I played: Adios

Adios1 Doc Burbank Adios (Mischief, Kanas USA, 17 March 2021) intriguingly obscure arthouse game by Mischief (that’s the American one, not the French one – which seems to be dabbling in Horse games),2 Rattle “It’s a mess” (4 February 2025) Youtube <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRpgTIyyj48> so obscure that it doesn’t have a Wikipedia page and only received 9 professonal reviews on Metacritic.3 “Adios PC Critic Reviews” metacritic <https://www.metacritic.com/game/adios/critic-reviews/?platform=pc>

In the tradition of many arthouse games, the events of the game are largely pre-determined, with the focus being on how the player chooses to interact with them and inhabit the viewpoint. How well it achieves this seems to vary wildly, but I remain confident that its worth examining for how it reflects upon gaming trends in the 2000s & 2010s, the role of interaction in games and building emotion.

Adios is not a conventional game in how many people define it. The residents of r/TwoBestFriendsPlay feel that it was probably better as a short movie,4 LostHuaun “So, I’ve played Adios after seeing Woolie’s first video and… good story… I probably would’ve liked better as not a videogame” (9 December 2021) Reddit <https://www.reddit.com/r/TwoBestFriendsPlay/comments/rbz13k/so_ive_played_adios_after_seeing_woolies_first/> and Rob Zacny of VICE felt it was a great story but not “a great game”.5 Rob Zacny “‘Adios’ Has a Great Story to Tell, But Isn’t a Great Game“ (25 March 2021) VICE <https://www.vice.com/en/article/adios-has-a-great-story-to-tell-but-isnt-a-great-game/> I disagree, I think is a rare example of a game that achieves immersion through cartoony graphics and emotional fidelity.

If you haven’t played it, and are interested in the idea of video game immersion as an opportunity to inhabit a complex character – I highly recommend it.

Spoilers ahead as I overthink a unique indie game and gaming in general.

Continue reading I played: Adios

Mitchell v Jobst – A Low Score

Content Warning: This matter does contain discussions of suicide, particularly suicide in relation to bullying and difficult relationships with peers. If that’s a topic that is very personal to you, while this does discuss defamation law, it’s unlikely that anything in this is going to be worth reading this for. Please take care of you and use your discretion.

YouTuber Karl Jobst has made many and numerous videos about the lawsuit brought against him by Billy Mitchell – many of them full of bravado and mocking Billy’s claims regarding the lawsuit. So, when Karl lost the case on 1 April 2025, it went worse than the usual bad news on April Fool’s Day.1 Mitchell v Jobst [2025] QDC 41 District Court Judge KC Barlow went into detail all the aspects he found relevant in this 118 page judgement.

Karl attempted to resume his regular content, he took the video down because he concluded that he needed to address the issue.2 Karl Jobst (First week of April 2025, YouTube) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3ltptWa0xfrDweghW94Acg/community?lb=Ugkx2SvAB2ecQ1pF_U3gXh8maSs7XbXdmxhy Karl’s fans were not happy and felt very confused and mislead about the situation, particualrly those who contributed to his GoFundMe.3 Karl Jobst Karl Jobst Legal Defence Fund (4 November 2022, GoFundMe) https://www.gofundme.com/f/karl-jobst-legal-defence-fund

On 18 April 2025, Karl released his video explaining his side of the story – I and many other people were very unimpressed.4 Karl Jobst I Lost (18 April 2025, YouTube) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1XBqeAQ3nI I, in particular, was unimpressed since despite Karl apparently having spent a fortune on lawyers and been discussing this for years – he didn’t seem to understand basic concepts of law. He also seemed to downplay his own involvement in people believing this was a lawsuit about cheating at video games, and not about an allegation of using spurious lawsuits to bully someone to a point where they committed suicide.

My name is Kim, I’m not a lawyer but a law student in New Zealand who was born and raised in Queensland, Australia. Most importantly I’m not your lawyer and I’m not speaking for anyone but myself here. Please don’t interpret blog posts as personal legal advice, ever.

