Tag Archives: Kingdom Holding

September 8, 2025 · 10:53

Setting to lull

That is not a setting I usually entertain, but the stage is now that I am. In the first the alcoholic across the hall decided to play his music 50 dB over the allowed limit and the land lord does nothing. He is the guy who casually mentioned that he went to school with the Beatle (he does not have a Liverpool accent) and he filmed President Putin topless on a horse. He is that kind of useless. 

In the meantime I could bash the idiots brain in, but then I go to prison and I am hoping that some of my irons will result in revenue making this place a massive part of me immediate past. So I need to suck it up, which in this setting of ageism is not easy. I am still working on two other scripts, but my lack of Final Draft exposure makes it a little hard. Redesigning blog articles into script parts is not a clear cut as it should be. I might redo part in pages and then import it into Final Draft, but that is for another day. As I was looking into these scripts (I have currently 4 scripts), one has been submitted to Channels in Saudi Arabia and the UAE as this script would appeal to an Islamic population. I might want to learn the setting of Indonesia, but I reckon that these two will also show my work to the audiences in Indonesia, Bangladesh and Egypt. That is the first. The second one is Vitam Exhauriens which played in part in New Orleans and in part all over the world. Then there is Keno Diastimas which is in an undisclosed location under water. And that has a few lovely twists. That one is an open-ended three seasons part with the open ending (I thought it was better that way and a wink in the direction of Terry Gilliam A director I have admired for a long time. The fourth one is the one that is ‘now’ in season three and is called Engonos. That one is in part in London, in part in Greece and in part in Turkey (so these parts need to be found in one locations), but that is not my problem, my ‘challenge’ is the story and these three are on my plate. I have progression in both Vitam Exhauriens and Keno Diastimas, but they have different ‘challenges’ the second one is pretty complete, but I am still uncertain about some of the elements, to make it fit better as a story and as a TV show, but that is my challenge.

The second setting is about making some issues work (not the scripts). As I see the world going to hell in a hand basket, I can merely look at what happens and see how it unfolds. There is nothing I can do about it. As Reuters is giving us ‘US unemployment rate near 4-year high as labor market hits stall speed’ as well as ‘Wall Street Week ahead inflation data looms for markets’ and that happens whilst we also get Goldman Sachs as Reuters gives us ‘Goldman takes $1 billion stake in T. Rowe to tap retirement money’ and there we get “Big financial firms such as Goldman, BlackRock and Morgan Stanley are making a big push into alternative assets, an area dominated by private equity firms, to capitalize on their growth potential and attract new clients.” And that has to go at the cost of retirement money? I am not an economist and I do not claim to be one, but there is something ‘shoddy’ (in my mind) that a bank would invest a billion dollars. It usually is to get more in return. So how does this help retirees? I made mention that the BIGFIN and government would shake the retirement tree at some point. Is this the beginning?

I do not know, but it makes me uneasy. You see, if this is happening in America now, then soon enough (I have no idea when) it will happen to the United Kingdom, Australia and Europe as well. When? That is anyones guess and I reckon that the American setting is dire enough to do this now, but it takes a lot more knowledge to confirm or scuttle the setting we see here. The Financial Times is hanging the question whether the America economy is already in recession and the should know, so it seems like the economists at large are playing musical chairs. All that whilst the Economist comes with ‘What if the AI Stockmarket blows up?’ With the byline that “We find that the potential cost has risen alarmingly high” I could have told them that over a year ago and the entire builder.ai with the setting of Microsoft pumping it up to a billion dollars wasn’t a nearly dead giveaway? 

It is now as we approach Q4 that the ‘high’ costs are ‘suddenly’ getting the forefront news. And this happens in a time when America is getting hit with negative news after negative news. I saw most parts of this coming, but now we seemingly get it all in one quarter and I reckon that is the moment the larger companies start shedding more and more jobs whilst hiding behind the nonexistent AI wall. Yup, that will give several people a bloody nose to begin with and when the media wakes up from all this screaming “What’s this, how could this happen?” You know you’ve been had because they (the media) merely care about their digital dollars. So whilst we get all this, The Financial Times also gives us ‘Peter Mandelson warns US and UK must unite to halt Chinese tech supremacy’, I could not read the article as I am not a member, but here is a thought. How about becoming an actual ‘innovative’ force. Not claiming that you are, but becoming one. I am hoping that Peter Mandelson refers to the British Ambassador to the United States. You see, China is at least a furlong ahead of the rest and when we see a race that is merely 5 furlongs you are already losing that race. If the race is 12 furlongs you are less likely to become winner, at best you can hope to come a contender and I have shown that Amazon and Google dropped the ball a few times leaving billions on the floor. Al claiming that they had the AI field in hand. But there is no AI field, not yet and that realisation gives the setting. I basically handed the open victory to Al Waleed bin Talal Al Saud as well as Tencent. Whether they would grab that open ball for the win is anyone’s guess, but that is where we stand. So whilst we see all kinds of places shedding thousands of people, I cannot vouch for Google doing that. There is talks that thousands were shed, but it is specific (and I do not know all the details), so whilst we see that these people are shed, we see ‘their’ reasons for shedding sales people and being replaced by AI agents. That is out in the open. I am not judging as DML is a setting that can be applied to advertising. So how that goes will be in the corridors of awaiting judgment.

Still we see a massive change happening and I am (fiercely) hoping that people like Al Waleed bin Talal Al Saud see the wisdom that I bring (it would make my retirement a decent certainty). But that too is out in the open. I do know that if my retirement depends on the American setting that I end up working until the day I die in hunger. Not a setting I relish mind you.

So I end up in a waiting pattern for now. Have a great day. My Monday is off to a rocky start.

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August 30, 2025 · 04:36

Vindication of a sort

Yup that is the setting we face today. I feel a little vindicated. You see, when we look on the American Tourism seeing, we see the ‘fact’ that the damage would amount to 29 billion. It is a setting we faced for some time now. But I wrote on August 11th 2025 ‘The setting stage’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2025/08/11/the-setting-stage/) where I wrote “that the expected damage to American Tourism would be a lot worse than $29 billion. I speculatively expect it to be at least 80 billion” that was over two weeks ago. Now MSN gives us ‘Study Warns Trump Tariffs Could Deliver $64 Billion Hit to U.S. Tourism Businesses’, I reckon that when they start considering the bankruptcies in Florida and California are added, they will get a lot closer to my 80 billion, they might even surpass my predictions as I used simple arithmetic to this equation. As such I feel a little vindicated. And there is something else, we are given ““When there’s trouble in the economy, the first thing people cut is their travel budget,” Jonathan de Araujo, owner of Florida’s Disney-focused travel agency Vacationeer, told the Washington Post — noting he fears more of that reaction if consumers see the wider negative effects of tariffs materialize. “They wait until it’s time to pay in full, and they say, ‘Actually I can’t afford this.’ That’s what I’m worried about.”” The one element they ‘overlooked’ is that Yas Island in Abu Dhabi (UAE) is almost ready to replace Florida as a destination. Next year Harry Porter will be introduced and two years after that Disney comes calling and with that, a full blown alternative for Florida comes into play. So, yes my numbers were ‘conservative’ in nature, I merely learned of Disney coming to the UAE after my calculations, so there.

