#arenanet

Hi I’ve made a commission!

No joke ppl have some seriously badass characters.

I just read an article on The Verge titled ARENANET FIRINGS CAST A CHILLING SHADOW ACROSS THE GAME INDUSTRY‘ You’re just waiting for the wrong tweet to end your life now’.

Apparently, some customers (in the vein of Gamergate trolls) sick of gender politics in gaming, used a tweet they deemed offensive to get a female developer fired at a company called ArenaNet. ArenaNet’s management was more concerned with the devisive opinions of its trollish customers than the unpopular opinion of its employee.

The article is incensed by this, but isn’t this the exact same reason Google fired James Damore, when he wrote an anti-woman blog which the leftist gender warriors cheered about?

A tumbler user named @callingmyangel just messaged me the following question: Question: why do you hate feminism so much?

My answer is because of situations like the above. The tagline of this blog is:

Feminism is a fraud. To justify the fraud requires hypocrisy. To enforce the hypocrisy that justifies the fraud requires intimidation. Once you take an open minded, critical eye to the movement you see this is true. If you deny it you are either disingenuous, delusional or mentally deficient. It’s your choice, but you have to choose.

Feminists have consistently used moral outrage tactics to intimidate others into following their ethos. If you voice an opinion other than ours we will slander you as sexist and get you fired. When the nuts on the other end of the continuum use the exact same tactics, feminists hypocritically denounce it.

Either “Moral Outrage As A Means to Influence Corporate Policy” is wrong or it isn’t. If it isn’t wrong, don’t bitch when others use your tactics against you. If it is wrong, don’t use it in the first place. Feminists are hypocrites who want to have it both ways; free to use outrage to influence corporations and get people fired themselves, while simultaneously be outraged when it is done to them.

A female coder named Jennifer Scheurle is quoted as follows:

Scheurle tells The Verge that incidents like this demonstrate why “large corporations letting their communities dictate and influence how to treat their employees is a very dangerous approach and obviously a slippery slope.” She adds that “this behavior has painted a target on all of our backs” and that it gives harassers “an angle to target us knowing that we won’t receive protection from our employers. Wanted or not, it makes us vulnerable and ultimately leads to many of us rather staying silent because we won’t know if an angry internet mob demanding our heads will be enough for us to lose our jobs and ultimately our livelihood.”

James Damore is nodding his head right now and agrees with Ms. Scheurle’s every word in that statement. So do I.

That feminists (and Ms. Scheurle herself) are completely oblivious to their hypocrisy, or more accurately don’t care and view it as theirright and no one else’s, is bad. That the movement has normalized intimidation tactics like the above as a path to success is worse.

That’s why I hate feminism. 

nottinghamotter:

I had a dream recently, that featured a pair of charr playing a chess-like board game together. One was chewing out the other, complaining that they had “sacrificed three quarters of the city and almost all their troops,” while the other was responding with “but now you can’t beat my remaining troops and take the last quarter, so I win.” I’m paraphrasing, they weren’t quite so elegant in the dream, but that’s the essence of the exchange.

Constructed Game Information:

The board featured a circular walled city, split into quarters, surrounded by four terrains: forest, desert, plains, and water/swamp. One player was the High Legions (they were the Khan-Ur, giving the game its title), and had pieces who represented various Iron, Blood, Ash, and Flame soldiers. The other player was the Humans, with assorted human soldier as their pieces. The High Legions were laying siege to the city, and the Humans were defending. The goal of the game was for the High Legions to take the city. If they reached a point where this became impossible, the Human player won.

Young charr play the game, almost always wanting to be the High Legions player, with the goal of winning as quickly as possible to show their “strategic genius.” Older, more experienced charr soldiers tend to play as either faction just as often as the other, seeing how well they can win instead - losing as few pieces as possible, and as little of the city as possible when playing the Humans.

Cultural Notes:

The game is fairly old and has gone through a lot of iterations over time; the most “modern” version of the game removed the Flame Legion pieces from the game entirely, though a lot of purists prefer to play with them still included. A very expensive and old version of Khan-Ur, on display in the Durmand Priory, features silver pieces for the Humans, iron pieces for the Iron Legion, bloodstone pieces for the Blood Legion, gold pieces for the Flame Legion, and mahogany pieces for the Ash Legion.

Hopefully going to expand on this even more in the future, we’ll see! Also, feedback and suggestions would be GREAT!

Pieces:

Blood Soldier - Pawn equivalent? Plentiful in number. Simple in mechanic; moves in a simple way, likely just a straight line, to take other pieces. Cannot cross walls.

Iron Siege Master - A moderate amount. Very short/slow movement, but mechanically useful. Can’t cross walls, but can be used as a crossing point over those walls for other pieces.

Ash Scout - Few in number. Impressive range, likely the longest in the game. Can cross walls, but maybe only to the immediate opposite side regardless of full movement range? Probably one of the only pieces with a non-staight line movement.