I’d like to talk about defamation, how it works when it escalates to an Australian court, what went wrong for Karl and how it fits into this overall situation. I will however, be adding extra information where I think it’s relevant to understanding the parties and the events.

Though I’d like to be clear, I’m going to try to avoid speculating about conversations or the relationship between Karl and his counsel – as while I understand that its terribly fun to do from a gossip perspetive, it’s not productive for genuine understanding and all of it is tied up in strict confidence. Also, we can see what they were working with:5 geniusdude69 Fuck the lawyers I paid for with YOUR money (4 April 2025, Reddit) https://www.reddit.com/r/youtubedrama/comments/1jqs49z/fuck_the_lawyers_i_paid_for_with_your_money/

A screenshot of Discord exchange on 28 March 2025: GhostOfYoda asks Karl: "Do you ever run scripts for videos like this past a lawyer, or is it not worth the expense?" Karl replies: "no I don't because fuck lawyers and what they think, if I want to say something I will say it, fuck letting other people tell you what to do a lawyer will always tell you to say nothing who wants to live by that principle"
Continue reading Mitchell v Jobst – A Low Score

Ernie Gygax is dead, he remains dead.

On 28 February 2025, after numerous health struggles and incidents, in the company of his sister and her family – Ernie Gygax passed away.1 Obituary of Ernest Gary Gygax Junior (Legacy.com) https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/name/ernest-gygax-obituary?id=57714235 Luke Gygax wrote a touching announcement on his Facebook page,2 Luke Gygax (Facebook, USA, 1 March 2025) <www.facebook.com> and has continued to share his personal feelings about the struggle of losing a father and an older brother, while being supported by a great community.

This is not about how the tragedy of Ernie’s death impacts me, or sharing memories I had about him. I didn’t know him. I feel a certain amount of empathy to those he left behind, and for that reason I encourage them not to read this post. This post isn’t about memories or feelings about Ernie Gygax.

Rather it’s about the heartless exploitation of the memory of his public presence now he’s dead, and how traditional “be polite” moderation methods fail in these situations.

And, it’s rough – I don’t wish dealing with it on anyone.

Continue reading Ernie Gygax is dead, he remains dead.

TSR Rating Meter

As part of his quest to try to prove that he was someone who should be listened to and treated as an authority in table top role-playing games (“TTRPGs”), and push the owner’s deplorable politics into the space, TSR LLC and associates (“NuTSR”) tried to create a rating system. They way he did it was a very funny chapter in the TSR Saga.

Game Rating in the USA

Justin is a yankee who cosplays as a southerner, which is to say that he is an American who seems to only really be aware of systems and politics within the USA. To what degree he is aware of these is highly debatable, but he wanted a career in politics and so it seems intuitive that he’d base a rating system off those in the USA.

As much as fans of various TTRPGs love to talk about the Satanic Panic of the 80s, the real impact on media in the US came from the video games scares in the early 90s. In response to see growing pressure for a legal solution, major players in the video game space formed the Entertainment Software Rating Board (“ESRB”) and committed to having their games rated through it.

The ESRB is a non-profit that relies upon fees for doing the rating to continue to sustain itself, and the expectation is they will maintain consistent standards and retailers will promote these and handle the products appropriately. It is legally recognized in Canada, but there’s no real interference. This is in contrast to places like Australia where a government board issues ratings, and can refuse to classify a product – thus barring it from retail sale or requiring it to be altered in ways that are frequently baffling.

As above, the S in ESRB stands for “software”, so they don’t really do board games etc Thus the TTRPGs space has generally just operated on people being up front about their content and retailers using their own judgment. Remember, most places that sell them also sell things like Pokémon cards so they have a vested interest in not having to deal with angry parents yelling about their child having seen a boob.

