(Original deleted, probably by RUclips) In case you were wondering, literally *_nobody_* in Razorfist's story about the Battletech community is actually female, except the woman who was fired, Mary.
In the entire time I've played Battletech, both on table top and with the online video game community, the number of women I've met can all be counted on one hand, yes, in the entire 10+ years of Mechwarrior Online, MW4 before it and playing the table top game, I've only met a grand total of 5 actual women who played it. A grand total of 1 for table top and she is in her mid 40s, got into the game as a kid in the 80s, 2 in MW4 - who went on to play MWO, likely also in their 40s now too, both of whom are well known in the community. 1 in her 30s who was one of the community managers for Piranha games, so not sure if that counts, another now in her 30s who is an artist at Piranha games, not sure if that counts either, but both got into Mechwarrior because they worked on it. With the remaining person being the young daughter of someone who was already into Battletech and his daughter wanted to play MWO with him. (I am only counting people who were born female here) I've tried to get female friends of mine into Battletech, absolutely none of them have shown any interest at all; More were interested in Warhammer than in Battletech, so that is rather telling. One of those friends being a death metal band singer and even she, a complete geek, nerd and corset wearing badass who walks around wearing "I pwn boys" T-shirts, wasn't interested in Battletech. So, that should be very telling in of itself. But, there are women who like Battletech, I just don't know any of them. It very much is an IP you have to like on your own, no one can compel you to like it, nor is it something you feel compelled to like, it is something you show interest in, because you choose to like it. Which is very telling of women, in general, most women show interest in something not because they genuinely decide to show interest in it, but because someone else whom they want to be around shows interest in it, so they only show interest in it because of that and Battletech isn't an IP that lends to retaining the attention span of someone who is more interested in the person who is interested in Battletech, than in Battletech. I know a lot of women who play FFXIV, but they only play FFXIV because of people in their friends circles, or a streamer they like or their Boyfriend/Husband or Girlfriend/Wife or Family plays FFXIV and as soon as those individuals stop playing FFXIV I guarantee you, they will as well, same with cliques women are a part of and they may say they like FFXIV, but they don't actually like Final Fantasy, they just want to be part of a community or be close to the people they want to be around who actually like FFXIV and it is one of those IPs which are easy to digest for those who actually are not really that into it, because it offers things which make it palatable for the easily amused, such as cute things and catgirls. All Battletech is, is Geopolitics, Economics, Map Game with Giant Robots; I've only ever met one women who is into Map games and she is gayer than a Double Rainbow licking pink peaches on a Giant Lady Gaga Pride Float while looking like a complete tomboy; speaking of which, out of those 5 women, two of them are also lesbian, no surprise.
Not to fine point, but the persons gender should not matter. The fact that this person's privates are so important to everyone weakens everyone's arguments and causes damage to the discussion as a whole. The ultimate discussion should be about how a corporate entity reaped one of the player bases outlet points, utilizing political standing, fired an author instead of protecting them, and will likely do it again.
Something I read before, Japan sees Mechs as the apex of Aircraft Technology. They are fast, fly, and nimble. The US sees them as Apex Tank Technology, being a slow Bi-Pedal Tank with impressive fire power.
@@Marinealver It depends on the depiction. There are plenty of very tankish mobile suits especially depending on the series. You can see the introductory cutscene of "Gundam Crossfire" for example and see very tankish, slower moving mobile suits.
Of course the funny thing is many Battletech mechs CAME from Japan initially. The first version of the game licensed mechs from various anime. Namely Macross, Crusher Joe, and Dougram. Dougram: Fang of the Sun is ESPECIALLY Battletech-esque in its depiction of mechs.
Maybe 20+ years ago i was at the Wargaming Con and was speaking to a guy about BattleTech, he was really into the Lore and the game and his daughter was with him. He introducted her as Jenner named after the BattleTech Mech Jenner. This is how passionate people where about this wargame.
@@MidlifeCrisisJoeit's not because it was popular at one point it's because this is a cornerstone of their lives. It's more similar to religious people naming their children after famous religious figures.
@@MidlifeCrisisJoe Comparing Game of Thrones to BattleTech is a bit of a stretch. How many people have heard of the BattleTech Game let alone one the mech's names. Honestly I thought Jenner was rather unique name she will probably never meet another girl called Jenner. Alot of girls and young women named "Khaleesi" which is very cringe and how Khaleesi in the show turned out to be a mass murder, i wonder how many parents now regret that decision of naming their daughter Khaleesi.
Razor undersold the whackier aspects of Battletech in his description. There are absolutely mechs with swords, and rollerskates be damned, the Spider can fly as well as any Gundam lol.
Especially since MechWarrior 5 has had melee combat including swords, trenchblades, maces, hammers, axes, claws and lances in the game for a while at least a year for most of those melee weapons.
@@GitGudFox Ya. And Mechwarrior isnt really an accurate representation of how mechs are. The jump jets are soooo slow and you go hardly anywhere. A spider leaps 280 metres into the air and 280 metres horizontally when it jumps! That is so not represented in MW5 lol. Some mechs are slow walking tanks. But even an Atlas can get down and do pushups if a skilled mechwarrior is controlling it. They are very agile for their size.
atlasses can use tanks as CUDGLES. and highlanders literally can just ELBOW DROP OFF THE TOP ROPE and survive. ITS FKING INSANE WHAT melee is in mechwarrior.
I feel complelled to make people aware that MW3 and MW4 are abandonware. There's a bunch of sites you can download them from legally, without paying a penny.
@@baker90338 He was, he's been a lefty since the 90's. It shows up a lot in his writings. Its also why whoever was running the EU at the time made sure to keep Stackpole on a tight leash.
I wanted to be a Battletech fan, but I was a broke college kid, then I was uprooted from my game shops, and then all this started coming down. I was encouraged by Razor's videos, because it sounds like all the people who I'd want to play with are also on the outside, now.
When I was much younger Battletech was one of the "poor man's wargaming hobby games". That's because it was designed to be used with cardboard chits. Personally I did more role-playing in the universe via the Mechwarrior RPG rules than I did play the wargame. This makes me a major outlier though, as I always got the impression the RPG was never anywhere near as popular as the war game, to the point of basically being a failure by many standards despite multiple editions.
