Tag Archives: Art of war

June 23, 2025 · 03:26

Chapter Thirteen

That is the setting I am invoking. You see, there is something going on and there are many who say so, although I believe them to be in a sort of ‘conspiracy theorist’ setting. I kinda doubt that I am (not certain though), but I am telling you the whole story here, as a lot of it is speculative, but it comes with evidence of some sort and this story goes way back. A few days ago I set a premise to paper, I have done so before on a few occasions, but this time an idea hit me, and believe me. I am the first one to go into denial and say it was my brain. Yet after all the IP I created (some of them weapon systems) I learned to respect my brain. I figures things out even when my eyes can’t see it. 

The last time was in ‘Chaotic order and orderly chaos’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2025/06/15/chaotic-order-and-orderly-chaos/) on June 15th 2025. I stated:

“I have said so several times over the last 13 years that the media considers the importance of the following:

  • Share holders
  • Stakeholder
  • Advertisers

As such the people are a distant fourth, I saw this for over a decade and as people agree or disagree is fine.”

This stuck with me in the last few days and this night it came to blows with other thoughts. First we see:

And last 

Now this is mere social media (to some junk), but going back to October 6th 2024 when I wrote ‘Is it merely political?’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2024/10/06/is-it-merely-political/) things started to click. You see there I wrote towards an article by Politico, where I considered the text “A loophole allows middlemen in countries like Turkey, China and India to refine Russian oil in petrol and diesel before selling it elsewhere — exempt from sanctions. According to a report first seen by POLITICO, Western countries spent $2 billion on this rebranded fuel in the first half of 2024”, the part I never really considered was that this loophole had been place for some time. And as I see it, it was likely created in the days that Iran needed that loophole. So now you have the parts. 

What I considered in the last few parts is that the world (not just America) is under attack by what Sun Tzu called ‘Inward spies’ Sun Tzu saw them as spies, double agents for the enemy, gathering intel of your forces. He never considered that organizations and governments would collide at some point and as I see it that these inward spies are now known as stakeholders. They influence via means, usually for organisations and sometimes governments to dial it up, or down as the setting requires. So a ‘leftist’ stakeholder would ‘represent’ their interest and at times, a grocery store like NIOC. We never (or better stated ‘I never’) considered it until now and I reckon that the last setting where we see the last ‘Tweet’ from a White House correspondent no less with the text “but we had already uncovered its conspiracies back in March!”, so is this a lie (likely) or are stakeholders reporting back a lot more than we are happy about? The last part is less likely but not impossible, as such it becomes more and more important to map out these stakeholders and the connections that they are entertaining. 

So am I crazy or did my brain stumble upon something? Is there a setting where stakeholders get a lot more from some interested parties? I cannot tell, but as I see it, and as I have seen what stakeholders regard as ‘their’ mission in life which usually involves money and power (read: connections) and at that point it doesn’t matter what their goals are, they are actively propagating a terrorist state, a government ploy that has been progressing terrorist organisations all over the middle east. Or did you think that all these rockets delivered to Hamas and Houthi terrorists are as cheap as a pack of milk? Some of them range between $100,000 and $1,000,000 and it varies with the range and payload. I haven’t forgotten about Hezbollah and did someone make an actual invoice of that? Consider what revenue Iran has and soon you will see that the equation doesn’t work. It hasn’t worked for years. So what gives and why isn’t the media digging into this? I can give you one speculation. There is every chance that their focal points are changed by stakeholders. They merely voice where the media needs to look and with advertisement stretches they are eager to increase revenue (and change focal points). 

So am I crazy? (In my defense, I am not crazy, I am an airplane: whoooooosh). And as I can still make fun of myself (my favourite subject), there is every chance that I am not crazy. That doesn’t mean that my assessment is correct. One does not imply the other and my version of what is, is highly speculative. 

So take this for what it is. A almost simple thought, yet I am doing it on paper, so that when the time comes and the media comes with ‘an exclusive’ I can state that I got there way before them). So now that I got that of my chest I might be able to get a few hours of sleep. It is 03:15 here now and I don’t want to wait for breakfast as that is a little over 300 minutes away.

So have a great day and consider what you could do in that time, you might have guessed it, it is lunchtime in Toronto, save me some poutine will you? 