The nuTSR solution

Unsurprisingly the approach by nuTSR was to emulate the ESRB’s model, if you can call copy-paste then vandalizing emulating. Quality was not a priority, as showcased by this hilariously janky images for the ratings:1 TSR LLC “The TSR Rating Meter” TSR Hobbies (Wisconsin USA, Archived: 30 May 2023) <https://web.archive.org/web/20230530023350/https://tsr-hobbies.com/tsr-hobbies-rating-meter>

An animated gif of the various ratings, the ratings on the right hand side jump about as they are not consistently aligned, and the dot in the i in "Hobbies" disappears in one frame.
Graphic Design Is My Passion (Yes, he managed to lose the dot in the “i” in one fo them)
Continue reading TSR Rating Meter

The Cult of Abaddon (2022)

So, nuTSR is essentially dead and buried at this point. They’ve settled with Wizards of the Coast,1 TSR LLC v. Wizards of the Coast LLC, 2:21-cv-01705, (W.D. Wash.), Document #66 the web site is gone,2 Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum <https://tsrmuseum.com> Archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20240627031048/https://tsrmuseum.com/ and all their products are gone.

The iconic "The evil is defeated" GIF from Cabin in the Woods.

Let’s talk about their, now historic, “products”, or at least the ones I have access to. Starting with The Cult of Abaddon (2022) by Vincent “The Evil Dungeon Master” Florio with “input and ideas from” Ernie Gygax (credited as Ernest G. Gygax Jr, a truly baffling representation).3 Vincent Florio The Cult of Abaddon (TSR LLC, Lake Geneva WI, 2022)

The front cover for The Cult of Abaddon, including all the general markup to try to make it look like a classic module and the TSR LLC trademark... well the Diesel artwork they started using in lieu of the Justin LaNasa artwork.

It proclaims to be an Old School Renaissance (“OSR”) adventure module published by TSR Hobbies (and “TSR-Hobbies”), suitable for entry level characters. It is one of the few products to few the TSR Rating Meter which specifies it as suitable for ages 10+. 4Vincent Florio The Cult of Abaddon, above n 3, at back cover

As is customary for these kind of products, it doesn’t specify a particular system that it works for – but there is generally an assumption that it’s for Basic Dungeons & Dragons (“BXD&D“), Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (“AD&D“), AD&D Second Edition or some system adapted to replicate this. So you’re not actually saying it’s Dungeons & Dragons (“D&D“) but everyone knows that’s what you mean.

I obtained my copy via Lulu during the brief window when Vincent was selling it as a pdf – making it direct competition with nuTSR’s print only (which never seems to have shippped). So, I guess that makes me one of the foremost scholars on this work, and that’s probably for the best.

The post about that has been scrubbed of Vincent’s blog, but one post that is left up makes it pretty clear the module was originally going to be part of his Mazes & Perils (2012) game, but that he evidentally lost interest in.5 Vincent Florio Mazes & Perils Artifact: The Gemstone of Abaddon (The Evil Dungeon Master, 10 January 2017) <https://www.theevildm.com/p/mazes-perils-artifact-the-gemstone-of-abaddon> Evidentally, he ultimately decided it was not good enough for his own system, but was a perfect fit for the stuff nuTSR were wanting to push out.

First Impressions

While nowhere near as bad a the Star Frontiers: New Genesis “beta”, its extremely amatuer in content and design – reading very much like an early draft by a hobby creator who normally is the only one to read their own work, and assures themselves they’re too genius to need second drafts.

The first paragraph has run on sentences, random use of ampersand (“&”) instead of typing “and”, and random capitalization. It then goes on to explain, with this level of sloppiness and inconsistency, that the title is quite misleading as the party will not have any meaningful interactions with Abaddon or really learn anything meaningful other than they’re bad and doing bad things.

When this was first announced, I noted there it was kind of worrying that they’d decided to use Abaddon, a name from Jewish folklore, in a story about a cult poisoning water supplies, particularly when combined with the less well known “red hand” symbols. Naturally the author denied he was anti-semitic, volunteered his wife was jewish, etc and while I’m personally not convinced but will concede that nothing in the work or his response indicates he was aware of these. Rather he seems just ignorant and too lazy to check anything. Of course, you can be lazy, ignorant and antisemitic so – I encourage you to use your own judgement.

Then it gets worse. Also spoilers ahead, but I sincerely doubt anyone reading this will ever be interested in playing it anyway.

