all had their different reasons for going into Mordor, and it was the hook I needed to get interested in the zone. I wanted to see how they fared. 324 words.
• E3 2017 Thoughts. 2017-08-10 2:30 PM.
  • Gaming
  
  You can always count on my blog to bring you the latest, greatest news and commentary… so here’s another forgotten post from my Drafts folder. It is was E3 time again, and for a change, I actually watched some of the presentations, something I have never done before. I watched part of a Sony event on Saturday [June 10th], part of a Microsoft event on Sunday, and part of an Ubisoft event on Monday. 536 words.
• GW2 – Path of Fire Demo, The Rage-Quittening. 2017-08-11 8:21 PM.
  • MMORPG
  
  I’m going to try really hard not to sound bitter, angry, and resentful as I write this. :) I’m home today so I logged into GW2 to try out this Path of Fire demo thing. At first I had no idea how to even participate. I logged into my Necro, who I had left in Orr outside of the Zhaitan dungeon. Last time I played, I tried to do that last personal story mission to kill Zhaitan. Hoo boy what a mistake that was, but that’s another story. The point is that when I logged in, I was in the middle of one of those Orr events where everything in the area is trying to murder you and I got killed over and over and over again before I could even run far enough away to teleport away from it. So that was a great start. 867 words.
• GW2 – Path Of Fire Demo, Take Two. 2017-08-12 3:00 PM.
  • MMORPG
  
  This morning I tried the Path of Fire demo again, and it went much better. Thanks for the encouraging comments on my last whiny post. :) In fact, the second time through, I got all the way through the burning village and killed the two Veteran Forged Warhounds without dying. Then … the client disconnected. That was disappointing, to say the least. So I had to go through it a third time. I got through it all again without dying. I put out all the fires in the village, got the Raptor mount, met what’s-her-name and what’s-his-name, and got out into the city. (I actually saw the city before, because if you rage-quit the episode like I did yesterday, it drops you into the city.) 397 words.
• A New Word Is Needed. 2017-08-13 9:46 PM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  This has been driving me crazy. May I just say that “Nazi” is not a particularly strong pejorative word? It has roughly the same epithetic power as the word “Nerd.” Whenever I see someone talk about Nazis, I always think of Indiana Jones and Call of Duty. Fun movies and fun games. And now, I think of Funny Twitter Memes made by Millennials. So … not very scary. One needs to be about seventy or older to really feel the cultural significance of the word “Nazi.” 105 words.
• LotRO – Hunter Level 58!. 2017-08-14 12:34 AM.
  • MMORPG
  • Progression Report
  
  I just wanted to announce that my Hunter made it to level 58 in Moria. Gaining another level in LotRO (when you’re not subscribed or anything) is a major accomplishment. I am not really sure what is going on with the epic story here. I am on Volume II, Book 4, Chapter 3 as of this writing. The dwarves are just sort of rooting around looking for chambers and relics and books and stuff. I’m not paying that much attention because none of the characters have much personality. Dwarves are all the same-loud, bombastic, and either Scottish or Russian. :) It’s really difficult to capture the scale of how massive the Mines of Moria is. 137 words.
• GW2 – HoT Progress and Thoughts. 2017-08-14 2:30 PM.
  • MMORPG
  • Progression Report
  
  Progress! I mentioned going through Heart of Thorns and the Living Story Season 3 in my last post, so I started working on that again. At least until I got to Heart of Thorns, Chapter 12, “The Way In.” This requires a Nuhoch Hunting Mastery before you can access it. Boo. And people complain about FFXIV locking content behind a Main Scenario Quest! I had previously completed up through Chapter 8, “City of Hope.” In that post, I predicted it would take six months to get to Chapter 9, but in fact it took about eleven months. 1,413 words.
• GW2 – Rangering In HoT. 2017-08-15 2:30 PM.
  • MMORPG
  
  I saw Bhagpuss mention an easy-mode “Bearbow” build in one of his recent posts, which made me wonder if I would have any better luck with my Ranger. By coincidence, Aywren was looking for feedback on the Ranger as well. I had a lot of fun playing the Ranger leveling from 1 to 80, but that was back in the months after GW2 launch. Since then, my Ranger has largely been parked, as most of my GW2 characters are when they hit 80. (My most fun experience with Heart of Thorns was leveling a Revenent from 1 to 80.) 765 words.
• GW2 – HoT Chapters 12-14. 2017-08-16 2:30 PM.
  • MMORPG
  
  Contrary to expectations, I was able to get my Nuhoch Mastery point and continue to chapter 12 in record time (one day). I got the Mastery point while I was running around on my Ranger, incidentally. My mastery level is now at the earth-shattering level of-you might want to sit down for this-10! I returned to my Necro for the story. He’s been my main guy for all these years and I have a decent feel for the class-as best as I’ll probably ever get in GW2, at least. I abandoned the Greatsword and went back to Axe/Warhorn and Staff. 603 words.
• GW2 – HoT Chapters 15-16. 2017-08-17 9:57 PM.
  • MMORPG
  
  Just a brief GW2 update, mainly to keep up my streak of daily posts this month: I completed HoT chapter 15, which went okay, despite the AI bugs and random weirdness that always goes along with GW2 story instances. (My crew ran across an invisible bridge to join a fight on the other side of a chasm, so I glided over to follow them, but the fight was just for show and I couldn’t actually kill anything. Turns out I was supposed to stay on my side of the chasm and free Zojja, which whom I never even saw the first time.) 373 words.
• Random Friday Tidbits. 2017-08-18 4:00 PM.
  • MMORPG
  • Musings
  • Progression Report
  
  Another brief post just to post something today. GW2. I did in fact retry Chapter 16, “Hearts and Minds,” and beat it after two more attempts Thursday night, which took another hour. If you leave the instance for any reason, by the way, you have to start all over. So take my advice: Don’t rage quit if you die to the last boss. :) I’ll probably start Living Story Season 3 this weekend although I’m kind of burned out on GW2 already. 298 words.
• LotRO – Level 59 and Khazad-dûm. 2017-08-19 3:30 PM.
  • MMORPG
  • Progression Report
  
  My Hunter reached level 59 and the famous Bridge of Khazad-dûm yesterday-what’s left of the bridge, at least. I was following the side quest of a dwarf Svanr who was on some kind of pilgrimage to see all of the Mines of Moria, and we got to the Bridge. Then my character took his first steps back outside in seemingly forever. It’s surely been over a year of real time since before my Hunter entered Moria. Spent most of my time searching for these. 280 words.
• Dimrill Dale and Eclipse Jealosy. 2017-08-20 2:30 PM.
  • MMORPG
  • Musings
  
  One thing that happens when you make a conscious effort to post every day is that half of your blog posts turn into diary entries. “Dear diary: Here’s what I did today. Well, yesterday.” Yesterday I completed the Moria Epic Story and officially returned to the world under the sky in Dimrill Dale, attaining level 60 in the process. I got to revisit the Watcher in the Water deep in the bowels of Moria. Volume 2, Chapter 5 ended with having to complete three different skirmishes where you defend various places in Moria from Orc invasions. They were ridiculously easy to the point of tedium. In the end, the dwarves got their precious mithril axe Zigilburk back so I guess they are happy now. (That’s a terrible name for a legendary axe by the way.) 596 words.
• What Should You Stream?. 2017-08-21 2:30 PM.
  • Streaming
  
  I see this question or a variation of it pop up fairly often in my Twitter timeline: “I’m thinking about streaming. What do you want to see?” Most recently @Jaedia brought this up yesterday: I'm pretty chill. What would you guys think of chill streams playing like.. story-driven games, things like visual novels, Undertale, etc.? — Jaedia Claus (@jaedia) August 20, 2017 I’m not an expert on this, and I’m sure my preferences on streaming don’t align with the majority of kids today. But here’s what I like: 702 words.
• The Return of The Ringed City DLC. 2017-08-22 2:30 PM.
  • Musings
  • RPG
  
  Yesterday morning I finally returned to my Ringed City DLC blind playthrough videos after a two month break. The first thing I encountered was a dragon boss, Darkeater Midir. I died. I decided to go a different direction. :) I ran into Judicator Argo and his entourage of Dark Spirits. It took a couple of tries but I got through that ordeal to a woman whom I assumed to be Princess Filianore. 380 words.
• Getting Lost In MMOs. 2017-08-23 3:11 PM.
  • MMORPG
  • Responses
  
  A recent MassivelyOP Daily Grind asked the question: “Do you like being lost in MMOs?” My answer is generally no, I never want to my progress to be impeded by not knowing where to go. But it depends on the situation and/or the game. Here are two recent examples: When I think about my experience playing through the remainder of the GW2 Heart of Thorns story, I was lost a lot in the Maguuma Jungle, and it was aggravating. The flat 2D map helped little because the world was extremely 3D and while the map might show you standing on top of your destination, in reality it might be way above you or below you with no discernable path to reach it. 350 words.
• FFXIV – Stormblood Story Deep Dive. 2017-08-24 4:30 PM.
  • MMORPG
  
