This is remarkably well-played. Shoot, Arby’s social media people apparently even have a small budget. Or at least somebody good at cutting up cardboard.
.@SJGames We had a similar expansion pack in mind. Trade ya’. pic.twitter.com/E6Y5CbkK9E
— Arby's (@Arbys) January 18, 2017
This is what Charlie Stross calls a ‘saving throw vs. shiny‘ situation. I haven’t played Munchkin in years and I’ve avoided buying all the supplements and whatnot, but… still. Still. Steve Jackson Games knows my weaknesses, don’t they?
My post about Barack Obama as a power gamer was referenced in National Review Online, with my use of the term ‘munchkin’ quoted (as well as the meme of The Gun Is My Skill List). By the way, both terms originate[*] in the seminal and influential work Munchkins Guide to Power Gaming… wait a second: sixty-three bucks new? Steve Jackson Games should do a reprint.
Anyway, this is a moment of quiet pride for me. It’s like I’m rust!
Moe Lane
*For the sake of accuracy, this point from @sjgames is well-taken:
@moelane Minor correction: “munchkin” as a gaming term predates the Munchkin’s Guide by at least a decade. -AH
— Steve Jackson Games (@SJGames) February 27, 2013
…although as I noted in my response, the Guide really is what at least popularized the term.
It’s a technical term: see below.
Let me give all of you the basic background, first: Obama has yet to make a decision on the Keystone Pipeline, and he’s more or less going to seriously anger a key block of supporters either way. If he approves the pipeline, he annoys Hollywood celebrities, radical environmentalists, and other scientific illiterates; and if Obama rejects it, he infuriates Big Labor, or at least those parts of it that still do actual work. The result? Barack Obama is… dithering; which pleases nobody. The union workers aren’t working, and the scientific illiterates are justifiably paranoid that the current no-by-default is unsustainable in the long run. So, of course, both sides are now trying to pressure the White House into resolving the situation.
What both sides don’t quite realize is that the problem that the administration is facing a structural problem, not an ideological one. It’s not that the White House doesn’t want to resolve the issue; it just doesn’t know how. Continue reading President Barack Obama, electoral munchkin.
I had an urge to write a book today on the 2008 Democratic primary. I mean, I have a thesis. I have an idea for a rough outline. I know the subject well enough to do the research. I even have a title: Power Gaming: How the Obama campaign ganked Hillary Clinton’s nomination.
Please tell me that there are shots for this.
