What is Best in Life?

I'm not exactly sure how Age of Conan is still kicking around, but it still is.

Yes, there it is.

I hadn't installed it in 2021 when I broke down and bought my current PC, and I suppose that my old toon there is still hanging out wherever I'd left it way back when. 

Still, Funcom continues to keep the Conan license alive with AoC, Conan Exiles, Conan Chop Chop, and Conan Unconquered. How do they do it? And while most people know of Conan from the Arnold Schwarzenegger movies the original Robert E. Howard short stories are still around.* I can find at least one Conan book at my local bookstore, which is one more than from David Eddings (and until recently Michael Moorcock). What is the appeal of Conan?

Maybe it's because the Sun travels east to west
and the Moon travels west to east. Yeah, I thought
something was weird the first couple of days I played,
but I couldn't put my finger on it until I realized that
the Sun rose in the same area that the Moon set.

The Sword and Sorcery subgenre has its adherents, particularly those in the RPG community who enjoy the "old school" style of 1e AD&D and modern interpretations such as Shadowdark. It's just that for some reason the brutal and brooding style of the Hyborean Age, created by a bookish Texan, has an enduring appeal to this Norwegian game company. 

When I used to play Age of Conan I got the impression that it was far more popular over in Europe than in the US, and my tinkering around with Conan Exiles has only reinforced that perception. 

Taking a rest in a bed I'd built with crude tools.

Both Conan Exiles and Age of Conan have a casual attitude toward nudity that would shock certain sensibilities in the US. Yes, you can play Conan Exiles on a server --your own or created by others-- without turning nudity on, but I'm sure that was put in place to allow the game to be put on Steam. I'm not here to moralize about that, because nudity or near nudity is a staple of Sword and Sorcery along with magic and civilization itself being evil and corrupting, but it is worth noting that Funcom went all in on the aesthetic. Before you ask, no, they didn't add sex to the game, but apparently people created mods to "fix" that.

Why am I not surprised?

A more problematic part of Conan Exiles is that Funcom did not shy away from another aspect of Sword and Sorcery: slavery and thralldom. Here in the US, any discussion of slavery centers, first and foremost, on the slavery of Africans that culminated in the American Civil War. Slavery in Conan Exiles is more akin to that found in the Ancient World, where those defeated in war were enslaved by the victors.** In Conan Exiles, you "recruit" people to your side by knocking them out using a truncheon, putting them on the Wheel of Pain, and having them "work" the wheel until their spirit is broken. 

And despite the "splitting hairs" aspect to the whole thing, holy crap is this something incredibly problematic. 

Yes, it follows with the spirit of Conan's world, but I also think this is something that the devs could have read the room and said "You know, slavery isn't exactly a popular thing right now, maybe we ought to come up with another mechanic other than thralls." I mean, there's plenty of other things that were popular in the Ancient World (and Sword and Sorcery) that didn't make the cut in the game. 

If you are thinking about Conan Exiles as a survival game to play and you find the thrall mechanic a hard line, that's on Funcom. They could have easily changed the game to something less problematic, but by sticking to their guns they limited their game's appeal. 

*Not to mention stories written by other authors, such as L. Sprague de Camp, Lin Carter, Poul Anderson, and even Robert Jordan.

**For those familiar with Roman and Greek history may have heard of Epictetus, the Stoic Philosopher, who was born a slave. And there's Spartacus, who led a slave revolt.

Serendipity Surprises

When I logged into Steam today, I wasn't expecting to see this:

Honest!

I guess that makes yesterday's Meme Monday all the more appropriate, I suppose.

It's like seeing a random comment by an NPC and saying to yourself "What the hell was THAT?" Like this one I saw last night in Stormwind on the Anniversary Server:

I can't say I've seen THAT one before, and given the lack of context (and to be fair, Blizzard's company culture's reputation these days) that just sounds so wrong.

There's one last little bit of serendipity that has nothing to do with gaming. I was working away at the end of May when I happened to look outside the nearby window and saw this:

Yes, that's a very young fawn, likely a newborn, since the fawn was still a bit wobbly when moving around. That's something you don't get to see live every day.

Meme Monday: Fishing Memes

A decade or two ago, I had a fishing license. Not to actually catch fish, mind you, but so I could cast with a rod and reel with my kids. Good thing I never had a hook on the end of the line either, because I would have been gouged by said hook multiple times when the kids "cast" their lines. 