  Here’s another post I wrote a long time ago but never published because I forgot that I wrote it. Previously I gave a high-level summary of the Stormblood story, but now I want to dive deeper into more detail. There will be huge, massive, unbelievable, mind-shattering spoilers here that go far beyond anything that was in the previous post, so you’ve been warned. The biggest plot problem I remember: There was one point in the story when our heroes had to watch while Yotsuyu terrorized some villagers. Gosetsu was going to charge into the fray to help the villagers, but of course Lyse and Alisaie objected because it would be suicide (allegedly). That made sense. But then a minute later Alisaie said, “Wait, no that sounds like a great plan, Gosetsu, you go get captured and try not to die as a diversion.” That was a terrible plan! The worst plan ever! How does it help anyone to let Gosetsu be captured or killed? It would have been far better to keep him with the group! I couldn’t believe what I was seeing there. 2,087 words.
• Comfort MMORPGs. 2017-08-25 2:30 PM.
  • MMORPG
  • Responses
  
  Here’s another post based on a MassivelyOP’s Daily Grind: What’s Your Comfort MMO? I find this to be a somewhat odd question, because I generally like to have a constantly-changing game experience, as opposed to an experience that is always the same. I am the kind of person who likes to learn and try new things all the time (within the boundaries of crippling anxieties, of course). This is why I try out most new MMORPGs if I can. 513 words.
• The Mist (2017). 2017-08-26 8:47 PM.
  • Media
  • Musings
  • Reviews
  
  When I heard that there was a new version of Stephen King’s The Mist available to watch, I ran to my nearest cable box and found the ten episodes of season one buried in Spike TV’s video on demand on FIOS. The Mist has always been one of my favorite Stephen King stories. It was a novella at the beginning of the collection Skeleton Crew. (Survivor Type is the other memorable story from that book.) 600 words.
• August Writing Update. 2017-08-26 11:20 PM.
  • Writing
  • everettrenshaw.com
  
  My last post was some time ago, so I thought I would update everyone on my writing progress. Um. Well. You see. It hasn’t been great. I did participate in NaNoWriMo 2016, and I did win, so that was something. I wrote 50,000 words on a historical fiction novel set in Belgium during World War I. I’ve never written historical fiction before so it was a big stretch. I felt completely unqualified, but I pressed on and tried to stick with what I knew and avoid obsessing about the little details that I was sure I was getting wrong. 291 words.
• FFXIV – The Rising Event. 2017-08-27 3:00 PM.
  • MMORPG
  
  Hard to believe it’s been four years since The Calamity. I don’t normally care that much about these anniversary or holiday events, but when I saw the wind-up Gosetsu I knew that I had to have him. Not that I ever take out minions in the game or anything. It’s just the principle of the thing. I had it in my head that The Rising wouldn’t be starting until after the Tuesday patch, but this morning (Sunday) I logged in and everybody was talking about it, so I went to Ul’dah and sure enough there was the NPC. It was a brief event, as all FFXIV events are, and the word jumble password thing was fairly annoying, but at the end I got my precious Gosetsu wind-up! 220 words.
• Ashes of Creation Combat. 2017-08-28 4:31 PM.
  • MMORPG
  
  I was looking around for something to write about today and stumbled on this MassivelyOP post about Ashes of Creation combat. I clicked on the video and started watching with no real interest until this one combat mechanic caught my attention. But first, I don’t know who that Ziz guy is, but if he’s not a paid content creator for Ashes of Creation, I’ll eat my hat. He’s way too excited about this game not to be getting paid. It’s a huge turn-off. 472 words.
• Subnautica. 2017-08-29 2:30 PM.
  • Pre-Release
  • Steam
  • Survival
  
  Last night I tried out an early access survival game called Subnautica. I bought it for $9.99 in the last Steam sale. The premise of this game is unlike other survival games in that you play a big part of it underwater. The game begins with you scrambling into a “rescue pod” while your ship blows up around you. (I assume it’s some kind of spaceship.) The rescue pod lands in a big alien ocean and then it’s your job to survive, while your ship looms in the distance, burning and giving off radiation. 812 words.
• Lockbox Expectations. 2017-08-30 2:30 PM.
  • MMORPG
  • Responses
  
  While the rest of the world is probably posting about the Destiny 2 open beta today, I’m going to post about lockboxes, because I wrote this yesterday. I think it was Roger that said we bloggers could get a lot of good topics out of MassivelyOP’s Daily Grinds, so here’s another one: What Do You Actually Expect To Get Out Of MMORPG Lockboxes? This particular Grind was inspired by Bhagpuss boldly claiming to like lockboxes (in a way). 436 words.
• Destiny 2 Anti-Hype. 2017-08-31 2:30 PM.
  • Shooter
  
  I tried out the Destiny 2 PC Open Beta Tuesday night. I’ve never played Destiny before or even seen it or read much about it. It was incredibly easy to install and play through the Battle.net launcher. I just clicked on the “Install” button and less than an hour later it was ready to go. It was not quite as easy to configure though. It gave me exactly one opportunity to adjust my video settings and then I got a class selection screen. The class descriptions gave very little indication of the kind of mechanics to expect so I randomly picked the first one (I can’t even remember the class name). After picking a class, the game launches right into cut scenes and then into the game. There was no character customization, but that could have been a limitation of the beta. 1,228 words.

September, 2017

• Games Played – August 2017. 2017-09-01 2:30 PM.
  • Progression Report
  
  Final Fantasy XIV slipped to third place in August, behind LotRO and, amazingly enough, Guild Wars 2. Lord of the Rings Online - 45 hours Guild Wars 2 - 27 hours Final Fantasy XIV - 21 hours Subnautica - 2 hours All tied for 1 hour or less: Destiny 2 Open Beta, Dark and Light, Secret World Legends, Dark Souls III, WildStar. 62 words.
• FFXIV – Yo-kai Grinding. 2017-09-06 2:30 PM.
  • MMORPG
  
  I’ve had a Yo-kai Watch in my inventory for a while, but I never knew what it was for or where I got it. I remember finding it in my inventory, and I kept looking at it, thinking, “What the heck is this thing for?” Well it turns out that I must have accidentally done the Yo-kai Event quest in 2016. I have no memory of that, but when I went to find the Yo-kai quest-giver in Ul’dah the other day, he/she/it was nowhere to be found. I went to the Gold Saucer, followed the crowd of people, and found the Yo-kai vendor, which I must have already talked to in 2016 too. I even had the Yo-kai Medallium book, and one Yo-kai Medal on one of my Retainers. 403 words.
• Rush Limbaugh Versus The Hurricane. 2017-09-08 9:22 PM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  You know the liberal bubble is 100% airtight when people actually believe Rush Limbaugh said that a hurricane is a liberal hoax. Exclusive video of Rush Limbaugh fleeing Florida after calling Hurricane Irma a liberal hoax. pic.twitter.com/PZcloMao4n — Rex Huppke (@RexHuppke) September 8, 2017 Rush Limbaugh - who called Irma coverage a liberal hoax - has decided to flee the liberal hoax. — Kurt "Masks Save Lives" Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) September 8, 2017 220 words.
• Behind The Tweet: Letter of Intent. 2017-09-09 11:48 AM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  Yet another example of why you should never trust a tweet. Saw this on Twitter: BREAKING—In mere weeks we went from "no collusion with Russia" to "here's a Letter of Intent Trump signed with some Russians while running." pic.twitter.com/GcFmGRnpd8 — Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) September 9, 2017 Seth Abramson, a lawyer according to his bio (but mainly a pundit) said, and I quote, “here’s a Letter of Intent Trump signed with some Russians while running.” 230 words.
• Week of Movies. 2017-09-10 3:30 PM.
  • Media
  
  I've been in a very passive media consumption mood for the last week, so I've spent most of my free time watching movies instead of playing games. Here's what I've watched in the past week or so: Amazon Prime Oasis. Pilot for a stylish science fiction series. A priest is requested at a struggling offworld human colony. I always find it interesting when people of faith are portrayed as something other than stereotypical villains, especially in science fiction. This priest is a little too far on the stereotypical "cool guy therapist" anti-trope side, though, but hey, it's a step in the right direction. Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation. Popcorn flick. It was okay. Good stunts, as usual. Terminator: Genisys. Popcorn flick. It was terrible. #NotMyTerminator 13 Hours. Story of the Benghazi attack. I expected this would be a typical Michael Bay seizure-inducing flick, but it was remarkably reserved. I question the details of the film, but overall it "sort of" matched what I had read of the incident and was better than I expected. The entire film I was distracted by the fact that John Krazinski looked exactly like Zachary Levi from Chuck. The Battle of Chosin. Documentary on a disastrous Korean War battle that I had previously not known about, and the entry of China into that war. I watched it because I wanted to know more about how we got to where we are today with North Korea, and the roots of that are very much in the Korean War. It was a good documentary, but a terrible event. Hornet's Nest. Documentary following two embedded reporters during the Afghanistan War and an intense battle with the Taliban. Initially I watched this to understand more about the conditions of fighting in Afghanistan, but as it went on I felt it was more important simply to bear witness to what those guys went through. (Incidentally, Sand Castle is another good movie about the Afghanistan War-it's a drama but it presented the political situation pretty well.) Apocalypse Now. I'd never seen it before, and it's been on my "I should watch that someday" list for ever. It was okay. Some parts were good, other parts seemed to be drowning in pretentious cinema or like you had to be high to enjoy it. Not surprisingly, young Martin Sheen looked exactly like Emilio Estavez from Young Guns. Netflix Jaws. Never seen before. It was pretty good. Better than I expected a movie from the 1970s to be. The Siege of Jadotville. Dramatization of a Cold War incident that I'd never heard of before, about Irish soldiers trying to defend a town in the Congo during the 1960s. Seal Team Six: The Raid on Osama Bin Laden. A dramatic recreation in the form of a documentary. It was okay. Tropic Thunder. Parody of Vietnam War movies by Ben Stiller. It was funny, but it was the kind of humor that you're ashamed to be laughing at and would probably not admit to anyone that you thought it was funny. :) Generally I prefer my humor to be a little more subtle, and this movie kind of hit you over the head with it. Still, it was better than I expected it to be. 538 words.
• Behind The Tweet: Outrage. 2017-09-12 11:14 PM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  Saw this tweet come through Tweetdeck: UPDATE: To be clear, I don’t follow that account. It was retweeted. “Everyone should be outraged,” it said. About what? I hovered over the link and found the title of the story: “New Hampshire police refuse to discuss apparent lynching of biracial boy.” That is the correct way you should respond to questionable tweets in your feed. Note that at no time did I click any part of the tweet. I did not retweet it, I did not click the link. 498 words.
• Line 6 Spider V 30 Practice Amp. 2017-09-15 5:30 PM.
  • Music
  • Reviews
  
