I think we're all aware by now of the conspiracy that's building in the background of 2077. Most of us know about the mysterious Blue Eyes who appears in The Sun ending to the game. He operates as The Stinger of sorts for (that) ending of the game; He and V discuss a job vaguely alluded to through out the ending sequence and then the ending cuts to V in space charging off towards The Crystal Palace. Cue DLC Hook and credits.
But, let's go back here. This is only the tail end of the conspiracy and where it actually intersects with V's story. Blue Eyes (and some connections to him) crop up multiple times through out the game and, when pieced together, start building a larger picture that runs deeper into Night City than the pockets of most corporats.
I've finished my second playthrough of the game and I've been drafting this post as I play and find more clues. I doubt I'll find everything or might completely dismiss some, but I want to be on the front lines of uncovering this mystery, especially if this will be our Gaunter O'Dim for Cyberpunk 2077. I apologize for the length of this post ahead of time, but I need to summarize a bunch of lore and at least 4 major side-quests; "I Fought The Law", "Dream On", "Full Disclosure", and "The Prophet's Song".
Here's a long essay incoming, but I hope you chooms enjoy and I hope you read through to the end because, oh boy, I uncovered some cool shit!
So, who is Blue Eyes? Who are his contacts? What is his role in the ecosystem of this city?
"I FOUGHT THE LAW"
Let's start with where he most appears in the game; Jefferson and Elizabeth Peralez, political family in the running for Night City's first family. Which I kinda have to summarize their questlines, including the first one which Blue Eyes never appears in. But I'd prefer to go in chronological order and not jump around, so stick with me.
Elizabeth first contacts you for the job "I Fought The Law". It's fairly basic, but the quest tells us she convinced her husband to hire V to look into the recent death of Mayor Rhyne. We get a BD of a cyberpsycho attack by Peter Horvath on Mayor Rhyne. Weldon Holt leaves the room before the attack and then the security gate crashes right before Peter walks in with billions of eddies worth of chrome. The attack is unsuccessful and stopped by Detective River Ward, who was only there because Peter went missing internally at the NCPD and he knew where Peter would go.
When investigating Peter Horvath, his previous boss describes him as paranoid that "probably thought Mayor Rhyne talked to him through the TV" and that the world was out to fuck him. She then mentions that someone "finally saw what he was worth" which cues into how Peter was thrown into this attack in the first place; he had a patron who funded his chrome and the attempt on Rhyne's life. Tellingly, River than goes into a little talk about how clues rarely make sense until put into the larger context, much like we're doing right now.
V goes to the club Rhyne died in; The Red Queen's Race. V sneaks through, takes out some Animals, and can investigate what actually happened to Rhyne. If we read the emails on the office terminal, we know that Weldon Holt arranged for Rhyne to be there. He initially mentioned this to Rhyne during the first BD; Rhyne asked Holt directly to arrange his usual room at the club. So, this doesn't inherently look too suspicious on it's own, but Holt knew where Rhyne would be. We also find out via the Animals Boss there that Weldon Holt is the one who hired them to smash up the club and they're currently waiting around for payment. Further, you can go to the room Rhyne died in, find the BD headset, and put it on... which INSTANTLY knocks V out and they need to be rescued by River (who, btw, takes out any Animals on the property you didn't get to! Ty bro!). They surmise that Rhyne was killed by a virus in the headset. Lastly, we find footage of Detective Han (River's partner) covering up the death of Rhyne. They confront Han, V goes off to the Peralezs, and quest ends.
Of note, finding the BD set is a hidden dialogue option with the Peralezes suggesting, yes, that's the correct deduction to make. You don't get that option otherwise. And V never actually comes to any real conclusion to what happened to Rhyne.
So, let's summarize what we know about the death of our Mayor. Peter Horvath was hired by an unknown Patron who spent a ton of money to turn him into a suicide bomb against Rhyne. They have connections internally to the corrupt NCPD which allowed Horvath to get access to Rhyne, both from escaping NCPD custody and for the security to give him access to Rhyne's conference room. That fails so our mastermind instead assassinates Rhyne at his usual sex club, one that we know for sure Holt knew about. Rhyne is assassinated via malware in a BD porno headset, NCPD comes in an Detective Han cleans it up. Later, Holt hires the Animals to take claim to the club and fuck it up.
Holt is looking suspicious AF rn, but we also don't have any direct evidence and V says as much if you accuse him. Personally, I think it's a little too clumsy if it's him. Holt leaves the room just as an assassination attempt goes down, sets up a sex club appointment for the Mayor where he's successfully assassinated, NCPD covers it up... and then he hires a gang to cover it up more? Something doesn't fit here.
My theory is Holt is innocent. He's a scum bag, but not the culprit here. Why would you EVER give your identity to the Animals you hired to cover up an assassination? The big dumb brutes of the underworld? A name they give up with almost no fight? No, I think someone hired them under Holt's name. And I think they hired them because they KNEW the BD Headset was left behind; Han dismissed it entirely as Rhyne dying of a heart attack brought on during sex. They needed that destroyed to cover the final footprints. It's the only piece of evidence that doesn't have Holt or NCPD's name on it and doesn't fit the narrative that both are pushing. If they're covering NCPD or Holt's tracks, why not delete the emails or footage of Han? And if Holt or Han were trying to push this false narrative, why leave the headset right there the first time?
And, while I have no evidence of this assertion, the Animals are only still there because they're waiting for payment to come in... I think our employer never intended to pay them and left them in the path of V, who is likely to shoot them and tie up the loose end for our mysterious entity. Animals destroy the BD set, V shoots the animals, no trace. And, even if he doesn't, Animals will point V to the wrong person.
No, we've got a third party here. But let's continue so we can finally let our lead actor take center stage.
"DREAM ON"
"Dream On" starts when Jefferson calls V and asks them to help in another case. Long and Short; Jefferson woke up in the night and found a man in a mask (or an implant) standing over him. Jefferson shot the man, only for his head to fry and knock him out. Coming to, he's back in bed with no evidence it ever happened. SSI, their private security, insists that there was nothing on the cameras, no evidence, and nothing happened. Elizabeth claims she slept through the whole thing event.
V investigates the apartment, with Elizabeth giving the tour, and finds a lot of evidence. Elizabeth is kinda dismissive at first thinking V won't find much. First small stuff leading into larger reveals. Let's start small and work our way up.
First room Liz takes us to is the campaign room. She talks about running the campaign entirely out of pocket and having to keep most of their supplies at the Penthouse; "It's cheaper that way". You find a picture of their daughter on the wall and Liz explains that she's off at university in Europe while Jefferson is running for office; "It's easier that way" she says. That phrasing again.
EDIT: A redditor in the comments pointed out that the Peralez are being controlled via drugs in their food as part of the tech. They mention they've been eating fast food lately, explaining why Jefferson was lucid enough to catch the agent and shoot him.
V can look at Jefferson's emails (which Liz slightly discourages them, saying there's nothing there) which reveals a bit more about their campaign. There's a video of the iconic commercial and poster of Jefferson pulling out a gun and shooting a bunch of paperwork. In the email, Jefferson HATES this commercial, but his assistant, Lea Patel, insists on it as it will air in television time slots with action-drama series and catch the attention of voters. Further emails have Eric Boucher, Jefferson's Campaign Partner (Manager?), saying Jefferson has been acting unpredictably lately; presumably referencing one of the next emails. Boucher is confused because they fired Lea Patel together, only for her to continue working and sent him a new ad for approval. When emailed, Jefferson is confused about Lea being fired at all and doesn't remember the event ever happening, even telling Boucher to be honest if he has some issue with her. A final email is from SSI Chief of Security, Wallace, discussing Jefferson's intent to hire a merc to look into Rhyne's death ("Dream On") and they suggest Jefferson drop it or have NCPD or themselves look into it. Private Security just... offering to investigate the former mayor's death? Huh... sounds more like they want to squash the issue to me.
We should now talk about the Peralez's campaign. As you explore the apartment, Liz explains that they're running on a corp free campaign; they want to get Night City out of the control of the corps and do so without ever owing any favors to them. She specifically cites "Night Corp, Militech, and Petrochem" as ones they've denied. Militech and Petrochem come up a few times in other quests but Night Corp is relatively obscure. And they choose that corp to be the first one she mentions? Stands out to me. It also isn't lost on me that we're talking about running a campaign out of pocket and refusing corp assistance... while walking on the fancy ass balcony of a penthouse in Charter Hill- North Oak.
Next room, we find Jefferson's office. Elizabeth and Jefferson both graduated with law degrees from Asukaga University in Berkley. V points out it would be extremely expensive for them both, but Elizabeth says that both got full ride scholarships from the Richard Night Foundation, run by Night Corp. To further fucking cement this moment, there's a Richard Night biography shard on the desk. But we'll drop this for now because I want to get to Night Corp a bit later.
