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I think the Guillotine loses something by having squarer shoulders. The extreme inward angled shoulders worked in its favour, making it a unique design.

The Crab is adorable.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

The Crab is adorable.

First time I have ever read someone thinking the Crab mech is cute.

Aw c'mon! Look at those widdle claws!

ComStar has both kinds of Crabs.

I won't be touching any of those limited resin miniatures either if Pardoe is involved.

 ekwatts wrote:
I won't be touching any of those limited resin miniatures either if Pardoe is involved.

I keep hearing this without explanation.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 ekwatts wrote:
I won't be touching any of those limited resin miniatures either if Pardoe is involved.

I keep hearing this without explanation.

There's been some kind of dust up with him and a Faith McClosky, or someone pretending to be Faith McClosky. I am far from knowledgeable about it, but he's got a lengthy blog post detailing the situation.

https://blainepardoe.wordpress.com/

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 ekwatts wrote:
I won't be touching any of those limited resin miniatures either if Pardoe is involved.

I keep hearing this without explanation.

Some people are being vocal that his new "what-if" political thriller novel Blue Dawn is an attack on their beliefs, and there's the Faith McClosky / McCarron thing Gitzbitah mentioned.

There's also been a few people going after CGL in-general as well, accusing them of not paying freelancers and employing their family members on inflated salaries to 'steal' from the company, etc.

beast_gts wrote:

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 ekwatts wrote:
I won't be touching any of those limited resin miniatures either if Pardoe is involved.

I keep hearing this without explanation.

Some people are being vocal that his new "what-if" political thriller novel Blue Dawn is an attack on their beliefs, and there's the Faith McClosky / McCarron thing Gitzbitah mentioned.

There's also been a few people going after CGL in-general as well, accusing them of not paying freelancers and employing their family members on inflated salaries to 'steal' from the company, etc.

I mean... it is not exactly subtle:

Almost five years ago America as everyone knew it, came to an abrupt end in a spectacular coup d’etat. It was called the Liberation by those progressives and radicals that screamed for its outcome; the Fall, by its victims whose freedoms were trampled. The White House and the Capitol were overrun by anarchists and the leaders of the once proud nation were either imprisoned or sent to Social Quarantine Camps. The President was arrested and eventually died in prison, or so everyone was led to believe. America was rebooted in a new progressive/socialist image, Newmerica. The United States of old was gone, its history erased and rewritten, its icons destroyed. By the time people tried to organize resistance it was too late. The citizens lost their history, their flag, their traditions, their freedoms, and their leaders. Newmerica is a state of reparations, citizens turning on citizens, where even the churches are targets of social justice.

But, to each their own power fantasies, as long as they don't try to make them reality.

He wrote a fictional book you disagree with, and that's enough to condemn him?

Well, yeah, some people don't want to signal-boost misinformation by supporting the author of that misinformation.

 Nurglitch wrote:
Well, yeah, some people don't want to signal-boost misinformation by supporting the author of that misinformation.

What misinformation? His story about this Faith McClosky person?

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 Nurglitch wrote:
Well, yeah, some people don't want to signal-boost misinformation by supporting the author of that misinformation.

What misinformation? His story about this Faith McClosky person?

This is SOOOOOOOOO far off topic. It also does not need to be reiterated here. I'm sure there is another forum to delve into it Politics, because that is what the person was having issues with and took it out on an author who they believed was attacking their political beliefs.

Please lets get back to fictional plastic soldiers.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 Nurglitch wrote:
Well, yeah, some people don't want to signal-boost misinformation by supporting the author of that misinformation.

What misinformation? His story about this Faith McClosky person?

No, I mean the quoted text, presumably a cover blurb or somesuch, contains misinformation:

Almost five years ago America as everyone knew it, came to an abrupt end in a spectacular coup d’etat. It was called the Liberation by those progressives and radicals that screamed for its outcome; the Fall, by its victims whose freedoms were trampled. The White House and the Capitol were overrun by anarchists and the leaders of the once proud nation were either imprisoned or sent to Social Quarantine Camps. The President was arrested and eventually died in prison, or so everyone was led to believe. America was rebooted in a new progressive/socialist image, Newmerica. The United States of old was gone, its history erased and rewritten, its icons destroyed. By the time people tried to organize resistance it was too late. The citizens lost their history, their flag, their traditions, their freedoms, and their leaders. Newmerica is a state of reparations, citizens turning on citizens, where even the churches are targets of social justice.

