I don't see a post about the game, and based on my experience with it and the numbers, it may be because half of you are playing it right now. Game went to the top of Steam's sales list on Day 1, which is impressive, because that list is by volume of revenue, and it displaced CounterStrike 2, the Steam Deck, and Helldivers 2. So, an early access game on sale for $29.99 on the first day made more money than CS2 skins, Helldivers 2, or the Steam Deck. Top concurrent players was in the 160K range, and the game had 3 million wishlists on launch day.
The game is excellent. Imagine if Banished and one of the earlier Total War games had a child, and that child married the offspring of Age of Empires and Cities Skylines and had kids of their own. There's seasonality, you have to plan ahead when you produce food-- but you don't have to micromanage-- and traffic is taken into account, so the more traffic a road sees, the wider and deeper the ruts get. You can double up families in housing if you lay the plots out correctly, and cottage industry can produce food and export goods.
And the game was developed by one guy. He contracted out some work (the music is stellar, and the voicework is atmosphere building), but this is a 7 year passion project from one guy.
Owned the game a day, have played almost 10 hours. 11/10, quintuple A game from one turbo autist with a dream.
Long story short, Small Press Distribution, one of the last truly independent small publishers has shut down. Before they went bankrupt, SPD ran a fundraiser to transfer all of their stock to Ingram (think Sam's Club for books) and use Ingram to hold their stock and ship it as needed. But then Ingram slow rolled the process and SPD went totally bankrupt. Now Ingram has sent an email to all the people whose stock they're holding telling them they have 60 days to come get their shit or it's getting turned into insulation.
The email directs publishers to fill out a form by April 17, providing Ingram with instructions about where to send their titles—at the presses’ own cost. But what has publishers most anxious is Ingram's plan to “recycle” any inventory remaining at the Ingram warehouse after 60 days. ... The email also notified publishers that with the closure of SPD, Ingram’s warehouse and fulfillment agreement with the distributor has ended and that Ingram has stopped fulfilling orders.
And why 60 days? That's the end of the fiscal quarter, and Ingram doesn't want stock on hand they can't sell or write off. They don't want to run afoul of the IRS, after all.
CHICAGO — Officials say a murder victim managed to shoot his killer before dying, and, after the murderer fled, a passerby took the victim’s gun, hunted down the killer, and shot some more.
Yeah, this is starting out Chicago style. Dis gon' be good.
It all happened last Friday afternoon in the 7400 block of South Euclid. . .
South Euclid, you say?
Quijuan Lewis, a 20-year-old on parole for less than two months for a gun conviction, got out of a car and crouched behind a vehicle as the victim, 36-year-old Delegance Crawl
The names... the names.
Ultimately, prosecutors say, Lewis shot Crawl in the back of the head. And Crawl shot Lewis in the leg. As Crawl lay gravely wounded, Lewis ran to a nearby gas station for help and stashed his gun in a potato chip display. . .
Potato chip rack, you say? chef's kiss
Back at the shooting scene, a passerby who has not been identified picked up Crawl’s gun from beside his motionless body and marched over to the gas station. They used Crawl’s gun to shoot Lewis “multiple” times in the buttocks and then ran away
Forrest Gump In tha butt-ox? /ForrestGump
[Lewis] received a one-year sentence [. . .] with the state’s standard 50% good behavior discount and credits earned while in custody, he was released from prison on January 18, the same day he arrived.
Rotating door, keep on spinning.
The UN-installed Prime Minister of Haiti cannot get back into his country, because he went to Kenya to try and ram through UN inspired police legislation there (that had already been voted down and ruled unconstitutional), and his own government locked down the airspace and won't let him back in. His major opponent is one Jimmy "Barbeque" Cherizier, former cop, current gang leader, and (per the UN) supposed lover of massacres and necklacings (hence the nickname). On first glance, this seems to be straightforward... UN stooge versus man of the people. But it seems that some of his sub-gangs have... developed a taste for the long pig.