  I bought a new electric guitar amp! Finally. I haven’t had one since around 2001. It arrived from Amazon yesterday. I settled on the Line 6 Spider V 30 for $200. It’s a little 30 watt practice amp. I wanted something I could simply turn on and go, as opposed to something like RockSmith on Steam which takes about an hour to load and has that dreaded input delay. I was undecided between the Spider and a Fender Champion 40 for the longest time. Historically I’ve stuck with “traditional” brands for musical equipment, but I went out on a limb and got the high-tech newcomer. (To me, brands that entered the music scene after the 90s are still “new.”) My main deciding factor was that the knobs looked cooler. :) Also, the Line 6 has a USB output so you can record direct from it, which will come in very handy for me. 603 words.
• Behind The Tweets: Sean Spicer at The Emmys. 2017-09-18 2:08 PM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  CNN’s Kaitlan Collins’s tweet is representative of the Twitter backlash against former White House press secretary Sean Spicer appearing at the Emmys last night: Is it supposed to be comical that the former White House spokesman is now tacitly admitting that he lied to the American people? — Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) September 18, 2017 No, but it’s comical that the American people-and journalists, of all people-don’t understand that the literal job of the White House spokesman is to lie for the president. 263 words.
• Elite: Dangerous Horizons. 2017-09-20 2:30 PM.
  • MMORPG
  
  I’m currently uninterested in any game on my hard drive, but I had a sudden flash of inspiration and re-downloaded Elite: Dangerous. I impulsively paid 20 pounds for the Horizons expansion, which sounded cheap until it turned out to be 27 dollars in real money charged to my credit card. After a somewhat lengthy downloading and installation process I was back in the game that I last played for about a month after it’s initial launch at the end of 2014. 847 words.
• Straw Man Tweets. 2017-09-20 10:24 PM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  It occurred to me while browsing through my Twitter timelines that there are a lot of tweets that have built-in straw man logical fallacies. They usually follow one of these forms, which I’ve made up: Them: Some ridiculous claim that doesn’t make sense. Us: That’s a ridiculous claim that doesn’t make sense! “The moon is made of green cheese.” That’s dumb! Everybody knows the moon is made of blue cheese! 427 words.
• Subresource Integrity Script Attributes. 2017-09-22 8:43 PM.
  • Technology
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  I discover SRI attributes for script tag in HTML. 202 words.
• Insidious Propaganda Labels. 2017-09-24 10:01 PM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  I have to be extremely careful about this post, because it’ll be easy for someone to pick out some words here and there and conclude that I’m a white supremacist racist bigot kitten killer. I think “white nationalist” is one of the most insidious negative propaganda labels I’ve heard in a while. It dawned on me one day that you can use that label to describe basically any white person who expresses any positive sentiment about their country. (America, in this case.) 368 words.
• GW2 – Season 3, Episode 1, Out of the Shadows. 2017-09-25 3:30 PM.
  • MMORPG
  • Reviews
  
  I bought the Path of Fire expansion on Friday morning, about four hours before launch time. Not that it matters, but I hope that my purchase was late enough that it doesn’t “count” in the video game industry’s pre-order shenanigans. It was early enough that I got the bonuses, though. (Not that I’ll ever use them.) When I logged in around 11:30, I realized that I had not yet started the Living Story Season 3, and I remembered that I had planned to finish that before going into Path of Fire. (I actually meant to finish it before buying Path of Fire, but I forgot about that part.) 691 words.

October, 2017

• Games Played – September 2017. 2017-10-02 3:00 PM.
  • Progression Report
  
  September was a fairly low-energy, chaotic gaming month. I tried a lot of different games but nothing really clicked. Most of my time in GW2 was spent on either Living Story Season 3 or mindlessly working on map completion while watching television. Guild Wars 2 - 25 hours Elite: Dangerous - 11 hours Final Fantasy XIV - 5 hours 7 Days To Die - 3 hours Lord of the Rings Online - 3 hours Rift - 2 hours Assassin’s Creed 3 - 1 hour Stellaris - 1 hour 88 words.
• What’s In A Terrorist?. 2017-10-02 5:26 PM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  Whenever there’s a mass shooting, one of the most important things for left-leaning activists in this post-Trump world (I should start naming them as “The Resistance”) to find out is whether the shooter is a white guy or not, and if so, to label him a terrorist. I understand the reasons for it, because Trump and the right in general have spent so much time trying to label brown people as terrorists. Trump wants to ban immigration from certain predominantly brown-people countries for fear that terrorists will infiltrate the country. The vast majority of brown people are *not* terrorists, so the left feels the need to turn the tables on the narrative and point out that Americans are more likely to get killed by mass-murdering white terrorists already inside the country than brown terrorists from abroad. (Which is 100% true. It’s also true that Americans are more likely to get killed in a car accident or from a heart attack than by either white or brown terrorists. Statistically speaking, no American should be afraid of terrorism in any shape or form.) 692 words.
• The Race To Condemn Politicization. 2017-10-02 7:27 PM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  One other observation about Las Vegas: In the wake of mass shootings in America, another important battleground for activists of all stripes is the race to place blame on who politicizes the event first. Activists believe that whichever party America thinks politicized the event first “loses.” So it is incumbent upon Republicans to point out if Democrats try to use shootings to enact gun control legislation, and it is incumbent upon Democrats to point out if Republicans try to cover up domestic terrorism. (That is pretty much standard operating procedure for activists in every situation every day, to be honest.) 100 words.
• Followup: Outrage. 2017-10-03 12:41 AM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  Remember that alleged lynching of a bi-racial kid in New Hampshire? Periodically I’ve been Googling for new information, because you may recall I applied my superpowers of skepticism to that story and found it didn’t pass the smell test. I’m not sure I consider Newsweek to be the most journalistic of sources, but here’s an interview with the parents of one of the alleged attackers. And here’s an ABC News story with more detailed information from all sides (the photograph did indeed come from Facebook). 132 words.
• Logistical Issues With Gun Control. 2017-10-03 6:57 PM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  This is just my personal opinion, but the basic problem with implementing gun control in America is that “the genie is already out of the bottle.” There are tons and tons of guns stockpiled in the hands of American citizens. Setting aside the issue of whether or not it *should* be done, let’s say you pass legislation tomorrow that bans the sale of all guns and ammunition. That still leaves a whole lot of people out there with a whole lot of deadly weapons already in their possession. (If a bill like that passed, incidentally, firearms would suddenly become more valuable than gold, so perhaps it’s a good investment opportunity to buy them now-which is almost certainly one reason people buy stockpiles of guns and ammunition.) 725 words.
• GW2 – Season 3, Episode 2, Rising Flames. 2017-10-04 3:30 PM.
  • MMORPG
  • Reviews
  
  Bhagpuss recommended that I skip the Living World Season 3* and go right into Path of Fire, which by all accounts is far superior, but I’m stubbornly persisting in my efforts to complete the whole season first. Partly it’s because I’ve been recording this adventure, so I’ll have videos of it all. And partly it’s because I want to experience it “as it was intended.” I see a lot of people using their new mounts to get to places which seems like cheating. :) 544 words.
• GW2 – Season 3, Episode 3, A Crack in the Ice. 2017-10-06 2:30 PM.
  • MMORPG
  • Reviews
  
  Episode 3 of the Living World Season 3 takes us to Bitterfrost Frontier, another new map north of Frostgorge Sound. The episode begins with some “challenges” in Tarir to train baby dragon Aurene how to be a good dragon. I cringed at first but it turned out the challenges were fairly benign, if somewhat tedious. It seemed like filler material to extend the length of the content, to be honest. 311 words.
• GW2 – Season 3, Episode 4, The Head of the Snake. 2017-10-08 2:30 PM.
  • MMORPG
  • Reviews
  
