[Games Anatomy] Where No Von Has Gone Before

Abakus, he say:

And you should TOTALLY do Rifts next week. The system's a clusterfuck, but Lord, do I love that game.

I hear and obey! Now, this is going to be a bit of a challenge for me, as RIFTS (which feels like it deserves the capslock) is not a system I've played before, or indeed even read before. This week is going to be more of a 'first encounter' than a deep dissection - I'm going to skim over RIFTS and see if I can lay my hands on what the system's about, because I'm sure I don't know from first-hand experience. I've heard things, though. Strange, terrible things. Things about which I feel a morbid curiosity, as I turn the Games Anatomy scalpel onto this strange, deformed carcass and plunge in elbows-deep, seeking for tasty meats in its food-body.

You can tell I've not had lunch yet, can't you?

SinSynn, have you been infiltrating the nightmares of artists again?

The Weekly Top X - 2. Just 2.

Hello and hi, folks, and welcome to another Weekly Top X!  Today's post may only be showcasing two blogs, but there is by no means going to be a lack of things for you to look at.

1) Colonel Shofer's Mild OCD Model Blog
There's no specific post to go look at here, because you really should be looking at ALL of them.  The good colonel here, is one of the many excellent blogs that make doing the Top X more difficult than I would like it to be.  In this particular case, the format we've chosen for this just doesn't lend itself well to the kind of news and announcement stuff that people do from time to time.  It would, essentially, just be re-blogging a tiny post.

But that's all there is at the Mild OCD Model Blog!  And, holy crap, does he find a lot of cool stuff!  See, the Shofer Magic (tm) is that he finds so much cool shit on the internet that he's never without something cool to share and blow our tiny minds with. I mean, seriously... just go and check out the links he's posted for the last day.  Yes, a single day's worth of links for him is something like 17+ hunks of internet treasure.  There is ALWAYS something new to look at.  If you can't find something interesting to look at on his blog then I suggest you immediately remove yourself from society because you are clearly some sort of horrible monster.

So this one's for you, buddy.  You're almost always at the top of the rolls, one of my favorite places to dip into for a hot minute and you need some long overdue Top X love.

I hereby grant you a promotion to Brigadier General and award you the totally-not-made-up House of Paincakes achievement award in the field of excellence.

Mass Appeal

...If I have to, I go all out- with no mic. Yeah, that's right, cuz I survived mad fights
And for my peeps I truly care, cuz without some of them I wouldn't be here
And they all know how I feel, cuz suckas be like playin' themselves to have mass appeal
- Gang Starr (RIP Guru)


Hey folks, SinSynn here.

So, what shall we talk about this week?
*grin*
Hmmm...I wonder what hugely important social/economic/racial/gender issue thingy I can poke fun at in my unique (and perhaps tragically misguided) fashion this time? What gremlin-like misbehavior shall I perpetrate?
Gotta tell ya, I'm rubbing my tentacles (and several other appendages) together in anticipation just thinking about it....

Since I'm legally obligated to keep the intro and opening paragraph completely inoffensive, however, you're gonna hafta click to find out.

*You guys know I'll totally press this, right?*

Tuesday Discussion - Strong Ladies

If you may remember, last week SinSynn caused quite a bit of a stir with his post on sexy models.  Actually, you may not remember if you we're blacked out in rage.

I kid, I kid, there were some emotional and strong responses, certainly, but nothing I don't think was valuable on some level.


Now, SinSynn did a good job of fostering discussion and finding us some hawt models to look at but for today's, hopefully, less controversial approach to the topic, I want to look at things a bit differently.  


I think that many of you (myself included) would agree that the state of representations of women in the games we play and the hobbies we participate often confuses being super hawt with being a strong character (to put it mildly).

So with that in mind, do one or more of the following for today's discourse:

1) Tell us about a model or story from our beloved games that you think actually portrays a strong female character. Explain your position. Include links if possible.
2) Disagree (at least semi-politely) with someone's choice.
3) Tell us about something that's the so far away from option 1 that it should be embarrassing for the people involved.

New Member Monday - Zeitgeist

Ooooooooooh.  We are just a HoP, skip and a jump away (see what I did there?) from the first full challenge in HoP Idol 2: Die Harder.  Friday is the deadline and then it's gonna get nuts.

Well... maybe not that nuts.  But certainly not nipples molded onto the Batsuit nuts.  It's gonna be awesome it what I'm saying.

In the meantime, we have some new blogs to tide you over til we get all Micheal Keaton on you.

New Member Monday

Chronowraith's Corner
Keywords: Warhammer Fantasy, Warhammer 40k, Warmachine, Hordes, Malifaux, HIstorical, Tactics, Modeling, Painting, General Info (I do a little bit of everything).
Why I am god's gift to the internet? Because god made me that way. It's not fair to everyone else, but that is the way it happens sometimes.

Woah!  That was a short one.

[Musings of a Game Store Owner] Breakups

We have cut ties with vendors in the past. The reasons varied, but almost all of those reasons have come down to money. (Yeah, despite our "nice guy" reputation, we have some mercenary tendencies.)

As a rule, we don't hack and slash a company lightly. It usually takes a progression of changes on our end along with choices that hit our pocketbook pretty heavily.