![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Highguard shutting down already.
Mar. 4th, 2026 08:42 amWelp, chalk yet another one up[1] for the modern video game industry. For the absolute nothing it's worth, at least Highguard lasted longer than Concord did. Then again, Concord cost $40. Highguard was f2p. And yet, here we are. Same outcome.
So... how many more millions of dollars and years of dev time will be utterly wasted making these dead-on-arrival live-service/GaaS games that get shut down after a month or a week or whatever, before somebody in the modern video game industry finally learns a goddamn lesson from it? Or will they just keep standing amidst the smoldering remains of the dozens of these games that have failed over the past several years, pointing at the one or two vaguely "successful" ones, and continue thinking "Yes, that's us! We'll definitely be the next big thing!" Maybe, at the absolute very least, Tencent may think twice before it "secretly" funds another one of these abject disasters. (And, of course, it was general knowledge that Tencent had anything at all to do with it that was probably the final nail in the coffin for the shitshow that was "indie game" Highguard.)
C'mon, modern video game industry crash. C'moooooon, modern video game industry crash. Can't be soon enough.
[1] - As in a chalk outline, not a scoreboard tally.
"Indefinite Book Club Hiatus"
Mar. 3rd, 2026 11:25 pm"Today in 'Things that "AI" has ruined':"
A post, on John Scalzi's Whatever.
"If you're a scammer who uses 'AI' to try to defraud actual humans, please die in a fucking fire, thanks. For everyone else, sorry a flood of spam has ruined book clubs. It's awful for every one of us."
A post, on John Scalzi's Whatever.
"If you're a scammer who uses 'AI' to try to defraud actual humans, please die in a fucking fire, thanks. For everyone else, sorry a flood of spam has ruined book clubs. It's awful for every one of us."
"Marathon is good, actually"
Mar. 3rd, 2026 10:45 amFull headline, because of course it wouldn't all fit up there: "Marathon is good, actually: the Arc Raiders-rivalling extraction shooter proves Bungie has still got what made Halo and Destiny great"
My response to that, simply, is no. No, it is not. It is a live-service/GaaS multiplayer-only extraction shooter. By it's very nature, it is inherently not "good." I don't have to have actually played it myself (which I never will) to make that determination.
But then, I never even made it through the single player campaign of the original Halo, never touched the second or third games[1] (even though I had bought them all [used, on sale] for the Xbox 360 in ye olden days). I think when I finally got around to "trying" Halo, my interest in first person shooter games was already dwindling. And I have had less than zero interest in Destiny altogether, because it was a live-service/GaaS game back when those were first becoming a thing that existed.[2] Also, I've never played the original, ancient Marathon games, either. I do have them in my Steam library now, but that's only because they're all free, for what little that's worth, because I still haven't actually bothered to install them yet.
So... take what I say above with a grain of salt, I guess? *apathetic shrug* This will be all that I say about this new Marathon game. (Probably. In this post, at least. Unless a[nother] controversy erupts involving this game, or something. *weary sigh*)
[1] - Yes, I am aware that there are more than three Halo games now, but there weren't back then.
[2] - Well, if you ignore the much older, "traditional" MMO games. But I give/gave almost no shits about those, too.
My response to that, simply, is no. No, it is not. It is a live-service/GaaS multiplayer-only extraction shooter. By it's very nature, it is inherently not "good." I don't have to have actually played it myself (which I never will) to make that determination.
But then, I never even made it through the single player campaign of the original Halo, never touched the second or third games[1] (even though I had bought them all [used, on sale] for the Xbox 360 in ye olden days). I think when I finally got around to "trying" Halo, my interest in first person shooter games was already dwindling. And I have had less than zero interest in Destiny altogether, because it was a live-service/GaaS game back when those were first becoming a thing that existed.[2] Also, I've never played the original, ancient Marathon games, either. I do have them in my Steam library now, but that's only because they're all free, for what little that's worth, because I still haven't actually bothered to install them yet.
So... take what I say above with a grain of salt, I guess? *apathetic shrug* This will be all that I say about this new Marathon game. (Probably. In this post, at least. Unless a[nother] controversy erupts involving this game, or something. *weary sigh*)
[1] - Yes, I am aware that there are more than three Halo games now, but there weren't back then.
