Jason Winter

23 June 2025

The ability of other people to get me into their hobbies and fandoms is matched only by their ability to swear off said hobbies and fandoms once I get invested.

youtu.beThe History of Jack-o'-Lanterns | Folk Tales, Vengeful Ghosts, Swamp Lights, and ... Severed Heads?YouTube video by Fantasy Roots

15h

Want to know where jack-o'-lanterns came from? It's all in my latest video on Fantasy Roots! youtu.be/A22F7acmvLU

massivelyop.comWild West-themed survival shooter Legend of California pushes early access back to next yearWhile the devs behind the upcoming Wild West open world survival shooter The Legend of California were feeling pretty good about how one of the problems brought up during its last alpha test…

18h

This game is awesome and I've loved even playing in the alphas (which are well-polished for such an early stage), which I never enjoy.

MassivelyOP@massivelyop.bsky.social

Wild West-themed survival shooter Legend of California pushes early access back to next year

19h

I met Walter Koenig at Chicago Comic-Con 1996. Well, "met" is only kinda accurate. I was with Decipher at the time, exhibiting the Trek and Wars CCGs. After hours, my colleague Mark Turtle and I were wandering near the con center entrance. And there he was, just sitting there alone.

Jesse Thorn@jessethorn.bsky.social

My pal Danielle Koenig shared that her father Walter Koenig passed away last night at age 90. A performer whose kindness and warmth shone through the screen. He will be well remembered.

19h

Mark, being a much better conversationalist than I, went up and starting chatting with him. Turns out, they had both been at some event a few months ago (a cruise, I think?) and so they exchanged stories. I just stood there, slack-jawed, as my co-worker chatted up Pavel Chekhov. It was surreal.

19h

(Mark Tuttle, not Turtle. Damn autocorrect.)

massivelyop.comValesong is John Smedley’s new four-player fantasy CCG made with AIWhen it comes to John Smedley projects, Reaper Actual is literally yesterday's news. Today? Today is all about Valesong, a new four-player collectable card game with a heavy fantasy theme. Distinct…

22h

John Smedley hasn't been involved in a relevant game in about a decade and a half (PlanetSide 2). Since then, it's been: H1Z1 (and its variants) EverQuest Next / Landmark Hero's Song Something at Amazon Reaper Actual and now he's pivoted to AI slop. As opposed to the regular slop he's been doing.

MassivelyOP@massivelyop.bsky.social

Valesong is John Smedley’s new four-player fantasy CCG made with AI

Been watching NHL hockey lately, for the first time in 2+ decades, and I recognize a lot of the last names but not so many of the first names. Seems like just about every star from 20-30 years ago now has a kid playing in the league.

"He has a slap shot just like his daddy," one of the announcers literally said during the game I'm watching.

Not hard to see that BioWare's days were numbered, but it's still sad to see it go.

Today's discovery: Glasses make excellent heat shields for your eyes when you're opening the oven, and if you don't have them, you *really* notice.

jasonwinter.wordpress.comThe Miracle on Eyes: My Lasik Experience“I don’t have to go through with this. I can still leave.” That thought bounced around in my head for approximately three hours on Friday, October 16. It encompassed a 15-minute w…

I wrote about my Lasik experience: jasonwinter.wordpress.com/2026/10/19/t...

It's crazy how stoked I am to go to bed tonight because of this. I've had to wear protective eye shields the last three nights but this will be the first time I've gone to bed without doing anything eye-related (put on shields, take off glasses, take out contacts) since around *1986*.

First post-op checkup went swimmingly*, doctor said I was healing nicely and should see marked improvements in lingering issues (notably blurring/ghost images around electronic text) within a couple of weeks. * I'm not actually allowed to swim yet.

Just took the most cautious shower of my life, because I *really* don't want to get soap or shampoo in my eyes right now.

Appropriate for today

Today, I woke up and fumbled around looking for my glasses, something I've done pretty much every morning for the last 40 or so years. I shouldn't need to do that ever again, because this afternoon I'm getting Lasik surgery. It's a weird feeling.

It's done! Last night was rough but today is much better. I can definitely see (heh) the improvement, but it's going to take a while for the full recovery process. I'll probably blog about it later.

Eyes are still doing great two days post-op. The healing process is supposed to take a couple months but it's honestly outstanding now. A little bit of fuzziness around text on a screen at a distance but otherwise incredibly clear, as good as it used to be with my glasses.

I'm not really concerned about the procedure itself and everything it entails (a LASER in your EYE!), but weirdly nostalgic about how my vision is now and how it'll change forever. Like, I wish I could take a photo of my current (blurry) eyesight and look back on it later.

Found an old screenshot of my time with a couple of games I got in April 2018 and how they look now. Yeah, I hit those pretty hard.

futurism.comSports Illustrated Published Articles by Fake, AI-Generated WritersSports Illustrated was publishing articles under seemingly fake bylines. We asked their owner about it — and they deleted everything.

