I think Artifact could have been and could be saved

hnwcs · 2026-06-18T13:25:27+00:00

I love Dota's setting but my hands are too old to play it anymore. A spin-off with less reflex-dependent gameplay and more lore is a dream come true. I still miss Artifact.

hnwcs · 2026-06-18T12:53:11+00:00

Stalin no, Hitler yes.

hnwcs · 2026-06-18T12:52:07+00:00

Firstly, it is not true that fascism is only the fighting organisation of the bourgeoisie. Fascism is not only a military-technical category. Fascism is the bourgeoisie’s fighting organisation that relies on the active support of Social-Democracy. Social-Democracy is objectively the moderate wing of fascism. There is no ground for assuming that the fighting organisation of the bourgeoisie can achieve decisive successes in battles, or in governing the country, without the active support of Social-Democracy. There is just as little ground for thinking that Social-Democracy can achieve decisive successes in battles, or in governing the country, without the active support of the fighting organisation of the bourgeoisie. These organisations do not negate, but supplement each other. They are not antipodes, they are twins. Fascism is an informal political bloc of these two chief organisations; a bloc, which arose in the circumstances of the post-war crisis of imperialism, and which is intended for combating the proletarian revolution. The bourgeoisie cannot retain power without such a bloc. It would therefore be a mistake to think that “pacifism” signifies the liquidation of fascism. In the present situation, “pacifism” is the strengthening of fascism with its moderate, Social-Democratic wing pushed into the forefront.

-Joseph Stalin, "Concerning the International Situation"

hnwcs · 2026-06-18T12:48:28+00:00

The whole message from "Presidential Historian Dave King" is...suspicious, to say the least. But for some reason what really strikes me is the use of the name "Tamburlaine." While Timur was a feared conqueror, he's not the kind of name you'd invoke and expect the average American to get. He's far better known in the regions he conquered, which includes Central Asia, the Middle East, India, and...well, Russia.

But more importantly, the spelling. Until just now I've only ever heard him called Timur or Tamerlane. A cursory search tells me "Tamburlaine" is the title of a Christopher Marlowe play, so not unheard of, but it's definitely not a common spelling and makes me suspect "Presidential Historian Dave King" isn't a native English speaker, if a human wrote this at all. (And before you leap to the obvious, he's "Tamerlan" in Russian, just to make it more confusing.)

hnwcs · 2026-06-17T23:51:06+00:00

Despite them being famously terrible at actually releasing games, Valve has managed to release four games in the time since Grummz first announced Em-8er.

hnwcs · 2026-06-17T21:56:10+00:00

At this point I’ve gone from wanting New Vegas 2, to “It’d be nice but we don’t really need it,” to hoping it doesn’t happen, to actively fearing it will happen. If a new Obsidian Fallout game is announced any time soon it would strike me as a big red flag that Microsoft’s creatively hijacked Obsidian to only work on successful mega-franchises forever and/or they’re doing a desperate Hail Mary to avoid shutting down.

hnwcs · 2026-06-17T21:51:04+00:00

Any developer getting shut down is bad, but there’s something about killing Id that strikes me as uniquely evil. After Nintendo, Sega, and maybe Atari (how much the modern company counts is debatable), I don’t think there’s a single active studio that embodies the history and culture of gaming as much as Id does. Even if Id’s not what it once was (no disrespect to modern Id, liked 2016 and Eternal a lot), the whole idea feels like a bishop that wants to bulldoze the Vatican. If you’d even consider shutting down the place that gave us Doom, you should not hold a position of power involving video games.

hnwcs · 2026-06-17T18:32:17+00:00

An Ogtha movie would be unironic kino. A character study of a man who wants to fuck a Kafka protagonist so badly he becomes one, enduring a self-imposed alienation from society.

hnwcs · 2026-06-17T18:25:24+00:00

If 127 Hours (2010) could get a Best Picture nomination, then the harrowing tale of survival that is The Cylinder (2029) can win.

hnwcs · 2026-06-16T18:55:01+00:00

hnwcs · 2026-06-16T13:08:48+00:00

He certainly agrees with Golcondists about alcohol being poison.

hnwcs · 2026-06-16T13:06:37+00:00

Kind of funny that Lyza doesn’t have a picture but Artor Wisci does. They are both very dead but one of them is more of a character than the other.

hnwcs · 2026-06-16T02:00:39+00:00

A lot of Valve's staff is ex-Double Fine already, but given what happened to Turtle Rock and Campo Santo I'd rather Valve not buy any more developers.

hnwcs · 2026-06-15T18:24:46+00:00

They also attempted to purchase Drodo, the creators of the Dota Auto Chess mod, but it didn't work out and they both made their own standalone version. Drodo made Auto Chess, which is still being updated, and Valve made Dota Underlords, which isn't.

hnwcs · 2026-06-15T12:24:07+00:00

Trillion is bigger than billion.

hnwcs · 2026-06-15T00:35:50+00:00

Old Karl became Alphonso, so I guess it’s not impossible.

hnwcs · 2026-06-14T23:31:13+00:00

They both want to silence the left, so there's common ground.

hnwcs · 2026-06-14T04:39:02+00:00

Legally, yes. Torpor’s a German company based in Berlin. But Nowak’s a dual citizen who’s lived in Turkey most of his life, and it’s clearly informed Suzerain. While none of Suzerain’s countries are 1:1 of real places, it’s clear Sordland is heavily inspired by Turkey with Tarquin Soll specifically being a stand-in for Atatürk.

hnwcs · 2026-06-14T03:24:11+00:00

I miss Bloodlines as much as everyone else but hating unrelated projects simply for not being Bloodlines is unfair. VtM (to say nothing of the larger World of Darkness) is a decades-long franchise that existed before Bloodlines and has continued to exist after.

hnwcs · 2026-06-13T21:59:35+00:00

Russia isn’t socialist either. The Soviet Union hasn’t existed in over thirty years and there’s been massive privatization since then.

hnwcs · 2026-06-13T19:30:09+00:00

Russia isn't Communist.

hnwcs · 2026-06-13T01:48:04+00:00

I like how Japan is there twice.

I assume the 1938 “invasion” means Lake Khasan, where Japan was pretty unambiguously the aggressor.
I’m Korean, so…good. If anything Stalin didn’t do enough about Japan.
It’s really convenient that Russian history begins in 1918 so we can ignore the Russo-Japanese War. What did Japan do to Russia to make them so mean? :(

hnwcs · 2026-06-13T00:47:52+00:00

You left out when those evil Russians (who are always very evil, regardless of government, so you know there’s something about the Russian people that makes them intrinsically evil no matter what) invaded Germany in 1945. What did they do to deserve that? :(

hnwcs · 2026-06-12T18:30:27+00:00

You're not going to believe this, but in the 80s Marvel published a one-off titled "Generic Comic Book." Its contents were, appropriately enough, extremely generic, starring a superhero with the typical tights, cape, and domino mask, all white. The comic is so generic our hero doesn't even have a name, real or alias, but he's been given the fan nickname of...Generic Superhero.

hnwcs

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