Google's bias is now noticeable to the normies. (Dr. Juric is at the University of Washington, for reference.) Best quote of the tweet:
for anyone with a shred of awareness of human history it should be clear how unbelievably irresponsible it is to build a system that aims to become an authoritative compendium of human knowledge (remember Google's mission statement?), but which actually prioritizes ideology over facts. History is littered with many who have tried this sort of moral flexibility "for the greater good"; rather than helping, they typically resulted in decades of setbacks (and tens of millions of victims).
It looks like the good Doctor may have had a bit too much to think...
Black Commie South African demands you give him everything, or else he'll get violent. Or, more violent. Or, really violent. Or something. Problem is, the South Africans have already been buying white farmers out. And it's causing the country's agricultural output to drop. And they've been doing this for a quarter century.
Oh, and the same thing is happening here. Demands that white people allow blacks to work on their farms whenever they want to (no set hours or time clock), be allowed to indefinitely borrow tools (that's called theft), and to then assist blacks in setting up competing businesses, after training the blacks how to compete.
Buckle up, buckaroos, it's going to be a wild ride.
$169 million will be taken from the Inflation Reduction Act to enable the heat pump industry to produce "over 300,000" heat pumps, which amounts to $563.33 each. Also:
In a press release, the Energy Department said that it expects to move “quickly” on another round of Defense Production Act investments in early 2024. It has already said that it plans to use the law to ramp up production of electric grid components, solar energy, insulation and hydrogen energy components.
Oh, joy, dystopian power future, here we come.
"... ah, it burns, it burns!". Local firefighters posted about it, and even AutoBlog did a piece about it.
So, big takeaways here: one, people vastly overestimate how much their vehicle can tow. I have seen people in Tacomas and Colorados try to haul 8-10k+ pounds, and ruin their vehicle doing it. Yes, it says you can tow that much in the manual... but that's on flat, dry ground on a cold day.
Two, Tesla apparently has a "BAIL OUT" alert for when their vehicles begin to slide down hills or towards bodies of water (listen to the YouTube video, apparently the driver told people that the car was warning her to exit the vehicle the entire time it was rolling into the lake).
Lastly, these lithium fires cannot be good for the environment. Even more so when it's happening in bodies of water that people swim in, drink out of, and fish in.
And not by crashing the economy and leaving you jobless! No, he has a brilliant plan!
Zero-emissions buses, powered by unicorn farts and that magical fairy piss pouring from the outlets in your walls, not that filthy fossil fuel! Funding road and infrastructure improvements, just like Obama did (that never happened)! Trying to undo the fuckup that is Amtrak by throwing money at it (just like how we fixed the Postal Service)! Mo' bettah buses, even mo' and bettah than the magical ones from Point One! Mo' and bettah roads and bridges, even mo' and bettah than in Point Two!
And all powered by Diversity, Inclusion and Equity, because they are our strengf.
There was chaos at City Hall on Tuesday as protesters took over a meeting about Chicago's status as a sanctuary city. ... "Do you as a resident of the City of Chicago believe that we should remain a sanctuary city?" ... The crowd responded with boos and catcalls. The mostly African-American crowd jammed the City Council gallery, with hundreds more downstairs on the first floor held back by officers with bicycles. They're angry the city is spending tens of millions of dollars to shelter migrants, money they say should be going to help Chicagoans in poor neighborhoods.
Well, that's inconvenient for The Powers That Be. One group of useful idiots has realized that another group of useful idiots poses a danger to them, and is reacting. And in other news, MetLife has sold off a bunch of retail space in Water Tower Place in Chicongo for conversion into medical offices or "another type of use". What do you want to bet that old or dying malls in the U.S. start getting converted into immigrant housing?
The Department of Homeland Security confirmed ... that it had made recommendations formed by an assessment team... The administration says it also identified 11 federal sites across New York State where migrants could potentially be housed, and has provided the City access to a hanger (sic) at JFK Airport, which is being used to house hundreds of migrants.
From Fox News. One, 10,000 illegals a month, and NYC Mayor Dindu talks about being overwhelmed. Well, imagine what a small Texas town feels like, you prick. Two, housing illegals (including Middle Easterners and Chinese nationals) on Federal installations, including on fucking airports might be the dumbest idea I've seen from the Biden handlers yet.
