Eh, this strikes me as likely to turn into a "find the rock" game where I provide a story and you explain how the person in question is particularly bad and so doesn't count and then I'll bring up the government pushing for censorship and bannings on social media and that'll turn into how that doesn't count and then you'll again say that you can't imagine how an American would think lèse-majesté is okay and I'll say that you can do it if you imagine one being on the wrong side of one and we'll be right back here.

It is easy for me to imagine an American thinking lèse-majesté is okay.

I imagine an American being on the wrong side of lèse-majesté for a while and then returning to power.

To do that, I'd have to imagine one being on the wrong side of one for long enough.

Axios has a fun article talking about the importance of figuring out why Dems lost in 2024.

The article states: Why it matters: It's hard to win if you don't know why you lost

One of the problems with 2016 is that this problem was avoided entirely by confidently pointing out that Clinton didn't lose the election so therefore they don't need to change anything and this was followed by Trump losing in 2020.

But now, in 2024...

Well, here are the top 10 theories:

1. It's all Joe Biden's fault.
2. It's all Kamala Harris' fault.
3. Podcasts and social media.
4. "Too woke."
5. Elitist words.
6. Elitist policies.
7. Testosterone.
8. Inflation, inflation, inflation.
9. The border.
10. Trump is one-of-a-kind.

I'd probably argue that you can pick your favorite three out of there and say "this is why" and just point to those three (any of them!).

But the main thing that worries me are the ones that can easily preface a "therefore, the Democrats don't need to change".

It was all Biden's fault. Therefore the Democrats don't need to change.
It was Harris. 100%. Therefore the Democrats don't need to change.
Democrats didn't embrace podcasts. Therefore the Democrats don't need to change policies, they just need a Joe Rogan.

Why does this matter?, you may ask. Well, I'd say that it's hard to win if you don't know why you lost.

it is not a ‘government emergency’. This is a _research_ emergency.

The headline, for some reason, didn't mention that the University Presidents were calling for an emergency meeting but the Prime Minister was calling for one.

The story was written by Patrick Staveley. That's his Twitter account, if you want to write him and tell him that his editor messed up with headline choices.

My eyes glazed over at question 24. 36 questions and, yeah, I was thinking about my job and how we have a handful of those things at our fingertips (or know the guy who knows a guy who has it at his) but that's a week-long task right there.

4 days, if I'm not doing anything else and me pointing to Joe Schmoe in this office and Jane Schmaine in that office is sufficient answer to any given question about the stuff that those guys know about.

Some dramallama among the right-wingers of Twitter. There was a somewhat organic movement to get soder off of SNAP. I'm sure you're all familiar with the argument that sweets and snacks should be bought with your own money, SNAP is for children and that means *HEALTHY* food and vegetables.

Well, what made this interesting is that a bunch of influencers started posting stuff about how Trump has a Diet Coke button and freedom means the freedom to enjoy a Diet Coke without the government saying that you can't. We want *LESS* government interference! Not more!

And a bunch of folks said something to the effect of "wait, that's fishy..." and Nick Sortor pointed out some of the big prominent accounts that tweeted pro-soda stuff. Clown World. Eric Daugherty, Ian Miles Cheong, Not Jerome Powell.

And, get this, a bunch of those guys showed up to say stuff like "I deleted it less than an hour later." Here's Clown World. Here's Eric Daugherty. The others just deleted without acknowledging.

Riley Gaines said that they offered her money to post about it too but she turned it down.

Anyway, there's a handful of influencers who got caught with their pants down and they're getting yelled at.

Four hours ago, they hit 64,825 and now they're down to 59,860.

64k is higher than Assassin's Creed: Odyssey (62k) so that can be considered a win.

This would be one hell of an opportunity for an intrepid journalist to find out what is no longer being funded.

Imagine if radio astronomy were impacted? That's, like, the one research area that has 97% approval.

The story, instead, said this:

“The use of Federal resources to advance Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies is a waste of taxpayer dollars that does not improve the day-to-day lives of those we serve.”

"How is radio astronomy Marxist?" is a question that I can't imagine any government spokesperson answering well.

On the other hand, "we stopped funding a LGBTQ+ Aboriginal dance troupe that was researching the racism and sexism in Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport" is something that reasonable people can reasonably disagree about.

The failure of the story to mention *WHAT* funding has ceased is a massive failure.

Frosthaven has been announced and is now wishlistable on Steam.

