White Dwarf Loses the Human Connection
I haven’t seen much coverage of this, but I clearly noticed it in White Dwarf magazine. Especially when the robot voice told me that it was a human. Weird. That’s right, White Dwarf magazine no longer has a Editor’s note at the beginning. I’m sure it still has an editor, but it’s fully corporatized. Spikey Bids did cover the shift: https://spikeybits.com/white-dwarf-editor-made-redundant-after-75-issue-run Now I don’t know if White Dwarf has ever pulled the plug on the Editor’s note, but maybe they have. And maybe it’ll come back. Who knows? But losing that human touch is pretty crummy. All to similar to the “only hands” issue on YouTube. Barnes & Noble, the corporate behemoth that killed so many independent booksellers, has found their way back to sanity. They found a CEO that understands that people don’t want corporate compliance. They want local connection. I hope Games Workshop can find that balance too.…
AI and Novel Ways to Usher In Our Own Destruction
Fears of our AI overlords is all over the news, so I figured I’d come up with some novel sci-fi-ish ways that AI could start killing us. Global annihilation is a possibility, but there’s certainly lots of ways that AI could chip away at the human headcount. The scariest thing to me is that in the worst scenarios, human assistance is needed to make it happen. Avoiding these outcomes is trivially easy too. Just pull the plugs and use paper records. But do we have that level of gumption anymore? Also, it’s a little funny to me with all these heightened concerns about climate change and AI; it’s abundantly clear that humans have the capacity and will to kill each other long before the planet becomes uninhabitable. Here it goes, in no particular order.: Or, AI could make amazing cat videos. Either way. Both equally likely.
Magnetizing GW Bases
This is sort of a weird post. I was trying to measure the recess within a GW slotta base. These are the best measurements I could come up with. I was hoping they would be nice round numbers that would correspond to commercially available mini-magnets. It kind of does. These are the most accurate results I could come up with. They may or not be precise or accurate, but it’s the best I could do. 25mm – 2.2mm 28.5mm – 2.2mm 32mm – 2.75mm 40mm – 3mm 50mm – 3mm
You don’t need long term support to play a game
Maybe it’s an internet thing, but if a new game comes out, the first question asked is: “How do the expansions look?” There’s so many great games out there that have been retired. That doesn’t mean that you have to stop playing them. Warhammer Quest 1995 hasn’t had new GW published material since 2000. That doesn’t mean you have to stop playing. Barbarian Prince never had an expansion. You can still print-and-play it. Sure, I’ve only tried it once and starved to death before I could successfully roll to exit starting hex, but hey, that’s how those old games did things. Dungeon Dwellers only had… well… seven expansions. That’s quite a bit for a small game from a smallish company. Admirable, really. Way to go guys. Battle Masters didn’t have any meaningful expansions. The only ones that came out were additional units that came in the base game. You don’t…
The Beauty of a Dead Game
There is something fun about drooling over new minis, anticipating new content, and checking the store to see if the newest installment is in. Do you know what else is fun? Not having to do that at all. I touched on this a bit when I was considering what fantasy battle game to get into. My final decision was 4th Edition Warhammer Fantasy Battle. I chose that over all other editions of WFB, One Page Rules and The Old World. The Old World is intriguing, but nostalgia overruled modernity. I nearly went with 5th Edition Warhammer Fantasy Battle (and I suppose still could since it’s so similar to 4th). The 5th edition box came out when I was exiting the hobby, so I never really ogled it. It’s a superior box to 4th edition, even if I’m not too keen on lizardmen. I had to go with 4th, and I…
What’s Up With 11th Edition?
The Internet is abuzz with interest in the latest edition of Warhammer 40k. I’d say the buzz is mostly positive. It’s not a full reboot, so that’s good. But there’s definitely a solid group of… I’ll say mature gamers that seem slightly sour about it. I don’t blame them. It’s more GW churn. They have to keep selling books and models. But it’s also a benchmark on the progression of time. Sure, sure, GW used to be less corporate. Yes, there was more whimsy in prior editions. Yes, it was more magical to you when you were a kid. It’s a tough realization that it’s magical to someone now, when looking at it through wizend eyes, it doesn’t look especially magical. But you liked it when you discovered it because that’s the way it was then. Same thing now. This is the way it is now, and people are just…
The Ugly Phase
There’s an ugly phase in everything. It’s that liminal moment in time when everything has gotten worse before it can get better. In painting it looks like this: In fitness it looks like zero improvement after a month of work. It takes months to change your body and a few weeks of effort never go as far as you want them to. It’s supremely unfair how hard it is to make gains, when it’s BEOYND easy to lose fitness. In cleaning it’s when the room goes from “boy, I need to clean this up” to “uuugghh, I’m two hours in and it’s worse than when I started. Don’t quit! Just don’t quit. Keep going. It’s so easy to throw in the towel right now. It’s not going your way and surely never will ever again, right? WRONG! It’s time to buckle down and plow through the ugly phase. Keep running,…
My gamespace. Game space. Games pace?
After a couple years of weekly hobby-blogging, I’m down to only four remaining ideas from the original brainstorming session. This is one of them. “Gamespace” like headspace, only gamey-er In my head, I’m still really into this stuff. I’m currently reading Callis & Toll. It’s OK so far, not bad, not amazing. It’s no Road of Skulls, but also far better than City of the Damned. I’d like to finish reading the 4th edition Warhammer Fantasy Battle rulebook, and the 10th edition 40k rulebook. I had a good reading stretch there when I was home sick and couldn’t do anything else in January, but the busyness has picked back up again. No clue why, but trying an army style game has some amount of appeal now, when it never has in the past. “Game Space” where the magic happens That saying isn’t just for MTV Cribs anymore! What’s MTV you…
Why everything and everyone are absolutely right and totally fine
Sometimes it’s hard to not sound like a grumpy old person. “Games used to be different back in my day”. OK, sure grandma/pa, sure they were. And they were. And it was fine. But they’re different now and that’s OK too. Older games were frequently tougher. Your characters died frequently. Maybe that was a hangover from back when people had to have a dozen children just so they could have one or two make it to the ripe old age of 30 before succumbing to old age. OK, so in-game perma-death is less frequent. What’s the big deal? What? Now the minis are too detailed? They’re spindle and breakable too? That’s a hill I might take my last stand on… But, the good news is that old minis are still largely available on the secondhand market, as well as old games. And, if you’re so inclined, there are some (not…
Why I think Warhammer Quest (1995) is one of the best games ever made
So much. The traveling, the settlement adventures, the heroes, the skills, the leveling up. There’s just so much! But I think the ability to have a Game Master-less experience that rivals a true RPG is what makes WHQ really shine. Warhammer Quest was intimidating Maps don’t have to be pre-generated to be interesting. Set up the boss fight somewhere near the end and you’re all set. It’s an added bonus that the objective room might not necessarily be the last card in the deck. It keeps you guessing, especially when you have multiple T-junctions. I think WHQ really holds up because the game can be what you want it to be: Plus, the system is big enough that you can play as big or small a game as you want, and you’re still playing WHQ. As much as it pains me to say it; my first love (HeroQuest) doesn’t have…