80s fiction, cultural references and copyright abuse - a solution

 

-note - this page will be under construction for a while - by its very nature-

𝅘𝅥𝅯𝅘𝅥𝅰𝅘𝅥𝅱🎵🎵𝅘𝅥𝅱𝅘𝅥𝅰𝅘𝅥𝅮𝅘𝅥𝅮

Neon nights and city lights, we're living in a dream,

Palm trees swaying in the breeze, it’s more than it may seem,

𝅘𝅥𝅯𝅘𝅥𝅰𝅘𝅥𝅱🎵🎵𝅘𝅥𝅱𝅘𝅥𝅰𝅘𝅥𝅮𝅘𝅥𝅮

-From MY song "Neon Knights racing by" - soon to be uploaded!

 

Ever wonder why Star Trek, especially Next Generation referenced Shakespeare so much?  Well first they needed people we could understand at some level making pop culture references but making up new pop culture for centuries from now would be another layer of alienation, Me Droogies...  ALSO they could be SUED even back then for making references to other shows... Wouldn't it have been neat if they had been able to say "This is like the Paleo show X-files..." when extra dimensional aliens borrowed Riker's Arm then attached it back on?  Nope would have been rooms full of lawyers for that remark and taken years even IF everything went well.

This blog post is about my disappointment with modern CopyWRONG -aka abuse of copyright to silence criticism and into absurdity reactionary protection.  Modern big companies do little other than absorbing copyrights others made and they chew up and excrete these properties only taking from them.  I won't bore with exhaustive history - you can look it up if you don't know, perhaps starting with Disney going after an underground comic "Air Pirates Funnies".  That's really when Copyright/Trademark started getting abused for its own sake though Mad Magazine and others (Flynt Publications, National Lampoon) fought back hard keeping free speech pretty open for fair use/parody.

I'm writing a series of fictions set in the 1980s but there's one tiny detail chained that had a changing effect so its "A better 1980s" though still has problems and issues of course.  No fairyland just a decade that appreciates itself while its in it a bit better.  Nostalgia but meant to be OK for younger readers who weren't born yet to enter.

The problem was that the 1980s WAS its pop culture to a large extent.  The mass media, the music the movies.  "I pity the FOOL!" etc.

So, writing about the 1980s in fiction set in it you run through a minefield of bear traps with some reference somewhere someone will sue you over.  Not just a DMCA and forced changes and re-writes they might legit drag you to court to take everything or extort that threat for tens of thousands of dollars to avoid a trial.  This is not piracy I'm talking about here it's a reference that in a fair world the original producer almost should need to pay for since its free advertising.  "fair use and parody" you'd WIN 99.9% of the time taking it to court but would lose the $ spent unless you could get the judge to pass "Motion to dismiss" adding "With prejudice" THEN still likely have to sue them for the $ they owe you.  And Mad Magazine alone along with National Lampoon and Hustler have made PILES of legal precedent any Lawyer can use and any Judge should reference.

However - this blog isn't about skating around fair use and parody.

Already tons of books, videos on that and it'll make you sick how it's abused and really disgust you in the law and society.  This isn't an advice on fair use/parody and how to make it slightly less likely you'd be sued.  It's about getting AROUND the issue big time.

 

It's about ALTERNATIVE SUBSTITUTIONS to tell them off!

I decided on this path making two sub fictions to handle the major fictions and working around a third and got so sick I wanted to puke.  Holeee FRUIT of the Gawdz - Steven King in "The Stand" mentioned the arcade game "Death Race" early on and wasn't sued...even though they could have used the $ being grilled by the Senate over the first "Video game violence" issue.  They knew it kind of immortalized a video game that would be forgotten by now save very devout Arcade historians without the controversy.  Wouldn't be surprised if the novel wasn't responsible for a few of them being still maintained as much as the Corman movie inspired by it and the history of controversy for a very simple little game.

So - this page is about a list of alternatives I'm using in fiction to avoid CopyWRONG issues of pop culture, focusing on the 1980s era which pulls from the 1970s and goes a bit into the 1990s.  It is not meant to be a comprehensive alternative and I do retain FULL copyRIGHT on my IPs but allow openly a "Fair use and parody" without extensive legal and paperwork issues.  Save a copy of this page when using them in case I die and someone 'inherits' the rights to my stuff.  Oh, I'll let someone feed off my coffin but sanely.  What I'm mentioning here would please me because it's free advertising and true flattery and appreciation!

First - "TenTari computers vs ATARI"

Didn't we 80s people LOVE the Atari 2600 console even out of the many alternatives from the Channel F to the Intellivision to the Odyssey 2 to the Coleco vision?  And yes the Nintendo NES came out a while after the game crash though it's seen more as a 90s thing in the USA.  Only until the PS2 were the sales beaten but the cultural impact...IMO still Atari 2600 and yes the games that came after were much better I don't enshrine the past.

In MY "A better 1980s" the video game crash didn't happen!

  Almost but you know what company merged with others creating TenTari!  They are now an emerging MegaCorp out of a Cyberpunk novel and right now are positive and energetic and kids dream of being a Tentari engineer when they grow up!

There's rumored to be a hidden meaning in their name - but most people even the "nerds" are burnt out on that since Atari supposedly had a hidden name but it was just "Check" in the game of "Go" and the previous company Syzgy also meant opposition/challenge in essence.  So yeah "They merged with TEN or so other companies.  I do NOT care..."

Atari in the background - kids playing Atari games, references to "I scored --- in ----" and tribute games...  Well guess what, people have been sued, DMCA'd, legally extorted.  Right now there's a new console release so they'll be extra lawyer attack happy.  I even heard a rumor Blader Runner 2049 had to pay them a ton of money just to have that "Atari" logo on the side of the building when in a sane world they should have thanked them for free advertising!  GAG me with a SPOON...

So - NOPE.

I'd love to write in an alternative universe Atari that grew and became an awesome company and Cheezus Kwist they should THANK me for free advertising and if my "A better 1980s" got big and there was a TV show send a note "Please have the kids playing Atari 2600 games or better in the background, we are re-releasing .... want some samples!?" knowing it was free advertising.  Nope.  More likely lawsuits derail it by last minute changes and legal fees scrambling everything.

An analogy though YES a Judge WOULD go "Motion to dismiss with prejudice accepted." and I'd then sue back if it got that far and just might wreck the copyright/trademark.  Ye be warned.  I love the product and all those games and such but I'm sick of abuse where it is NOT deserved.  The lawsuit is for someone making or selling someone else's games without protection not for literary tribute when its clearly a secondary fictional product.

So it's "Tentari" no disrespect but legal CMA.

Next - my "Omega Crusade" vs ".... of the Universe...!

As a background to replace "Masters..." etc. the crowning of 1980s Saturday Morning Cartoon toy commercials I'm making my own concept of such a franchise, toy line, etc.  YES I'm making some comics, simple toys, etc.  I might sell some physical media and make a few seconds of animation.

In my "Pulp" universe, Omega Crusade is both the far far far far future, the "Entropic" end of the universe.  AND it exists as a Saturday Morning Cartoon from the 1980s.  MY 1980s, a better 1980s!

However - YOU may use it in your fictions to a sane limit - no hassles save obvious.  I certainly DO retain copyright, etc.  What I allow is "Fair use and parody" of a 1970s level.