Still, I've never forgotten having some fun with them while "fishing". That translates into MMOs, where fishing is very much a thing.

I'm with you on that one.
From Reddit.

This could be my Questing Buddy saying this
too, you know, given that I've been fishing a lot
lately in game. From imgflip.

Heh. I like this. From Midday Memes. 

If you're doing this while listening to Otis
Redding, I can get behind this. From the Facebook
group Final Fantasy XIV: A Meme Reborn.

This one needs no comment from me.
From Reddit.

Tim Cain on Being Happy

I've mentioned this before, but I religiously watch Tim Cain's Cain on Games videos on YouTube. Having the perspective of developing games since the early 80s, and working in a field that I can relate to, is incredibly fascinating. That Tim not only survived the meat grinder but also has carved out a lasting and impactful career is inspiring to me, since my software development career lasted a little over 5 years.* That he worked on games such as the original Fallout, The Bard's Tale Construction Set, Pillars of Eternity, Wildstar, and even Vampire: the Masquerade Bloodlines speaks to how his games impacted my life as a gamer. 

Tim is also a genial person**, and he has a passion for games and game development. He's opinionated, but he's not an asshole about his opinions. That's something I can get behind.

On his Fun Friday video today, he had a short discussion about Being Happy:

Anyway, his first point of emphasis (and the reason for this post) is to stop rage watching videos and rage playing games. You know, the idea that you watch something that makes you angry --and you know it's going to make you angry but you watch it anyway-- and then you complain about it. It's corollary, rage playing games, is going out and playing a game that you hate and then you go online and talk about how you hate the game. 

This resonated with me because of my personal experience with my health issues and social media. And, well, the news.

Before somebody complains that being a CIS white guy means that I can tune the news out, fine. Yes, I am a CIS white guy. I'm also a CIS white guy who has health issues, especially hypertension, and I need to cut out stress in my life or I won't be around for very long.*** You can't vote if you're dead, even in Chicago nowadays.

One of the things I've done over the past several years was to cut out social media in my life, because first I couldn't stand the misinformation floating around social media with the pandemic, and then because of people within my extended family going down the conspiracy theory rabbit hole when they ought to know better. 

I can draw a parallel to this from a couple of decades ago when I cut out some news channels because their modus operandi is to generate a strong emotional reaction (frequently anger) as those strong reactions can turn into dedicated viewership. It becomes it's own feedback loop: keep throwing out red meat at their viewership, and their viewers get mad and tune in to listen or watch more often. I realized I was getting angry when those channels were on, and when I stepped back and turned them off, I realized I was much happier as a result.

***

But recognizing that rage playing games --or even just playing games that have changed over time into something you don't like-- isn't healthy is one piece of the puzzle. You have to break the chain and go play other games that you might actually enjoy. As Tim points out, there's oodles of games out there on Steam right now, so why not try other games instead? And if you don't like the game, return it and try another one. 

Before you ask, no, I'm not using this as a prelude to doing something drastic such as quitting WoW and playing only Civilization IV or something. After all, I still derive a lot of fun from playing Classic WoW, and yes, I've even enjoyed poking around here and there in Retail**** as long as I limit my interactions to places I'm familiar with and I ignore all the helpful suggestions to try Retail's version of Green Eggs and Ham. 

I will not try Dragonflight in a boat, or with a (space) goat, Blizz-I-Am.

--Dr. Seuss, maybe

Anyway, Tim has gotten me to thinking that I need to work more on trying to be happy, or if I'm not careful I will turn into a "get off my lawn" old guy, and sooner than I'd like.

*I should be clear: I enjoyed that software development part of my life, but I'm glad I'm no longer involved with it. Knowing what I know now about my health, I doubt I would have remained married or even been alive in 2025 given all the stress involved in what was a CAD/CAM software development job. 

**Yes, I know, he presents that way on YouTube, and people might not be like that in real life, but since Tim basically makes his videos in one take it's kind of hard to fake it for over 500 videos without using a lot of editing. Still, I haven't experienced him as either a coworker or a boss, so I can't speak to that. 