  Episode 4 is entitled The Head of the Snake, and by the end, I was hoping someone would cut off my head to put me out of my misery. It began innocently enough, with a party at Divinity’s Reach with Queen Jennah. It reminded me of another story instance I vaguely remember from the distant past, perhaps in another Living Story, where you had to walk around talking to party guests. This time, White Mantle forces crashed the party by attacking Divinity’s Reach, which miraculously created a new map right next to the city where we’ve never seen one before. (Or was that little space there the whole time? If so, did they plan to put a map there all along?) 1,226 words.
• GW2 – Season 3, Episode 5, Flashpoint. 2017-10-09 3:30 PM.
  • MMORPG
  • Reviews
  
  For the record, I’ve finished Living World Season 3 and started into Path of Fire. As of Monday morning, I’ve just gotten to the second map, Desert Highlands. It’s a far better expansion than Heart of Thorns already, although I just ran into a story gate that isn’t obvious how to open. Now back to the past… Living World Season 3, Episode 5, Flashpoint, starts off with a trip to Taimi’s lab, where we find Kasmeer chastising us for not inviting her to join Dragon’s Watch yet. As usual with Asura, there is a slight diversion as we fight back the experiments (hasn’t anyone learned yet to keep Asura far, far away from technical gadgets?). 1,038 words.
• How To Save America. 2017-10-13 2:05 PM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  So we all know America is hurtling towards a violent break-up, right? Just kidding. Kind of. Actually I’ve been reading a book about the breakup of the Soviet Union and there are some remarkable similarities. Michel Gorbachev was a radical reformist who basically turned the entire Soviet status quo upside-down over the span of six years. The result? Violent protests, internal power struggles, and eventually the end of the Soviet Union and the birth of something new. 366 words.
• GW2 – Season 3, Episode 6, One Path Ends. 2017-10-14 3:30 PM.
  • MMORPG
  • Reviews
  
  Apologies for the delay, but my SSD drive failed and caused all manner of random crashing issues for four days. PC problems have a way of pushing all other concerns to the background. Once I finally determined it was the SSD (not so easy, since all tests indicated it was perfectly fine), I installed an older, smaller SSD from an old laptop and reinstalled Windows, so I’ve now got a blank new machine for all intents and purposes. This is the first time I’ve ever seen an SSD fail, but it’s only the third one I’ve ever owned, so I have to conclude they don’t have a very high success rate. 738 words.
• Fake News on Facebook. 2017-10-14 10:01 PM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  I think it’s great that people are looking into Russian hackers spreading fake news on Facebook. But is anyone looking into Republican and Democratic activists spreading fake news on Facebook? Probably not. This is why the real solution to the fake news problem is to educate people on how to tell the difference between real news and fake news. 59 words.
• GW2 – Path of Fire Story Completed. 2017-10-17 3:00 PM.
  • MMORPG
  
  Well, that didn’t take long. But before I talk about Path of Fire, in news that no blog reader cares about, I’ve uploaded the videos I recorded for Guild Wars 2 Heart of Thorns to my YouTube channel. (Cross-promotion!) I’m enjoying Path of Fire a lot. It’s very much like playing the original game again, which was the best part of Guild Wars 2. It almost feels like an “apology” for everything that’s been released since the original game. I spent time completing the first three maps to 100% before moving on with the story, something that has literally never happened since entering Orr roughly five years ago. 1,852 words.
• FFXIV – 4.1, The Legend Returns. 2017-10-19 12:00 PM.
  • MMORPG
  • Reviews
  
  I dragged myself away from Guild Wars 2 for a little while to play through the FFXIV 4.1 Main Scenario Quest, “The Legend Returns.” I’m so happy to be caught up with FFXIV and be in a position to play these patches when they come out, instead of rushing to catch up later. I didn’t even have to get any new gear. This is probably the first time I’ve ever been so caught up in any game. 821 words.
• FFXIV – 4.1 Features. 2017-10-21 2:30 PM.
  • MMORPG
  • Reviews
  
  Last time I only talked about the story, but this time I want to talk about some of the new features in Patch 4.1. Royal City of Rabanastre The new Rabanastre Raid is typical for an alliance raid. Lots of mechanics and most of them try to kill you. By now I’ve learned that it’s pointless to try to watch a guide beforehand for these things, so I just jumped in totally blind. (The guides out in the first week aren’t that great anyway. Video guides just drone mechanics at you in a monotone with background video that may or may not be related to what is being said. That means you, MrHappy. :) Thankfully I recognized many of the mechanics from previous instances. But some of them are brand new, especially on the last boss, and some explanation is needed. That first PUG wiped three times I think. (Though honestly I don’t remember dying on the last boss even though I had literally no clue what to do.) 1,223 words.
• GW2 – Fun While It Lasted?. 2017-10-23 2:30 PM.
  • MMORPG
  • Musings
  
  I hate to say this, but once I finished the GW2 Path of Fire story, I found that my drive to keep playing rapidly dwindled. I think I understand now why they didn’t put very much of the story on the final two maps. They are less fun to play on. Bhagpuss alluded to this early on in his first first impressions post. There is a very noticeable ramp up in difficulty from Elon Riverlands to The Desolation. I have to admit I chuckled at his nailing the exact difficulties that I routinely experience in Heart of Thorns in his description of Path of Fire: 702 words.
• FFXIV – Raids ‘n’ Things. 2017-10-24 3:00 PM.
  • MMORPG
  
  That’s the World of Darkness minion. I started to write this as a comment on Aywren’s post about Alliance Raids, but it was getting too long. I agree completely about using the Alliance Raids to level from 50. My testing shows you get 200-250k experience per run (tested at level 58 and 59), not counting rested experience, and Roulette bonuses, which add that much more. That’s a crazy high amount of experience-per-instance, bested only by dungeons, which usually take longer to get into and finish. 1,135 words.
• Behind The Tweet: Literal Meaning. 2017-10-25 1:36 PM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  Here’s a fun one: https://twitter.com/yonatanzunger/status/922202212457070592 That is correct. The meaning is straightforward and literal, and every time someone uses the word “Nazi” outside of a historical context, they disrespect the memory of everyone who died fighting *and defeating* Nazism in World War II. A “Nazi” literally belonged to the Nazi Party, which no longer exists. You can look that up. It’s a historical fact. The correct terms to use today are “neo-Nazi” and “white supremacist,” or if you really want to be precise, the name of the actual radical organization which applies (they do have names, you know). I might even accept Nazist, because it at least acknowledges the issue. But I will not take anyone who believes the word “Nazi” applies in a modern political context seriously, because they are obviously ignorant of history. Or even worse, they are propagandists. 141 words.
• Passing on PC Destiny 2. 2017-10-25 2:30 PM.
  • MMORPG
  • Musings
  
  The-guy-that-Nathan-Fillion-voices from the open beta. Soon you will probably see a lot of talk about the launch of Destiny 2 on the PC. I’m trying to be more discerning with my game purchases these days, so I have no plans to pay full price for an over-hyped, mediocre shooter whose main attraction seems to be a large cult following. Maybe if it goes on sale I’ll take a look at it, but who are we kidding, this is Activision/Blizzard and it’s never going to go on sale, so I’m probably never going to buy it. 311 words.
• Question of the Day: Immortality. 2017-10-25 3:21 PM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  I often get on a roll with posting to this site. A question occurred to me today after I saw a tweet related to the healthcare debate: Is immortality a human right? Some people on the left of the healthcare debate believe access to healthcare is a basic human right, the same as access to food and water. If we assume that the basic purpose of healthcare is to extend human life beyond its “natural” end point, and if healthcare is a human right, does that also mean immortality is a human right? 106 words.
• Behind The Tweet: Libraries in the UK. 2017-10-25 11:34 PM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  I think public libraries are great, but I found this funny today. Funny in a “people are utterly incapable of putting basic statistics into context these days” kind of way. There’s this guy in the UK who doesn’t like public libraries. https://twitter.com/andrejpwalker/status/922174270347804672 https://twitter.com/andrejpwalker/status/922628584619085824 Then this happened: https://twitter.com/andrejpwalker/status/922928993564856322 People are retweeting his “surrender” and celebrating victory. By my calculations, what on Twitter seems to be an overwhelming outpouring of support by 110,000 people for public libraries in the UK is: 0.2% of the adult population of the UK. 389 words.
• Skipping Wolfenstein II. 2017-10-26 2:58 PM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  The ad campaign for the game Wolfenstein II was brought to my attention in my gaming Twitter timeline. These are not “fine people.” #NoMoreNazis #Wolf2 pic.twitter.com/rT5zVDaU1E — Wolfenstein (@wolfenstein) October 25, 2017 I don’t follow that account and I sure won’t now. Obviously games are marketed toward kids, and kids today think it’s the coolest, hippest thing on Earth to “punch Nazis,” thus an ad campaign for a game with cartoon Nazis is born. 742 words.
• FFXIV – Loot Window Screed. 2017-10-27 3:30 PM.
  • MMORPG
  • Opinion
  