Suggested examples:

Vietch put the pizza in the new Microwave.  He hoped he'd not have either a frozen plate or blister his lip again.  In the living room the TV had been left on all night and catching the rays of dawn Omega Crusade played, entertaining kids across the nation and selling those toys.  Though Vietch was tempted to join the blue nosed moralists whining violence and corruption of youth he watched the show when alone and wished he was a kid again to buy those toys...the Brothers of the Sun toys he'd been tempted to get the last decade but he'd already been 17 when they came out and preparing for college.  He had had to argue with his Father for permission to watch the latter.

--Oh, yeah - "Brothers of the Sun" - not exactly Star Trek - it's another storyline I'm working on with a similar theme both a tribute with bits of parody but also its own thing as Trek is a consolidation of many science fictions before it like Star Wars the Scifi adventure genre.

And yes, if you illustrate it (artist, AI, 3d) you can put limited backgrounds.  If you make a TV show yes you can put a few seconds of it on the TV in the background!  -some credit / link would be nice but not demanding.

What you can't do ->  Copy the figures and sell them.  Reproduce the media be it fictions, comics, games, animations in large part or full especially to sell.  If you "Vietch the Detective" isn't 1 minute of V and then just cut/paste full Omega Crusade episodes you SELL....  In short obvious where the re-delivery of my IP is the motive and any 3rd party you do the shell.  That's what they accused Mad, National Lampoon, etc. of but wanted to silence critics and they LOST in court.  So unless you are a bootlegger or pirate of media for profit nothing to really worry about.  Simple mentions, again as Steven King talked about the video game "Death Race" in the background of early in "The Stand" is in no way hurtful to the IP and it'd be petty and insane to sue over it so let's keep reasonable and I'll be generous to free advertisement.

Note I LOVE "...of the universe" so much - but the last few years it's been BUTCHERED.  My "Omega Crusade" while I'd have done it with / without this sooner or later is accelerated due to it.  Serious, I even liked the 00s reboot attempt.

COOL thing - you yourself can make a "TV Cartoon toy commercial fantasy / scifi / military franchise" and not worry about some major company harassing you legally.  Well they could but even Disney would be stopped at "Motion to Dismiss".  How do I dare say that?  DC Comics Vs Mattel.  They made some of their products as action figures of the 5.5" scale to be playable with Mattel's franchise.  Mattel sued them, DC comics marched right into court and Mattel LOST.  

The judge for the sake of his and the fragile senior citizen hearts and brain blood vessels of all other judges declared it to be "Too Generic" to be broadly protected by copyright/trademark.  Exact things are still protect-able - various names and you can't (if not in China somewhere) copy the existing action figures by casting them, you need to make your own by hand or 3D... (not direct scanning obv.)

BUT - the judge didn't want him and his peers to hear 1000 legal battles over action figures and fictional worlds and toys...the airwaves and especially toy shelves were groaning with the weight of tons of MOTU/StarWars/Trek wanna-be toys!  "Krothar of the Dark Wurld is TOO CLOSE to Worriors of Torrrg!" and do a Judge Ito facepalm again and again and again...  So to avoid toy hell he declared it "Too Generic" as long as no direct lifting of names/copying figures.  You can make your own "Barbarian warlord scifi fantasy military figure who looks like he's about to burst his colon squatting per a rotten dot com classic - Hrrrgggg!!!!" etc. no broad copyright/trademark if your own creation/your company's creation.

There was a FLOOD of "Generic 5.5 inch" and 3.5 inch (Star Wars/GI Joe) "Compatible" action figures right after.  Some were from fly by night Chinese/foreign ones that DID copy the torsos, probably from the same outsourced makers...got an extra few thousand of that torso in a different color, added a different head from another toy...  Most were just wanna-be's catching some of the wind from MOTU's and Star Wars's sails...

Tons of knock-offs - they even included "Sun-Man" as a cheapoid way to be diverse in "...of the universe" and they are made today.  Got Pig-Head recently, might get the 3 pack!

So - while even with this having your 1980s character even MENTION "...of the universe" is risky you can use (sanely) Omega Crusade.  Hopefully check this space in a year then a few there will be more to it, way more.  One of the things that gets me mad is we should have dozens more like I'm doing.  I shouldn't have to do this unless I was passionate about such a thing solely.  There should be DOZENS of new cartoons and toy lines, video games inspired by but their own new thing...  For instance, how about the Venture Brothers level tribute/merciless parody Kaptara!?

Serious - pic cited for fair use/parody - non-commercial - but really they needed to make that into a cartoon and make the toys.  Today's tech they could 3D model and CNC the tools so making the toys with China so much more accessible...  and there should be dozens like this and my "Omega Crusade" just a lark with a few images, no need for more.

The reason is that we have a few companies dominating the media that cooperate vs competing.

I'll blog over that later...how we need to go antitrust for politics vs rioting for 'gender neutral remakes'...

 

Then for "Heavy Metal" we'll enter the "WILD ZONE!"

 

 

It's taken me a while typing on this article.  First HM was "Dead, Jim" for about 3 or 5 years depending...  I thought it was gone and might come back in another 10 years or NOT at all, think "First Comics!" that gets stuck in multiple property holdings and any attempt is caught between "I want milleyuns and milleyuns!" one person demanding more $ than it'd ever be worth and "You OWE me Milleyuns and Milleyuns!" one other thinking they are OWED huge $ so will come out to sue whoever buys it and do that damage in court costs even if he loses.  Our legal system will punish neither.

 

ALSO - someone claiming to own HM a few years back harassed Crian Soft over their "Metal Fury" project - which was a tribute to the Julie Strain Fakk2 era of HM.  So stuff that should have been out a year or so ago is in DevHell for a Looong time to re-tool it.  Not sure or CARE if it was the current Owner(s)...  That was years back and just dead air - plenty of Zombie Copyright/Trademark trolls where things are in limbo, it's near impossible to find the owner and they charge 10x what any sane person would pay for even obscure things - but slither out of the gutter and SUE.  And only mmmaybe legit own it...

Thought it was "Dead, Jim..." in CopyWRONG hell like First Comics...

So I was surprised to find out it was coming back.

Then it became obvious they are owned, ran etc. by the same people who RUINED the magazines.  Same types the "Panderverse" and "Modern Audience" types who cater to everyone BUT who'd buy the thing.  I'll say "One Man's Opinion" for legal CMA but when you experience online forums where cry bullies get you banned for 'misgendering' them and that wasn't even a discussion you had with them, just you wanted old HM.

So while I'll be THRILLED if I'm wrong, I think it's a Cash Grab.  Just more $ but panderverse and will die again and probably stay in limbo.  Thus avoid crediting it and using "fair use and parody" the NAME in any fiction you write, from a free webcomic to a story you publish you'll be victimized by lawsuit parasites and DMCA harassment.  The corporate world is what created this Copyright Trolling/Trademark Squatting, etc. in its modern form.  They have sent everything to China so all they have left is their names...and these are bought and sold casually.

SO - welcome to the WILD ZONE!

Part of a delay in making this - I went nuts making the premise for what MIGHT be a legit magazine.  IF it is I'll work out a "Shares" thing so artists contribute and get a % of residuals (sales) and a few top guys get big $ and maybe paid ahead (bonus, not advance) and lesser ones get a smaller %.  Hey, if I find anyone who can give Serpieri, Azipiri, Corben a run for their $ I'll pay them more than ME even if I'm risking $ and spending time I don't have to make it - life ain't fair and we don't have to be but I'll spread it around legit to show I do stand by my friends and associates.

