Oh, internets. How we love you so. Unfortunately, many governments and corporations want to put an end to Internet neutrality. That means everything we take for granted on the internet, such as the equal ability to use the internet to promote ourselves, our work, and our beliefs will probably go away, and in its place will be corporate crap that's spoon fed to us, because as we all know: Big companies such as Disney and Viacom know what we love and have the consumer's best interest in mind. *Cough-cough*
But as much as I hate the thought of a Government or Corporate run internet, I can't help but notice that a lot of Pro-Net neutral people are taking steps to make it possible.
For those of you who haven't been reading the News, one of the biggest net related events to happen this year is Playstation Network getting hacked. This not only affected my Battlefield time, but it compromised the security of over 70 million accounts. The reason for the shitstorm? Sony filed charges against people who were hacking the PS3 to allow things such as Linux to run on them.
The case was later settled out of court I believe, but that's not relevant right now. What is, is the action taken by "Hacktivist" to show their distaste for Sony. From what I understand, what the guys were doing wasn't that big of deal - and while I believe Sony has every right to protect the integrity of their products and software, the original charges might have been too harsh.
But the problem with the actions taken by the Hacktivist was that it not only affected Sony, but innocent people who just happened to own a PS3. These kinds of actions gives the impression to both outsiders and internet users alike that a Government enforced internet isn't such a bad idea.
No one wants their identity or personal income compromised, and that's exactly what these guys did.
Another good example of asshatery by hackivist is the PBS website hack. Frontline did a show on Wikileaks, which did a critical look at the sites operations. Granted, I don't know much about Wikileaks, or the drama behind it. I know it exposed some pretty heavy shit, but that's about it.
Anyway, after the broadcast, a Hacktivist group decided to take action by defacing the PBS website, and the group responsible for it, named Lulsec, had this to say:
"We just finished watching WikiSecrets and were less than impressed. We decided to sail our Lulz Boat over to the PBS servers for further… perusing" “Anyway, say hello to the insides of the PBS servers, folks. They best watch where they’re sailing next time.”
Sooo, they say something you don't like to hear, this means you got to troll them? That's not only pretty damn childish, but makes most arguments for Net neutrality null and void. This is the kind of short sighted nonsense that's going to end up getting the Government to bring the hammer down on the internet.
You could say that this is an act of free speech, but there's much better ways of expressing free speech than deliberately defacing people's shit.
Now, I can't be a total internet paladin. I've done some silly things on the internet - no where near hacking into someone elses webpage (I don't have the ability to do so) - but silly trolling nonetheless. But we have to think long and hard about our actions, and how we plan to operate if we want to actually preserve the internet as it is now.
We can't just go around hacking this and defacing that all willy nilly. These actions hurt Pro-Net neutral goals in the long run. There's no room to be short-sighted anymore, because both governments and corporations are taking steps to find ways to enforce the internet.
I mean hell, the thought of an Internet "Kill switch" is already proof enough that people think there's some sort of danger associated with the internet.
Why not prove them wrong by stopping the childish bullshit, and doing something that shows the internet can operate in its current form?
It's the beginning of the end of the world (Yet again) so I thought I'd make a post to celebrate, and who knows, it could be my last post. You never know - backwoods hicks that spend too much time reading the Bible (without realizing that it says that God will never let it be known WHEN the world will end) might actually be right this time, but I'm not holding my breath.
Personally, me and my friends believe it's going to be a Zombie Apocalypse, because it seems most obvious. What better way to end the world than an awesome flesh eating party with shot guns and a legion of undead minions?
Who knows, he could've known that my generation has been planning for a Zombie Apocalypse ever since we saw Dawn of the Dead (The original, mind you) at the dead of night at the age of 11. In this day and age, if a Zombie apocalypse happened, we'd all be way too ready for it.
Anyway, I've nothing to really rant about, nor do I have much to talk about. I was handed something called the Atheist Bible by a Baptist minister, but it's not what you expect - It's really just a book that tries to convert Atheists. Maybe he thinks I was atheist? Or maybe he just wanted to get rid of it. Who knows, but I'm not gonna sit here and talk about it. That would take me caring enough to read through it thoroughly and write out nearly every silly thing it says.
Fuck man, I've nothing to asinine to bitch about this time around. Or else I'd be 2,000 words deep into an article about something that doesn't matter. I mean, I did get angry at GIMP, because it's not doing what I want correctly. Seriously, when I got to go into a program that was outdated in 1999 to correct something on my work, you know I've given up trying to understand GIMP. Not that I don't understand GIMP. I just don't understand it fully...
Mostly because I don't want to. Kind of waiting for the day that I can buy me Photoshop and use that once again. <3
I should probably just download it like any regular person, but I prefer not to. If it's gonna be my art, I want to have gotten my tools via legal means. I don't know, it's a moral thing.
I guess I can talk about my latest interest in the Pen and Paper RPG scene, and that is Pathfinder.
What is Pathfinder? It's a D20 game system based on the 3.5 rules. It basically modifies and updates the revised 3rd edition rules, and honestly, it does a pretty good job of it. It's also backwards compatible with the 3rd edition dnd books, so you won't lose much as far as character and story design going into it if you still have a 3rd edition game going and you want to change to this.
But I'm not going to get into the gritty details of the book - I haven't have that much experience with it, and I don't really have interest in doing a review. All I can say is that so far, it's awesome. But there's no harm in talking about it while I have nothing to talk about.
Being someone who was introduced to DnD through the 3.5 rules, I found this to be really cool. I've read a bit of the 4th edition and never really got into it. This seems more up my alley since it not only allows you to keep the fantasy setting, but expands on a ruleset (that I'm used to) that has since been abandoned for a different version of the D20 system.
Plus, the art in this book is amazing. I love the look so much better than what's in the original DnD books. While they do have some good art work in the DnD books - I've felt that it was always a been bland as far as fantasy goes. Sort of a "too traditional" high fantasy setting. With Pathfinder, it feels it adds an ethnic look to the high fantasy setting, giving it more flavor. The look of the Barbarian in the class section, for example, looks like a girl that would have been fighting for her life in the Conan series of stories, and the Cleric has a very Middle Eastern look.
I had seen this game when it was first released in 2009, but at that time, I was into Exalted, and I didn't really have an interest in deviating from the Storyteller system.
But my brother let me barrow this book the other day, and so far, I'm kind of impressed.