Clown World comes at ya fast. "Palestinian" woman with Pakistani name sees news coverage of Gaza fighting, flips out, decides to attack a Jewish school... at midnight. This would already be a case of "Retard or False Flag", but the school she drove into was... the "Israelite School of Universal and Practical Knowledge", which is owned by "an 'extreme and antisemitic' sect of the Black Hebrew Israelites."
So, Muslim sees Muslims on TV, decides to go kill Jews, runs into an empty black supremacist school instead. This is a Clown World sundae, and brace yourself for the cherry on top...
Safe Indiana, a Jewish community security program, was immediately notified of the incident. Safe Indiana is working alongside law enforcement to investigate the incident. “Safety and security for our community is of the utmost importance, and we are more secure and prepared than ever before,” Jewish Federation of Greater Indianapolis officials wrote in a press release.
Muslims attack blacks, Jews most effected.
The Army has cut orders sending 800 NCOs to recruiting school. Included in the memo are the fact that none of the time-in-grade, fitness or evaluation restrictions will be enforced, and that anyone E-5 (Sergeant) or above who accepts the orders will get a one-grade promotion, $5,000, and then $1,500 a month if they accept a one-year extension of the duty. And then, if the recruiter recruits 24 people in a one-year period, they get another one-grade promotion.
To put that in perspective, the first year ($5K bonus plus E-5 to E-6 promotion), will be about 24-30% increase in pay, and the $1,500 extra per month for the next year will be a 50% bonus on top of that (and the E-7 promotion on top of that). So, a newly minted E-5 on their first enlistment could be an E-7 two years from now, doubling their pay (2nd year E-5 makes $2,730 a month, fourth year E-7 with the extension bonus would be making $5,405 a month).
Anyone want to bet against the Army dropping or severely reducing their recruitment standards?
Says the man from the Daily Mail.
Highlights from this harbinger of the Clown World Apocalypse:
Rabbi Jessica Rosenberg, a Minneapolis-based Reconstructionist rabbi and progressive activist, who has urged people to boycott Israel, interrupted Biden while he was speaking to a crowd of 200 donors at a private Minneapolis fundraiser. The rabbi's striking appearance gave rise to questions as to whether [he] is trans, but Rosenberg h[im]self deliberately avoids the issue.
Based in Minneapolis, progressive activist, anti-Israel, tranny. Add in the free spot of Biden claiming shit he didn't do and BINGO, I call BINGO!
The audience cheered Biden's answer and booed the protester.
Why, I never. How dare that crowd full of huwyte nationialist, Christofascist, MAGA-hat wearing DRUMPF SUPPORTERS... wait a second, a Biden crowd booed a tranny Jew? Was the crowd actually like 90% Trump plants, there to heckle Biden?
A child in the crowd ... then let out cry of her own. 'It's okay. Kids are allowed to do that. Don't worry about it,' Biden joked. He asked if it was a boy or a girl who issued the cry.
Nope, not a fucking creepy pedo lich. Not at all.
A Nighthawk helicopter ferrying reporters to the farm experienced four loud pops while taking off, and had to make an unscheduled landing at a public airport after smoke filled the cabin. ... The White House said an 'electrical issue' had triggered some preventative alarms, including an automatic fire suppressant.
Poor maintenance by bottom-of-the-barrel diversity recruits or deliberate attempt to get rid of reporters? Place-a your bets!
But Biden helped rearrange the Democratic primary schedule this year, and as a consequence of New Hampshire jumping the gun on Democratic Party calendar rules, his name won't appear on the ballot.
I think I see how the Dems are going to ease Joepedo off into the sunset...
Oh, and for anyone interested, here's a picture of the rabbi. Not Safe For Lunch, Work, Children or Sanity.
A few days ago, we had a thread about games that released in 2004, and I made a comment that ended with "old shit is better." And then I started thinking about it... old things are better.
