A Personal Blog by Tanner J.
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I Don’t Give a Shit About “Tom Brady”
I got a DM on Twitter from someone I’m familiar with in the Netherrealm games sub-community the other day, and it was a simple question: “Have you ever written about Tom?” “Tom” is “Tom Brady,” AKA Bill Menoutis, a longtime fixture in this particular sub-community and in the greater fighting game community for years and…
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A Response to James Chen: Why Don’t More People Play Fighters?
Recently, renowned FGC commentator (and honestly, ‘historian’ might be a title worth throwing in there) James Chen made some comments on Twitter relating to a problem he cared a lot about but couldn’t find much traction with others: To sum it up, Chen is increasingly concerned about a certain plateau that the fighting game genre…
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From Ashes
“I knew right away when I agreed to do it. Either everything goes well and we get an investment and I take care of my players, or I’m fucked. I should have trusted my gut.” The sigh proceeding this statement from Jeremy McLamb, known to friends and fans as “Lambzy”, is weary and weighty, encompassing…
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The FGC Ban Catalog: Why It Exists
Update 8/10/22: The original Google Doc is no longer accessible publicly. It will be not be made publicly available again. A combination of personal requests, dead links, and a philosophical change are behind why that decision was made. That said, I will leave this post up because it is indicative of my thought process at…
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Rethinking “Negativity”
“Either you repeat the same conventional doctrines everybody is saying, or else you say something true, and it will sound like it’s from Neptune.” Noam Chomsky It is a tale as old as time – Some hot gossip or horrible truth takes over the fighting game community section of Twitter and other social media, and…
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No Ahabs
“Ahab is for ever Ahab, man. This whole act’s immutably decreed. ‘Twas rehearsed by thee and me a billion years before the ocean rolled. Fool! I am the Fates’ lieutenant; I act under orders.” Herman Melville, Moby Dick (CW: Links containing descriptions of sexual harassment, transphobic language, domestic abuse) Over the summer, darkness lurking just…
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Confronting Labor Abuse in Communities
CW: Links to stories of sexual abuse An owner that doesn’t want to pay the staff that organizes for him, let alone refer to them as “employees,” because “then I have to treat it like a business.” Management that sacks an employee the day after booking them a flight to a foreign event, forcing them…
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Black Lives Matter
Due to the wealth of research I did for this earlier piece about Florida’s Volusia County and its police’s history of violence, I have a better understanding now of the damage that a horrible police culture can inflict on Black communities. The sad truth is that same story has taken place all over America for…
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It *Is* That Deep
It is the ubiquitous phrase you see used across social media whenever someone posts about something that offended them: “It ain’t that deep.” Naturally, it implies that whomever was offended is simply looking way too far past the intent of whatever was posted and is overreacting. The most common place you’ll see this is on…
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The Echoes of Silence
“If you just ignore it, will it eventually go away!” This canard, best used to distract children who are crying about their sibling making faces, has taken on a new meaning as we all are increasingly more online. Social media demands that its users engage one another, and there is no better engagement than tapping…
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Them's fighting words!! 