Metal Monday

YouTube Obsession

Rycon is a creator that really deserves more love because, between his two channels, he puts in an insane amount of work into role-playing video games.

Kenshi, is a game so dense and unique that I will never have time to really play it. But no worries, Rycon has and 80+ hour playthrough that does not overlook anything. Same goes for another giant procedural game Rimworld. Rycon has many playthroughs of Rimworld, modded and otherwise but my favorite has to be the adventures of the Necromancer Manos. Through his videos it’s easy to see why people sink hundreds of hours into these games.

Recently I have been listening to his playthroughs of Neo-Scavenger and Cataclysm Dark Days Ahead¹ as I go to sleep. Because his descriptions of action are so thorough that it’s like listening to to an audiobook.

I highly recommend all of his stuff but you can’t go wrong watching any of his Rimworld videos.

Reading

I’m working my way through a couple books atm, first being the excellent historical fiction Wolf Hall by Hillary Mantel. The book chronicles the rise of Thomas Cromwell, an absolutely fascinating character of history and deserving the well-written prose delivered from Mantel.

Secondly, I’m reading Gretchen Felker-Martin’s sophomore outing Cuckoo. I have to praise Felker-Martin for her ability to convey vitriolic queer anger, violence and catharsis. Her first book, Manhunt, is one of the few books to literally make me gasp out loud (I was in a Korean jimjilbong when this happened, I even clutched my non-existent pearls). I had to take a break from Manhunt between part 2 and 3 because I was so worked up. Partly from stress but mostly from intense emotional release spurred by immense empathy with the queer protagonists.

The very first chapter of Cuckoo, hit me like a ton of bricks and left me short of breath. Not only because it was scary but because the violence that queer people experience in conservative/religious towns/homes is expressed so clearly and thoroughly it was almost like working through my own trauma.

It goes without saying I recommend Manhunt wholeheartedly and I’m sure Cuckoo will deliver.

Playing

Foxhole from Siege Camp is technically an MMO but it more resembles a WWII LARP. Basically, two armies fight to capture tiles, but every gun, bullet and tank are made in factories built by players, from ore mined by players. The wars are 24/7 and can sometimes take a month of IRL-time to complete.

It’s design leads to some interestingly organic command structures. Some players never fire their gun, to them, the real game is the logistics; Manufacturing items to be brought to the frontlines.

I’ve only just started playing but this game’s unique social mechanics have my brain buzzing.

Other Notables

** “It doesn’t address the core issues that are making the current practice of AI unsustainable by definition,” she said of the deal. “Instead of monopolizing decommissioned nuclear power plants, we should be focusing on integrating sustainability into AI.”

** Max Read at it again, this time breaking down popular Dad-Media.

1  There is definitely a CDDA post coming as I love that game.