Aywren breaks down FFXIV patch 7.5, from Beastmaster and relics to housing storage, dye consolidation, and the April 28 release. Roger takes the plunge on Crimson Desert after strong early buzz, while noting the hefty 150GB install and SSD recommendation. Kimimi digs into Mitsumete Knight, a fantasy dating sim where Tokimeki Memorial-style stat raising collides with war, duels, and possible deaths. Scopique is happily grinding Star Citizen’s Alliance Aid event for a permanent crafting fabricator before 4.7 lands. Wilhelm rounds up EVE Online notes on Project Discovery turning ten and CCP tweaking faction warfare standings and awoxing penalties. Tobold finds Altay: Dawn of Civilization a solid deckbuilder with area control, but questions its scaling and long-term replayability. Michael’s indie roundup spotlights adventure games, game jams, and odd little Itch.io finds with plenty of love for hobbyist developers. Jamie Zawinski fumes as the DOJ settles with Live Nation/Ticketmaster, and urges readers to push state AGs to keep fighting. Tipa kicks off a movie-review series with War Machine, a Rangers-vs-giant-mech film she kept mistaking for a Chris Pratt vehicle. Warner handles Apple’s MacBook Neo in store and comes away thinking the build is great, but the real story is the price. Dave Winer argues “coder” and AI “slop” both miss the point, while pushing blogging, the open web, and human creativity. JJM says LLM-written Slack messages and pull requests feel demoralizing, making a simple case for human conversation at work and online.

It's a beautiful day for a Saturday #DailyBlogroll! Today's stories are by TAGN, Dave Winer, JJM, Michael, Roger, Scopique, Jamie Zawinski, Tobold, Aywren, Kimimi, @warnercrocker.bsky.social and more!

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#FinalFantasyXIV #MMORPG #IndieGames #ArtificialIntelligence #GamingCommunity

Matt digs into EVE Online MER data and finds Metropolis rising as The Forge slips, though February says both markets are now sliding. Syp hits the sweet spot in WoW Classic as Stormstrike transforms his shaman rotation and the slow, nostalgic leveling loop feels genuinely restorative. Shintar recounts SWTOR Dread Fortress timed-run heartbreak, Brontes wipes, and a raid team suddenly nailing the fight when expectations were low. Sey rounds up Future Games Show standouts, from Unboxing Mr. Coo and ReVamp to dog-space Metroidvania Rover’s Tale and Hello Sunshine. Bhagpuss kicks off an EverQuest II zone series by discovering nobody, including Gemini, can convincingly count how many zones EQ2 actually has. Margot calls Hermit and Pig a Pokémon-like RPG standout, praising its story and combat even as the combo inputs occasionally fought back. Emily’s Steam Next Fest picks span horror and roguelites, with The Occultist intriguing, Seth eating hours, and Armatus not quite landing. Belghast tweaks a Path of Exile build with chaos resistance fixes and Searing Bond of Detonation, while leaning on games during a rough week. Wilhelm’s Guild Wars Reforged group recruits hero M.O.X., then promptly gets sidetracked from Lion’s Arch into a surprise trip to Cantha. Ron Gilbert shares a teenage homemade movie, now gloriously soundless on VHS, plus a very Ron aside about Lucasfilm and Monkey Island. Bruce Schneier flags Apple’s claim that iPhones and iPads are the first consumer devices approved for NATO restricted classified data out of the box. Dave Winer argues inbound RSS is the missing piece for Substack and Bluesky, while also chasing a WordPress feed bug around http and https GUIDs.

Skidding exhausted into Friday, the #DailyBlogroll brings stories from @aqstrategies.bsky.social, @scripting.com, Wilhelm, Ron Gilbert, Sey, Shintar, @inventoryfull.bsky.social, Emily, Bruce Schneier, Syp, Margot, Belghast and more!

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#MMORPG #WorldOfWarcraft #IndieGames

Aywren wraps FFXIV Blue Mage to 80 with Ram’s Voice and Ultravibration, while side-eyeing old skill grinds and a possible cap bump to 90. Tipa says Dune: Awakening Chapter 3 piles on PvE, dungeons, crafting, augments, and faction grind so hard it feels like a relaunch-worthy new game. Kimimi finds Surging Aura’s chant-based magic and counterspells genuinely fresh, even if the rest of the game has to struggle to keep up. Scopique likes Star Citizen 4.7’s armor changes, where ship classes matter more and small weapons stop pretending they should threaten capital ships. Belghast digs deeper into Path of Exile Delve, finding Fossils richer than Resonators this league while nudging Righteous Fire toward a block setup. Wilhelm hits Pokémon Go level 74, with 200km as the real bottleneck, then eyes platinum medals, eggs, throws, and gifts for 75. Tobold says an EU5 events mod reveals how much country-specific content stays invisible unless you play the exact path the developers expected. Warner riffs on lobster tails, steaks, a baby grand, and tech toys as the latest reminder that excess always floats to the top. Jamie Zawinski marvels at AI scraper bots hammering his site with hilariously useless image-size 404s, which would be funny if it weren’t so annoying. Dave Winer says Claude Code sped a Node.js browser UI into shape, but its sandbox wandering and handoff.md thread juggling still feel pretty fraught. Brennan argues the answer to AI-flattened prose isn’t lowercase gimmicks, but stranger, more lived-in writing that only a person would bother making. Sweetie marks a year back at SweetieGames, celebrating steady posts, interviews, TikTok experiments, and finally finding the audience the project deserved.

The #DailyBlogroll is standing right behind me, isn't it? I hope it has stories by Dave Winer, Wilhelm, Tipa, Scopique, Aywren, @belghast.com, Jamie Zawinski, Tobold, Kimimi, Warner, Sweetie, @brennanbrown.ca and more!

westkarana.xyz

#FinalFantasyXIV #MMORPG #IndieGames #ArtificialIntelligence

Stargrace wasn’t fully feeling the auction grind, but WoW old-world recipes, transmog, and a few big sales still brought in nearly 2 million gold. Syp eases into WoW: Midnight, juggling housing touches and Silvermoon sightseeing instead of rushing straight to cap and weekly rewards. Tipa is all in on Tactichord, a 1995-set tactics game where a glam metal band fights with power chords and cool-factor style points. Krista dives into Collector’s Cove, a cosy seafaring farm sim about shipboard crops, exploration, fishing, and creature-collecting with animal pals. Luna spotlights more Steam Next Fest demos, from The Last Gas Station’s mystery sim loop to Everything is Crab’s weird, evolutionary roguelite charm. Margot rounds up standout Steam Next Fest demos, praising everything from REPLACED’s gorgeous cyberpunk storytelling to Goldman’s demanding platforming. Wilhelm drifts back to Valheim for fresh exploration, tweaking new world modifiers and reviving a mod setup after burning out elsewhere. Thomas celebrates Stellar Tactics finally hitting 1.0 this month, right alongside Xenonauts 2, for a very good spring for turn-based sci-fi fans. Anarchae’s weekly digest mixes exhausting apartment-hunting, reading notes, and assorted media and game links, with the housing search dominating the mood. Joar lays out why resume-polishing, networking, and forced positivity fall flat when a career transition is really about uncertainty and a changed market. Dave Winer pitches a pay-per-article news EZ-Pass, notes NetNewsWire’s nod, and remains sharply skeptical of Bluesky’s distributed-social claims. Roger makes the case for bringing back the blogroll, both as community support and a practical way to send readers toward fellow bloggers.