  I’ve been doing a lot of Alliance Raids in Final Fantasy XIV since 4.1, so I’ve seen the loot window a whole lot lately. This is a 3000-word screed on everything that’s wrong with the UI in this window. This is probably not unique to FFXIV, by the way. But it’s the one I personally see most often. First let’s go over how it works in case you haven’t experienced it. At the end of the raid or dungeon or whatever, after defeating the Big Bad, someone finds and clicks on the shiny loot chest (an unnecessary and antiquated step in the process, but let’s just go with it). A window then pops up on everyone’s screen that shows what’s in the chest. You then have an opportunity to choose whether to “roll” on each piece of loot in chest. The game then randomly selects a “winner” for each piece. It’s pretty standard for an MMORPG, though I might argue again that it’s a bit of an antiquated system. 3,106 words.
• Mueller Charges. 2017-10-29 12:48 AM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  People are pretty excited this weekend about Mueller filing charges. I saw someone on Twitter who actually thought the president would be arrested on Monday. Now I haven’t read the story so I don’t know what it’s all about, but I would be amazed to see anyone around Trump (today) get arrested. The only people to get arrested are going to low-level nobodys that we’ve never heard of. But I want to go back to the dream that “the resistance” is going to see the president leaving the Oval Office in handcuffs. 372 words.
• Virginia 2017 Election Ballot. 2017-10-30 2:10 PM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  Here's what's on my ballot for November 7: Governor Ralph Northam (D) https://ralphnortham.com Ed Gillespie (R) https://edforvirginia.com Cliff Hyra (L) http://cliffhyra.com I don’t think I’ve seen any positive ads at all in this race. Perhaps one from Ralph Northam focusing on him being a doctor. That’s about it. I’m not sure I’ve seen Ed Gillespie speak a single time in an ad. Honestly I’ve been a bit surprised how little I hear about this race on television. Most of the focus seems to have been on the Attorney General. 310 words.
• GW2 – Doing Dailies. 2017-10-30 2:30 PM.
  • MMORPG
  
  What’s this then? A ley-line anomaly guy? Now that I know GW2 dailies give out gold, I started doing them. They aren’t very fun to do. :) Talk about mindless busy work. No wonder I’ve been ignoring them. I’ve never been a big fan of “doing dailies” in any MMORPG, and I usually leave a game for something else when I get to the point where that’s all there is to do. So it takes a lot of mental energy to push through these completely arbitrary, meaningless tasks. 813 words.
• Summer of Weinstein. 2017-10-31 1:27 PM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  I never mentioned the Harvey Weinstein story here, mainly because I generally try to avoid the minefield known as gender topics. But I wasn’t surprised. It’s Hollywood. Stories about sleazy executives go way back, plus we all know that most people are monsters. That’s not an excuse or a defense. It’s just, “Oh, of course Hollywood is like that. Everybody knows it.” It’s why sane people don’t exactly celebrate when their loved ones run off to Hollywood. I’m not blaming the victim, I’m just saying people who try to “make it” in Hollywood should go in with their eyes fully open, and be prepared. You *will* be entering a sleazy industry, and you *will* encounter sleazy situations and sleazy people. It’s a high risk, high reward kind of industry. 1,037 words.
• NaNoWriMo Prep. 2017-10-31 2:30 PM.
  • Writing
  
  This is a post about my NaNoWriMo process, so feel free to skip it. I’m writing it mostly for myself to remind me what it is, so that I’ll be ready for November 1. Typically I prepare a Scrivener project with 30 documents named “11-01” through “11-30,” each with a 1,667 word target goal. Each day, I open up the document with the appropriate date and start writing. I try not to read much of what I’ve written the previous days, other than maybe the last paragraph if I need to continue with a scene I didn’t finish. 1,008 words.

November, 2017

• The Dark Tower (Good vs. Evil Edition). 2017-11-01 1:52 AM.
  • Media
  
  [UPDATE: If you’re here to find out what the “Good vs. Evil Edition” actually is, as compared to the movie, I don’t know. I did not see the theatrical release. My best guess at this point is that the “Good vs. Evil Edition” includes a behind-the-scenes featurette after the movie, which I did not watch.] Mere moments ago, I finished watching The Dark Tower on FIOS-on-demand. This post will probably contain some spoilers for the movie and possibly even the books, but it’s not that bad, really. 900 words.
• Games Played – October 2017. 2017-11-01 2:30 PM.
  • Progression Report
  
  As a bit of a data junkie, I’m nauseated to report that I forgot to re-install ManicTime after I had to reinstall Windows this month. Did I even mention that on the blog? Well, if I didn’t, my SSD failed earlier this month, so I had to reinstall. That means I am missing game-playing statistics from the period of roughly October 11th through October 28th, rendering my report for the month of October completely useless, and indeed any report I planned to do for the entire year of 2017. Ugh. If the data isn’t perfect it’s not even worth bothering! 143 words.
• Big Halloween Day. 2017-11-01 3:04 PM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  I should break these topics into separate posts, but it’s representative of just how much information we news and current events consumers have to deal with on a daily basis. All of this happened on Halloween Day. Civil War Controversy The Twitter day began with controversial remarks by White House Chief of Staff John Kelly about the Civil War. Most of my Twitter feeds (ie. gaming and authors) are *extremely* sensitive to anyone trying to put the Civil War in historical context, so of course it exploded. 1,414 words.
• Pizza? Really?. 2017-11-02 2:59 PM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  People fight for their lives every day in some corners of the world, and kids on the Internet the last few days are like, “I’m putting my foot down for justice and taking a stand against racism! No more Papa John’s pizza!” I had literally no idea what fresh insanity had come over my Twitter feed. It turns out Papa John’s had a bad quarter and lost a bunch of money, and Mr. John blamed the down turn on the recent NFL protests. 191 words.
• OMG ROFL @TwitterGov. 2017-11-03 1:05 AM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  OMG ROFL Earlier today @realdonaldtrump’s account was inadvertently deactivated due to human error by a Twitter employee. The account was down for 11 minutes, and has since been restored. We are continuing to investigate and are taking steps to prevent this from happening again. — TwitterGov (@TwitterGov) November 3, 2017 I mean, what can you even say about the sheer vastness of blatant incompetence shown by the Twitter organization here? It’s pretty funny, at least until you really think about the consequences. 287 words.
• Snap Judgment – Necropolis (Brutal Edition). 2017-11-03 4:30 PM.
  • Reviews
  • Single-Player
  • Steam
  
  Not surprisingly, there was a Steam sale for Halloween, and one of the games that’s been on my wish list for a long time was really cheap: Necropolis. They apparently made some changes from the original launch version and now call it the “Brutal Edition.” I didn’t want to buy it, because even though it was only $4.49, I didn’t want to send the signal that it was “okay” to release an incomplete buggy game at launch and then fix it later. Still, it was supposed to be a “Souls-like” game, and it looked visually interesting, and I’ve heard some good things about it. (And some bad things.) And frankly, I was bored with other games. So for $4.49, surely I could get a little bit of enjoyment out of it. 883 words.
• Texas Shooting. 2017-11-05 11:14 PM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  I don’t have anything to say about this, just noting it for posterity. Up to 27 killed in mass shooting at Texas church https://t.co/EmySBP97Nu — Fox News (@FoxNews) November 5, 2017 Sources: TX church shooter now ID'd by authorities; white male in his 20s from outside San Antonio. w/ @PierreTABC @JackDate @AaronKatersky — Mike Levine (@MLevineReports) November 5, 2017 Everything that I’ve previously written about mass shootings applies here as well. It’s very easy to tell the, ahem, racial identity of a mass shooter by watching the tone of Left Twitter versus Right Twitter following a shooting. There is a period of hushed silence before the identify of the shooter is determined, then there is an explosion from one side or the other. 160 words.
• WoW – Battle For Azeroth. 2017-11-06 3:30 PM.
  • MMORPG
  • Pre-Release
  
  From the media assets on the Battle for Azeroth web site. In general, I don’t think about WoW very much, but when Blizzcon comes around every year, Twitter explodes with chatter about this game. Even more than the moderate level of chatter that persists year-round. It continues to amaze me how many people seem to live completely inside a Blizzard bubble. 595 words.
• American Chemical Services Lawsuit Against Sci-Hub. 2017-11-06 10:18 PM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  I saw this tweet today, which got my attention: A federal judge just ordered US ISPs & search engines to censor Internet traffic. ACS gets everything in its suit against Sci-Hub. pic.twitter.com/YLMrzd85lN — Steve McLaughlin🌾💾 (@SteveMcLaugh) November 6, 2017 “Federal judge censoring the Internet” is quite a claim, and deserves a second look. So first thing’s first, we apply the Universal Internet Rule to this tweet, sort of a Reverse Scientific Method of Reading The Internet: We assume the tweeter is lying through their teeth because they are in the tank for some special interest or another, and try to prove otherwise. This must be done before retweeting, commenting, or even having a single thought one way or another about the issue. 1,698 words.
• Election Returns Live Blog. 2017-11-07 10:06 PM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  I’m just going to paste some relevant tweets in here as I see them. I voted around 9:30 am this morning, for the record. Saw variations of this tweet a lot throughout the day, on all of my timelines: 🚨We are getting reports of calls to Virginia voters falsely saying that their polling place has changed. 🚨 If you receive a call: ✔️Confirm your polling place at https://t.co/3NmwdTvoHb ✔️ Report it to @ACLUVA at 804-644-8080#ElectionDay #vagov 1,155 words.
• Curious Thing about Northam and Gun Control. 2017-11-08 12:38 PM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  So I’m watching Morning Joe, and they keep saying that the two things people said they cared about most in the election were Healthcare and Gun Control. One thing I specifically noticed on Northam’s web site related to gun control. When you look at the Issues menu, it lists Gun Safety somewhat prominently. The Gun Safety page is a laundry list of things Northam has done to make the NRA crazy. Voted against conceal-carry, voted for expanded background checks, supports mental health checks, supports banning assault rifles, the whole tamale. 239 words.
• Cynical About Celebrities. 2017-11-09 10:30 PM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  Today we learned of sexual misconduct allegations against Louis C. K. This was apparently not news to people in the industry. I made a cynical remark on Twitter but I feel like I should explain it a bit more. “The cynical viewpoint: So another celebrity career ruined aka. millionaire gets to retire early” One message we’re seeing from this year’s string of allegations against men in Hollywood is, “Women (and men) are stepping forward and telling their stories more and more.” That’s great. 218 words.
• GW2 – Story Over Time. 2017-11-10 3:30 PM.
  • MMORPG
  • Musings
  