The computer on the office desk has some emails on it sent by Elizabeth. One is between her and Judy where she's asking Judy for help on the original "I Fought The Law" quest and Judy is the one who gave her your contact in the first place. Another is from their daughter kinda asserting the same thing earlier; safer for her in Europe so she's not a target on the campaign trail. And here's the interesting one; Boucher emailed Elizabeth asking why Jefferson changed his mind on Lea Patel. Elizabth says Jefferson explained it to her that it "slipped his mind" and "circumstances changed in Lea's favor" and she asks him to drop the whole thing. She's dismissive and gives extremely vague details.
Next room, Bedroom. Elziabeth's gun is on the table. It's the one Jefferson claimed he fired and scanning it tells us that it has been fired recently. We also find the wedding photo of Jefferson and Elizabeth where she fondly talks about having blue roses because she loves them so much... except the photo's roses are red and V says as much. Elizabeth quietly corrects herself that they only had red roses instead and moves on.
In the hall, we find the blood trail and gun shots in the wall; both covered up hastily. Following the trail, we enter a tv room. The Smart Glass isn't working and Elizabeth says it stopped working recently; not like they use it much anyway. Passing a Tech Check lets us try and fix it... only to be quickly blacked out by it so hard Johnny felt it too. V asks Elizabeth about it but she doesn't know what V is talking about despite having been standing right there. We also find a hidden door in the wall. Unlike earlier, Liz is actually confused by the door but demands V try and open it.
Downstairs we have the security room. Liz says that it used to be her place but "Security had to set up somewhere" and that she had to make sacrifices for this campaign; "it wasn't the first nor will it be the last". One computer has a Welcome email from SSI to new recruits. It details that they have access to all areas except Section Zero, which is reserved for Blue or Black agents and that, should the encounter a Blue or Black Agent (SPECIFICALLY "in the night"), do not interact or acknowledge them. The next email from Wallace mentions an accident where there was a "behavioral anomaly" and "ALPHA" injured a Blue Agent (BLUE-66M) who is in critical and the SSI head is requesting access to Sector Zero to give medical aid. SSI gives Wallace the code to Sector Zero and sends a team to aid. SSI knew about the accident and lied. You go to the second computer, unlock it, and can unlock the upstairs door. On that terminal is a bunch of deleted files (presumably the security footage from that night) and emails discussing "normal maintenance procedure" and further informing security that ALPHA (Jefferson) hired a merc (V) and, should security encounter them, do not interact with them.
Small thing I found interesting, a shard called "You Are What You Slot" is found down here too. It details a fictional assassin who kills and then steals the identity of her victims. Small and doesn't mean much on it's own, but the shards are hinting at the story here; one of false identities and manipulation.
Now, let's get to the main event; the secret room. Inside is a control center. Elizabeth is horrified and feels violated. She shouts that she's not letting SSI anywhere near them, only for her head to start hurting and she tells V to do what he needs to do. She leaves him. Inside the control room is a box of bloody medical supplies. The computer discusses "behavioral norms" for ALPHA (Jefferson) and suggests amplifying "neural dampening". It discusses things similar to Wallace's terminal, but from the other side; ALPHA is displaying odd behavior by hiring a merc, the SSI teams avoided meeting the merc, and then the actual accident that occurred injuring BLUE-66M during regular 'maintenance'. The other side of the room also has another data shard, "Rewriting Synaptic Pathways", basically talking about using tech to rewire the brain a bit.
Following some wires from the control room to the roof, we find a signal dish. Johnny (replacing Elizabeth for conversation now that she's gone), joins in that the tech looks prehistoric but functional and that Militech used it in the war; it requires line of sight to transmit data but otherwise can't be intercepted. We can see the tower and go to investigate. V tells Liz the whole deal; V can suggest that the Van near the tower could be SSIs or that it might not be due to unconventional tech. Liz then itterates twice that it's a stressful campaign time for Jefferson and V should talk to her, NOT him. "Sure, whatever" V and the player dismiss.
(I SWEAR WE'RE ALMOST DONE WITH THE SUMMARIZING FOR DREAM ON, I'M SO SORRY.)
We drive after the van, Johnny is suddenly excited for smashing a corpo conspiracy and iterates that citizens do not choose their representatives, instead they're chosen by "key players" who watch the Peralezes for weaknesses or blackmail material. We arrive at the facility patrolled by Maelstrom and the occupants of our van park, get out, and climb ladders to the roof where they get into an AV that is cloaked to be near invisible (as shown in a couple of vids on YouTube and this subreddit).
At the place, Maelstom is explained; "UNKNOWN USER" contacted them while driving the van for protection to take care of V and then destroy the van. Van's data makes it pretty clear; the Peralezs' minds are being manipulated, new neural pathways are being created, and their memories are being created, changed, or erased. There are also a couple of other names of other test subjects. The data is then erased. We do see an almost flower like symbol before the data is destroyed.
The agents on the cloaked AV CAN be killed and do drop a shard, thought it doesn’t have many more details, merely that they’re contacting HQ to arrange extraction and that the Van’s data should be destroyed and echoing the arrangement with Maelstrom mentioned earlier in their shards.
V calls Liz, Liz wants to meet in person instead of over holo and send him to a Japantown Raman shop (same one that used to be Rainbow Cadenza, coincidentally). Odd choice for an upstanding congresswoman. She says her nerves are shot, the ramen shop is a quieter place to meet than the apartment, and she needs a moment to gather herself since she last saw V, with V even asking if something has happened since they last saw each other. Of note, Liz is stress smoking the entire scene, something she hasn't done until now. She then explains, no, it's been over a longer period of time. She's been watching her husband change and act differently for awhile; he stopped reading, his taste changed, and he even insisted he was an only child and never had a bother when Liz asks about visiting the grave. Of note, yes, Antonio Peralez has a Columbarium Vault, which proves Liz is correct on this. She confesses that she herself has been told by others she's been acting strangely. V says she knew what V would find and she asserts that she doesn't know the who, how, or why, but "they're changing us". Jefferson apparently went on in great detail about a trip she swears they never went on, but she doesn't know if the vacation is a fake memory or if she's the one that doesn't remember.
She saw a stranger in their apartment tinkering with a monitor, only for him to be missing when it was reported to SSI and they looked at the feeds. The next day, she got a phone call from a stranger (whom she refers to by "he") saying that she's walking on thin ice and Jefferson could have an accident. They later erased all data that the phone call had happened. Elizabeth claims she's terrified for herself and her husband's safety and doesn't want V to reveal the truth. V points out "they" could be telling her to say that but it doesn't really change how she feels since she just wants Jefferson to be safe. She tells V to tell Jefferson it was SSI spying for Holt. She asserts she wants SSI out of her roof if they're spying on their sleep. She will take responsibility for firing SSI, but wants Jefferson to be safe and out of that fight. She adds a meeting with Jefferson to his calendar at Reconciliation Park. But, ultimately it's V's choice (especially since she has no idea if she'll remember the conversation) and leaves. Johnny jumps and and talks and mentions that there were talks like this back in his day and worrying about the damage a puppet mayor could do.
V heads to Reconciliation Park to meet with Jefferson. Entering, V is called by an Unknown Number which blacks out V's optics. They claim to know who V is, *what* V is, and what V wants. It doesn't matter what V tells Jefferson, but "don't dare cross that line" and "you're playing with fire". Its a garbled male robo voice, so safe to say it's irrelevant to the owner.
Enter Stage Right, our missing lead; Mr. Blue Eyes. He is standing on a balcony watching the place where we meet Jefferson. In the Scanner, he is labeled "Mr. Blue Eyes", has no known affiliation, is wanted for "SC 370", and is wanted for "Classified". His eyes are electronically glowing blue you can even see from several yards away. You cannot injure him as grenades do nothing and you can't aim at him. Of small note, and I don't know if this ACTUALLY means anything, but his hair style asset is referred to as Morgan Blackhand in the files, but could mean nothing if this hair is actually used by other NPCs. MOST LIKELY THIS IS NOTHING UNLESS SOMEONE HAS FURTHER INFO.
(Plot twist: It meant something. But we'll get there.)
V sits with Jefferson and can reveal the truth; "SSI is on the take from an unknown group to control your lives". V can even point out the absurdity of Peralez being as successful of a politician as he is without any corp sponsors. "They want you to be *their* mayor. Molding you like clay". You can tell Jefferson how to proceed and additional details, but it doesn't matter. Later, Jefferson will send a text and delete your number and so will Elizabeth, who will call you out for telling Jeff. In the end credits voicemails, Jefferson has decended into paranoia about some vitamins Liz gave him which he didn't trust so he sent them to the lab, only to then not trust the lab results saying they're fine. Jefferson Peralez is confirmed the new mayor during Late Act 2 and the major difference is his state of mind at the end game; either hiring V to be on his security staff or descending into absolute paranoia over everything in his life.