***I just had my six month check in with my doctors --both cardiologist and my primary care physician-- and I'm still hanging in there. I wasn't planning on providing an update in a post this June, but the TL;DR is that I need to keep doing what I'm doing, and my primary doc keeps hounding me to take vacations and relax more. Of course, working on projects such as woodworking do help me relax more, so there's that at least.

****Within reason. Without "playing the game" by questing or anything like that, I can simply move around the Old World and enjoy what I see for the art alone.

There's Always Someone

I'm sure that of my stable of toons on the Anniversary server, Hoots gets the most flirts and catcalls because of her name.

The listings as of Tuesday, June 10th.

I could be out fighting Yetis in Hillsbrad Foothills, fishing at Booty Bay, or just running through Stormwind and someone will either whistle or /flirt at her. 

Is it the braids in her hair? Yeah, maybe it's the braids.

Narrator: It wasn't the braids.

Considering that there's a lot more provocatively dressed female toons in Stormwind especially, you'd think that a Night Elf who's not attracting attention to herself would just be able to pass on by without comment, but noooo...

Apparently a lot of people who play WoW like owls.

Yes, I am aware that this is what people think is the likely
inspiration for Hoots' name. From a 2013 USA Today
article about Hooters' restauarant struggles.

Hoots may get the most flirting in terms of volume, but the most provocative flirting I've had on the Anniversary servers has been centered on Shaluna, my Holy Priest.

I have no idea why she gets hit on.

Apparently that Corsair Overshirt attracts attention. Another player on a group I was in commented that Shaluna had "quite a rack", and that she'd make a great dancer. I told them thanks, and that it's the Overshirt from the Deadmines that is doing the heavy lifting, which generated a few snickers. Well, at least nobody asked me to strip or perform ERP, unlike what I've experienced before. But there has been the occasional scoping out of Shaluna by a Forsaken --always a Forsaken, it seems-- while on a boat between Ratchet and Booty Bay. 

I am so looking forward to getting a replacement for that Overshirt, let me tell you.

***

Beyond that, I had yet another one of those "conversations" to try to get me to level faster. As seems to be typical, this conversation came after yet another pug some of the gang had where a pugger did one or more of the following:

• Didn't wait for the tank to establish threat
• Didn't use crowd control to handle the mobs
• Would run ahead and pull more mobs to make the group go faster
• Would provide an excuse and leave the group, conveniently after the boss fight where the item that they were hoping for was supposed to drop
• Whine about wanting the group to go faster

I understand the frustration: pugging can suck, especially if some of your puggers are selfish assholes. And if you're a tank or a healer, DPS behaving badly can wreck your evening. Still, they're all pretty much in the same guild now, and I'm sure they could likely find people to run instances with them.

For me, one thing is certain: I'm not joining that guild. To me, it feels too close to what I experienced in TBC Classic, only with more drama (if that were possible). Maybe I ought to create a guild or two for my own toons; after all, I now have enough gold via fishing to afford the cost of paying people for guild signatures.

***

Oh yeah, one more thing: over on Classic Era, I got into a Blackwing Lair run. This is probably the first time I've been in BWL in about a year, and that time they were halfway through when my Questing Buddy asked if I could help out as they were short of people. This time at least I got into the raid beforehand, so I pulled OG Cardwyn out of the garage and sent her to Blackrock Mountain. I was missing some consumes, and like a good Mage I died a few times, but overall it was an enjoyable experience. 

I doubt that experience will make me want to push faster on the Anniversary servers, because if I want to scratch that itch I can go do that on Classic Era whenever I want. But we'll see how things go.

And oh look, this weekend is Alterac Valley weekend...

What on Earth is Red Reading This Time: 3 Shades of Blue: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, and the Lost Empire of Cool by James Kaplan

Kind of a mouthful of a title, isn't it?

I stumbled on this book when I was browsing the stacks at a local bookstore, and the title intrigued me. I owned a copy of Kind of Blue and played it when the mood struck me, and hearing some of my youngest's high school friends play Freddie Freeloader as part of the jazz band* they put together their junior and senior years only reignited my interest in that era of Jazz. While I'd known about the basics surrounding the lead-up to the creation of Kind of Blue, courtesy of the Ken Burns documentary series Jazz, the detailed biography and intersection of Miles, John, and Bill was relatively unknown to me. 