You can easily be a fan of Battletech without supporting Catalyst. There are many ways to play the game without purchasing their “official” content, with most of them being cheap. You have to remember, battletech is one of those TTRPGs that is able to exist independently of the IP holder, it is sustained by the community not the company, that’s how it was able to survive the death and collapse of its previous owners.
For the record FASA closed because the creator always wanted to transition from board games to video games and believed there was no future in the table top space in 1998, that was his end goal and dream; He then sold the table top rights to Wizkids, a decision he later regretted when Toppz bought out Wizkids a few years later. HBS Battletech is pretty much the end point of what he wanted to do with the table top game, for better or worse. But, he also said there is likely not going to be a sequel or any further Battletech games from Harebrained Schemes since Microsoft has no interest in renewing their licence after it expired. In all fairness, Harebrained Schemes ended up doing the exact same thing FASA studios did before, started introducing "boss mechs", first the custom king crab at the end of the campaign and later that "wth is that thing" with the mini-longtom on the back in a DLC alongside lost tech. He always laments now how he sold off the IP he created during a climate he believed there was little future of. My question is, who put those harebrained ideas in his head? Segway indeed.
Yeah, but that’s more trundling giants than spaceflight ninja death ballet that is Gundam. But melee Mechs are cool! I do like the Axeman family and the Clanbuster Black Knight.
@@InquisitorJack Some of those trundling giants can be pretty spry when they want to be. Everybody laughs at a Charger until it's charging right at you.
@@InquisitorJack That's not even accurate to Gundam either since it depends on the universe. There are many scenes and video games of Universal Century Gundam where they walk robotically and fairly slowly compared to what people believe Gundam moves like.
I'm 27 and MechAssault was my first game and Mech Warrior Living Legends is the game I play almost every day. I used to run around recess in kindergarten pretending I was a Uziel that you would play as in the MechAssault demo.
I'm 20 and same. That game was the first place I had ever heard the word 'cougar' before. You can imagine my confusion when I heard there was a cougar roaming around the city when I was in elementary school. Still my favorite mech design to this day.
When I was working at hewlett packard back in early 2002, Dark ages came out and novels were what fueled the community because We were still playing MW3 and MW4. The hex tournaments were getting new players involved and I remember one even influencing how a novel was written. Something about a player taking all the tonnage points and using them to have all tanks, (NO MECHS!) And won. So yea, we had Managers to line workers playing Mech Warrior and reading the novels. Fans were so disappointed with the lack of video games, they made it their own and kept the stories alive. I still play the old games and can't imagine growing up without it. It was (at the time) the only other sci-fi I cared about outside Star Trek.
And like Razor said, if you can't afford that, get some shrunk down images of the mechs, tape some cardboard to pennies, glue pic to cardboard and away you go. Btw, the old rule books are available online. Or for *cough cough* download.
The best part is - Battletech was always a 'miniature agnostic' game! Miniatures are not required. You can use counters, tokens, cardboard 'stand-ups', etc.
I love how these people never unpack what "trans rights is humans rights" actually means. It's just a self-evident fact one must accept without question Wonder where I've heard that one before?
I think the ultimate comeuppance for Catalyst should be players demonstrating the correct behavior of the Clans - by all rights, any Clanner whose brain didn't mesh with their body correctly if they were trueborn would probably have their entire genetic line purged.
It would be most un Clan like if a warrior told a science caste member that this is not my body, this is not my gender. No, their dezgra would likely be immediately challenged or abjured to a lesser caste or dark caste.
Razorfist and others like him will always be among the greatest advocates for the game. Far and above any of the “official” team running the franchise into the ground. If this info had been out when they did their big clan invasion Kickstarter a few years back I doubt they would have raised the millions of dollars that they did, including my own admittedly sizable investment into it. Blaine Pardoe was also the only author who was actually honoring the canon character stretch goals of that campaign too. It’s just sad what those running it have decided to do with the game, but they’ll never be able to take away my record sheets and pencils to play the game while watching them rot away until the next license holder comes along.
Years ago I played Mechwarrior 2 at a classmate's house. A few weeks later I picked up Mechwarrior 3 at the local gamestore. I still have all the classic BT novels and a few metal 'mechs which introduced me to wargaming before I got into Warhammer. I was really happy when BT seemed to be on the upswing and now own nearly a battalion of IS and two clusters of Clan 'mechs. The subreddit was really active at that time. Then the rainbow crowd muscled in and now the subreddit is a shadow of itself. Weirdly, I escaped the purge, butI only post my 3D printed 'mechs there anymore, out of spite at CGL.
Resin printer.and sourcing the books in PDF are super easy and you can find the books for free easily. Been running minis for MW and 40K and giving em away as a giant FU to both companies For a 8K resolution printer and am bored. And 20 bucks of resin lets me run a few hundred mechs whenever I want
@@SirBladewind Depends on what you want to use it for. For minis you are looking at a couple hundred. I have one that's a mite bit more but I have to back DOWN the print quality to match "official" GW minis
My first ever and still favorite Battletech game was on Sega Mega Drive. I played the heck out of it despite the fact that I couldn't beat it because it was very hard. I could only get to a second level and that's it. And even then getting to that level back in the days was random. Then a lot later I played two Mechwarrior games. Which is MechWarrior Mercenaries and MechWarrior Vengeance and it was great. p.s - Now that I wrote the comment about those games, I now wanna play them cause I have very great memories about them.
Copies are available on eBay for very reasonable prices, assuming you don't want to fly the black flag. And I'm with you; those games were fun despite what some say about it 'dumbing down' the gameplay.
Just the way you wrote the post made me think that you had lost them at some point. If you have the original CDs hold onto them; I lost mine years ago and all I have left is the technical guide (the book showing the mechs and weapons).
I bought 1 book and a 3 pack of maps before i started hearing about all this. That's all CGL gets of my gaming budget. Time to grab what you want from etsy or ebay printers, just incase they get shut down
Or like Razor said, make your own counters out of paper and cardboard. Plenty of pics of every battlemech, vehicle, aerospace fighter, and VTOL. out there. And considering that if you sail the high seas you can get the old game books....ahem....free of charge, you don't need much of anything to make this work. If you don't have hex maps, you can always do what Heavy Gear does and simply measure inches. This takes all the expense out of it.
Razor out here calling out those who choose not to speak🤘 Gents, our hobby is not longer a hobby but a cultural battleground, like it or not. Know this and act accordingly. You can run from it no longer.