Lastly, Johnny appears and cryptically talks about back in his day when they'd talk about rogue AIs. Personally... I kinda completely dismiss this? It comes out of nowhere, Johnny cites NOTHING for why he'd bring this up in relation to the case, and I can't fathom a motive. I’d also point out that this isn’t the only time Johnny is outright wrong. In fact, he’s wrong A LOT in the game. For example, he criticizes V for listening to the Netwatch Agent and that he’s bullshitting you. Except, the agent is 100% correct that VDB did spike V as a suicide virus and Johnny is actually wrong. He also claims he doesn’t know what happened with Thompson after Never Fade Away, but this is a lie because Thompson is flying the AV Johnny takes to Arasaka in 2023. The only connection I can find is "Who is controlling Blue-Eyes" which might make Johnny correct, if just not in the way 'Rogue AIs' initially implies.
So, what actually has happened?
The Peralez family has been molded for a very long time into being the perfect political couple. They got scholarships from the Night Foundation for two fancy law degrees, have successful political careers, and Jefferson is running for Mayor on an anti-corp platform, an insanity for Night City. And he's actually successful at it. During a maintenance service at night on the Peralez's apartment, Jefferson woke up and shot an SSI/Unknown agent making repairs. The Control Booth knocked Jefferson out and they pulled the agent out of the apartment into the secret room. SSI put the Peralezes back into bed and hastily cleaned up everything, but the damage was done and Peralez hired V who uncovered mostly everything.
Elizabeth seems to be initially very upset by the discovery, but wants V off the trail when we meet her next. However, she's not in on it as she's equally a victim to the brainwashing/gaslighting and that's for certain. I think she's a pawn who is either too scared or too programmed to break the rules of movement on this chessboard. It's worth noting that, while the unknown entity threatens Jefferson's life and V's well being, they do not make due on either of these threats. I call their bluff. They have put too much work into Jefferson to abandon or kill him.
But, where else have we heard of this gaslighting brainwash process before?
"FULL DISCLOSURE"
Ok, we're on the shorter end so I don't have to actually explain this quest in full. Sandra Dorsett is a netrunner and a very skilled on at that, actually collecting data from Night Corp. She was kidnapped by the savs we rescued her from at the beginning of the game shortly AFTER she stole this data, suggesting Night Corp was behind it. This data is on the shard she asks you to collect during the aforementioned quest. V has full ability to NOT read it, but let's look at it; "Operation Carpe Noctem" ("Seize The Night" in Latin)
Described in it is an experiment on Night Corp's own employees where they are quietly brainwashing them and getting them to do whatever they want. They specifically cite an empathetic and calm employee who they got to fight a co-worker and then jump from a 16th floor window. The shard ends on mentioning that they're ready to install CN-07 on "our actual target".
I think multiple quests discussing brainwashing and gaslighting is too coincidental to be utterly unrelated to each other. I think Night Corp's actual target mentioned here is Peralez.
So, what is Night Corp?
Night Corp is the most mysterious of the corps in Night City. It currently operates to better Night City via philanthropic ventures, fundraising, community support, and city infrastructure. Basically, while Militech and Arasaka and the others operate in the city, Night Corp basically RUNS the actual city. They're also noteworthy for the level of security they have that even the best netrunners can't get much from them and, since they keep to themselves and seemingly just do city infrastructure stuff, no one really super bothers them. It has been run by Miriam Night, wife of late-Richard Night, until recently and we currently don’t actually know who runs NightCorp.
Originally, they were the Night Foundation, but that requires explaining Richard Night... oh boy, Lore Drop. I'll make it quick as possible.
Richard Night is the founder of Night City. He started as a partner of a firm, but his ambitions grew beyond that to founding "Night International" to build his dream; a city that would be so grand it would make all other cities pale by comparison, Coronado City. A capitalist mecha of opportunity, Night City would be run by corporations and have next to no anti-business policies on the books. Arasaka, EMB, and Petrochem were his first backers and he came into claim of land on the central-California coast; Del Coronado Bay and Morro Bay would be the location of his dream city.
(BTW, irl, Morro Bay, California is a real place. Been there, have family there, go there regularly, kinda cool!).
Despite being a capitalist mecca city and run by corps, Richard Night also dreamed it to be "A sprawling metropolis, free of crime, of poverty, of debt. A place where people could live safely, peacefully, without having to worry about the dire situations that were growing around the world at the time".
However, due to the design plans, Night didn't employ local contractors and instead got expensive architects and builders from all over the world. Local builders didn't like that, they had mob connections, bloodshed started. And soon Richard Night was murdered by an unknown assassin, presumably a mob hitman. The city was renamed Night City in his honor and his dream utopia became to embody everything that was destroying the world. Mob took control and corps didn't give a fuck since it didn't hurt them any until they eventually had to take out the mob gangs, but not in any favor to Night’s dream either.
Miriam Night, Richard's Widow, founded the Night Foundation (later Night Corp) to stick to Richard's Ideal dreams of what he wanted the city to be. They invest heavily in ecological research, alt power sources, civic infrastructure, public works, and charities and scholarships for Night City youth. "They've even managed to stay out of the normal corporate power struggles which tend to plague every other corporation, both inside the city and out. Even the shadowy corporate rumors about them, like having underwater bases in the bay or access to orbital satellites, remain unsubstantiated despite extensive investigation."
So, where does this put us now? We have ONE last quest...
"THE PROPHET'S SONG"
Garry The Prophet is our local crazy man. He spouts off insanities to anyone who will listen near Misty's Esoterica in Kabuki. However, some of his ideas aren't quite as much off the mark as one might think. There ain't no technonecromancers from Alpha Centuri (or Spanish Inquisition) nor is Saburo Arasaka an immortal vampire, but he was correct that Saburo wasn't dead and in fact immortal; via Mikoshi and The Relic.
He send you on a quest to investigate a meeting; he says that his ripper mistuned some cyberware in his head and he can hear their communications. You show up to a meeting between corps and Maelstrom. They say some nonsense phrases and transfer a data shard. Reading it ("Destroy After Reading") it seems like nonsense. But does include the line "The cages of men melt as night descends". You can decode it via a Null Cipher; first letter of every line: “Project Oracle Command Execute Plans”.
We don’t know what Project Oracle is. In real life, secret project or operation names actually tend to be chosen at random and are unrelated to the actual project (you can google funny stories about names that ended up awkward to the actual project), so this could mean nothing. But, narratives tend to give meaning to everything. Oracles are mythical in references and could predict the future or see the unseen. Perhaps perfect prediction via behind the scenes manipulations? Not sure we’ll get answers on this one for now.
Going back to Garry, he's been kidnapped. His protoge is screaming he's been kidnapped "Black suits came by - blue eyes and all". Blue Eyes huh? Further, she claims that they threw him into an invisible AV... Huh, like the one we saw back during "Dream On"? "Night's comin... The eternal night"
So, it’s time to jump us to the final step in our Fool’s Journey: The Sun.
“THE SUN”
The Sun ending has V wake up in their new penthouse apartment (with their love interest if they have one). Checking the computer, we see emails from our dear Mr. Blue Eyes. He wants an answer from V as to the job to the Crystal Palace he has planned and that they’re on a tight schedule for “obvious reasons”. We meet with him at the Afterlife and he talks about the job; Casino security is going into maintenance and V mentions giving him the casino client list. V also asks him to “hold up your end of the bargain”. They never discuss eddies or payment. It’s all in such vague terms. “Your end” or “Obvious reasons”. Smaller point but an email from Vik on the space shuttle also tells us that he’s asked around about Blue Eyes and has nothing; either he works with people WAY above Vik’s paygrade or he’s shady as hell… or both.
I think Blue Eyes knows V is dying (the obvious reasons) and I think the unspecified payment is V’s survival. V always says that they want to come back to their love interest so it’s not a mindless suicide run and I don’t think V would risk it all for nothing but eddies; especially not after Reaper (both versions) paint suicide runs as a horrible terrible thing. To then glorify it in another ending… no, the game is smarter than that.
Your love interest doesn’t seem to be too upset about the situation either. Panam and Judy leave V in The Sun due to their lives taking different directions, but it seems mostly amicable and understanding. They even express desire to see V again because they know V needs to do this job. Kerry, who stays with V in The Sun and expresses worry and also a desire to settle down with V, also seems mostly understanding that V needs to go on this quest. I don’t think they’d be so calm and loving and understanding if this were a suicide run. They know more than the player does.
Further, I think Blue Eyes isn’t after the casino aspect of the Crystal Palace at all. While that’s the major commercial aspect of the station as marketed to the citizen world, the station also has embassies from every nation on earth, facilities from all the major corporations, and is pretty much THE place where all the dark corporate espionage goes down. There’s so much more to this location than ‘casino resort’. *EVERY* corp has space stations and hideaways in space because the Crystal Palace offers it’s own legalities and opportunities that are not allowed within Earth’s terms and conditions. If they want to do some research that would be frowned upon elsewhere and get up to some Top Secret shit, it’ll be in outer space. Night City is controlled by corps and has lax laws, but outer space’s are even more so.
I think the cure V wants is not only on the station, I think it’s what Blue Eyes himself is after, but I’ll get there when it’s time to theory craft about the future.
I think it’s worth noting; Blue Eyes IS IN THE TRAILER FOR THE GAME. Yeah, anyone remember that shot on a shuttle with a guy being burned out from the inside? Yeah, he’s there. In the foreground. *Smirking*. The shuttle also seems like they’re in space.