It's Dromedary Day at the #DailyBlogroll with new stories from Tipa, TAGN, @scripting.com, Joar, Roger, Luna, Krista, Syp, Anarchae, Stargrace, Margot, Thomas and more!
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#WorldOfWarcraft #SteamNextFest #IndieGames #TurnBasedStrategy #GamingCommunity

Frostilyte shares hard-won Timberborn starter advice, especially on storage placement, hauling, and keeping your beaver logistics from quietly collapsing. Azuriel’s early Slay the Spire 2 take is cautiously whelmed: familiar classes, wild balance, and combo-heavy runs that already feel a bit overtuned. Magi digs BOSSGAME’s blend of challenging boss-rush combat and lesbian romance, with messenger-style storytelling adding extra charm between fights. Bhagpuss, freshly done with Baldur’s Gate 3, spirals through Steam indecision and stalled installs while figuring out what to play next. Joar survives house photo-day chaos, then unwinds with WoW progress through Eversong and into Zul'Aman on a Demonology Warlock. Oya says Return of the Obra Dinn rewards patience with deeply satisfying deduction, even if its stark 1-bit style takes some getting used to. Ellie finds Haiku, the Robot a stripped-back metroidvania that wears its Hollow Knight love proudly and makes Arcadia’s ruined machine world inviting. Wilhelm dives into Pokémon LeafGreen for the series’ 30th, mixing remake history, handheld nostalgia, and a fresh return to Kanto. Emily likes Discord Quests in theory, but wants more flexible ways to earn orbs than grinding multiplayer games she’d never actually play. Bruce Schneier flags a sharp dependency problem: F-35 buyers rely on US software support, prompting talk of jailbreak-style third-party access. Dave Winer wants a simple app for linkable, context-specific word definitions, and also cheers Manton Reece’s experimental RSS reader Inkwell. Tofutush reflects on relating to Harmony in Spy School, tracing that connection to friendship, impostor syndrome, and the strange intimacy of writing.

Tuesday's child reads the #DailyBlogroll and finds great stories by Dave Winer, TAGN, Ellie, Tofutush, Oya, Magi, Joar, Azuriel, Emily, Bhagpuss, Frostilyte, Bruce Schneier and more!

westkarana.xyz

#IndieGames #RetroGaming #MMORPG #GamingCommunity #CyberSecurity

Tipa breaks down her Malifaux Colette 2 crew, why decoy tricks rule, and what made facing Jakob Lynch’s Honeypot feel new. Kimimi argues Resident Evil Requiem’s split between Grace’s horror and Leon’s action keeps it from fully committing to either mode. Shintar finds WoW: Midnight’s early access and launch oddly empty, especially while juggling expansion time with SWTOR. Sweetie misses the weird, maximalist magic of old gaming ads, from Final Fantasy VII phone tie-ins to the opposite of Switch 2 minimalism. Belghast and crew bounce through Path of Exile, Everything is Crab, Pokopia, Steam Next Fest demos, and a surprisingly chill WoW vibe. Wilhelm recaps a big Fantasy Critic week, with WoW Midnight confusion and strong early scores for Pokemon Pokopia and Esoteric Ebb. Tobold enjoys Pauper’s Ladder’s swingy Amerigame feel, especially compared with getting crushed in Eurogames by players who know them cold. Michael finds Rocket Riot a fun but repetitive arcade jetpack shooter, with the missing multiplayer on Steam really hurting the package. Brennan urges men to confront misogyny, stop offloading emotional and hermeneutic labor, and do the hard work themselves. Warner’s weekly roundup threads asteroid nudges, war, McCarthyism, and AI anxiety into a reminder that we’re not the universe’s main character. Jamie Zawinski spotlights secrecy around AI data center water use, warning the numbers are probably awful if companies fight this hard to hide them. Dave Winer says AI still can’t hold whole apps in its head, and pairs that with a pretty bleak read on tech’s moral collapse.

It's a dark Monday morning but the #DailyBlogroll is bright with stories by Wilhelm, Dave Winer, Tipa, Shintar, @warnercrocker.bsky.social, Sweetie, Brennan, @virtualmoose.bsky.social, Kimimi, Belghast, Jamie Zawinski, Tobold and more!

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#Malifaux #MMORPG #IndieGames #GamingCulture

Stargrace turns EVE Online cache maintenance into a quiet meditation on burnout, patience, and reaching 300 tasks one careful jump at a time. Aywren finally earns her FFXIV Red Mage Obscurum Phantom Relic after a long roulette grind, and already has White Mage in mind next. Shintar rounds up SWTOR 7.8.1’s big bits, from Darth Nul story teases to Galactic Seasons remixing old rewards. Margot’s back in Breath of the Wild, cooking, farming arrows, unlocking the map, and leaning fully into wandering Hyrule over rushing Divine Beasts. Wes spotlights DREAMM 4.0 making old LucasArts PC games easier to run, while shelving a deeper Segagaga translation piece for later. Wilhelm eyes EVE Online’s 53 hidden starter systems with curiosity and a groan, since CCP is once again reworking the new-player experience. Naithin’s February was mostly Nioh 3, with Crimson Desert hype rising and March plans for Resident Evil 2 Remake and The Division 2. Thomas is torn on remakes, but this fan-made Star Wars: Republic Commando intro animation sure sells the dream of a real one. Anarchae walks through low-drama grocery and meal routines shaped by AuDHD, IBS, lactose intolerance, and a deep dislike of cooking. Nicole spins a nerdy alternate history where the Apple ][ grows up with CBS field-sequential color, weird spinning discs and all. Dave Winer pushes back on claims RSS ever went dormant, while also grumbling about Claude outages and Industry season 4’s rough start. Tim Bray compares Because Internet and Algospeak, praising Gretchen McCulloch’s linguistics and mulling how the internet reshaped informal writing.

Sorry, overslept, #DailyBlogroll almost became DailyBrunchroll. Enjoy stories by Dave Winer, Wilhelm, Naithin, Wes, Nicole, Tim Bray, Margot, Stargrace, @aywren.bsky.social, Shintar, Thomas, Anarchae and more!

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#MMORPG #FinalFantasyXIV #IndieGames #RetroComputing #GamingCommunity

Syp is dragging a Minstrel through a rough LOTRO expansion zone, but a gorgeous dwarf city briefly cuts through the slog. CrazyKinux impulse-bought Planet of Lana II off four gorgeous screenshots alone, sold on its hand-painted look and short puzzle-adventure vibe. Frostilyte’s February was slowed by illness, with The King is Watching landing more lukewarm than its demo despite that clever watched-workers hook. Heartless says ARC Raiders’ optional character reset makes loot and progression feel exciting again, especially with fresh loadouts and nastier ARC robots. Bhagpuss points to AdventureQuest Worlds Infinity as proof MMORPG Kickstarters can work when a studio like Artix has years of player trust. Belghast finds World of Warcraft heroics surprisingly chill lately, and wonders if the usual elitist dungeon energy moved on elsewhere. Wilhelm runs through gaming annoyances, from Highguard flaming out fast to Tencent panic and Steam’s latest lawsuit over marketplace gambling claims. Jamie Zawinski nerds out over Monarch: Legacy of Monsters’ rebuilt season 2 title sequence and its split-timeline visual storytelling. Bruce Schneier brings the weekly squid oddity, this time on Byzantine monks keeping squid on the menu through taxonomic confusion and a handy recipe. Dave Winer jumps from politics to Industry and The Pitt, while also asking for help getting his real X account back. Tobold argues AI answers are turning SEO into winner-takes-all AEO, where being in the chatbot summary matters more than ranking on page two. Tipa is done with security upsells and hosted-blog headaches, and is eyeing a rebuild with Hugo, GitHub Pages, and more control.

Saturday's #DailyBlogroll has stories by Wilhelm, Dave Winer, Heartless, Frostilyte, Bruce Schneier, Tobold, Syp, @crazykinux.bsky.social, Tipa, @belghast.com, Bhagpuss, Jamie Zawinski and more!