So whilst we bicker about what hardship America faces, we need to consider that Florida will be feeling the pinch in several ways. They just invested over 7 billion dollars into the EPIC universe park and the cost to be there is up to $139 per adult. As such the UAE has better prices, several alternatives and several pleasure packets that end up being up to 60% cheaper. So yes, with a family of 4 (mum, dad and two brats) the cost savings start to add up, add to that the VISA costs of America and the savings are clearly made. Now add the fact that the UAE is a zero tax nation, as such there are a few apples that come to mind. Yes, Florida and California now have a problem and I reckon that a bandaid  of 80 billion dollars doesn’t cover the losses they face. And yes I did take the hardships of New York, Chicago and a few other places into account.

As a bonus to me, I just saw the predictions that Saudi Arabia has upcoming gaming (projected to be over $1.5 billion) and I predicted to Kingdom holdings a setting that will grant them an additional 6 billion annually. So I am feeling a little great, well I will be if I my IP is bought.

Oh, and the blasting of the UAE goes on, we now get a Florida publication giving us (at https://www.cubaenmiami.com/en/turistas-estadounidenses-deben-estar-atentos-los-emiratos-arabes-unidos-permiten-solo-90-dias-de-estancia-en-180-dias-de-viaje/) ‘US tourists should beware: The UAE allows only 90 days of stay in 180 days of travel.’ Which a little silly. You see, the UAE visa “60-day visa costs AED 300 plus VAT” (which is like $84). And since when have you ever had a vacation for more than 60 days? A 30 day VISA is even cheaper than that (like 30%). So why on earth does this article serve any purpose? If you can afford a 90 day vacation, you can apply for a decent residency. But that is merely my thought on this. I would love a permanent residency there, but it requires the Kingdom Holding to acquire my IP (that would make me happy too). So as such anything more than a 3 week vacation is not in my budget of expectations (at present). And if my IP is acquired I will seek permanent residency anyway. 5 theme parks and a giant mall? Yup, that is the life for me.

As I see it, America felt the ‘need’ to blast the UAE as their tourism hardships are getting out of proportions. They need every American to spend money in America. That is the only way they avoid total collapse of their tourist industry. As I see it, for every tourist visiting the UAE in the next three years, they will convince at least 2 tourists to go there too, as such all these people will not visit America any day soon. With the immense amount of tourist opportunities, They will capture the imagination of global tourists. Formula one, beaches, a waterpark, the Harry Potter fans and the Disney lovers. All over them will set their sights on Yas island and Abu Dhabi and that is before you consider the other attractions and museums Abu Dhabi has to offer, as well as zero tax shopping. Florida and California just got outclassed by a lot and it is all in one city, that being said it is a 30 minute train ride from Dubai and the biggest mall on the planet. I think enough has beed said. Still we should mention desert here are the prices on Yas Island. It comes down to under $5. 

So how much do you pay in Florida or California? The calculations are easy and the added benefit is that the UAE is almost come free, women comment that they have been able to walk in the UAE free of fear. That in itself is worth the ticket. So whilst the die is cast, I feel kinda great today. I have bee right all along on a few items and if that second item can get me my income I might be able to retire on Yas Island as well. What a luxury thought to have on this Saturday at 04:45 almost a whole day of feeling bliss this Saturday. Have a great day today. I know I will.

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July 19, 2025 · 11:19

Yesterday’s IP served tomorrow

Yes, that is the bad ground of the story, but it is not all it is set to be. You see, I have ‘seen’ different settings through all kinds of sources (who claim to have been whispered to by those who are in the know), basically it is almost impossible to get any kind of information that is decently reliable. Now, if there is nothing to report, fine. If they have nothing to say, don’t say anything. I am fine with that, but ‘the powers that are’ basically the marketing divisions of those who I don’t care about are of the mind that if we aren’t postulating or speculating on what might be, the game no longer matters. They basically started this by announcing a new game four years before the pre production is finished. As such (as I personally see it) we will not see a new Mass Effect before 2027/2028. Basically 7 years AFTER the announcement. It is worse than the media monster being fed. As I personally see it (and I might be wrong) these developers start the rumor to see if they are on the right track, if there will be investors before the hype gets out of control. This I not the way to do gaming. It is bad enough that Microsoft doesn’t have a clue on what they are doing, but when the developers do a similar game, gaming is close to finished. We can set the exception to Sony and Nintendo, but some of their games are in a similar setting (example Mass Effect) and now we see that Bethesda has a ‘stellar’ surprise coming to us in October. This is fine, it is a mere 4 months away, so this could be done for several reasons and when it is within 10 months, I think it is an acceptable timeline for any game of ‘rerelease’. There are all kinds of people claiming that Morrowind is coming, Fallout 3 is coming to PS5 and Xbox series X, whatever the reason we know that ‘influencers’ need time to get traction and it is easy to block all their material instantly. So fine, if they want to chance that approach. This is THEIR right (and mine to block them). 

Of course I am curious to news games like Horizon Speculated Game 3. I loved the first two and these games are awesome. The same could be said for Bethesda games. I get that everyone wants to see something on The Elder Scrolls 6, but I think Todd Howard made a mistake mentioning it in 2018 and that gets the ‘fans’ riled. It is 2025 now and the last thing we heard (two weeks ago) was “we can count on is that Fallout 5 is set to come after the Elder Scrolls 6” and that has a speculative release date 2026, but there is nothin official, as such it ight not happen before 2027, so 9 years after the announcement. So, how clueless were the people at Bethesda? Was it because they needed to cash in on the $7,500,000,000? I actually do not know, but I can speculate just as well as anyone else. The setting is laced into the field of not getting updated on information and the fact that announcements were made at least 8 years too soon. 

It is anyones guess at this point. The funny side of this was the fact that I had created a storyline for Elder Scrolls 6 11 years ago. This doesn’t mean it was accepted or even read by Bethesda, but the simple setting that there was something out there that long ago and I also placed it later on this blog. I ever created a new setting making the new game a multi game setting with optional new stages overall.  Game that would test the RPG lover is new and never before seen ways. The idea came to me when I revamped IP by Vinton Cerf in new and never contemplated before ways. And in the setting I created gives the new IP a setting of Patent of Addition and as it shows new novelty it should stand. 

This is the setting that was out there for close to a decade. A setting I offered (before they were bought by Microsoft) and as I do not allow Microsoft near my IP, I set it to a new game setting (also published here) and making it published Microsoft cannot make claim to it (unless they pay me a truckload of money). 

So whilst that played, I also though of IP’s I created a few years ago and that would hand this who hide in the shelters of TEMU some disease where they might find more stuff. So we have that allegedly game designers spout ‘silent’ hints to influencers and see where they get and on the other hand there are people like me (I doubt that I am the only one) who spout IP settings for any non-Microsoft developer are freeware. In between these two fronts we get developers who announce games 2550 days before current non-release. We get all sorts on the internet and I reckon that gamers are starting to get fed up with that setting. Well, I have an excuse, I offer it to game makers and I don’t claim that it is coming. 

