We’re back

FTB was down for about a week.  Bluehost seems to have issues getting its database in order, and every so often convinces itself that FTB’s true owner is the late Ed Brayton.  Let’s all thank PZ Myers for sorting it out.

In the mean time, I got word that Pillowfort is going down.  They weren’t able to make the money work.  I have a Pillowfort sideblog, and before that I had a Tumblr sideblog since 2012.  But I suppose moving forward, I won’t have that.

The advantage of a sideblog, is that I can host more casual conversation, and writing of more limited interest.  That’s where I host my book reviews, my game diary, and all the hottest gossip.  But maybe I don’t need that.  Maybe that stuff should either appear on the main blog, or not at all.  The game diary won’t make the cut, so I guess that’s done with.  It’s fine, I’m fine with it.  I am an appreciator of finitude, of endings.

I’ve said this before, but if FTB ever suddenly disappears, you can find me on my old blog, A Trivial Knot on WordPress.

California 2026 election

In contrast to the clown show of politics, actually filling out a ballot is very tedious. I believe in filling out the entire ballot, but I also believe in being informed about what I vote for, so that means taking time out of my day to at least try to do some research, though I may moan and groan about it.

So here’s my walkthrough of the 2026 California ballot.
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Narrative analysis of The Remake of The End of The Greatest RPG of All Time

The Remake of The End of The Greatest RPG of All Time isn’t really a remake, nor an RPG. It’s a puzzle game with a metafictional narrative.

capsule from The Remake of The End of The Greatest RPG of All Time

Source: Steam

You get plopped down into the final dungeon of an RPG. You can’t make any progress because the combat relies entirely on creating combos from specific sequences of moves. The characters allude to events that already happened, but it’s difficult to tell what’s going on. The game contains many unpolished elements, such as missing textures or collision boxes and awkward block-pushing mechanics. The way to progress through the game is by finding pages from the instruction booklet.  Essentially it’s a game of finding the passcode, skinned as if it were an RPG.

The puzzles are decent enough, but I’m more interested in discussing the game’s narrative. Through audio logs, FMV sequences, and secrets, you learn about who made this remake and why? And what exactly is a remake of? The narrative touched on many of my interests, about the motivations for art, its commercialization, and misinterpretation. (This analysis will include a few spoilers, but not many, only as needed.)

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