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It doesn't even own him, though? Like, I can't trademark something you are saying to stop you from saying it. That's obvious, isn't it?
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Jun 21, 2018 17:40
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It is apparently not obvious.
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Jun 21, 2018 18:32
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The Last Jedi was real bad dude
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Jun 21, 2018 18:58
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Yeah the trademark thing just ... doesn't do anything except bring the centre of attention over from creatively reclaiming the hashtag, back to making zweihanderdude the centre of attention.
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Jun 21, 2018 23:50
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Plutonis posted:The Last Jedi was real bad dude Who cares?
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Jun 22, 2018 03:48
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The Zweihander dude is buddies with Zak so ofc he'd try to capitalise on progressive posturing for personal profit. (the joke is that that is extremely Zak's thing)
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Jun 22, 2018 12:55
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Not so long ago Zak's Erotic Actors What Do Table-Top Games Twitter crowed about because of Satine Phoenix WotC was more inclusive hiring wise than anybody else ever. No doubt his righteous condemnation of #DnDGate is forthcoming. : :
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Jun 22, 2018 19:19
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In other news, after about 5 years or so, the Mekton Zero kickstarter is refunding anyone who didn't happen to take their original buy-out offer back in 2015. Considering the rumors of using the kickstarter money to get the Witcher license, and that there's that Cyberpunk 2077 video game (based off the CP2020 system) supposedly coming out by June 2019, it seems R. Talsorian decided to cut its losses rather than drag CDProjektRed down with them. There were stories from some backers that the game was being written on "a 1995 version of Quark Express on an ancient Mac...[Pondsmith] was so stubborn that he refused to even consider upgrading for several months. Severnal of his former employees volunteered to migrate the text into modern sofware, but he refused to let it go." Another one said "Early in the project R. Talsorian was using software so massively out of date that they had to upgrade all of their software using the kickstarter funds and rebuild the documents for the project." At least it's not as bad as Robotech Tactics.
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Jun 23, 2018 08:20
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Maybe CD Project Red said to Mike "Here, have a bag of change from our petty cash drawer - go refund your backers so we don't have a controversy when CP2077 is released." $50 grand isn't nothing, mind, but on the scale of videogame development budgets it's a small price to pay to avoid a PR quagmire (especially since the refunds due now probably amount to substantially less than that due to people accepting the buyout offer earlier). EDIT: Oh, and apparently anyone who stuck with the Mekton Kickstarter to this point will get their promised rewards anyway if/when Mekton Zero finally releases. Which further makes me think that Mike got a big payday from CDPR and has stashed the money aside to cover that. Warthur fucked around with this message at 16:25 on Jun 26, 2018 |
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Jun 26, 2018 16:18
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I do have to say that some of the things that get honed in on as "oh this is why this Kickstarter failed/is bad/etc" really miss the point. That's not to say Mekton Zero wasn't a project that got mismanaged and that dumb things were done with it, and being as out of date with software as they were is a disaster. But honestly I don't have a problem with using Kickstarter funds to upgrade software as a general concept. Yes, it's useful for long after the specific project is done, but it's still a prerequisite for that project and part of the cost of being able to do it. The "used this money to get this other license" is another one I don't really countenance often. It implies a level of 1:1 accounting that just isn't how building anything works. There have been a couple cases of bait and switch campaigns where the company never intended to work on the thing they Kickstarted, sure, but besides being rare they also are pretty obvious. Basically I find that the discussion around failed Kickstarters tends to point out certain things as "problems" that aren't why the project failed and really shouldn't be treated as poor practices, because doing so only hurts creators acting in good faith.
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Jun 26, 2018 16:32
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Aniodia posted:In other news, after about 5 years or so, the Mekton Zero kickstarter is refunding anyone who didn't happen to take their original buy-out offer back in 2015. Considering the rumors of using the kickstarter money to get the Witcher license, and that there's that Cyberpunk 2077 video game (based off the CP2020 system) supposedly coming out by June 2019, it seems R. Talsorian decided to cut its losses rather than drag CDProjektRed down with them. There were stories from some backers that the game was being written on "a 1995 version of Quark Express on an ancient Mac...[Pondsmith] was so stubborn that he refused to even consider upgrading for several months. Severnal of his former employees volunteered to migrate the text into modern sofware, but he refused to let it go." Another one said "Early in the project R. Talsorian was using software so massively out of date that they had to upgrade all of their software using the kickstarter funds and rebuild the documents for the project." ''Migrate the text'' meaning...copy-pasting it into a Word document? Very cyberpunk.