Flame Shaman - Least numerous piece on the Legion side. Needs to be very useful/powerful, but easily taken and in need of protection from the other pieces. No solid ideas yet.

Human Warrior - Likely mechanically identical to the Blood Soldier, but needs some kind of twist.

Human Archer - Slow/short movement, but takes pieces across a wall without needing to move onto the taken square? Have Iron Siege Masters unaffected by this?

Human Mage - Needs to be a mirror of the Flame Shaman in terms of power/usefulness and numbers. Human Priestinstead?

As before, feedback and suggestions would be wonderful! Give me all you can, I want to make this into a functional and balanced game!

Trying to draw Estoc in the… “style” I’ve been leaning on lately. It’s difficult finding a point between the simplified, stylized look, and keeping it recognizably… him, you know? Anyway, here’s my first real attempt!

I had a dream recently, that featured a pair of charr playing a chess-like board game together. One was chewing out the other, complaining that they had “sacrificed three quarters of the city and almost all their troops,” while the other was responding with “but now you can’t beat my remaining troops and take the last quarter, so I win.” I’m paraphrasing, they weren’t quite so elegant in the dream, but that’s the essence of the exchange.

Constructed Game Information:

The board featured a circular walled city, split into quarters, surrounded by four terrains: forest, desert, plains, and water/swamp. One player was the High Legions (they were the Khan-Ur, giving the game its title), and had pieces who represented various Iron, Blood, Ash, and Flame soldiers. The other player was the Humans, with assorted human soldier as their pieces. The High Legions were laying siege to the city, and the Humans were defending. The goal of the game was for the High Legions to take the city. If they reached a point where this became impossible, the Human player won.

Young charr play the game, almost always wanting to be the High Legions player, with the goal of winning as quickly as possible to show their “strategic genius.” Older, more experienced charr soldiers tend to play as either faction just as often as the other, seeing how well they can win instead - losing as few pieces as possible, and as little of the city as possible when playing the Humans.

Cultural Notes:

The game is fairly old and has gone through a lot of iterations over time; the most “modern” version of the game removed the Flame Legion pieces from the game entirely, though a lot of purists prefer to play with them still included. A very expensive and old version of Khan-Ur, on display in the Durmand Priory, features silver pieces for the Humans, iron pieces for the Iron Legion, bloodstone pieces for the Blood Legion, gold pieces for the Flame Legion, and mahogany pieces for the Ash Legion.

Hopefully going to expand on this even more in the future, we’ll see! Also, feedback and suggestions would be GREAT!

• Fun or practical weapon set.
• Nice-looking legendary weapon.
• Usable by your class.

PICK TWO

Estoc Soulshield, Dragon Huntsband.

Estoc Soulshield, Guardian of the Blood Legion and an experienced blacksmith, as drawn by Furinkazan of FA!

Asura: “Sex is for the sole purpose of procreation and progeny production, and is otherwise a complete distraction from important things, like research.” 

Charr: “Who you choose to bunk with at night - where you find your comfort in the barracks - is your own business. Just don’t let it interfere with the warband.”

Human:You ask ten different Humans, and get ten different answers, ranging from lovingly supportive, to utterly disgusted.

Norn: “That’s a terribly strange thing to do, but as you wish! But who will carry your name and legacy?”

Sylvari: “What’s a homosexual? How common would you say it is? Why do you feel about it the way you do? Have you ever considered it? Do you know many people who are? What’s-”

I know someone must have already done this by now, but damn it, it’s funny!

Consider:

A buggy full of Iron Legion Charr, chuffing along as Weird Al’s “Hardware Store” blasts from the speakers.

Who Are You?

‘Brasseye, Spur Warband, Iron Legion; formerly Blood.’

What Do You Do?

'I run the Black Citadel Bakery. E-except it’s not really a bakery. I mean – I bake a lot of different things, but I-I’ll cook just about anything. And I don’t so much run it as it’s just me, and a kitchen… so it’s not really a… a thing, a business, just… just me.

'B-but I have a lot of customers! Most… most just say “steak” and that’s it, but I like to… to experiment and try different things, different spices a-and sides and things. M-most don’t really seem to notice or care, but a few do. They’ll tell me they like it, or they hate it. M-my friend, Dakks, tells me I “shouldn’t have to take that kind of attitude,” but they’re just being blunt… they’re charr – w-we’re charr, it’s just how we are. Blunt. I’ve only ever… ever gotten a handful of real angry customers. I think they were… were just trying to get out of paying the bill. You get people like that everywhere.

'A-and I like both kinds of feedback, too. I like when they tell me what they liked, and what they hated. It… it helps me get better. I know this and that didn’t go together. I know that and this d-do go together. I learn. I get more likes than dislikes all the time.

‘I’m sorry… I just kept talking, didn’t I?’

So my friend’s mesmer, Signa Mindblade (a charr, if the name wasn’t a give-away), tossed her sword into the air, and said friend screen-capped things a little too late to catch the sword in transit, and instead got her reaction as it returned to her hand…

“Yaaay, I caught it!”