Anyways, I'm working out the basics and animatics for videos but it's simple - Imagine if in another universe just like our own but a few things happened differently...

 

Instead of some people importing European comics and translating some others decided to take the sci-fi and fantasy of the current age the 1970s and combine it with awesome artists who'd wanted to be "Underground Cartoonists" of the 1960s and were struggling to find a place in the early direct market that wouldn't explode big until the 1980s and publish a magazine format fantasy comic anthology...?  Then they got successful and maybe pulled over some European comics, got a movie that was really awesome but the music rights got it tangled on HBO late night showings as the ONLY way to watch it... (Versus Cinemax)

SO - for the same effect in YOUR stories and comics YES you can use "Wild Zone" in them...!  Instead of having a person reading a Heavy Metal, a HM on the shelves, the show on TV in the background or mention in the stories - you can have and use "Wild Zone"...!  When I upload some songs (I got really overboard) you can include them in videos!

I still retain the rights to it and any illustrators or writers who contribute do theirs per our charter IF I make a .pdf or print run for legit sale.  BUT we allow "1970s fair use, parody, reference, reasonable use" so anything save blatant piracy you are OK.  If you mention us we'll link and be flattered most likely.  But no permission, contracts, etc.

Serious - use "Wild Zone" as a stand in and never fear whoever owns this iteration of Heavy Metal or Metal Hurlant sues you.  

I mean you'd think it's 99% impossible to sue IF it's like in the background and a character is in a magazine shop the title is in the background - BUT look at modern "Documentaries" it's like characters live in a world of blurry rectangles over their chests and the background.  The reason is some filth slithers from the gutter and SUES them - and just wants $, is or has a lawyer, knows winning costs more than just paying it.  And our judges and other officials don't care and allow the system to be abused this way.

Serious - watch this: "Why I Disappeared - How Bowie's Advice Changed my Attitude" - how they 4:10 for tl/dr got sued just by predatory asking for $ - sometimes the copyright trolls even have NO connection to the original holder - and try to prove it and officials are "No we won't dismiss, wait for the trial.  You won?  Well, congratulations, that I care.  Go after them for fraud?  We don't care..."

Sick and the system needs to get fixed - say by voting out almost ALL the "Old School" and REPLACING them...  Really, get your name on a local ballot and you might win a winnable lottery for having a great job for a few years...  You won't change the world but not being a limosuine and personal butler as a baby silver spoon case the salary you'd get and benefits would be good so when the big business came a-knockin' and offered you a few million to let them pipe toxic waste into the city water supply labelled "Fluoride" you'd show videos of them doing it on the local news...!

Let's get back to happy stuff - again 1970s themed fair use.  I long for the day that a newly active MAD Magazine makes merciless parodies of movies/videogames/comics whatever from my end.  They have a HUGE pile of legal judgements it's OK since it's advertisement not leeching what they do.

- I mean OK to reference it "Joey had a Rostler magazine?  Only grounded?  Billy got spanked almost bloody for a copy of Wild Zone!  Some of the stories have nudity and sex in them on top of violence and worse, his Mom was freaked out." limited "Fair Use" is a-ok.  Only type of thing I'd give notice of is like copying whole stories if I make them someday and selling them as your own.  A few pics here and there using it as a stand in - some of the MUSIC I'll be uploading...no real problem save making your own album by copying/pasting it - and huge use > "Fair Use" just talk to me about it!

-------

Vampirella - use "Vampire Woman"!  "Lady of Vampires"  "Darkarella" etc.  I loved those old Magazine comics and most of the ongoing afterworks.  Still see issues in the so-called "Independent" comics section in the comic store.  So use "Vampire Woman" or something generic so you don't have copywrong harassment by whoever owns her "Rights" this week!

Instead of "Star Wars" user Samurai Gunslinger...!

Serious - in my alternative universe Jodorowsky's Dune got made - and it RUINED the science fiction and to a lesser extent fantasy for a decade so Lucas never got to make his Star Wars.  But HOW is it recognizable for a person who sees a 1980s?  Well there are some ultra popular fictions.  He wasn't able to make Star Wars in my alt universe and nearly SHOT Jodorowsky when he was forced to hire him as a consultant but Jodo kept insisting the "Chosen one" archeteype had to do his mother or sister for symbolism...  

But he ended up making a Samurai film set in a post Nuclear war world as a compromise he could get funded and have a chance of showing up in theaters.  A timeless tale of the hero who is chosen and is trained from humble beginnings to be a Gun Samurai like his father before him - then he faces the desert Empire and their mobile fortress with cannons able to take out an entire city and lay waste to a province!  He meets the princess, the bandit and smuggler who is inspired to become a hero, a Bigfoot beast-man who insists he's from a race of similar types from the stars, some constructs from the last era...  And it's both an exciting otherworldly adventure and a timeless mythic journey that resonates in every right Man, Woman and especially children.

If I carry it into the 90s of this world I'd talk about towards the end of it George Lucas making a science fiction film since they come back into fashion such as the "Ace Double" film empire and Lucas makes his "Science Fiction Epic" since by then (mid 90s) science fiction has made a comeback having CGI close to today and it's like EVERY "Ace Double" has been turned into a movie...!  So he decides "I have a F---load of money and I can make 9 flops in a row and still have enough $ to retire stinking rich...!" 

Thus he makes his movie just starting at the FIRST part of the grand 9 part of 3 trilogies!  Upon release, "The Star Warriors: The Shadow Menace" is a horrible, horrible FLOP.  And the collective "Aaaaaugh!" coming from the theaters...  This includes disgust from the audience having to wait to part 3 for the "Bigfoot from Samurai Gunslinger" to make his first appearance though he has no major role until parts 4 to 6....  Yeah sure they are in for 1/4 a second the "Galactic Council" right....  So he stops because he'll be spending blockbuster $ to get "Direct to Video" and the hot stars and halfway good child actors keep away from it.

But he has tons of ground breaking, awesome movies under his belt and his die hard fans defend him!

Oh yeah - Ace Doubles continue in this world along with most literary science fiction and fantasy...  Due to how lousy the publishers were IRL I'll put in various stand ins soon. (I do NOT want to get started there...)  Not because of Ace Double - if they still existed for real they'd have likely published some of my stories and let me reference them 70s style as free advertising.  But I don't know what or who might claim (including pure lies) to own the property now so it'll be "One of those Double book novels...?" for a respective but clear reference. 

 

 Sad - if I could blatantly have Sam (one of my characters) reading some 3rd party works since he's a nerd for classic science fiction and fantasy it'd be to put an Ace Double in  his hands, pocket, mantle, backseat of car every scene he's in even though he's the "Cool dude that wears sunglasses even at night and can kick ass and he's COOL!" etc. otherwise.  I'd put in ones I've read and ones I like the covers for - and if my work gets popular the reprints would justify Ace Double reprints!

See the left image?

Only SOME of my "Ace Double" collection.  I LOVE them!  Star Wars, Star Trek, etc.?  It's a TRIBUTE to this era.  Lucas and Roddenberry were amazed there wasn't a lineup of lawyers from ancient writers and coffin feeders, excuse me "Estates" slithering over to SUE - a few with legit good reason.  Most notably the E.E. "Doc" Smith estate aka "Lensman" series.  But most of them knew a rising tide lifted all boats and even though the realistic "Campbell Era" to "New Wave" scifi era of the times hated Star Wars/Trek they knew it got them $ and public acceptance at last.

