Twenty Sided

By Shamus Posted Sunday Feb 20, 2011

Filed under: Personal 96 comments

I know how it is. The money keeps rolling in, piling up. That’s fine at first, but after a while it becomes annoying. I mean, where do you put it all? The desk drawers are so full that money just comes spilling out every time you look for a pen to write a thank-you note to somebody for the duffel bag of cash. Your pillowcases are as stuffed as they can get, there’s no room left in the icebox, and the closet is clogged with the stuff. You can’t go up in the attic without bumping into something and having a pile of cash snow down on you. The heaps of bills in the basement have been scattered from the kids jumping in them, and you’re sick of sweeping them back together. Sooner or later you turn to your spouse and say, “Isn’t there something we can do to get rid of all this damned money?!? Can’t we just… you know… give it to somebody?”

I know this is a big deal for some of you. In fact, I got a comment from Strangeite yesterday, and he seems to be suffering from this exact problem:

Shamus, I say this with the love of someone that has been reading your blog for years (which is a weird sci-fi futuristic kind of love we could never have imagined 20 years ago)…

PUT A DAMN DONATE BUTTON ON YOUR BLOG!!!!!

I click the advertisement that you reluctantly put on your blog (without any fan-fare) a couple of times a day, but you really need to allow those of us that can spare a few dimes to help you out while you are undertaking this new adventure in your life.

Since your book is set in the 1880s, then I am sure you are aware of the concept of patrons funding the struggling artist. Well, let the community that you have cultivated over many years be your patron.

I can't promise that you will make a living from the Twentysided community's genoristy, but we (yes, I know I can speak only for myself, but I don't think I am alone) WANT TO HELP.

Get off your high horse and realize you are an artist.

I talked it over with the wife. She wasn’t crazy about the idea, but she wants to help if we can. If you need to get rid of some money, then we’ve set up a mechanism where you can do that:

Just, you know, take it easy. We’re offering to help. Please don’t take advantage of that.

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

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Writing: The Thing I’m Doing

By Shamus Posted Saturday Feb 19, 2011

Filed under: Projects 151 comments

 Chainmail Bikini Bonus: The More Things Changeâ€¦Previous Post

Next PostDigital-Age Publishing 

For the past few weeks now readers have frequently observed that I’m not putting out very many words these days. Stolen Pixels is still on hiatus. Shamus Plays is ended. My weekly column is almost bi-weekly. I’m reviewing less games and in general saying less stuff here on the blog. A few people are under the impression that my reduced output is due to Josh and Mumbles writing stuff here. The thinking goes, if they were writing less, I’d be writing more. The same goes for video content – if there were less YouTubes, there’d be more words, right?

I wasn’t going to say anything about this yet, but I can’t have them taking the blame for my reduced output. The truth is, Spoiler Warning is what is keeping the blog from turning into one of those once-a-week kind of deals. The frustrating thing is that I’m doing a great deal of writing. You’re just not seeing it.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Writing: The Thing I’m Doing”

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

 Chainmail Bikini Bonus: The More Things Changeâ€¦Previous Post

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Spoiler Warning S4E40:You DO Know Jack

By Shamus Posted Friday Feb 18, 2011

Filed under: Spoiler Warning 172 comments

 Spoiler Warning S4E39: A Rogue Element Previous Post

Next PostSpoiler Warning S4E41: It was the Best of Episodes... 

Hey, I made a homepage for Spoiler Warning. That’s just so that I have a handy place to link when I introduce people to the show. Right now I usually link them to the first episode of the latest series, which isn’t nearly as informative as a page with the premise and list of seasons. So there’s that. It’s not particularly well designed. No RSS feed or any fancy stuff. It’s ugly. But you know the old adage: “Release first, finish second”. That’s not an addage? Hmph. Could have fooled me.

Anyway, if you’re passing along links to your friends, this link is the one to give them http://www.shamusyoung.com/spoilerwarning/

Link (YouTube)

Also, big thanks to the artist who made the Spoiler Warning fan art. (Which you can see I’ve made the official logo for season 4.) Now to reveal what a complete amateur I am, I lost the name of the artist and the link to the original. (I can’t remember if it was sent via email, or in the comments, and I don’t remember when.) So, I suck and I fail at blogging. But how about that fan art, huh?

EDIT: The fan art was by Pure Pareidolia. See the original.

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

 Spoiler Warning S4E39: A Rogue Element Previous Post

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Spoiler Warning S4E39: A Rogue Element

By Shamus Posted Thursday Feb 17, 2011

Filed under: Spoiler Warning 111 comments

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We got so caught up in joking around about Samara’s loyalty mission last time that I never got a chance to say that I really liked it. I like the idea of a non-combat mission. And when I objected about us not being able to shoot Morinth outright, I wasn’t saying “We should be allowed to shoot Morinth”, I was just thinking that the game didn’t really do a good job of explaining why you couldn’t. (And why using your biotics would be useless or unwise.) I bring this up because it was a minor quibble that took up a good portion of the episode.