Case in point: vehicles. I needed a truck for the family farm, and I went shopping. Quickly I realized that 1) newer 3/4 ton diesels are designed to fail as a revenue stream and 2) buying a $80,000 truck that will probably need at least one, maybe two $5,000 service visits before it hits six digit mileage wasn't in the cards. So I bought a 20 year old truck... that every mechanic who has seen it has tried to buy. Total cost was less than a Tabroma with the same mileage.
This continues on to just about everything. My house was built before I was born, and has the original air conditioner, stove and hot water heater. The original fridge died a few years ago, and the washer and dryer finally shuffled off this mortal coil last year. I doubt, seriously, that any of the replacement appliances lasts a decade, much less two or three.
Printers? Unless it's Japanese, don't buy a new one. HP will remote control your printer, if you opt in to the program (which they don't make clear what it is), and Xerox is a crapshoot if it works out of the box. Meanwhile, I have seen cheap Brother lasers go to half a million pages easily.
Tractors? Buy a new John Deere, and if it breaks, you either have Deere's mechanic fix it, or it stays broken. (Keep making your payments, please.) Meanwhile, you can buy an older Deere or Yanmar tractor and keep it going forever.
The modern world is starting to give me serious 40k vibes. Almost nobody knows how things work, new things are bad knockoffs, and there are mutants everywhere.
This is video of Chicongans celebrating graduating. From the 8th grade. For those of you who know guns, every one of those Glawk Fortays has an auto sear... and is, in effect, a fully automatic Glock 18/18C.
You're witnessing a crowd full of youts showing their faces, on camera, committing at least one Federal felony and two state felonies. And nothing will be done about it.
So, this is going to merge two related but separate things regarding the state of publishing today. The first is information that came out of the Random House - Simon and Schuster anti-trust trial. The second is a book looking at the history of the science fiction/fantasy publishing world, and how it got there.
First up, the anti-trust trial. This is a NYT "best selling" author who is learning the reality behind her industry by watching the trial. And that reality is that books aren't selling. The biggest takeaway is the first one: of 58,000 titles the two publishers put out last year, half sold less than one dozen books. She goes through the stats, but it breaks down to half sell less than 12 copies, 90% sell less than 2,000 copies, 98% sell less than 5,000 copies.
For anyone who's been paying attention to how some of the personages on the left can become "best selling" authors without you ever seeing someone actually buy the book, just realize that 10,000 copies ordered and then burned in a back alley makes that book a best seller.
Second is a new book by a "NewPub" fiction writer, JD Cowan titled The Last Fanatics: How the Genre Wars Killed Wonder. It looks at the state of the science fiction/fantasy/adventure genre from ~1930 to just before the release of Star Wars, and shows that the reason why the SF/F genre dwindled in that period was internal manipulations by people inside the industry who were fighting each other in repeated purity spirals.
The two sides boiled down to: people who wanted to inspire people into the tech world and those who just wanted to take over the industry and use it to preach at the stupid people who read these silly books. (Does this sound familiar to anyone?) Of the first group, one of the people in the "science fiction fan community" of the time said:
But [science fiction], far from being the stimulus to scientific study it should be, had become an end in itself... a sort of pseudo-scientific refuge for persons either incapable of pursuing a technical career, or else too lazy to do so.
And the stupid and lazy clique took over the industry, because while there were very few of them (definitely less than a thousand, probably less than 200), they were closer to the levers of power, louder, and willing to get dirty... up to and including hiring street thugs to beat up rivals in the clique to force them out under threat.
The solution to both this problem, the fanatics taking over the industry and running it into the ground, is to build a parallel industry. This is what is happening in the science fiction/fantasy/adventure world as several "rebel" publishers (Baen, Castalia House and Defiance Press to name a few) have now set up publishing houses that can do smaller production runs that will actually sell by authors who can't or won't get in the door at the "big" publishers.
Also, that phrase the SF writers of the 1940s and 50s always uttered? "Don't read anything written before 1940!" It's projection, they didn't want you to find out what used to exist before they wrecked it. Defy them, go find some of the old Burroughs adventure books, pulp comics and Gothic horror books and read them. And then find people who are making that now and support them.