The book begins with a retelling of James Kaplan's interview with Miles Davis for Vanity Fair back in 1989. As James tells it, his brother somehow convinced an editor at Vanity Fair that James knew all about jazz and so the editor gave him the job of interviewing the often difficult Miles. James promptly freaked out and crammed for the interview prior to showing up for what was originally to be one hour. Apparently Miles was taken with James and was very generous with his time, forming a lasting impression on James which led to this article (found in the Vanity Fair web archives) and a lifelong interest in jazz.

James then proceeds into both a biography of the three men, interweaving their tales with the progression of jazz from the Big Band era into Bebop and beyond. Some biographers would stop at the point of creation of Kind of Blue, but not Kaplan. He puts the album into perspective by showing the direction the three --and jazz itself-- went after that inflection point. After all, 1959 was also the year of the release by Ornette Coleman of The Shape of Jazz to Come, which announced to the world the presence of what is now known as Free Jazz. At that point, jazz began to move toward the avant-garde in the same way modern Classic Music did in the same time general time period. 

If you're a student of the music, or just enjoy music in general, you might find the book fascinating. And more than a bit sad.

Why sad? Because the history of jazz is littered with corpses, slaves to another mistress: drugs.

Miles also noted that the session was punctuated by the arrival of "all these hustlers and dope dealers looking for Bird [Charlie Parker]"--who kept disappearing into the bathroom, then coming back "all fucked up and shit. But after Bird got high, he just played his ass off."

And there it was, inexorably entwined with the growing fame that this album would accelerate, a coded message to young aspirants, the first two premises of a siren syllogism: Bird does heroin. Bird plays like a god on heroin. Young musicians could draw the obvious, but spurious, conclusion. And to the sorrow of so many, many did.  

 --From 3 Shades of Blue: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, and the Lost Empire of Cool, Pages 65-66.

There are times when it was difficult to read about these incredible musicians as junkies who could create masterful improvisational pieces night after night, particularly given my personal aversion to needles.** Knowing also that other jazz musicians of that era such as Dizzy Gillespie or Dave Brubeck eschewed drugs and still performed at a high level turns the triple biography into a tragedy, one that you can see coming a mile away.

Another theme of the book is the racism experienced by the jazz musicians, and how they responded to such racism. You could draw a direct line between the racism experienced by all three and their consequent drug addictions, and from there to their eventual decline and death. 

Still, there's the music. Oh god, the music.

I get it: jazz isn't for everyone. I'm not about to make any converts here, because like, say, an Irish Stout or an India Pale Ale when you are exposed mainly to American Lagers, it takes some getting used to.

Jazz and popular music split a long time ago, much longer than I've been alive, but I've made a living of finding music, books, and games off the beaten path.*** The beauty and tragedy of Jazz is wrapped up in the beauty and tragedy of countless artistic endeavors, and as long as there's music to be made, Jazz will endure. 3 Shades of Blue was a great book to absorb, and I spent way too many late hours reading it before I realized I had to get at least some sleep before I had to wake up for work the next day.

*The band's name was called Kinda Jazzy, in a self-deprecating fashion. They played in at least one jazz club around Cincinnati, somehow managing to be allowed to play despite none of them being old enough to actually drink at the establishment. 

**Yes, I know, I have to deal with needles due to my medical conditions, but that doesn't mean that I have to like it.

***If you don't think MMOs aren't popular, just remember that WoW had at its peak 13-14 million subscribers globally in a world of 8 billion people. That's less than 0.2% of the global population.

Meme Monday: Goth and Goth Girl Memes

Okay, this Meme Monday came about because I was hunting for something for another post and a couple of goth girl related memes popped up. Well, I thought, I already have a few other goth related memes lying around, so let's roll with it.

Yeah, this was the primary culprit.
From Reddit.

"I am the Keymaster."
"I am the Gatekeeper."
From Reddit.

Here's the second culprit. I guess it's
inevitable that with WoW's current baddie
as an Elven Goth Girl. From Reddit. Again.

Goths aren't limited to WoW fans.
From FFXIV and Imgflip.

The historian in me found this incredibly
amusing. From Facebook.

I've been sitting on this for so long I don't
know where I found it. That being said,
there's a "Goth IHOP" guild on the WoW
Anniversary Dreamscythe-US server.

Even the fake book memes got in on
the fun. From Facebook.