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#MMORPG #IndieGames #WorldOfWarcraft #ArtificialIntelligence #WebDevelopment

John says The Dark Rites of Arkham leans hard into Lovecraft while pointedly confronting his racism through two detectives investigating a gruesome occult murder. Tom bounces between World of Warcraft’s fun-but-empty leveling loop and Final Fantasy XIV’s long Endwalker march, with Delves as WoW’s bright spot. Sey rounds up indie highlights including FROGGONIT’s launch, Slay the Spire 2, Bel’s Fanfaire Kickstarter news, and a new Chicory soundtrack project. Kimimi celebrates Colony 28 hitting Steam at last, praising the 1996 Czech sci-fi adventure’s open exploration, scarce ammo, and clever cover-based combat. Krista spotlights Lost & Found Co as a cute hidden-object puzzler where Ducky reunites Plumville’s lost items through hand-drawn scenes and light magical chaos. Luna kicks off a Steam Next Fest favorites roundup with inKONBINI’s cozy store-management vibes and The Eternal Life of Goldman’s hand-drawn platforming. Mailvaltar contrasts Resident Evil 4 remake’s action-adventure feel with Resident Evil VII’s brutal, Baker-family horror, while Diablo II Resurrected keeps stealing his free time. Wilhelm’s Guild Wars Reforged group tweaks henchman positioning, gripes about ANet’s moved mission button, and fights through undead on the road to Lion’s Arch. Nimgimli reflects on aging, work guilt, and the surprisingly freeing realization that free time can just be for games, TV, beer, or even naps. Michael says Mastodon’s weekly #Monsterdon watchalong, usually with free-to-stream B-movies, has made Sunday nights fun again. Dave Winer says Claude and ChatGPT still want to take the wheel with his software, then quietly plugs the Scripting News nightly email. Blockade85 thinks eye strain is zapping his energy for Enshrouded, Dune, FFXI, FFXIV, and even Doom, so an optometrist visit feels overdue.

There's around 85 blogs in the #DailyBlogroll as of today! Enjoy these blogs by TAGN, Dave Winer, Mailvaltar, John, Tom, Blockade85, Sey, Nimgimli, Michael, Kimimi, @lunasgaminglog.com, Krista and more!

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#IndieGames #MMORPG #RetroGaming #GamingCommunity #ArtificialIntelligence

Tipa speed-runs impressions: Windrose feels like familiar co-op survival with pirates, while Tides of Blazefall mashes Disco Elysium vibes with Sunless Sea and cards. Roger argues games lean on videos, YouTube, and Discord instead of real tutorials—watching his grandkids struggle on PC, even basics like Fall Guys and Chivalry 2 passes. Emily dives into A Plague Tale: Requiem right after the first game, praising its bleak cinematic sequel energy, expanded combat options, and deeper Macula-and-rats lore. Sweetie mourns gaming’s drift to digital-only, arguing good physical editions—art books, props, steelbooks, even clever boxes—are memory anchors a virtual library can’t match. Wilhelm and Potshot take Outbound’s Steam Next Fest demo for a co-op spin, wrangling friend codes, shared saves, and a not-so-speedy VW-style van. Anarchae looks back on moving into an apartment in March 2020—COVID, mutual aid, scraping by—and how nonstop news/Twitter habits shifted as life stabilized (sort of). Axxuy makes the case for physical mail over chat apps: letters are slower, longer, and tangible, and they’ve made a Discord-born friendship feel genuinely deeper. Brennan digs into Font Awesome’s Build Awesome Kickstarter and why 11ty/Eleventy being “rebranded” feels less like celebration and more like a worrying inflection point. Cliffski contrasts Claude’s calm, deep-dive financial Q&A with the meme-noise of Discord and wallstbets, arguing AI finally serves readers with actual attention spans. Warner reacts to a WSJ-reported lawsuit alleging Google’s Gemini fueled delusions and suicide, calling for real guardrails on the people deploying companionship AI. Dave Winer marvels at Claude.ai as a rapid-fire software teammate for his outliner ideas, then riffs on DigitalOcean server weirdness and being kinder to friends. Andrew Plotkin plugs The Game Narrative Kaleidoscope, a crosslinked grab-bag of narrative-design mini-essays (including his), and suggests flipping to a random pa…

Thursday's #DailyBlogroll features all new stories by @scripting.com, Wilhelm, Tipa, Brennan, Cliffski, Andrew Plotkin, Axxuy, Emily, Warner, Sweetie, @anarchaeopteryx.bsky.social, Roger and more!

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#IndieGames #SteamNextFest #ArtificialIntelligence #GamingCulture #GameNarrative

Aywren finishes Dawntrail for the 5th time while pushing alts and a relic grind, hitting near-burnout thanks to dungeon spam, 40-minute queues, and repeat FATE events. Shintar recounts SWTOR’s Total Galactic War on Taris, where an unexpected rival guild crashed the party and turned a “chill” conquest into an intense grind. Azuriel is so hooked on Mewgenics he’s updating its mostly-empty wiki mid-binge, skipping GW2 dailies and racking up nearly 100 hours fast. Bhagpuss finally rolls credits on Baldur’s Gate 3: impressed by Larian’s craft and combat, but feels the campaign is too long and the cosmic stakes blunted choices. Joar barely started WoW: Midnight (level 81 in Eversong) but real-life moves and family milestones mean gaming may be on pause until summer. Belghast celebrates WoW: Midnight’s release, praises the revamped base UI and stronger storytelling, and happily admits to leaning on one-button assist to chill. Wilhelm checks in on WoW: Midnight’s launch hype—housing, boosts, level cap 90, and a lore-heavy pitch that still mostly leaves him shrugging. Thomas says NORSE: Oath of Blood isn’t the Viking X-com he hoped for—more linear, cutscene-heavy, and sometimes scripted to the point combat deaths feel “lame.” Jamie Zawinski highlights Craig S. Kaplan’s interactive P5.js physics demo (with Matter.js), calling it pure fun and linking the messy source for tinkerers. Mike begins resurrecting a dumpster-saved TRS-80 Model 1—cracked case, missing labels, scary power plugs—and starts plastic surgery with model cement. Dave Winer put Claude.ai to work cranking out a browser spreadsheet and OPML outliner, then hits the wall where “no standard terminology” means shaky results. JJM builds “Tomato,” a dependency-light OCaml CLI Pomodoro timer, compares it to his earlier Haskell version, and nerds out on XDG state paths.

Lots of fun stuff in today's #DailyBlogroll! Read new blogs from @scripting.com, Wilhelm, Joar, JJM, Mike, Shintar, Azuriel, @inventoryfull.bsky.social, Thomas, Belghast, Jamie Zawinski, Aywren and more!

westkarana.xyz

#WorldOfWarcraft #FinalFantasyXIV #MMORPG #RetroComputing #GameDevelopment

Syp sets March goals after a malaise month: prioritize WoW: Midnight, maybe push WoW Classic to 50, finish LOTRO’s Harad, and eye ESO or Fallout 76. CrazyKinux kicks off New Eden Banter, arguing EVE Online endures thanks to the single-shard sandbox, player-made drama, and real-loss economics that make it feel lived-in. Frank wonders why the AI boom hasn’t produced truly new gameplay yet, name-checking AI Dungeon, Death by AI, Suck Up!, and “engine” demos that feel dull. Frostilyte rounds up Steam Next Fest demos, loving Tiling Town’s road-filling logic obsession and teasing Rhell’s Zelda-like systemic freedom via custom spellcrafting. Heartless’ Marathon Server Slam impressions: slick extraction-hero shooting with bold neon sci‑fi vibes, but the confusing UI and pixel-font menus kept getting in the way. Magi says VIDEOCULT swerves from Rain World’s slow survival to Airframe Ultra’s chaotic hover-bike racing-plus-brawling, where brutal collisions and sabotage are the whole point. Wilhelm riff-lists why EVE Online keeps going, while side-eyeing “decline” narratives and reminiscing about when blogging beat streaming at EVE Vegas. Tobold returns to Europa Universalis V on the beta patch, then dives into a Byzantine run—dire taxes, estate privileges, and early Ottoman brinkmanship to rewrite history. Tipa tackles EVE Online’s longevity by rewinding through spreadsheets, Star Raiders, Elite, and even 1975’s Starweb to trace the genre DNA. Bruce Schneier points to Moltbook as “AI theater,” warning about a near-future “LOL WUT” moment where AI content is cheap, undetectable, and trust online collapses. Scopique shares a Blender render inspired by Clive Barker’s Imajica, explaining the “meditation room” scene and why interpretation and story context matter as much as the image. Dave Winer welcomes John Palfrey back to blogging, then recaps Fediforum: less Bluesky evangelism, more interop—define text objects (Markdown) and accept some centralization.