Like, oh no, even the churches are targets of social justice? THE INFAMY! Social justice is a good thing. Representing it as a bad thing is ++ungood.

Although, it's a good seque into how BattleTech is something of a power fantasy that should greatly appeal to politically 'conservative' gamers. There's that lionization of the MechWarrior/Pilot, the fetishization of the military as benevolent rulers of society, a society so conservative it has regressed to feudalism, and so on. The ideology is just a tad more obvious when Mr. Pardoe updates his straw men with modern conservative boogeymen. It's a bit of a 'ah, we're soaking in it' moment, for me at least.

maybe because I am from Europe, but a piece of fiction cannot be misinformation

for the same reason people must act against Battletech on its whole as the whole thing of Neo-Fascist, Neo-Neo-Absolutism etc. is than misinformation


I have not seen anything that proofs that the fictional story are his personal views or just some what if-scenario he found interesting

and the book was written prior the the scenes in Washington

so for me it looks more like people start to pick him out because his book was published at the wrong time while a year earlier no one would have cared

I don't care about his internet battle with a troll hiding behind a false identity, and I don't care about his dumb "culture wars" book.

All of those things are just an excuse for him to manifest his otherwise thoroughly objectionable beliefs. He and others might try and dress those beliefs up as rightwing political orthodoxy, but that doesn't also stop them from being absurd nonsense.

Refusing to signal-boost such a person is pretty much spot on, for me; As an actual historian, I would say my biggest issue with him is his pseudo-intellectualism, using selected and/or decontextualised segments of "history" to try and support his wacky beliefs and conspiracy theorising. He wields a level of economic and cultural power, and he's using that to basically spread misinformation or prop up those who do.

There's a responsibility that comes with that power.

Yes, his book was written before the actual Jan 6th insurrection, and while it is somewhat amusing that it was not led by whatever he thinks "progressives" and "anarchists" are, I don't see it as being particularly important, since it's pretty obvious what the book is meant to be. Even putting the aforementioned lazy stereotyping aside, of course a piece of fiction isn't strictly "misinformation", but it's serving a purpose for those that lap up misinformation, all the same. He might just be playing to the gallery (which is lazy if not necessarily deplorable in and of itself), but that gallery is composed of some pretty grotesque people. You know, fellows that wanted to murder the Vice President and Speaker of the House?

My problem with Blaine goes back further than his attempt to become a dollar-store Tom Clancy. I didn't even know he had a book coming out until somebody mentioned it in this thread.

From S.M. Stirling:

There is a technical term for someone who confuses the opinions of a character in a book with those of the author. That term is idiot.

Can we please get back on the topic of big stompy robots?

It looks like Mr. Pardoe's involvement is limited to his novels, some background fluff, and to the products of Creative Juggernaut. Presumably if you want to enjoy big stompy robots BattleTech without supporting Pardoe you can do so without buying his novels or those multi-part mechs.

Seems weird not to buy some miniatures because of some guy you disagree with politically. It's certainly not "signal boosting" him. Sheesh.

I mean, never heard of separating art from artist?

We do not talk about the orangutan!

lol

So are we reasonably expecting an August delivery in America now? From the previous timelines and info, I was guessing August Rest of world, and September US fulfillment.

 Gitzbitah wrote:
We do not talk about the orangutan!

lol

So are we reasonably expecting an August delivery in America now? From the previous timelines and info, I was guessing August Rest of world, and September US fulfillment.

From Update #174:

At this time, QML expects to begin fulfilling Wave 2 in July for AUS and UK. August for US and EU. No word on Asia or the Rest of the World yet.

From FB:

Shanie Moorey wrote:Hey Battletech fans! I'm Shanie, one of the Community Managers at GamesQuest for the UK and EU fulfilment - I've popped an update in the comments for backers in our GQ blog, but I wanted to just reiterate here for you guys that we are aiming for August for this project to start shipping but we should be able to give a better estimate of when in August this will be once we have received all shipments to the hubs and the data has passed our internal validation checks. - So we are still very much on course with this.