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June 22, 2025 · 15:43

Setting records straight

Yup, there is a time when things have to be adjusted and my ‘incorrect’ view is no exception. Yes, I can see the left bristling with accusations and I get it. But hatred tends to polarize a view and I would be no exception on this if I wouldn’t adjust and correct my views. You see, yesterday I published ‘Wars according to the TWT principle’ and I make no apologies as this was the setting I believed to be true. But I fell for the same trap many generals have preceded me in. All wars are based on deception. The very first ‘law’ Sun Tzu, the writer of the Art of War warned us about and I like the (not so) intelligent person, or perhaps better stated the intelligent person I thought myself to be, fell for it and my direct response to that is ‘Well done, President Trump’. Yes, I think that this administration has a lot to consider, but this one they did right. He said he would respond within two weeks and I fell for that. The next day he bombed three nuclear sites in Iran and he left with a warning. Less then there hours ago we were given ““Everybody heard those names for years as they built this horrible destructive enterprise. Our objective was the destruction of Iran’s nuclear enrichment facility. “The strikes were a spectacular military success,” he says, saying the key enrichment facilities have been “totally and completely obliterated”.” As I see it, Yay President Trump. He might have made a few more friends and allies, as throw fear in the eyes of his enemies. With Iran in such expected disarray they will think twice before arming the Houthi terrorists and as they cannot hit Saudi civilian targets, Saudi Arabia might now consider America a stronger ally than they thought they had 30 hours ago. The Houthi’s will consider their actions as their provider is close to no more and they need to settle down as well (them settling down is a stretch, but here you have it). In the next setting we see Hamas and Hezbollah considering whatever they have, they might see it as the turnaround, because Israel has a more dangerous ally then they thought they had and in that same setting Russia needs to reconsider whatever they had will now be the end of that line. Iran lost its drone building facilities and as such Iran as it now knows that the end is reached will want to make hastily friends. The response we saw this morning by Iran and its less than truthful response “Iranian Foreign Minister says the “outrageous” US attacks on Iran’s “peaceful nuclear installations” will have “everlasting consequences”.” (Source: Al Jazeera) You see, the ‘lie’ of peaceful in that sentence makes the entire ‘boast’ a fragmented lie. Peaceful settings do not apply to weapons grade enrichment and this had been going on since before former President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. So as he ‘vacated’ the building in 2013, my eyes were on my IP devastating that solution as it (in all honesty) tickled my ego and it would have gone to Saudi Arabia. Yet in the end, President Trump solved the issue for me (read: us). I believe that the European ‘political’ talk solution was merely a way to delay what could no longer be delayed. Israel saw the danger and yet Europe did not. 

Even as Israel is now facing more missiles, the chance of any of them being nuclear was just blown away by America. So as I see it, I had to set the records straight. Even now I see famous people giving us talk of how the right is ‘bombarding’ peaceful talks, but there is no talking with Iran, there is no agreement they won’t break and Israel knows this and America knows it, even as Europe remains in denial, they know it too. They merely hope that whatever agreement is broken, it would happen when the next persona is at that desk. Yet I believe that the time of this time snag delay is pretty much at an end. Russia was one element and there are more and not all of them are visible. Yet now,  as Iran is seemingly bleeding, some of these doors will close on Iran and they will fear the next hit, because if it is an oil reserve, time will have run out for Iran. Too many parties had become dependent of the outcome of the Iranian revolution of 1979 and now these parties will need to find new venues and that is where the CIA comes in, with the age old premise of Segregation, Isolation and Assassination. Until today they never thought it was possible, but now as Iran bleeds they fear what comes for them as they never expected this to happen. In this (I personally believe) that the assassination of Qasem Soleimani 5 years ago was the start of segregating Iran from the greedy friends it had and I am not sure if this scenario would have played out, like others would have liked if Qasem Soleimani was still alive (I know it is speculative). But at present the President of the United States acted as any President needed to and for that I yet again say ‘Yay, President Trump’. I think that the whiney left needs to recognise this too, I really do as the larger setting is averted. Not everything has been averted, but it starts with one cog, then the next, and after that the next. And for the Iranians, this is what the bringer of doom to Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan looks like 

You all have a great day today.

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May 19, 2025 · 23:34

My Bond is my word

That is the expression, but it came from a time when a word meant something. Far before the idiom of marketing and business practices. That word is a temporary setting towards to goal to do no harm to the shareholders and the business need of the few. In essence, the old “is an idiom that means a person’s promise or word is as good as a formal agreement. It suggests a commitment to honesty and reliability in one’s dealings, and is frequently used to signify that a person’s word is a reliable substitute for a written contract” it is said that a word is merely a mirror of the intent of the person speaking it. And when you look at bonds, we see “A bond is a form of debt security, essentially a loan made by an investor to a company or government for a set period of time in return for regular interest payments. When you invest in bonds, you are lending money and receive back your principal plus interest at a specified future date” Now here we get the problem. You see, as it stands “an investor to a government for a set period of time in return for regular interest payments” and now as it seems that government (America) can soon no longer make these “regular interest payments” and the investors are backing away. We saw last week

and we have seen a few of these settings and again today we see a continuance of these messages. The stage is not really as clear. As bonds are sold before maturity the investors are losing money and you know how they lose money. Yet the setting for that is when will we lose it all? And there is the crunch. Lose some now or a lot later and these happy wuzzes are weaseling out before it is too late. So as such we see

If you think that I feel sorry, you would be wrong. I saw this as early as 2018, but the people called me and idiot, a fool and a cowardly weasel. That’s fine, they are merely words. As we see the dumping of bonds these high and mighty wannabe’s will get the limelight shining on them and as they hide like the little cockroaches shouting “it’s more complex then I thought” and I giggle because all I needed was an abacus, this contraption (which preceded the computer and the slide ruler) was invented somewhere between 2700 and 2300 BC, so there was time to learn the essentials.