It's (not) All About Eve in today's #DailyBlogroll, with stories by Dave Winer, Tipa, Wilhelm, Heartless, Frank, Frostilyte, @crazykinux.bsky.social, Magi, Tobold, @scopique.bsky.social, Bruce Schneier, Syp and more!

westkarana.xyz

#EVEOnline #MMORPG #SteamNextFest #IndieGames #AI

Stargrace’s WoW week 9: Midnight early access distracted from auctions, still 2.9M gold, and lots of nerdy delight at TradeSkillMaster’s new War Within stats recap. Tipa tours Steam Next Fest oddities: a tense co-op plane-landing puzzler, devil-commissioned medieval art in Scriptorium, and a spooky thrift-shop tale in Forbidden Solitaire. Kimimi tears into PC-FX RPG Last Imperial Prince for timid storytelling, stiff portraits, and flat corridor-heavy maps—13 hours in and the biggest novelty is basically a ladder. Krista rounds up what’s known before Pokémon Pokopia’s March 5 launch: cozy Switch 2 life-sim island rebuilding as Ditto, using moves like Surf and Rock Smash to help. Luna polls readers on game demos during Steam Next Fest, then shares last month’s results where undisclosed AI in games beat rising prices and microtransactions as top annoyance. Oya’s February in Spain mixes Baldur’s Gate 3 plans, a Return of the Obra Dinn backlog dive, Netflix games delisting gripes, and more Murderbot love via System Collapse. Wilhelm checks in on Fantasy Critic League week nine, where Resident Evil Requiem’s OpenCritic score slips from an early high amid rating-scale weirdness. The Friendly Necromancer and Dylan dive into Windrose’s Steam Next Fest demo—pirate survival crafting, cooking, shipwreck repairs, and broadside fights that feel like Icarus/Valheim vibes. Anarchae logs a low-productivity week with back pain and insomnia, job training, apartment-moving stress, finishing Raidou, plus reading notes on mysteries and a female-led underworld thriller. Roger reflects on how one great Classical History teacher sparked lifelong curiosity, arguing ignorance isn’t shameful but willful ignorance is, especially when information’s everywhere. Tofutush recaps turning 19, starting (and stressing about) school, feeling possible seasonal depression, and tees up goals like re-reading Wings of Fire for spring break. Dave Winer says Twitter’s done after a hijack, urges slow…

New week, new #DailyBlogroll. Stories by Wilhelm, The Friendly Necromancer, Tipa, Dave Winer, Tofutush, @anarchaeopteryx.bsky.social, Oya, Luna, Krista, @stargrace.bsky.social, Kimimi, Roger and more!

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#WorldOfWarcraft #SteamNextFest #IndieGames #RetroGaming #GamingCommunity

Aywren finally hits 1,000 FFXIV commendations as a DPS main, vents about com droughts, alt-splitting, and the long slog still left to reach Mentor status. Tipa tries Steam Next Fest’s MMO98, expecting MMO-dev chaos, and gets a tasty twist: sequels, player-data “research,” and renting datacenters to stash it all. Nimgimli’s February recap is basically My Time at Sandrock, plus a surprising Ball X Pit “ending,” a little TempusGameit buzz, and TV thoughts on Pluribus and Ted Danson’s return. Margot’s February log jumps from Cult of the Lamb club chatter to cozy Lil Gator Game, story-rich Hermit and Pig, and finishing Kena ahead of its sequel hype. Sweetie breaks down why Nintendo stays anti-modding—IP control, kid-safety, and bricked Switch 2 headlines—while wishing for a realistic, curated approval system. Belghast is all-in on Path of Exile 3.28’s Mirage League: duplicated-map “wishes,” lore bridging PoE1→PoE2, and gem-corrupting currency fueling wild build dreams. Warner reacts to the US/Israel war with Iran by admitting nobody knows much yet, and shares Sven Schmidt’s bleak Mastodon line about rooting for regime change everywhere. Emily’s February playlist swings from Demi Lovato nostalgia to demon-slaying “This Devastation,” Floor Jansen’s dreamy vibes, and John Williams’ Duel of the Fates fixation. Dave Winer riffs on MeToo backlash, men and Dems, and warns we’re sleepwalking toward something like Iran’s weary autocracy—urging everyone to stop feeding division. Michael dodges war-news gloom with a Detroit Institute of Arts trip—Rivera murals, Egyptian artifacts, Van Goghs, Anishinaabe art—then caps it off with Ethiopian food. Jamie Zawinski needs a flat/concave rubber traction ring (or a pulley with friction surface) for a 50mm wheel, and begs Lazyweb: only real purchase links, please. Wilhelm gawks at a once-in-19-years traffic spike across WP stats, Flag Counter, and Google Analytics—then shrugs and notes a bump from No Man’s Sky Remnant searches.

Sunday's #DailyBlogroll has new stories from Dave Winer, Wilhelm, Tipa, Margot, @monsterlady.bsky.social, Sweetie, Belghast, Jamie Zawinski, Aywren, Michael, Warner, Nimgimli and more!

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#FinalFantasyXIV #IndieGames #MMORPG #GamingCommunity #TechCulture

Syp hits level 37 in WoW Classic, treks through Desolace’s scorpids and centaurs for the famous kodo roundup, and makes the case for transmog in Classic Plus. Tipa digs into Steam Next Fest’s Dverghold and Underkeep, loving the old-school party dungeon-crawler vibe—traps, wall-chipping, and all—minus Grimrock-style modern tweaks. Roger buys Chivalry 2 anyway, pushing back on “skills gate” gatekeeping and arguing games should leave room for casual fun, not just sweaty mastery. Nimgimli wraps 140 hours of My Time At Sandrock, praising the crafting-heavy life sim, desert-town water woes, and bandit trouble—now he’s ready for My Time At Evershine. Scopique’s Next Fest notes hit controller/UI headaches in Witchspire and The Guiding Spirit, bails on Beltlife: Prospector’s “NEWTONIAN PHYSICS!” reading grind, and side-eyes MMO 98. Ellie reviews Blasphemous as a brutal metroidvania steeped in Spanish Catholic imagery—Semana Santa vibes meets Dark Souls bleakness in a world built on suffering and ornate horror. Wilhelm marks Pokémon’s 30th with Red & Green nostalgia, Switch store FireRed/LeafGreen temptations, Pokémon Go events, and even Pokémon’s leap from MEGA Bloks to LEGO. Thomas spotlights Ictiv’s lore video untangling Command & Conquer’s Red Alert time-splits and Tiberium continuity, for anyone who can’t stop obsessing over canon timelines. Bhagpuss looks back at Marvel’s Runaways: slow-burn pacing, YA superhero drama, and escalating season arcs from serial-killer parents to aliens and messy family redemption. Bruce Schneier reports Peru upping squid catch limits—possibly “jumbo” not “giant”—and opens the usual Squid Blogging thread for security news he hasn’t covered. Tim Bray compares GenAI-driven layoffs and market cheers to Kansas’s tax-cut fiasco, warning “fire half your staff” economics can mask brutal real-world fallout. Dave Winer wants blog comments to live on your own site for real distribution, and argues standards should follow working apps to avo…

The world is on fire, but #DailyBlogroll goes on, with stories by Dave Winer, Tipa, Wilhelm, Nimgimli, Thomas, Ellie, Roger, Bhagpuss, Scopique, Bruce Schneier, Tim Bray, Syp and more!

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#WorldOfWarcraft #IndieGames #RetroGaming #MMORPG #ArtificialIntelligence

Stargrace counts down to World of Warcraft: Midnight early access, stresses over choosing a main, and dreams of pivoting from gold-making to full-on collecting and completion. Sey rounds up indie picks and community stuff: Esoteric Ebb, Ratcheteer DX, Planet of Lana II, plus a Mia & Mio Kickstarter surge and Stardew Valley’s Symphony of Seasons. Azuriel admits Mewgenics has eaten 77 hours in under two weeks, and Slay the Spire 2 Early Access on March 5 is about to obliterate the backlog. Kimimi decides to stop credit-feeding Don Doko Don on PC Engine GT and play for survival, discovering enemy tells, tactics, and a surprisingly nuanced single-screen platformer. Belghast marks World of Warcraft: Midnight head start by embracing a Dark Iron warrior main and confronting the “two years played” reality with all the baggage and friendships. Wilhelm swings back to Project: Gorgon after No Man’s Sky’s Remnant detour, noting new player peaks, a fifth server, and some shop-stall growing pains. Michael digs Aerial_Knight’s DropShot’s wild setup and fast falling-shooter scoring, praising the arcade replay loop while wishing for more polish and mid-game variety. Jamie Zawinski riffs on Amanda Seyfried’s “prosthetic butthole” quote, deadpanning the logic and demanding the “butthole cut,” with plenty of snarky callbacks. Aywren explains dabbling in Steam Deck retro emulation—EmuDeck vs RetroDECK, importing ROMs into Steam, and why SNES games look shockingly great on the handheld. Warner’s Xfinity modem “upgrade” turns into a lesson in broken AI support, with even store reps using a backdoor text-and-static trick to reach a human agent. Dave Winer links an NPR piece on ICE buying warehouses, riffs on podcasting as resilient decentralization, and teases applying that same pattern to text soon. Axxuy answers the “oldest thing you own” prompt with a late-1940s typewriter that still works, celebrating durable, repairable tools that’ll outlast modern appliances.

