The Other Amazon

The Other Amazon

Original Diablo developer Mark Kern calls out Blizzard's woke revisionism in Diablo II: Resurrected.     Mark is better qualified to take Blizzard to task than most, being a pre-Ground Zero game dev from the days when developers made games for players, not for themselves. Author Adam Lane Smith sums…
April 16, 20215 Comments
Gaming Ground Zero

Gaming Ground Zero

In which author David V. Stewart takes the Cultural Ground Zero ball and advances it ten years down the field: Maybe you’ve heard of cultural ground zero: 1997.     Now let’s talk games, because unlike other institutions of culture, the games industry kept on growing and innovating for another…
April 7, 202111 Comments
Chronology

Chronology

These decades later, 1995's Chrono Trigger stands as the capstone of the 2D JRPG genre. You could argue that Final Fantasy VI, released the year prior, is the better game on aesthetic or technical grounds. But at least in North America, CT marked the end of an era when console…
April 5, 202111 Comments
Robot Fighters Return!

Robot Fighters Return!

One big disadvantage that dissidents labor under is a strong individualist streak. This affinity for rugged self-reliance is often bandied about as a virtue, but in a social climate where the dominant opposition's M.O. is to isolate, polarize, and freeze targets, that virtue becomes a vice.A few of the more…
March 8, 20212 Comments
Time Machine

Time Machines

Did you know that you own a time machine? As a matter of fact, you probably own several. Even if you don't have all the necessary components, any missing parts of your homemade time machine will be relatively easy and cost-effective to obtain. In this post, I will tell you…
January 20, 202111 Comments
Trains and Traditions

Trains and Traditions

Say what you will about the MAGA movement. A necessary premise of its core argument is that America was once a great nation, but somewhere along the line we lost our way. The fact that this message resonated with half the country should sound alarm bells. An older thread from…
December 8, 202012 Comments
Fun and Games

Fun and Games

 The crowning feather in Vampire: The Masquerade's cap has always been its rich and extensive lore. Its video game tie-ins' forays into SMRT stories aside, VtM boasts an immersive setting that deftly synthesizes a broad spectrum of influences from Bram Stoker to Anne Rice; from Slavic folk tales to Genesis--which…
December 7, 20201 Comment
Combat Frame XSeed: Pocket War

Combat Frame XSeed: Pocket War

Over the weekend, I attended a special three-day workshop organized by fans of Combat Frame XSeed. Soc Con wasn't your typical convention intended to lavish praise on the IP creator. All of the organizers and attendees are serious subject matter experts who convened with one goal and one goal only:…
November 23, 20202 Comments
Rehabilitating E.T.

Rehabilitating E.T.

You know that a new medium has come into its own when its subculture bleeds into pop culture. Old media still defaults to treating video games like some novel fad, even though they've been around for half a century now. Yet gaming rivals Hollywood as the most influential force in…
October 26, 202026 Comments
Terra Incognita

Terra Incognita

Like a lot of people, I've been on a nostalgia trip lately. The accelerating societal collapse seems to be the catalyst for this phenomenon, so it makes sense that much of today's nostalgia revolves around the High 90s--when most entertainment media sang their swan songs prior to hitting cultural ground zero. For…
July 23, 202035 Comments