Yes.

The story, sadly, doesn't go into what was being funded.

I think I could be talked into "it's important to fund Deep Space Advanced Radar Capability", though.

Given the whole "deficit" thing, I think it's easy to make the argument that "not using it at all" is a real option that isn't a bad one.

OH! You're looking at this from the perspective of non-US citizens!

I wasn't doing that.

Yeah, I can see how this would really make us look bad to Australians and Europeans.

Brian Schatz, the chief deputy whip of the Democrats in the Senate, retweeted this Vox article and said:

I agree with this and it will be a necessary part of getting some of those voters back. In Hawaii, I couldn’t watch my kid play tennis (outdoors!!!) but I could wait at a bar until he was done. Totally inexcusable and you don’t have to be an anti vaxxer to say so.

I am fine with us not funding Australian universities, yes.

Honestly, learning that we were funding them to the point where ceasing to fund them caused a government emergency was confusing.

I mean, if you asked me "how much funding of Australian universities do you think we're doing?" I would have asked for clarification on whether "work study" counts as funding because I think that it'd be appropriate, barely, for an American student getting work study money.

Not this much money. Not enough money to have the PM call an emergency meeting.

I wish that there were stronger defenses of funding Australian universities to this degree than "But Trump and Musk are bad".

Which "all this" are you referring to?

I'm assuming it's not places like Vox publishing "we, the media, need to have a Covid reckoning".

All-time peak is now 60,086.

Broke 60k.

Here's a headline that'll get your noggin joggin': Prime Minister urged to call 'emergency meeting' after Trump administration cuts funding to seven Australian universities

We're funding seven Australian universities to the point where ceasing to fund them is causing an emergency.

Why in the hell are we funding seven Australian universities to the point where ceasing to fund them causes an emergency?!?

"They stopped banning people on Facebook for talking about it! They stopped banning people on Twitter for talking about it!"

Yeah.

Like I said, the fact that the conversations were not just disagreed with but SHUT DOWN is one of the things that needs to be discussed.

And we’re getting closer to actually talking about it. I suppose that that’s progress.

There is real evidence. There just isn't real proof.

The fact that the conversations were not just disagreed with but SHUT DOWN is one of the things that needs to be discussed.

And we're getting closer to actually talking about it. I suppose that that's progress.

Those cut scenes are actually in an actual video game.

They made a game in feudal Japan and your character is a Black dude. (You have the option of switching to a female who is a ninja. But if you want to play as a male, you will be playing Yasuke.)

Vox has an article: America — and the media — needs a Covid reckoning

Here's the subhed: Our Covid mistakes did lasting damage. No one wants to talk about it.

We're getting closer to actually talking about it. I suppose that that's progress.

Lucky you! I have some wine.

How far back do we want to go? Let's go back to Origins. No, wait. Let's go back to Knights of the Old Republic and Jade Empire.

Back in the original XBox days, we had Bioware. They made the *BEST* RPGs. Founded by three guys who dropped out of the medical profession, they said that they wanted to make the games they wanted to play.

Knights of the Old Republic is probably the greatest Star Wars game of all time. You start out as a Force-Sensitive Level 0 schmuck with amnesia and are put on the Hero's Journey to take on The Big Bad. Along the way, you pick up a team of companions, maybe fall in love, learn how to use a lightsaber, choose the light side or the dark side, and clear up all of the questions you have.

I didn't see the twist coming from a mile away... more like from two or three yards away... and so it hit me and the protagonist at the same time and I had to put down the controller and run upstairs and tell Maribou about the game I was playing. "Well!", she said. "I'm glad you're having fun!"

Jade Empire was its own franchise made by the same team. You were a kung fu level 0 schmuck who did *NOT* have amnesia, you were merely the brightest star in the best school of the best kung fu teacher ever and you had to run around and do the hero's journey yourself. Pick the open hand or the closed fist. There was also a twist that I did *NOT* see coming at all. I was left with my jaw on the floor and and sputtering in indignance. It made the fight against the Big Bad that much sweeter.

How I *LOVED* Bioware. They were a day-one purchase. They were *PRE-ORDER* purchases. That's how much I loved them.

Well, for the 360, they were coming out with a brand spankin' new franchise called "Dragon Age". You were in this weird fantasy world and it was brand new. There were humans and elves and dwarves. There were fighters and thieves and mages. Mages tended to go mad and blow up everything so they were kept on a short leash. Dwarves didn't have magic at all.