They've addressed some of the issues I had with the original revised Booklet, one of which is making Sorcerers more interesting , so much so that my newest character will be a Barbarian/Sorcerer multiclass.
(ALSO AWWW SHIT I HEARD LIGHTNING. END OF THE WORLD IS COMING GUYZ)
Anyway, the book seems solid. Not only has it done a pretty good job with updating 3.5, but you can pretty much use just the core rulebook to play the damn game.
That's always something that turned me away from DnD - It always felt like that you needed the Players handbook, the monster manual, the DM book, and a host of errata in order to play DnD. At least - this is the impression I got from an Exalted player standpoint.
With Exalted, you also only need 1 book, the main book. Everything else is just expansion material, although you need the expanded books if you want to play something cooler than a Solar - I prefer playing Lunars and Alchemicals myself.
So, only needing one book is a huge plus, especially since if you're the type to use miniatures while playing RPGs, you can save some money by worrying about other books later.
But alas, my brother is graduating college tomorrow, so I gotta get to bed.
Maybe I'll post character profiles later, since I've got nothing else to do with this blog at the moment.
Nothing says "geek" like posting your imaginary characters from RPGs.
Hmm, forgot I made this. Oh well, might as well update while I have something on my mind.
First off, been doing some shopping over the weekend for some hot Dieselpunk attire, which accumulates to me going to goodwill and buying some old dress clothes. Still, I look pretty damn sexy.
You might be asking yourself: What is Diesel Punk? Why are dressed like a total gangster from the 1920s? Where did you get that Fedora?
STYLIN, and possibly high.
Well, that's not a Fedora, it's a Trilby.
I was actually corrected on that fact just recently. You learn new things everyday.
Anyway, dieselpunk is a derivative of Cyberpunk, much like Steampunk is. It's all about modernizing the Diesel era, most notably the 1920's to the 1940's. It's slightly different from Steampunk, however, as it's not about taking modern or sci-fi technology and translating it into a Victorian "steam-esque" motif, but more about taking the technology of the Diesel era and translating it into a modern setting. I know that doesn't sound that much different, but it's kind of hard to explain without making a huge page about it. The only thing you need to know about it, though, is that it's about self expression and creativity, which makes it a fucking win in my book.
I mean, it is like its own art form in a way. I love it. I'll be sure to post more to my empty part of the internet where nobody watches as I find more things to show off...to nobody...
Anyway, I do have something I'd like to talk about - A subject that was brought to my attention when I was watching one of Asaliari's videos. (As explained earlier, he reviews online reviewers.)
He called attention to a man that goes by the "RPG Fanatic" on youtube. He reviews RPG's and talks about RPG related subjects. This would be cool for me, if it didn't turn out that the guy is as pompous as they get.
There's a guy named Roo whose on Blistered Thumbs, (I believe, anyway) who did a game review and mentioned JRPG's (Japanese Role Playing Games), and gave his opinion on how this is a valid term for Japanese born RPGs. The RPG fanatic (I'll just call him Jfreedan from now on.) seems to have felt this video was somehow a personal attack against him, and made 20 minute rant rebuttal to this Roo's 5 minute segment on the subject. Here's J's video, although you might want to make sure you're adblocker is on, as his videos are full of ads.
In this rant, he proceeds to get his viewpoint across in the most childish way possible. Not only acting as if he is the authority on RPG's, but even managed to call Roo a racist. This video created a small shit storm when Asa stepped in and decided to not only make one, but two videos dedicated to Jfreedan and his antics.
This is the second video by Asa. I prefer this video because he cut the humor and decided to get straight down to business. Not that I don't think the guy can be funny on occasion, but when you're calling someone out, I believe you have to take a more serious approach.
At first, I thought Jfreedan might have just overreacted a bit when making his video. I figured they would have talked everything out privately and moved on. - That's not the case. He ended up spamming and throwing mud at Asa almost hours after the video was released, and then proceeded to block all of Asa's accounts, along with many other people he believed were "trolling him". Really, J? Really?
After doing some..er.."research" (Provided by Asa in the video above), I noticed that this guy doesn't take criticism very well. In fact, he can't even admit to being wrong to anything. Let me give you an example from a forum he frequents, "Henshinjustice":
"Well all of my money is going toward my own project and otherwise, to be perfectly honest, based on the stuff you have to show I'm not convinced that $6000 is what you need. My opinion is that you should try and scale your ambitions back and focus on being as creative as possible within the limits of a considerably smaller budget.
Those are my thoughts, at least." - HSJ user giving J some advice.
"...As for scaling back ambitions, modern audiences have big expectations, and there are plenty of threads in this forum that prove that. And you can't just run around filming in a city, because if you gain any notoriety later the city and store front owners will sue you for having filmed without a permit / agreement..." -Jfreedan, rebutting
"What I was trying to say - and I'm struggling to find a way to say it without coming across as offensive - is that I don't think your proof-of-concept is up to snuff. At least not enough to move up to a $6000 budget, anyway. When I say scale back on your ambitions I mean put this project on hold and work on making a better proof-of-concept short. Make a ten-minute short that shows off the tightest script, slickest editing, and most eye-popping effects you can muster and THEN ask people for $6000 for your feature.
Again, that's my opinion." -That same user.
Basically, J wants to make a Tokusatsu webseries, and was trying to raise 6000$ to do so. This user, and others on the forum, said that he should scale down his ambitions or put this project on hold until he has something to showcase his talent. Apparently, J took this as an offense, and he spiraled the thread into the gutter. You don't have to take my word for it, though. Here is the thread in question.
"Continuing to insist I should do something else is incredibly silly because you don't have any basis to make that judgment call. Insisting that I need to learn to tell stories when you have very little to go on concerning my story-telling ability is also silly because you have no basis to make that judgment call."
Here is Jfreedan not understanding the advice given to him by his peers. They say something along the lines of "Hey, you should put yourself out there and show you have talent before you ask people for money", but he apparently thinks they're stepping on his ego, and he doesn't like that. The point they were trying to make was that you have nothing to show that you have the talent to pull off what you're wanting to do. Please show us before you beg for our money like a fucking hobo.
This is what J considers "showing his viewers" his "talents". Aside from the fact that this story board is complete shit, there's nothing to show that he has any real understanding of cinematography, acting, or directing at a practical scale. All we get from this is that he probably doesn't know how to tell a story.