Continue reading The Cult of Abaddon (2022)

X nee Twitter’s Terms of Service

First a disclaimer, my name is Kim, I’m not a lawyer – more importantly I’m not your lawyer and I am not a lawyer in the United States of America. Nothing following it to be taken as personal legal advice, it certainly does not form a lawyer-client relationship and please do not take legal advice off random bloggers.

So, a lot of people have been posting screenshots of the new Terms of Service (“XTos”) on X nee Twitter (“Xitter”), but I haven’t seen many people doing much of an analysis into what they actually mean. So I decided to look into it before 15 November 2024, when all these changes take effect.

While some of the changes have been, on the surface, a little alarming most of it is fairly banal when taken in isolation. When looked at a whole, it paints a rather grim picture for the platform, those who continue to make use of it, and the those who are not on there but are directly impacted by the activities there.

It’s bad, but to truly understand how bad, we need to have a good look at everything and see the overall picture that it paints.

Continue reading X nee Twitter’s Terms of Service

Star Frontiers: New Genesis (Unreleased Beta)

Disclaimer: The unreleased Star Frontiers: New Genesis product written by Justin LaNasa and Dave Johnson is not sanctioned by Wizards of the Coast (“WotC”) or any person involved with the original TSR Inc. It is entirely the product of hate monger grifters with no noteworthy connection to the history of Dungeons & Dragons (“D&D”) and role-playing games in general. The trademark that was registered for it has been cancelled.1 US Trademark #90276506 <https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=90276506&caseType=SERIAL_NO&searchType=statusSearch> and ownership purchased by WotC through the bankruptcy proceedings. The game itself was not listed as an asset, so theoretically still belongs to someone. However it is, in all likelihood, never going to be released beyond the “playtest” versions.

Also, this is will be heavily cited in all matters relating to the product, specifically because Justin LaNasa initiated at least two legal actions against his critics (including a Harmful Digital Communication Act complaint against me)

Content warnings: This is a deplorable product made by deplorable people, to do the discussion justice requires the discussion of slavery, sexism, anti-black racism, white supremacy, Nazi ideologies such as eugenics and truly terribly bio-essentialism.

Before TSR LLC went into bankruptcy, and the Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum closed, thus essentially guaranteed that WotC would prevail in court – it had a product in the works that was baffling on so, so many levels it defies simply summary.

It was a product that got them noticed and invited into communities for one of TSR Inc’s classic but less well known games. It was a game that initially led people to believe they must have obtained all the proper licensing etc.

That game was Star Frontiers: New Genesis, a game which was announced both as a reboot, and as a spiritual successor, and as a sequel, and so, so many things. Initially it was pitched as being completely legitimate – then as a sort of protest product that seemed to go against everything the original stood for.

It was never released, and as the fate of nuTSR becomes both clearer, and darker – it becomes evident that it never will be – all we have to go off is rumours, and court filings. So, let’s have a look at what (allegedly) might have been:

Continue reading Star Frontiers: New Genesis (Unreleased Beta)

I watched Alien: Romulus

It’s… not great.

A latest in the weird reboot of the property since Prometheus (2012), this one appears to be an attempt to combat the poor reception to the other movies by going back to the roots. Unfortunately, it appears that Ridley Scott has both forgotten everything that people liked about Alien (1979) and fired everyone who mentions what worked or questions the genius of his new Prometheus ideas. In this case, he didn’t even bother to make it himself, but he did watch it after the fact.

It tries to play the greatest hits, and it seems somewhat inspired by the hit video game Alien: Isolation (2014), but ultimately it falls flat because whenever it has the choice of being a horror movie or trying to be the fresh take… it always chooses the later. I’m not sure how much control director Fede Alvarez had, but this seems to be his third attempt to redo a classic horror and so far… none of them seem to be working.

The saving grace of the film is the amazing standout performance by David Jonsson. It is a brilliant display of talent and craft from beginning to end.

A promo shot of David Jonsson as Andy, courtesy of Disney's presskit.

From here on, there be spoilers:

Continue reading I watched Alien: Romulus