I was first introduced to Battletech from Mechassault 2 lone wolf, and I loved it from that day onward, but as soon as I was going to try and find minis in the last year and start my table top collection of Mechassault, I discovered that they went woke. I didn't even get a chance to join.
I'm an original Battledroids player. 40 years invested in this IP. Razor is absolutely correct, there is literally nothing that CGL has produced, that is necessary to play battletech. i see plenty of copies of 2nd, 3rd, 4th edition box sets on ebay. as well as rules compendium and master rules. all of these were published by FASA. even fanpro reproduced the master rules book. CGL will be the next example for... "GET WOKE AND GO BROKE"
It's tough, as always, learning about people you liked when you were young. Basically my favorite series in pre-Disney Star Wars books was by Stackpole. Rough, but not the first time.
Fasa was great. They made a really fantastic Star Trek RPG and tactics game that Razorfist didn't mention. I played Battletech back when it first came out in the early 80's and it was using most of its mechs from Macross before they had to change them due to the skumbags at Harmony Gold. We had campaigns going from around 85' to 89' or so. Even after that I played the first MechWarrior on PC and the SNES then games like Mechassault,which was awesome. Since Fasa died I haven't cared about it and now I'm glad I stayed away.
I got my first job in high school so I could buy a graphics card to run mech warrior 2 and 3. It’s also the reason I learned to build my own pc and now I work in the industry. Cheers to you Battletech 🍻
I can't remember exactly, but it might have originally been an old couple in the very early seasons? I think over time they changed it a few times though. Just like how the neighbors across the street were George Bush and Gerald Ford for an episode.
So I'm 22 and I learnt about battle tech from MechWarrior 5 and then the great cataclysm of Warhammer where I really put some time in learning the lore. Bought a main starter set, a few lances and was so into playing the game. Then the company also turned weird. since then I still look at the old lore and I recently downloaded mw5 again.
There's probably some law created by Corporations that prevents us Plebs from getting uppity in that regard, but even with the possibility that 'Fakers' would try to get in, I would still love to see that.
Battletech introduction for me was in my first year of high school tech drawing class. Classroom had inspiration books around and one of them was the 3050 technical with the Timberwolf on the front, I was sold.
I think Razor is right when he's said 'get broke, go woke, then croak' - thing is, while Battletech and 40K are both doing well enough... NOW ... shifting plastic toys is a business whose time is obviously running out as 3d printing becomes increasingly viable to the public and the models are already long since out in the wild. Thing is, we're not talking about a video game whose auth servers can be shut off. These games are printed media and long since digitized and distributed privately. I've seen 40k source books at charity shops (thrift shops) for a steal. If you don't care about 'official' tournaments or playing in stores there is simply no reason NOT to play old versions of these games with printed miniatures. It's pathetically cheap to get into as long as you have 1 or 2 buddies willing to give it a punt and that's BEFORE looking at fan projects like Megamek (a free online version of the tabletop game)
In a broader sense, it's because these are REAL nerd hobbies, as opposed to fake nerd hobbies. In that, REAL nerds tend to be technically capable and tend to have decent jobs that allow them a decently sizable expendable income. They can afford to buy 3D printers and have the know how to operate them. In other hobbies, this kind of takeover can work better because a lot of the fans are no nothing normies who rely on the company to produce the product entirely. Therefore the corporate control can be maintained, and therefore taking over the corporation from the inside can be very effective.
I gotta admit, Battletech seems to have attracted something truly unique. Because this hobby hasn’t attracted ideological narcissists trying to jump on the bandwagon, it’s got straight-up crazy people. Like these people Razor is describing wouldnt be out of place spouting Christian Doomsday nonsense.
In the 1980s there was no Internet. Internet used to be Arpanet, a military network. They want it back with military traits. If we leave Internet, to sell us something they will have to sell the old school way. Keeping the local groups offline, away from official events is the best.
Battletech has so much content you can enjoy upto this point, i don't like the trans politics being pushed but that doesn't mean i will dump a franchise i have enjoyed since the dinosaur days of mw2 on pc. All the old stuff is still solid.
This could also genuinely be an effort to shut down the escape route of all those warhammer refugees they spent to long forcibly trying to remove from having any escape from politics.
Honestly I identify as a trans person but BattleTech is my escapism BattleTech does not care about the political issues of today I care about the political issues inside of BattleTech because at the end of the day I'm enjoying BattleTech for the big Stompy robots not to hear the same political rhetoric that I can go anywhere else in hear
I started Battletech in 86, and have been addicted ever since! I still use my paper Standees! 3025 is still my favorite time period! FASA mastered the fluff for their games, Shadowrun and Battletech have the best backstory fluff i've read!
Another thing that hurt FASA was losing the Star Trek license when they tried to publish a Star Fleet Marine Corps. supplement for their Trek tabletop rpg, which I ran for years (expecially from the Klingon perspective).
That's pure tragedy. FASA lost the license because The Great Phoenix of the Galaxy (Roddenbery) thought FASA's fantastic take was 'too militaristic'. However, it's practically Flowers & Butterflies compared to what ST has become.
Funny you should mention that. There was a (shockingly non-partisan) study done on Joe McCarthy's work not too long ago and they found he was overwhelmingly correct. The only reason we equate 'McCarthyism' with BAD is because all the Communists/Cultural Marxists just went underground. Hollywood has been their primary propaganda tool since the 1950's. When you watch any Hollywood movie of the last 60ish years with an eye for underhanded resentment, their hate becomes something you can't unsee.
I was in love with Mechwarrior since MW2. Started messing with the tabletop minis a couple years ago. The reddits I saw was just on painting minis. This is a lot to take in … :(
While I have a small collection of Battletech minis, and will eventually paint them and play them with the books I already have, I have hundreds of Mechwarrior Clix from before them when it was done by Wizkids and I will enjoy them as it was what drove me back into the franchise after the video games. They also are mentioned in some of the books and can be substitutes on the battlefield.
I'm sad to hear this is affecting BattleTech. I haven't kept up with it for a long time. I used to play the tabletop game with friends in high school... and we had a lot of fun. However, the group split up after graduation, other things came up, and the game just dropped off of my radar for decades. Now I'm a 50 year old man just hearing about how the woke tentacles have reached a game that brings back fond high school memories. This is sad indeed.