How he can even consider this as a means of showing himself off is beyond me. I can't knock it too much, I guess. He did raise the money. (Then again, Twilight is a multi million dollar franchise now, so I shouldn't be too surprised.)
But I'd like to digress a bit and talk about the subject that got me posting this, which is if JRPG is a valid term to classify RPGs.
Honestly, I've been around gaming since I can remember. Some of my earliest memories were peeing on my brother's NES (Sorry, nate), and growing up, I was either on the computer, or a console. Thing is, I've always called games by their most base genres - RPGs, FPS, Puzzle, Adventure, etc. only deviating from that for certain games like Mass Effect (RPG shooter) or MMORPGs.(Which is more of a general genre now than a subgenre, it seems.) This is what I do, and what my friends do. We've no need for complicated terms like "Sandbox static nonlinear RPG".
So, when I first heard of this argument, I thought to myself "Does this even really matter?". But I guess if you want to get technical, they have their purpose.
When I hear Jfreedan's argument, it does kind of make sense. Basing games on their gameplay mechanics seems to make a lot more sense than lumping a whole bunch of games together in what could be considered a broad genre. Then again, Japanese culture, storytelling, and general aesthetics make their games just feel different from Western games, which gives the term validity in a sense.
Either way, it doesn't really matter to me. Dragon Age is an RPG to me just as FF13 is an RPG to me. I mean, I tried defending Asa and Roo's take on the subject, but I have no interest in it. Especially when I think that J's argument might hold ground if he wasn't such a pompous little prick.
Which is what this is really about: Jfreedan is a prick. Plain and simple. From what I've seen, the man can't take criticism, can't admit to his wrongs, and I believe his inflated ego is the prime cause of this.
But Jfreedan, if you ever manage to come to my little blog in the middle of nowhere, I have some advice for you. It's okay, I'm here for you, buddy.
First of all, learn to stop taking games so seriously. Yeah, I get it, you want them to be represented as an art form, but they're main purpose is for entertainment. Take it from someone who spent much of his childhood and school years in art classes - you don't need to take it as seriously as you do, and the last thing the gaming community needs is another asshole.
Second, learn to take a step back and listen to what your peers have to say. The people at HSJ were only trying to help, and you ended up insulting their work and second guessing their experience when you yourself have shown absolutely nothing that would qualify yourself as a serious and talented filmmaker. No, your silly reviews don't count.
Third, take down this video:
All this video has managed to do is show that you think scaring 3 year olds is A-OKAY! If I were the father in that video, you would have received a very serious ass beating.
Fourth, stop acting like you made the movement against the JRPG term. You didn't. You didn't even make it popular. In fact, it's not even that popular. I think that's proof enough that no one gives a shit.
If you feel that JRPG shouldn't be used, that's cool, more power to you, but when you prance around like a knight and make 20 minute rant videos to people who weren't even talking to you, then you just come off as a dick.
Fifth, as to not further sully your already deteriorating reputation, you should make a public apology to Roo, Asa, and all of the people who you've pissed off within the past few months on HSJ. Learn to admit your wrongs, and you'll be a better person. Nobody likes a know it all.
Sixth, Give up Death Ninja GKaiser whatever. That shit is weak, son. I'm sorry, I'm not usually a straight forward prick, but really? That's what you want to do? You go around all over the internet talking about how you're a "storyteller" and how you want to "create a vast story", yet all you muster up is a scene with a shitty Monarch rip off and a reference to the Wizard which was old when the Nostalgia Critic did it? Please. I've written better shit than you, and I don't even update my comic near enough for people to have a grasp of where my story is going.
That's not even the worst part - the script in general is just terrible. Please, either rewrite that crap or just throw it away.
Now, I can fully admit to being hypocritical here - I'm usually all about constructive criticism. So, I'll be a little more constructive:
- The dialog is very poorly thought out and it flows terribly. Clunky sentences like "LSD? IS THAT WHAT UR ON?!?" just doesn't sound right coming out.
-Names like "The Legion of Spooky Doom" and "Dark Shanobi" sound like you asked some random 8 year old to give you some ideas. It doesn't give any weight to the claims of your suppose "awesome writing ability" you like to brag about. Try revising the names a little so as to not seem like you're going to your local elementary school for ideas.
The only thing I could find that was even remotely clever was the Microsoft reference, which makes me assume you're a macfag. I think this is very contradictory to your claims of being a gamer, as the Mac has shit for games. But that's just my opinion.
I know, it's a 5 minute segment of an uncompleted script, but if this is basis of what you want to show to the world, I don't think you'll have a future in film making...unless you get hired to direct Cats and Dogs 3 or something...
Anyway, you (the unfortunate soul who sat through this) might be thinking, "Hey Topher, why do you gotta be a dick? It's not like you've done anything good either". Very astute, imaginary viewer. The thing is, I don't claim to have, and I certain don't hold myself in such high regard to think I'm any better at doing what I love to do than the next person who loves to do what I do. (Which is drawing and writing.)
Truth is, if I can make something that entertains, then I think I've done my job. If people can show me ways to improve, than awesome. Give me advice. Knock my ass down from my high chair, so I can build a sturdier chair.
As I've linked my Deviant art channel here already, I guess I can post the premise to greys here for those to scrutinize (Even you, Jfreedan!) Here you go, and enjoy:
"Greys is a science fiction satire that centers around the strange lives of Ahmu and Zeb, two aliens from the Zeta Reticuli star system whose mission on Earth is to observe and obtain samples, but not to interfere. This becomes complicated, however, when some of their subjects have gone missing, and the only way to uncover the mystery is to go to Earth themselves and investigate. Throughout their adventures, they meet an FBI agent with strange powers, a crazed Russian farmer, and Nikola Tesla.
The humor in Greys is centered around Alien and abduction pop culture, and references to real life accounts to supposed abductions, conspiracy theories, and alleged paranormal phenomenon."
And there you have it. Greys in a nutshell. It's not my main project, and it's certainly not updated as much as I want it to be, but it is, what it is.
And on that note, I'm gonna stop this here. I'm tired, and I have some things to do before I get ready for work tomorrow.
So, I got a bit sick doing a stupid little stunt the other day. What, you might ask? Driving home in heavy, pouring rain. It's actually more dangerous than it sounds, since there was hail, the streets were almost completely flooded, and the heavy rain and fast winds made it nearly impossible to navigate. My little Lexus could have easily turned into a boat at any time during the trip home.