I don’t know how much the damage is at present, but with every sell off, the burden of America deepens, which as of April 30, 2025, there were $28.575 trillion in outstanding U.S. Treasury securities. So we do not know how much is sold of and I doubt America will divulge that information and as I stated in March 2023, when I speculated that the SVB had too many bonds in there possession and could not deal with a bank run, I asked whether the media would ever look into how many bonds they had and they never did (I wonder why), but a more large setting was seen in the movie The Big Short (2015), an American biographical comedy-drama where we see the implied setting of Janet Yellen in her role at the federal reserve. Now, this is a mere movie, but when movies get to close to reality, there is the chance that there might be correlation. And as the Federal Reserve kept close eyes on the SVB bank, my thoughts wondered whether there wasn’t anything more going on. It is merely one bank, but was it? This also set my mind in a certain direction. The media was no longer to be trusted and they are too often a spokes vessel for stakeholders with political and personal plans. This time around the gap is a lot larger, a lot more than merely one bank. So how many bonds are being sold off (read: dumped)? We don’t know and the investigating party (read: the media) is being told to stand down as I see it. There is no way they are all being sold but to which amount of the $28.575 trillion is being sold off, we just don’t know. In the end America will face a brunt of invoices due to be paid. Yet consider that a bond is a certainty of income through interest and now these investors are bailing. How much is being bailed on is unknown to me and to many others.

But the media isn’t asking the hard questions, isn’t that interesting? They are so busy to chase digital dollars for their own good, whilst at the same time pleasing the shareholders and stake holders  making the audience a distant fourth or even fifth party. So how do you feel about getting actually informed? 

Don’t ask me for the information because I have close to none. I can merely see the issues, but the actual facts are not visible to me and to many others. But there is an issue and the idea of weaponized bonds is decently new, it came after the settings that these foundations are based on and as the bottom line is now marketed for the needs of the investors, we might not know in time what needs to be done. Will it be done in time? I have no idea, the people in charge of the information have their own game to play and usually it is for the betterment of themselves, not the audience at large.

I reckon that the tariff war set a few cogs in motion. Did the current administration consider this when they named the Golf of America and cast Canada into hostile party by calling it the 51st state? Did they consider the impact of a possible annexation of Greenland? It pissed off Europe and the Commonwealth and now their actual enemies is seeing the optional setting of selling off a huge part of the bonds and as such America sinks under their own debts, no actual war required. Didn’t the Art of War teach us (approximately 500BC) that “The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting. If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles” I wonder, how clever it was to set a chicken stage of tariffs when these people wrote this book over 2500 years ago, seems folly to me. The best the west has to offer in contemplation is On War by Carl von Clausewitz (1820), which is called a decidingly lesser work 2300 years later. Isn’t that the opposite of evolution? Both books on the philosophy of war, but called “a lesser setting”, so what is the stage and what is missing? Both miss out of the war setting of economies. There was a setting of economic in the application of logistics in WW2, but a rather slimline one. Now there is a need on the war on the economics of any enemy and when as deeply in debt as America is, they are quite literally fighting against the edge of an abyss and that abyss does not give way to anything, it is not the premise of an abyss. 

I have no idea what comes next, or what could be done next. This requires clear and reliable data and we do not have any, or aren’t given even the indication of clear data. That is the result of a media that is no longer to be trusted. So how bad is the news? It is dependent on the actual amount of bonds being sold off, because that is the hard setting of the decreased revenue that America faces in 2025 (and 2026). 

So this is one day that I don’t go for the casual ‘have a great day’ but a much larger setting of make sure your families are safe, because when the dollars stay away there will be a price to pay.

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March 21, 2025 · 15:00

A new gaming IP

This is merely my idea. It is not an attack or anything like that on AC Shadows. I ignored the game for now until I get a proper review (a review not made by a wannabe influencer). Ad this setting is important, because an influencer goes where the money is and that is likely blowing the flute that Ubisoft supplies along with the music. It is their right and they are backed against a corner, so I don’t blame them. But like those traders dealing $2 stock, it is likely that you end up with a bag with nothing, or at least you lose your $109 investment. As such I stay waiting. Yet, my mind does not wait, regardlessly it ploughs on. And the setting of a Ninja is interesting to my mind. When I think ninja games I still think of Tench Z, it was da bomb in the Xbox360 and at times I miss it. So what to do?

Well I have my own settings to consider. So I went to design a new game. This game plays in Korea in the ‘old’ days. In a stretch from Hwacheon-gun to Yanggu to Chando-yi to Hahoe-ri. A block that slices through both North and South Korea, in this the idea has given me the idea to tell the story of two brothers, they become opponents through ideology and it is important to differentiate in what is good and what is evil. It is merely a point of view. Both get rescued and and as they end up in opposite sides of the river both think the other brother is dead. In game 1 (yes my mind created more than one IP point) they both end up in a battle school, they both support their side and as they become better and better, their abilities and responsibilities grow. 

One side relies on stealth and range weapons, the other on intrusion and close by sentry killing. And such their abilities evolve differently, they don’t come to blow, but the new game gives you the other brother and you have one game and two complete stories. And as they are separated by geology, they also evolve different skills. The north will be in a mountain area with a lake, the other one in forests. They both have their own weapons and in total you get a range of weapons to play with. At the high points of the games you both get involved and as such you are part of building two fortresses. They are both unique and hand you different settings. There are elements that I discussed earlier when I initially created Elder Scrolls 6, Restoration. Not leaving created IP for duds, especially as Bethesda now is part of Microsoft. They can invent their own IP (and they have). And as the next Elder scrolls is not out until 2026 or later. I can do with my own designs whatever I think I want to do with it. The backdrop is that the early ninja’s are allegedly (I’m not an expert on the subject) from Korea (it is said that: Those roots are found in the “art of warfare” that began around 4000 B.C. in Indian culture, was passed to the Chinese mainland, and around the 6th century, passed through the Korean peninsula and crossed over to Japan) and I accept that as a stated fact. It also pays to keep it all fresh and not be another Japan story. In this setting we can see it all as new and by focussing on other weapons it will feel new too. There is at present a lack of real stealth games, so there is that too, especially as you dive into the oriental world. 

