TAGN and the End of Episode One

Daily Ramble 160: TAGN and the End of Episode One

In today’s ramble I at a look at The Ancient Gaming Noob which happens to be a site I’ve been following for years. Wilhelm really puts together some interesting and enjoyable posts over there on a regular basis. I also finish off my rewatch of the first episode of Westworld and I have to say that this is such a jam packed episode with so much complexity…it is so much fun!

The Ancient Gaming Noob

Wilhelm Arcturus over at The Ancient Gaming Noob has been a site that I’ve follow for years…Before I even started blogging and pretty much when I first started reading gaming blogs. Needless to say, I’ve enjoyed his writing and what he has to say about the games he plays and the gaming industry. I’ve got him here as a 2nd Degree entry but that certainly doesn’t mean that I don’t follow him closely or that I just found his site. Instead it just goes to show that his blog is referenced by many others I read as well.

In the few post I read for today, Wilhelm covers a wide variety of topics but his main love always seems to go back to Eve Online. While I’ve never been in the same corporation as him, I do believe that we’ve fought on the same sides in alliances in the past and I know we’ve also fought on opposing sides…Eve is like that. One day someone shoots at you, and the next, you’re docking up at their homebase. It really makes for interesting stories and fun gaming. It’s been a while since I played the game seriously though so it’s fun to see what’s going on through Wilhelm’s eyes and his post Trying out the Guardians Galas Sites shows how CCP is working hard to keep PvE content rolling in what is essentially a PvP game. The PvP side of the game can be seen in a couple other recent posts that look at destruction of citadels which are player build structures and one on an alliance moving out of an area they’ve controlled for a while. The game is complex but Wilhelm does a good job describing what’s going on in politics, with updates, and pretty much the whole game.

He also has a cool feature on his site where he covers a Fantasy Movie League and I’ve seen a bunch of the blogs I regularly read join up with him in the game. Basically they pick sets of movies to fill up a virtual theater and whoever gets the most return on their investment wins. They’ve been playing the game for probably a year and the Winter results are almost in…only 2 more weeks left. I might see about joining in on the next season if there’s an opening since the game seems like fun.

Finally, I took a look at his recent post about World of Warcraft . Like many, Wilhelm is looking at the upcoming expansion and working on unlocking all the new allied races. Sorry to say, I haven’t paid much attention to WoW – so little in fact that I couldn’t figure out how the Alliance got a race of Tauren to join up with them. Well, I know now what the real deal is and someday I’ll head back into the game to get my new cow. And as usual with anyone in WoW who has to go to any of the newer areas, flying, or lack of it, is troublesome. Regardless, Wilhelm seems to be setting himself up for a successful expansion already.

This is of course just a little sliver of the games covered by The Ancient Gaming Noob and I have to say, I’m really glad I found his site so many years ago.

This has been an installment of my Six Degrees 2018 series in which I take a look at the wonderful blogs that surround Beyond Tannhauser Gate. The blogosphere is large but there are so many friends to be found within Six Degrees.

Meeting His Maker – Westworld Episode One

With the big shootout earlier in the episode, this last bit of the show looks at the aftermath and the resetting of the robots that had been updated with the Reverie scripts.

Both Dolores and her father have been brought in and are being interviewed about recent events and of particular interest is the fact that Ford and Bernard are questioning Peter, Dolores’ father. He’s the only robot who’s really malfunctioning in a bad way and they’re trying to get to the bottom of the issue, and as they’re investigating him, technicians find the picture that seemed to have set off his glitches.

During the interview with Peter, they find out that the Reverie Update allows previous configurations to inject themselves into the current scripting. He starts glitching and quotes Shakespeare from the time he was programmed to be a professor, and not only is everything creepy, it gives me a sense of Blade Runner. When asked what his itinerary is, Peter says “to meet his maker” which is pretty much a direct reference to Roy Batty and his quest in that movie. Mr. Abernathy feels he has to warn Dolores about the things the administrators do to her and he gets really agitated and at one point he breaks free of his compulsion and grabs ahold of Ford swearing “such revenges on” him. The techs shut him down but the whole scene seems to me to be critical to what the series is gonna be about.

We jump to the interview of Dolores and she’s being asked what her father whispered to her…“These violent delights have violent ends” and when asked if she would ever hurt a living things she says “no, of course not”.

We then see the techs basically lobotomizing Peter and later he’s shown being walked into cold storage (and for some reason, Bernard whispers something in his ear). We also learn that Dolores is the oldest host in the park. They reset her and clear out the Reverie Update and we see he waking up in her bed as we’ve seen multiple times in this episode. Only this time when she talks to her father, it’s someone different…

There’s so much going on in this first episode it’s clear to me why it’s one of the best shows on TV today. After over an hour of air time we’re still seeing important pieces that’ll be key throughout the season.

We see the scalp that the Man In Black took from Kissy actually has a maze drawn on it, pretty much confirming that there ARE deeper levels to the puzzle of Westworld like the MiB suggested. And we see a fly land on Dolores’ neck where she slaps it…essentially violating her statement that she would not hurt a living thing.

The main thing I see missing in the first episode is a protagonist that the audience can grab on to. Dolores is definitely gonna be a key player, and Teddy too, but I really don’t think people are gonna be attracted to sympathizing with the Man in Black – I sure didn’t. And the first two are robots. Regardless, this was a great episode that I was happy to rewatch.