Which, now that I think about it, might have been fun. Like being a pirate. Or one of those dudes from Deadliest Catch. Anyway...
I'm sure that any American by now has heard the "Obama is not American" conspiracy theory. It's gotten so bad, that Obama has had to show his actual Birth Certificate to the public, just as a means to silence critics. Did this silence the critics? Of course not, or else I wouldn't be making this blog post that no one will read.
Yesterday, Alex Jones posted a video on his Youtube channel entitled "PROOF!!! Obama Certificate Fraud". He needed two extra exclamation marks to show that this was serious business.
Since the certificate's release, many conspiracy theorist have also made videos detailing how the certificate is faked. I don't really need to get into detail about Alex's video, as anyone with even minor experience in Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop will know he's being retarded.
But we can talk about good ol' Alex Jones. For those of you who might be reading this and wondering "Who is Alex Jones, anyway?", he's a prominent figure within the Conspiracy Theory movements, most notably the New World Order and the 9/11 Truth Movement. To a lot of people, Jones is somewhat of a Guru of CT's, spreading the message of New World Government and 9/11 was an inside Job to the masses via his radio talk show.
Not that New World
I'd like to make note now that it would take far too long to sit here and try to debunk every single Alex Jones claim. I couldn't do it in one blog post, and I couldn't do it in 20 blog posts.
The guy has put at least 15 years into this, and has released several films regarding NWO conspiracy theories.
BUT, since there has been some recent fun since I've been writing this, I can focus on some of his newest claims, which are focused around the death of Osama Bin Ladin.
This is one of Alex's newest videos, regarding the death of Osama. According to him and Prisonplanet.com, the death was hoax to divert attention away from Obama's deteriorating approval ratings.
Now, the first thing I want everyone to notice (if anyone is even reading this) is Jone's sources. They almost always go to his webpage, or webpages that support him. Most notably, Prison Planet and Info Wars. What's even more strange is that he links four articles that spit nearly the same thing.
The first article I read, called "Red Alert: Government has Osama Frozen for years" is the first article published by them regarding the newest news of Osama's death. The article gives no real evidence of the titles claim or even a mention of it. Just a bitter bias attitude and going into unofficial death announcements of Bin Laden's death.
Yes, this isn't the first time Bin Laden was reported dead. One of the news sites that claimed this was even Fox News (Not an entirely credible news source. I think I'd believe World Weekly News over them any day.), but all of this information is speculation at best. From what I've been able to see, half of it was hearsay being passed down, while the other half was opinions from government officials, which Alex Jones and his cohorts took as "official confirmation" of Osama's death.
This report has been the first official confirmation of Bin Laden's death. It's very easy to speculate if a man is dead or not when he's nearly always hiding.
"A multitude of different inside sources both publicly and privately, including one individual who personally worked with Bin Laden at one time, told us directly that Osama’s dead corpse has been on ice for nearly a decade and that his “death” would only be announced at the most politically expedient time."
What sources? The article literally gives no real source for this information, just two passing mentions of it in the article. This article then follows suit and does the exact same thing the original article does; pull up irrelevant information of both people's opinions and unofficial death announcements of Osama. How is this investigative journalism?
Okay, let's just move on, Bin Laden Pronounced dead...for the ninth time'
Again, it's the same thing. More talking about the unofficial death announcements and opinions of state and government officials.
"Now in 2011, President Obama has added himself to the mix of people in positions of authority who have pronounced Osama Bin Laden dead."
Nope. Obama would be (one of) the first people to confirm Osama's death, as “I would come to believe that [Bin Laden] probably is dead.” is not an official confirmation. It is an opinion stated by Pakistani government official.
THERE IS A DIFFERENCE
Wow, I need to calm down. Anyway, onto the last article mentioned in the above video. This is the one I wanted to address, because this where they claim that they (The united states government, or the "shadow government". Whatever.) released photoshopped images of the Osama death pictures in order to fool the public. The reality of the matter is, it's all a slip up of several different news reporters.
The photo its self has been circulating the internet since late 2009, as Alex Jones stated, but the reason behind the official publishing of this false photo is not because of a conspiracy: It's because of incompetence.
Trying to be the first to post death photos of Osama, many newscasters forgot to do a little thing called fact checking, which is not uncommon in the news industry to do when there's big news and they want to be the first to post (Which in turns makes them money.)
Severalsourceshave already reported the photo as fake, and since this news has come to light, most of the people who published the image have since taken the photo down from their websites. The United States government has stated that the real photos of Osama's corpse are very graphic, and are hesitant to publicize them due to this fact.
Now, if I had it my way, I'd post those pictures anyway. There's no point in not giving the pictures away, no matter how gory. People like having pictorial confirmation, especially when it involves someone who devised a plot to murder 3,000 people.
BUT, I digress. In conclusion, the articles are all poorly written, contrived nonsense. Much of the time, they're either misquoting sources, or they're just quoting their own articles. The four articles mentioned above say just about the same thing, with the exception of the last article: They think Osama was frozen, and that the government has been waiting to thaw him out at the right time. I guess that makes sense, but you'll have to give me more than just "An outside source told me".
There's a big thing I've noticed with Alex Jones: it's the way he talks. You might notice he says things like "We all know that", "It's common knowledge...", "We proven this months/years ago", or "I talked about this months ago and I predicted this would happen..." This isn't just with recent videos, he does this all the time. This leads me to believe that Ol' Alex is into some deceiving...
Do you know who Bill Cooper is? Of course you don't. He was a big time conspiracy theorist, much like how Alex is. Truth be told, I don't know much about the guy, aside from what Wikipedia tells me: He was into UFOs and the paranormal, he hated the government, and oh, got into a fucking gun fight with the police over tax evasion.
What does he have to do with Alex Jones? Only this:
(Skip to 1:07) Apparently, Alex told some lies about Cooper, saying he used profanity and was cut off the air. Here's the video where Jones interviews Cooper:
Now, regardless of the whole conspiracy talk, I believe Cooper was courteous, and more importantly, he wasn't ever cut off the air. Here's a videos of Alex Jones talking about Cooper: (after his death)
Huh. I personally found this interesting. What's more interesting is that Y2K scare thing that Cooper mentioned.
Oh hey, there it is. I find it pretty hilarious that even conspiracy theorists are debunking him. lol.
