That is at times the question. As I see it President Trump has a flawed nd warped view of one. We get that from the Middle East Monitor, aka MEMO (at https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20250123-trump-calls-for-1-trillion-saudi-investment-lower-oil-prices/) where we are given ‘Trump calls for $1 trillion Saudi investment, lower oil prices’ And I thought it was an error, but it was not (several publications give me a similar view). The weirdest part is “US President Donald Trump, on Thursday, said he will demand Saudi Arabia and OPEC bring down the cost of oil and will ask Riyadh to increase a planned US investment package to $1 trillion from an initial reported $600 billion” (source: Reuters). And the weird part is set in fact. When we see that USA exports 10.15 barrels of oil daily and IMPORTS 8.53 million barrels of oil, we come to the conclusion that America want cheap oil so that they can get a better margin on selling their oil (which will not be cheaper). So why would Saudi Arabia and Aramco do that? Would anyone do that? As such I think that America is thinking of getting the (speculated) $40,000,000 a day margin to settle their mega trillion dollar debt. It also makes me wonder how close are they to becoming bankrupt? And beside that, they want Saudi Arabia to invest a trillion dollars over 4 years. To be honest it seems like a radical stupid notion to get someone to invest a trillion dollars and lower the price of oil so that Saudi Arabia will be regarded as a friend? Sounds a weird approach to business to me. The quote given is ““But I’ll be asking the Crown Prince, who’s a fantastic guy, to round it out to around $1 trillion,” Trump told the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “I think they’ll do that because we’ve been very good to them.”” So exactly how has America been good to Saudi Arabia? Saudi Arabia has not been able to acquire the F35? Whilst Saudi Arabia civilian targets were hit by Houthi Terrorists, America did not come forward to sell necessarily equipment. So how has America shown themselves as a worthy ally?
You see, in my books an ACTUAL ally will aid when needed and supply hardware when needed (and paid for in some cases). There is also the notion that Iran have been circumventing the US Navy in several cases to deliver hardware to Houthi Terrorists, some navy. The funny part that MEMO describes “he will demand Saudi Arabia and OPEC bring down the cost of oil”, so now Saudi Arabia is seen separate from OPEC? OPEC is called that as it is the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. So, Saudi Arabia is not part of OPEC? A weird setting as I see it and if America is as broke as it seems to be, it makes some sense, but this would be regarded as a desperate knee jerk move (as I see it).
And on this setting, it has every notion of driving the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia straight into the fold of China and their plans for the world according to China. So how does that help America?
Just a thought to have this lovely Saturday morning.
That was a little bit of a spark that the Middle East Monitor gave me last week. I wasn’t sure if and how to pick this up. The article (at https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20240905-what-could-saudi-arabias-first-aaa-game-be-like-following-chinas-success/) starts with ‘What could Saudi Arabia’s first AAA game be like, following China’s success?’ The subtext that stopped me was “Within just three days, “Black Myth: Wukong” shattered records, selling over 10 million copies and reaching 18 million within two weeks, with lifetime sales projected to reach up to 30 million. The game also achieved a peak concurrent player count of 2.2 million worldwide and has overtaken “Cyberpunk 2077” as the most-played single-player game on the online distribution platform Steam.” It shows one part that I have been saying for a long time. You see, the people have basically had enough of a repetitive Ubisoft and their umpteenth version of Assassins Creed, FarCry, Watchdogs and so on.