  Remember Checkhov’s gun here? I didn’t either. Still waiting for someone to use it. Guild Wars 2 posts do fairly well for some weird reason (but not as well as Dark Tower posts, go figure), so here’s another one. If you aren’t caught up with GW2 there might be some accidental spoilers below. I mentioned before that I’ve been re-playing the Living World Season 2. Eventually I’ll be uploading them to my YouTube channel, because hey, why not. “Pivot to video” and all that. I actually got six whole views on one of my Path of Fire videos! 679 words.
• Behind The Tweet: First PvP Zone. 2017-11-14 12:45 PM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  I saw someone mention on Twitter that Texas starts allowing people to carry swords today: Open-carry swords and machetes in Texas start TODAY. See all of the new laws here: https://t.co/CzHL9YAKer pic.twitter.com/kWmakefRmn — ABC13 Houston (@abc13houston) September 2, 2017 https://twitter.com/shishkababoo/status/930128631980085248 Typical dumb Americans. Psssst: It was already legal to carry a sword in a lot of states already. Check your local laws. You might be surprised. I’ve always thought it would be better for personal safety to open carry a small sword than a gun. :) Unfortunately I don’t have the personality to handle all the stares and police questions. 100 words.
• GW2 – Living World Season 4 Announced. 2017-11-15 3:30 PM.
  • MMORPG
  • Pre-Release
  
  I’m in another “there is nothing to blog about”* mood so this is a brief update to tell you that I finished the GW2 Living World Season 2 again. It was more entertaining the second time. Except for every combat encounter, of course. But it felt considerably easier the second time through, and I only remember wanting to punch my monitor on two of the bosses. That’s an overall smaller monitor-punches-per-episode rate than Living World Season 3 was. (I used my Revenent character.) 237 words.
• Republican and Democratic Propaganda. 2017-11-16 10:08 PM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  Today is one of those days when I’m not entirely sure if Russian propaganda on Twitter is worse than Republican and Democratic propaganda on Twitter. Al Franken has been accused of groping and kissing a woman in 2006, before he became a senator. “I couldn’t believe it. He groped me, without my consent, while I was asleep,” Leeann Tweeden says, including this photograph in her accusation. https://t.co/iLphI1wiLU pic.twitter.com/kLKSmLwu36 — CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) November 16, 2017 194 words.
• Catching Up – CCP, Gazillion, etc.. 2017-11-17 3:30 PM.
  • MMORPG
  
  Literally my only screenshot from Marvel Heroes. I mentioned that there was nothing to blog about. Then I started catching up on all the things I’ve missed in the MMO landscape over the last month or so. CCP VR Layoffs. Apparently CCP decided they didn’t want to be a pioneer in VR after all. Presumably this means they’ll need to figure out how to increase revenue from EVE, a fourteen-year-old game that new players run screaming from. (Incidentally, I keep meaning to try out the free version.) 321 words.
• Where Do I Sign Up?. 2017-11-18 3:44 PM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  I had perhaps a slightly different reaction when I read this tweet: When I was a PhD student, my stipend was just $18,000 and my waived tuition was $55,000. Taxing someone who only receives $18,000 the same amount as someone who earns $73,000 in order to give billionaires a huge cut is the height of Republican insanity.https://t.co/zkTt5cQ7oG — Nick Kapur (@nick_kapur) November 16, 2017 Where do I sign up to get an $18,000 stipend and a $55,000 waived tuition, and then a Masters degree at the end of it?? 166 words.
• Waivers For Men. 2017-11-20 2:44 PM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  New joke for mythical stand-up comedy routine: I am starting to wonder if men should have a lawyer present whenever they are in the presence of women. Perhaps following behind getting signed waivers, like how filmmakers have to get people to sign waivers to appear in documentaries and such. “Did this interaction with this male make you uncomfortable in any way? Yes/no. Okay, please sign and date here. Here’s a copy for you, and here’s our copy. We’ll file it in the federal database of male/female interactions by the end of the day.” 123 words.
• Blogging In A World That Hates Blogs. 2017-11-20 3:30 PM.
  • Blog
  • Responses
  
  I usually prefer to post nothing instead of a post about blogging*, but since Roger brought it up, and I just said two posts ago that there’s nothing to blog about, let’s talk about blogging! Rather than write something that stands on its own, I’m just going to respond to the parts of Roger’s post that jumped out at me, as if it were a Usenet post. The Nature of the Beast “I’ve written several pieces that I’m proud of. However, they never got the traffic I hoped for. That’s the nature of the beast, I guess” 1,459 words.
• Net Neutrality Homework. 2017-11-21 10:02 PM.
  • Politics
  • Technology
  • swampip.com
  
  Net Neutrality is the hot topic of the day (so far-give it a few minutes, it will probably change). The FCC is planning to introduce a plan before Thanksgiving that completely repeals #NetNeutrality. Here's what you need to know. https://t.co/dEHkO49vIw #SaveNetNeutrality — ACLU (@ACLU) November 21, 2017 JUST IN: FCC will vote to repeal Obama-era net neutrality rules https://t.co/xSTAtvfZwZ pic.twitter.com/WLryAUwCt7 — The Hill (@thehill) November 21, 2017 Activists are telling us that we must act fast to save net neutrality. We are not told this specifically, but it’s strongly implied that our way of life and our immortal souls are in imminent danger! Call your congressman! Call the FCC! Call anyone, just do it now! 2,071 words.
• Net Neutrality Panic, Day Two. 2017-11-22 2:24 PM.
  • Politics
  • Technology
  • swampip.com
  
  Well, I guess I’ll be writing about this for a second day in a row. So just for the record, I prefer Net Neutrality. But I’m a realist and a pragmatist. The Utopian dream of The Internet as a level playing field for all of humanity to come together will collapse as more and more businesses and governments get involved. Frankly, it already collapsed a good ten years or more ago. Mobile smart devices weren’t made to make people’s lives better and bring them together, they were made to trap consumers on a platform they can’t escape. They are antithetical to openness. The very existence of cell phones is the death of the Utopian Internet, because it was the opportunity businesses needed to get people off of “open” PCs and on to more controlled environments. 438 words.
• WoW – What I Thought In 2006. 2017-11-22 3:30 PM.
  • MMORPG
  • Musings
  
  In light of the announcement of World of Warcraft Classic, everybody’s abuzz with WoW nostalgia, so I thought it would be fun to re-post my very first thoughts about WoW Vanilla from 2006. From blizzard.com - I can’t find any screenshots prior to 2014. World of Warcraft October 10, 2006 Inspired by the recent episode of South Park, and being bored with FlatOut2, I finally installed my trial version of World of Warcraft yesterday, which I’d gotten with a video card about a year ago I think. I’ve been trying to stay away from MMORPGs because, as South Park indicated, you really can’t play them competitively unless you’re willing to join some kind of guild and give up your life, and really, what’s the point in playing a game if not to win? :) But I’ve heard repeatedly that WoW was particularly good for so-called “casual gamers” and people who liked solo adventuring, so I gave it a shot. 1,565 words.
• Behind The Tweet: Dear Right-Wingers. 2017-11-23 12:06 AM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  These are the kinds of tweets flying around that drive my crazy: Dear right-wingers, If #NetNeutrality was reversed, George Soros (😧) could buy a controlling interest in AT&T, Verizon, & Time Warner Cable and COMPLETELY BLOCK access to Fox News, Breitbart, etc. for 99% of the country. Let that sink in. This isn’t a partisan issue. — William LeGate (ig: @legate) (@williamlegate) November 21, 2017 I agree it shouldn’t be a partisan issue, because net neutrality is a technical concept, but since nobody understands computers, least of all politicians, both sides have defined it as a partisan issue, and here we are with dumb tweets like this. 247 words.
• Net Neutrality Panic, Day Three. 2017-11-23 11:04 PM.
  • Politics
  • Technology
  • swampip.com
  
