HEY KID I'M A CONSUMER

I guess the game can't "die" if it wasn't ever really alive to start with.

...stop all the grab dealin'!

Six years later, that video still doesn't make any sense to me. That said, there's something else that doesn't make sense to me and that's what I feel like I need to talk about today - namely, the handling of MechWarrior Online and the player base that's apparently just slightly more incompetent than the game's management. 

Anyone who's followed this blog since I created it about a year ago should know by now that I love BattleTech. It's by far one of my favorite IPs, and I still have great memories of playing the various games (video and tabletop) all through middle school and high school. The circle of friends I made through it was the closest to a real social life I've ever had, which I'm sure reflects poorly on me to a certain extent but nonetheless should make it clear as to why I hate seeing the property go through hard times. 

MechWarrior Online is thus a very strange beast. On one hand, the game has some of the best core gameplay the franchise has ever seen. The aiming system helps make it feel like you're piloting a giant walking tank with limbs rather than a fighter jet with legs, and the integration of proper BattleTech elements like equipment critical slots in the MechBay and the risk of ammunition cooking off in destroyed parts of your 'Mech that will gut you from the inside out bring back a certain level of depth that was missing from MechWarrior 4, even if certain elements (most notably active/passive sensors) are missing in action. The problem is that instead of adding those features, the developer, Piranha Games Interactive (PGI) seems dead-set on removing things that increase player immersion, all while adding elements that break the game in various ways and asking for more money while they do it.

To Judge a Book by Its Cover

My personal AR-15, which I put together with a friend's help.
According to gun store employees, I should have left that to the pros (like who, DPMS? Bushmaster? Pfft.).

Firstly, I'd like to apologize for the lack of updates. I've been busy doing that while "contacting your elected officials like a good citizen" thing, as well as working on quite a few other projects, up to and including contributing to a recurring MechWarrior Online podcast and getting RIPPED AT THE GYM BRAH. As a result, my game playing has been cut down pretty significantly, aside from regular MechWarrior sessions, replaying Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance four or five times and killin' filthy pinko commie bastards in Wargame: AirLand Battle (the latter two games are utterly fantastic and are very much worth your time, by the way). I've been pretty much out of topics and struck with a huge case of writer's block when I do want to write too, which hasn't helped. Maybe I'll write something about Metal Gear Rising later, because it's CUHRAYZEE in all the best ways and has some pretty interesting political/philosophical implications too. Maybe.

Oh yeah, and I bought a shotgun - a Remington 870 Police Magnum, to be exact. It's pretty cool, and maybe someday I'll get it out to a range that actually lets me use it (the closest skeet range has a "no riot guns" rule; local indoor ranges are slug only). Someday.

With that out of the way, I need to comment on something I've noticed lately. The last time I wrote anything for this blog, I had to complain about the way that I was treated like a mass murderer in the making for the crime of being a.) a gamer and b.) a gun owner, which is about as accurate a prediction as saying all gay people will cause an outbreak of HIV. It's a blanket statement that to this day makes me absolutely simmer with rage. Of course, these are just blanket statements - broad generalizations made to appeal to the lower common denominator to score political brownie points. Stupid, but I understand that's just how national politics work. Obviously it won't apply when said gamer is in your store, asking to look at your handguns, and asking how to field strip them so he can inspect the internals, right?

...right?

Under the Gun

Kept you waiting, huh?

It's been a while. For good reason, I assure you. Please bear with me - the tone of this post is probably going to be a lot more serious and relevant than I'm used to writing. In the past two months, I've been rather busy. Granted, work takes a lot out of me, and I basically work a second job in MechWarrior Online at this point, but I've been meaning to get something off my chest. It's something I've been thinking a lot about, and I've been waiting for someone in the video game community to come out and say it, but as far as I can tell, nobody has, so I guess it falls on me. Here's hoping it doesn't fall on deaf ears.