Rem is a her. No idea why she doesn’t go by her real name though. For her to be the PR manager her business website is outdated and ugly and her personal X account is empty and her 2 different Rem Alternis accounts are content blackholes that might talk about people playing an RPG on twitch is wild to me.
My animu suggestion to Razorfist, watch Fang of the Sun Dougram. It's basically what inspired Battletech, especially for the battlemech rulesets and how they'd be used in combat.
dude forget about the court of public opinion, why hasn't anyone reported the people in that company to the police? doxxing people and making threats is a crime in the US. why aren't they dealing with this in a criminal court?
I disagree with Razor's hypothesis of Warhammer fans' "conditioning" on the grounds that Warhammer and 40K derivatives like Kings of War and Bolt Action are steadily growing more popular as cheaper, less meta-driven alternatives to Games Workshop's continual price-gouging and game-neutering.
I'd rather the franchise, that I have lovingly enjoyed for the last 25years, be burned to the ground than to have it taken over by ANY ideology. Besides I can still 3d print my materials
I love turn based strategy and batttletech on PC is propably my most played game of all times. If there will be no nextGen remake I will play it for 10 further years.
"Rem" seems not to just mention this but "Push" this on everyone. I will play against anyone to include "the ministry thereof". I feel the Battletech community does not need this.
Stackpole too eh? I guess that explains why he didn't mind recreating SW for Ji$ney. These last few years have proved that all our heroes aren't what we thought they were. Dude wrote some great SW stories. Real shame.
(Original deleted, probably by RUclips)
In case you were wondering, literally *_nobody_* in Razorfist's story about the Battletech community is actually female, except the woman who was fired, Mary.
a point or an observation?
lulz
@@sessy01 yes
In the entire time I've played Battletech, both on table top and with the online video game community, the number of women I've met can all be counted on one hand, yes, in the entire 10+ years of Mechwarrior Online, MW4 before it and playing the table top game, I've only met a grand total of 5 actual women who played it. A grand total of 1 for table top and she is in her mid 40s, got into the game as a kid in the 80s, 2 in MW4 - who went on to play MWO, likely also in their 40s now too, both of whom are well known in the community. 1 in her 30s who was one of the community managers for Piranha games, so not sure if that counts, another now in her 30s who is an artist at Piranha games, not sure if that counts either, but both got into Mechwarrior because they worked on it. With the remaining person being the young daughter of someone who was already into Battletech and his daughter wanted to play MWO with him. (I am only counting people who were born female here)
I've tried to get female friends of mine into Battletech, absolutely none of them have shown any interest at all; More were interested in Warhammer than in Battletech, so that is rather telling. One of those friends being a death metal band singer and even she, a complete geek, nerd and corset wearing badass who walks around wearing "I pwn boys" T-shirts, wasn't interested in Battletech. So, that should be very telling in of itself.
But, there are women who like Battletech, I just don't know any of them. It very much is an IP you have to like on your own, no one can compel you to like it, nor is it something you feel compelled to like, it is something you show interest in, because you choose to like it. Which is very telling of women, in general, most women show interest in something not because they genuinely decide to show interest in it, but because someone else whom they want to be around shows interest in it, so they only show interest in it because of that and Battletech isn't an IP that lends to retaining the attention span of someone who is more interested in the person who is interested in Battletech, than in Battletech.
I know a lot of women who play FFXIV, but they only play FFXIV because of people in their friends circles, or a streamer they like or their Boyfriend/Husband or Girlfriend/Wife or Family plays FFXIV and as soon as those individuals stop playing FFXIV I guarantee you, they will as well, same with cliques women are a part of and they may say they like FFXIV, but they don't actually like Final Fantasy, they just want to be part of a community or be close to the people they want to be around who actually like FFXIV and it is one of those IPs which are easy to digest for those who actually are not really that into it, because it offers things which make it palatable for the easily amused, such as cute things and catgirls. All Battletech is, is Geopolitics, Economics, Map Game with Giant Robots; I've only ever met one women who is into Map games and she is gayer than a Double Rainbow licking pink peaches on a Giant Lady Gaga Pride Float while looking like a complete tomboy; speaking of which, out of those 5 women, two of them are also lesbian, no surprise.
Not to fine point, but the persons gender should not matter. The fact that this person's privates are so important to everyone weakens everyone's arguments and causes damage to the discussion as a whole. The ultimate discussion should be about how a corporate entity reaped one of the player bases outlet points, utilizing political standing, fired an author instead of protecting them, and will likely do it again.
We will rebuild the IPs or we'll do it with our pirate hats.
Drink up me hearties, Yo Ho!
Hoist the colors
Fire up the 3D Printers me lads
Yeaaaaarr 3d printer go BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
And that's fine to them. They will still control all the major franchises anyway.
Something I read before,
Japan sees Mechs as the apex of Aircraft Technology. They are fast, fly, and nimble.
The US sees them as Apex Tank Technology, being a slow Bi-Pedal Tank with impressive fire power.
Also the Gundams act more like Ninjas where the Mechs act more like Walking Fortresses.
@@Marinealver It depends on the depiction. There are plenty of very tankish mobile suits especially depending on the series. You can see the introductory cutscene of "Gundam Crossfire" for example and see very tankish, slower moving mobile suits.
@Marinealver While true, 08th MS Team leaned heavy on the bi-pedal tanks angel.
Likely because Japan is an island and has more need for aircraft than they do ground tanks.
Of course the funny thing is many Battletech mechs CAME from Japan initially. The first version of the game licensed mechs from various anime. Namely Macross, Crusher Joe, and Dougram. Dougram: Fang of the Sun is ESPECIALLY Battletech-esque in its depiction of mechs.
Maybe 20+ years ago i was at the Wargaming Con and was speaking to a guy about BattleTech, he was really into the Lore and the game and his daughter was with him. He introducted her as Jenner named after the BattleTech Mech Jenner. This is how passionate people where about this wargame.
Honestly W for her that the game almost died off. Imagine if it was giga popular and she has a name after some hunched over ugly duckling with lasers.
I know a girl named Katrina because her dad liked Katrina Steiner
Absolutely low class behavior. Like naming your daughter "Khaleesi" because Game of Thrones was popular at one point.