  The panic has died down a bit because of Thanksgiving Day, but just for the record, here is the actual proposal the FCC will be considering on December 14th. Proposal To “Restore Internet Freedom” I added the quotes to indicate where the authors decided to change the title of the document from what it actually is (Proposal To Change Boring FCC Regulations) into something that would make Republicans who don’t understand computers feel good. 123 words.
• Guild Wars 1??. 2017-11-24 3:30 PM.
  • MMORPG
  
  Since I’m done with Guild Wars 2 until November 28th (I got bored with dailies), I had a crazy idea a few weeks back to re-download and play Guild Wars 1 to have a look at the story. I’ve always heard it’s good. I own this game. So why not play it? I’m not entirely sure, but I think I own all of the available GW1 content. I originally bought it somewhere around 2011, and later I think I bought all of the expansions sometime after Guild Wars 2 came out when I saw there were some achievements and titles that you could get from linking your accounts or something. 585 words.
• Behind The Tweet: Who Do We Believe?. 2017-11-25 3:41 PM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  Hmmmm. Who do we believe? The publication that's been doing good journalism for almost 100 years or the man who invented the term "fake news" as a way to deflect his own horribleness? 🤔🤔🤔 — pranas t. naujokaitis (@pranas) November 25, 2017 I imagine that more-then-100-year-old journalists would have a fair amount of dementia by now. Zing! No, you idiot, it’s not the same people all 100 years! Oh, then you’ve made my point for me. 169 words.
• Ugh This Again?. 2017-11-26 4:58 PM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  Millennials are yelling about Nazis again this weekend, but I’m going to be brutally honest here: They’ve cried wolf so often and so loud about this that I just don’t care anymore. I’m not even going to investigate what they’re talking about. Something about a New York Times article I think? If fascists ever really do organize again, they’ll have such an easy road to power in the U.S. thanks to the left. 218 words.
• Writing versus Story. 2017-11-27 3:30 PM.
  • MMORPG
  • Musings
  
  Bhagpuss said something interesting in his last comment: In general I think the idea that GW1 had good writing is fanciful. Much though I like Prophecies, the writing is pretty shoddy. I think when people praise the writing they are mainly talking about the plotting, which is fairly coherent. The dialog is mostly stilted and unconvincing, often risible. First, I don’t think I’ve ever seen the word “risible” in my entire life. It means laughable, as in, “It’s risible that I’ve never seen the word risible.” 380 words.
• Social Jumping. 2017-11-29 3:30 PM.
  • MMORPG
  • Musings
  
  Shadow added in post to enhance the illusion of height :) I’m not going to write about how thoroughly exhausted and beaten down I was last night after completing the epic ~45 minute death march of a fight in the first chapter of the first episode of GW2’s Living World Season 4. Instead I’m going to keep it light and talk about jumping. I saw a remark somewhere in passing about jumping in MMORPGs (apologies but I can’t remember where) which inspired me to write this. 643 words.

December, 2017

• Games Played – November 2017. 2017-12-01 3:30 PM.
  • Progression Report
  
  This GW2 jumping puzzle is not fun. Also, jumping puzzles seem harder as a Charr. The Guild Wars franchise wins the month. Guild Wars 2 - 37 hours Guild Wars 1 - 21 hours Dark Souls III - 6 hours Final Fantasy XIV - 4 hours I played a little Dark Souls III because I still need a new character to finish my The Ringed City DLC blind playthrough. 156 words.
• NaNoWriMo 2017 Post-Mortem. 2017-12-01 3:48 PM.
  • NaNoWriMo
  • News
  • Process
  • everettrenshaw.com
  
  Hi! I’m finally back with another writing update. I completed NaNoWriMo again this year, and here’s my assessment of my performance. Summary This year’s novel is code-named “Survey.” It’s a science fiction/fantasy set many thousands of years in the future, in a time after a long war between humans and aliens has finally resulted in a treaty. A human captain leads a ship on a mission to survey a planet, where a lost colony had once been established thousands of years before. They find a struggling pre-Industrial human society, and alien ships in orbit. 1,111 words.
• Behind the Tweet: Unwind It All. 2017-12-01 11:30 PM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  Grumpy post incoming. Unwind it all. The entire Trump Presidency is a criminal enterprise that’s compromised by Russia. Everything Trump did gets thrown out. Gorsuch needs to be removed from the Supreme Court & America gets a new and fair election. On paper ballots. No fruit of a poison tree. — Gerry Duggan (@GerryDuggan) December 1, 2017 Lulz. Oh look, somebody else on Twitter who would fail a basic civics class, and people retweeting it as if it’s wisdom. 283 words.
• GW2 – Living World Season 4, Daybreak. 2017-12-04 3:30 PM.
  • MMORPG
  
  This seems like a decent non-spoilery picture for this post because I have no idea what it is or when I took it. I finished up the Living World Season 4 episode Daybreak over the weekend. This post is going to contain story spoilers, so if you haven’t finished it yet, look away! 2,502 words.
• The Blogosphere Strikes Back. 2017-12-06 3:30 PM.
  • MMORPG
  • Responses
  
  Image stolen from Wookiepedia. And, you know, that movie. Tobold recently declared that the MMO blogosphere was dead to him (paraphrasing slightly), so I suppose it’s my duty to point out that we’re still here, sort of. Tobold was one of the first, if not the first MMORPG blogger I read, way back in the olden days when he talked about Vanilla WoW all the time. He was one of the original models for how I thought a blog should look. Then he sort of lost me in the last five years or so when he started panning every single new MMORPG that came out and embraced the jaded “everything used to be better” schtick and moved into pen-and-paper games. I haven’t read him much since then, but I see most of the titles of his articles going through my feed reader, and it’s hard not to notice one that reads, Is the MMO Blogosphere Still Alive? 743 words.
• Behind The Tweet: Rage and Frustration. 2017-12-07 5:03 PM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  Saw this tweet today: https://twitter.com/ezlusztig/status/938470343487844352 I like Al Franken, I’ve always liked Al Franken, I have a lot of respect for the work he did to transition from a comedian to a knowledgeable elected official (no small feat), and I think it’s a shame he has to resign. But this is a political no-brainer. Franken resigning is the Democratic side fighting. Fighting to at least bring back some shred of integrity to the current American government. They won’t have a moral leg, foot, or tiny pinky toe to stand on if they don’t clean house of anything and everything that even remotely hints of corruption right now. They simply cannot use integrity (“we are the Not-As-Bad-As-Trump Party”) as a voting issue in 2018, 2020, or ever, if they don’t deal with this quickly. 342 words.
• Snap Judgment – Kritika Online. 2017-12-08 3:30 PM.
  • MMORPG
  • Reviews
  • Snap Judgment
  
  I alluded to trying out Kritika Online in my last post, so I thought I would write a bit about it. For one thing, I want to have a post to link to later in the year for my “Game/MMORPG of the Year” post, and for another thing, Friday is looming, and I don’t have anything to post yet. I downloaded and played Kritika on November 22nd, the day before Thanksgiving. I uninstalled it the same day. 914 words.
• Bad Week For Media. 2017-12-09 9:23 PM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  It’s been a really bad week for the media, with at least three different significant mistakes having to be corrected. It really undermines their position as the Fourth Estate. Brian Ross was suspended from ABC News for a *massive* error on the Trump investigation. Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal misreported a subpoena of Deutche Bank. CNN misreported on Trump Jr. and WikiLeaks. CORRECTION of ABC News Special Report: Flynn prepared to testify that President-elect Donald Trump directed him to make contact with the Russians *during the transition* — initially as a way to work together to fight ISIS in Syria, confidant now says. https://t.co/ewrkVZTu2K pic.twitter.com/URLiHf3uSm 541 words.
• Behind the Tweet: Representation. 2017-12-11 12:02 AM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  Another person on the Internet who needs to go back to Civics class (or is a Russian operative sowing dissent): Who here on twitter feels like they are not being represented in Congress and are still paying their taxes?#TaxationWithoutRepresentation I never ask for retweets but I am this one time. Retweet if you are not represented!#TheResistance — Rogue Wulf (@Wulfkat) December 10, 2017 Just because you don’t “feel like” you’re represented, doesn’t mean you’re not represented. “Representation” in this context has a very specific meaning that has nothing to do with your “feelings.” 203 words.
• Patreon Kerfuffle. 2017-12-11 3:30 PM.
  • Technology
  • swampip.com
  