Part 3 - "Men's Magazines"

The 1980s had a lot of pornography, especially magazine pornography as part of popular culture.  The dirty magazines with very pretty ladies were on the "Rise" so to speak and everywhere.  Regular bookstores had them, so did every gas station, drug store, supermarket.  They were breaking through the taboos at the time so it could be embarrassing to buy them and of course not for sale to minors so none of us kids had them...  Place sarcastic mischievous laughter here...!

Most 1980s kids that is Xers who were born in the 70s but very young then and were schoolkids to teens in the 1980s have a "Goddess" fixation with some adult magazine model even if and sometimes especially if they ONLY saw her seeing that cover.  The tiny forbidden hint of her in a sexually inviting pose, sometimes the edge of a tit just showing through a carefully made bra...  It's something kids today don't have with our near puritanical society from helicopter parents to moralist "Woke" a-holes - so they probably beat off to people being butchered on the Dark Web for first sexual image exposure...

Pic left is "Newlook" where Penthouse tried to expand but it was debatable if they were going after Chiq or Playboy's territory.  Note also the classic OMNI (getting to them) was published by Bob Guccioni who owned Penthouse.  Magazine flopped in the USA after a few years but continues in France to this day - full of National Geographic level photograpy and not just nekkid wimmen but plenty of them also.

For all the smut my naughty younger self managed to get this picture is what sticks most in my mind - some artsy "New Wave" use of blacklight photography for again "Art".  That particular session just had sexy adult models posing in painted neon lingerie in a dark room with blacklights though the rest of the magazine had plenty of boobs and more!

One of the shaky definitions of pure Porn (usually illegal) vs the Magazines was having "Social, Artistic or Literary" value.  So the magazines published fiction including by big names, news articles the other news agencies didn't touch and lots of "Artsy" stuff from comics to expression.  This kept "Obscenity" blue noses from being able to ban them.  

Silly but it had quite an impact - the late Larry Flynt spent a few million and a year ish in jail refusing to reveal the source for the DeLorean frameup tape.  This kept it so that any attempt to jail a journalist to extort him to reveal his source was an area LEOs thought ten times before trying.

Anyways a 1980s fiction is going to have to have porn as an issue in some way - even relatively G-rated ones.  The kids will try to sneak a peek at the magazine covers, sometimes blocked off with cardboard or even custom pressboards with logos.  Or they'll try to STEAL them or buy them with false ID and/or have some adult or teen adult buy them for them.  Such a treasure to a young lad to see some buxom beauty posing and spreading her...

Nowadays our puritanical fascism mixed with insane fake left garbage it'd be criminal.  But us Xers and the Boomer/Greatest before us had this to a point and you do not if late Y or younger.  Sorry.  Nowadays if you had an adult hand you his smut magazine or paid a bum to buy booze and XXX mags for you the poor fella could get "Offender" status.  But then again we weren't able to use the internet to find high quality porn, much less the darknet torture snuff and animal porn I presume the kids leer about in grade school...  I'd rather some hot Penthouse Pets of the 80s and 90s, grade A meat, silicone string enhancement, low body fat and athletic VS some skanky piercing factory in the modern shadow of these magazines or some poor SOB being sliced apart in some Red Room like again I presume the kids jerk off to today...  But that's my preference the classic 80s, 90s models.  I don't treat women IRL as less if they don't match some beauty standard, just wish whatever latest wave feminism hadn't turned many of them ugly to the core regardless of looks and hostile to most men but receptive to the last men they should be with...

So - it will be mentioned somehow - say a kid getting a deserved paddling for having one!  Trying to peek at one and his Mom hooks his ear and drags him away.  Some memorable magazine poster that is technically not porn but sexy to the Nth power like that NewLook magazine cover...  Worth a paddlin' to risk a look at!

And yes corporal punishment was 100% ok as long as not enough to seriously injure a kid or an excuse for molestation.  Da Fuzz usually got beaten with belts that cut their young asses, including with the buckle! Imagine a cop hearing a kid crying his Dad belted him over having a Playboy - more because his Mom found it and yelled he be punished...  "Yeah, kid, I like lookin' at Playboy but you gotta take yer hits.  If your Dad and Mom whopped you, they have your best interests at heart so get outta here...!  Take it like a Man!"

SO - here are some idea example Porn magazines.  I'll put in some mockup covers and yes you can use if you dare - figure a good set of analogs that sound like the old ones as a tribute to them.  I won't get gross or graphic much to the disappointment of my buddy O'MaXXXimVs...but I thank him greatly...

 

Rabbit Hutch by Eugene Heffer vs Playboy - elite big $ hedonist - nice guy but tons of ex squeeze toys always saying stuff

Cunthouse vs Penthouse - or to be less vulgar Photohouse with Robert Vassilie as editor/publisher - a brilliant photographer but a bit of playboy and womanizer.

NewWave (generic name) versus NewLook - again published by Vassilie

Rostler vs Hustler - there was IRL a short lived men's magazine called Rustler, fyi.  Publisher is Leroy Flynn a real lowbrow dude who also has pushed for free speech and won some important verdicts by publishing things the big alphabet soup and top newspapers refused then defending his source.

These may be used - I'll use them/references to them in MY fictions.  While thanks is appreciated this is open source so we can use a similar sounding cultural reference that will resonate with even modern readers not born yet and be obvious to those that lived then - but be outside the ability to easily harass legally especially vultures who just want $ and only maybe are associated.

 

Again your 1980s story doesn't have to be about porn, pornography, etc.  But for the culture Porn was in the background as a strong force.  Kids DID get porn magazines and only got paddled when they got found with them - no taking them to a counselor (who turns them gay/trans) and million dollar police investigation to find the adult who gave it to them be it some clerk or teen/adult friend.  Furthermore they were popular with adults "Uh, I only read Rabbit Hutch for the ARTICLES..." - "Wait!  I saw that actress in the scifi movie, she posed in..." and in popular culture like it or not.

It really decayed with the internet allowing a flood of porn but also by competition and free distribution of materials lowered the $ it could get.  00s onwards strippers started striking for wages vs having so much in their garters they didn't notice the technical minimum wage they got, the magazines declined and the "Models" were the last any top magazine would take, some got bought out and turned experimental, etc.  Anyways it's powerful - I'm mostly "R-Rated" at worst in my fictions but have a friend who does X stuff and he could really tell tales.  However anyone doing a period piece might want to study this aspect even if their work is NOT adult - not to throw in vulgar stuff but if they truly want a cultural mirror.  

 

For the record I've never got into "Stranger Things" but IF it doesn't have the kids talking about/hiding a Playboy somewhere it is NOT 1980s...  Don't care to search - hint "kids + adult material + Pornography " - Gawd knows what that'd do to whatever secret profile I have on the Fed Fuzz lists for my occasional political rant and loose connection to people who were radical in the 1960s... (Parental figures and friends of theirs)

Part 4 - Miscelleneous cultural references onwards

 I can't re-create the ENTIRE cultural landscape of the 1980s - but here's a catch all for

Mark Mallerus and other catch-alls for phrases

Imagine a big man in a Noir background - "U Vill Trust me, I am capable of vhat I ham doink..!" and somebody is smashed through the window...!  This is a tribute to Sledgehammer of course!  And the characters could go "So then he smashed him through the window like Mark Mallerus!  Don is a great cop!  Too bad internal affairs rides him.  Didn't Papto Bees Oil pay them $ to have internal affairs always drinking the stuff like soda pop due to his behavior?"