@@MidlifeCrisisJoeit's not because it was popular at one point it's because this is a cornerstone of their lives. It's more similar to religious people naming their children after famous religious figures.
@@MidlifeCrisisJoe Comparing Game of Thrones to BattleTech is a bit of a stretch. How many people have heard of the BattleTech Game let alone one the mech's names. Honestly I thought Jenner was rather unique name she will probably never meet another girl called Jenner. Alot of girls and young women named "Khaleesi" which is very cringe and how Khaleesi in the show turned out to be a mass murder, i wonder how many parents now regret that decision of naming their daughter Khaleesi.
Razor undersold the whackier aspects of Battletech in his description. There are absolutely mechs with swords, and rollerskates be damned, the Spider can fly as well as any Gundam lol.
Harder to hit than most other things meant to fly as well, which is weird
Especially since MechWarrior 5 has had melee combat including swords, trenchblades, maces, hammers, axes, claws and lances in the game for a while at least a year for most of those melee weapons.
@@GitGudFox Ya. And Mechwarrior isnt really an accurate representation of how mechs are. The jump jets are soooo slow and you go hardly anywhere.
A spider leaps 280 metres into the air and 280 metres horizontally when it jumps! That is so not represented in MW5 lol.
Some mechs are slow walking tanks. But even an Atlas can get down and do pushups if a skilled mechwarrior is controlling it. They are very agile for their size.
@@shawnm1902 Well, about as well Id say. I think theres like 1 VTOL that cant get 4 TMM from movement. Some weapons ignore the +1 flyer bonus.
atlasses can use tanks as CUDGLES. and highlanders literally can just ELBOW DROP OFF THE TOP ROPE and survive. ITS FKING INSANE WHAT melee is in mechwarrior.
"The reward of tolerance are treachery and betrayal"
I feel complelled to make people aware that MW3 and MW4 are abandonware. There's a bunch of sites you can download them from legally, without paying a penny.
Mike Stackpole being involved hurts me deep man. I loved the X Wing series
potentially, we don't know if he was.
@@baker90338 He was, he's been a lefty since the 90's. It shows up a lot in his writings. Its also why whoever was running the EU at the time made sure to keep Stackpole on a tight leash.
Yeah, same. I grew up with those books. That's definitely a blow and makes me curse modern political brain rot all the more.
Starting to think that there might be a reason why Aaron Alliston took over the series after The Bacta War....
He also wrote episodes for animated series like the Real Ghostbusters.He started drinking the Kool aid around 7 years ago.
I wanted to be a Battletech fan, but I was a broke college kid, then I was uprooted from my game shops, and then all this started coming down.
I was encouraged by Razor's videos, because it sounds like all the people who I'd want to play with are also on the outside, now.
Battletech's always been a series that you don't need much money to play. The ruleset is so old and has not really changed.
When I was much younger Battletech was one of the "poor man's wargaming hobby games". That's because it was designed to be used with cardboard chits.
Personally I did more role-playing in the universe via the Mechwarrior RPG rules than I did play the wargame. This makes me a major outlier though, as I always got the impression the RPG was never anywhere near as popular as the war game, to the point of basically being a failure by many standards despite multiple editions.
welcome to the periphery
You can easily be a fan of Battletech without supporting Catalyst. There are many ways to play the game without purchasing their “official” content, with most of them being cheap. You have to remember, battletech is one of those TTRPGs that is able to exist independently of the IP holder, it is sustained by the community not the company, that’s how it was able to survive the death and collapse of its previous owners.
@@sessy01 The Taurian Concordat always welcomes new recruits! Long live the Concordat! Long live Van Zant! (Tex joke)
For the record FASA closed because the creator always wanted to transition from board games to video games and believed there was no future in the table top space in 1998, that was his end goal and dream; He then sold the table top rights to Wizkids, a decision he later regretted when Toppz bought out Wizkids a few years later. HBS Battletech is pretty much the end point of what he wanted to do with the table top game, for better or worse. But, he also said there is likely not going to be a sequel or any further Battletech games from Harebrained Schemes since Microsoft has no interest in renewing their licence after it expired. In all fairness, Harebrained Schemes ended up doing the exact same thing FASA studios did before, started introducing "boss mechs", first the custom king crab at the end of the campaign and later that "wth is that thing" with the mini-longtom on the back in a DLC alongside lost tech. He always laments now how he sold off the IP he created during a climate he believed there was little future of. My question is, who put those harebrained ideas in his head? Segway indeed.
At 55, I was there at the birth of almost all of these franchises, and followed many when it was far from cool.
The giant robots do sometimes beat each other to death with giant swords and skidding around. There's even rules for it.
And axes. And giant claws. And all sorts of other things. lol
Yeah, but that’s more trundling giants than spaceflight ninja death ballet that is Gundam. But melee Mechs are cool! I do like the Axeman family and the Clanbuster Black Knight.
@@InquisitorJack Some of those trundling giants can be pretty spry when they want to be. Everybody laughs at a Charger until it's charging right at you.
Razor is scared it'll be compared to anime.
@@InquisitorJack That's not even accurate to Gundam either since it depends on the universe. There are many scenes and video games of Universal Century Gundam where they walk robotically and fairly slowly compared to what people believe Gundam moves like.
Blaine Lee Pardoe has started a new mech franchise called Land & Sea. First book Splashdown was released not too long ago.
I had not heard that - time to take a look :)
Not a fan of the lore, aesthetics, or much of anything about it tbh.
I'm 27 and MechAssault was my first game and Mech Warrior Living Legends is the game I play almost every day.
I used to run around recess in kindergarten pretending I was a Uziel that you would play as in the MechAssault demo.
Mechassault 2 is what made me like it as well... Sad I won't be able to join because of woke trash.
@@lizrengaming5133 You can join us for MechWarrior Living Legends. It's not woke and I'm in there lol. Tex joins too sometimes.
I'm 20 and same. That game was the first place I had ever heard the word 'cougar' before. You can imagine my confusion when I heard there was a cougar roaming around the city when I was in elementary school. Still my favorite mech design to this day.
When I was working at hewlett packard back in early 2002, Dark ages came out and novels were what fueled the community because We were still playing MW3 and MW4. The hex tournaments were getting new players involved and I remember one even influencing how a novel was written. Something about a player taking all the tonnage points and using them to have all tanks, (NO MECHS!) And won. So yea, we had Managers to line workers playing Mech Warrior and reading the novels. Fans were so disappointed with the lack of video games, they made it their own and kept the stories alive.