It was my thought that the stealth part is more about actual mission. The Art of war is set on 13 Chapters. As such we can in the first game (whether it is one brother or the other) set these 13 chapters in the first game (also educating the player), and a we build the fortress, we create a larger premise, because we need to engage the villages, the people and get the artisans. The lord of the region is always loaded and can pay for ‘anything’ and set that story to the larger premise. It is also a set that we can incorporate the Prince by Machiavelli in this. The second game we need to do things different to make the game greater and larger. One such book could be The Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan. It could set the narration to the lord of the second place and in that that ninja will do a lot of travel and as we already know the first game that ninja will be able to give support in different ways.

I am still ironing out the parts, but the setting was done in a few hours, so Microsoft, eat your heart out. I wanted to set the north south border, but there were too many political players involved, as such I merely saw one Korea and in the time of Koguryo, Paekche, Silla we have three regions, as such two were used and one might be for a sequel. This gives us the political setting we could frame the game to. 

So ever before I see AC Shadow, I will have created the making of another stealth game. So why does it take some years to get to this point? Well that is obvious, the graphics would take time, but that is a challenge for other IP creators. 

As such I will relax a little and keep the mind ploughing through the sides that are still a mystery to me at present.

Have a great gaming today.

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March 14, 2025 · 05:19

All wars are founded on deception

That is a truth that is over 2500 years old. The Chinese gave us the rule, but we were only made aware of this about 600 years ago (right around the time the game Marco Polo became common knowledge). Still the people are unaware of sides of this truth because it interferes with the media collecting on their digital dollars. So there are sides that are not illuminated. 

I have a inkling of standing there, because my premise is set on the sides I have been illuminated on for a few years and it is my understanding that it takes sides on what I believe to be true. You see, one element is that most polarized believes are set around the belief that “President Trump is a moronic idiot” and I do not believe that is true. He is perhaps a bully, he is a megalomaniac but he isn’t as I personally believe a stupid person. You see, as I see it, the exploitative people in New York would have eaten him alive. He was there long enough. And yesterday NPR gave us “The U.S. buys electricity from Canada. Now it’s a focus of the trade war”, this was to be expected. Our brother Canada (I am Australian) takes any opportunity it can get. And over the last few days we were given “Canadian brewery selling pack of 1,461 beers to cope with Trump’s presidency”, a funny sidestep. CBC informed us that they are selling crates of beer (with 1461 cans) so that one crate will last any Canadian with one beer a day until Trump is out of office in 3.84237 years time. The beer is Moosehead and the marketing director Karen Grigg told us that they sold 10 of such crates in 24 hours. The first one in 10 minutes of the announcement. A clever ploy to sell 14.6 thousands cans within a day. I have no idea if the beer is any good, like most American beer some Australian beers are like making love in a canoe (they are fucking close to water). Thank you for that Monty Python ;-).

So as we continue we get the BBC giving us “Trump halts plan for 50% steel and aluminum tariffs on Canada” with the supporting text “Canada has called Trump’s attacks unjustified and announced retaliation, including new tariffs on C$30bn ($22bn; £16bn) of US products.

Ford had announced he would tax electricity exports to the US in an effort to get those tariffs removed. He had also previously said he would “not hesitate to shut off electricity completely” if the US “escalates”.” And at this point President Trump has done a 180 degree turn on his decisions twice. And ABC (Australia) give us ‘Trump announces 50pc tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum in trade war escalation’ with the supporting text “Trump announces 50pc tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum in trade war escalation. He says this is in retaliation for a Canadian province placing a surcharge on its electricity exports into three US states. Tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports into the US are set to come into effect on Wednesday.” Some have the view that this is the economic downturn created to secure to annex Canada as the 51st state. That has the sound of likelihood, because the ‘easiest’ thing to do is to null the tariff the moment he gets Canada. The short sightedness of that is that Canada is part of a Commonwealth. What I don’t like is that (as far as I can tell) Australia and the United Kingdom haven’t outspokenly united behind Canada. Seemingly neither have New Zealand and India, so there is that. ABC reported ‘Anthony Albanese invokes ‘Team Australia’ in pitch to buy local after Trump tariffs’ with the supporting text “Anthony Albanese has suggested Australians should buy Australian goods instead of American ones, invoking “Team Australia” in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs. The PM yesterday accused Peter Dutton of taking the Trump administration’s side over Australia’s, after Mr Dutton said he was “hopeless” and that he could secure an exemption himself if elected.” Not one word of unity behind Canada. The setting becomes that the Commonwealth needs to unite. If I am correct that is essential and the UK needs to bo the same. The BBC reports ‘Starmer says ‘all options on table’ on US tariffs’ and here the subtext is different. “Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said the UK will “keep all options on the table” as US President Donald Trump’s tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum take effect. The UK exports hundreds of millions of pounds worth of steel to the US every year, which will be subject to the 25% levy. The EU, facing the same tariffs, said on Wednesday it would impose counter-tariffs on €26bn (£22bn) of US goods, and Canada also responded with countermeasures, in an escalation of the wider trade war.” This makes me believe that there is more going on and the lack of Canadian support is disgusting. If there are so many billions on the table, the idea that the Commonwealth isn’t talking to China is frowning to say the least. There is almost 100 billion on the table from Canada, the UK and Australia. These three countries need to secure infrastructure and a lot more for a little over 136,000,000 people. So is this the way it will be? Insecurity and inaction whilst (until recent) an Ally is attacking the economy of these nations? 

