Notices by dante (dante@masto.posting.haus)

new blog post: what is Highguard (2026)?

https://blog.dante.cool/what-is-highguard-2026/

@clarity yeah! which, you know, i'd argue that's closer to a protocapitalism than a real modern form of capitalism. it's the village market

the anarchocapitalist/libertarian dream really is just being a serf

starting to think that all this reading about the downfall of various communist regimes is affecting my mental. i need to get hyperfixated on some era of history that isn't so deeply depressing next. then i can circle back around to modernity later

eras of history i have had some amount of hyperfixation on already:

- rome (duh) -800 to 400 or so
- three kingdoms china (200s)
- new rome (constantinople) 300 to 1500 or so
- anglo-saxon england (400-900ish)
- timurid period (1400s)
- thirty years war (1600s)
- napoleon (late 1700s-early 1800s)
- new china (1900-now)
- ussr (1900-1990s)

i was thinking i would get really depressed about south america next but maybe i should take a Sunny Historical Vacation to something like the 1300s. probably there was some stuff happening in that century. somewhere

@polinski ooo no but this looks fascinating! will put it on the list

new panty & stocking season references voodoo doughnuts? from portland oregon?

started playing Victoria 3 and now i'm doing perverse shit like looking up how "tariffs and subventions" work

Victoria 3 feels like, more than the other Paradox games, to be more like Reigns or even that old browser game NationStates. Just, you know, wayyyyyyyyy more complex. But holy shit it's really sucking me in lol

@clarity fully automated luxury boy bands

unfortunately as a lifelong fan of folk-punk i must differ from the TMBG party line and reluctantly concede that it is the anarchists who have the music

Hades 2 is such a weird game, man. Mechanically I don't have much to complain about, but narratively it is so... lacking in a way I can't really put my finger on directly

the actual narrative DESIGN is more or less identical to H1, with a few additions (mainly more characters popping into your runs directly, which I think is overall positive). But the tone of the story is so... idk how else to put it but "cottagecore". which feels at odds with almost every other part of the game (art, game design, etc)

everyone looks sexy and No One is Fucking

the Supergiant games have always walked a very narrow tightrope between Cozy and Incisive, due to most of them having something of a gameloop centered around "Do Actions; Come home and Talk". This isn't bad i don't think -- I really like this structure generally -- but H2 feels the most confused about what it wants to *do* with that structure compared to other games in the studio's history

H1 I think just knew how to strike the balance of characterful dialogue with plot-advancement better -- and I STILL think the ending of H1 was a pulled punch in a bad way. But I still like, ENJOYED the story in a moment-to-moment sense. Can't say I feel similarly about H2, it just feels very overstuffed and also unfilling. puff pastry game

it's a good thing that the action combat is truly some of the best in the biz lmao

@clarity but even those protections were proved temporary, which imo is part of the problem! if they were real moves toward equality they would have been backed by stronger foundations and institutional safety, which they apparently were not (as can be seen by their rapid dismantling)

Bluesky wonks posting questions like this as if it's a smart thing to wonder about and not a sign of complete lack of any material understanding of politics or the current moment. "Why was Biden so unpopular" I could give you one thousand reasons and it wouldn't be enough