As such there are hundreds of thousands of gamers who will eagerly pick up an original feeling game and Black Myth: Wukong addressed that feeling. It is yet another side to what I claimed over the last two years when I put original IP on my blog for the eager developer. It was theirs to use. People want original games, a feeling of novel and new and I gave the (eager developing) audience a new system and the storyline to a new approach in gaming. Actually I did a little more than that and again I am seemingly proven correct (yet again). And when some developer takes the ideas I stated here and takes an interest in being original They could go to town on branders like Ubisoft and Bethesda. You see, Microsoft is playing it very careful now. If they push Bethesda too much they lose that brand as well. They first thought they had the bong of happiness with Redfall. At present the game is reviewed as “it faced poor to middling reviews and lost thousands of players in just three days. Currently, it’s one of Steam’s most poorly-rated games due to extremely buggy performance, incredibly stupid AI, lack of matchmaking (in a co-op game!), and a whole other host of issues” and this view was given whilst the game is out now for over a year. Microsoft knows that they banked too much on their arrogance and now they have only have Bethesda left (at present) with some credibility. And Bethesda earned this credibility. Skyrim released on 11.11.11 still holds up as one of the most engaging RPG games in the field. They lost a lot of credibility with Starfield (a 60% game) only for Microsoft systems and even as the people got news that things were coming, the game has been out for a year. We now get ‘While Some Players Are Still Finding Starfield’s Gameplay Frustrating, Others Are Taking Issue With What Fans Are Creating For The Game – And How Bethesda’s Handling It’ (source: ScreenRant) as such Bethesda has basically one arrow left at present. The elder Scrolls and Microsoft knows that this needs to be a hole in one. As we see “The Elder Scrolls 6 is expected to be released sometime during or after 2026”, this might speculatively become their own Swan Song. Not bad for a $7,500,000,000 investment (nyuk, nyuk, nyuk). Activision Blizzard is (as I see it) another decent failure. We get that the annual revenue in 2021 was $12.10B, all whilst Statista reported “In the second quarter of 2023, Activision Blizzard’s net income amounted to 587 million U.S. dollars” (one source gave me US$1.51 billion (2022) of net revenue), you might think this is good, but Microsoft acquired this baby for $69,000,000,000. As such the annual interest of a loan that big is more than the net revenue of that firm (I predicted this well over a year ago as much). This all has impact. At present Microsoft has an immense losing streak in gaming (I truly hope that I am contributing to that). As such I handed original IP to game developers making the hardship worse for Microsoft and now they merely have the one final arrow of Bethesda left, which is expected somewhere in 2026. As such these factors all have impact. You see Black Myth: Wukong is one part (I had absolutely nothing to do with that) for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, referred to in the article has options. There is Scheherazade’s 1001 nights. I put a few issues out in the open. The idea of an RPG all based on the Arabian life and challenges. There was an option I considered to use an RPG game to promote Islam (for all people) with teachings in the game. There could be an option to take another look at Peter Molyneux’s Magic Carpet now that the systems are a lot stronger than the first Playstation, as such you can increase more than graphics. The game play could be taken to a new stage and the intensity of the game could be set to 11 (as the saying goes). Those are merely a few mentions that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia could entertain and I made reference to at least two more games in a relaunch/remaster and refitted vibe. All settings I made mention of over the last two years alone.
But it is not all sunshine for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. You see it has an uphill battle as the Middle East Monitor states with “As a non-Western, non-Japanese contribution, the game faced extensive media scrutiny ahead of its launch, including “controversies” over alleged sexism within the development studio, government censorship on politics and feminist propaganda, and some technical issues upon release”, there are a few items. I will state that the accusation of “alleged sexism within the development studio” is pretty much bogus. All the development studios are dealing with these ‘kids on the block’ issues as the saying goes. And government censorship? I need to see this to make it count, but I state this as the Middle East Monitor did.
I think that the biggest challenge for Saudi Arabia is to bring something unique. They have the area and the landmarks, but the other players (Japan, USA, Canada) have had the singular field of gaming, as such it is important to bring something unique. I believe that this is possible as Black Myth: Wukong made it happen. Still, it will be a challenging field. Making something look Arabian has been done and Ubisoft with AC: Mirage pulled it off. So it is just as important to have a unique Arabian voice, look and gameplay. Still, there is something to be said for a new Magic Carpet (from Bullfrog) now that the hardware is 3,500 times more powerful there is a lot of achievement open to the audience. There is an additional field with Arabian lore (which I explore in my created script ‘How to assassinate a politician’) and there is more to do. You see I still believe that RPG is the most true game environment. I have nothing against other modes. But the RPG field can be utilised or used to create another type of game, optionally based on this new RPG.
