Icarus's blog: "Just South of Blue."

I'm a little laid up on this long weekend.

A 200 lb filing cabinet fell on my fucked up arm.
And ... for a guy with multiple chronic back/neck/shoulder injuries, getting hit with something basically equivalent to a full swing-baseball bat to his worst injury

Was kinda bad.

I took a day and a half off of work, had to file workman's comp
X-Rays
extra painkillers

the whole shebang.

I was -going- to weight train, cut down some trees, and haul some limbs, and maybe

JUST MAYBE work on renovating my shitty house.


Pffft

Nah.

You're fucked up arm is fucked up.



So, we're gonna maybe work on a series of short stories based on my current DnD campaign.


I'm playing a Kobold (small, rat-like humanoid/dragonoid) megolomaniacal wizard
With a couple friends

One is playing a tinker-gremlin (think ... murder-Yoda with a penchant for hilariously breaking shit)

A half-orc monk (about as useless as it sounds)

and a pacifist bee-forged cleric who "only wants to be loved"
(War-forged are these big hulking metal golems with souls, and minds of their own, a bee-forged is a war-forged with a hive full of sentient bees)

I haven't written any fiction or... anything really since... *ahem* well, something kinda killed my soul

Maybe it coincides with this shitty job, maybe it coincided with another major personal event...

So I dunno if it will be any good. I tend to crack everyone up in the group, and come up with brilliant plans, but maybe I've dulled the spark.

I guess we'll see

I'm naming this project
"A Tiny Case of Megalomania"

And for once, it will have its own blog.

The goal is to get back in some good habits, and maybe have some dialogue driven ensemble fantasy adventure, and chronical our adventure to date with a few embeleshments and adjustments.

Ensemble fantasy is something I have NEVER been able to write well, so of course, after taking years off from fantasy, I should be great at it.

Right?

Hell is no place for men like us.
The unkind casual lies we tell each other
at the tip of the knife
at the grip of the throat.

Floating along a silent still river of thought.
You crashed, bright, and ecstatic
like some blazing orbital shower
a metoric bliss of rage

And I took the gun from your hand
left the hate in your mouth
and the seething embers from your descent.

All before was ash.
All ahead, smolder.

When the day comes
when that blistering hand rears back to strike
I'll be the one to walk us through that gate.

I will deliver you.

One bullet.
One silence.

I stood waiting for the way to find me.
No spineless wimpers.
No courageous yawp.
Just another dead sigh before the next step landed.
Flat, barren, and without a single thought of behind or beyond.

Monetization is an ugly word. Especially in video games.
Back in the day (2003 and earlier) you used to pay retail (or less if you bought a game used), and got a WHOLE video game.

100's of hours of entertainment. A complete story/challenge/ladder for basically $50.

These days we have locked paid content on launch. "Pay to win" competitive modes. Pre-order exclusives. Alternate game modes like "zombie hunt" and "survival mode" (which used to just be included) for $15.00. Map packs. Equipment packs. ETC.

And now:

Every major console will have a paid subscription to access online content.

There are games that are now 100% online content.

That shit was FREE for decades. I'm not going to start paying my books 99 cents to turn to the next page! I'm not going to pay 25 cents every time I log in to my email account (check out the legislation being proposed about net neutrality, they want to start throttling and charging just to access google/netflix/amazon/facebook/twitter per page access)

and I am NOT going back to paying per text.

I understand that it costs money to release a AAA blockbuster every 6 years, and you gotta pay, and that server farm in the middle of the ocean that hosts my games costs money, and you gotta keep JUMPING THE DAMN SHARK, but games like Undertale and Minecraft, Terraria, and Shovel Knight were made by extremely small teams, using 1990's tech, and they sell like fucking HOT CAKES because they're based on unique design, massive concepts, and good story telling.

You don't need to hire a voice actor for your protaganist,  it turns out we fucking love silent protaganists.

You don't have to reinvent the wheel every six months, you just have to NOT SUCK AT WHAT YOU'RE DOING.

And yes, this is a god damned indictment of free to play, pay to win, paid online access, vertical scaling, and self-bankrupting triple A studios.

Your consumers are not the problem.

We are bored.
We will buy your game.
We will play your game.
We will love it.
We will hate it.

But STOP
with the fads (Skyrim wins game of the year? QUICK EVERYONE GO OPEN ENVIRONMENT!!!)
the overpriced gimicks with three games after a $500 additional invstment (VR, motion control)
the copy paste (CODBOWTFHAX XXXVI!)
The endless skinner-box bleeding (need THE THING! here's 10 chances at .0001% chance of getting THE THING for $30)

We're watching.

We're not just bored. We're pissed.
You're not just entertaining us. You're fucking us over.

Your industry is failing, your studios are closing because you keep overreaching into our pockets, overworking your designers, and refusing to take good advice (often from your consumers).

When I go to a restaurant and I say "great coffee, but you keep burning the edges of your fried eggs"

fucking fix it or I'll go somewhere that doesn't continue to fuck up.

I have other shit to do, other places I can spend my money, and if I have to

I'll pirate my own video games from the 90's to preserve them, and emulate them.

You peaked at PS1 guys. It's time to start looking backward instead of forward.
Because the answer isn't watching a setpiece of special effects and partical explosions, or baiting me into a pay-to-win scheme for E-sports, or convincin me I'd rather watch a professional play a video game than play a video game.

The answer is in esoteric, arcane, unique, new, and beautiful things.

And you've shut your eyes on them in a mad dash to grab cash.

>>
was that in iambic pentameter?

Whatever:

Point is, my 90's games are still good.
I have a billion books to read.
Stop fucking up.
Stop making one good game (as an industry, not as a studio) a year.

And for fuck's sake, bring back free online support.
Fucking misers. I don't want to have to finance a new game engine every year by you assholes picking my pockets.