So what do gamers have to look out for? That is the setting and that is where the people on the Nintendo Switch 2 and the Sony Playstation 5 get to reek in the profits. Nintendo got 5 million Switch 2 consoles sold in 26 days, Microsoft never ever did this well (as I personally see it). Isn’t is weird that Microsoft only shows some sales figures consisting of the aggregation of series S and series X? I personally believe that this is as series X has no traction. I could be wrong in this. 

Oh and the setting that I give away ‘free’ ideas is shown on April 5th 2025 in ‘A political game’ (at  https://lawlordtobe.com/2025/04/05/a-political-game/) where I offered the idea (a revamp of Frogger) to any Canadian software developer to release on any system. I made sure it was feasible on mobile, so that CANADIAN developers would have some means to counter American tariffs and at the same time make fun of these Americans. It was my way of aiding my Canadian brethren (sisters too). I am not just creative, I can be a sneaky scoundrel too.

So when you get this, consider why it takes these developers this long to get going? They just fired thousands in this field and as such you get to wonder why. As such you might start to wonder if this is what the big boys are now reduced to. Merely rereleasing old hits? If that is so the next best idea is at least a year away when a ‘revamped’ version of Skyrim hits the shelves for Switch 2 and PS6. And that was before I gave the idea to Kingdom Holding giving them the inner track to 50 million gamers and the setting for a close to 1000 games. So do you feel that the gaming world is good, or is it now riddled with Business graduates who rely on Excel to make their paycheck? Considering that gaming is a form of art, I wonder how many developers made their business graduate supply a drawing that required personal art created and submitted during their interview. 

Just asking.

Have a great day today. It is almost 18:30 in Vancouver. I wonder if anyone has taken a picture today of all the traffic going into America via Peace Arch Border Crossing. It seems that I like to ruffle feathers today.

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January 8, 2025 · 00:57

Dens, first name Evie

That is the setting where I am. It was the BBC that gave me (at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9q78wn9g8zo) where we see ‘US designates Tencent a Chinese military company’ and my first question is “By what evidence?” You see, we can go back to the European tour by Colin Powell, armed with a silver briefcase where he travelled around Europe like a rockstar and that is how we got into the Iraqi war. They had graphics (probably a powerpoint presentation). Then we got the accusations against Huawei. We never got to see any evidence and as I saw it America was afraid to lose the 5G war and they basically still did. Now we get that Tencent is on route to basically throw Microsoft in the dirt and now they are a military complex? To do what? Unite gamers all over the world? And what evidence do we get? The simplistic line “including gaming and social media giant Tencent” Where is the evidence? Then we are given “The list serves as a warning to American companies and organisations about the risks of doing business with Chinese entities. While inclusion does not mean an immediate ban, it can add pressure on the US Treasury Department to sanction the firms.” Funny, Tencent was offered my gaming solution that would bring them 6 billion a year in phase one, after that the numbers become interesting. You see, Amazon had no interest (they never contacted me) and as such the Amazon Luna seems to be out of consideration, Google placed themself outside the scope as they deleted the Google Stadia and I will not let Microsoft near any of my IP (as I personally see them, they are losers that rely on the gods of mediocrity) which leaves Tencent. As I see it, the first stage would get them a nominal annual revenue of up to 6 billion, which is set to 50,000,000 consoles. After that with up to 200 million consoles the ride becomes exciting. I offered it also to Saudi Arabia and Kingdom Holding as they have larger concerns in this and There is a hidden pleasure in me to see Saudi Arabia end up above Microsoft, they are that irrelevant to me. It would also impact Facebook (Meta) revenue, but I cannot say to what extent (lack of numbers and achievable timeline)

A simple setting I saw 3 years ago and no one seemingly caught on. 

As such we see all kinds of wannabe players, but there is no evidence, at least it is not clearly given. And when we get to “In response to the latest announcement Tencent, which owns the messaging app WeChat, said its inclusion on the list was “clearly a mistake.” “We are not a military company or supplier. Unlike sanctions or export controls, this listing has no impact on our business,” a spokesperson for the company told the BBC.” Some might catch on that America is merely trying to to prevent Microsoft to go several steps closer to bankruptcy. So they are setting (in my personal believe) the status for Europe to shun Chinese firms. Yet the larger setting is that they are merely setting up the shop for Tencent to become close to an Arabic and Asian provider to entertainment. So in 2-3 years when Tencent, TikTok and Huawei grow beyond their borders we will see the scared Europeans go overboard and let them into their areas and as I see it Tencent is on the brink of shutting Microsoft out of a population of close to 3 billion people (Asia, India, Arabian nations, Indonesia and Bangladesh) and as such as they get the people on their side Europe with over half a billion people will be joining them as well. Microsoft might be a 3 trillion company but I reckon that in a year with failure after failure, their vaults and coffers will look rather slim-lined. 

And for the people thinking I am bluffing, well, you are allowed to think that, but consider a small setting. Microsoft lost to Nintendo and Sony and all we get all the junk news like that they are working on a handheld computer. The problem is that Nintendo is already there and Tencent is coming as well (exact time unknown to me). So Microsoft is already in third place and it will get worse from there, because you need people in the end and they are somewhere else and now that they are ‘advocating’ cloud gaming with TV’s we need to realise that this require too much bandwidth, as such that ship is sailing fast towards the abyss of failure (as I personally see it). Then we get their Surface pro and the short and sweet is that it is nowhere as useful as what Apple has. I see that as another failure. You see in the 11 years that contraption was around, it did not push Apple from the winning pedestal. No matter how much they spin the story. And when you consider that gaming and tablet as well as the fact that Blizzard and Bethesda were bought for 75 billion. So how much did they make? Nowhere near that much and Starfield was a bust from the beginning. Billions in the Surface pro and that is not paying off either. So how many failures can they survive? And now Tencent is entering gaming with the option to create serious waves. It is the impact of innovation. As I see it, spin gets you nowhere and now the new spin for players like Microsoft is to let the administration deal with the Chinese and with the return president elect Trump Microsoft is cheering as President elect Trump is anti-Chinese. But the trouble isn’t what they have. It is that over 4 billion do not see America as the centre of the universe. Which gives Tencent an option and when (speculative) Tencent will adhere to the stage of Harmony OS, the setting for Microsoft and Google goes down a mot more. You see HarmonyOS joined iOS and Android on the world stage. Yes, it is a mere third place, but every step they make is one that Apple and Google lose and Google has more problems because of the stupidity of the American legal system. They are just slicing pieces of the revenue pie for Huawei to take a bite from and as Huawei grows Google and Apple will lose some market share. And as Huawei and Tencent connect they will both grow stronger. How strong? That is not easy to say, but the small beginning will endure over time and America pushed for this and now it is too late. As the market changes Huawei and Tencent will robustly grow to some effect. Now we get the ‘accusation’ that Tencent is part of the Chinese military companies, which is formally known as the Section 1260H. And that is a nice game, but the others (pretty much all others) want to see evidence as Europe and the Commonwealth will demand evidence. They are seeing what revenue these two players bring and Microsoft merely brought failure after failure. As I see it innovation talks and failure walks alone and when someone will consider the turncoat metrics of Microsoft trying to get whatever they can as their console and tablet fails to do. As for Azure? It is lagging behind AWS (Amazon) by 50%, so don’t get your hope up. Another failure as I see it. So how much revenue is lost over these three parts only? So as the secretary of the Pentagon is not too busy (Miss E Dens) we would like to see the evidence that Tencent is part of the Chinese military. I don’t say it is not, I merely want to see evidence for a change (we never saw the WMD evidence, or the Huawei evidence), just for argument sake.