As I see it (and as Black Myth: Wukong proves) it is more about being original. There will always be some gamers that yearns for a certain game style, but the masses want originality. You see, a lack of choice only works for some time. In this an Arabian game could be good, but it is important that all the right characters are dotted and crossed (as in the I and T). That is a first essential need for any game to make it to the release stage. Then there is the music, here Saudi Arabia has an advantage. There is a lot unknown to us and as such there should be plenty of options. Then there is the additional idea. For example Saudi Arabian developers could use existing locations to create another setting. Whether this is a addition to a new Division game, or a Die Hard touch towards a shooting game. And another idea is to use Tahlia Street (aka Prince Mohammed bin Abdulaziz Street) as the backdrop of a variation of ‘Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego’ But now a realtime challenge to find the person that is trying to evade capture. Your only aid is his/her digital trace that you have access to. That could actually be a multiplayer approach where the mouse (aka criminal) and the cats (aka authorities) and the cheese dealers (contenders for the mouse empire) have to capture this so called mouse. With the stage that capture the wrong person makes you a target for arrest and there is the ring race. The mouse is rated on time it took them to evade capture and the others on the this it took them. And with that location completely mapped out it becomes a nice rat race (for the mice involved). I don’t think this has ever been done before to this degree and there is the rub. I just took this thought to a new level as I was writing this. So why can’t some of the existing developers come up with this? Think about that and as you try to figure this out consider that this is an optional new world with over 150 million possible new gamers. You can become a copy of what is, or come with something new, some version of an old game but now in a way never done before. And I have done that before, I considered a new version of Murder on the Zinderneuf and I made it into a 3D version of the game with interactions as well as imbuing it with elements of Iron Helix (1993). So there is a world of new IP out there. Now consider how much new IP Microsoft got for their $70,500,000,000 and what you could use (from what I have written here) without spending a penny. And the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has a lot more to offer, Lore, Myths and a few more challenges. All that could create the new generation of games and gaming. The crowds are hungry for original gaming IP and the current player have very little to offer. Feng Ji might have come here first as the new player, but that does not stop Saudi Arabia from heralding their own chapter of gaming to the world of gamers.
Have a great Thursday, The weekend is now one day away (plus an additional 8 hours of work).
That is where my mind is at today. This is not some setting of she said…she said. This is not one against the other, this is about what is real and what is mediated fake. There is a gap there that is as wide as the Grand Canyon, but the media is intent on making that gap seem like a little bump, something that can be discussed, even if they have made no headway in over two decades.
Source 1 Here we are given ‘CIA chief visits Saudi Arabia to express frustration about Iran rapprochement’ with the text “Burns told Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman that the US felt “blindsided” by Riyadh’s rapprochement with Iran and Syria – Washington’s global rivals – according to the Wall Street Journal, citing sources familiar with the matter. It cited a US official who said Burns discussed cooperation on intelligence and counterterrorism with Saudi officials.”
This is followed by my personal view
“Bill Burns, in my personal view you achieved fuck all, in two decades Iran was able to push, your governments actions had no impact and over the last three years we saw Iran successfully smuggle weapons and gear to Houthi Terrorists. The media (with a little push) ignored the presentations of Colonel Turki Al-Maliki. Your organisation ignored facts, your organisation drowned voices and all for the good of the United States at the expense of everything. It is also a personal view that the CIA has been acting to achieve maximum destabilisation so that the USA had the big presentation to be the solution to everything Middle East based. How long did you think that you could continue that path?”
I believe now and have always been of the mind that Saudi Arabia needs to do what is best for its country and its citizens. On a side note ‘rapprochement’ means “an establishment or resumption of harmonious relations”, which is presently not the case and might take some time to get to that level. So as we are given “The United States and Saudi Arabia for decades have cooperated closely on counter-terrorism and other intelligence matters” I have a few other issues, it is my personal belief that the US merely wants to know everything that they can (which makes sense) and they are doing it at the cost of everything and anyone. In this we can point at the case of the alleged thief and alleged traitor Saad bin Khalid Al Jabri. So how are they working together whilst Saad bin Khalid Al Jabri controls a CIA portfolio of a lot of money. So how close is the USA working with Saudi Arabia? It is merely a question, but the numbers are starting to add up and now that Saudi Arabia has decided to lower the oil deliveries by a million barrels, the US economy is starting to hurt really bad in America. It will not be visible for at least 60-90 days, but by the summer the US will be in deep waters and they need a solution, their inactions are going to be the cause of their own downfall.
