Mech Data: PT-20

PT-20 Plasma Tank "Mahdi"   Technical Data     Model number: PT-20 Code name: Plasma Tank Type 20 Nickname: Mahdi Classification: prototype energy weapon-optimized main battle tank Manufacturer: Xining Experimental Weapons Facility Operator: Coalition Defense Force First deployment: CY 20 Crew: 1 driver, 1 gunner, 1 sensor officer, 1 tech…
May 20, 2021

Stealing the Limelight

The clearest creative vision can be thwarted if a writer's own characters get other ideas. Sometimes a secondary character can emerge from the background and steal the limelight from the rest of the cast. These breakout characters often start out benign, but studio and network interference are notorious creative carcinogens. Here…
May 20, 2021

Final Fantasy IV Retro-Spective

  A quick reminder to all my readers that my new live stream series, Final Fantasy IV Retro-Spective premiers tonight on Geek Gab's channel at 10:00 PM Central. We'll be playing through the JRPG classic on the original SNES hardware. That means all kinds of fun glitches to exploit, so…
May 20, 2021

Shadowrun (1993)

We've documented Gen Y's vices in copious detail these past few years. But if Gen Y has one virtue, it's a knack for remembering what the Pop Cult would prefer stayed memory holed. For example, the AAA video game publishers really don't want you thinking about pre-Ground Zero 2D video…
May 20, 2021

OG #StarWarsNotStarWars

Now that #StarWarsNotStarWars has secured its place at the apex of newpub, it's worth looking back at what made the original Star Wars successful. I've long maintained that George Lucas achieved his genre-redefining opus by solving old storytelling problems in fresh and exciting ways. Specifically, he presented refined expressions of…
May 20, 2021

Aircraft Data: YFS-101

YFS-101 Courtesy of ArtAnon Studios   Technical Data Model number: YFS-101 Classification: test type energy weapon-optimized fighter Manufacturer: Browning Engineering Corporation Operator: Browning Corp First deployment: CY 20 Crew: 1 pilot and 1 navigator/gunner in cockpit Length: 17 meters, wingspan 16.70 meters Weight: 84 metric tons Armor type: “1D” carbyne…
May 20, 2021

Beato Finds What He’s Looking For

Veteran record producer and audio engineer Rick Beato helped lay more of the groundwork for Cultural Ground Zero theory - at least in the music sphere - than any other pop culture observer. In particular, he contributed the crucial datum that rock & roll died in 1996. The cause of…
May 20, 2021

Should Discovery Writers Outline?

Fiction writers can be divided into two broad types: architects who draw up thorough plot outlines before they start writing, and gardeners, or discovery writers, who just dive in and play it by ear. Some writers are natural outliners. Others are natural gardeners. A common complaint of the latter is…
May 20, 2021

What Were the 80s Like?

With the final year of the 1980s now thirty-two years in the past, a phenomenon that strikes many members of Generations X and Y as both curious and bittersweet has emerged online. The first Zoomers are now twenty. That means two generations have now reached adulthood with no living memory…
May 20, 2021
RoosterTeeth

Rare as Rooster Teeth

The internet may finally have found that much sought-after rarity: a company that has gone broke from getting woke. Except this legendary beast isn't a unicorn. It's a rooster. It is of no surprise to anyone that Rooster Teeth has had a very rough couple of months and that is…
May 20, 2021