Have a great day, my Wednesday started 3000 seconds ago.

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November 21, 2024 · 15:27

Tweety and the mariposa

That is the setting. It is a small nod towards the Master and Margarita written by Mikhail Bulgakov. The story is set towards a professor named Woland (aka Lucifer Morningstar). There is more to this, but I will let you figure this out. Today I saw a CNN report (at https://edition.cnn.com/2024/10/02/business/elon-musk-twitter-x-fidelity/index.html) where we are given ‘Elon Musk’s X is worth nearly 80% less than when he bought it, Fidelity estimates’. Well I could have told you that as the report of October 2nd did. Actually I did on August 20th 2022 in the article ‘Is it intentional ignorance?’ (At https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/08/20/is-it-intentional-ignorance/). I came to the conclusion that Twitter was highly overvalued, a firm named Trollrensics had even more compelling data then I had. It was my view that Twitter was overvalued by at least 10-20 billion dollars. And we were given “Mr Musk is currently in dispute with Twitter, after trying to pull out of a deal to purchase the company for $44bn (£36.6bn).” There was nothing noble at my approach. I reckoned that if my data was accepted and proven validly that even a 1% commission of the saving would hand me $50,000,000 – $200,000,000, which makes for a lovely retirement parachute. Alas Elon Musk never responded to me (as far as I know Trollrensics never got a call either). This matter as we see now in October 2024 “That new estimate marks a 24% drop in value from what Fidelity estimated as of the end of July. And it represents a staggering decline of 79% from the $19.66 million that Fidelity estimated the shares were worth in October 2022 when Musk acquired Twitter. The new valuation from Fidelity implies that it believes X is now worth just $9.4 billion — a far cry from the $44 billion that Musk paid. Other investors could value X differently.” Some will shrug, some will smile and others will just think ‘whatever’. The issue becomes that we are given ““Musk clearly overpaid for this asset,” Dan Ives, managing director and senior equity analyst at Wedbush Securities, told CNN in an email. Ives said that he believes Twitter was really worth around $30 billion when Musk bought it, and today it’s worth closer to $15 billion. He said that while engagement on X is “strong,” ad pressure has persisted.” There are two elements here. One is the overpaying of the system, the other is that Elon Musk is no dummy. He had a larger setting from the start and as I see it, he got Saudi Prince Al Waleed bin Talal Al Saud to foot nearly 2 billion of that money. As I personally see it he is about to lose around 1.6 billion buy the end of the year. It is not just the devaluation of Twitter (and Advertisement loss). 

You see BlueSky is now at 21 million users and in the upcoming month it should increase rather dramatically. With the concerns given many will push their advertisement to BlueSky. And with that the decreased interest in Twitter (say: X) will grow, the value of that solution goes down more. In a stage where all wars are based on deception, there is every chance that the wool was pushed over the eyes of Elon Musk (a small speculation). And in this there is every chance that the investment by Prince Al Waleed bin Talal Al Saud and Kingdom Holding will turn up daisies by the end of the year. 

In the article we are also given “X had 73.5 million monthly active users on iOS and Android combined in the United States in August, according to Similarweb data shared with CNN. That represents a drop of nearly 11% year over year and a 20% decline from October 2022” which would be fair was it not for the stage that BlueSky is now life and that will drain a lot more traffic from Twitter (say: X) And that gives rise to the considerable chance that X will end up being a troll-farm nexus to the simple minded greedy. As such the Social media platform will rise from social media to a simple danger to national security in the simple form of form. You see, at this time Russian and Chinese troll-farms are having a go at X. However, should Bluesky get the larger setting of bouncing those, there would be a new stage. Because advertisers see no hail in marketing to empty accounts and that is what would most likely happen, as such advertisers will have to move to BlueSky, just for the hell of getting any engagement traction.

Since ‘Is it intentional ignorance?’ I have written close to a dozen articles on the setting. And now (recently) we see that I was right all along. Even without BlueSky I saw this evolve the way it is. So all these high paid analysts are only now showing their faces. So where were they when I already foresaw the events merely through fake accounts. Why were they not on their pages updating it all? Makes you think doesn’t it.

Have a great day and if you have no stock in X, rejoice. You are lucky to not have diminished your retirement capital by 80%.

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October 29, 2024 · 15:28

Laughing Out Loud

Yup this happens too and in this case it was an article that Bloomberg showed its paying customers. I am not one of them. As such I am attaching the image that made me laugh.

I saw it about 8-10 hours ago and it had me rolling with laughter. So what gives? First the setting of ‘Consider Re-entering’ as I see it Barclays and other banks are strapped for capital and bleeding a client dry (service fees and commissions) is a tell tale story towards any bank trying to make a living. There is no consideration, there is merely the trap they put themselves in 10 years ago. As for the “capitalise on the kingdom’s growing need to access capital markets” is even more hilarious. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has options to consider HSBC, JP Morgan, Bank of America and the 5 largest banks in China. All stronger and more able than Barclays. There is also Credit Agricole and the Citigroup. All in the top 12, Barclays stands at 18. So there is the first part. In addition I can hand you Rothschild & Co. The one bank no one mentions. It’s value was around €18.1 billion a year ago, as such I reckon it is pushing well over €20 billion at present. Barclays has nowhere near that capital or those connections. I reckon that Rothschild can access around 20% more clients than Barclays can (a casual speculation by little old me). 

So why this action?
Well it started in 2012 when we were given “Barclays is fined for manipulating the benchmark Libor interest rate in 2012, after revelations stretching back to 2005” It’s CEO C. S. Venkatakrishnan didn’t forget about that, did he? Then we get 2014 when Reuters gave us ‘Barclays sued by Saudi developer for $10 billion’, so how did that end? We got “A Saudi real estate company has sued Barclays for $10 billion (6.24 billion pounds), claiming the bank ceased pursuing lease payments due from the Saudi government on military complexes in the kingdom in order to obtain a lucrative banking license there” when we were given (source: Reuters) “The company, Jadawel International, a unit of London-based MBI International Holdings Inc., claims Barclays “hatched a fraudulent scheme” to secure the rare Saudi banking license, selling out Jadawel in the process, according to the lawsuit filed in New York state Supreme Court on Tuesday” One says potato and the other claims tomato. In the end as far as I can tell Barclays won the dismissal. It doesn’t make them innocent, but the claimant could not prove guilt (as far as I can tell). And last but not least only this year we were given that Barclay was one of the players in getting Andrea Orcel “derivatives linked to Commerzbank for the Italian lender in the weeks before Berlin sold a stake earlier this month, sources familiar with the matter said. Barclays and Bank of America subsequently helped Orcel to effectively expand UniCredit’s holding in Commerzbank to the current level of about 21 per cent, they said asking not to be named discussing the private information” now, this last bit does not seem to be illegal, but the stakes against Barclay (all over Europe) are increasingly high and now they hope that Saudi Arabia gives them a chunk of business before they are forced to hand over their bank to any of the upper 15 banks. I say good luck to them. Yes there is all kinds of banking issues I am not familiar with, but governments need to work with banks that are cleaner then clean and as such I am entertaining howls of deriving laughter if Barclay thinks they are that. The LIBOR scandal took care of that. 