I'm not even joking, either. This article, posted on what looks like a conspiracy theorist website, shows actually provides some good insight into Alex Jones and how he operates, without having to call him a zionist shill. Until it gets to the end, that is.
Suffice to say, there is a lot I can post on this guy. I mean, a lot. Like, how he doesn't know what Moloch looks like, how he seems to be completely intolerant of others religions, his false reports of local terrorism perpetuated by the US government, and the list goes on, and on, and on...
Moloch.
But I'm not going to get into that. I've made this post too long already, and I'm sure there's not many people waiting to read it, so I'm going to end it here, and allow you (The person who may or may not be reading this) to go off and do your own research.
NOT FUCKING MOLOCH
I'm not saying trust the government. Hell, if you live in the US, you should know that the whole basis that founded our government is to NOT trust the government.
(Right to bare arms, anyone?) But believing a guy like Alex Jones without researching him is just ignorant. Please, for the love of God, do your research. From the information I've gathered, and from what I've seen of him, he's nothing more than a fear monger and an attention whore.
Maybe next time when I bring up Conspiracy theories, I can talk about someone more interesting. Maybe David Icke?
Oh, Jarrah White. Wait, Jarrah isn't interesting. Lol.
It's barely been a day since I made this blog, and I'm already updating. I really don't have that much to do. -,-
But, I got this stuff from a friend who went to an Anime convention earlier in the week. One of the items he gave me was some random toy of an Anime character. I had to look up online where this character was from using the only English written words on the box. (It was an imported Japanese toy.)
oh, hai
She's from some Japanese Sim game called "IdolM@ster". The game focuses around finding new Pop Stars for music label or some shit like that. I don't know, sounds kind of boring. (Then again, Sim games in general aren't my thing.)
But Despite the fact that I have never played Idolm@ster and have no urge to, I think I'll keep the toy set up on my computer desk. I've always wanted to have something to make me feel Geekier than I already am. (though, I would much prefer one of Fey from Cowboy Bebop, or Felicia from Dark Stalkers..
Oh, Japan.
At least then it wouldn't feel like I had a toy of a 14 year old pop star on my computer Desk.)
But I appreciate the gift. It can be a good conversation piece...or...er...something.
Google also brought up some...questionable images of this chick when I typed in her name (Her name is Miki Hoshii, by the way.). I guess it's best to just avoid typing in anything anime related into any kind of search engine.
Anyway, let's move on...
Making a Note here: Huge Success.
I also got this awesome Tee of Aperture Science Laboratories. Being a Half-Life/Portal fanboy, I found this especially awesome, and will probably wear it just about every day I'm not working. Special thanks to Hewy P for hooking me up with some geeky shit this week.
So, I was lurking one of the many forums I frequent, when someone posted a thread about an Evangelical website that had Tracts (In comic form) devoted to telling you how evil you are if you listen to rock music, masturbate, or watch those bad ol' TV shows on Showtime.
Turns out, this site is Jack T. Chick's webpage, the guy who made the infamous Dark Dungeons comic.
For those of you who don't know, Dark Dungeons is a Tract that blamed DnD for Teen murder and suicide, and claimed that DnD was an entry level game into Satanism. (But don't let me sit here and explain it, go and read it for yourself! I promise you, it's hilarious.)
Jack Chick
For anyone who is into DnD, or Table Top RPG's in general (Such as myself.), this comic has either been a source of annoyance or humor. On one hand, it represents TTRPG's so poorly that it can't be taken seriously. On the other hand, the TTRPG crowd has already gotten enough bad reputation for having a hobby that only Basement dwelling nerds dive into. Trust me, this hobby doesn't need anything else making it look bad.
Both Articles deal with the "Dangers" of playing Dungeons and Dragons, all the while making some pretty damn bold claims about not only the game, but Gygax and the original distributors of DnD, TSR, Inc.
"I was a witch high priest (Alexandrian tradition) during the period 1973-84....a couple of the game writers actually came to my wife and I as prominent "sorcerers" in the community. They wanted to make certain the rituals were authentic."
Ok, So I'm not going to try and refute the guy's Wiccan background. Personally, I don't really care. What I am interested is how "Authentic" the spells were in DnD, so I got out my PFD of the 3.5 Rulebook.
I went to the Spell section to find the most Evil spell I could find, and then decided to settle with Curse Water. Here's how it reads:
Curse Water
Necromancy (Evil)
Level: Clr 1
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 1 Minute
Range: Touch
Target: Flask of Water Touched
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throws: Will Negates (Object)
Spell Resistance: Yes (Object)
This Spell Imbues a Flask (1 Pint) of water with negative energy, turning it into unholy water. Unholy water damages good outsiders the way Holy water damages undead and evil outsiders. Material components: 5 pounds of powdered silver (Worth 25GP)
This has nothing to do with DnD, I just thought it was funny.
So, aside from gameplay mechanics (Which only work, as you might have guessed, while playing the game.) do you see any kind of incantation that would allow you to make Unholy Water to troll your friends with by putting it in their drink when they aren't looking? I think not.
But, maybe I'm looking at the wrong rulebook. This is a newer Edition after all. Let's look at a spell from an Earlier edition, one that would probably be the one he "helped make as accurate as possible".
This is a Spell from the first Edition DnD Volume "Men and Magic", released in 1974, written by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson.
"Fire Ball: A missile which springs from the finger of the Magic-User. It explodes with a burst radius of 2" (slightly larger than specified in CHAINMAIL). In a confined space the Fire Ball will generally conform to the shape of the space (elongate or whatever). The damage caused by the missile will be in proportion to the level of its user. A 6th level Magic-User throws a 6-die missile, a 7th a 7-die missile, and so on. (Note that Fire Balls from Scrolls (see Volume II) and Wand are 6-die missiles and those from Staves are 8-die missiles. Duration: 1 turn. Range: 24"
And here's one from the First Edition Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Player's Guide, released in 1977:
Animate Dead (Necromantic)
Level: 3
Range: I"
Duration: Permanent
Area of Effect: Special
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: I round
Saving Throw: None "Explanation/Description: This spell creates the lowest of the undead
monsters, skeletons or zombies, from the bones or bodies of dead humans.
The effect is to cause these remains to become animated and obey the
commands of the cleric casting the spell. The skeletons or zombies will
follow, remoin in an area and attack any creature (or just a specific type of
creature) entering the place, etc. The spell will animate the monsters until
they are destroyed or until the magic is dispelled. (See dispel magic spell).