  A large percentage of my gaming and writing Twitter timelines are abuzz with civil unrest over a change that Patreon will be making to their fee structure on December 18th. I don’t use Patreon and I can’t really envision a scenario where I would use it prior to becoming famous, but a lot of people I follow do use it, and they aren’t happy. If you don’t know what Patreon is, it’s a site where you can donate money to a “creator” (artist, musician, writer, etc.) every month to support their work, somewhat akin to pledging money to PBS. 1,216 words.
• The Duty of Citizenship. 2017-12-12 4:41 PM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  I want to elaborate a little bit on a random tweet-thought I expressed this morning. …I think we are seeing recently that fame is actually more useful for changing the world than holding elected office My basic point was that it seems to me that popular, famous people are able to motivate the citizenry into action a lot more than any innate sense of civic duty. Recently (say, in the last 10-15 years, roughly the exact same time period of the rise of The Internet), I think we have seen a conflation of politics and popularity. What people remember about Obama is not his policies, but his likeableness. People presume he was a great president (especially now) because he was a cool guy with great comic timing, while completely forgetting that he authorized the bombing of hundreds of civilians with military drones. 767 words.
• Behind the Tweet: Cancer. 2017-12-12 7:42 PM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  Saw this retweeted: in modern capitalism, a business that merely brings in a steady profit is considered a failure, success is defined by continual unchecked growth in biology, we have a word for continual unchecked growth: cancer — Squidlarkin 🦑 System (@squidlarkin) December 10, 2017 This is an amusing analogy, but it breaks down because it’s not “modern capitalism” that defines a business’s success, it’s the modern investors, who vote with their dollars on a daily or hourly or even minute-by-minute basis. 82 words.
• Live Blog: Alabama Election Results. 2017-12-13 12:05 AM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  I’m going to write about election results from The Big Alabama Election. I’m starting about 7 PM EST, which is about an hour before the polls close. Just for the record, I don’t live in Alabama so technically this election is none of my business. But it’s the only election tonight so it’s getting a lot of national coverage. It’s like a Monday Night Football game… it’s the only one on. 1,412 words.
• Post-Election Blues. 2017-12-13 5:40 AM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  I drank too much hot chocolate tonight, so I can’t sleep. Therefore I’ll add a few post-election thoughts. Even though it’s none of my business what Alabamians do with their Senate seats, I was relieved to see that Doug Jones won, because it’s really disheartening to think that an accused pedophile could still win a seat in the Senate. If a story about feeling up 14-year-old girls comes out a few days before an election in The Enquirer, it makes sense to be suspicious about it. But this story came out months before the election in The Washington Post. It’s disheartening to think that we live in a culture where an accused pedophile can simply call a Washington Post story fabricated out of whole cloth and get away with it. 416 words.
• Behind the Tweet: Number of Senators. 2017-12-13 12:39 PM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  Bracing for a lot of tweets like this today: https://twitter.com/leedrutman/status/940755313145339907 Soooooo. Yeah. There’s this thing, you know, called a Constitution? It describes this thing, you know, called a Senate? But wait for it, there’s this other thing, you know, called, like, a House of Representatives! They represent people in a way you might like. Perhaps you should read up on it. Suggesting that the Senate also be apportioned by population is literally advocating mob rule. Maybe you like the mob this morning, but you might not like it twenty or thirty years from now when your kids and grandkids start voting. Smart people already figured this out. 207 words.
• Snap Judgment – Warframe. 2017-12-13 3:30 PM.
  • MMO
  • Reviews
  
  I’m not entirely sure how to categorize a post about Warframe. It’s usually covered by the MMORPG press but after only a few minutes with it I can say it’s obviously not an MMORPG. Perhaps I finally need to add that “MMO” category to my blog, for discussing what are effectively little more than regular old multiplayer games. I’ve never heard anyone say they didn’t like Warframe. In fact I’ve heard a lot of “positive buzz” about Warframe. 2,239 words.
• Patreon Kerfuffle, Part Two. 2017-12-13 7:31 PM.
  • Technology
  • swampip.com
  
  Just to followup, Patreon changed their mind. They will not change their fees as planned. (They still intend to address the “problem” though, so they will need to change something eventually.) But the damage was already done. Patreon destroyed their reputation with small creators overnight and I am seeing tweet after tweet today indicating they won’t be back. Perhaps a year from now people will forget, but right now, they are still angry (and rightly so). 205 words.
• Behind The Tweet: Fake Comments. 2017-12-14 3:09 PM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  Surprisingly few post-election tweets yesterday, but today is the FCC’s vote on “net neutrality,” and this appeared this morning: https://twitter.com/AGSchneiderman/status/941025240129441792 You just identified them yesterday, huh? I could have told you most of the comments were fake a long time ago. In fact, I think I did write that in one of my previous blog posts on net neutrality (it was to that same AG guy). Because obviously, when you open up “public comment” in the form of electronic submissions (Internet, texts, faxes, phone calls), you are just asking for a botnet assault. Only in-person comments from someone with a valid identification, and maybe even two forms of photo identification these days, can really be trusted. A handwritten letter is probably genuine, but could also be fake, given that you could pay someone on Fiver two cents an hour to sit around writing thousands of letters, gather them up, then drive around the country mailing them from various post offices with fake return addresses. It’s not like anyone is going to double-check that the sender actually sent the letter. I mean, it would be a lot of work, obviously, but people do crazy things to try to force their opinions down everyone’s throat. The point is that almost every form of communication is gameable by Russians, anarchists, hackers, or activists these days. 418 words.
• Live Blog: FCC Meeting. 2017-12-14 3:49 PM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  Since I’m just sitting here watching C-SPAN3, I thought I would write some thoughts about what I’m seeing. 10:30 AM - Meeting begins. 10:46 AM - These witnesses for the Blue Alerts are heart-breaking. I’m not sure I agree that Blue Alerts are a good idea (but I don’t know the full story of it), but I hope this passes for their sake. 10:55 AM - Oh I guess the Blue Alerts are being adopted. Sounds like this is something that began in the Obama administration. Jessica Rosenworcel delivered a harsh rebuke of the cost-benefit analysis. 933 words.
• The Editing Process. 2017-12-15 3:30 PM.
  • Editing
  • NaNoWriMo
  • Process
  • everettrenshaw.com
  
  I’m trying an experiment: I’m going to try not to completely abandon the novel I wrote in November. This experiment has failed every year since 2010. NaNoWriMo drafts from 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2016 languish more-or-less in exactly the same state they were in on December 1st. Drafts from 2010 and 2011 have been edited a lot, but remain woefully unsuitable for submission. But this time I have a plan. Well, a first step in a plan, at least, which is better than I’ve ever done before. 679 words.
• Behind the Tweet: Scalzi versus Trump. 2017-12-17 12:53 PM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  I had an interesting thought the other day. There is almost no difference between a tweet from John Scalzi and a tweet from Donald Trump. The only difference is that Scalzi’s have better grammar. But the intent? Identical. https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/940930017365778432 https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/940567812053053441 Folks, if you roll up with "both sides are equally bad" these days, I'm gonna know you're a fucking idiot whose understanding of political issues is about as deep as a single baked potato crisp. I literally have no time for you, Pringle pal. 176 words.
• The Last Jedi (Spoilers). 2017-12-18 3:30 PM.
  • Media
  • Reviews
  
  This is a post about The Last Jedi, so don’t read any further until you’ve seen the movie. I’ll give you some blank lines to click away. Note: I added an update way at the bottom of this post. I’ll give you a few more blank lines just in case you accidentally flick your eyes down lower on the page. Okay, get ready. Brace yourselves. This is going to change everything you’ve ever known about everything, and your life will never be the same. I mean, it’s actually not like that at all. That sounded like an exciting invitation to keep reading. But really, don’t do that. 3,889 words.
• Tax Bill. 2017-12-20 6:42 PM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  Here is my standard disclaimer: I don’t know anything about economics and I don’t want to know anything about economics because it’s not science. I similarly don’t want to study the intricacies of homeopathy or astrology. In blunt terms, I couldn’t care less about taxes and this entire bill is about as interesting to me as paint drying. So here’s my opinion on this tax reform/tax cut/tax scam bill. Get ready. You might want to brace yourself. It will be a tremendous surprise when I reveal my centrist opinion on this tax bill. 443 words.
• Behind the Tweet: We Must Wipe Them Out. 2017-12-21 3:29 AM.
  • Politics
  • swampip.com
  
  There is a never-ending supply of crazy retweeted in my timelines, and it all comes from the left. Every single day I could pick something like this to highlight. It is no longer enough to retake the House in 2018. It is no longer even enough to retake the Senate. We must wipe out the GOP so thoroughly and methodically that it will be a warning throughout history to any politician who ever does this to their constituents again. 155 words.
• Divinity: Original Sin Enhanced Edition. 2017-12-27 3:30 PM.
  • Reviews
  • RPG
  • Steam
  
  I allowed myself to buy one game in the Steam Winter Sale, which was Divinity: Original Sin. Then, a few hours later, I bought the Skyrim Special Edition, because I saw everyone on Twitter talking about it which reminded me that I wanted to buy that too and, hey, what a coincidence, it was on sale. But this post is about Divinity: Original Sin. It’s an isometric, turn-based strategy RPG which can trace its ancestry back to games like Baldur’s Gate (the earliest example of this kind that I can think). 901 words.
• Endgame Viable Awards 2017. 2017-12-29 3:30 PM.
  • MMORPG
  • Reviews
  
  It’s time once against for the prestigious Endgame Viable Awards for 2017, posted a bit early because the 31st is a Sunday. Hopefully I won’t play any new games over the weekend to skew these results. 2016 Awards 2015 Awards I give out three awards: Game of the Year, MMORPG of the Year, and MMORPG Expansion of the Year. In my warped worldview “Game of the Year” sort of implies Steam game of the year and excludes traditional MMORPGs. 760 words.