I'd been very diligent in my consumption of Arkham Asylum marketing materials, up until the demo at least, which is typically the capstone of a marketing push. Yet footage continues to leak, leakingly, as though from some kind of... leak machine, and I've sworn it off altogether. The Goddamned thing comes out in less than two weeks, I'm sure I can find something to occupy myself in the meantime.

A very nice piece from Hawk over at Applegeeks, not that great work from Hawk is any surprise:

If something like this is of interest to you:

There is a kind of genius expressed by Blizzard's mission to level the curve of World of Warcraft's original experience, slashing down brambles and rooting out malevolent fauna in an effort to grease the chute. As someone who has escaped its necrotic whorls, it feels a little like they're diluting the meager achievements I managed to secure, but any maneuver that diminishes the petty cruelties of that arc must be seen as a kindness in aggregate.

Well the last two days have been pretty crazy. I'm still pouring through mail trying to answer as many people as I can. I'd like to say that now that I have read more about this system I think it's pretty shady. I'm a little worried that guys reading the site might take our discussion here as some sort of endorsement and I want to make sure that isn't the case. While some of their advice is probably fine I think the majority of it is really sleazy. Again, I can't blame guys for seeking out help. All joking aside though, I just want to make it clear that I don't think the seduction community is the place to go. I understand how badly you want to believe that there is a system out there that if you can simply master will resolve your problems. Sadly I don't think that's the case and if there is such a system, it certainly isn't this one.

I think that's probably the last thing I'll say about the subject. I honestly had no idea what I was getting into here but its been a real eye opener. Thanks to everyone that mailed me from both sides.

People have been asking me when the Cardboard Tube Samurai statue thing was going on sale.  The answer is: now.

If things have gone well for me on this go 'round, it's because I'm constantly being given opportunities to learn things.  That is to say, I have had many opportunities to be savaged by reality in ironically appropriate ways.  I don't know exactly what I'm supposed to emerge from some of these experiences with, but I do emerge from them, armed for the next surreal asault from a hostile universe.

Wow, just fucking wow. 

Listen, I would never personally take a class like this. I think it's silly and expensive. All I am saying is that I can relate to guys who are scared to talk to girls and I can understand how desperate they might be for help. Obviously I don't approve of hunting women from the back of a jeep and if that's the intent of this shit then yeah it's fucked up. If it gives guys genuine tips for getting past their anxiety around a girl then I think it's fine.

I'm not sure the people who espouse these "love systems" or "dating sciences" want much to do with women outside of their role as the variable in some bizarre equation they're endlessly iterating.  And if you aren't interested in women, or at any rate you aren't interested in actual women, or if you are only interested in a subset of a woman's physicality, there's an app for that.

Hold on just a second asshole. You are taking that comment way out of context!

This, from the dude who thinks it's okay to have sex with unconscious women.  That must be considered the "ultimate" technique, something akin to true mastery.

I think you're being overly dramatic. Girls have been using their "feminine wiles" to manipulate men since the beginning of time. Do you really think the mind games girls play on guys are any better or worse than this stuff. The only difference is that this sort of thing comes naturally to women. Guys are in a tight spot because in very real terms, we have nothing they want. They on the other hand, have vaginas. They can make us do pretty much what ever they want. I don't see anything wrong with guys trying to learn some tricks of their own. 

I'm fairly certain the purpose of this course is to make you a better predator of women.  Check out their offers of "in-field training," as though you were going to hunt antelopes from a jeep in the Goddamned Savannah.   

I don't know, Love Systems doesn't seem so bad to me. It's really hard to talk to girls, and this is just helping guys with their confidence. Women are terrifying and strange, I don't see anything wrong with getting some advice.

Page Six, which can be found here, completes the first chapter of Automata. The project itself directly expresses a fairly narrow band of the universe, hopefully enough to make you curious about the rest of it, and how this came to be the state of play.