[2] - Well, if you ignore the much older, "traditional" MMO games. But I give/gave almost no shits about those, too.
The scale of things
Mar. 2nd, 2026 01:58 amSo I was looking at something or other on TVTropes, doesn't really matter what, but one thing lead to another, and I ended up on the Time Abyss page (not for the first time). At the bottom of that page, they have an excerpt of a little video describing scales of time (I'll refer back to this again in a bit).
That, in turn, led me to looking at the actual MetaBallStudios Youtube channel (for the first time), which is where that video originally came from. Most of the videos on that channel seem to be fun/cool/scary little things that describe the scales of varying concepts.
Like monsters.
Or space ships.
Those are neat and all, but I didn't go there for those small potatoes.
I mean, you might think space would win, right? But (back to the above) time dwarfs space.
Beyond that, it's just the concept of numbers itself. Unlike what that title of that video says, it doesn't actually go to infinity, obviously. If it tried to go to infinity, the video would have never ended. It stops at "merely" Rayo's number.
I'm not sure where my weirdo number would fit in that last one, but it's probably not as big as Rayo's number, just based on the very definition of Rayo's number.
That, in turn, led me to looking at the actual MetaBallStudios Youtube channel (for the first time), which is where that video originally came from. Most of the videos on that channel seem to be fun/cool/scary little things that describe the scales of varying concepts.
Like monsters.
Or space ships.
Those are neat and all, but I didn't go there for those small potatoes.
I mean, you might think space would win, right? But (back to the above) time dwarfs space.
Beyond that, it's just the concept of numbers itself. Unlike what that title of that video says, it doesn't actually go to infinity, obviously. If it tried to go to infinity, the video would have never ended. It stops at "merely" Rayo's number.
I'm not sure where my weirdo number would fit in that last one, but it's probably not as big as Rayo's number, just based on the very definition of Rayo's number.
I haven't seen anything past the original Neon Genesis Evangelion and The End of Evangelion movie. Nothing from Rebuild (yet). And I remember almost nothing about what I have seen, since it's been probably at least two decades since I watched NGE. So... if I want to watch this new stuff when it drops, I feel like I have a lot of catching up to do first, which would probably include rewatching all of the original stuff as well.
Here is the trailer they are referring to in the above video. Yeah, that sure sounds like Nier. (I also should probably get around to starting a new playthrough of Nier Replicant someday, since I never finished it [Steams says I played it for around 20 hours, as of June 2025], and then play Nier Automata, since I haven't touched that one at all, yet.)
I'm not posting this to join the lamentation about the shut down of "Myrient," because I'd never even heard of "Myrient" prior to reading this article, and its shutdown does not affect me personally.
I'm also not necessarily posting this to say that while I disagree with roughly 99.9999% of the holier-than-thou whinging of that "GodlessPreservation" assclown down in the comments about how "objectively theft" and "morally wrong" roms sites are, I do agree that calling a rom site a "preservation service" is, at best, highly disingenuous.
I'm not even posting this to say that, yeah, the AI bubble is indeed a big reason why computer parts cost an arm and a leg now (when they only cost maybe an arm or a leg before), i.e. one of many reasons why the AI bubble needs to burst ASAP.
No, I am primarily posting this because it contains a proper, legitimate, and correct usage of the phrase "out of pocket." Increasingly rare, that.
I'm also not necessarily posting this to say that while I disagree with roughly 99.9999% of the holier-than-thou whinging of that "GodlessPreservation" assclown down in the comments about how "objectively theft" and "morally wrong" roms sites are, I do agree that calling a rom site a "preservation service" is, at best, highly disingenuous.
I'm not even posting this to say that, yeah, the AI bubble is indeed a big reason why computer parts cost an arm and a leg now (when they only cost maybe an arm or a leg before), i.e. one of many reasons why the AI bubble needs to burst ASAP.
No, I am primarily posting this because it contains a proper, legitimate, and correct usage of the phrase "out of pocket." Increasingly rare, that.
In this dispute, on the one side, is an AI company, which, simply by virtue of being an AI company, is inherently, intrinsically, and innately scummy, as could be observed by anyone following all this crap for the past few years.