These events leading to the Crystal Palace and the conspiracy with Blue Eyes are blatant DLC Hooks for the future and suggest a post-game DLC. This isn’t the first CDPR has done so either; Blood and Wine takes place after the story of Witcher 3 and is explicitly incompatible with the worst endings of that game. I think, conceivably, other endings where V is still alive could be roped into this adventure; Blue Eyes merely needs to hire them with the same offer of survival. While The Star takes V to Arizona and away from Night City, I think that choice of location is appropriate as, to even get to space for The Crystal Palace, citizens go from LAX to Arizona for a space port to launch them off Earth’s surface. They could have chosen anywhere else to send Panam and V, but they choose Arizona, huh. I do think Reaper, Temperance, and Devil will be locked out of this future, however, as all make any point of Blue Eyes hiring V irrelevant; there’s no V left to hire/save. MAYBE a rejected Devil ending, but I wouldn’t blame them for not continuing that conclusion either as Devil is one of the bad endings.
So, it’s finally time to really compile a lot of this information into where I think this is going in the next comment below

Disgraced fashion mogul Peter Nygard's own SON is helping police investigate his alleged sex crimes By Guy Adams Investigates For The Daily Mail
15 Jan 2021
Link to article
'He has become my arch-nemesis. I no longer regard him as my father . . . He is a monster. I am now here to serve in any way I can, to support survivors and the justice process and also to help expose the people who covered up his crimes.'
Kai Bickle's world came tumbling down one night in May 2019, when he attended a dinner party at a lavishly decorated mansion overlooking the golden sands of Venice Beach in Los Angeles.
The host was his father, Peter Nygard, a Canadian fashion tycoon famed for the hedonistic lifestyle he pursued at a global portfolio of high-end properties, including vast residences in Winnipeg, Toronto and Montreal, as well as New York, and, most notoriously, a Mayan-themed 'private luxury resort' in the Bahamas.
Modelling himself on Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, the flamboyant Nygard, now 79, kept a revolving harem of girlfriends. Those caught up (often completely unwittingly) in this web had included actresses Susan Anton and Jennifer O'Neill, stripper-turned-reality star Anna Nicole Smith, and a former Wheel Of Fortune card turner by the name of Vanna White.
His Caribbean parties, meanwhile, tended to attract a better class of A-lister. Past visitors to the island property had ranged from Jane Seymour and Bo Derek to Robert De Niro, , Michael Jackson and Joan Collins, not to mention and , who were photographed there in the early 2000s on an innocuous family holiday.
The 2019 bash, during one of Peter's occasional business trips to LA, was to be a more down-to-earth affair. Roughly 20 guests, including Kai, 38, and his younger brother Jessar (one of roughly ten offspring Nygard has fathered via more than seven women) had been invited for food and drinks, followed by a late-night poker game.
That was the plan, at least. But Kai never made it to the card- table. Instead, he fled the lavish premises in a state of distress, shortly after dinner, believing that he had just witnessed his father attempting to sexually assault an eight-year-old girl.
Details of this ugly development are (it should be stressed) strongly disputed, and we shall examine them later. But the incident would kick-start an extraordinary chain of events that culminated just before Christmas, with the arrest of Peter Nygard on nine charges of sex trafficking and racketeering.
Currently behind bars, with his $900 million (£660 million) business empire in tatters and the FBI poring over his computer hard-drives, the fallen tycoon has now been accused of rape or sexual assault by at least 57 women. Several of Nygard's accusers were children when the alleged crimes took place, and many claim they were drugged.
At least 57 women have accused him.
He will appear in court in Canada next week, seeking bail as he fights extradition to the USA.
It is, perhaps, the most high-profile and shocking sex case since handcuffs were slapped on Jeffrey Epstein. And in a remarkable twist, it turns out that a leading figure in the increasingly public campaign to prosecute Mr Nygard is his aforementioned son, Kai.
Upcoming documentary: ‘Unseamly’ Canadian Designer Peter Nygård True Crime Documentary
Behind the scenes, I can reveal that Kai has spent the past 18 months secretly helping both the U.S. and Canadian authorities investigate his own father's alleged crimes. Keeping his role hidden from Nygard and his associates for several months, he has worked tirelessly to assist victims, and their legal teams.
On the personal front, he has changed his name (taking up his mother's surname to become Kai Zen Bickle) and used his influence over various Nygard companies to block efforts to move his assets offshore, fearing that would allow him to flee. 'We have been engaged in a brutal battle against my father and his enablers,' is how Kai summed things up when we spoke this week.
'He has become my arch-nemesis. I no longer regard him as my father . . . He is a monster. I am now here to serve in any way I can, to support survivors and the justice process and also to help expose the people who covered up his crimes.'
Perhaps most remarkably of all, Kai recently helped two of his younger siblings, one of whom remains a minor, to sue Peter Nygard over claims he 'engineered' the rape of his own sons. In an extraordinary lawsuit filed in August, the boys claimed that their leathery, multi-millionaire father instructed one of his long-standing girlfriends (who was also a sex worker) to 'make a man' out of them.
The first of these alleged attacks (which, again, are vehemently denied by Nygard) took place in the Bahamas 2004, when the son was 15 and the woman was in her mid-20s. The second occurred in Winnipeg in 2018, when the younger child was 14 and the woman was in her 40s. Court papers filed by the boys stated that the unnamed girlfriend was instructed to seduce Nygard's son by showering in his bathroom so that he 'could see her naked'. Then she raped him.
Afterwards, she allegedly told the boy he 'wasn't bad' for a 'baby.' The next morning, Nygard's girlfriend brought him breakfast in bed, kissing him on the lips and announcing: 'Mommy's got you.' Kai says he first became aware of this appalling incident last spring, and was 'sickened' to hear his brothers' claims.
He would often yell and scream at his staff.
'We all spoke and decided the best course of action was to file a lawsuit publicly in the hope that other survivors would feel safe to come forward and also file criminally against Nygard,' he says. 'We were originally going to have me in the suit as my young brother's guardian, but in the end decided not to because it would reveal to Nygard that I was working against him . . . At the time I was [secretly] doing everything I could to improve the odds that he would get arrested.'
To appreciate the extraordinary journey taken by Kai, we must wind the clock back to the mid-1980s, when his father was one of Canada's most talked-about self-made millionaires.
The son of penniless immigrants from Finland, Peter Nygard had launched his empire in the late 1960s, with an $8,000 (£6,000) investment in a struggling fashion firm. By the time he was 30, the company had become one of North America's most successful suppliers of leisure and sportswear, while his flamboyant eccentricities, which included keeping parrots in his office and filling the lobby of Nygard HQ with bronze busts of himself, turned him into an object of public fascination.
In 1987, the party-loving entrepreneur purchased a 4.5-acre patch of the island of New Providence in the Bahamas and set about turning it into a 'dream home' where he could indulge his champagne lifestyle. Over the ensuing years, he built 150,000 sq ft of Mayan-themed buildings, stretching over a dozen 'cabana-style' residences. The buildings at Nygard Cay eventually included a casino, a disco hut (with cameras beneath the dance floor, reportedly to shoot images of revellers from below), and the world's largest sauna, a 6,000 sq ft lodge made from 2ft-thick Canadian pine logs.
In the grounds were fake volcanoes that belched dry ice, a flock of peacocks, stone cobras which hissed steam at sunset, 60 ft towers festooned with hundreds of flaming torches (lit nightly by staff) and giant statues of nude women, purportedly modelled on some of Nygard's favourite girlfriends.
At weekends, he would host lavish parties, which appeared on various TV documentaries, including Lifestyles Of The Rich And Famous.
The place became a magnet for freeloading celebrities and, while Kai believes they generally had the most fleeting and brief relationship with Nygard, photos of their visits were then plastered across company literature and websites.
Prince Andrew, to cite one example, was recorded for posterity wandering with the long-haired fashion magnate on the beach, wearing blue shorts and boat shoes.
Born in the 1980s, Kai spent the first three years of his life in the Bahamas until his mother, Patricia, left Nygard, with whom she'd had three children but never married.
They moved first to California and then to the Pacific Northwest in the U.S. Over subsequent years, he had almost no regular contact with the fashion tycoon aside from occasional visits during school holidays, where he met various half-siblings.
'He would have one family weekend per year at his lake cottage, and a few days set aside for Christmas,' says Kai of the somewhat unorthodox arrangement. 'During those times, the days were filled with activities like horseback riding or mini golf.
'He could be a very charismatic person when he wanted to be and the family weekends were very light and brief.'
In the very limited time he spent with his father during childhood, Kai saw nothing that gave him reason to suspect that Peter Nygard was guilty of criminality, though he did have a highly volatile personality.
'He would yell and scream at his staff often, and that always was upsetting to everyone around it, but he would describe his yelling as 'passion' because of his 'high standards',' Kai says.
