State Of Sterling: Compulsive Scribe

Hello, you noble peanut wanderers!

It’s been a while since my last divulgement, so I figured I’d give y’all an update. In truth, there’s nothing too momentous to report, I’m mostly just writing and writing and writing. My book work is progressing very nicely - I can’t wait to announce the one that’s not yet been revealed. It’s going to have a unique method of access, as it’s part of a set of other items, but it’s the kind of thing I’ve wanted to write for a long time.

I’m a compulsive scribe. To give you an idea of how much so, I currently have two review drafts and three video scripts in various stages of progress. This is… a problem, somewhat. The multiple scripts are a result of having that extra time I never used to have when I did weekly videos, as well as aiming to produce some evergreen video essays based more on whims than time-sensitive current affairs. My hyperfixations are fully in the driver’s seat with that shit.

I’ve been writing a video about horde shooters, one that’s exploded in scope as I’ve added to it. What was first intended to revolve around comparing Toxic Commando to World War Z has instead become a combination of retrospective and design discussion encompassing the whole genre. The current draft is absurdly granular in places, and I’m pretty sure at this point it’s just an autistic person’s infodump masquerading as a video essay.

With that script taking so long to write, I felt it would be prudent to produce a more concise video on another topic to tide y’all over. I started writing a bloody vicious string of insults aimed at Peter Molyneux after reading about the fallout of his recent crypto grift, and while it’s not a very deep or unique topic, it’s certainly satisfying. Molyneux’s unrepentant behavior incenses me to an extreme degree, I genuinely think he’s a bad person whose continued acquisition of ill-gotten wealth is as shocking as it is fucking disgusting. Anyway, I may make this the next video, or it could be the one I started feverishly drafting last night…

A video about, of all things, Dead Island.

My horde shooter video emerged from a recently reignited obsession with the aforementioned World War Z, which also inspired me to indulge in a bunch of other zombie media on the side. Replaying 2011’s Dead Island has been part of my indulgence, and I realized that I actually have a lot to say about it. The main focus of the essay is about Dead Island’s perceived worth versus Dying Light, a subject I think I have a distinct opinion on as one of the very few people who didn’t love Dying Light but was more fond of its spiritual predecessor. While I’m trying not to let it balloon in scope like the horde shooter script, the one paragraph I was going to write about Dead Island’s trailer has already exceeded three paragraphs.

Did you know there are still online Dead Island players? Sort of, anyway. While playing a public game, I’ve had three instances where another player has briefly turned up, briefly accompanied me with their super powered gear, and left. The other night, one of them dropped a stun gun and assault rifle for me to pick up, which I did without first considering if it was smart to accept toys from Internet strangers. I certainly questioned my wisdom when I saw that these guns had ammo counts in the billions, and was especially nervous when a later player turned up and dropped what appeared to be the same assault rifle as the last guy. In a moment of paranoia, I promptly set my game to private.

The good news is, beyond the fact the assault rifle’s iron sights are borked and aiming puts my face through the gun, nothing cursed yet seems to have happened as a result of picking up these very obviously duped/glitched weapons. Given how brutal some parts of Dead Island can be for solo players, it’s rather convenient to have a stun gun that instantly explodes heads and a rifle that dishes out thousands of points of damage with a 100% chance to set enemies aflame. Dead Island is a notorious bugfest, so it wouldn’t surprise me if the weapon drops were part of some other exploit. A brief bit of online digging didn’t turn up anything specific about these weapons, or dupes that involve dropping as opposed to trading, so who knows?

I prefer to think this old, relatively obscure game is roamed by Dead Island diehards who have broken it over their knees and now share the spoils of their shenanigans with an almost nonexistent pool of lower level players. It’s a heartwarming notion, certainly a nicer one than these items being ticking time bombs that’ll annihilate my save file and grant international hackers access to my account.

Anyway, this anecdote demonstrates one thing particularly well - I really can turn on paragraph into multiple without intending to. At least y’all got a completely pointless anecdote about a game everyone forgot existed when Dying Light came out!

Current reviews in progress are Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream, which’ll be out soon, and Pragmata, which I hope I’ll get to publish. The latter’s in that tenuous position where I put the game on pause to focus on other things and if I don’t get back to it soon I never bloody will. Fingers crossed I do, because it’s a cool game and a truly brilliant example of player/character interaction.

That’s it for work stuff, I think. My professional wrestling career has wound down a lot, partially due to age/injury and partially due to being routinely treated with contempt by promoters. I’d previously written a lot more to expand on that second point, but during the final draft I’ve thought better of it. Suffice to say, even at the low stakes indie level, wrestling is a political game - if you can call playground-level backbiting “politics” - and I was never going to be treated like I belonged there.

I’m not fully done with wrestling yet, still working with Manchester’s Pinfall Wrestling. It’s a different kind of promotion, run by people who don’t give a fuck about fitting into the wider business. It’s the only promotion where I’ve felt fully comfortable backstage - everyone there is vocally supportive of each other and I cannot overstate what a difference that makes. I’ve always believed in putting other performers over, that the rising tide lifts all ships, and it’s nice to be in an atmosphere where that’s the prevailing attitude. It’s a nice way to see out whatever gas is left in my tank.

That’s about all there is to report. Writing, writing, and writing. I should go out and be social for a bit - I’ve been so focused on work that I’ve not been keeping up with anyone. That said, the last time I went out on a date I had to spend the whole next day recuperating my stupid back. S’not really a relevant way to end the post, but if I can’t use my spine for actual spine-related things, I might as well use it to fish for sympathy!

As always, thank y’all so much for your continued support. It still means a massive amount to me that the change from weekly videos was almost universally accepted by y’all, and the only reason I say “almost” is to allow for hypothetical protests that I certainly haven’t seen. You continue to be amazing and I hope I continue to earn and deserve your support.

Thank you,

Steph