And lets be clear Barclay didn’t (as far as I know) hand the statement “Mistakes were made in the past and we have sanitised our structures and people to meet the challenge that a customer the size of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia brings”, nope, none of that. We were given “Barclay plc is considering re-entering Saudi Arabia as it looks to capitalise on the kingdom’s growing need to access capital markets”. I actually wonder if they would be allowed in the country at present. There are seemingly better viable candidates and that is before you consider Rothschild as a contender. 

I get it. I also tried to access Saudi Arabia as a partner (read: future owner) of my IP. I merely wanted 50 million, a Canadian passport and 2% of the revenue for 20 years. With my believe (a presented believe) that the idea would give them 6 billion annual and their investment to that would be 50 million (for happy old me). And this is about as decent as it gets. A mere 0.8% risk and that is at the time of the presentation. A mere trivial amount and I feel certain that this would have worked. There was one condition Microsoft was not allowed near it. Amazon would be OK, but Microsoft is a no go.

This is why I contacted Kingdom Holdings and Tencent Technology as well. They can drive the innovation I brought. As such I feel a stronger contender than Barclay ever could be (Yes, I am blowing my own horn).

So as I see it, re-entering a market when the others have seemingly had enough of you isn’t re-entering. It is running for the hills to avoid being taken over. But I am not a banking person, so what do I know.

Have a fun day.

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September 13, 2024 · 05:31

As the walls start to crumble

Yes, this is a little speculative, but the story is not. I just learned of the BBC story that they released 4 hours ago, 17 hours after I wrote the previous story. The BBC article (at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq82852kkz8o) is giving us ‘Microsoft lays off more gaming staff in new cuts’ with the subtext “It laid off 1,900 staff in January and, in May, closed four studios bought before its purchase of Call of Duty maker Activision-Blizzard”, as well as “He said the decision to cut more jobs – about 3% of its gaming staff – was made “as part of aligning our post-acquisition team structure” and organising the business “for long-term success””. The ‘he’ in this story is Phil Spencer, and that long-term success? As I personally see it Microsoft will implode within the next 30 month, so that long term is relatively short (as I see it). And as for the layoffs being towards post-acquisition team structure. That might be the intention, yet the issue remains that the interest alone on a $69,000,000,000 purchase should be no less then 4.5 billion dollars and the gaming stage brought Microsoft (according to several sources) no more than 2 billion dollars. As such Microsoft is coming up short around 50% of the interest alone and that is before we factor in what more is needed to take care of the principle. And as Microsoft is dealing with all kind of fines and several angry people suing for what they think they are due, the numbers will not come up nice, more like tainted and covered in blood covered red. We then get “Xbox boss Mr Spencer told gaming website IGN he was expected to run a “sustainable” gaming business and show growth during a June interview”, so what does this Spencer person think what ‘sustainable’ means? In my book it means able to be maintained at a certain level, and how does that work when you lay off over 2000 people? Support? Managers? One gives relief to hardship and buggy environment to the customers (something that Microsoft is intimate familiar with) and the managers are often the creative part of the company and they have had the ears of their staff. Now these fired people could optionally use my freebees and create these games on NON-Microsoft systems. Giving Microsoft even more hardship. A game that makes perfect sense in the business mind of Microsoft, but gaming is mostly art and that is a setting that they seem to misunderstand. I like it when the unworthy give me resources and tools that can be used against them. Karma tends to be a bitch. The quote we see is “In its latest finance report Microsoft said its gaming revenues had increased, mostly due to its ownership of Activision-Blizzard, which also produces World of Warcraft, Diablo and Overwatch” what we do not see are the issues that Diablo 4 still has (on whatever system). It might have been the big cash cow (over $666M in the first 5 days) but what did it cost to develop Diablo 4? It took 6 years, that is nearly all we know about it and Microsoft is really happy to hide a lot of numbers and merely focus on the good stories which is to be expected, but as we now see that thousands have been cast out, there is every chance that these people could become their worst competitor and not in a good way. Another setting is seen (at https://www.inverse.com/gaming/xbox-enotria-delay-microsoft-ps5) where inverse tells us ‘Enotria Is Just the Latest Game to Hit A Mysterious Snag With Its Xbox Launch’ with the byline “Something’s amiss at Microsoft”, I think that it is a lot more. How is it possible that Phil Spencer can smilingly visit the board of directors as we are given things like “it was canceling the Xbox release of HAAK. According to the developer, it spent over 14 months attempting to register the game for release on Xbox, when it estimated it needed only about two weeks of porting work. However, bugs in Microsoft’s Partner Center and Support site prevented it from applying”, as such I wonder, when a we see registration issues and bugs. What is Microsoft doing, or better asked, not doing? 14 months? There seems to be an increasing issue with transparency and in gaming it is damaging, as such what is Microsoft doing? I see it as a setting where the walls come crumbling, but what if I am wrong? What if Microsoft has a more insidious plan? I have no idea what it is and I have no clue what they are doing but there is a setting where Microsoft is all about all games online and in the cloud. So what happens when gamers are all controlled from a singular place? I have no idea what is going on, it was a mere speculation, but the increasing amount of issues (including bugs all over the place) does not fill me with comfort. Consider this and wonder why they were willing to pay 69 billion, all whilst there is a lack of revenue. There is more going on and I think it is becoming more and more imperative to create games on OTHER systems and bleed Microsoft dry. The other part is that the (speculated) intentional lack of clarity in regards to the numbers we see reports of 160% year on year growth, but with gaming it is merely based on the next game and so far quality has been lacking. The failures that Redfall brought, the lack of issues in Starfield is one side, the lacking sales of the Xbox is the other part. When you see the list of issues we must understand that there are plenty of intelligent people at Microsoft, so what is this about? We can wait to find out, or we can create a wave of excellent games and give the gamers an option to select the Amazon Luna, the Sony PS5 (PS4 too), the Nintendo Switch or the Tencent Handheld as their new home. At this point China becomes a contender in the gaming industry. That should be a hard sell to the US government, would it not be? As such I set the gaming IP I designed as Freebee to non-Microsoft systems. I might not know what Microsoft is up to, but I do know that they are greed/revenue driven, and as such I know what would hurt them and should Kingdom Holding accept my offer the hardship of Microsoft merely increases. A nice way to end my career, by partially saving the gaming world (a bit presumptuous perhaps). Microsoft should never have done what they did, they wanted to become absolute ruler and that didn’t sit well with me, a such I created IP and stories for game developers. The one rule was, ‘not for Microsoft systems’. Making the ideas public domain made the most sense to me. Or as Frank Herbert wrote in 1965 ‘He who destroys a thing, controls a thing’ as such I went to work. Now I believe that the BBC is merely handing me a partial confirmation (as I see it) that I was right all along. When the staff leaves it becomes a problem. 