Nygard's children were further told that he 'lived a consensual, non-monogamous lifestyle,' Kai says. 'He made speeches at dinner to family when we were together to talk about how he hoped everyone got a wonderful partner and wished that he could find that special someone, but that it wasn't the life for him.
'He also had girlfriends that were persistently with him, always two or three, and often they were around for years. He wasn't embarrassed about it. He flaunted it on TV, it was part of his brand, something he showed the whole world. He was proud of it.'
Be that as it may, rumours of predatory behaviour by Nygard —and worse — had occasionally reared their ugly head, only to be quickly suppressed: a relatively easy task before the internet.
In 1980, for example, he was charged with the rape of an 18-year-old, but the charge was dropped when the complainant refused to testify. In 1996, three female employees meanwhile filed sexual harassment complaints in the Canadian province of Manitoba.
It looked like his hand was on her thigh, rubbing.
One, a 39-year-old communications manager, said that, when called into Nygard's office, she would 'find him in a state of undress . . . with his hands down the front of his pants, fondling himself.' He settled by giving the women $18,500 (£13,600) and denied any wrongdoing.
Then, in 2010, a Canadian TV network put out a Panorama-style documentary about Nygard, focusing on alleged sex abuse and harassment of former employees.
It quoted a former stewardess on his private plane who alleged that on one journey — during which Nygard was accompanied by a troupe of topless women — he lost his temper with staff, shouting: 'You are nothing! You are garbage! I am God!'
The programme also alleged that Nygard had engaged in 'inappropriate sexual contact' with a young woman who had been brought to his home in 2003 from the Dominican Republic. Nygard denied that either incident had happened, and sued to stop the documentary being broadcast.
Fast forward to May 2019, however, and those ugly incidents were largely forgotten. Kai, who was by then in his late 30s, had worked for his father's companies for just over two years after leaving college, but quit to pursue a career in activism and health science.
Nygard's trip to Los Angeles afforded them a rare opportunity to catch up, so he attended the aforementioned dinner party in Venice Beach.
As the night wore on, he recalls becoming uncomfortable about his father's behaviour towards an eight-year-old girl, who was attending with her mother, one of Nygard's old girlfriends.
'He's got her sitting right next to him at dinner, which is usually his girlfriend chair. And he's a creature of routine. So I'm already thinking this is weird.
'He's trying to act like the Papa. It was just weird . . . I'm noticing things. I'm noticing that he's telling her little secrets at dinner. Putting his hand close to her ear and going all hush-hush.' At the end of dinner, most of the other 20-odd guests got up to adjourn to the card table. However, Kai adds: 'I'm still watching him. Her chair gets pushed back. He brings her round to him.
'She was on his right side. He brings her to his left side, with his arm around her waist, and I see his elbow change and start moving as if — it looked to me, I couldn't see, but it looked like his hand was on her upper thigh, and rubbing. That's what it looked like to me . . . Everything in my body told me he was doing something terrible.'
'I had a huge adrenaline rush and I immediately told the mother to get her daughter away from him,' he adds. 'I stood up next to him and looked in his eyes. At that moment, for me, it was like all the walls were crashing down around him . . . And I realised that, yeah, he's probably trying to groom that girl.'
Nygard vigorously denied wrongdoing, and even called Kai 'sick' for thinking as much. But Kai was unconvinced.
Then, in February last year, ten women filed a bombshell lawsuit in New York claiming that the fashion magnate had used wealth and status to 'entice underage girls' from 'young, impressionable and often impoverished backgrounds' into his home, where they would be 'plied with alcohol' and (some allege) date-rape drugs, before being taken to Nygard's private quarters, where he would 'assault, rape and sodomise' them. Court papers claimed they were then coerced into joining a globe-trotting harem of sex workers paid thousands of dollars from Nygard's company funds and trafficked around the world on his company's private jet, which reportedly boasts a stripper pole.
One alleged victim, who was just 14 at the time, claimed Nygard raped her and paid her $5,000 (£3,700).
Another said her encounter with Nygard began with him showing her pornography after which he raped her, 'causing her extraordinary trauma and pain', the suit states.
Three of his existing ten accusers were 14 at the time. Three more were 15.
Within days, dozens more alleged victims had come forward. By the summer, some 57 survivors were pursuing legal action — and the number of alleged victims had reached 100.
Kai again confronted his father, only to be told it was all 'lies' and asked to speak out publicly in his father's support. But days later a friend texted Kai to complain about a recent visit to Nygard's house in Los Angeles.
'He said he'd brought a female friend with him, who had one or two drinks and had started to feel very high. Nygard took her up to his room and aggressively had sex with her, not using a condom.
'When I heard that, I knew he was not only as bad as people said he was, but was a dangerous criminal and had to be stopped.' He duly alerted the authorities about the friend's message. In a podcast called Live To Walk Again, released this week, he revealed that he began helping both the police and the alleged victims' lawyers, who he regards as 'heroes'.
Over the summer, Kai also used official positions held in Nygard firms to block two apparent efforts to move assets overseas, amid concerns that the tycoon might flee to evade justice.
PODCAST EPISODE: Peter Nygard Discusses His Father
'Through the course of ten months I also helped several survivors to file criminally against him, and spent countless hours on the phone with survivors, lawyers and authorities,' he says. Last month Nygard was arrested on U.S. charges at a home in the Royalwood area of Winnipeg. He spent Christmas behind bars and has consistently denied any wrongdoing, saying he 'expects to be vindicated' in court.
Kai has renounced his inheritance and is working on 'making the world a better place' by campaigning to close legal loopholes exploited by sex offenders.
'I'm very happy earning my own money, as I have all my life. We've never had a trust fund or an allowance, and since his money has been made through pain and suffering, I won't accept a potential inheritance,' he says.
His father's cash, he says, should instead go towards compensating victims. 'My focus now is to help the healing process.'

Here are some excerpts from an interesting interview with magician Steve Brooks. Steve has a lot of valuable insights about magic to share, based on his own experience and involvement in this performing art. He's even in the process of writing a couple of books about magic theory, which is in itself a testimony to his ability to be a creative thinker.
When did you first get interested in magic, and what got you started?
I’ve been studying and performing magic since I was about nine years old or so. I saw a magician on television doing something and asked my mother, "How did he do that?" She said, "He’s a magician. I don’t know." That kind of piqued my interest.
When I was maybe nine or ten, my grandmother took me to see Harry Blackstone Jr., to see a show somewhere in Los Angeles. And Harry did all the stuff he was doing, like the big Buzz Saw Illusion and the Floating Light Bulb, and birds, and more. All this was more than a little nine or ten year old could take at the time, and I just had to know how this stuff works. I wasn’t content thinking, "Well, he’s a magician and it’s secret and you can’t know."
So when the show was over I broke away from my grandmother’s hand in the crowd and decided I would go back stage so I could see how this stuff worked - because if he could do it, maybe so could I. So I crawled under the curtain and got backstage and I was touching and checking out the Buzz Saw Illusion. And I hear this really deep voice, "Can I help you young man?" And I turned around, and it was Harry Blackstone Jr. - who stood like a mountain to a little boy! I was totally scared, because I knew I wasn’t supposed to be back there.
And he kind of knelt down on one knee and he pulled a little red ball (in hindsight I’m sure it was a billiard ball). He just threw it up in the air and it vanished, and he said, "When you can do that, come back and see me and I’ll show you how to do the good stuff." Then he took me by my hand and helped me find my grandmother.
How did you continue to learn magic after first meeting Harry Blackstone Jr?
After I first saw Harry Blackstone in person, a couple of years later or so, I saw a magician on television, Marshall Brodien who was selling his TV magic cards and TV miracle cards and TV mystery cards. And I saved up my pennies and I went to my local Thrifty drug store and I purchased those.
When you got those decks, inside with the instructions would be a little folded catalog, and you could buy more magic tricks by mail. Back then, I didn’t know there was such a thing as a magic shop. So I started ordering tricks, e.g. Fun Incorporated items under the Royal Magic brand. You know, classics like the Ball and Vase, Drawer Box, Crazy Cube, Pentro Penny, etc. As the years went by, I would continue to save up my money and buy even more magic tricks, books, etc.
I also had a neighbor who was in the Boy Scouts and I would borrow his Boys Life magazines and look in the back and they’d have all these ads for magic shops. So I’d send off my quarters or dimes off and get all their catalogs, and look through all the amazing things I might get. So I grew up doing magic.
Did you ever meet Harry Blackstone Jr again?
Around 40 years later, probably in the early 2000s or the late 1990s. Harry Blackstone was doing a show here in Northern California, and I saw him do his show at Chico State University. After the show he and Gay Blackstone came out, selling little magic sets for kids. I was prepared this time, because I had brought a billiard ball and I told Harry the story. I threw the ball up in the air and vanished it, and he started crying. It was a very emotional moment. He had tears coming down his eyes and he says, "I’ll be right back." And he disappears.
He comes back and he brought me a bunch of stuff, including this huge photograph which I still have. I said, "Because you were kind to a little boy who was someplace he shouldn’t have been, that turned out to be pretty much what I’ve done all my life." So it kind of came full circle, I guess.
