Weekly Top X

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the House of Paincake's very first Top X (where X equals whatever the hell we want it to) post! Brent and I waded through a ton of posts to bring you 5 that we thought really stood out.  Without further introductory BS, lets get started.

1) Baals-2-the-Waals - "Oh how rich we are" (In defense of small pointed games)
2) Game Over - House of Paincakes / Is Small Beautiful?

John: These are the two articles I’m most excited about for this week’s top 5. As far as I can tell, these guys didn’t even know of each other’s existence before Von wrote a response. Then HOP brings ‘em together and then you see this great great response to someone else’s hard work. Plus, even though they have divergent positions, but no one is getting up on their hind legs. Very cool and its entirely what we’re on about.
Brent: So, why don’t you explain this whole unity thing. Is it like my hugs and gropings concept or a bit less touchy-feelie?
John: Its as touchy-feelie as you want it to be, my man! The whole idea is to get people to engage in actual discussion rather than the cycle of taking stances and waiting for backlash. Granted, there’s a certain amount of futility in that, but it’s the goal all the same. There are far too many faction lines being drawn across a relatively... BRENT!
Brent: Sorry - I wasn’t paying attention, I was reading these threads. I don’t know about you, but I really responded to the story about the player who took casual games as an opportunity for revenge. Maybe that wasn’t the point of the thread but it did stick out.
John: Yeah, stuff like that is a bummer. But it’s also the kind of contextual stuff that can really give you a sense of where the author is coming from and really adds a richness to the blogging experience.
Brent: Look, Lauby - we’ve got to move on here. I know you’re all wordy and stuff but people are falling asleep out there! I think the main point here is these two posts represent what’s great about blogging and illustrates where the House of Paincakes can go in the future. Good stuff.


3) One Inch Warriors -  a Word in Your Ear or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Blog

John: This is another gem we got out of the initial launch of the HOP site. I like this post for a lot of reasons and not just because of the favorable press HOP got out of it! What really struck me were the historical aspect of the WD article and the nature of gamers as consumers rather than just fans. Plus, we get more of that great context from the little anecdotes that the author sprinkled in. This is really the kind of Personality Based Blogging you like to promote.
Brent: This is exactly the kind of PBB I love... is there an echo? And did we just coin a phrase? Bottom line, there’s nothing - and I mean nothing - wrong with this article. It’s a classic. Not later: NOW. It’s that good, so all you fine folks out there should do yourselves a favor and read it. If you’ve already read it, reread it. Okay, what’s next?


4) The Back 40k - Color Question: Tau Battle Suits

John: This post just about floored me. As a bit of a painter myself, I know what kind of work goes into making tutorials in general, let alone one so customized to one person’s needs. The fact that SandWyrm took the time out of his day to write this up AND do the photo-editing necessary to make his points is just priceless. Sandwyrm really used his skills to go the distance on this one. Plus, its a fantastic companion piece to all of his (also) excellent color theory articles.
Brent: Sandwyrm, Farmpunk, and the Indiana Boys run a damn fine hobby blog, and this gem is part of the reason they get noticed. I’m with you, Lauby: who takes the time to do this? I’ll admit, I appreciated the Color Theory articles (John, see how I capitalized that... pretentious, huh?) but this one is the double-chocolate icing on the cake of... something... I lost the analogy. What were we talking about again?


5) 3++ is the new Black -  Warhammer 40k/Fantasy Tournament Scene & Metagame

Brent: Lauby, I have to wonder if this week is an indication of how this series is going to go. I mean, each article has me thinking it’s the best of the bunch... until I go back and check out one of the others! Case in point, Kirby sits down and once and for all puts the idea of a metagame to rest. I’ve always preferred the regionalism concept, which I can’t help but think has received a pretty big boost out of this, ‘cause Kirby has put the debate to bed. Permanently!
John: Sadly, no. Most of the comments were some arguments over semantics and general bullshit. HOWEVER, this article is right on the money as far as I'm concerned. It also has the benefit of being the most coherent and well written treatment of the subject. It always amazes me how well Kirby and his co-bloggers are able to completely ignore the trade off between quantity and quality. The produce so much and all of it is good!

Well, the clock on the wall tells me its time for Brandy in the solarium so I do believe it’s time to bring this first top X to a close. I have to say that Brent and I had a ton of fun writing this and even more fun going through all the quality stuff that the HOP network members managed to crank out in our first week and half of existence. So set your homepage to the House of Paincakes and we’ll see a new round of great stuff next week!