The US is now in a larger stage of being pushed out of the Middle East. I made references to this for at least a year, first failed strategies, then the failed actions regarding Yemen and now the economy will falter. The options for the US are now falling away faster and faster and they did it to themselves.
Saudi Arabia must do what is best for its nation and its citizens and the events we saw in the last 5 years give rise to the fact that the USA is no longer the best option. And whilst we lay blame (not me), consider the actions of the last 5 years including the UN essay writer. Consider what WAS real and what might have been, and we were given what might have been too often and now that China has been successfully courting Saudi Arabia other issues will come. Iran is considering a new stage where it cannot fight Saudi Arabia AND Israel. It is therefor in a stage to make islamic choices towards Saudi Arabia and that allows for Iran to focus on Israel. It does not sound good for Houthi terrorists, but that is life. And now the US will lose a lot more than they counted on and the damage is getting worse, a lot worse. Their arms industry is losing grounds to China, which implies that that well is drying up faster than a saucer of water in the Rub’ Al Khali. What happens next is anyones guess but as I personally see it, the US policies have failed and now they need to rectify largely or be cast out of the region, on the upside, the US can still cater to Tel Aviv and whatever space they have.
This is change of scenery. This is not about who is in charge, even as we did set that stage, but the stage where we prefer to live. You see, the US is soon becoming a dangerous place to live, as its infrastructures are collapsing, as its debt is over-towering to such an extent that within three years the interest on that debt alone is close to 50% of all collected taxes. A stage that was visible for decades, but no one wanted to overhaul tax systems and now the rule of debt is due and the US has no solution (other than sell of its IP) and now we get a new stage, the stage we admired through the 50’s and 60’s and the US is no longer the main player.
We are given “On Thursday, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) announced the launch of the New Murabba Development Company, which aims to develop “the world’ largest modern downtown in Riyadh”. The project will see the redevelopment of Riyadh’s historic Al-Murabba (“The Square”) neighbourhood, which was said to be named after a square-shaped well from which the area derived its name.” And that is merely the beginning. The building will be 400 by 400 by 400 metres making it one of the largest ever build (if we ignore the line). The second building which is taking the architectonical cake. More important what happens when a building of THAT size is covered in solar paint? It could make it the first building to be carbon negative in history. There are so many other settings that need consideration, but the overbearing case is not merely what Saudi Arabia is achieving, it will soon be about how the US (and the EU) have not been able to do anything near it for over a decade and they will not be able to do something anywhere near it for decades to come. The trendsetters achieve, the rest merely watches the options go by and with the debts the US and EU are in that is what it amounts to, they are watching options pass by.
There is a lot more to this, but that is for another day. No matter how we slice it, Saudi Arabia is now on the architectonical forefront of the world for pretty much the timespan of 2020-2050, that is the consequence of debt driven nations. We tried to all tell you, but you did not want to listen, so now the most major achievements over the next decade will be held in Saudi Arabia, now if we could do something about Iran’s nuclear hunger that would be nice too. I already submitted my idea for Iranian nuclear meltdown solutions, but that is not up to me to do, I might give it to Israel as well, just for jollies.
But the deeper truth is not that Saudi Achieving all this, it will soon become on how Iran will react and make no mistake, it is equally important. As Saudi Arabia rises, Iran falls deeper into economic holes and there is no way that their nuclear options are set to friendly needs, you do not need uranium to pure needs that Iran is making them, that level of purity is only needed for war, so when will someone wake up to that issue? Or is the US awake and they wait for the first bomb (either in Israel or on Saudi Soil) to explode before they put their foot down? No matter how you slice that, it will be much too late for that. As I see it, when that become clear the Saudi government can cut their oil deliveries to the EU and US and sell it all to China. That part was clear, was it not? Saudi Arabia is waking up to the project the US (and EU) dreamt of half a century ago and now Saudi Arabia is making them a reality showing the world that we have been watching the wrong channels for too long a time. Did you realise that?
