Unique Warhammer swag, ahoy!
Sanya Weathers is eBaying her old WAR staff shirts and donating the proceeds to Gamers for a Cure.
These are shirts that are only given to staff members to wear at shows, so there are maybe a hundred of them in the whole, wide world and owning one will DEFINITELY make you the bees knees in the eyes of your fellow WAR fanatics. And fellas - there’s no shame in wearing a ladies shirt. Or so I’m told.
Oh, and EA Mythic is matching the final auction price, so bid with gusto!
First loves.
What was the first video game you LOVED? Not the first one you played, but the one that REALLY convinced you that video games were For You. Arcade, PC, console - anything goes. Feel free to throw your answer into the comments or (even better) write a more detailed post on your own site and link to it in the comments.
My answer:
Growing up, my first PC was a TI-994A. It had a decent assortment of titles available and I spent a lot of time playing games on the good ol’ TI, but while they were fun for short periods of time, I never really got hooked by any of them.
My next PC was an IBM PCjr. While the PCjr was market failure, it DID come with a well-ahead-of-its-time wireless keyboard AND was responsible for the development of the original King’s Quest which IBM had commissioned to show off the PCjr’s graphical and sound capabilities. King’s Quest was fun, but still failed to really capture my attention.
Years passed, our PCs started being used - more and more - for things like homework and keeping track of bills. For a few years, I wound up not playing any new games at all. When I did play them, it was always over at my friend Bill’s house (he had the most tricked-out rig in the neighborhood, so we’d pool money to buy new games to play on his PC).
We played a LOT of duds. We played a lot of decent games as well. But Space Quest IV absolutely blew us away. It was gorgeous - with hand-painted environments that really pushed the limits of what PC graphics could do at the time. It was smart and funny and challenging and a little bit subversive. We started playing it on a Friday afternoon and it became clear that I needed to stay at his house until we were finished. Luckily, Bill and I tore through it over the course of the weekend.
From that point forward, I was hooked on PC games. I still have a particular soft spot for Sierra adventure games (Full Throttle remains one of my favorite games ever) and I was really sad when it became clear that the market had shifted so much that those types of games were going to be harder and harder to develop successfully.
Dear Jon Stewart,
I love you:
Blame The Hickman.
So… as it turns out, there’s a BIT more to the “Bonus Story” from Paris than I initially offered. I excluded it in the interest of my own sanity and to protect the good, decent folk of The Internet from potential mental anguish. Nevertheless, The Hickman wants the Whole Truth to be known and - as we all know - what The Hickman Wants, The Hickman Gets.
Continue reading at your own risk:
What IS Warhammer?
At times, it’s tough to explain exactly WHAT Warhammer “is.” We can run you through the hard data - army lists, stories from the Old World, poop jokes, etc. - but that only helps a little bit. In the end, you really either know it or you don’t. That being said, there ARE things that can help point you in the right direction.
The good Ms. Flack sent this along earlier today, to help refresh the minds and hearts of The Faithful:
The post was created in 1154 by King Henry II as the chief official in the Exchequer Court, whose purpose was ‘to put the Lord Treasurer and the Barons of Court in remembrance of such things as were to be called upon and dealt with for the benefit of the Crown’, a primary duty being to keep records of the taxes, paid and unpaid.
…
The Exchequer Court is reconstituted every year for the ancient ceremonies of the “Rendering of the Quit Rents to the Crown” by the City of London at the Royal Courts of Justice. There are three of these; the oldest dating from 1211. In this ceremony, the City of London pays service for two pieces of land: The Moors near Bridgnorth in Shropshire, for which the City must pay two knives, one blunt and one sharp.
The second oldest has been made, entered in the Great Roll of the Exchequer, since 1235. This is for ‘The Forge’ (forge) in Tweezer’s Alley, just south of St Clement’s Dane, near the Strand in London, for which the City must pay six horseshoes and 61 horseshoe nails.
These two Quits are paid together as one ceremony. During the ceremony, a black-and-white-chequered cloth is spread out — it is from this that the word “Exchequer” derives. These two events are combined with the introduction to the Remembrancer of the City’s newly elected Sheriffs.
The six horseshoes and the sixty-one Nails are themselves over 550 years old, since after being rendered to the Queen’s Remembrancer, they are preserved in his Office and with the permission of the Crown, they are loaned to the Corporation of London to be rendered again the following year.
The Solicitor & Comptroller of the City of London presents the horseshoes and nails and counts them out to the Remembrancer who then pronounces “Good number.” The knives are tested by the Queen’s Remembrancer by taking a hazel stick, one cubit in length, and bending it over the blunt knife and leaving a mark. Then the stick is split in two with the sharp knife. This practice stems from the creation of tally sticks where a mark was made in a stick with a blunt knife for each payment counted and then, when payment was complete, the stick was split down the middle, leaving each party with half of the marked stick and creating a receipt. After the knives are tested the Remembrancer pronounces “Good service.”
The third quit rent rendered ceremonially (of all other payments) to the Crown by the City of London dates from 1327, and is for £11 in regard to the reserved interest of the Crown for the ‘town of Southwark’. In that year the City was granted its fourth oldest Royal Charter to acquire Southwark from Edward III for this annual payment. It was specifically retained by Edward VI in the 1550 charter to the City which extended its jurisdiction over the outlying parts of Southwark. This Quit is rendered by the Foreman of the City of London’s Court Leet Jury of the ‘Town and Borough of Southwark’ alias Guildable Manor, which is the same area as defined in 1327. The continuation of this body is sanctioned under the Administration of Justice Act 1977. The ceremony takes place in a suitably dignfied venue in the manor, the Cathedral library, the Glaziers Hall or the new Greater London City Hall. This sum is rendered onto the Exchequer Cloth in the form of ‘Crowns’ ie 5 shilling/ 25 pence pieces, which are still legal tender. The Remembrancer pronounces “Good service” and this is witnessed by the Clerk of the Chamberlain of London’s Court as well as the Manor Jurors to note that the payment has been made.
And that, dear friends, IS Warhammer.
Duck and cover!
It’s April Fool’s Day again. Anything I could possibly write today would be useless - lost in a sea of doubt and prankery. So enjoy your beardless Dwarfs, lady Orcs and emotionally stable Slayers and I’ll see ya’ll tomorrow.
Home again, home again.
We’ve returned from Paris and the jetlag has abated (mostly).
It was a really great event - tons of attendees, lots of really detailed presentations and extended Q&A sessions, plenty of tiny, tiny food. Our partners at GOA went all-out, providing an amazing facility, GIANT Chosen and Witch Hunter statues to keep Jeff and I company on stage and plenty of excellent extra-curricular activities. So a big thanks to those guys for running an absolutely kick-ass event.
Dear birthday well-wishers.
If you sent me something via Amazon that came off of my wishlist, two things:
1) Thank you!
2) I have no idea who you are because it came unsigned/unlabeled.
Please drop me a line to confess your generosity so that I may thank you properly.
News from the front.
We’re in France. We’re getting de-jetlagged. We’ve hit the Louvre (and will be posting a Very Special Mythic Tour later) and consumed something called “Campari” which - as near as I can tell - is iced Lemon Pledge furniture polish in a glass.
As part of my plan to always eat ridiculous, stereotypical foods when visiting Foreign Lands, my first meal was escargot followed by steak tartare:
Au revoir!
I’m off to Paris for our big European press event!
I’ll be back in next Saturday (my birthday!). Have a great week!
P.S. For anyone curious about the countdown ticker on the WAR Europe site, MBJ’s laid down the facts for you here.