Oh and as this becomes a new reality, China gets a real chance to pick up hundreds of people with a good grasp of gaming. That is merely my point of view and I could be wrong. 

Have a great day, the day before the weekend. 

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September 9, 2024 · 22:27

The other Palette

This is the setting I switched to. From Microsoft (too much issues) to a nice palette. Not to paint, but if the painting on an easel is the current version of a game. 

There is another version, ‘my’ improved version. You see between 1985 and 2000 Atari (with their Atari 800 and Atari ST) and Commodore (with their Commodore 64 and Commodore Amiga) launched 10,000 games. Now if we only look at the top 10% of these games we end up with 1000 games. I am guessing that 50% has some level of IP protection (still an optional path) but 50% have no protection at all. That was what I was trying to tell Kingdom Holding. It is a path to about one third of the path to a 5 billion dollar annual revenue. And I recently completed the thought of a fourth game to relaunch. Consider that Microsoft with their 23 development houses have 2000 games. This path would gain 50% of that marker and Microsoft isn’t doing good (they will be in denial) and in that same setting, I got another idea. The top 10% are all set to a rating or 80% or better. This could be done with a lot less people and when the first two dozen games are out their streaming solution would only pick up more and more. The first stage would be reached with a setting of 50 million consoles. So as we were given “As of August 2024, lifetime unit sales of Xbox One consoles in North America reached nearly 33 million, while in Europe, lifetime unit sales surpassed 12.8 million. In total, nearly 58 million Xbox One units have been sold worldwide as of August 2024.” And my idea would equal that within 2 years. It took Microsoft 11 years to get to this and within 4 years I would have surpassed them. And that is just for starters. I speculatively (it remains speculation, not presumption) see the 100 million surpassed within 4 years. It would set this new console on the level of Sony and Nintendo. I personally (wishful thinking) see the new system equal the Nintendo Switch and the Playstation 2 in half the time they needed. This isn’t grandiose posturing. The path was made by them and now I see the option to reap the rewards. Either via Kingdom Holding or via Tencent, hoe doesn’t matter. I still see the vision of handing Phil Spencer the wooden spoon. He’ll end up dead last in a race he never really understood and as Microsoft enters more and more hard times divisions of Microsoft keep on being hollowed out. My work becomes increasingly easier. 

So at this point it is largely a stage where my brain sets the premise of how to set the look of these games, not by ‘rad looking’ graphics, even though they will be a lot better. But these games it was largely about playing and the joy of playing. These ‘game makers’ are all about advertisement money. They all advertise ‘no wifi’ or even more ludicrous ‘no payments’ whilst they merely set the premise to another fitting. Pay to win, disguised as an clever way to pay to grind. How disappointing. I do not blame them. Too many gamers nowadays are delusional falling into a trap and that tend to be demoralising. My idea was handed before in this blog and a few people picked up on this, or they had exactly the same idea (I cannot prove how they got there) but that is fair enough. So I decided to remaster in my mind these games and I got game 5 to a second setting of the master version. I will keep these thoughts offline. I initially had the idea for Google, but 3 days later they dropped the Stadia, so basically Amazon (Luna) and Tencent (handheld) remained. Tencent has a satisfying bonus. These high and mighty captains of industry would have surrendered another industry to China. And they do not have a lot left to work with.

A simple setting that I solved three years ago, and they were all blind to what was staring them in the face. Soon I will have to write more about the solution I had for malls. Another path that a few corporations (like Google and Amazon) overlooked. That is fair, you can only run an industry when you have bright developers falling asleep on the job and when waking up they have that spark with a new idea. A never ending stage of deadlines tend to be debilitating in the end. 

So how does these two link? 

The idea I had came to me three years ago (and I wrote about it here) and in that time I merely revamped these games with more and more improvements, this is not against those games. Some of these games were launched before 1990 and I had 30 years to spin a few webs combine that with the graphic improvements we have now and the versatility of the hardware and we get an estimated 250% better game. And the captains of industry (specifically Microsoft) never looked beyond the spin hype they themselves created. A simple example Richard Garriott created the Ultimate series, ahead of its time and When you recreate Ultimate 4, Ultimate 5, Ultima 6 and Ultimate 7 on an Elder Scrolls Oblivion shoe anvil, there would be millions of gamers reset to this storyline. You see, the storyline of these games were perfect, the location (a whole world) was perfect and the setting we see with the virtues and the stones, mantras and a few setting more was perfect. I got hooked on Ultima 3 (Exodus) in 1984. This game never lost its appeal, not in 40 years. The games 4,5,6, and 7 have a very similar map and the fact that you play with a party of 8 people gives it even more bang. That is what Bethesda could never deliver (they were not trying to). Microsoft overlooked one of the greatest RPG IP’s EVER created and that is merely the tip of the iceberg. 1984 was a marvel in more than one way. The other game was Elite, now called Elite Dangerous by David Braben and he did something amazing. That is the stage Microsoft overlooked as well (or Braben was way ahead of them) and there are dozens more games that could fit the new bill on streaming systems. Another game from those days was Boulder Dash. Upgrade the graphics and you should have an amazing relaunch. That is the simple setting that still hold sway after 40 years. And you wonder why I think that these people were asleep at the wheel? Another stage is that with 2 games the fighting ring could be transitory. And there is space for Kingdom Holding (or Tencent) to enter this field as the current ‘captains of industry’ are seemingly about the “worst decisions of their career” whilst I showed up to three years ago showing that it was already a lot worse. 

So what more can be done? I am not sure, I send the notion to both Andy Jassy and Al Waleed bin Talal Al Saud, but I had no response. I am not surprised they both probably get hundreds of people saying that they had the golden idea. And now I get to address Tencent Holding. Not sure how that pans out, but the thought of a 5 billion revenue (annual) might appeal to them (if I get paid that is). I have no illusions that I might merely make 1%, but that still amounts to $50,000,000, as such I would not complain. Still the idea of asking for 1% of the revenue for 20 years seems more on point (for me that is) and if so I shall make the mall solution public domain. 

If you look back in my blogs for these three years you will find a lot more, including the stage for a completely new RPG, with original ideas and a few stages I considered during me Oblivion playing days. As well as a completely new IP on RPG that hd not been done before. Including a setting between two worlds which was a little based on the idea Stephen King gave me from the book The Talisman. It was one way of traversing locations. Not a copy of his idea, merely the premise of his approach. All these things I see (in my mind) and game developers never caught on what else they could do. They merely went for ‘looking cool’ whilst wannabe gamers stood in a doorway keeping everyone else out. Oh, what a lovely stage. That is what passes for game developer? Wanting to be cool with multiplayer games all whilst plenty of people (a majority) where happy in single player mode). I still think they did this so that they never had to properly develop clever NPC programming. As such I even surpassed that when I came up with a setting though IP created by Vint Cerf, he merely saw the business need. I saw a whole new approach in gaming and as such his ‘IP’ should be open to me. Another path Microsoft overlooked. They merely bought Bethesda and thought that their problem was solved. I took one look and thought “Oh, perhaps I could do this?” One thought was all it took. So, where is Microsoft now? I reckon by 2026 on a whole new plane of problems (if they still exist by then). For tomorrow I need to write in protection (if protection is the right word) of Google, the BBC forced me to go nuts on my keyboard. Google deserves someone who stands up for them as well, although I feel certain they have that in hand. I merely want to give my support on that cause.