The game started with one of *SIX*, COUNT-EM, *SIX* potential builds:

Human noble, human mage, elven mage, Dalish Elf, Dwarven noble, Dwarven casteless.

I haven't played the game since Obama's first term but I still have all of those memorized.

Each one of those beginning classes had a unique start in the game and each unique start took about two hours... you'd have your backstory, you'd have a tutorial on how to fight and how to talk and intimidate and charm, and then you'd be inducted into the Grey Wardens and the story proper would start.

Along the way, you'd pick up a team of companions, fall in love, and pick between being a paragon of virtue or an amoral mastermind and fight the big bad and it was *AWESOME*.

And then Bioware was bought by EA and Dragon Age 2 came out and it was... I wouldn't call it a *GOOD* game but it was more a game that I could tell you what it was trying to do. "I could see what it was going for."

Around this time, Mass Effect 3 came out and it had a very controversial ending and Bioware had the choice between listening to the user base and changing the ending *OR* yelling something about artistic vision and shutting down the Bioware forums.

They chose to shut down the forums.

Dragon Age: Inquisition came out and it wasn't *BAD*... it tried to recreate the whole World of Warcraft experience for the single player. A lot of grinding. I didn't finish it. But I see what it was going for.

Anyway, years and years and years passed. Dragon Age: Something Or Other was being worked on, abandoned, revamped, worked on as an iPhone game, abandoned, revamped and, eventually, we got Veilguard.

Veilguard had very, very little overlap with the original Origins game. Instead of having choices that mattered, you had to pick between agreeing because you were nice or agreeing but being really snarky about it.

And, along the way, you picked up companions and some of the companions would explain to you that they were now non-binary.

I am not making this up.

There's also a scene where they explain the best way to deal with misgendering someone.

I am not making this up.

Anyway, Dragon Age: Veilguard sold about 1.5 million units and EA said that their expectations were about 3 million (Dragon Age: Origins has sales of about 3.2 million).

Veilguard is considered a failure when it comes to sales. The studio that created it was shut down and a handful of devs were sent to other in-house studios and the rest were thrown to the winds.

Which brings us to Assassin's Creed.

Assassin's Creed, as a franchise, was *AWESOME*. It was a game the combined sneaking and combat and some light puzzling and a handful of twists and turns and there were two levels to the game... one where you were Desmond, a guy in the current year, and one where you were Altair, an ancestor of Desmond's that you'd visit while in the machine that tapped into your ancestral memories.

And in Assassin's Creed II, you were Ezio Auditore (and there were two sequels to Assassin's Creed II that had you move from angry young man to experienced killer to wise assassin leader).

And in Assassin's Creed III, you came to the new world and played Connor, a half-Native, Half-Brit assassin who was pitted against the Redcoats!

And in Assassin's Creed IV, you played Kenway, a pirate!!!

And then the game got a little bloated. There was stuff in France and Egypt and Victorian England and the Viking Lands and... well, I stopped playing after IV. I got the Victorian England one but didn't get too far into it. I was irritated at all of the monetization stuff they added.

Anyway, they were finally going to come out with an Assassin's Creed game set in Japan! FINALLY!

And the lead character was Yasuke. Yasuke was a historical dude. An African in Japan who was given a sword by his master and occasionally carried his master's weapons and, some historians say, this means that he was a samurai.

So you're playing Yasuke during the something-or-other period and you have to deal with the Big Bad.

People who are not exactly charitable are spinning this as "so you're a black guy running around Japan killing Japanese people? They should have set the game in 2021 in San Francisco!" and stuff that is even worse than that.

It being the current year, the Assassin's Creed: Shadows devs have included an option for Yasuke to have a fling with the enby Ibuki character and that created as much drama as you imagine it did.

Anyway, at this moment in time, Steam numbers have Assassin's Creed: Shadows as having a little over half of the peak numbers of Veilguard's peak numbers.

And Veilguard was considered a disappointment bad enough to shutter the studio.

That is about 80% of it, I think.

Speaking of which, Assassin's Creed: Shadows released this week and, as of Friday night, has a little under 40k players right now and an all-time peak of 47,616.

By comparison, Veilguard's all-time peak is 89,418. It achieved that on the Sunday after it launched so we can't compare apples to apples quite yet... but it had 77K on the day after it launched.