And yet, in this confrontation, the AI company is the fucking good guy hero in comparison to the other side, on which we have the true epitome of putrid scumbaggery: the Donald Trump """"""""""administration.""""""""""
That's the state of the world we live in right now.
(EDIT)
Follow up article: "Trump orders federal agencies to stop using Anthropic technology in dispute over AI safety"
Of particular disgust: "The move is likely to benefit Elon Musk's competing chatbot, Grok, which the Pentagon plans to give access to classified military networks, and could serve as a warning to two other competitors, Google and OpenAI, that also have contracts to supply their AI tools to the military."
The fucking last thing we need is fucking Grok, of all fucking gen-AIs, being given "access to classified military networks." Imagine if Skynet wasn't just a stereotypical genocidal "evil AI" but was also a racist, neo-Nazi piece of shit on top of that. That's Grok. Do we really want Elon Musk and his gen-AI Mini-Me to have "access to classified military networks"? I mean, no, we don't, not any more than we'd want any of these other AI bros in charge of them, but if we had to give an AI bro "access to classified military networks," Phony Stark is probably by far the worst choice of all. I mean, just look at how much shit Elron Mustard managed to fuck up when he was "merely" the head of DOGE. Oh, and what happens if Sissy SpaceX and Dumbshit Jackass get into another pissing contest again? Something to ponder.
(/EDIT)
And yet, in this confrontation, the AI company is the fucking good guy hero in comparison to the other side, on which we have the true epitome of putrid scumbaggery: the Donald Trump """"""""""administration.""""""""""
That's the state of the world we live in right now.
(EDIT)
Follow up article: "Trump orders federal agencies to stop using Anthropic technology in dispute over AI safety"
Of particular disgust: "The move is likely to benefit Elon Musk's competing chatbot, Grok, which the Pentagon plans to give access to classified military networks, and could serve as a warning to two other competitors, Google and OpenAI, that also have contracts to supply their AI tools to the military."
The fucking last thing we need is fucking Grok, of all fucking gen-AIs, being given "access to classified military networks." Imagine if Skynet wasn't just a stereotypical genocidal "evil AI" but was also a racist, neo-Nazi piece of shit on top of that. That's Grok. Do we really want Elon Musk and his gen-AI Mini-Me to have "access to classified military networks"? I mean, no, we don't, not any more than we'd want any of these other AI bros in charge of them, but if we had to give an AI bro "access to classified military networks," Phony Stark is probably by far the worst choice of all. I mean, just look at how much shit Elron Mustard managed to fuck up when he was "merely" the head of DOGE. Oh, and what happens if Sissy SpaceX and Dumbshit Jackass get into another pissing contest again? Something to ponder.
(/EDIT)
Woolie, in a questioning voice: "You want to encourage people to take swings for... good ideas...? that could be cool?"
Which... Highguard was not, nor was it ever going to be. Because it was a fucking live-service/GaaS "free-to-play 'PvP raid shooter.'" I don't care how "good" it might have been (in some other universe that is not this one), because even a so-called "good" live-service/GaaS "free-to-play 'PvP raid shooter'" is still a fucking live-service/GaaS "free-to-play 'PvP raid shooter.'"
Yeah, the Tencent news is probably the flush that'll finally get this turd to go the rest of the way down, especially since Tencent apparently didn't even want it known in the first place, presumably so that it could be (disingenuously/fraudulently) marketed as an "indie" game. (Basically, Wildlight Entertainment is about as "indie" as Larian is, more or less.)
Woolie: "'Video games are hard to make' is never a valid defense." <-- This.
I'm totally in favor of giving the benefit of the doubt to small indie games made by one person, even if it might be janky.
Which, again... Highguard most assuredly was not, especially with this news about Tencent "secretly" funding it.
Woolie: "We need funding disclosure documents to be made public, specifically so the we can know how mean to be to you. *pauses, laughs, then raises voice and speaks more emphatically* Funding disclosure needs to be public, so that we may accurately be as mean as we need to be to the video game."
Anyway, I expect this cycle to spin yet again when the new live-service Marathon game releases in a week or so. Though, as Pat pointed out, nobody is trying to pretend like Marathon is some "indie" game, at least.