As I personally see it America is beyond broke. They need Canada for resources, Electricity and water. They are running out of these matters and that is as I personally see the larger issue. And the media isn’t reporting on these parts for at least 5 years. You see one source gives us “The federal government currently has $36.22 trillion in federal debt” and another source gives us “As of February 2025, of the total public debt outstanding ($28.91 trillion)” these two messages are not three months apart, as such how can ANYONE make a somewhat clear oversight of more than 7 trillion ($7,000,000,000,000)? That is a lot more than several nations have as a national budget. But I digress. A debt of $36,220,000,000,000 has interest, Australia has currently a 4.1% interest setting. America will have less, but I reckon that 3% is an acceptable amount, this means that America needs to pay $1,448,800,000,000 in interest on an annual base that is crippling America. In 2023 they collected $2.18 trillion, that means that almost 50% of all collected tax goes to the payment of interest. That is almost 50% of all revenue collected. I warned of this well before I wrote ‘Is it that bad?’ On October 15th 2023 (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2023/10/15/is-it-that-bad/). So for over 2 years the media was kept quiet by media stake holders, are you even troubled in the least over this?

When the media has to report all income from stakeholders the bough breaks (I assume), because the media doesn’t do this service for free and it is likely hidden in ad revenue piles. As such I believe my view to be a decent one and as I started this story, all wars are set to deception and America doesn’t like to be seen as weak, so they started a media tariff war. I am not dismissing the 51st state ploy and the silence from Australia and the United Kingdom give rise to that. But in all honesty, do you really want Australia and England to be your ally when that part is proven to be correct? As I see it the Commonwealth needs a stronger ally and that is where China comes in. As I see it America cannot be seen as an ally when it resorts to these tactics against an ally and in the second place there is a sneaky kind of joy when these tactics result in having their ‘arch-enemy’ China a few miles away for about 5,525 miles. The fun part is that America only needs to build a second Chinese wall a mere 42% of the first one. How much will that cost? And that also implies that three states will have to burn the woods they have left to keep warm, fortunately they are entering summer so they have a few months to build two nuclear reactors and that, oh wait a minute, that takes years. So no luck for America there either.

The tariff wars was as I personally see it the dumbest thing they could entertain, but according to the Beijing Daily, President Xi Jinping has been heard howling with laughter the last few days. Could there be correlation with the acts of President Trump? 

So tune in next week when you will hear Nurse Piggy say: “Kermit where is your credit card?” And the answering silence was deafening. Have a great day or as they say in China “祝你有美好的一天，傻兔子”, or as other say “Whatever makes you happy” (paraphrased)

Have a great day.

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January 21, 2024 · 23:49

Lines of presentation

That is what it at times amounts to. A line of presentation, although in gaming it is called storylines and narration. You see, I have been pondering a few things. We cannot ignore a game like Skyrim and the weaknesses it has. I am not attacking Skyrim. It was released on 11.11.11 and two generations later, it still feels and plays awesome. There have been so many additions and now we need something new. The problem is that we need something really new, not just another version and that got me thinking. To see this we need to take a little historical journey. According to ‘history’ the one of the very first Spymaster was Akashi Motojiro (1904). I personally doubt this for the simple reason that the art of war was written 500BC, implying the Chinese did nothing with chapter 13 for over 2 millennia and that is as far fetched as it will ever get. Sun Tzu gave us the following categories of spies:

  • Local spies
  • Inward spies
  • Converted spies
  • Doomed spies, and 
  • Surviving spies.

But no one (at present has incorporated that in an RPG game. Until now it wasn’t really possible to add this. As such the side quest could be to evolve a spy network. The narration would be upgraded and when you consider the settings of balance, you could teach espionage to one and assassination to the other, the operative part is balance, a sort of detente in RPG gaming. Still the player would get benefit of both. Now consider the implications. Not merely the quests for each type of spy, the setting of learning the scrolls of espionage Ould be added and you would gain another side to the game. Bethesda relies on the Dark Brotherhood and the Thieves Guild. It is something that others need to avoid, but the beginning could be an eye catcher to any gamer. Now consider that a similar stage could be applied to the Hashashim, who were the dread of crusaders in the 11th century, they were the foundation assassins. There is of course the Ninja from Japan, all options to consider in a new RPG game, to set yourself apart rom the others, and as (according to some sources) the next Elder Scrolls is 2 years away, the early bird that chases the new frontiers can care themselves out a very nice slice of that pie. 