Yup an amalgamation of expressions and in this case it is a little more applicable than expected. You see a mere 11 hours ago I wrote in ‘Ruler of law goes metric’ “should the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia want it and limit the shipments of Crude Oil by an additional mere 1 million barrels a day, the US will explode in a stage of anarchy” (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/12/10/ruler-of-law-goes-metric/) and 7 hours ago we get from the ABC ‘China promises to buy more Middle East oil, urges Arab leaders to replace the dollar with yuan’ (at https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-12-10/china-xi-promises-to-buy-more-mideast-oil/101757852), it isn’t a victory when the nightmare scenario starts, but this is what the US was facing all along. Several world leaders learned the hard way what happens when you start wars on multiple fronts. People like Napoleon Bonaparte, Adolf Hitler and Wilhelm 2 all learned that lesson the hard way. Now that the US has a stage with Russia, it had to play nice with Chine to some extent, but it was already too late. Huawei was fresh in China’s memory and the US did NEVER EVER produce clear reports of the dangers that Huawei was. They got tools to make similar claims and none of them produced evidence. Now China sees a way to get back at the US. You see, if China buys 2 million barrels a day the American goose will be cooked within 2 months in the middle of winter no less. This is part of the horrific result of giving Wall Street free rein and now there is no second stage, no escape. The US had clear options a year ago, now not that much and the few they have they are squandering on the wrong priorities. And it is a mere 42 minutes ago when China and Saudi Arabia signed a strategic deal, which now implies that Huawei would get free rein on technology adaption for the Line, that straight building that goes through Saudi Arabia and optionally a lot more in Neom. Did you really think I was out of my mind when I was willing to sell my 5G to Saudi Arabia? This is happening a year earlier than expected, but no one saw the Ukrainian war happen and even less saw it excelarate the way it did in the end. Now China has the option to make the impressions in Saudi Arabia and optionally soon in Egypt as well. I saw this coming and no one believed me, but there is a lot more to Neom than most see, because the US media kept on belittling it and now as the truth comes out we see knee jerk reactions and large claims of miscommunications, and that is not all, if the Yuan will be accepted as currency, the Yuan will get a tour of the Middle East and Africa giving a slam against the power of the Dollar. Now, that does not mean that the dollar ends, but there will be an impact and the dollar will take a hit. All this to a larger effect because certain people relied on ego and not on facts or true innovation. Feel free to read the article (at https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20221210-saudi-arabia-and-huawei-sign-strategic-deal/) with the added quote “The Saudi Press Agency (SPA) also reported that Chinese and Saudi companies had signed 34 investment agreements in clean energy, information technology, cloud computing services, transportation, construction and other sectors. The agency did not issue figures for the deals but confirmed earlier that the two countries would sign initial agreements worth $30 billion.” It seems to be a simple claim that might not go anywhere, yet the adaptation for net zero carbon data centre’s in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and optionally two additional places are now supporting that my initial IP had a lot more power in Saudi Arabia than even I suspected and this also elevates the options that the Kingdom Holding Company (KHC) has in several places. What was an optional annual revenue of $763 million could start with an 800% growth and leading to well over twice that amount in less than 5 years. Should these data centres become reality than there is a clear case that these centres will be bought by European players, they would not have a choice in the matter and the US claim of danger to national security will not go anywhere, they played that card already. So when it rains, it pours as well as the interaction of the pot calling the kettle black. Two players that were ready and the others were not.
