Tuesday, June 6, 2017

Far West - When a Podcast Interview is Slanted at a Right Angle, They Must be Interviewing Gareth

Wow. What shit. What slant. What purposeful ignoring of facts. Surprisingly, I'm not even talking about Gareth (as always though, still full of excuses).

What am I talking about? Minion Minute interviewed Gareth at Chupacabracon IV (May 12th through the 14th of this year - the timeframe where Gareth has been maintaining radio silence since May 2 - "serious family matters" prevent work on Far West but not, apparently, going to a Convention)

So, what crap does "Aaron", the interviewer, say?

At 3:25 - "I know things have been rocky. Don't give a fuck about that. The internet has a long memory... it will stay around forever - it doesn't matter."

So yes, the most famous thing Gareth is known for, Far West, it not going to be a topic, at east according to the interviewer. Because it "doesn't matter."

But at 13:20, Gareth brings up Far West. Its the elephant in the room, and I give Gareth credit for addressing it. Ah, but what does Aaron have to say?

"So people who don't know what Far West is beyond ridiculous blogskreets and horseshit." Hey, a call out to The Tavern. Heck, Gareth even recommends an internet search to read the posts. Well played, Gareth. Well played.

The worst offense by the interviewer in my opinion comes around 17:30 into the interview. Gareth decides to try and explain why Far West is so fucking late and Aaron tries a little misdirection:

"Mike Nystul is out there. Mike Nystul is trying to raise money. Fuck that guy!"

Holy shit! Bringing up Nystul. Might as well bring up #ConManKen too while you are at it. Heck, of the three, Nystul is the ONLY one that fell on the swords, said he was an incompetent businessman and left the fucking hobby! Aaron, you thought you were helping but all you did was make things worse.

Overall, not a bad interview on Gareth's end. He speaks well and knows how to weave a story. Aaron sounds like someone that still has a stash of Stacker 2 with ephedra while full of hero worship with blinders on. The total interview is about 38 minutes - I stopped at about 27 minutes in. For all I know there might be further gems, but really, giving up more than 30 minutes of my life to listen to Gareth and his excuses, valid or not, that I've heard for the last five years just isn't going to happen.


  1. ChupacabraCon not only hosts Skarka, but Jamie "Metamorphosis Allfraud" Chambers as celebrated guests of honor every year.

    I'm legitimately boggled about how they do that without any sense of self-awareness or shame.

    (And many of the Chupa folks are North Texas RPG regulars, so they know of the drama attached to those creators.)

  2. Also, at least one of Nystul's projects (Cairn) came to fruition. Not with him at the helm, but he at least manned up enough to hand it over to somebody who could do it right. I fully expect that neither Far West and, well, anything Ken raised funds for, will never see the light of day.

  3. Replies
    1. That's okay. "Double negative" pretty much describes what Far West backers are going to get for their money.

  4. So it's clear that the money went to also funding Adamant projects, while GMS undertook other work in the meantime.

    And yet he couldnt be up front about any of this despite getting ten times what he asked for?

    Ironcially I suspect that had he got a lot less, closer to his goal, he might well have finished.

  5. Thanks for periodically bringing this back to my attention. Wow. 2011 is a long time ago in game years. :) I'm happy to say that I clicked the "View Pledge" button and was happily surprised that GMS only got me for $10. :) I thought I remembered pledging $100... That *might* have been to another failed KS... :)

  6. What did Jamie Chambers do to everyone? I have a physical copy of his edition of Metamorphosis Alpha right here, so it's not that....




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