Just got a summons for jury duty.
Feb. 24th, 2026 04:38 pm<sarcastic monotone> Yay. </sarcastic monotone>
Summons is for Rockingham County, NC "for the week beginning Friday, March 6, 2026." (Bold and underline theirs.)
Well, technically, I "got" it on January 20, or at least that's the date on the form, but since my sister with whom I currently live picked up the mail during that time period, and she had been staying with one of my other sisters for roughly half of January and half of February, my mail only just got handed to me about 15 minutes ago.
This is a first for me, so I have no real idea what to expect, other than what the Internet tells me, which isn't too awfully much. Hopefully, it'll just be a one-to-two-day thing at most, and not some high profile, multi-week murder trial or some shit. And that's assuming I even get selected for a jury, I guess. Either way, I suppose I'll be able to say that I've finally done jury duty, or at least got summoned for it, if nothing else. *shrug*
Summons is for Rockingham County, NC "for the week beginning Friday, March 6, 2026." (Bold and underline theirs.)
Well, technically, I "got" it on January 20, or at least that's the date on the form, but since my sister with whom I currently live picked up the mail during that time period, and she had been staying with one of my other sisters for roughly half of January and half of February, my mail only just got handed to me about 15 minutes ago.
This is a first for me, so I have no real idea what to expect, other than what the Internet tells me, which isn't too awfully much. Hopefully, it'll just be a one-to-two-day thing at most, and not some high profile, multi-week murder trial or some shit. And that's assuming I even get selected for a jury, I guess. Either way, I suppose I'll be able to say that I've finally done jury duty, or at least got summoned for it, if nothing else. *shrug*
Donald Trump's approval rating...
Feb. 23rd, 2026 07:21 pmIf I see or hear something that mentions Trump's approval rating and how it has "hit a record low" or whatever, when I check to see what it is, I'm never not utterly flabbergasted by the fact that it is still in the 35-45% range. That, too me, is still way too astronomically high a rating for that dipshit. If we lived in a perfect, ideal world[1], his approval ratings would be consistently circling around the drain of 0%.
[1] - Which we don't, obviously, because if we really did live in a perfect, ideal world, Hillary Clinton would have just finished her second term as POTUS a year and a month ago, and another Democrat would be in the Oval Office right now.
[1] - Which we don't, obviously, because if we really did live in a perfect, ideal world, Hillary Clinton would have just finished her second term as POTUS a year and a month ago, and another Democrat would be in the Oval Office right now.
(EDIT)
Embed removed because the Youtube account got nuked, apparently.
Here is a Wayback calendar link, for what it's worth, but of the few instances I tried, I couldn't get the video to actually play.
(/EDIT)
Comedians don't know how to joke about Trump. They're just angry and that isn't funny.
I think jokes about Trump could be funny, but it's like Conan said. It's very difficult to satirize or parody Trump, because Trump is, essentially, already a living parody of himself, or at least a parody of a properly functioning human being, anyway.
But more than that, as I've said before, a parody is something that, in essence, isn't true, so if you try to parody Trump and he finds out about it, all that does is "strengthen" his bullshit, disingenuous "Lügenpresse" narrative. Again, as I've said before, there's no need to make up shit about Trump, because the shit that Trump actually does is already ridiculous enough as it is. It is actively counterproductive to make up "funny" shit about Trump, given that he just uses the made-up shit as "proof" that "everyone is out to get him."
And yeah, just saying "hey, look at the fresh hell of stupid dogshit Trump has unleashed upon us today," isn't funny at all, especially when you're doing it practically every single day. At that point, you're essentially just a reporter, not a comedian.
Anyway, in conclusion, the hell forever with Donald Trump, and the sooner the better, as usual.
Embed removed because the Youtube account got nuked, apparently.
Here is a Wayback calendar link, for what it's worth, but of the few instances I tried, I couldn't get the video to actually play.
(/EDIT)
Comedians don't know how to joke about Trump. They're just angry and that isn't funny.
I think jokes about Trump could be funny, but it's like Conan said. It's very difficult to satirize or parody Trump, because Trump is, essentially, already a living parody of himself, or at least a parody of a properly functioning human being, anyway.