The cleric is able to animate 1 skeleton or 1 zombie for each level of
experience he or she has attained. Thus, a 2nd level cleric can animate 2
of these monsters, a 3rd level 3, etc. The act of animating dead is not
basically a good one, and it must be used with careful consideration and
good reason by clerics of good alignment. It requires a drop of blood, a
piece of human flesh, and a pinch of bone powder or a bone shard to
complete the spell."
Why, there seems to be a pattern emerging here! And it has nothing to do with "real" spells. At most, a Dungeons and Dragons book will give you a descriptive outline of how the spell looks, how long it takes to cast, and duration. Other than that, It's all just gameplay mechanics, that I'm sorry to say, won't allow you to poison your friend's beer with unholy water, cast giant fireballs, or turn your now dead friend (from the unholy water) into a zombie.
If only this many women attended MY play sessions.
But shouldn't this be obvious? I mean, Even Chick's Tract shows the players merely stating what spell the character is using.
Where is the real witchcraft here? Yes, DnD barrows from various folklore from around the world, but there's nothing to indicate any real kind of sorcery, if you believe in that sort of thing.
Hold on, I gotta Sneeze.
"Back in 1986, a fellow appeared on The 700 Club who was a former employee and game writer for TSR. He testified right on the show that he got into a wrangle with the management there because he saw that the rituals were too authentic...He felt conscience-stricken (even though he was not a Christian at the time), and felt he had to resign from the company."
Oh Goodie, we're in 700 Club Territory now. There's not much to say here, except that anyone who brings up The 700 Club as a source has lost all credibility in my eyes. "Now, the question becomes—if a person "innocently" works an authentic ritual that conjures up a demon, or curses someone; thinking that they are only playing a game-might not the ritual still have efficacy?"
No, they don't. There are no incantations, no hint to show that these spells work in real life, and I've yet to read a Headline stating "Child incinerated friend while casting Fireball on Dungeons and Dragons". Your argument is stupid, moving on.
Now, his next little paragraph goes on about how the "Laws of God's Universe are no less real in the spiritual realm than in the physical one" or something to that nature. I could crack a whole bunch of Jokes about God, religion, and Jesus, but I'm not going to. Why? Because for one, I don't believe that this man represents the Christian Faith fairly, as he's a raving lunatic. And two; This is about DnD, not Religion. (We might get into that later.)
"This brings us to other unsavory aspects of the game. One pro-D&D psychologist wrote that 'There is hardly a game in which the players do not indulge in murder, arson, torture, rape or highway robbery.' In fact, the Dungeon Master's Guide gives the celebrated Adolph Hitler as an example of a real historical person that exhibited D&D charisma!"
There's also a lot of players who play noble heroes and knights, who try to help the weak and protect the innocent. It all depends on who is playing the game, really. By the way, Hitler was totally a good example of a RL character with high Charisma.
"Additionally, much of the game contains overtones that reek of illicit sex and sexual violence. For example, the cover of one D&D supplement, called Eldrich Wizardry, shows a naked woman reclining on an obviously satanic ritual altar. This tragic scene is compelling because it is really what is done in genuine satanic groups all over the nation."
Yeah, you can really tell what time this article was written in. I'm sure that back in the day, scaring your kids with "Satanic cults" was all the rage, but you don't hear about them much these days. Mostly because they don't fucking exist.
And if you're offended by the material in the DnD source books, you should really take a look at some of the newer TTRPGs, such as Exalted. I would suggest you take a look at the shit they print in the Abyssal and Infernal books.
Tits and mutilation, what a combo.
"Additionally, male characters in the game often try to seduce female characters"
So, you're saying men don't usually try to seduce women in real life? Right, let's just move on to my favorite part:
Do-It-Yourself Brainwashing
Additionally, Fantasy-Role-Playing (FRP) games like D&D do employ brainwashing techniques:
Fear generation-via spells and mental imaging about fear-filled, emotional scenes, and threats to survival of FRP characters.So wait, you're saying the DM creating a dramatic situation is a bad thing? What? I don't get what this is trying to say here. Adding Drama to a story can be a very, very good thing. What should they do, farm and pray all day as FRPG characters as well?
Isolation-psychological removal from traditional support structures (family, church, etc.) into an imaginary world. Physical isolation due to extremely time-consuming play activities outside the family atmosphere.I don't know about other people, but at most, I was playing Exalted twice a week. This hour or two play sessions still allowed for us to go to work, hang out with friends and family, and in my friends case - Go to church.
Physical torture and killings-images in the mind can be almost as real as the actual experiences.No. Focus of the games is upon killings and torture for power, acquisition of wealth, and survival of characters.Gonna make this clear once again: This is not always true. It really depends on the players. I have a character whose a complete egocentric dick AND I have a character whose caring and good natured.
Erosion of family values-the Dungeon Master (DM) demands an all-encompassing and total loyalty, control and allegiance.If my Dungeon Master wanted all of those things, I'd tell him to go fuck himself.
Situational Ethics-any act can be justified in the mind of the player, therefore there are no absolutes of right or wrong; no morality other than "point" morality needed to ensure survival and advancement. There are no win-win situations and good forces seldom triumph over evil forces.1.) Morality is relative to the person you're talking to. 2.) Read comments on number 3.
Religion-values and belief systems (see below) are restructured from traditional Judeo-Christian ethics (which most people in Western culture adhere to) to belief in multiple gods and deities. Players align themselves with specific deities they select; patron deities are strongly urged. These are not fantasy deities, but are drawn from genuine ancient religions and beliefs! Only occult gods are included. In addition, defilement is urged in many ways, such as excrement or urinating to "defile a font."I don't know if you've figured this out yet, but these games have a large focus on player creativity. You can be a Wiccan, Atheist, or even an Evangelical asshole in DnD, it's all up to you. I've no clue as to what you're talking about with that last sentence.
Loss of Self-control-authority over self is surrendered to the DM. Depending on the personality and ego-strength of the player, this loss can be near absolute.Eh, most of the time, it's the DM who relies on the players to help take the story in a certain direction. A DM who rail-roads everything is usually considered a shitty DM, and is thus yelled at for rail roading.