And now we begin Jack’s loyalty mission…

Link (YouTube)

I wrote 600 words on Jack’s loyalty mission back when the game was still fresh in my mind. That might be worth reading now that we’ve reached that point.

This is another place in the story where the good part of the game (loyalty missions) is at odds with the central premise of the game. The plot insists that we work with Cerberus and accept this “rogue elements” excuse, but all of the previous game and half of this one are dedicated to showing what an obviously preposterous idea that is.

1) If the “Rogue elements” excuse is a lie, we are idiots to believe it.
2) If it’s the truth, we’re idiots to trust TIM.

No matter which way you look at it, Shepard is required to behave like a moron for this plot to work.

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

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Spoiler Warning S4E38: I Like the Bass

By Mumbles Posted Wednesday Feb 16, 2011

Filed under: Spoiler Warning 187 comments

 Spoiler Warning S4E37: Shepard: Master DetectivePrevious Post

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Link (YouTube)

This is my formal apology for being the team’s grape paladin (a near-perfect balance between paragon and renegade that has both red and blue in its own color!). If you’ve been watching the show for a while, you might have realized I can be a bit of a bleeding heart. Too many times you have heard a variation of, “What’s that, Josh? There’s a dying Batarian who needs a little med-gel? Sweet jumping Jesus on a pogo stick, give him some! Paragon that interrupt as hard as you can!” I honestly never believed saving a couple dying aliens would come back to bite me in the ass, but here I am with teeth marks on my cheeks. It’s okay, I guess we’ll keep Boobs McGee.

Anyway, I could argue that’s what the Spoiler Warning team gets for enlisting the indisputably cheeriest person on the show, but I don’t want to get fired. Well, fired implies I get paid for this in anything except a bloody Echo Bazaar addiction and Livestream commercials about how to feed the children I don’t have.

Mumbles

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Let’s do the Time Rift Again!
RIFT Beta Impressions, Part 2

By Josh Posted Tuesday Feb 15, 2011

Filed under: Game Reviews 65 comments

 Let's do the Time Rift Again!
RIFT Beta Impressions, Part 1Previous Post

Next PostMinecraft: Go East 

After making our way through character creation, Jarenth and I found ourselves in the Defiant tutorial zone, a barren, dessicated wasteland full of strange monsters just waiting to reduce your hapless avatar to a pile of ethereal goo. Which is to say the tutorial zone was full of monsters with an agro radius the size of my kitchen that all went down in about five hits. It’s probably pretty obvious that I find tutorial zones to be exquisitely boring – I don’t really know many MMO players that don’t. Still, a tutorial zone done well can be something special (I again draw to Guild Wars when I point to pre-searing Ascalon). RIFT’s… are not. I can understand the necessity of introducing new players to the game’s mechanics but for anyone who’s played an MMO there’s nothing new being introduced here, aside from a brief explanation of the soul system. The only interesting lore bits in the entire tutorial are the exposition drop you get at the very beginning and the boss battle at the very end where you step through the time portal.

Which is really a shame, because it was not until after we finally got out of the tutorial zone and into the actual world that I got a taste of the second (and much more potentially interesting) unique mechanic of RIFT.

…Well, actually I stopped playing after we got out of the tutorial zone so I could drive through a nearby Raising Cane’s and get some awesome chicken fingers but then I got a taste of RIFT’s second unique mechanic (and some awesome chicken fingers).

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Let’s do the Time Rift Again!
RIFT Beta Impressions, Part 2″

Josh Viel is the primary editor and producer of the Spoiler Warning video series. You can support the show by backing the Patreon.

 Let's do the Time Rift Again!
RIFT Beta Impressions, Part 1Previous Post

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65 comments

Spoiler Warning S4E37: Shepard: Master Detective

By Mumbles Posted Tuesday Feb 15, 2011

Filed under: Spoiler Warning 79 comments

 Spoiler Warning Episode 100:
Probing Questions, Part 4Previous Post

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Link (YouTube)

I sort of love it when games try to prove they can progress the plot without any actual combat. Forget that we’ve spent weeks watching Regina hammer her skull into the soft bellies of mercenaries, the Samara loyalty quest is different. You have to talk to people, click on stuff and listen to futuristic livejournals of sexually confused youth! All the interesting parts of being an investigator.

It’s important to note that I failed this quest three times in a row. You might be wondering why a psychotic asari wouldn’t want to melt my brain. Well, do you remember when Indiana Jones casually shoots that guy who tries to intimidate him with some sparkly sword tricks? Imagine the quest is that sword dude and I’m Indy, but I forgot my gun. Why couldn’t Shepard do what she’s good at and just solve a problem with extreme, public violence? All I wanted to do was find this woman, shoot her under the table in some scummy bar and then apologize for the mess.

That’s right, two Harrison Ford movie references. Boom.

Mumbles

 Spoiler Warning Episode 100:
Probing Questions, Part 4Previous Post

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