Nearly time for another Jalapeño sandwich with cheese. Have a great day.

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August 12, 2024 · 15:21

What’s in an advertisement?

I have been called many things (not all of them nice) but I do not care, I call it as I see it. This time it is Google that hits the spotlight, you see it is not all Microsoft that I cater against (often I do though). This time it is Cyber News (at https://cybernews.com/news/meta-google-youtube-instagram-advertising/) that gives us the news. This came from the Financial Times and the headline gives us ‘Meta and Google had secret ad deal to target teens on YouTube’, I am not judging this, but Google has stated on a few instances that they would not target kids. Still we get here “Google Ads help page itself says that the “unknown” category refers to people whose age, gender, parental status, or household income are supposedly unidentified. In theory, this could allow ad buyers to reach a wider audience” but we are also given “according to FT, Google could use app downloads and online activity to determine “with a high degree of confidence” that the “unknown” group actually mostly consisted of younger users” Now, lets take a different look and for this I use the Apple population (not people eating Granny Smiths) So lets go by the simple set of an iPad and around 128.5 million units of tablets were shipped worldwide in 2023. A little over 40% in the USA. The younger population uses their iPad for over 4 hours a day to do gaming. I took a small measurement in two hours I was fed around 2 dozen advertisements. Now consider that we have 80 million gamers on the iPad, as such 4 hours represent 40 advertisements per user and that represents 3.2 billion advertisements EVERY DAY, you think that Google, Apple or Meta walk away from that? And when we add the mobile gamers on Android and iPhone it becomes a much larger and more interesting number. 

On one side it works out well for one of my IP issues if we consider the larger premise. You see some are all about hijacking revenues from others, I took it into a different direction. When these three players lose a little over 20% of that advertisement industry. How strapped for cash will they end up being? Don’t trivialise this (many so called captains of industry will), when you need your revenue and you get to face a decline of 20% panic is ensured to come to the table. Like the advertisement bitches who cried fowl when Google wanted to do away with cookies. The setting I had was enable Amazon to a much larger degree, optionally enabling Kingdom Holding (Riyadh). A simple setting that many forgot about, because they all wants us to look to the horizon to the land of honey and AI, but that is at least a decade away, as such I saw another shore. 

But back to the story. So the response from Google was ““We prohibit ads being personalised to people under 18, period,” Google said in a statement to the publication. “We’ll also be taking additional action to reinforce with sales representatives that they must not help advertisers or agencies run campaigns attempting to work around our policies.”” And it could have worked if Google set through the cookie stage, but they did not. Now the setting is different, advertisement gaming is developing and we get a dozen versions of the same game and they all run on advertisements. And the game becomes worse for some ad streamers now also include advertisements. As such they are one step removed from the old setting that Electronic Arts tried to include in their sport games, the billboards in a game all showing the advertisements that EA could sell. In the long run it could have given them a revenue boost. Now the game sets a different premise. You see you can fight of getting more revenue, or you can make sure the others cannot get any, that was the premise that I went for and Saudi Arabia does not have to cater to Americans, more importantly they could deny America well over 20% of that revenue. Consider that the big three techs have to report a drop of 20%, how does that work out? In addition to that loss you could capture a part of that revenue. You see the USA is all about monopolising issues, all whilst no one looked to the shores behind them to see what they lost and that was the place where revenue was all over the floor.

The setting is given, but when we consider that they either confess on targeting minors, or take the losses. And my solution doesn’t target at all, putting this solution largely in the clear.

Still, the EA premise had me thinking, not a similar approach, but a very different approach. One that give a much higher premise of engagement. Like the cheaper Netflix, set the console with a gaming portal and that portal has a niche for advertisers one that pays the viewer in credits, which could go towards a lower fee, or game coins to get free updates (enhancements) for in game shopping, any game on the platform. That was a side no one (seriously) looked at. Games are set to a developer, not to a portal and when they want to be there they will have to agree. Consider any console with 50,000,000-200,000,000 gamers, do you really think a game designer wants to be cut off? Consider that the Xbox Game Pass has only 18 million users. And the numbers I stated were conservative, this solution would be next to the PSX2 (over 155,000,000) and the Nintendo Switch (144,00,000) that is what was at stake and Google shot themselves in the foot (my speculation) as they dropped the Google Stadia, as such the Amazon Luna and the Tencent console are all that remains. And when we see those numbers, a larger base exists for advertisers, but in my view a more limited one. Still, there is (to some degree) an option whilst removing a massive chunk (I think around 20%) away from Apple, Google and Meta. It was an evolution to the system as I set it up and the advertisement funds are merely the icing on the cake. 

The added ‘protection’ that is given could sway plenty of parents to go this way, not my initial interest, especially when phase one 50 million is reached. The system will fuel itself towards users like the CBM64 did in the mid 80’s. Still the others need to rethink their system, because for now they think it is all OK, but when the setting changes it will already be too late. Look at the Cookie stage, only when they finally switched it off in part, the advertisers starting to cry like little bitches. Three days ago we were given “This latest twist in the Privacy Sandbox saga is a wake-up call for the entire digital advertising ecosystem, according to Upwave’s George London.” Wake up call? This setting was known for a couple of years, as such these people had plenty of time to revisit the sands of opportunity, but they thought that it wouldn’t get to that, and the money would keep going in. Now the premise will likely become that they lose out on a population that gets into the millions, no free ride for cookies (cookie monster ate them all) as such they will have to put the prices down by a lot, because targeting is soon to be a real issue, for this the Google and Meta setting comes into play. Either regulators demand a larger scrutiny (expected turn) or the advertisement world will lose 4.3 billion advertisements on iPad alone, now consider how many game on their mobiles? That is a reported 79% of an expected 18,250,000,000 billion in 2025. Set that to revenue numbers. Yes what one party tells is not what some do, or they tell them where not to look for certain restrictive papers. Oh, and my simplistic number stage gives me around 2.8 billion advertisement options are optionally soon lost or diminished. Yes, my 50 million consoles were hilariously conservative. 

What’s in an ad? Nothing a gamer wanted to see anyway, as well as a few other clusters of pushed to watch advertisement people. So how will Meta continue at minus 20%? Apple will do fine and Google will have its android, but when that newly reinvented shore comes, Google will also have to make due. As such,  they can bite the bullet or set up a fee for Youtube, which will make TikTok happy to no extent 

They say all is fair in love and war, did you ever consider that the people have a voice too, that they are pushed towards apps with no avoidance? What happens if you cater to those people? Google should know, they grew their search in a very similar way.

Have a lovely time and see you perhaps in a place without advertisements every couple of minutes.

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July 19, 2024 · 19:18

A second visit

Well, it might have been a third time that I take a view towards an altered IP. This isn’t mine, it’s actually the property of Microsoft. The first game (Mass Effect) was released in 2007 and Mass Effect 2 was released in 2010. Mass Effect 2 is still regarded by many (and me) as one of the greatest tactical shooters. Mass Effect 3 is good, but it also gave us the greatest multi player shooters ever made. These two elements are the grounds of the massive fanbase of the series. 

