A couple new gaming commentary collectives materialized over the past couple days. The first one I saw was Second Wind, which hatched from a firing at The Escapist that saw many others descend along with him - the whole thing is very Lucifer. Initially, I thought Second Wind might be named after Christian rock powerhouse Petra's seminal 1982 track - but it's more likely related to the rising phoenix they have taken as their sacred heraldry. Aftermath ex-Kotaku supergroup featuring writers from various taylorian Eras. In either case, it's the continuation of a trend. Centralization and Decentralization: welcome to the ladder. We were around long enough to see "blogging" born. These dynamics have been around.

Business wise, the old news model was about selling the readers' eyeballs to other people. And I say old, but that's still largely the model - it's just been made warped and grotesque by corporate dominion. The fruits of this medium - I mean that as broadly as you can imagine, and I refer to the international network you are reading this from - are not distributed proportionally. It's had a couple quite observable effects which someone who has been here the whole time can see fairly clearly, but to sum up: it hasn't, uh, improved things.

The "new" model, which is itself another old model called Subscriptions, or (if I'm feeling saucy about an ancient grudge) "Macropayments," involves making entreaties to the eyeballs themselves. This is where many exiles, self-imposed or otherwise, have parlayed the trust they've built into independent careers. Nextlander comes to mind. Even just Jeff Gerstmann by himself! I wonder how ol' Jeff is doing. Good, I bet.  Shit man, we do it. 

Now: Did Second Wind get their logo on Fiverr? I feel like that's a yes. Did we originally think Aftermath's logo was a .jpeg artifact? Absolutely. And I think it might be.

Literally, though: no beef. It's too fucking hard out here for that kind of shit. The deck is stacked, and the realities that made things so fraught in their motherships will descend on their heads like an iron crown. But it's okay. Small, clever mammals are again inheriting the Earth.

I am a natural ally to those who attempt the impossible. The "impossible" happens more than you'd think.

(CW)TB out.