Was reminded of this article today, in light of the Total War: Shogun 2 debacle. Remember, kids, it's *never* the company's fault AI was used, it's those pesky, lazy third parties/contractors (who we had *no idea* they would use AI!). futurism.com/sports-illus...

Trying to determine if this shop's name is meant to be a play on words on Ric Flair and/or his finishing move. Probably not, it doesn't look like he'd shop here.

massivelyop.comFuncom confirms new layoffs and the stepping down of its CEO as it focuses on Conan Exiles and Dune AwakeningWe sure hope you like Conan Exiles and Dune: Awakening a bunch because those two games appear to be the only things that Funcom is going to zero in on. The developer announced that it is undergoing a…

And I just redownloaded Secret World Legends last week.

MassivelyOP@massivelyop.bsky.social

Funcom confirms new layoffs and the stepping down of its CEO as it focuses on Conan Exiles and Dune Awakening

Nothing gives a stronger "We're incompetent" vibe than saying you need AI to finish your delayed game.

youtu.beTT #25: RuneScape's Rebirth, an MMO Sequel, a Brutal Extraction RPG, and GTA in Turkey?YouTube video by Talking Trailers

New Talking Trailers is up! We talk about RuneScape, Aion 2, an Extraction RPG, and a solo dev trying to make his own GTA! youtu.be/MUj_6FuwP2M

Me: Getting LASIK on the 16th Everyone: Let's schedule every possible activity we can on the 17th!

rpgamer.comShadow of the Road Pushed to MarchOwlcat Games and Another Angle Games announced that the release of Shadow of the Road has been delayed. Previously planned to release in November, the tactical RPG will now release for for PC on March 10, 2026. The game will be available via Steam, GOG, and the Epic Games Store. Shadow of the Road is set in an alternative steampunk version of 19th-century Japan. Players take on the role of a master strategist behind a team of fighters, each member with their own motivations, as conflict erupts between the Shogunate, the Emperor, and supernatural yokai. Player decisions can put characters on different paths as well as impact their relationships. [foogallery id="199975"] The post Shadow of the Road Pushed to March appeared first on RPGamer.

Played the demo of this (which is still on Steam) and was highly impressed with the level of polish. Think Baldur's Gate 3 but set in Steampunk 1870s Japan, and with magic. Can't wait to play the final version!

RPGamer@rpgamer.com

Shadow of the Road Pushed to March

I have made a new friend

@hannahmrowland.bsky.social

It's interesting how my abdominal scar triggers something with airport security and gets me a complimentary patdown.

Jason Winter reposted

Dr Hannah M. Rowland

Hope your day was better than Darwin’s, on this day 165 years ago

Today is the last day of September, which means it's just about time to wake up Green Day

I'll own up to being a stickler for consistent style, but even I'm not this picky.

Nice and healthy lunch

If you need further proof that Twitter is a cesspool these days ... Because Discord has no BlueSky presence, I *shudder* posted to its support account on Twitter. And that brought out the bot replies like nothing I'd ever seen before.

Just like scams in email, on Steam, on Facebook, or whatever, these obvious scams might seem laughable to most of us, but they must work well enough for people to keep doing them. I grew up dodging pop-up banners on the internet, so I don't believe much of anything online, by default.

Also, cancel your Discord Nitro.

Here's an account that has recovery posts going back to July, and weird anime pics, random words, and gambling site posts before that. Also, I don't need help finding my onions. "LEEK RECOVERY," indeed.

Some other accounts wanted me to DM them directly. One was doing crypto before account recovery (and is also from Africa); another was created in 2018 but has no posts prior to this week; and a third has no posts about tech and is entirely in Spanish (despite replying to me in English).

@LedaNerd is highly pro-Trump and pro-Musk, and has 3 account recovery-based tweets since August. Last post before that is from 2020, when the user seemed to be fairly active.

@CarlNerds is even sketchier. One post from September 2026, previous activity from 2013. Also, the account had a name change this month and is accessed from Africa, despite saying it's from Boston on its profile.

I wasn't ever going to use any of these "recommended" services, but thought I'd glance at them out of curiosity. In general, they've all been posting about cybersecurity, account recovery, etc. for just the past few months. Before that, they seemed to be owned and operated by normal people.

Are you fucking serious, Discord?

So this is all a lie. "does not look at your messages, calls, or other content" "Account history, such as how old your account is" "No single server, community, or friend decides your age group." But one offhand message apparently does.

Also, I was suspended for two years. If I actually was 12, why wait until I'm 14 to let me have access again if I'd be 13 in one year, max?

Are you fucking serious, Discord?

For full context: Someone in a Discord server I was in talked about age verification going live recently. I made the joke reply: "I hope they don't ban me, I'm only 12 years old," and in the apps infinite wisdom, it assumed I was serious. Now it wants me to submit ID or a photo. Fuck that.

I hope tech sites like @arstechnica.com or @mashable.com or @techcrunch.com or @dexerto.bsky.social don't learn about this and report on how dumb it is! My account was made in 2015, BTW, but I guess an offhand comment means I was a year old when I created it!