The present we got at the launch party is still regarded by me as the coolest ever (see above), all the guests got one with themselves as the SPECTRE agent. 

At the end of game 3 there were a lot of complaints. I think that one was shoddy to some effect and it should have been set better, but the story was awesome. There were 4 endings (I never found the 4th, but I saw it on YouTube). And whilst going into this I accidentally found out another part which I will illuminate soon enough. It seems that Facebook is catering to Microsoft with accusations of spam. But I have my response for Facebook ready. Anyway back to the story. 

The new setting I created was set on the citadel. It happens after the slaughter starts and before Shepard makes its entry. In these weeks (optionally months) we are on the citadel. It has the familiar places (Embassy module and the stages from Mass Effect 2, yet there are a few hundred more places. This is a stealth game.

The story is that an engineer had smuggled his family on board, as such it he/she had a hiding place. As the slaughter (read: ascendancy) continues, this engineer needs to sneak its way around. The first thing that needs to be done is to secure water and sustenance. Also oxygen is needed (for the long haul).

Every place has three versions. The dirty stage (with bodies), the cleaning stage (with keepers) and the clean stage. They all have their own issues. 

One of the stages is to secure personnel manifests (with local celebrity locations), locations of interest and local artefacts. 

The races are Asari, Drell, Elcor, Hanar, Humans, Keepers, Salarians, Turians, Volus, Batarians, Geth, Krogan, Quarians, Vorcha, Yahg. The races in bold are the selectable races. In the citadel the Batarians, Quarians, Vorcha and Yahg have no embassy. As such they are the harder species to play. The Quarians (when found) will have information on the Geth. The Turians have data on Vorcha and Yahg and so on. As the game progresses once you have the data, you will face a setting where you have to install monitors all over the station to record what is happening as well as to set alarms so you can sneak your way around the station. You need to get a electronic shroud (a sort of digital cloak), enhance your hiding place as well as creating a few others where you can heal and rest in safety. In normal play the game will ignore several issues, but in hard more it will ‘see’ recording devices and start a hunt for you. Once this starts, you will have to set up a decoy to reset the alarm, the hiding place will be lost forever. 

To set this up it is more then a simple matter. The keepers are thorough in cleaning, as such it will be important to remain invisible. The largest issue I see isn’t merely locations, This place is huge. 

As you can see it is quite big. One idea is to set the stage by race (and most of the game on one of the platforms. It requires one huge LLM with deeper machine learning to create the levels. As I see it, per race you will need up to a dozen buildings (skyscrapers) to cover essential needs for the game. You will have to get the hardware you require for the tasks. The shopping district (ME2) should give you a camera and digital storage. No weapons in this game, however an idea comes to mind to get something like a mining laser (to cut through matter) and tools to open other areas.

Although the game seems straight forward. The idea came to me that the maker optionally have loads of other lore and concept art that they never used in the game. There would be use for them here. Also, other races would have data on humans like the illusive man, Shepard and so on. 

The larger setting I see is how to create a sphere of thrill and suspense that makes a stealth game, a stealth game. You see in ‘cheaper’ stealth games you carry everything making you a bulkier version of you with a backpack 15 times the size of you. So it is important to set the ‘sneak factor’ to find upgrades and better hardware to do the job. The shopping district will have a version one or two of an essential tool, but better versions need to be found. In addition to that, to set the tools to a random location requires a more spiffy setting. Or as they say, to be placed in ulterior locations where we have 1000 places it could be, but with references on items in logs (embassy and security). Then there is the idea of replayability. So as the citadel has hundreds of buildings per pillar, the stage comes that in a second game (with the same race) you will get confronted with different buildings. Similar but not identical, which gives new vibes to the game.

So, whilst we all see what Microsoft is up to with more rehashing the same idea. I took one look at a great game and created (optional) new IP in a day. This is why I see Microsoft as an agent of mediocrity. Now I will accept that this is not enough. More is needed to make this a great game, but I got them this in under a day (it is basically Microsoft IP). So feel free to to wonder what Microsoft is blundering around. If I can get this done in under a day, what are they seeking to rehash the old days? Don’t get me wrong I played Age of Mythology when it released in 2002 and it is a great game, optionally to play again. But considering all the IP they have (or should have) this is not enough. Lets face it they have GREAT IP. The Flight Simulator (2020) has truly become a great game (it was always great). It is a niche market, but for those into flight simulators it is the bees knees. Bioware had many great games. My personal favourite in D&D (Neverwinter nights, 2002) is still one of the greatest fantasy games ever. Both Dragon Age and Jade empires (not my favourites) are good games, where are they now? The problem is that some games need their scope readjusted. To coin an idea, the Multiplayer version of Mass Effect 3 could have been launched on the Xbox series X as a free to play game on that console. And free to play is important is important. They can still offer the loot boxes in the same way they did. For points fought over, or for a few dollars. And there is a market. This game is still played after 12 years. The is one hell of an achievement for a game released in 2012. So why didn’t Microsoft act? I got to the top 1% of players in 2013, there were over 1.2 million players at that point. Considering that the PS5 outsells the Xbox-X by 5:1 I would think that they squandered their markets. And this is a game that can flock hundreds of thousands to the Xbox (in addition to any other system), and no one thought this was a good idea?

As I personally see it Phil Spencer was all about capturing the player base (read: legally stealing), yet the the idea of bolstering its player base by offering playability was seemingly lost to him. And his hard times are yet to come. As I see it I might not have another option but to hand my IP to Tencent technologies. Partially this idea comes as Facebook removed my previous post under the fake guise of spam, which was not the case. The idea has merit as within two years Facebook would lose millions of advertisers. Troll farms create a lot of traffic, but not a lot of commerce, merely fake locations to advertise to, when retailers figure that part out, they will find another place to go to and there is my solution. I saw this three years ago, Whilst everyone was diving for digital dollars any way they could. I saw that the power of it all relies on engagement. And a troll farm only ‘seemingly’ engages. True engagement is seen elsewhere. That is the achilles heel of Facebook and the strength of Amazon (Tencent optionally too). So as I see it Microsoft lost out two times. Didn’t you wonder why Chrome has a market share of 65% and Edge a mere 5%? They aren’t looking in the wrong direction, they aren’t looking in the proper place to begin with. And I added my gaming idea as optional evidence part N. 

A setting overlooked due to the principle of spin. So whilst Microsoft relies on ‘The most powerful console in the world’, Sony and Nintendo are relying on the factor of fun and play and they are winning This year Nintendo had 123,000,000 players. Sony has 118,000,000 players. Now compare that with Microsoft and their 27.7 million consoles. And Tencent technologies is knocking at the door taking optionally more market share away from Microsoft. That is how bad it will get and I saw this 3 years ago. This is why I tried to get the solution to Kingdom Holding (so far no luck). In this environment Al Waleed bin Talal Al Saud could score big, optionally the largest gain they ever had (speculative thinking by me). 

My weekend has stated, in Vancouver the day is only starting. Enjoy!

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