 Here will be a bunch of quick uses - no long descriptions

 Mark Mallerus -> Sledgehammer "U Vill Trust me, I ham capable of vhat I ham doink...!" - sudden brutal act of violence - done Noir style vs Dirty Harry if drawn so Mallerus is a parody of Cop Noir vs Grindhouse Films

A.C.T.I.O.N. team (toys, cartoons) vs N.A.G.A. - Elite military professionals fighting some ancient entrenched terrorist organization with connections to reptilians and elite families."Action Go!" - "Serpent Strike!" for chants.  3.5" action figures, playsets, some controversy over playing Patriot or Terrorist and language implying kids are wimps if they don't buy them.

Marble Comics - Crusader America, Metal Titan, Chango the Black God of Thunder, the marvelous Arachnid.   Direct Comics (DiCo vs DC) and Overman, Amazon Suprema, Speedster, Martian Observer...

Zowie Starboy - played by Peter Goliath a musician, actor man of mystery

 Patty Parton - big enhanced starlet

 

Part 5 - reasonable fair use

 

Note I still have Ronald Regan, George Lucas, etc. mentioned no worries about Copyright Abuse, right?  Well here's why, they are REAL people, its REAL history and they are Celebrities who have less personal rights to privacy...

About the worst example is that Jackie ONassis and Princess Fergie got photographed topless by scummy paparazzi and the porn mags, tabloids were able to publish their photographs since they were celebrities, public figures...

 If you did a voyeur act on a non celebrity/public figure lady and via hidden camera, hiding in the bushes, tiny camera hidden in shoe etc. got a picture of their privates/naked you'd get sued big time.  And Jailed.  Absolutely if you brought them to a magazine and they printed them without checking a model's release.  Note there was some drama about this in 1980s fiction - such as WKRP in Cincinatti that had a photographer get nude photos of a lady who'd posed in a bikini and had signed a model release.  Or Marvel had a She-Hulk episode in the Fantastic Four where she was topless in "Tar Beach" (rooftop sunbathing) and they photographed her and since she was a public figure (Superhero, with Fantastic Four) couldn't prevent the photos save a lucky twist ending.  IMO that she-hulk should have been on TV, not the cruddy one some modern audience ones made up, would have been Ally McBeal 10 years ahead of time with superhero world crossover.

So you can use a celebrity or historical figure - in my alternative world I'll have a standard fictional disclaimer of it's all a fiction based on the real world turned different so any actions real persons had were a fiction not meant to be them.  Even today's world an attempt to sue would be laughed to "Motion to dismiss" and yes I'd pay $ to a lawyer to do that not cuck out in fear of it - since it'd be "Streisand Effect" and make the thing SELL so much I could pay a dream team and get big $ off of them if they somehow got it to court.  AND it's flattery, I'm not insulting them - even Reagan whom I hated as a bad guy in the 1980s due to Hippie parents.  He's seen as an icon now but would get "Cancelled" by the modern Republican party and he paved the way for them.  

George Lucas?  Hey - if you see it and want to do "Samurai Gunslinger" I'll be lined up to watch the film and buy the toys not sue or anything...! I'll even give you what I've written about it, just wanting some "Partial inspirational" credits in the rolling!

Comments - Feel free to discuss and add ideas.  I'm "Wild West Internet" so if you insult another and they insult back I don't care.  I reserve the right to edit or delete/block for any or no reason but let's keep it civil.

Note - if you suggest something for this - another idea for a cultural reference - it is still YOUR idea but I have the right to use it also, open source.  Now say - using one of my analogs - I was a 3rd person writing "Mark Mallerus" as a Sledgehammer tribute I'd not forfiet my novels/short stories and ideas for a comic series...  I'd just let others make sane references to him but that'd include printing/showing for profit.  It is how F*cked up things are now this is necessary;  Imagine if there's a tv show and one of the kids is reading a chewed up "Pulp" novel but its a lulu printing of "Mark Mallerus:  Versus the 4th Reich and their Cyborg Gorilla!" one of the existing novels...  

A sane world the creator and any associates would jump for joy at the free advertising and do their best for search results and brace for new printings/pdf sales and maybe a phone call from a studio...right?  Nope - you play roulette with getting papers from a lawyer and they are willing to bring you to court just wanting to extort $ not thinking for a second you did any real damage to them.  We need this to END.  It's day and night vs true plagiarism or piracy and cultural references, fair use and parody.

Append - for "Copyright owners" 

- this page is to avoid copyright abuse but to also plead for SANITY.

Only a FEW existing other IPs have been cited carefully and "Fair use and Parody" cited.  If harassed legally I WILL take you to court where it'll be dismissed in "Motion to dismiss" then I'll take YOU to court for time+$ + punitive, crowdfunding from my fans to pay for lawyers (whom I KNOW) to help and possibly you'll lose the copyright/trademark and weaken it for decades. (think DC comics vs Mattel as I cited above)  If you aren't a true copyright holder but sent me paperwork to extort me I'll be merciless - indeed I predict you'll be exposed and never have a second of privacy much less money.  I've done SO much research and am in contact with legal professionals.

Having said that I'd LOVE to work with real owners of classic 1980s properties.

This is NOT a plea to release your works for public domain - it's to make a statement that you allow the cross-cultural exchange we had in the 1970s and 1980s where we could even reference each other's work and as long as it doesn't go into true plagiarism or other theft it's allowed.  Today some retro fiction that adds to it cultural examples is a godsend to those holding onto ancient copyright - it means the movies get played again, the toys go up in value, chance of a new release.  So if you send me some kind of official statement I'll append it and post it so people can use or reference things with sane use and not worry.  They'd keep these in their creative folders so if a decade or whatever from now some 3rd party claims ownership there's proof of permission and they'll run.  It won't hurt your IP - tons of use, careful imitation, reference means it's still relative and topical even decades or longer after its time in the Sun and so anyone purchasing is more likely to take it into account and send this site and other users notice of a new product for hopeful free advertising and to grow the customer base.

Why a "Combat Wheelchair" does NOT fit with Dungeons And Dragons or fantasy TTRPGs...

"Hey, DM, I want a Combat Wheelchair - my Monte Cook contract says I can demand it..."

 

 For reference to how this works ...

 

 

 

George Alexopoulos - image - used with permission!

 

TL/DR - it's pure bullshit by so-called "Woke" tourists out to WRECK Dungeons and Dragons and the TTRPG hobby in general.

It's also proof of how uncaring they are about the game, the hobby, the source material and how vain they are with their "Identity Politics".

I've waited a while to type this - they want anger and angry reactions so they can scream "Hallp!  I'm being oppressed!"  And why NOT allow such in a game of high fantasy that superficially at least resembles our ideal past and romantic dreams of them?

Several reasons and I'll put them here:

FIRST - it just doesn't FIT.

Ever see the first D&D movie where they had Beholder monsters that were used as Guard Dogs but had seemingly a 10 degree field of vision and the ones leading them seemed to have a 30 degree vision?  If you don't get that you are a TOURIST.  This isn't "Rules Lawyer" stuff.  It's "Maan, this is PAINFUL to watch!" or "Cringe" as the "Woke" tourists call it when something hurts their Fee Fees...