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Jun 26, 2018 20:04
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ravenkult posted:''Migrate the text'' meaning...copy-pasting it into a Word document? Very cyberpunk. When making a manuscript like that, there is also formatting, bookmarks, indexes, table of contents, etc. that a simple copy+paste will do nothing but muck up.
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Jun 26, 2018 20:42
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ravenkult posted:''Migrate the text'' meaning...copy-pasting it into a Word document? Very cyberpunk. I share your doubts, since QuarkExpress still exists; once they get it to a modern version, they can export to something Word (and therefore world) can read. The issue with old-but-functioning computers is getting the data off them -- might have just a 3.5" drive and a dialup modem. No USB, no ethernet.
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Jun 26, 2018 20:48
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Either he was just writing in Quark (for some bizarre reason) in which case they can copy/paste, or he was doing layout stuff with it in which case...just use Quark. Plenty of people still do.Kibner posted:When making a manuscript like that, there is also formatting, bookmarks, indexes, table of contents, etc. that a simple copy+paste will do nothing but muck up.
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Jun 26, 2018 21:26
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At least Mike is trying to do right by his backers - just look into any number of failed video game Kickstarters that amassed $50k+ where backers are getting approximately zip in terms of refunds or communications from companies that mysteriously vanish into the wind. Trad Game Kickstarters have actually been a fair bit better to me in terms of actually delivering something and communicating delays, whereas Video Game Kickstarters (no matter how slickly produced the campaign video is) are now much more likely to do jack squat. That being said, my Trad Games Kickstarter portfolio does not include Far West (like others' do).
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Jun 26, 2018 22:34
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LuiCypher posted:At least Mike is trying to do right by his backers - just look into any number of failed video game Kickstarters that amassed $50k+ where backers are getting approximately zip in terms of refunds or communications from companies that mysteriously vanish into the wind. Honestly a Kickstarter that fails but manages to deliver refunds to backers is, at worst, a mild disappointment. e; I mean actually delivering refunds, not "says will deliver refunds, does it for about 10% of anyone who raises a fuss, then vanishes from the internet."
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Jun 26, 2018 22:41
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Spending the money in good faith and failing to make the project does not seem like an unreasonable outcome for a kickstarter. I mean, the scam part is that you don't get any equity in the project you've "invested" in and it's actually far worse in successful profitable kickstarter ventures than ones that fail in good faith and wouldn't have produced returns anyway.
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Jun 26, 2018 22:52
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LuiCypher posted:At least Mike is trying to do right by his backers - just look into any number of failed video game Kickstarters that amassed $50k+ where backers are getting approximately zip in terms of refunds or communications from companies that mysteriously vanish into the wind. Kibner posted:When making a manuscript like that, there is also formatting, bookmarks, indexes, table of contents, etc. that a simple copy+paste will do nothing but muck up. LuiCypher posted:That being said, my Trad Games Kickstarter portfolio does not include Far West (like others' do).
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Jun 27, 2018 03:39
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Okay but is Mekton Zeta any good or is it as awfully 80s/90s as it looks?
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Jun 27, 2018 03:50
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S.J. posted:Okay but is Mekton Zeta any good or is it as awfully 80s/90s as it looks? I wouldn't play it these days myself, but I wouldn't say no to a sensibly updated iteration of it either.
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Jun 27, 2018 03:57
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Isn't Mekton Zeta the lego robot wargame?
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Jun 27, 2018 04:09
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Cassa posted:Isn't Mekton Zeta the lego robot wargame? No, it was originally (back in it development) called Mechaton, but was renamed Mobile Frame Zero upon final release.