That is a weird question, it is actually a conundrum and as such we leave it out in the grass. A few hours ago the middle easters eye gives us ‘Saudi Arabia lifts unofficial trade embargo off Turkiye’, a stage and a half as I would think. There we see “That boycott was primarily due to the clash of foreign policy goals between Riyadh and Ankara in the region, with the two backing opposing sides in Libya and disagreeing over the legitimacy of the government in Egypt installed after the 2013 military coup. Turkiye was also pushing to bring to justice those responsible for the murder of exiled Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul in 2018, in which it maintained that the Saudi government and Crown Prince were involved.” Which was what was expected. Whether it is dialogue, party lines or something else, the language is not a surprise. What was interesting is the article a month ago called ‘Did Turkey bow down to Saudi Arabia?’ (At https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220509-did-turkey-bow-down-to-saudi-arabia/). There we are given “Bilateral relations were also badly strained after the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi by a Saudi hit squad at the Kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul in 2018. At the time, Erdogan accused the “highest levels” of the Saudi leadership of ordering the murder, but did not name any official”, as well as “Khashoggi’s murder triggered a global outcry against the Kingdom and Bin Salman, who is its de facto ruler. Turkey insisted on seeking justice in Khashoggi’s case and commenced legal proceedings; the CIA accused Bin Salman of ordering the murder. However, no country or international body has taken even a small punitive measure against Saudi Arabia.” Yet this is not quite correct is it? In the first we see “the CIA accused Bin Salman of ordering the murder” which they never did, they stated that it was highly likely (which does not constitute evidence), The UN report is out in the open, so you can check it for yourself. Then we get “no country or international body has taken even a small punitive measure against Saudi Arabia” and there lies the rub. You see if you had properly examined the UN report you would see that there was no evidence and the number one piece of evidence was that the report NEVER gave a proper digital report that the voice was confirmed and without doubt the voice of Jamal Khashoggi. We saw spin after spin, but no one properly digitally examined and tested the tapes. There is even an issue with the full tape, no report gives us any understanding that a tape even existed, merely bytes of audio and those were not properly forensically tested to ascertain the identity of the voices. When you see these two elements in a United Nations report no less, you will start to see what I saw within an hour of that UN report being made public. A hack job and a bad one at that. So after the blunders that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan committed, first with the EU, then with US, then Russia (S-400 missiles) it comes over that he need all the friends he can get and he will do whatever he can to not go under and he does not have that much options or any credibility as I personally see it. So when we see “Erdogan was enthusiastic about the meeting because he sees trade with Saudi Arabia as an important requirement for the revival of Turkey’s economy, and regards Riyadh’s political and diplomatic support as vital ahead of next year’s presidential election. He also knows that the catalyst for his country’s estrangement with the Saudis, the Arab Spring, has ended in all but name.” We need to realise that the only other option is China and China would want assurances, something Turkey has no option or intention to give. Commitment is not high on their calendar. And they need something now, it is not about “the revival of Turkey’s economy” it is about having a longer stand against whatever comes next. And now that Iran overstepped its options in Turkey, Turkey will see Saudi Arabia as the only option and they are not wrong. How this will play out? I cannot tell, it makes sense for Saudi Arabia to allows for trade with Turkey, it makes more sense for them to see all connections that nations have with Iran fade away.
The media is to some degree monitoring what is happening here, but not to the degree I expected. You see there are a few options opening up for Saudi Arabia, and Turkey has to commit now, or learn that being alone with neighbours they sold short one way or another is not the way to go. For Saudi Arabia and the STC, Turkey is another option to get a true 5G middle east network up and going, optionally 2-3 years ahead of Europe and the US. As such STC could have surprisingly profitable franchises in Egypt and Turkey in the near future, it could set a new premise. It would also be the first time in history where the STC (and Saudi Arabia through it) would reach North Africa and optionally Southern Europe as well. Something that they never did before and that opens up more than Nokia, it speculatively opens up new options for Huawei as well. It is too early for predictions, but the idea that they grow by 50% before 2024 is not out of the question, especially if their foothold in Egypt and Turkey continues. A thought that people would have ridiculed in 2017 is now on the borders of reality. So when do colours not mix? When you never had the right colours in the first place, that is when. A stage we negated for too long a time and now with Turkey it comes to the forefront rather quickly.
Lawrence van Rijn - Law Lord to be 