 Nurglitch wrote:
It looks like Mr. Pardoe's involvement is limited to his novels, some background fluff, and to the products of Creative Juggernaut. Presumably if you want to enjoy big stompy robots BattleTech without supporting Pardoe you can do so without buying his novels or those multi-part mechs.

Correct. Which is why a number of us have said we're not going to buy the Creative Juggernaut minis.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Seems weird not to buy some miniatures because of some guy you disagree with politically. It's certainly not "signal boosting" him. Sheesh.
I mean, never heard of separating art from artist?

Its less about "signal boosting" and more about denial of financing. I think his right wing fanwank of a novel is an excuse for him to write about his power fantasy of murdering people who have a difference of political belief (and indeed, if you dig a bit into what the book is about, you'll see thats more or less exactly what it is), and I think that comes at a very dangerous time in America where that can influence peoples thinking. I want no part in that, and by extension I want no part in him. If he directly financially benefits from my patronage of a certain product line I'm not going to involve myself in it.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Seems weird not to buy some miniatures because of some guy you disagree with politically. It's certainly not "signal boosting" him. Sheesh.

I mean, never heard of separating art from artist?

I've heard of it, but I disagree with it very, very strongly. Particularly after the last few years, finding out the human cost of funding so many artists, writers, and producers who are human garbage. I'm glad it was brought up.

@chaos0xomega: Thank you, well said.

Yeah I'm not really big on the whole "death of the author" critical theory stuff. Frankly I think its a load of tripe. Everything is written, drawn, and produced to convey certain thoughts, feelings, emotions, etc. You can't just separate out all the intent behind it and make up your own interpretation in a vacuum as you see fit.

Additionally, in modern society basically everything is made for mass consumption with an underlying motive to derive profit from it, and thats okay, but I don't want to consume anything that results in financial windfall or profit for someone whos beliefs and morality I find repugnant and who uses said profits to enable or bankroll activities which I find harmful.

I wouldn't expect a political conservative to patronize a business or individual who advocates for or donates to causes with which they disagree with, don't expect me to patronize a business or individual that does likewise. Its really that simple.

New today in the store are Alpha Strike cards for WarShips, JumpShips, and DropShips and other small craft–completely FREE to download, or pay what you want. And, don't miss our next AMA with the factchecking team tomorrow, Sat 7/17 at 2 pm EST. http://ow.ly/a05P50FxSVh

chaos0xomega wrote:

Its less about "signal boosting" and more about denial of financing. I think his right wing fanwank of a novel is an excuse for him to write about his power fantasy of murdering people who have a difference of political belief (and indeed, if you dig a bit into what the book is about, you'll see thats more or less exactly what it is), and I think that comes at a very dangerous time in America where that can influence peoples thinking. I want no part in that, and by extension I want no part in him. If he directly financially benefits from my patronage of a certain product line I'm not going to involve myself in it.

My trouble here is 'mission creep' for the far left.
In days of yore society would ostracise actual fascists, now the definition of a fascist has widened to include those insufficiently woke and others who really haven't done much, or anything wrong..
We simply cant take cancellers word at face value anymore, and in order to make a case you either have scream louder or showcase your target's opinions. Most cancellers chose the former, and most cancellers are increasingly being ignored for it.

Alternately he wrote something rude in a book, and the people he's depicting as monsters have decided not to buy products he's involved in.

Booga booga, right?

No one is "cancelling" anyone. Customers are allowed to select who they want to give their money for. If your displayed values are actively hostile to mine, why would I give you my money?
That's all there is to it. That's the price you pay for putting your personal beliefs in the public realm- those who don't like them won't give you their money and will tell others about it. If they also find your values...of poor quality, they will also not give you money.

Yeah, not seeing where "cancelling" comes into play here. Hes still publishing his book, to my knowledge nobody has called for it to not be published, nor is there any sort of active movement to cause trouble for him, etc.

I simply stated I wasn't interested in involving myself with something he is involved with and relevant info resources were provided for those who were curious as to why. A few people agreed likewise. Thats pretty much it. If thats "cancellation" then the bar has been set very very low.