Narration
That is merely the gameplay, but the larger stage becomes the storyline, the narration if you like and that is the golden threat of any solid RPG game. There are more sides and I wrote about those lines on May 30th 2022 when I wrote ‘Creating economic sides’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/05/30/creating-economic-sides/). You see, the stories are one, but there needs to be the creation of a balanced economy or the game becomes weak. You see poverty around you, all whilst you have hundreds of thousands of credits. And it is not direct, it is the indirect influence that drives the game forward and these storylines could have a similar approach. Consider 3 locations. One has espionage, one has assassination and one has commerce. They all have their own advantages, but to some degree drawbacks too. You might benefit from all, but only to some degree and it only goes as far as the good will you create. Making choices does that in one direction and takes them away in another direction. It creates a form of balance and makes the game very much replayable, because one impact hits a region different from another. Sides too often overlooked. We might remember Fable where one area was in poverty, or in good standing depending on the actions you took, yet we can take that in a much larger and different directions as well. Until now it was not explored (no negativity implied), however the new streaming systems as well as the new consoles allow for a much stronger and larger play system, larger scenarios and larger areas. And we might think that this is the solution, however without a more verbose storyline and much more profound narration that is not going to be an option that survives. Only two months ago we were given “Starfield’s lacklustre exploration and lack of depth, with players feeling that the game becomes dull and tedious.” I never played the game, so I do not know. But I can understand how this came about and it evangelises my idea of bolder and better narration and story lines. No matter who does it, they need to get ready for a much larger storyline in all kind of directions. The linear storyline is pretty much at an end, but that is my point of view. 

I believe that the next large RPG game needs to set new boundaries and set an entirely new way to narrate a game, more of the same will not get far in 2024 (or 2025 for that matter).

Enjoy Sunday.

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September 20, 2023 · 02:19

Chapter 13

This is not economy (Chapter 11), or procreation (Chapter 17). This is about a very different stage. And this starts with the BBC (at https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-66835995) where we are given ‘Biden urges UN leaders to stand together against Russia’. I agree with the sentiment. Apart from the fact that Russia has become a terrorist nation attacking unarmed civilians (and getting bitch slapped by Paddington bear), there is a much larger setting and the people are mostly in the dark here.

Russia has created a spy network on a global level and it is hindering any actions. The US is clearly in a stage of catering to Russia where its own Republican Party is trying to stop any aid to Ukraine. In addition to this there is still a large amount of American companies doing business in Russia. As such it is nice for President Biden to ask what he is and many support this, but America has to clean out its own front yard and that has not been happening for well over a year. It gives a two sided story to others.

Then we get ‘Dutch defence ministry official arrested for evasion of Russia sanctions’ (at https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/news/dutch-defence-ministry-official-arrested-for-evasion-of-russia-sanctions/) where we see “The Dutch Fiscal Information and Investigation Service (FIOD) arrested a Defence Ministry official accused of having evaded EU sanctions against Russia by exporting spare aircraft parts to Russia via third countries, the government agency announced on Friday.” This is a defence ministry official. On top of all this there are NATO links, but the concrete level and levels of access are unknown to me.

From there we get to ‘Germany charges intelligence ‘mole’ with treason in Russia spying case’ which was handed to us in the beginning of September by the BBC. The story (at https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66727785) is where we are given “Prosecutors believe Carsten L shared intelligence about the war in Ukraine and the Wagner mercenary group and received roughly €400,000 (£340,000), according to German reports.” To make matters worse, Carsten L is a high ranking officer in German intelligence. 

These are merely a few stories in a vast collection of events. It affects The Netherlands, the US, Germany, France and a few more nations. You see, Chapter 13 is the chapter on Espionage in the Art of War (Sun Tzu). That chapter gives us that there are 5 types of spies.

Local spies
Inward spies
Converted spies
Doomed spies
Surviving spies

And Russia has all 5 types all over Europe and the US, as such the comment by Stoltenberg “Nobody knows how long this war will last, he says, but with the support of NATO and the international community, Ukraine has been able to push Russia back.” Goes wrong. The intent is nice, but as long as you do not clean your house, too many political and wannabe players will destroy whatever you are trying to achieve. It is perhaps the one part I agree on with Joseph McCarthy, until your house is clean you are headed for disaster. To be honest I never expected to EVER quote McCarthy, but the anti Ukrainian setting in the US and these fake peace proclaimers are showing him to be correct. And until the cleaning is done, matter will only get worse and I believe that some realise this, but the rest is pushed to sleep it through (until too late) which will end up being the start of a disaster. 

Sun Tzu is merely one example There is also Carl von Clausewitz (On war), yet the Art of War is (as I personally see it) much better, more generic and more versatile. The problem (for the Netherlands and Germany) is to see what kind of spy their spy was. A converted or a doomed spy. To act for money makes a person a doomed spy, but it is unclear how long this had been going on, especially when someone parks funds at the behest of a mother in laws maiden name and when that account is in a place like Saudi Arabia, finding these funds will be near impossible, making the foundation of what kind of adversary harder. 

In the case of Germany there is even more. Many parts of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) support Russia, its foreign policy, and its allies. For example, AfD members and activists were listed as keeping close ties with Russian politicians and receiving financial benefits in an OCCRP investigation of Russia’s International Agency for Current Policy. And these people are part of what is said to be the AfD pro-Russia movement. Two nations and several to find. France is cleaning house and they made progress, but they are only finding those who weren’t clever enough to mask their actions and there are plenty in many nations who were that clever making progress an issue. That is what we see now, but what we do not see (and most will not know) is how the FSB (and optionally the GRU) are working in India and Pakistan. It is clear that they are there, but the level of access and how deep they are rooted in those political climates is (as far as I know) unknown and speculating is useless. No matter how you slice and dice this, until there is some proper cleaning there will be a larger problem and it is not going away any day soon.

Enjoy the mid week that is about to come (I’m already there).