But more than that, as I've said before, a parody is something that, in essence, isn't true, so if you try to parody Trump and he finds out about it, all that does is "strengthen" his bullshit, disingenuous "Lügenpresse" narrative. Again, as I've said before, there's no need to make up shit about Trump, because the shit that Trump actually does is already ridiculous enough as it is. It is actively counterproductive to make up "funny" shit about Trump, given that he just uses the made-up shit as "proof" that "everyone is out to get him."
And yeah, just saying "hey, look at the fresh hell of stupid dogshit Trump has unleashed upon us today," isn't funny at all, especially when you're doing it practically every single day. At that point, you're essentially just a reporter, not a comedian.
Anyway, in conclusion, the hell forever with Donald Trump, and the sooner the better, as usual.
The gist of this is that for most of these studios, it's either been 1) they seem to have done absolutely nothing since being bought by Sony, or 2) they are/were working on some vaporware live-service/GaaS bullshit, which might as well be absolutely nothing. Only a couple of them have actually made anything noteworthy since being acquired by Sony.
It's almost as if a small studio being consumed by a big publisher is almost invariably a bad thing for the small studio in the long run (or even the very, very short run), as per the trend I've observed, time and time again, for at least 30 years now. Especially if the big publisher likes to chase after asinine, shitty fads that are way outside the wheelhouse of the small studio.
It's almost as if a small studio being consumed by a big publisher is almost invariably a bad thing for the small studio in the long run (or even the very, very short run), as per the trend I've observed, time and time again, for at least 30 years now. Especially if the big publisher likes to chase after asinine, shitty fads that are way outside the wheelhouse of the small studio.
Basically, they are (or, at least, Pat is) excited that a new Castlevania is coming out, but they also concede that Konami still sucks putrid ass, just generally speaking. I agree with both points.
Regarding the Netflix Castlevania stuff... I watched all four seasons of the Trevor/Sypha/Alucard series, and it was good, with the first being the best of the lot. And I've so far watched the first season of the Richter/Maria series, but haven't yet seen any of it past that. The first season of that was okay, but not as good as the previous series. None of what I've seen was anything I would call "bad" or "shit," but again, I haven't yet seen the latest of the latest, so maybe it is. *shrug*
Huh. How about that.
Good on the SCOTUS, which is something I haven't been able to say in a good long while.
*deletes a lot of commentary on specific egregiously asinine things that Trump and Kavanaugh said/wrote as quoted in the article, because I decided I just don't want to deal with that shit at all, actually, because fuck 'em*
Well, whatever, only slightly less than three more quettaseconds left before Trump's gone, at least, and then we won't have to worry about any of this shit anymore. We'll only have to worry about cleaning up the aftermath, is all. (Or so I dearly hope.)
Anyway, in conclusion, to hell forever with Donald Trump, and also with Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, and Brett Kavanaugh, and the sooner the better, as usual. (EDIT) Actually, wait, no, I take that back in the case of the three SCOTUS justices. They should totally wait until after 1) Trump precedes them to hell or 2) Trump is no longer SCROTUS IMPOTUS, whichever comes first. Otherwise, Trump would just replace them with someone probably even worse. ¬_¬ (/EDIT)
Good on the SCOTUS, which is something I haven't been able to say in a good long while.
*deletes a lot of commentary on specific egregiously asinine things that Trump and Kavanaugh said/wrote as quoted in the article, because I decided I just don't want to deal with that shit at all, actually, because fuck 'em*
Well, whatever, only slightly less than three more quettaseconds left before Trump's gone, at least, and then we won't have to worry about any of this shit anymore. We'll only have to worry about cleaning up the aftermath, is all. (Or so I dearly hope.)
Anyway, in conclusion, to hell forever with Donald Trump, and also with Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, and Brett Kavanaugh, and the sooner the better, as usual. (EDIT) Actually, wait, no, I take that back in the case of the three SCOTUS justices. They should totally wait until after 1) Trump precedes them to hell or 2) Trump is no longer SCROTUS IMPOTUS, whichever comes first. Otherwise, Trump would just replace them with someone probably even worse. ¬_¬ (/EDIT)