I still play the old games and can't imagine growing up without it. It was (at the time) the only other sci-fi I cared about outside Star Trek.
These people don't care about any hobby, they just want to burn anything you love.
Their hobby is ruining hobbies. The "I don't want peace, I want problems always" mindset.
This is what happens when you don't beat down the Capellans when they get uppity
I know Vaulk. In person. Not trans.
Someone gimme a point of contact and I'll give you everything I know.
Bumping this.
Give us those juicy details.
Interesting… send us an email!
What really?
Doesn't mean they're not nuts.
If trans rights are human rights, then they are the same as everyone elses rights. There are no special treatments.
But that's the point- they want special attention because they weren't satisfied with being just a normal person.
@@TheHamgamer but the don't want to put in the work to be exceptional.
That's the real problem. They don't want equal rights, they want special treatment.
💯 They want favoritism. They want to be treated as above everyone else.
Those authors sound like they're reciting the rainbow manifesto under gunpoint.
And they better if they want to remain in the People's Republic of Inclusivity, Diversity and Equity, alive that is.
The dogma of death.
Not Stackpole. He actually believes this stuff.
The rainbow is the new sw@ztik@
3D printer go burrr
And like Razor said, if you can't afford that, get some shrunk down images of the mechs, tape some cardboard to pennies, glue pic to cardboard and away you go. Btw, the old rule books are available online. Or for *cough cough* download.
The best part is - Battletech was always a 'miniature agnostic' game! Miniatures are not required. You can use counters, tokens, cardboard 'stand-ups', etc.
Just don't buy the plastics. IWM's hasn't done anything wrong so no need to punish them for Catalysts issues.
I love how these people never unpack what "trans rights is humans rights" actually means. It's just a self-evident fact one must accept without question
Wonder where I've heard that one before?
I think the ultimate comeuppance for Catalyst should be players demonstrating the correct behavior of the Clans - by all rights, any Clanner whose brain didn't mesh with their body correctly if they were trueborn would probably have their entire genetic line purged.
Going by the demographics of these parasites they did it already to themselves
It would be most un Clan like if a warrior told a science caste member that this is not my body, this is not my gender.
No, their dezgra would likely be immediately challenged or abjured to a lesser caste or dark caste.
I don't get how clanners would be accepting of transsexuality because it places excessive emphasis on the self over the needs of the clan.
Stackpole also wrote for several 80s and 90s cartoons including the real Ghostbusters.
He started drinking the Kool aid at some point a few years ago.
And that's a real bummer. 😢😢😢
Stackpole needs go !!!
The woke mind parasite is a real phenomenon.
Carl Jung: “People don't have ideas. Ideas have people.”
That sucks. A buddy of mine met him at a con last year. He seemed like a nice guy I. The videos he sent me.
I still rock the MW2 soundtrack CD in my car.
All of the games have amazing soundtracks. What convinced me to give MW5 a chance was the soundtrack.
There were some 'Ghost Bear's Legacy' tracks that were amazing, as well.
Used the MW2 Mercs soundtrack to play Need for Speed 2 back in the day. It fit so well.
Razorfist and others like him will always be among the greatest advocates for the game. Far and above any of the “official” team running the franchise into the ground. If this info had been out when they did their big clan invasion Kickstarter a few years back I doubt they would have raised the millions of dollars that they did, including my own admittedly sizable investment into it. Blaine Pardoe was also the only author who was actually honoring the canon character stretch goals of that campaign too. It’s just sad what those running it have decided to do with the game, but they’ll never be able to take away my record sheets and pencils to play the game while watching them rot away until the next license holder comes along.
Screen shots, Screen shots, Screen shots. Don't ever forget to screenshot when this crap happens.
Years ago I played Mechwarrior 2 at a classmate's house. A few weeks later I picked up Mechwarrior 3 at the local gamestore. I still have all the classic BT novels and a few metal 'mechs which introduced me to wargaming before I got into Warhammer.
I was really happy when BT seemed to be on the upswing and now own nearly a battalion of IS and two clusters of Clan 'mechs. The subreddit was really active at that time. Then the rainbow crowd muscled in and now the subreddit is a shadow of itself. Weirdly, I escaped the purge, butI only post my 3D printed 'mechs there anymore, out of spite at CGL.
Resin printer.and sourcing the books in PDF are super easy and you can find the books for free easily. Been running minis for MW and 40K and giving em away as a giant FU to both companies
For a 8K resolution printer and am bored. And 20 bucks of resin lets me run a few hundred mechs whenever I want
How much a 3d printer cost these days?
@@SirBladewind Depends on what you want to use it for. For minis you are looking at a couple hundred. I have one that's a mite bit more but I have to back DOWN the print quality to match "official" GW minis
If you ever wondered what it was like during the French Revolution
At least it's just getting blocked o twitter and not your head
I got into mechwarrior in my 20(2000-2005) when i finally got a job.😢😢😢
Now the quote "If you can't beat them, join them" feels very insidious.
Fun fact, Russel Zimmerman, the absolute monolith of human integrity that he is, is banned off of Twitter for reasons I cannot say on RUclips.
I got into Battletech in the early 90s reading the technical readouts at Hobbytown USA.
FASA also did Star Trek RPG and Earth Dawn and Dr Who RPG and Renegade Legion and Vor and...
Renegade legion, Leviathan. great system.
And SHADOWRUN.
Calling it - Sigmarxist is just Something Awful people minus the funny.
Smegmarxist 😂
That only applies to the Hobby Squatters of Warhammer.
We need a whole new name for them.
Pretty much that most of the time.
SA where trolls looking for lolcows, these marx worshipers are zealots of woke and are a curse upon society.
At this point, being funny on Something Awful is a bannable offense.
My first ever and still favorite Battletech game was on Sega Mega Drive. I played the heck out of it despite the fact that I couldn't beat it because it was very hard. I could only get to a second level and that's it. And even then getting to that level back in the days was random. Then a lot later I played two Mechwarrior games. Which is MechWarrior Mercenaries and MechWarrior Vengeance and it was great.
p.s - Now that I wrote the comment about those games, I now wanna play them cause I have very great memories about them.