Degradation-pain and torture are heavily involved in sadistic, sexual situations that graphically appeal to visceral impulses. Much of the material (as mentioned above) is well into pornographic areas and stresses the defilement of innocence.Gotta use that "Depends" word again. The beauty of these games is that they're played the way you want them to.
I'm wondering if this guy has really sat down and played DnD. Probably not.
His next paragraph, again, goes into religion, and talking about two different kinds of universes. A magical world universe, and the "Christian Universe". What's funny about this little paragraph is that he preaches the same thing that people tell him day in and day out: Most people know that this shit is fiction.
"Now obviously, these two worldviews cannot exist in the same moral universe. Either one is true and the other false or vice-versa. Thus, one cannot be a Christian and believe in the MWV...This magical morality pervades D&D, and it is utterly in opposition to the Word of God and even common sense"
Unfortunately, he's just like a child who just..doesn't quite get the point. Right as he is talking about how they are two different worlds, and it's utterly absurd to believe in the "Magical World View", he goes right back into this:
"Now the question becomes, can a person play the game without subscribing to the worldview? It is possible, but considering the high level of emotional and intellectual commitment that the game requires, is that really realistic?"
Well, I guess I shouldn't have expected anything else from this guy. Anyway, his last statements on this article go into talking about people who played DnD that have either murdered or committed suicide.
The problem with this is, he bases his opinion on a very small amount of cases, and on kids who just happened to be DnD players. It's the same thing as the whole school shootings thing and Jack Thompson calling CounterStrike: Source a "Murder simulator".
Some kids are troubled. Hell, most people have problems, but blaming things like murders and suicides on Satanic cults and a Role Playing game just puts us back in the Dark Ages. You might as well be afraid of your own shadow if you're going to blame DnD for these kind of things.
Old Billy boy's other Article, Should a Christian play Dungeons and Dragons?, picks up where he left off 12 years ago (Or now, it's like 20 years ago.), and he starts off by briefly addressing some of the mail he's been getting since then.
"I am amazed at how many so-proclaimed Christians who defend the game, do so with foul and abusive language. This, I think, speaks volumes about the spiritual impact of the game."
Because you're a beacon of what God wants from this world. Right.He goes on for a few paragraphs about how DnD has influenced a surge of fantasy based sorcery in today's fiction, and then gives a brief overview of DnD for those of us who don't know what it is.
"For those unfamiliar, it is the grandmother of most (if not all) fantasy role-playing games (FRPG). Now many understand that role-playing originated formally as a psychological tool."
Actually, it originated from Miniature Wargames, and ended up turning into it's own little thing. But what gets me here is that he now switched from "DnD is a Satanists handbook to get people into the occult" to "DnD is a Psychological tool that degrades your grip on reality". All I ask is for some consistency...
"The astute reader will have noted that already, some genuine magical terms from real witchcraft and occultism have been introduced. Druids and Bards are both part of the priesthood of ancient pre-Christian Britain. Wizards are of course the classic practitioners of magic, both in reality and in fantasy fiction. We will look at these roles more in depth in a moment."
OH WAIT, HERE IT IS. "One other issue needs to be raised about alignment. The morality expressed in D&D is fuzzy at best, and is certainly NOT the morality of the Bible."
Yeah, the morality of the Bible. Like how God Killed more people in the Bible than Lucifer.
Sorry, sorry, let's just continue on.
"For example, you can have a "lawful evil" character. A handbook states that: "A lawful evil villain methodically takes what he wants within the limits of his code of conduct without regard to whom it hurts. He cares about tradition, loyalty and order, but not about freedom, dignity or life."7 Talk about a mish-mash of moral ambiguity. Our young people are having enough trouble getting their values straight without being immersed in this sort of material!"
Most kids know the difference between reality and fantasy. Sure, a lot of kids want to be Wolverine, Spider-Man, Batman, or Justin Bieber, but that doesn't mean they can't tell reality from fantasy, and that certainly doesn't mean they pick up their moral opinions from them. Do you know who they do pick up their moral opinions from? Parents. Teachers. Priests. Friends. Maybe Justin Bieber. Oh god, let's hope not...
"How is this magic seen in the game? Well, in a guide written by the original author of the game, Gary Gygax, we read:
Magic users draw upon arcane powers in order to exercise their profession … He or she must memorize and prepare for the use of each spell, and its casting makes it necessary to reabsorb the incantation by consulting the proper book of spells … those of magic-users must be spoken or read aloud.10
This is excellent advice for budding necromancers. When we were high priests and training witches, we would insist upon no less. This is obviously a game which requires real initiative and dedication. But look at what the gamers are filling their heads with!"
Actually, most of the time, it's only stated that you do these things, as acting them out would be too time consuming. For instance: "Me: Are we resting, because I'm gonna read my spellbook to get *Insert spells here*" "DM: Yes, we are resting. Remember, this action will take at least ten minutes to perform." "Me: Ok then, I'll just go get a beer while I wait." "DM: Sure, go ahead. Hewitt, are you done fixing your inventory" "Hewitt:Yes, now I wanna roll to see if I can catch something to eat" "DM: Oh hey, you fail, and you've caught the attention of Ogres. Also, Gerdo is interrupted from his reading" "Me: Dammit Hewitt"
While in your head, your character might be reading, keeping track of tomes and magical items, there's no obligation to actually do these things in real life. Hell, we hardly ever even play with miniatures, with the exception of combat.
"Other than the magic issue, as we have seen, the overall morality of the D&D universe is pragmatism at best and amoral at worst. "Might makes right" seems to be the rule...Now isn't that a wonderful "law of the jungle" kind of morality to instill in a young Christian?"
Law of the Jungle? That's fucking RACIST.
So, he goes on the analyze the class structure of DnD and break down how they are a "bad influence" on Christian Youth. There's nothing much to say, except I can do this awesome misquote:
"In other words, religions are myths. Christianity is a myth; Judaism is a myth, etc."
Lol. Sorry. Let's get back on subject.
The article kind of repeats what he's been saying in the last article, and finally gets a bit interesting when he addresses his critics personally.
"my IQ is comfortably above idiocy"
I beg to differ.
"I have played D&D a few times and spent dozens of hours talking with players and Dungeon Masters (DMs). Admittedly, my first hand experienced with D&D is from the 1970's-80's, but I would think it still counts for something. Has the game changed that much?"