What should be the goal of a performing magician?
What we’re really here for as magicians is to create that wonder, so that people can say: "For five minutes I can forget about my pain. Maybe I’m losing my house, or my daughter’s pregnant, or I’m going through a divorce, or my father just passed away. But for five lousy minutes, I don’t have to think about that stuff." For a short time I don’t have to think about all the drama and all the craziness. Right now with the coronavirus and everybody panicking and dying, people need laughter, entertainment, and magicians. They need something positive in their lives.
And this is why if you go back and look at the late 1920s and 30s and 40s when you had the Depression and Prohibition and a war going on, Vaudeville was so popular. This is why we needed the Marx brothers and Abbott and Costello and Laurel and Hardy, and we needed the Slapstick and we made fun of things. Back when folks understood what humor was – you know, a joke? A story with a humorous climax. Back before everyone became afraid they might offend someone.
Magicians take you away from pain and make up something wonderful. This is something that we need to keep in mind. Why are you doing magic? Are you trying to impress yourself or are you doing it for your audience? And are they just spectators or are they participants in the moment?
I remember a conversation with Eugene Burger, and I asked him, "Eugene, when you go to perform, whether it’s for one person, two people, a room full or a whole auditorium, whether it’s magicians or it’s lay people, what is your number one goal?" And he looked at me without blinking an eye and said, "To fool them." And I said, "Really?" And he looked at me and said, "Why, what is it you do?" And I said, "To entertain them." If I fool them, that’s great. That’s icing on the cake. But honestly, I’ll take a pie in the face if it makes somebody laugh, if it makes them giggle, if it makes them just have fun.
How should this impact how we approach our audience when performing magic?
I’m actually writing a couple books on magic theory. We need to look at whatever we do - and especially magic - and concentrate on making them have fun.
If your audience likes you, they’re going to stop being confrontational. Every magician I know, at some point during their career or in doing magic, has had this experience: The audience has folded arms and is rolling their eyes backward, saying, "Okay, Mr. Magic Man, fool me, do your trick." You have to turn that moment around because you can’t sit there and fight your audience. And as long as they are there to fight you and confront you, there’s a problem.
We all build this little wall around us, and we don’t allow people into our personal space. In order to connect with your audience, you can’t bust through their wall. Instead you have to let them open the door for you. And once they open the door and allow you into that personal space, now you have an opportunity. Now you can tell a stupid joke and they’re still going to laugh because they like you. And if they like you, they’re having fun and they’re enjoying the moment rather than trying to deconstruct the moment.
This is all about how we approach them. I don’t think you have to be the greatest magician in the world to have your audience walk away thinking "That person was awesome!" If they had a good time and they enjoyed themselves, they’ll remember you.
How important is sleight of hand compared with entertaining?
I know guys that are some of the best "mechanics", you might call them, with cards and such in the world. But some of those guys couldn’t entertain themselves out of a wet paper sack. They can do all these great moves, but when they get in front of an audience, they freeze, or they’re boring. You’d rather watch grass grow than to watch them perform.
For example, if you’re in front of some people and you throw a ball up in the air and it vanishes, they don’t know how you did it. And whether you did it by fantastic misdirection and sleight of hand or whether you use some gizmo is irrelevant to them because all the audience saw was the ball vanish. And that’s what’s important, that moment: the ball vanished.
You have a couple of different schools of thought on this. Some magicians say, "If it’s not done with sleight of hand, then you’re not really a magician." Others say, "If you can use a gaff card and make the trick work, that’s what I’m going to do." It’s like comparing Vernon and Larry Jennings, and how they would sit together at the Magic Castle and somebody would come up with a problem to solve. There are different ways of achieving something, and which one you choose doesn’t matter. So find the things that work for you. Not everybody has great dexterity. That’s okay.
Is it essential to be a good performer in order to be involved in magic?
Not everybody in magic needs to be a performer. There can be people that just collect props, or they collect posters, or books or whatever they collect. Or they are historians.
Just because you don’t go out and perform for audiences doesn’t mean anything. You still can be in magic. You can still hang out with your magic buddies. You can still enjoy everything that is magic. You don’t have to necessarily be a professional magician.
How important is hard work in order to be successful in magic?
There are seminars about how to get rid of a bad habit, or how to create a good habit. Let’s say I want to create a habit like getting more work done in my office. I’m going to condition myself to go to work one hour earlier every day so that I can get more work done. If you do that, after about a month or so, you’ll just keep going in an hour earlier.
Or if you want to spend time writing a book, but your life is a mess. You start off by saying, "I’m going to start at least once a week, on Tuesdays. Every Tuesday I’m going to devote two hours to writing my book." At first it will be tough. You may not even make it every Tuesday. But if you keep doing it, after a couple of months, you will do it and you might even spend more than two hours. In fact, it’ll get to the point where you don’t feel right unless you do sit down and write something on your book.
You can apply that to magic. I want to learn a new trick but it’s really hard, and it’s got a lot of difficult moves. So you start practicing and you put yourself in a habit of practicing.
What can we learn about hard work from performers who have been successful in magic?
People that make it in business, or people who make it in magic - whether it’s Penn and Teller, David Copperfield, Siegfried and Roy, David Blaine, Criss Angel, Mac King, any of them - they didn’t get there because they didn’t work at it.
Somebody could say, "Well, they got lucky." Did they now? Maybe the harder the work you do, the luckier you might get, and you place yourself into situations to have the opportunity to be lucky and meet somebody. But you don’t do it by sitting playing video games on Xbox or reading BS on Facebook You do it by actually going out, and because you give something else up.
So you say: "So I want to be the next Criss Angel." So what are you willing to give up? What does Criss give up? I’ll tell you what he gives up. For years he gave up hanging out with all his buddies. He gave up chasing girls everywhere, and going to the parties. He gave up tons of stuff. Why? Because he was too busy trying to be successful.
You need to ask yourself: "How am I going to learn this? How am I going to get into this position? How am I going to meet the right people that will open doors for me to get over here?" I’m not going to do it sitting at home. So you take chances. You invest money that you might lose. You invest time that you may not get back and you try things and you fail at them and then you say to yourself, well that was a mistake, so I’m going to do it different next time, but I’m not going to give up.
Does this change once you achieve a successful career in magic?
You can say "Somebody in Vegas that makes $20 million a year has got it made." Really? So are you willing to do what they do? That $20 million contract is also wrapped in golden chains. Because it means I can’t go anywhere. I’ve got to do two shows at night, whether I feel like it or not.
And I have got to go and hang upside down off the stage whether I feel like it or not, and get in that tank of water and do this trick again and again in front of my audience and smile and be happy whether I feel happy or not. Maybe I just got in a fight with my mom or my brother or whatever, but I still have to be there. It’s seven o’clock, and I’ve got to do my show. I’ve got all this money, but I don’t have any time to really enjoy it. Because most of my time is at my showroom or at the casino I work at.
And who are really my friends? The people that just want to hang out with me because I’m famous? Do I have real friends, somebody that I can talk to and they’ll just tell me the truth because they don’t want anything from me?
Why is magic so much harder in real life than when a famous magician does it on TV?
I’ve seen this on the Magic Café. Some person will attempt to do a trick, and say: "I saw David Blaine do this great trick, but I tried to do it, and this homeless guy threw a beer bottle at me."
When somebody like David Blaine or Criss Angel or anybody else is going to do magic on the street, they have a bunch of advantages you don’t have. They’ve got a crew of camera people and grip holders and light people and sound people with them and they walk up and they get to know the guy. They find a guy that is receptive to this. So now we’re going to run the cameras and I’m going to do four or five tricks. And finally we’ll do the trick that we want to show on TV. But by the time we edit the episodes, we don’t have time to show you us getting to know him. We just walk up, do the trick and it’s done. That’s the way it works.
In real life you can’t always do that. It’s tough. You watch videos of how to learn magic and then it looks great on a video. Someone like Michael Ammar or somebody else who knows what he’s doing, and everything just works great. But when you do it, that lady grabbed the deck out of my hand, or that kid ran off with my scotch and soda coins. Yep, that’s the real world.
How important is it to get experience when performing magic?
That’s the thing that’s missing from these videos. It’s not that the videos aren’t good. It’s not that the books are not good. They are good. But they don’t teach you the experience.
Say somebody wants to be a doctor. So they go to medical school for eight or nine or 10 years or whatever, and they come out and they know all the technical stuff. They know all about chemistry and how the body works and what these tools do. But when they start working with real people things don’t always happen the way the book says it might happen. So experience, experience.
I worked restaurants for years, and behind bars alongside bartenders. Some of the toughest magic to do is working beyond a bar because why? Because you’ve got alcohol involved. Alcohol plus humans often equals disaster. People will do things when they’re drunk that they wouldn’t do otherwise. And they’re not paying attention all the time.
So books can get into how to do the moves, and tell you how you might want to dress. But they can’t give you experience. You’re going to have to go up there and fail. You need to fail. You need to get busted a few times. And any magician who says "I’ve never been busted" I say: "bs. Yes, you have. Quit lying. Yes you have."