SECOND - "If they can make it they don't need it"

The best way to explain it is that like a "Difference Engine" in real life - if you can build it you don't need it.

They technically can be made now and I think a few have.  Oh, back to the Abacus and that set of gears found in a Greek shipwreck from antiquity we've had them forever.  I mean the equivalent of a computer we are using today or early 70s home computer - it has memory, it can take instructions, it can run programs, it can change what it does based on memory and instructions.  The program can do anything from "Hello World" stamped out on paper or etched on plates or displays via a complex set of flapping cards on a plaque for an analog but digital screen or sent to an automata hand with a quill that writes in elegant Victorian Cursive writing...?

Babbage never finished it during his lifetime.  There were some issues with the man I won't get into but one of the big technical details was that even in the industrial revolution he simply could not get enough parts made to the precision required.  The tiny brass gears he needed were either way too expensive at the scale he needed them AND/OR they were NOT made to the level of precision. The modern age it's been 3D modeled and simulated, it would have worked though note his first device was to print tables for businesses so clerks and conductors who couldn't READ but could do numbers could gauge time, weights, prices...

Still - in today the information age, rather decades ago the Nuclear/Diesel age we had the technology.  And we had better fuel than coal and reliable electronics.  The technology to make a one ton nightmare of delicate gears that pulled more power than a dishwasher and oven to work at 1/10th the speed of an Apple 1 allows modern computers which are a fraction of the price and thousands of times the speed and memory.

It simply is not practical - I've even looked into tech to make it at the "Nanoscale".  

If we get to nanotech and are there to a point, we could make a HUGE but TINY computer of endless gears and rotary belts that could work as a computer.  It would take in energy and information and use the energy to process the information put into it.  It would be many thousands of times faster than modern computers even many supercomputer setups and fit in an inch or two.  The "Square Cube" law would make the gears and pulleys made out of hundreds of atoms (vs billions/trillions at smallest) be almost indestructible in their environment which also would be perfect, clean and sealed.  Square cube again only a tiny amount of energy would be needed to run the thing.

HOWEVER - to make it you need nanotech of a very fast and accurate control but able to sculpt at insane rates of speed at the macroscopic scale.  We are getting there...

BUT - and this is the sad spoiler to the "Steampunk" fans;  IF you can make that you can make an "Atomic Spin Computer".  Excuse me, I'm feeling like a kid again reading old OMNI magazines... We call them "Quantum Computers" these days and at last are making them.  

The difference?  Easier to construct and imagine an Apple 1 compared to today's best super-computers.  Not a "Cray" of the 80s we have that on our desktop in the 2020s if not our phones...  A supercomputer of today worth billions compared to a 1970s DIY kit with kilobytes and kilahertz clock speed...switches to program binary... At least...!

That's the difference in raw speed even if the Quantum one spends 99% of it's time error correcting.  Now imagine an AI working that out and figuring out an algorithm to eliminate some of the 99% of time needed...?  Then, the AI works out ways to use the Quantum Foam and stuff just under or outside what we see as reality.  It might help answer a last question...  Anyone get that last bit?

Going to the TTRPG world of the "Draconic" game - well you might hear how Tolkien fans complain it stole from him.  They had to name Hobbits into Halflings among other issues.  However the Tolkien stuff is the paint job.  The grand castle comes from many giants not the least of which is Jack Vance.  Read his Dying Earth especially Mazarian the Magician stories.  It sounds like someone put their D&D session to a story.  Except it was 20 years before the first D&D!

Vance's world (and Wells, Hodgkin, Clark Ashton Smith) is our world but the far, far future.  The sun is either gigantic in the sky and Earth has been moved outwards or it's a dim red ember.  Somehow humanity survives this far out and is on the surface the same.  However while many cycles have come and gone it seems on the surface a mystical medieval world.  How does it have "magic" if in the real world?  And not some rich drug addict more trying to summon Priapus than some angel or demon in a mansion but only really summoning scandal?  The Magic works, wizards can do many incredible things...  How?  Clarke's third law - "Any technology, sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic"

 

The setting of the world is that there is a REAL working magic and the "Gods" are real and thus clerical spells can heal people.  Sure you could get Gnomes to make a wheelchair that might somehow handle rough terrain and go through a dungeon with kooky devices to bypass simple pit traps and goblins sneaking up from behind...  BUT it would cost at least TWENTY times the Gold Coin it would take to go to a temple of a "Greater God" and get a healing of major wounds and restoration done.  And NO they aren't cursed or "special" not to be healed.  They can go to an EVIL god and at least pay a fortune (or promise dark deeds) if they PO'd a "Good" god.

A more fitting item would be at a low level campaign some pre-rolled "Wretched" zero level characters have various flaws to overcome like a prostitute who's face got slashed by a rich client with a magical dagger or a desperate peasant who has a sick daughter who needs healing magic so they will go into the dark dungeons that are ruins from up to many thousands of years ago to try to find coin.  That could start them to the path of adventure and make the players feel more for their sacrificial zero level characters in the "Meat Grinder" mission to get them into the game and flush out the snowflake 'woke' tourists.

THIRD - It's brutal brainwashing out of 1984

 

"How many fingers am I holding up, Winston Smith?"

I think the ONLY book they for real read in the Debt Factory aka a modern "College" that excretes the so-called "Woke" social justice warriors or whatever...  1984 by George Orwell.  They see it as UTOPIA, just as long as the BOOT in the FACE of humanity forever is RAINBOW colored from ethically sourced materials...  Dripping sarcasm here.

The "Woke" corporate backed fake Culture War is based around hammering their party line in one form or another until it becomes truth.  It is forcing by various means such as threats of being seen as racist, sexist, ablest ... whatever - to accept one of their stupid, ill thought out inserts.  It is a means of controlling the argument.  It is a means of trying to force a set of legacy on future players who try to pick up the pieces once the corporate behemoths move on to feed elsewhere.

The reaction against "Combat Wheelchair" and other madness like full flying PCs at Level 1, forced insertion of various mental and physical disorders is about keeping the hobby something that people will play on their own without a corporation saying its popular for a few years then shelving it.  These "Woke" will be gone soon, leaving some very ugly legacies and the true hobbyists will have to try to rebuild. 

So resisting the "Sparkle Troll" lies and agitprop is critical to us who want our freedom and expression in our games (and comics, video games, etc.) by denying their stupid ideas.  Sure there probably ARE "Combat Wheelchairs" somewhere or DMs that let a first level character FLY but somehow didn't wreck the campaign balance.  Fine.  It's still sane to resist the base game having this garbage meant to ram in their stupid fake ideals so they can virtue signal to their friends.  They are just adult babies and cry-bullies who want to break another's toys with some parent or elite corporate figure protecting them. 

No - that's not a call for violence - rather ever hear of "The List"?  For bad RPGs that are ruined by them?  Going to get it expanded (or an alt list made) that follows the so-called Writers and some of the Illustrators who have helped the corporate pigs wreck a decade of entertainment and hobbies.  When their Parents are gone aka the Corporation - well they'd better hope there is room for them to publish and stock RPG books (and comics, games) in some Seattle Coffeshop next to the college they went to.  Except woke don't buy their own "Change!" products - that tip jar is NOT that big.  Any company that wants to make MONEY will hear tons of complaints about them - no lies just "There are lots of other options, this person did this - proof - so I won't buy unless you dump them." - and they'll talk to them "There are a MILLION other artists, writers, managers out there all better than you and that's not even counting AIs.  Bye." 