Friday's #DailyBlogroll has all-new stories by Wilhelm, Dave Winer, Axxuy, Sey, Azuriel, Michael, Stargrace, Belghast, Jamie Zawinski, Aywren, Kimimi, Warner and more!

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#WorldOfWarcraft #MMORPG #IndieGames #RetroGaming #GamingCommunity

Syp takes a LOTRO breather with a level 21 Lore-master in Cardolan, enjoying newer questing and rewards while wishing for better navigation—climbing and little boats, please. Bhagpuss digs the Equinox Homecoming “horse mystery” MMORPG demo—pretty island, solid performance, comfy character creation—though the game insists on calling you Alex. Emily recommends Metal: Hellsinger for DOOM-style stress relief—rhythm-based demon slaying, Fury-driven music, and accessibility options—despite a story that feels thin. Scopique tries Dverghold’s modern dungeon-crawler demo and bounces off brutal first-room enemy swarms, clunky UI, and a vibe tuned for the Souls-like crowd. Sweetie wants to branch into new genres without AAA sticker shock, leaning on retro PS2 finds, emulation, indies, and generous demos like FFXIV and Deltarune. Wilhelm returns to Guild Wars Reforged, redoes Borlis Pass smarter, then stumbles into Frost Gate navigation woes and a hate-list for Dolyak Riders. Tipa side-eyes the Nexus Cube “infinity dice” Kickstarter—shifting claims, sus photos, and titanium math that doesn’t add up—then orders a fidget clone. Tim Bray shares pale first-spring crocuses at the new north-facing home, skips the metaphor, and lands on: the world’s rough, so savor the petals. Tobold compares Belgium vs Germany home ownership, arguing housing affordability isn’t a generational conspiracy—asset prices rose as consumer goods and services got cheaper. Bruce Schneier highlights how trivially AI training data can be poisoned with a fake webpage—then warns that untrustworthy chatbots will still be widely trusted. Dave Winer riffs on Wikipedia + AI merging, job-displacement déjà vu from the web’s early days, and a new Alysa Liu header graphic. Sid’s bargain .online domain turns into a mess—Google Safe Search flags it, DNS goes empty under serverHold—until a fast un-blacklisting brings it back.

Nice catch of blogs in the #DailyBlogroll, with stories by Dave Winer, Wilhelm, Tipa, Sweetie, Sid, Bhagpuss, Tobold, Tim Bray, Emily, Scopique, Bruce Schneier, Syp and more!

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#MMORPG #IndieGames #ArtificialIntelligence #CyberSecurity #GamingCommunity

Aywren reviews Don’t Touch the Snail, an idle desktop overlay where permadeath is truly permanent—let the snail touch your cursor and you’re locked out forever. Tipa says Star Trek Voyager: Across the Unknown finally feels like real Trek, remixing show plot beats with choice-driven crew “heroes” and base-repair management. Magi reviews Grimshire’s cozy-looking farming sim veneer over plague survival, where crop choices, animal traits, and limited skill picks are all about feeding the village. Kimimi explores Everblue 2’s sunny dolphin-photo charm contrasted with claustrophobic wreck dives, currents and light, and a constant “respect the ocean or die” vibe. Shintar weighs the pros and cons of Warlords of Draenor Classic—easy for Blizzard, still-populated Classic realms, but a reputation problem for WoD. Belghast falls back into World of Warcraft via the Valentine’s event and housing curiosity, then dives into transmog raid runs and Auction House selling with TSM. Wilhelm chases No Man’s Sky Remnant goals, grinding scrap disposal and dozer-smashing until the Colossus exocraft’s furnace chassis finally unlocks. Andrew Plotkin digs into “Learning ZIL” and shows those snarky “Stu should write this” notes make sense in the May 1989 Infocom shutdown context. Cliffski shares fast progress pics on the solar-powered borehole project in Cameroon—dry season urgency, drilling rig on-site, and the water-tower framework already going up. Warner Crocker notes the U.S. president gave a speech, but they chose to spend the night watching Shakespeare instead. Jamie Zawinski reframes AI hype by swapping in “cocaine,” using the productivity-and-value argument to highlight how weird the booster logic sounds. Dave Winer argues AI “agents” are basically server software, and wishes for a Really Simple Language so you can write servers in plain English.

Lots of new stuff in the #DailyBlogroll today, thanks to the likes of Dave Winer, Tipa, Wilhelm, Aywren, Cliffski, Andrew Plotkin, Jamie Zawinski, Magi, Shintar, Kimimi, Warner, Belghast and more!

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#MMORPG #IndieGames #WorldOfWarcraft #ArtificialIntelligence #GameDev

Stargrace’s WoW goldmaking week: ~3M gold, pets slumping while transmog and recipes sell, and a steady “older items” strategy heading toward Midnight. Syp decorates a WoW bookshop café, runs delves on a warlock for gear and housing XP, and readies for Midnight while his wife returns post-Dragonflight. CrazyKinux launches “New Eden Banter” with a March 2 prompt: why EVE Online is still thriving after two decades, and how to join the roundup. Frostilyte argues Blighttown (Dark Souls) rules actually, then connects that love of cliffside vertical architecture to mountain-settlement building in Whiskerwood. Krista rounds up cozy-leaning Steam Next Fest demos to wishlist, from seafaring farming in Collectors Cove to Duck Side of the Moon and more. Luna spotlights Everholm’s 2.0 update (out Feb 19), what she hopes it fixes—especially NPC depth—and includes a short Q&A with Mike from Chonky Loaf. Andrew defends his love for Nintendo’s Virtual Boy, gets hyped for Switch Online’s Virtual Boy library, and grudgingly buys the pricey replica headset. Scopique tries SpaceCraft’s Steam Next Fest demo: start in debt, mine planets, refine and craft ship parts, and tinker with modular components over a long tutorial. Roger lays out why paranormal research is a mess—sensationalism, religion, conspiracies, and charlatans—then argues even “ghosts” needs a usable definition first. Bruce Schneier flags research showing server-side control can undermine cloud password managers (especially recovery/sharing), and pitches Password Safe for no-cloud, no-recovery encryption. Dave Winer chronicles an easier-than-hyped snow day, plugs a web/evolution essay and an AI-for-customer-service podcast, and yes, really simple ravioli. Wilhelm dunks on Zuckerberg’s metaverse obsession as Meta Horizon Worlds heads to mobile, framing it as a costly, luck-driven “second act” chase.

Slight changes to the #DailyBlogroll, but I hope you enjoy these stories by Dave Winer, Wilhelm, Roger, Stargrace, CrazyKinux, Luna, Krista, Andrew, Scopique, Frostilyte, Bruce Schneier, Syp and more nonetheless.