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Jun 27, 2018 04:10
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In my head I like to pretend that D Vincent Baker was slightly chafing at being "the influential storygame guy" so he co-wrote a lego mecha wargame just to say he did. Then he wrote a GMless storygame RPG in the setting for it anyway.
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Jun 27, 2018 05:28
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bewilderment posted:In my head I like to pretend that D Vincent Baker was slightly chafing at being "the influential storygame guy" so he co-wrote a lego mecha wargame just to say he did. Sometimes a man just enjoys a big stompy robot.
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Jun 27, 2018 11:11
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S.J. posted:Okay but is Mekton Zeta any good or is it as awfully 80s/90s as it looks? The system and presentation is very 1980s, though.
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Jun 27, 2018 12:38
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Pretty much. If you wanted a general mecha game that was relatively true to mecha shows in the '80s and '90s, Mekton was your only option at the time. Battletech didn't do it, Robotech didn't do it. Eventually you'd have Heavy Gear or Jovian Chronicles, but those were very specific interpretations of different anime (Armored Trooper Votoms and Gundam Universal Century, respectively). Ironically, R. Talsorian would do an Armored Trooper Votoms game that game out around the same time Heavy Gear was still being published, so you had your choice of hard mil-fi mecha at the time.
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Jun 27, 2018 13:14
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Jonny Hodgson's leaving Cubicle 7 as of September. Given his art direction and overall management on The One Ring really defined the look and feel, not to mention his involvement in getting Adventures of Middle Earth to happen, I think this is a big loss for C7, and one they'll struggle to replace. With WFRP sales being huge, they've got a nice cushion there, though it's decidedly late and based on that and where it seems to be at the moment, I wouldn't be surprised not to see any supplements for it out until next year (in hardback at least). On the plus side he now seems to have a very nice patreon making low fantasy maps: https://www.patreon.com/jonhodgsonmaps
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Jun 27, 2018 15:32
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PST posted:Jonny Hodgson's leaving Cubicle 7 as of September. Given his art direction and overall management on The One Ring really defined the look and feel, not to mention his involvement in getting Adventures of Middle Earth to happen, I think this is a big loss for C7, and one they'll struggle to replace. drat, that's a huge loss. TOR will remain one of the best systems ever written, but Hodgson's art is incredible and a huge contribution to the books. 
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Jun 27, 2018 16:12
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I thought the Mekton Zeta relaunch also included a system revamp/update but it's been a while since they talked any specifics and I can't really remember what was suggested. I know it seemed relatively crunchy to me but that is what a lot of mech-related players would want. He's posted another update since explaining that they have to do some kind of bulk process with Paypal to get refunds out, and that is to avoid at least the customer (but realistically also R Tal) being charged fees. I'm okay with that and I appreciate the good faith effort at least. I wish they'd handled this project better--I know there were other things going on, and maybe Pondsmith was just overcome with enthusiasm and/or wanted to get on this brand new (at the time) Kickstarter train to do a pet project that blew up bigger than planned and required a lot more commitment than anticipated. I'm not expecting any eventual release but I'm not really mad about it either.
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Jun 27, 2018 16:16
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Alien Rope Burn posted:Pretty much. If you wanted a general mecha game that was relatively true to mecha shows in the '80s and '90s, Mekton was your only option at the time. Battletech didn't do it, Robotech didn't do it. Eventually you'd have Heavy Gear or Jovian Chronicles, but those were very specific interpretations of different anime (Armored Trooper Votoms and Gundam Universal Century, respectively). Ironically, R. Talsorian would do an Armored Trooper Votoms game that game out around the same time Heavy Gear was still being published, so you had your choice of hard mil-fi mecha at the time. There was also a weird semi-wargame/semi-RPG called Mecha which had a MesoAmerican themed vibe with Jaguar Warriors.
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Jun 27, 2018 17:47
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Humbug Scoolbus posted:There was also a weird semi-wargame/semi-RPG called Mecha which had a MesoAmerican themed vibe with Jaguar Warriors. I remember trying to get a copy of this off eBay and getting stiffed by the seller, that's my Mecha! (with an exclamation point I believe) story.