No, it hasn't. It's still some silly game a bunch of nerds argue over for hours while drinking beer and eating funions (mm, Funions.) It's obvious that you never listened to anyone. Not a real expert, not the DND players, not the good folk who sent you all of that hate mail. Your viewpoint is blinded by your own misguided faith, and the only thing that needs to change is you. But I don't see that happening. In the meantime, have some tits.
The Best Google Image Search could come up with.
"I covet your prayers that the Lord would give me the time and funds to thoroughly research the contemporary FRPG scene, which if anything appears to be more appalling than it was 20 years ago. A walk through any gaming store can prove that. For example, there is now a whole line of materials based on the hellish H.P. Lovecraft Cthulhu mythos, a form of magic that we practiced in the darkest days of our satanic career - a system of magic prominently featured in THE SATANIC RITUALS by Anton LaVey!"
Oh, I love the Chulhu Mythos! I even own the Board Game "Arkham Horror" Which I got for Christmas. But honestly, I think this is where I'm going to call it with this guy. When you read things like:
"One D&D defender wrote, "When I play the game, I might roll the dice and - depending on the result - state that 'I cast an invisibility spell.'" His point was, how is that like "real magic?" In mental or hermetic magic, it is EXACTLY like real magic (except of course for the dice)! It is all in the intent - in the mind. It is not in whether or not you are waving a sword around!"
It really makes your brain hurt. And there's so much more to this article than the original one. I just can't take this much bullshit at one time. It's like people keep saying "No, that's not right, your facts are all off" but he won't stop repeating himself... Plus, it's not like this is new or anything. Both Chick's and Bill's BS have been some of the Earliest form of anti-game propaganda, and nowadays, we're all worried if Thompson and Fox News are going to try and berate the new Mass Effect game with more bullshit.
But this does bring up an interesting subject for me. A lot of people, given the chance, would jump onto this guy solely because he's a Christian. Hell, religion kind of becomes an easy target when this guy is talking about being some sort of intellectual and expert on the Occult, and then turns around and blames DnD for working kids into Satanism.
But this guy is a Clown. He trips over his own belief structure the minute he starts talking. How are you going to talk about having good moral values, and being a good Christian when you're judging people and telling them that they don't love God "Like you do"?
That's not Christianity, at least, not the way I was taught. I'm not a Christian, by the way. I'm a non-religious Deist. Thought I'd inform you of that.
Anyway, the best thing I've heard was "Don't hate the book, hate the people". While not exactly those words, it kind of makes sense if you think about it. You don't blame the gun for shooting someone, or you don't blame fire for burning the house when you're in your room playing with matches. (Sorry, mom.)
So, blaming religion for the crazy shit Bill spits out won't solve anything. Instead, Let's just laugh at how stupid he sounds. It's much better, and I think most reasonable Atheist and Theist can find common ground there.
Well, I've officially ran out of things to say, and it's pretty damn early in the morning, and I have work tomorrow. I'm going to sign off.
Hi there. I haven't made a Blog in a while, so I guess I should start by introducing myself.
I'm Topher. I like games. and Comics. And Space. And other geeky things.
Is my name really Topher? Not really, but it's close enough. Just for the record, this really isn't coming from space. I didn't know if I had to clarify, but this IS the internet...right?...Anyway, we can pretend that it is, because space is obviously more awesome than some boring town in the United States.
Let's dive right into this: I, like many other sad individuals my age, spend hours online looking at pointless shit that most people outside of the internet wouldn't even give the pleasure of acknowledging. One of those things is the trends with Internet reviewing.
I recently discovered a Youtuber that goes by Asalieri. Many of his videos deal with reviewing internet reviewers. Despite the lack of creativity, I can give him points for being entertaining and informative.
This got me thinking about how society has really changed with the advancement of the internet, even within the small amount of years I've been on this Earth. When I was a kid, people like Stan Lee and Bill Watterson were inspirations to me - Now, I draw inspiration from Online comics such as Goblins.
I think a lot of it comes from the fact that these internet celebrities came up on their own via the internet, which is something we can all respect in some way or another.
However....
It's a double edged sword. There's so much content made by would-be celebrities on the internet that there's a big chance that we will never see some of the more talented people out there. Hell, it seems like we get treated to more crap than talent lately. (Fred is one of the most watched on Youtube? Jesus Christ.)
Which leads me back to internet reviewing. Reviewing, especially "angry" reviewing has become popular over the internet since the AVGN came into popularity, and then the Nostalgia Critic leeching from his success. (Starting a mock fight with the AVGN? Shit, Doug, you might as well have said "Hey can I has some of your fanz plx?".)
They are everywhere these days, from places like Youtube, to the little backwoods parts of the internet. Do people really look up to the AVGN and say "Man, I'd love to say fuck a lot, review old game systems and be internet famous"?
Seriously, I can't type in "Portal 2 reviews" into youtube without some asshole with a webcam making some shitty angry review about it pop up. It's insane to think that so many people, Adults and kids alike, what to be a part of this community. (Portal 2 was fucking awesome, by the way.)
I think the saddest lot I've seen is the That Guy with The Glasses community. TGWTG is a site that hosts internet "Review", if you can call half of the videos on there reviews. Most of the videos are filled with low quality special effects, bad acting, and insight on games and movies that are about as informative as a wikipedia article. (I'm looking at you, Angry Joe.)
And yet, people love this site. People WANT to be a CONTRIBUTOR to this website. I guess they all want the chance to suck Doug's cock in another one of his shitty anniversary videos. Lol
But, all hate aside, I can't say too much. Despite my opinions of TGWTG, it's Contributors, or Doug, I gotta at least give the site some respect for making a name for themselves on the internet, which is a pretty big feat. I also do Enjoy the Nostalgia Critic videos, despite the fact that in one of the latest videos, Doug thinks he can create a Meme just by saying "This is a meme". (I don't think that's how it works, asshole.)
But for those of you who might think it's a cool idea to get a camera and record yourself saying fuck and trying to review games or movies - Just don't. You have better things to do with your time. Like, going to college, or masturbation.
That's about all I have to say on this subject. I'm sure I'll be typing to myself very soon. Like tonight-ish. Again. I have a lot to say, and I've got nothing but work ahead of me right now.
P.S.
I also have no problem with Asalieri, although I am a bit critical of his work. He seems to suffer from the same thing as most internet reviewers: Let's review things that we all know suck. Like the Irate Gamer.
Also, Goblins is an awesome webcomic.