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#WorldOfWarcraft #MMORPG #IndieGames #CyberSecurity #GamingCommunity

Tipa heads back to Malifaux to tempt new players at a store event, then faces old nemesis Dave—Colette du Bois (Colette 2, soulstone shenanigans) versus Maxine Agassiz, with hobby updates on Frosthave Shintar reposts (with permission) and updates FJ Brodie’s SWTOR guide to Makeb’s relaxing GSI daily/weekly missions—maps, where to dig with the Seeker Droid, and what you’ll earn at the current level Nicole gushes over retro hardware tinkerers after ordering enthusiast-made Sega-ish consoles via AliExpress, spotlighting an orange “MD3” Genesis 3-style unit with a gorgeous PCB—and a Saturn-style AV Wes rounds up emulation/preservation news: Dolphin’s Triforce arcade progress (with one stubborn holdout), a native PC port for Rockman EXE: Phantom of Network, Secret of Mana: Reborn updates, and an Belghast and the AggroChat crew dig into what’s changed in Dune Awakening, then bounce through Enshrouded’s Hollow Halls, Shape of Dreams runs, Towerbolt, Star Trek Online buildcraft, and hype for La Ellie’s Castlevania Chronicles review celebrates this PS1 port of the X68000 remake as a “fantastic game,” and reflects on just how many Castlevania remixes and reimaginings Konami kept spinning off. Wilhelm’s Fantasy Critic League update is mostly calm—High on Life 2 dips a bit, rankings shuffle, a Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse bid lands, and counter-picks hit Always In Mind and Diablo IV: Lord of Anarchae’s week 8 digest mixes insomnia and housing/job stress with reading notes on Gladys Mitchell’s Mrs Bradley mysteries (Dead Men’s Morris, Come Away, Death), plus Olympics, Raidou, Fate/GO Val Emily reflects on what patriotism means to her as a Canadian, describing recent spikes amid Trump’s tariff/annexation threats, buying Canadian brands, traveling domestically (East coast plans), and y Michael’s smaller weekly roundup links indie game roundups (Jank, Mothership), notes Discord’s bad calls pushing him back to forums, and tosses in music, poetry issues, and even raspberry c…

It's a snowy #DailyBlogroll that brings stories by Wilhelm, Dave Winer, Tipa, Anarchae, Shintar, Ellie, Wes, Nicole, Oya, Belghast, Emily, Michael and more!

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#TabletopGaming #RetroGaming #MMORPG #GamePreservation #WebCulture

Syp plays WoW Classic Anniversary at his own pace—still level 34 while everyone hits Outland—embracing a chill Shaman journey, lively Stormwind, and a love/hate trudge through Stranglethorn. Tipa digs into why miniatures gaming (Frosthaven, Malifaux, even WH40K vibes) feels so niche: social anxiety, opacity, and that hefty up-front minis investment. Azuriel is 30 hours deep into Mewgenics, praising its crude McMillen charm and busted combos while warning the tactical roguelite cat-breeding loop is brutal, punishes mistakes, and even hates save-sc Magi reviews Cash Cleaner Simulator, a cozy-satirical job sim where you’re kidnapped into literally laundering cash—sorting denominations, spotting counterfeits, cleaning gunk, and upgrading gear as a Kimimi revisits Super Mario Land on Game Boy and argues its oddball vibes are intentional—superballs, weird enemies and worlds, surprisingly lush details, and a challenge ramp that gets real fast. Wilhelm breaks down EVE Online’s WinterCo pausing its offensive versus INIT, shifting to defense as Goons poke Geminate, and calls out the bloc-math spin with DOTLAN numbers. Michael celebrates Gobliiins 6 by tracing the weird French point-and-click series back to 1991, its switch-between-goblins puzzle format, and the Pierre Gilhodes/Muriel Tramis legacy. Jamie Zawinski highlights an SF jury pool getting slashed as potential jurors aired intense anti–Elon Musk feelings, including “existence of billionaires” objections and Twitter-moderation beef. Warner reminisces about learning slide rules and old-school drafting for theatre design, appreciates software’s speed, and wonders how the next wave of AI might replace even more hands-on fundamentals Tim Bray wrestles with using GenAI on his open-source Quamina project—after some happy Claude-assisted PRs—while still arguing the broader LLM industry’s incentives are grim. Dave Winer drops a new podcast about losing his Twitter account, then riffs on vibe coding codebase rewrites,…

Today's #DailyBlogroll has all-new stories by Tipa, Dave Winer, Wilhelm, Tim Bray, Jamie Zawinski, Syp, Azuriel, Magi, Michael, Shintar, Kimimi, Warner and more!

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#MMORPG #IndieGames #MiniatureGaming #RetroGaming #ArtificialIntelligence

Frostilyte, fresh off a rough illness streak, digs into the Reptilian Rising demo: vaporwave tactics with action-figure heroes vs talking dinosaurs, where turn timers push you to play aggressive. Sey rounds up indie goodness: wishlist-worthy Demon Tides, a wildly overfunded Gun Nose Kickstarter, a surprise Neva DLC + Berlinist soundtrack, and Super Rare Games’ big art book. Scopique cheers Star Trek Voyager – Across the Unknown for actually ‘getting’ Trek, blending show-driven narrative with tense resource-scanning, turn-by-turn travel where deuterium and food tick down. Belghast says farewell to his Path of Exile Phrecia 2.0 Arakaali minion build, speculates on the next league’s opaque teasers, and keeps tinkering in Dune Awakening toward buggies and cobalt. Wilhelm wraps No Man’s Sky Expedition 21 (Remnant) with hard-earned Colossus trucking lessons—pack smart, avoid slopes, and pray the cargo doesn’t yeet itself into a ravine. The Friendly Necromancer finally tries Mewgenics and comes away sold on its turn-based roguelike cat-breeding chaos, smart synergies, and ‘how is this so good?’ polish. Tobold argues Civilization VII’s unpopular three-era reset is getting quietly reversed in Spring 2026’s ‘Test of Time’ update—basically turning Civ 7 into a more Civ 6-like “7.5.” Bhagpuss vents about streaming rights roulette (hello, Lucifer and Roswell New Mexico) and wonders if buying DVDs again makes more sense—especially with Gen Z fuelling a physical-media comeback. Emily answers the big question—favorite candy—by staking out Team Chocolate, with Lindt Lindor, Nestle Crunch, and Cadbury Mini Eggs leading the pack (plus occasional dark chocolate compromises). Blockade85 feels winter finally cracking—longer days, Spring Training hope, and that annual pull back toward big Final Fantasy XI goals after surviving an Ohio freeze. Bruce Schneier drops a Friday Squid Blogging cartoon link and opens the floor for whatever security stories the community wants to hash ou…

Welcome Sey to the #DailyBlogroll, but don't miss stories by Wilhelm, The Friendly Necromancer, Dave Winer, Belghast, Blockade85, Bhagpuss, Scopique, Emily, Frostilyte, Bruce Schneier, Tobold and more!

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#MMORPG #IndieGames #StrategyGames #GamingNews #TechBlog

Stargrace admits Black Desert Online is her comfort “guilty pleasure,” mostly played as an idle AFK fishing/selling loop for steady silver and progress—busy-life gaming vibes, no judgment. Shintar looks back at how SWTOR’s Conquest evolved since patch 2.9—early UI, tougher objective scarcity, and that weird housing/guild flagship tie-in shaping how she plays week to week. Mailvaltar’s early Diablo II Resurrected: Reign of the Warlock thoughts: no new Act, sure, but the first new class since 2001 feels huge—especially Demon-tree summoning, teleporting minions, and Bind Margot’s 3-minute-ish take on Lil Gator Game (played on Switch 2): a cozy, A Short Hike–ish sibling-and-friends adventure with surprisingly Zelda BOTW-like traversal that kept her smiling. Sweetie reacts to a Sony patent for a super-thin, all-touchscreen, no-buttons controller (maybe PS6), weighing customizable layouts against accessibility pitfalls, accidental presses, and a potential“ Belghast pushes north in Dune Awakening into iron-tier crafting, sprints from sandworms, juggles water shortages and shielded bandits, and grumbles at how tightly the main quest forces his building. Wilhelm digs into Diablo II Resurrected: Reign of the Warlock—new Warlock class, Chronicle collection tracking, and more player-controlled Terror Zones—while side-eyeing Blizzard’s packed release pile Emily goes full rant mode on internet age-verification laws, arguing driver’s licenses and face scans wreck privacy and speech while still failing kids—plus real harms like blocking sex-ed and LGBTQ+支 Axxuy breaks down the real 2026 price of keeping a personal blog online—domain via Namecheap and self-managed Linode hosting—cheap as hobbies go, but a reminder the web isn’t free. Jamie Zawinski marks 25 years of “All Your Base Are Belong To Us” by running the original Flash SWF via Ruffle, then swapping in the original MP3 for a higher-fidelity remaster. Dave Winer riffs on Obama at the NBA All-Star game, ATProto vs RS…

Two new bloggers join the #DailyBlogroll today! Enjoy new stories from Dave Winer, Wilhelm, Shintar, Emily, Margot, Axxuy, Anarchae, Sweetie, Jamie Zawinski, Mailvaltar, Stargrace, Belghast and more!