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Jun 27, 2018 23:00
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Chris Spivey, author of the Diana Jones nominated Harlem Unbound, has put out an open call for a new science fiction line he's putting out with Chaosium. Not a lot of details, but I love his focus on creating a diverse setting. https://twitter.com/Darker_Hue/status/1013154114484822016
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Jul 1, 2018 13:45
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Artist/writer of diversity seems like a really clumsy phrase that's going to result in all kinds of idiots coming out of the woodwork, though.
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Jul 1, 2018 16:12
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Loomer posted:Artist/writer of diversity seems like a really clumsy phrase that's going to result in all kinds of idiots coming out of the woodwork, though. gently caress'em.
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Jul 1, 2018 16:43
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If it pisses off Tarnowski and Jimmy D, God bless.
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Jul 1, 2018 17:07
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bewilderment posted:In my head I like to pretend that D Vincent Baker was slightly chafing at being "the influential storygame guy" so he co-wrote a lego mecha wargame just to say he did. For anyone wondering about the actual backstory there, Vincent hints at it in the dedications of the 2006 Mechaton rulebook. It seems to have been a thing he, one of his sons, and his brother whipped up during a family get-together on Labor Day 2002 to play with the family (Meguey, another son, and Vincent's sister are mentioned as "indulging them" in that instance). Later, Joshua A.C. Newman of Shock: Social Science Fiction fame persuaded him to make it into a full-blown thing and became his creative partner, with the whole Baker clan and Joshua's wife as playtesters: one of their kids, I believe Vincent's younger son, was apparently murderously good at the MFZ version of the game at age 11. Later, Joshua (with Vincent's blessings) did the Kickstarter to turn Mechaton into Mobile Frame Zero. Then Vincent wrote a GMless storygame RPG in that setting because the man literally cannot help himself. Edit: Also, Mobile Frame Zero is Creative Commons and freely available, so if any of you like the sound of a LEGO mecha wargame with campaign play, here you go. Kestral fucked around with this message at 18:14 on Jul 1, 2018 |
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Jul 1, 2018 18:09
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Kestral posted:For anyone wondering about the actual backstory there, Vincent hints at it in the dedications of the 2006 Mechaton rulebook. It seems to have been a thing he, one of his sons, and his brother whipped up during a family get-together on Labor Day 2002 to play with the family (Meguey, another son, and Vincent's sister are mentioned as "indulging them" in that instance). Later, Joshua A.C. Newman of Shock: Social Science Fiction fame persuaded him to make it into a full-blown thing and became his creative partner, with the whole Baker clan and Joshua's wife as playtesters: one of their kids, I believe Vincent's younger son, was apparently murderously good at the MFZ version of the game at age 11. And then that same son made a vehicle-based mad max-themed version of MF0, and they're kickstarting it soon as Tiny and Chrome.
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Jul 1, 2018 18:33
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I imagine Vincent Baker has a copy of the DMG, except the word "Dungeon Master" is scribbled out so hard it's gone through to the cardboard of the cover, the Lich has X's drawn over it's eyes and a bunch of daggers drawn into it's back.
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Jul 1, 2018 18:35
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Flavivirus posted:And then that same son made a vehicle-based mad max-themed version of MF0, and they're kickstarting it soon as Tiny and Chrome. The Baker kids are kind of amazing. Meg and Vincent must be so proud of them. Kurieg posted:I imagine Vincent Baker has a copy of the DMG, except the word "Dungeon Master" is scribbled out so hard it's gone through to the cardboard of the cover, the Lich has X's drawn over it's eyes and a bunch of daggers drawn into it's back. I don't think it's a coincidence that his recent mania for GMless games coincides with the public activation of his and Meg's political side, which is essentially "full communism now," and not even in the joking way that phrase often gets used.
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Jul 1, 2018 19:17
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Loomer posted:Artist/writer of diversity seems like a really clumsy phrase that's going to result in all kinds of idiots coming out of the woodwork, though. While I don't have a better phrase myself, it does sound clunky. On the other hand, you could literally call it anything and the shitlords will piss their pants in rage over saying "Maybe we could hear from someone who's not a white man, today" so whatever.
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