Considering they openly try to "Cancel" anyone they don't like and have indeed tried to cancel me and my friends and things I like - it's only fitting.

---So - in your OWN campaigns have all the ridiculous sh-t you want.  But let's not let these sparkle troll vandals wreck our hobbies by turning it into a Cauldron of rainbow Monty-Haul and sparkle troll coffeshop university!

Maxx Feral

Gamergate 2.0 - a new Sh-tshow but different

Gamergate 2 is here...  Sweet Cheebuz...

 

 Ladies and Gentleman, Children of all Ages - I present you with "Sweet Baby".

Serious - as a person who was an adult for Gamergate 1.0 I'll brief you.  Not on 'facts' written mostly by the 'journalists' but as I experienced it.

I missed it, most of it.  At the time I'd uninstalled all games from my computers and those were mostly older games or late 90s/early 00s ones that ran super on my newer computer.  I was trying to complete some projects in between increasing work and family and  I'd of course play games all night while smutmining dirty pics on Usenet such as classic Penthouse and Hustler pics. 

However I still went to Software Etc (now Gamestop, ugg...) to buy older retro games, my local branch had tons of NES/Sega cartridges at various prices.  And I saw all the things people bought new high $ computers for and some soaked the boards in liquid nitrogen so they could overclock to speeds we'd have issues with today...  I'm glad I'm more a casual, retro gamer but I salute those who always push the envelope.  Lots of definition of gamers - I'm a lifetime player, kid during early arcade, Atari 2600 age, early computer games - etc .  See pic - this was "RPG Maker" way back - also programmed in code from magazines at the library in an Atari computer.

From them and my own late night usenet (remember that?) and various /chan lurking I got filled in.  I checked it out and put this through a huge personal filter.  However the Software Etc people informed me what was going on as it happened.  I feel I'm quite informed.  Was once a person with journalist aspirations but now it's a "Post-Truth" world so no one trusts any "Source" though they demand it then deny it or insult you as a fool they got to waste time looking it up.  So take it or leave it but I speak what is best to my ears, eyes and research the truth.

Long Form but broken into steps:

1 - Games had become a super huge business, rivalling or in some ways surpassing the gaming boom of the late 70s to early 80s.  Different world, the computers were SO much more powerful, it was easier to program and the colleges excreted tons of kids with 'degrees' in game design.

2 - There was huge competition which translated to brutal pressure on those doing the legit work.  They worked 80 hour weeks on slack time but sometimes health destroying 100+ hour weeks just to get fired in time for Christmas.  They'd been lured in by the dreams of the 80s where the designers of Pac-Man and ET for the 2600 got checks in the millions.  That was because they'd fought hard for a sane share of royalties AND there was about 25 people in the WORLD who could program a game for the 2600.

2a - for "Source!?" screamers try a book called "Racing the Beam" which gives you an idea of what it is like to program for an Atari 2600.  Rememeber it next time you want to complain a Unity tutorial or kit is too hard.  You are a FLEA on the shoulders of Giants.  Oh, and those giants - they stood on the shoulders of the NASA guys who made the equivalent of an Apple II with magnetic core memory by hand and troubleshooted it on the way to the MOON.

3 - Huge pressure by companies, middle managers on game devs.  The essence was "We'll pay you this BUT if you get that level of ratings and initial sales we'll pay you enough you might earn good money so when you lay off these suckers doing the work you can run to Tahiti with millions."

4 - This led to desperate game designers in a glutted market doign desperate and underhanded things like PAYING so-called Journalists aka "Game Journalists" for good reviews of their upcoming games.  These were published in the remaining game magazines most kids and some adults had grown up reading and the emerging virtual online versions.  Sadly these had been bought out early 00s but they still had "Street Cred"

5 - I've worked for Corporate America and one thing you learn the hard way;  "Today's bonus is tomorrow's METRIC."  aka "Ok,  you lazy scum.  You worked that hard to earn that gift card and a promise of a raise?  That means you CAN work that hard and  you'll do it to keep your job.  And we'll not give you a raise and TAKE BACK your bonuses.  We dare you to walk out, we got the colleges churning out more suckers.  And we are automating so Indians and other third world people can SCAB.  We hate you you SCUM."  

5a - I'm almost quoting some employers,but keeping the language more polite, btw...

6 - The cycle feed itself for a few years and for less and less money all these "AAA" titles were essentially shovelware.  The big $ people behind them had flooded the market, cut $ they put into games, cut more $ in between with them locked in contracts so they could back out but lose all the $ and be bankrupt.  The $ and time put into the games suffered but if they got to that finish line with a barely workable product they'd get just enough to break even.

7 - This destroyed the quality of the products.  Master of the Obvious.  So we had lots of AAA titles rated 95% etc. that were shovelware.  IF they worked at all.  Some hardcore gamers had release parties ruined or their day off from their job(s) waiting all day for the ENTIRE DVD-ROM to be downloaded from a website not setup for it.  I had this pleasure on an overhyped but not prepared release of some pro end 3D software  - I won't tell their name not wanting to promote them now that they help the "Subscription racket"...

8 - The fuel of this industry, the hardcore Gamers started comparing notes on boards the big business didn't control - the /Chan sites and such and boy were they getting MAD.  You spend $70-$140, take a day off from your job(s) and get shovelware at best but it was rated super big in that magazine you trusted as a kid or college kid...  Then you start comparing notes and find out these "Game Journalists" are dunderheads.  And they SOLD good reviews.  When you work the jobs you hate the stuff you buy you don't need had better be GOOD, eh?

9 - The notes started generating negative vibes so the "Journalists" panicked.  They of all people knew how easily they could be replaced.  The programmers at least while not as scarce as early Atari days still needed skills not everyone had and the foreigner slave labor force was not near their level yet.

10 - So the "Games Journalists" used their undeserved power to smear their critics.  Incels.  Nerds.  Neckbeards.  Haters.  Racist, sexist, misogynist...  And yeah they claimed they threatened them in dramatic ways.  My favorite was some diversity hire claiming that someone had hired a "Darknet Hitman" on her and she was looking out the window in fear since he'd EMAILED her about it while she waited for a ride to a safe house.  Excuse me - if there were hitman that legit let anonymous 3rd parties hire them to kill anyone...  Whoops, no cops, judges, officials. Curious - that means they are con-men since a hit contract is fraud at worst unless an official which it becomes a federal crime...  Or Fed Fuzz wanting an easy target.

10a - "Toxic Gamers" did and do some shit - but it's things like SWATting people.  Why didn't the "Diversity Hire" SWAT herself?  Because she a non-white with lots of non-white friends would have been shot Robocop style.  Sick, ugly and wrong but true and very sadly true.  Also if it was a fake it'd be easy to debunk.  Call the fuzz in her city, ask if on that date that time they got a report - simple yes/no as public record territory.  But a "Darknet Hitman" has NO record of it or its not Darknet.  Thus I think - "One man's opinion" she LIED.  My opinion for legal CMA of course.

 

TL/DR

Desperate game devs paid so-called 'journalists' for good reviews.  Eventually too many games came out shovelware but were rated AAA by people who obviously didn't buy or play them.  The hardcore gamers got sick of paying top dollar for that and compared notes hoping to bring change.  The so-called "Journalists" panicked and made up tons of lies and insulted the Gamers to cover their worthless lying asses.