Copies are available on eBay for very reasonable prices, assuming you don't want to fly the black flag. And I'm with you; those games were fun despite what some say about it 'dumbing down' the gameplay.
No Euro release I think?
@@crazymcgee3604 I already have those games, so why would I buy them again?
Just the way you wrote the post made me think that you had lost them at some point. If you have the original CDs hold onto them; I lost mine years ago and all I have left is the technical guide (the book showing the mechs and weapons).
@@crazymcgee3604 I just didn't played them in a very long time. That is what I meant.
I bought 1 book and a 3 pack of maps before i started hearing about all this. That's all CGL gets of my gaming budget. Time to grab what you want from etsy or ebay printers, just incase they get shut down
Or like Razor said, make your own counters out of paper and cardboard. Plenty of pics of every battlemech, vehicle, aerospace fighter, and VTOL. out there. And considering that if you sail the high seas you can get the old game books....ahem....free of charge, you don't need much of anything to make this work.
If you don't have hex maps, you can always do what Heavy Gear does and simply measure inches. This takes all the expense out of it.
So this is why all the useful information and cool topics on the forums disappeared.
Razor out here calling out those who choose not to speak🤘
Gents, our hobby is not longer a hobby but a cultural battleground, like it or not.
Know this and act accordingly.
You can run from it no longer.
One may not be interested in politics, but politics is certainly interested in you.
And shall it be until we all are dust.
Seyla.
I was first introduced to Battletech from Mechassault 2 lone wolf, and I loved it from that day onward, but as soon as I was going to try and find minis in the last year and start my table top collection of Mechassault, I discovered that they went woke.
I didn't even get a chance to join.
I'm an original Battledroids player. 40 years invested in this IP.
Razor is absolutely correct, there is literally nothing that CGL has produced, that is necessary to play battletech. i see plenty of copies of 2nd, 3rd, 4th edition box sets on ebay. as well as rules compendium and master rules. all of these were published by FASA. even fanpro reproduced the master rules book.
CGL will be the next example for...
"GET WOKE AND GO BROKE"
I give a hearty endorsement to Blaine Lee Pardoe's "Land & Sea" series. Superb mecha.
It's tough, as always, learning about people you liked when you were young. Basically my favorite series in pre-Disney Star Wars books was by Stackpole. Rough, but not the first time.
"Life is cheap, battlemechs aren't."
Fasa was great. They made a really fantastic Star Trek RPG and tactics game that Razorfist didn't mention. I played Battletech back when it first came out in the early 80's and it was using most of its mechs from Macross before they had to change them due to the skumbags at Harmony Gold. We had campaigns going from around 85' to 89' or so. Even after that I played the first MechWarrior on PC and the SNES then games like Mechassault,which was awesome. Since Fasa died I haven't cared about it and now I'm glad I stayed away.
I got my first job in high school so I could buy a graphics card to run mech warrior 2 and 3. It’s also the reason I learned to build my own pc and now I work in the industry. Cheers to you Battletech 🍻
Those with the passion, creativity and talent should create their own IPs and companies. Go for it guys
And even better, you can just 3d print the minis. 👍
smol blabs
homer simpsons neighbor was ned flanders, but who was his neighbor on the other side?
I can't remember exactly, but it might have originally been an old couple in the very early seasons? I think over time they changed it a few times though. Just like how the neighbors across the street were George Bush and Gerald Ford for an episode.
@@MidlifeCrisisJoe rainbow suspenders
So I'm 22 and I learnt about battle tech from MechWarrior 5 and then the great cataclysm of Warhammer where I really put some time in learning the lore. Bought a main starter set, a few lances and was so into playing the game. Then the company also turned weird. since then I still look at the old lore and I recently downloaded mw5 again.
Mechwarrior 5- Mercenaries is not a perfect game, but it has turned out to be the best Battletech/Mechwarrior PC game in the last 30 years.
Bring out the halberds! Enemies is at the gate.
They call me "the ghost of the badlands". But I'm really just a kyller with big hands.😂
We should all pool some money together and buy the IP when they go broke.
There's probably some law created by Corporations that prevents us Plebs from getting uppity in that regard, but even with the possibility that 'Fakers' would try to get in, I would still love to see that.
@@torikazuki8701
Not just to buy but to turn it open source.
Battletech introduction for me was in my first year of high school tech drawing class. Classroom had inspiration books around and one of them was the 3050 technical with the Timberwolf on the front, I was sold.
As Mage Leader put it "Battletech is for those that want to play Battletech! Tourists can f--k off!"
I think Razor is right when he's said 'get broke, go woke, then croak' - thing is, while Battletech and 40K are both doing well enough... NOW ... shifting plastic toys is a business whose time is obviously running out as 3d printing becomes increasingly viable to the public and the models are already long since out in the wild.
Thing is, we're not talking about a video game whose auth servers can be shut off. These games are printed media and long since digitized and distributed privately. I've seen 40k source books at charity shops (thrift shops) for a steal. If you don't care about 'official' tournaments or playing in stores there is simply no reason NOT to play old versions of these games with printed miniatures. It's pathetically cheap to get into as long as you have 1 or 2 buddies willing to give it a punt and that's BEFORE looking at fan projects like Megamek (a free online version of the tabletop game)
In a broader sense, it's because these are REAL nerd hobbies, as opposed to fake nerd hobbies. In that, REAL nerds tend to be technically capable and tend to have decent jobs that allow them a decently sizable expendable income. They can afford to buy 3D printers and have the know how to operate them.
In other hobbies, this kind of takeover can work better because a lot of the fans are no nothing normies who rely on the company to produce the product entirely. Therefore the corporate control can be maintained, and therefore taking over the corporation from the inside can be very effective.
I gotta admit, Battletech seems to have attracted something truly unique.
Because this hobby hasn’t attracted ideological narcissists trying to jump on the bandwagon, it’s got straight-up crazy people. Like these people Razor is describing wouldnt be out of place spouting Christian Doomsday nonsense.
It makes me sad that the Doomsday people don't come to my address anymore. All I did was grade their pamphlet...
The woke are quite literally cultists.
I guess you don't know these people very well, because anything Christian-related would be the last thing they would spouting.
@@KdogPrime Yeah but same energy.
Which is off the reservation crazy.
In the 1980s there was no Internet.
Internet used to be Arpanet, a military network. They want it back with military traits. If we leave Internet, to sell us something they will have to sell the old school way.