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April 16, 2022 · 21:36

Economic arrogance of Achieving

This is a station I recently came to and it has nothing to do with the bravery of Ukraine, or the stupidity of Russia. Even though that setting might have touch-points the larger station is NOT war. The thoughts came from the Art of War by Sun Tsu. There we learn ““The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.” “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.”

Yet this quote was subverted by economists and wannabe economic strategists into smething like: ““The supreme art of profit is to gain profit without cost” “If you know the final cost and profit, you need not fear the result of 100 investments” If you know the profit but do not know the cost, for every profitable endeavour achieved one will fail.” This is a side I feel is going on in business, but now also in mobile gaming. A stage where games work but only if you watch advertisements. I tried a game and even as it has repetitive sides, it also has campaign sides and those sides are limiting, but if you watch 37 advertisements you are on your way to get to 50% in a three day event. Consider that 37 advertisements. To game, to play a free game, but it is hindered, not by repetition (well that too), but to get anywhere you need to watch that many advertisements. Now you can limit yourself by BUYING ad free settings, by buying elements in EVERY campaign. And I am not against these settings, just the statin that to get anywhere in that game will require you to invest in advertisements. Now this is not against any rules, not against any law and the makers are not doing anything wrong. Now consider the advertisement. The advertisement in SOME cases will allow for you to play a level, or part of a level, but in many cases should you touch the mouse or the pointer, the install screen is called for. A side I call deceptive conduct, but that could just be me. What is seen is iteration after iteration of “The supreme art of profit is to gain profit without cost” and it is deceptive, there is always a cost, in this case at the expense of the game.

It is the idiocy of “The supreme art of profit is to gain profit without cost”, it is a fictive state of exploitation and nearly all the larger players are involved in that. Do you think that I would have so much IP? Some people at Google, Amazon and even Microsoft should be running circles around me, around people like Elon Musk. But they are all in that pretentious state where “The supreme art of profit is to gain profit without cost” is the solution to everything. It is not, it really is not. 

My stage of 5G comes from a state of rejecting the obvious and inverting the funnel and then looking the other way. The stage of gaming came from looking in a direction no one was willing to look towards and none of them adhere to the stage of “The supreme art of profit is to gain profit without cost” And that is where I found optional billions, one of them has question marks, but if done right could amount to a lot more than even I had in mind and it does depend on a stage, but that stage is being catered to. So when it all comes out, I can look at players like Microsoft and laugh out loud. Consider that the wealthiest corporations are Apple (1), Microsoft (2, for now), Google/Alphabet (4) and Amazon (5) and I am the one with the IP? Consider that they should be ahead of the curve, but they are not, because I am speculating that their economic advisors told them “The supreme art of profit is to gain profit without cost”, and because of that Tesla has a mobile phone coming, a market that Microsoft pretty much lost to Google and Apple and now there is a third player. There am I with my 5G and gaming IP and a few more IP options, one directly opposing Sony and Fujitsu and it is based on technology of the 90’s. So how much did these companies lose by relying on “The supreme art of profit is to gain profit without cost”, I merely go by the old statement “You cannot make an omelet without breaking eggs”, a truth that has been out in the open for centuries. What else did these players overlook?

I will let you figure that out, I at least saw one additional failure, but no spoilers, it is up to you to see what they cannot see.

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December 6, 2021 · 12:24

During the script

Yes, it is part of a sequel. Yet the stories are not linked. It is a view that grew whilst contemplating the previous story, but it is not linked to that story. It is actually a spy story. In these stories the timeline is important, but the facts can be jumbled to add to the suspense in the story. We can use Anna, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and the Night watchman as examples. Of hand I will tell you now that the thought of equalling anything John Le Carre has written is ludicrous from the start, it is the delusion of a lifetime and if the writer did not work for a serious intelligence organisation, any dream of equalling Le Carre is plain folly.

Yet there are a few things we can learn from the master. I loved both Tinker Tailor as well as Smiley’s People. Not in the least for the fact that they were played by Alec Guinness, but the setting of the story was real, it was more than an exercise in nitpicking. Information and in that stage intelligence is about verification. I personally reckon that is why the CIA has failed more than once. We all want the setting of a mind boggling conspiracy, but what if the cogs are small? What if we have a setting with a former president and allegiances with other governments and that becomes a larger hindrance? 

You see if the man was indeed a former president, governor or senator there is a larger field. You cannot be certain that the people verifying the information can be trusted, so how to go about it? Smiley took a small team of people HE trusted, but they were in the cold, their allegiance was everything (as well as their love of country). We can mimic this to some degree, but too much makes for a copy and we want our own laurels. So we have two options. We can seek another player, in the light of the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Yet there is a problem. You see whomever is that person has their own agenda. In this case we can fall back on the Art of War by Sun Tsu and seek the wisdom of applying a setting of Reverse spy, inside spy and a few dead spies. The latter needs to be multiple and all but one get exactly the same story, one gets a slightly adjusted truth. When this is done we create a form of verification, what is the reverse spy playing? What is his or her personal agenda and more importantly how trustworthy is that data. The longer the dead spies are intact, the more reliable the data is seen and that is why one will have adjusted intelligence. In the mean time, the inside spy awaits certain information sources to ring or not ring that becomes the setting. Yet to apply that to a script is massive and time consuming. I reckon that the watchmaker approach is the best (but this is a personal view). We insert cog after cog and adjust the stories for each cog if needed, if a new cog is added we look at the timeline, we look at the interactions and we test the story and even better, if we have a person we truly trust with that story, we ask that person to read and test the logic of the approach. It is a way and if someone tells us that this is not the most efficient way, I would wholeheartedly agree, but re writing a spy story is murder on several levels, as such I personally believe that a slow and steady testing of all elements is the best way, moreover, as we see certain elements fall over, we can decide to add another cog, or perhaps join two cogs into a larger cog. The larger cog tends to need a much larger backstory, yet that is the smallest consideration. Consider the secret agent Demons Jab. What would that agent be without a support and information setting? 