So learn from that and always be a step ahead of your audience. Always have an out in the back of your mind and say "What happens if this fails on me?" You must be able to adapt. Or do you just say "Oh sorry, it didn’t work." That’s really not a good out. You need to be able to take a bad situation and make it into a good situation.
What has experience taught you about dealing with hecklers?
It teaches you how to deal with a rowdy spectator. For many years it was said that there’s no bad audiences, only bad magicians. I call bs on that. There could absolutely be a bad audience. You could like do a show thousands of times and it’s awesome. But then get an audience and it’s just a train wreck. You can have unruly spectators and people who basically aren’t there to have a good time.
You’ve got to understand another thing about magic: some people don’t like it. It’s a psychological thing. If they’re sitting in a seat watching a magic show, somewhere in the back of their mind, they feel that if they get amazed and fooled by this, they must be an idiot, and everyone’s going to laugh at them. It’s almost as if they think the rest of the theater is too smart for this and they would be the only ones getting fooled by it. So they have to be the heckler, the rowdy guy, or the person who knows everything.
When I was younger and did kids’ shows, I learned a couple of little tricks for dealing with kids. Kids can really be a problem. I would set up all my stuff and stand by the doorway and watch the kids for the first two or three rows. Sure enough, there’d always be some kid who is slugging other kids in the arm and pulling people’s hair. That kid’s going to be my problem, so I’m going to deal with that right now.
So you walk up and say: "What’s your name? Come here." And you take him out in the hall and say "Listen, I’m going to be doing this show and I got a couple of tricks which I’m going to need your help. Can you keep a secret?" And you get the kid involved somehow. You make him feel special. You make him feel wanted because a bully at school is a bully at school because he’s being bullied at home where he feels like he has no power. So give him some power in your show and guess what? He’s not slugging kids in the arm, shouting things at the magician, or grabbing things, because he’s part of the show now. So it’s a pre-emptive strike.
What insights about magic have you gained from your passion for science fiction?
I like things like Star Trek and Star Wars and BattleStar Galactica, Stargate SG-1. You could make a movie and put billions of dollars into it and have the greatest special effects. But if it doesn’t have good characters that you care about, it’s not a good story. A series like the Lord of the Rings by Tolkien is good because it has good characters. Similarly Star Trek has always been good - not because of the cool space ships or the battles – but because of the relationship of the characters, and their ethics and ideas of morality. That’s what creates good stories.
That also applies to magic. Magic is more than just making something appear or disappear and standing up there saying, "See how wonderful I am. Aren’t you impressed?" Good magic is about how you can touch your audience on an emotional level.
That’s why I love close-up magic. Most people have never experienced magic in person. They see it on television and they might be impressed with it, but they’re thinking in the back of their heads, "Those people were in on it", or "It was a camera trick." But when you borrow somebody’s finger ring that their mother gave them as a gift and you do something wonderful with it, there’s this emotional connection because, "Hey, that’s my ring," or "That ring belonged to my grandmother. That’s not a camera trick, that was real. I saw it."
Conclusion
I hope you enjoyed hearing from Steve Brooks and reading his insights and observations as much as I did. He certainly has some real wisdom to share. There's a wealth of knowledge we can gain from interacting with fellow hobbyists, whether they be playing card collectors or magicians. So thank you Steve for doing this interview and for sharing your perspectives on magic!
Author's note: I first published this article at PlayingCardDecks here.

Quick note: This post took me a long time to write, many hours between conception, editing, and execution. If you would be so kind as to not downvote it strictly because you disagree with me, I’d appreciate it. If you think this is a low effort post, or doesn’t contribute to discussion, then please do. This started out as more of a bullet point list of reasons but as I rewrote it became more of a story of my experiences as they relate to Goons. I hope you all enjoy it more this way.
One of the conceits of the war from the PAPI front is that “Goons are the bad guys of Eve”. I’ve found this narrative vexing, because over the last five years I think Goons have swung from comical Eve bad guys to the best of the large alliances in Eve. I’ll explain why I believe this is so.
But first let’s address some things: One of the disadvantages of being around for so long is that we have to carry around all of the bad baggage from years past. There are a lot of “old twitter posts” some of which are pretty awful. Bad people, bad memes, and the like. Some of it is just stupid in retrospect, some of it deeply embarrassing.
The positive news is that I think the alliance has become the leading example of what a large alliance should be in the game. Good to its members and a fun adversary to an outsider. Going back to 2015 Goons had gone through 1 “cultural revolution” which had defanged a lot of the casually terrible stuff that was common in Eve back then (ie: jewing was a common term for ratting/krabbing) but still had a lot of vestiges that wouldn’t be fully swept away until cultural revolution 2 (where we probably landed on the side of too heavy handed, but that’s a story for another day). However it was, in my opinion, peak “bad Goon” in terms of gameplay philosophy. Sion had just pushed the Viceroy plan - something I considered one of the most ill-conceived efforts to get content in quite a while. “Helldunks or blueballs” was the byword, and Reagalan snapping the phrase at some unremembered skirmish commander saying just that was the talk of the Eve subreddit. Spin was, in the most generous terms, pretty far-fetched. Line members were considered pretty dumb and the apparatchik were fairly devoted to passing down the party line.
At the time I was an up-and-coming FC. I had already formed my Reavers SIG about a year before in Oct. 2014 and had won some heavily outnumbered fights against most expectations. I was getting a big push from alliance leadership and kept winning fights as I got sent out on mainfleets I was quickly got promoted into bigger roles to the point where I was running main fleets as the main FC. Laz was mostly AFK after winning B-R5 and trying to do the streamer thing, but still around for big fights. Not long after Vily left Goons. A few months later Endie, Elise and others would start aggressively lobbying me pretty hard to leave Goons and I started getting BIG CASH OFFERS on the table from other people as well. This was the start of the Casino War. At this point I think Mittens started sensing the sharks circling and promoted me to ‘skymarshal’. This is a mostly tongue in cheek position but one that meant you were in charge of the Goon military.
At this point I had a lot of problems with the way some things were being handled in the alliance military, but I was fully committed to making change from inside rather than leaving my group behind (I had only been playing Eve seriously since 2013, but I’ve been a Goon since the early 2000s). One of my biggest problems was the “helldunks or blueballs” philosophy. I thought it was a great way to win one war but a terrible way to retain members. During much of 2015 I had the feeling that we were rotten to the core, that our strength was mostly fleeting. Although there were some specific moments that I felt could have stopped the Casino War before it started, (mostly by counteracting SMA’s mind boggingly bad decisions) I felt that theViceroy program and the disasterous lowsec campaign had already exposed a lot of our weakness to the whole galaxy.
Despite the losses, the Casino War turned out to be a huge boon to Goonswarm and our allies that stuck with us. It got us out of Deklein into Delve which was (at the time) much better space. We would have never got rid of Deklein otherwise. It taught us a lot of lessons about sprawl and not fighting over-extended. It showed us the flaws in our organizational structure. But most importantly it opened minds to re-evaluating certain dearly held doctrinal beliefs. One that I wanted to challenge almost immediately was helldunks and blueballs. I felt that our guys being generally unchallenged lead to us having great numbers of fair weather friends who could be relied on for dunks but would split when the going got tough, both in Goons and throughout the other alliances in the CFC. In our exile to Saranen, we saw exactly that.
My doctrinal belief was, and still is, that regularly placing your guys in tough positions results in better pilots and in people who are happier overall. We grow personally and as a group by overcoming challenges. A helldunk is a Pepsi Cola. A struggle overcome is a 14 year old scotch.
After the Casino war we moved to Delve and were in pretty bad shape resource wise but you knew every person who stuck with you was true blue. I’ve never had more fun than my days in Saranen as the war wended its course to an end, and part of that reason was you knew that every person who was with you in Saranen would ride with you against all odds. I was determined to capture the ‘Saranen Spirit’ for people who were there and for those who would start playing or join us later.
It took a while though. When we first arrived in Delve PGL followed us there with the goal of destroying us once and for all, but by this point there was no fat left. Every single person was battle hardened and the money and will to follow us had run out. We stopped his campaign pretty quickly.
Change came slowly at first. We had a lot of wounds to lick, a lot of data to process and people were just tired. The first turning point against helldunks/blueballs came with our Hakonen deployment. We took a shot at Tribute with just carriers and dreads versus an enemy supercap force that clearly outnumbered us. It was a very fun deployment for us but we did eat a ton of negative publicity about how “bad” we were. I think it bothered Mittens a bit (maybe a lot) and I don’t think he had yet realized the value we gained out of it.
After seeing GOTG’s impressive subcapital and supercapital contributions during the Hakonen deployment, we decided to deploy some of our combat SIGs to Pure Blind to begin harassing our enemies on that front, once again committing to an offensive in a deliberately handicapped fashion. For almost a year, we whittled down multiple alliances with relatively tiny subcapital fleets and the odd dreadbomb. All of this built up to a climax in 2017.