Keeping the local groups offline, away from official events is the best.
Battletech has so much content you can enjoy upto this point, i don't like the trans politics being pushed but that doesn't mean i will dump a franchise i have enjoyed since the dinosaur days of mw2 on pc. All the old stuff is still solid.
Then don't dump the franchise. If you so choose you can elect to not give Catalyst any of your hard earned money.
This could also genuinely be an effort to shut down the escape route of all those warhammer refugees they spent to long forcibly trying to remove from having any escape from politics.
Battletech was taken over before the mindworms attacked Warhammer.
Honestly I identify as a trans person but BattleTech is my escapism BattleTech does not care about the political issues of today I care about the political issues inside of BattleTech because at the end of the day I'm enjoying BattleTech for the big Stompy robots not to hear the same political rhetoric that I can go anywhere else in hear
I started Battletech in 86, and have been addicted ever since! I still use my paper Standees! 3025 is still my favorite time period! FASA mastered the fluff for their games, Shadowrun and Battletech have the best backstory fluff i've read!
Nemo me impune lacessit.
Another thing that hurt FASA was losing the Star Trek license when they tried to publish a Star Fleet Marine Corps. supplement for their Trek tabletop rpg, which I ran for years (expecially from the Klingon perspective).
That's pure tragedy. FASA lost the license because The Great Phoenix of the Galaxy (Roddenbery) thought FASA's fantastic take was 'too militaristic'. However, it's practically Flowers & Butterflies compared to what ST has become.
Every GW and Catalyst employee shall be 'blocked' from this mortal coil
McCarthyism needs to come back on Steroids.
Funny you should mention that. There was a (shockingly non-partisan) study done on Joe McCarthy's work not too long ago and they found he was overwhelmingly correct.
The only reason we equate 'McCarthyism' with BAD is because all the Communists/Cultural Marxists just went underground. Hollywood has been their primary propaganda tool since the 1950's. When you watch any Hollywood movie of the last 60ish years with an eye for underhanded resentment, their hate becomes something you can't unsee.
I was in love with Mechwarrior since MW2. Started messing with the tabletop minis a couple years ago. The reddits I saw was just on painting minis. This is a lot to take in … :(
While I have a small collection of Battletech minis, and will eventually paint them and play them with the books I already have, I have hundreds of Mechwarrior Clix from before them when it was done by Wizkids and I will enjoy them as it was what drove me back into the franchise after the video games. They also are mentioned in some of the books and can be substitutes on the battlefield.
Catalyst has more bots than a car plant .😊
How do they think they will survive without their long term fans. Battletech is the fans. I think that kickstartee success swole their heads up.
There is a need to gatekeep.
And I thought we Warhammer guys had it bad from GW being a bit clinically stupid and not knowing how to write rules.
Blabs is pretty hot... Glory to House Marik...
I'm sad to hear this is affecting BattleTech. I haven't kept up with it for a long time. I used to play the tabletop game with friends in high school... and we had a lot of fun. However, the group split up after graduation, other things came up, and the game just dropped off of my radar for decades. Now I'm a 50 year old man just hearing about how the woke tentacles have reached a game that brings back fond high school memories. This is sad indeed.
Lack of meritocracy leads to incompetence. It will fall by its own weight.
Blaine Pardoe wrote one of my favorite BattleTech characters in Archer Christifori.
I really enjoyed reading books like Measure of a Hero.
Stop calling Rem, "Her." Don't encourage these autogynephiles.
Rem is a her. No idea why she doesn’t go by her real name though. For her to be the PR manager her business website is outdated and ugly and her personal X account is empty and her 2 different Rem Alternis accounts are content blackholes that might talk about people playing an RPG on twitch is wild to me.
It sounds like the goal is to unperson anyone who does not support sexual fringe politics.
Catalyst needs to take notes from the recent Tractor Supply scandal that forced a course correction.
Just me and my elegoo sailing the 7 seas
My animu suggestion to Razorfist, watch Fang of the Sun Dougram. It's basically what inspired Battletech, especially for the battlemech rulesets and how they'd be used in combat.
Americanized mecha?
Wasn't it originally a Canadian company who were inspired by seeing Japanese mech shows?
Here Here! I support Battletech, Not Catalyst. GO RAZORFIST!!!
'Battletech is for everyone'
It always was. Ironically now it's not.
dude forget about the court of public opinion, why hasn't anyone reported the people in that company to the police? doxxing people and making threats is a crime in the US. why aren't they dealing with this in a criminal court?
Gatekeep, theres no other way
happy to see this bunch of bullshit got called out and I wouldn't mind seeing a interview with Blaine Pardoe here
I disagree with Razor's hypothesis of Warhammer fans' "conditioning" on the grounds that Warhammer and 40K derivatives like Kings of War and Bolt Action are steadily growing more popular as cheaper, less meta-driven alternatives to Games Workshop's continual price-gouging and game-neutering.
Love to hear Razor nerd out
Razor being passionate about things is always fun to listen to.
It got woke alright, don't you know it's now called Battletuck?
I'd rather the franchise, that I have lovingly enjoyed for the last 25years, be burned to the ground than to have it taken over by ANY ideology.
Besides I can still 3d print my materials
I love turn based strategy and batttletech on PC is propably my most played game of all times.
If there will be no nextGen remake I will play it for 10 further years.
"Rem" seems not to just mention this but "Push" this on everyone. I will play against anyone to include "the ministry thereof". I feel the Battletech community does not need this.
Yeah. The trend is to destroy and replace everything men love, and created. Gatekeep my friends. Fun fact, Tim Burton owns topps.
I know you know Macross and it took a lot of inspiration and liberty from that anime
Did Razorfist ever play chromehounds? Front Mission?
He has an aversion to Japanese stuff.
He has mentioned and play them yes.
Personally FM3 is stil my favorite game ever produced. I have multiple copies.
a customer base is a privilege. these businesses will fail disney is already feeling it, when will these people learn
i have everything i want for BT...i dont need anything more....
thats why printer go brrrrrrrrrrr
Stackpole too eh? I guess that explains why he didn't mind recreating SW for Ji$ney.
These last few years have proved that all our heroes aren't what we thought they were. Dude wrote some great SW stories. Real shame.
One last thing I ordered from Catalyst. From now only second hand.