Is there a reason? Well consider that there needs to be a reason to off a person (see previous article), the setting could be vengeance, the reason could be spy related, terrorist related or national security considerations? The latter part is often better served through smear campaigns and the media is always up for exclusive information, and they do not always properly vet that information, so there are alternatives. Yet the alternative might not be enough and then that act becomes a cog in the machine we need to build. 

Anyway these are the thoughts I had on creating a spy story and perhaps I am no good at it, but I reckon that I might give it a go when the other book is done, at 65000-70000 words I am well over half way at present, so whilst I await certain players to consider a few options (as well as a 5G solution) I might as well remain creative. Personally I would love to write one book in every genre but I am clueless on romance (Jane Austen) scared to death on Horror (Neil Gaiman), too present for Science Fiction (Arthur C Clarke) and optionally a little too dim for intelligence stories (John Le Carre), all masters in their own field and there are so many more fields to consider, but as life goes, I might not be bored until the day I die, which suits me just fine. 

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August 9, 2021 · 22:24

Operation Hazen Ames

It is night, Michael Weatherly is being casual, he is making small talk with another person. He explains that there is no need for the one exit to be watched. He closes the reinforced door that had the room with the information he needed. He then trips the alarm, turns around to the mirrored wall and pulls away the table, there is one screw. He unscrews it and pulls out the screw connected to an umbrella plug, the wall comes down. He clicks the other side open and points to the partner to get through. They go through and as he closes the initial mirror wall, the magnets in the table and wall push the table back in place. The umbrella plug is glued to the screw, it now operates as a screwdriver, Michael attaches something to the screw, he then click pushes the second wall back into place, the magnets hold it firm. They moved through an unmonitored small corridor and enter a supply room at the end is a rack with goods, he clicks on a button and the rack moves up a few millimetres, the wheels are now down, he moves the rack and signs the partner to quickly goes through. The moves through and there is a small food elevator there. He closes the wall and pulls two wires to set the rack back where it was, he had 10 seconds left, he can hear people running towards the place they had just left. They enter the food elevator and quietly opens the back panel, he goes through, the partner follows, he closes the elevator door and the back panel, then presses a button. The food elevator moves quietly down. 

For me it is easy to explain why the person is Michael Weatherly. I have been re-watching 12 seasons of NCIS during the lockdown the last two weeks. The issue is that this is part of a spy story, but not one you would expect. You see, this situation happened, it was a CIA operation, one of many and the story is not the common parts of the TV series, this series is not NCIS or Bull (I never saw Bull). The setting is that the TV series and episodes are a tell tale to the foreign governments to show them how they were transgressed upon and the TV episodes have fake names (as any series does) with a reference to an anagram to the operation. Someone decided to turncoat the CIA and uses the methods to make money on the side, from the studios as well as the extra checks from the governments he is supplying the evidence to, a nice little operation.

Yet the setting on TV series, as we see the use of ‘clever’ terrorists, there is a second fear, not that the opposition is more clever than the terrorists. It is that greed driven elements see their option clear AFTER the operation, not merely endangering what comes next, but giving away the past endangering more as well. It was the setting for an episode of any crime and spy driven series, yet I have no idea why the idea sparked into my mind. Whether it is about double agents, self turned greed driven agents or another kind, we are (through the Art of War) confronted with 5 types of spies. 

Local spies
Inward spies
Converted spies
Doomed spies
Surviving spies


The Art of war teaches us that if all five types are used it is impossible to discover the secret system, but as said the old days did not consider the greed driven logistics that we see today. You can read the Art of War to see and learn about the 5 types, yet the setting is altered in todays espionage. We have minders, archivists and now as one turns the colour of his shield, there is a larger danger that it turns Local spies into Doomed spies, a game changer many are not able to deal with. In any operation the local spy is the anchor, a barge without an anchor can move from the shadows into the floodlights of the other player. Am I right? Am I imagining (or fantasising) this? It is but a dream, yet in this we also find the larger stage of what matters. Even though von Clausewitz gives us that mot intelligence is false, there is a consideration that he considered himself a gentleman and as such espionage was beneath him and it was never considered a valid form of warfare. Sun Tsu is much more relevant, he saw espionage as a valid tool and his approach to any tool n hist setting to war is how to use tools the most efficiently. The concern he had for spies is like all other tools, if it protects the homeland, that is how we use it and in that era the general and his administrator were dedicated to the land they protect. In todays situation the logistics of war is on a sliding scope of what comes next and as such the undervalued and the discarded are drawn to whatever pays for a little better lifestyle than they are set to have, and they will use what is at their disposal, as such it is the archivist and the administrator that become the weakest link in a spy system. A situation that no movie or TV series has looked at. With all the thousands of episodes and hundreds of movies, I casually found a vulnerable unexplored link, yay me!

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