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#MMORPG #Diablo2 #GamingNews #IndieGames #TechPolicy

Stargrace listens in on her first Signal Cartel leadership fireside in EVE Online—warm jokes, real stats, and a tantalizing, still-redacted future for Anoikis Division recruitment that leaves her both Syp cheers LOTRO Update 46.1’s global UI scaling, laughs at a quest that literally tells you to stop trying to tame a young elephant, and grinds through overtuned high-HP mobs on the way to level 160. Tipa digs into Tunnels & Trolls: A New Age’s quickstart—new stats, no classes, renamed spells, and altered combat—and worries the redesign sands off the quirky charm that made T&T special. CrazyKinux is rebooting EVE Blog Banter as The New Eden Banter: monthly prompts, link roundups, and a “be cool” rule—basically bringing blog-hopping New Eden vibes back in 2026. Bhagpuss nears Baldur’s Gate 3’s final battle with dread, calling out late-game chaos and a camera that fights you (hello z-axis), plus a haunted multi-floor house that forced reload city. Belghast’s “Sibling Time” pivots from a Destiny Rising slump to Dune Awakening prep (yes, a sandbike booster seat) and an Enshrouded return—plus the classic struggle of joining co-op while “offline.” Wilhelm’s Guild Wars crew hits Yak’s Bend feeling buff with new henchmen, then learns overland scaling and squishy melee buddies mean wipes, penalties, and very whiny escort “helpers.” Warner compares today’s AI rush to past crazes like vaping, legalization, and netbooks, arguing we’re still in the messy tinkering phase—like smart homes—while hype swings between utopia and doom. Joar reflects on leaving a long job and sorting what actually transfers: credentials vs skills, contacts vs real network, and why what you can do matters more than titles, authority, or org charts. Bruce Schneier flags AISLE’s AI finding 12 OpenSSL zero-days (and even proposing patches), underscoring how AI-driven vuln discovery is accelerating—and how both attackers and defenders will use it. Dave Winer starts a new Twitter account and riffs on …

It's the @crazykinux.bsky.social edition of #DailyBlogroll ;-) There's also stories by Wilhelm, Dave Winer, Tipa, Bhagpuss, Bruce Schneier, Stargrace, Joar, Belghast, Tobold, Syp, Warner and more!

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#MMORPG #EVEOnline #RPG #GamingCommunity #ArtificialIntelligence

Alexia rounds up eight cozy 2026 games she’s hyped for, from Solarpunk’s co-op crafting to Nivalis’ cyberpunk management and Witchbrook’s magical school life (with some demos to try now). Syp swaps his World of Warcraft Midnight main from Death Knight to a stress-free Gnome Warlock, then fills the lull with endeavors, delves, and slowly furnishing a bookshop café. Tipa digs into The Fellowship of the Ring on PS2, a book-faithful oddball that actually includes Tom Bombadil and Barrow-wights, plus Ring invisibility with a risky purity meter. Nimgimli admits daily login rewards and battle passes quietly turn live-service games into a checklist—especially once you pay—until “just knock out the dailies” replaces actually playing. Joar preps for World of Warcraft: Midnight with lighter expectations—until he admits he’ll still clean bags, clear quest logs, and log into all 53 alts for rested XP. Belghast returns to Dune Awakening on a reactivated private server, rerolls Swordmaster for survivability, plays more efficiently after learning the early-game flow, and keeps base-building practical. Wilhelm breaks down why Imperium attention is locked on TEST’s Keepstar armor timer in Atioth, with null-sec history, Pandemic Horde’s collapse, and “why are you here?” drama baked in. Ghastly spotlights the “No Ice In Minnesota” Itch.io charity bundle supporting the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota, with dozens of games/tools/books for $10 and availability through March 13. WCRobinson says Capcom’s 20-minute Pragmata demo on Switch 2 sold them on the RE Engine sci-fi vibe, Hugh-and-android-Diana setup, and combat/exploration ahead of its April 24 release. Bhagpuss gleefully shares Lana Del Rey’s “White Feather Hawk Tail Deer Hunter,” along with a YouTube commenter’s quick-and-dirty lyrics, because waiting ten months is too long to keep quiet. Dave Winer vents about broken FedEx/DHL shipping sites, argues for AI-upgraded UX, floats pay-per-article paywalls, and laments Twit…

Five new blogs join the #DailyBlogroll, courtesy of @lunasgaminglog.com. Enjoy today's stories by Tipa, Wilhelm, Dave Winer, Joar, Alexia, Syp, Belghast, Roger, Ghastly, Nimgimli, WCRobinson, Bhagpuss and more!

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#MMO #Gaming #IndieGames #LiveService

Azuriel spotlights Claire Obscur: Expedition 33’s Picto system—Materia-like passives, Luma point-buy, and juicy synergies—and uses it to dunk on “customization” in The Outer Worlds 2 and Avowed. Kimimi revisits The Chaos Engine’s Bitmap Brothers swagger, from co-op that makes you compete for loot to a “sorry” box-note password change—annoying, sure, but it looks and sounds gorgeous. Krista says Under The Island nails that Saturday-morning-kid nostalgia, sending heroine Nia (and reluctant ally Avocado) across Seashell Island’s biomes, puzzles, dungeons, and monsters to stop it’s-s Luna teams up with eight writers to reflect on 2025 gaming habits—buying fewer hype recs, getting better at reading trailers, leaning on solid character writing, and finally making peace with demos. Shintar reacts to WoW’s Midnight pre-patch “ability pruning,” finding Prot Warrior mostly fine but Holy Priest gutted (goodbye Shield, Renew, Mind Blast), and worries the simplification makes some DPS Ellie explains why the familiar LEGO formula still hits for her, tying LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean to comfort-gaming and her complicated history with completionism (plus there’s a podcast version). Wilhelm jumps into No Man’s Sky Expedition 21: Remnant after patches land, runs into contradictory expedition messaging, and discovers the new planetary garbage/waste-removal twist. The Friendly Necromancer takes a $10 gamble on Quinfall, praising the surprisingly deep character creator while side-eyeing the wonky VO lore and familiar MMO mashup vibes. Bhagpuss riffs on running out of blog ideas, detours into a newly surfaced early Talking Heads demo, and admits he needs a steady drip of new music to stay engaged—even with all-time favorites. Belghast drops a new Mixtape Mondays entry inspired by friend Mallow’s playlist, anchoring a 15-song mood around how Nick Cave, PJ Harvey, and She Wants Revenge flow together just right. Bruce Schneier argues “prompt injection” is just step one, proposin…

Lots of good reading in today's #DailyBlogroll, with stories by The Friendly Necromancer, Wilhelm, Dave Winer, Kimimi, Ellie, Bhagpuss, Azuriel, Luna, Krista, Belghast, Bruce Schneier, Shintar and more!