.....

Anyways it devolved as there was a mini gaming recession not talked about.  Big sharks ate up smaller ones and continued.  Anita Sarkesian was funded overnight for her "Tropes" garbage.  Games got gradually more politically correct and bland.   The internet expanded ability to bypass big stores and retail chains.  Steam in desperation allowed adult games even some "Loli" content ones for a while.

Gradually the games got back but there were too many people being excreted by colleges hoping to make games and more foreign competition.  The Debt Factories, formerly colleges seemed to teach some toxic corporate form of social activism first, identity politics second and maybe they paid top dollar to learn 101 level Toon Boom or how to make simple programs.  They then got in the door (especially if non-white, women, some other victim/minority card) and sat around bullying the MEN mostly white but plenty of Asian/Real Indians and even some black/latinos who did the WORK at these companies.  Glad I missed that, they had cushions, arcades, delis to eat at - AND  - if you were one of the MALES that did the work and used them you got fired quickly.  Grind and grind and grind and be on guard all times while the "Diversity" hires lorded the place, added to your burden and did Yoga with free lattes all day while working on who to backstab next.  The level of burn out these places caused anyone expected to work to actually make games...

 

So now we are in GamerGate 2.0.

Where it's open that they legit EXTORTED game companies, already G-Rated corporate politically correct chowder - to twist games so they'd be less and less playable by Males, mostly straight and white ones.  How they'd force Fugly females and lectures on how "Da Patriarchy" is ruining everything...  I could post pictures of the "Forced Change" but they'd probably hit the flag for "Racism" even though these were approved by the SweetBaby people.

And it blew up on Steam with a utility to detect them - along with Google and here's a list of similar Woke-Stortion companies.

 

 

 Now here's my solution:

They want "Politics"?  Let's GIVE it to them.

But NOT like they think...!

Get some pens, papers, stamps.  Oh, you can use Google and a a word processor -but you need to make REAL letters.  Sign and date them.  The people you will be talking to are your reps in Congress and the Senate.

Write letters - polite, concise, to the point.  Sign and date.

Don't waste their time with this "Gate" crap.  It's crap and a distraction.  Also free speech, free press, free markets.  They want to make games for rainbow unicorn snowflakes from some debt factory "Safe Space" well let that market support them then.  I only want to be able to vote with my $ to NOT buy their crud and find or make stuff that I enjoy even if they'd not buy it.

So demand (politely)

1 - NO bailouts, tax breaks, subsidies to any Luxury or Media company.  We don't need to EAT Disney Star Wars or the latest "Woke" shovelware game.  Therefore they have near absolute freedom and we have the freedom not to support it.  This is not grain, corn, fuel...

2 - monopolies - there are a handful of big companies that cooperate instead of competing.  This is a financial conspiracy.  Our government has known about it and tolerated it for years but now we have "Shrink-Flation" and "Because we Can-Flation" for necessities (food, housewares, everything...) and various payment processors and HedgeFunds (like Blackrock) are abusing their power to "Force Change".  This needs to END.  They need to have huge competition and not have a share of the market they can force prices or content without facing the possibility of a backlash and competitors doing what they refuse.

3 - Financial Crimes.  I'll say "One Man's Opinion" for a legal CMA but I think Blackrock and others literally WANT these things to fail.  I've seen more BRICKS of unsold comics since  the end of the "Comic book boom" and they are crud that no way did any legit pro authorize.  I've seen piles of "Woke" books, magazines, etc. piling to the shelves or in 2nd end (like Big Lots) toy stores in less than six months after release.  These things keep failing yet they don't change:

--Thus (One Man's Opinion) I think they use a process called "Short-Selling" where they buy into something and set it up to fail then bet against it.  They used to do this to retail stores, I had the misfortune of working for one and saw it sabotaged step by step.  Per #1 the huge retail stores were major employers so the Government was about to get in but they jumped to fictions and franchises or hobbies.

Thus the SEC needs to investigate for Short-Sell and lock them up until a dollar buys a dime via inflation.  They can do this.  Normally a SEC agent can send a stockbroker into dry heaves even if at the same line at the Starbucks with no other association.  It's time they USED that power or be fired since they missed Madoff despite being warned twice and all the Sub-Prime and other sabotage.

4 - restore FREE MARKETS.  It's not so much about forcing this or that player out - we need to cut the chains between distributor, payment processor, publisher and creator.  There are too many gatekeepers that exist to protect themselves and they choke out the chance of independent creators rising or falling on their own merit and protect their own stagnated collection of properties that actively suppress new voices.

Mind you keep it simple - "I don't want luxury or media companies to have tax breaks, short-sell against their products or have monopolies.  I don't have to eat that Disney garbage these days I don't want to pay for it.  I wonder what we'll have if they face real competition again."

NO rants, threats, etc.  These are elected officials and basic respect is expected.

Stuff like that - consider a small donation also.

 

 Yes - it's a "Stagnant Swamp" - but most of it operates in the dark.  A lobbyist earns $70K for every $1 he spends.  That is when no one is watching.  More letters the Congress/Senate will act and even the corrupt ones will charge more.  Easily $1K a letter.  "This person will VOTE.  This person will influence dozens of others.   He wants your head.  $1K for each of these letters.  To . do . NOTHING.  Much more if you want me to turn him down..." - the corrupt ones can get $ from them and if they refuse they'll hurt them and pretend to be righteous.  That, IMO, is behind one Senator fighting a "Mouse" - IMO they didn't pay him enough years back.  Just opinion and keeping it abstract for legal CMA of course!

So let's break the monopoly so we get more stuff like THIS....!

Still here!?  Good!

We need to demand from companies if they want our MONEY that they turn back the clock to the late 90s and 00s.  I'm not going to force "Bewbs" in Candy Crush and the so-called "Woke" people's pathetic "Art" games.  It'd be fair's fair but vengeance or being the "New Norm" is just as bad.  We need to make sure they've just wasted a decade and from their rotted SOY minds have only made things WORSE and they'll hide and whimper the rest of their lives fearing people will go "So, you are the scum that wasted a TRILLION dollars and made the mid 10s to mid 20 boring with lousy preachy entertainment!?  I'm going to talk to your manager and make dead sure he replaces you with an AI maidbot or he loses my and my friend's regular patronage!"

Demand game companies make these changes or you won't buy or even STEAL their games.  Spread the word.  Spread lists of "Woke" SJW whatevers as "Don't Hire them" lists.  No threats save you will NOT support the company and will let investors know, will write  your Congress and Senate reps to stop bailouts...  Real quick they'll go back to making what sells.  Sex, damsels in distress, even worse "Feminine" women you'd want to have not fugly bitchy harpies of hate you get for free any visit to the Debt Factory aka College.

See?  Wench chained to wall.  Needs rescue.  Will reward you or you make $ selling her at the slave auction.  No my testicles do not drag that bad - but we need more of this for a while to purge the "Woke" virus.

 

For any game company demand a sane standard of NOT complying with Woke and RESPECTING the people who PAY their wages.  Likewise BUY what you like.  VOTE with your DOLLARS.  It's easy now, there are SO many Fugly Social justice games and so few cool ones out there you can go "Take my money NOW!" even if you are broke.

Maxx Feral