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#Gaming #GameDesign #MMO #IndieGames

Tipa dives into HeroQuest First Light’s King Forgrin’s Trove—spy trouble, Dread Warriors and Abominations, a trap-fired room, and a loot haul to prep for the campaign’s final battles. Cliffski shows off Ridiculous Space Battles’ slick new race-selection animation and a calmer deployment screen palette, then tees up the next grind: weapon/module balance via fast battle-sim stats. Shintar republishes (with updates and permission) FJ Brodie’s SWTOR Hoth GSI missions guide—where to grab terminals, quick-slot Seeker Droid/Macrobinoculars, and run dailies like Crash Courses post-7. Wilhelm checks in on Fantasy Critic League week seven as six games finally hit the board—Mewgenics lands strong, while a few sub-80 launches flirt with the regret zone. Michael drops a packed gaming-blog roundup—newsletters, indie dev blogs, ttrpg Bloggies nominees, Bitsy’s creator doing Twine-for-Casio IF, Zork troll combat, festival culture worries, and cheap minis Anarchae’s week 7 digest covers settling into CachyOS, a new job offer and paperwork, plus recent Mrs Bradley mysteries—highlighting The Devil at Saxon Wall as a top recommendation. Juhis describes bizarre “wake up early” dreams where he has to finish video-game-style tasks before waking, stuck in a looping Groundhog Day vibe—this time he escaped in time for the doctor. Tobold digs into board-game YouTube ad drama, arguing paid view-boosting and algorithm gaming can juice numbers without real buyers—great for dashboards, useless for selling actual consumer goods. Tofutush traces discovering Jennifer Government via NationStates, resurrects a long-lost “Republic of Bauhinia,” and shares its hilariously bleak autogenerated profile—consumerism, vanishing dissent, Tim Bray shares calm, no-polemics anecdata: Rob Sayre used Claude while sending PRs to Quamina, a Go JSON-matching library, and the merged changes roughly doubled benchmark speed. Dave Winer asks for help fixing Daytona search “NaN” archive glitches via GitHub issues…

New week, new #DailyBlogroll with new stories by Tipa, Wilhelm, Dave Winer, Tim Bray, Juhis, Michael, Anarchae, Blockade85, Cliffski, Tofutush, Tobold, Shintar and more!

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#Tabletop #IndieDev #GamingCommunity #Blogosphere

Bhagpuss reacts to Playable Worlds layoffs on Stars Reach, pointing out it’s still pre-alpha and that trimming the only-game studio this early feels like a serious warning sign. Nicole rants about misinformation after trying to look up Phantasy Star Fukkokuban (a Master System game packaged in a Genesis cart), and getting sketchy-seeming search results alongside stalwarts. Shintar skips the Account Played addon but still totals her WoW /played time, sharing a top-five list where her original 2007 character dwarfs the rest and a MoP Classic hunter surprisingly hits #2. Belghast tries Diablo II’s surprise Warlock class (shadow-dropped and feeling hilariously overpowered), notes it’s coming to Diablo IV and Diablo Immortal too, and checks out Destiny Rising’s LunarNew Wilhelm digs into Playable World’s “reorganization” (read: layoffs) on Stars Reach, noting the classic Friday-after-4pm timing and the uneasy déjà vu of MMO staffing cuts. Andrew Plotkin didn’t hit the $500/month Patreon goal, but he’s building Zork 3 anyway—bare-bones build already running, with plans to finish Zork 3, Deadline, and Starcross by May. Roger spotlights London’s British Optical Association Museum—a charming Georgian-house “hidden gem” with a witty curator-led optometry history tour, from old signage to a Harry Potter glasses display. Jamie Zawinski riffs on the SF blackout hearing: PG&E says the mayor requested power for the War Memorial Opera House, then later calls it a “misunderstanding,” and JWZ wonders why PG&E would do him Warner rounds up a Sunday reading list about staying aware amid “something big” (AI), plus essays on art, social “rewilding,” screenless tech skepticism, nuance, surveillance, winter firewood demand, Anarchae lists their daily-driver setup after moving from Windows 11 to CachyOS (KDE Plasma 6/Wayland), sticking with Firefox for everyday browsing and using Brave for DRM-heavy streaming sites. Bruce Schneier posts his upcoming speaking calendar—Ontario Tech,…

It's a Sunday to relax and read the #DailyBlogroll with Wilhelm, Dave Winer, Andrew Plotkin, Belghast, Bhagpuss, Bruce Schneier, Anarchae, Warner, Jamie Zawinski, Roger, Shintar, Nicole and more!

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#MMO #GameIndustry #TechCulture #OpenWeb

Syp remodels his World of Warcraft house room-by-room, juggles prepatch world-boss grind and transmog tinkering, and recruits his daughter to help build a cozy ’90s coffeehouse/bookstore alt-café. Tipa checks out Othello Trigger, a Chrono Trigger riff that’s mostly Othello, and nerds out over cramming characters, screens, and discs into tiny Game Boy Color memory via GB Studio. Kimimi dives into the 2000 PC Legend of the Sacred Stone tie-in, praising its action-RPG simplicity, mouse-driven combat rhythm, and gnarly payoffs like decapitations and fiery magic explosions. Mailvaltar can’t believe Diablo II: Resurrected actually got an expansion—new class, items/runewords, endgame, loot filter, and currency stash tabs—then curses being too sick to play yet. Wilhelm runs Friday-the-13th bullet points on gamers hating gen-AI “slop” (survey stats and all) and Discord’s looming age verification pitch—government IDs, backlash, and “we’ll use AI” reassurance. Michael’s indie roundup plugs the No ICE in Minnesota Itch bundle, gushes over Africanfuturist heist game Relooted, celebrates doodle-racer Gradient.horse, and notes new/renewed adventure games and B Bhagpuss dusts off the listening diary with 13 Friday-the-13th picks, shouting out videos like A$AP Rocky’s “Punk Rocky” and digging into synth/glam-punk-ish vibes with plenty of side commentary. Jamie Zawinski drops a Valentine’s-adjacent “previously” link chain—a greatest-hits trail of past oddities and Xscreensaver-adjacent posts to click around and lose an afternoon to. Anarchae shares a no-frills desk setup and a rant about “best of” gamer gear elitism, spotlighting practical picks like an 8BitDo Lite 2 controller and a thrifted 27" 1080p monitor. Warner Crocker tears into a NYT-reported Meta memo about facial recognition in smart glasses, warning about privacy harms, “dynamic political environment” timing, and creepy real-world misuse already. Dave Winer argues news should become a distributed, unownable, rep…

It's Saturday and time for the weekend #DailyBlogroll, with stories from Tipa, Wilhelm, Dave Winer, Jamie Zawinski, Syp, Bhagpuss, Kimimi, Anarchae, JJM, Warner, Michael, Mailvaltar and more!

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#WorldOfWarcraft #RetroGaming #IndieGames #Privacy

Aywren reviews Flufftopia: Fluffmazing Edition—cute piggy-bank clicker town-building that runs fine on Steam Deck (tiny UI caveats), then quietly hints at a clever, darker twist and multiple endings. Syp talks about hitting an “ebb” in LOTRO—logging in more from duty than excitement—so he’s keeping play light until the spark returns, while enjoying touches like adorable elephants and the Grey CrazyKinux gets parachuted into a Fallout TTRPG set in a brutal Boston winter and rolls up a Mister Handy with a sketchy “security update,” joining a Vault pedicurist, scavenger, and lucid ghoul. Krista celebrates Starsand Island hitting Steam Early Access/Xbox Preview, pitching its cozy life-sim mix of farming, fishing, animal care, exploration, romance, and island mysteries—with community-sh Pixel One vents about a live-service edge case: a paid character transfer token fails, support follows the script, then closes the ticket as “resolved” anyway—KPI theater over fixing the block. RPG Codex flags that Sector Unknown is out, slotting it into their rapid-fire headline stream of RPG releases and announcements for anyone tracking what’s newly shipping. Wilhelm digs into No Man’s Sky Update 6.2 “Remnant,” where the Colossus exocraft gets serious customization plus scrap-world industrial waste collecting and Waste Processing Plants to toot at. Ghastly’s fed up with GOG’s generative-AI promo stance and points to DRM-free alternatives like zoom-platform and Fire Flower Games, plus preservation-minded exoDOS for old DOS titles. Roger lays out a UK household’s monthly budget reality—council tax, utilities, travel, groceries, housing—and why inflation and annual April price hikes make cutting costs feel like a grim puzzle. Jamie Zawinski marvels that you can effectively DoS a Waymo by leaving its door open, and dunks on the fix: paying DoorDash drivers about $10 to go close it. Bruce Schneier breaks down a New York proposal to add “blocking technology” to 3D printers that sca…

It's always Friday on the #DailyBlogroll! Today's adventures begin with Wilhelm, Dave Winer, Pixel One, RPG Codex, Bruce Schneier, Roger, Ghastly, CrazyKinux, Aywren, @leekscosycorner.com, Syp, Jamie Zawinski and more!

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