X-47 was one of the most consequential fights in recent memory, and once again we put ourselves in a rough spot to get it. We started the titan fight with dead-even numbers against an enemy with Keepstar advantage and all that entails. Less remembered but even more significant was the oppressive tether doomsday bug/feature, which put our super fleet at a significant disadvantage. In the armor timer, we gave them the opening volley and it started off really poorly for us, but we ended up pulling out a victory. The hull timer was a much more lopsided victory in terms of Titan kills, , and the Keepstar death all but ended serious resistance in the war. Still, I remember the anxiety going into the fight, I don’t want to sound over-dramatic but I spent the whole night before prowling my house, unable to sleep. I had figured out the value of the Imperium supercapital fleet and it was in the millions of dollars if you converted it to plex. It’s a huge amount of pressure on the shoulders of the FC to know that if you mess up you could lose that for the people who put their trust in you. It’s also a very small group of people in video game history who can make a statement like that so it’s a fun and unique cadre to belong to and my respect to those of you who have shouldered that burden before.
Throughout all of these campaigns, I think it became more and more clear that this new military philosophy was the superior one, and ditching the ‘helldunk’ strategy was the correct move. Over time I slowly pulled Mittens towards my view point on this - that there is something of more value than just numbers. Our doctrines started evolving too. This might sound comical, but for a long time Goons had avoided cap chains. It was thought that the Goon line member couldn’t handle it. Now when I see our fleet spreading ewar really effectively, and our very effective cap chaining logi, and multiple FCs all doing different tasks, I can’t help but smile. Hard work pays off.
After X-47 we wrapped up that war and went home. We would come back in the not too distant future to finish the work we had started. We expected a stronger response in Tribute, but after an initial hard fight the regions were vacated and we glassed it. Unlike every other group in the game, we didn’t immediately find some renters or delegate an underling to occupy the space. We left it fallow and a really healthy ecosystem of small alliances has flourished. We didn’t know exactly what would happen in this space, but since we left Deklein we have very conspicuously and openly avoided taking space and sprawling out. And I was very satisfied to see what can happen when you leave some space open for anyone to use.
After that last northern campaign, we went home again during the chaos era before we started our GEF campaigns the following year. Once again, we deployed against superior enemy numbers with capital superiority and fought outnumbered in two separate campaigns. At this point it felt like we had burnt away all vestiges of helldunks or blueballs.
Coming into July I had this short convo with Mittens, and I think it illustrates how our relationship has grown and the trust that you can build even with people who initially had vastly opposing views on how things should be run: https://i.imgur.com/YyIE1bs.png
I’d like to address a few more points that I think lie strongly in our favour: Supercaps – Goons have been opposed to them for as long as I can recall. All our CSMs have publicly come out in favour of them being nerfed, even though it’s long been to our strategic benefit for them to be strong. Over the last few years we’ve lost people in comparison relative to other alliances. Some people have aged out, some didn’t like the way we fought wars and went to climes that agreed with them more, but we’ve always had the most supers and we’ve constantly argued that they are unhealthy for the game. I have personally lobbied for them to be nerfed, in public and in focus groups with Devs, because it’s our belief that they are unhealthy for the game. Part of why we are being attacked is because our enemies believe that dreads can be used against titans much more effectively than in the past, and they can flex their numbers advantage in that area on us. If we end up losing because of this, we’ll have lobbied ourselves into that position.
I think part of the gulf in perspective between us and our enemies, especially the TAPI FCs is that they just fundamentally view the game differently than we do. But at one point we were much closer. Vily left in 2015 in the middle of helldunk/blueball and copious spin and he’s brought the Goons culture of 2015 to Test. There’s a Test poster – who I won’t name because I’m pretty sure he gets off on being recognized – who has been making the argument that Test are more Goonie than Goons. And to him I say: I agree with you. Test have inherited the mantle of Goons and we became something else. Vily is Goons without the growth. PGL tried to destroy us in 2016 and thought we’d cave in like a rotten pumpkin because that’s what happened with his alliance. When we didn’t I believe he was shocked but he thinks it will be different this time. Well, I’m going to be the bearer of bad news for him because this group has been through much worse than we had in 2015. We have a lot of people who have been fighting consistently against people who had every advantage over them and they’ve come out the other end stronger. Will it be enough to beat 3x our numbers? Who knows, but I know these guys will be with me no matter what happens.
I’ve been hearing the same story over and over in my fleets, I have pretty open comms (sorry Euros that I annoy with this policy) and people have been more reflective as of late. And I kept hearing the story from one guy after another about how they thought that Goons were the bad guys until they joined them. So tonight I asked my fleet to X up if they thought or had heard that Goons were the bad guys before they joined, this was the result: https://i.imgur.com/mJCEiS7.gif
I’ve been pondering this, and wondering why people would join the bad guys. Every story varied but often people had tried other things and were unhappy and Goons were an unhappy choice initially but once they were in they saw how things actually worked and were happy with it. Some ended up by chance through a corp moving or just a friend invited them and that overcame their doubts. The point was that even though they heard we were the bad guys once they were here and got to experience our culture they saw it was different than what they had elsewhere. That’s partly why I think a lot of our guys are really passionate, they feel unfairly attacked.
Now I’ve come a long way, but I want to address the 5 ton elephant in the room: The Mittani. I’m very aware that he said something stupid almost a decade ago. I addressed my thoughts in much more depth here. I don’t believe it was said with malice, but it still was an awful thing to say. However in my time interacting with him he’s always been a very passionate guy but I’ve never seen him suggest an untoward thing. He wants to win, he wants to use whatever legal way possible to do it and he’s a guy who’s shown a lot of growth personally. If he wanted to do something I thought was immoral I would hear about it and I wouldn’t support it, but I’ve never once been put in that position.
I think a lot of you don’t understand that he’s a wrestling promoter. He can’t help but play a heel. He’s fantastic at it. And he’s fantastic for the game, lots of you guys on the other side want to win so you can wipe the smug smile off his face. This is awesome. More leaders should be like this, there are a few I really would like to do the same to (or have done in the past) and it’s great to have people that motivate you to fight them. The worst thing for this game would be a bunch of staid boring diplomats who didn’t inspire any vitriol. This game is about fighting after all.
Another good thing about Goons and the Imperium is our diplomatic stance, although I don’t want a bunch of diplomats running the game I am very keen on keeping our words and Goons have done this more than any other group. Sister Bliss was talking with me about why Init has stuck with Goons and he said something about how every other group in the game had promised Init the world then screwed them when it was convenient and Goons were the only one who stuck to what they said and he values that.
A few quick more bullet points:

• Goons do not like renting. Of all the big alliances we’ve had the smallest rental program, we only reluctantly got into it when OTEC was broken and had to secure some income. We closed our rental program, but we kept out word and grandfathered our old renters so that they could stay and not lose what they’d agreed to. I think renting is a net bad thing for the game, actually very bad so I’m proud of this one. Culturally Goons have always opposed rental programs.
  
• We forced the game into taking on all players regardless of skill point level. Groups like Brave, Horde, etc followed in our footsteps on this one. I firmly believe that getting players into groups that have the bandwidth to teach them the game with proven programs that know how to retain people is the best way to do it, rather than just hoping they join random highsec corp #1850 and hoping they aren’t run by toxic incompetent people.
  
• Goons don’t sprawl. We’ve held 4 regions but 2 of those were more out of necessity than any desire to hold them. In one region we did the Querious Fight Club which has launched over 20 corps into nullsec alliances around the game or independently. Right now Pandafam covers 12 or 13 regions and is renting out many of them to aggressively botted alliances. If you look at the MER Frat is making more money than any other nullsec group and it’s not even close. Because of how densely packed we are our space is terrible for botting, probably the worst space in the game for it, which is another tick for us.
  
• This is a personal one but Goon doctrines are more interesting. Screw Munnins, down with boring arty doctrines. I’m really happy we’ve been iconoclastic in our doctrinal decisions and have seen success with those choices.
  

So, that about wraps up my voluminous tome. What should you do with this information? Well, I hope no matter what side you were on you found it an interesting read. I’m not trying to convince anyone to not fight us. Jay and I were talking right as the war was starting about how we were in the perfect spot, no one expects us to win so if we do it’s more credit to us but if we lose it’s to be expected. If we end up back in an NPC station then I get to just replay my favorite time in Eve ever. But I hope I have shown you a little bit about why I believe Goons are one of the best alliances in the game right now, thanks for reading.

Someone else brought up this hypothetical on collapse and figured it was so good needed to be here too. So imagine on new years Eve and the clock strikes midnight and it's now 1/1/2020. How are you reliving this timeloop. Not knowing if it will ever stop repeating unless you do the right thing.
How are you living in this timeloop? Here's my story I posted on collapse. Please share yours!
Well this is fucked. We're never getting out of this timeloop.
Well let's see here. My first year on the timeloop will go something like this:
January 1st as I spend the night as I began 2020 quarantined with the flu (or maybe covid who knows) watching the ball drop at midnight I am shocked to see Ryan Secreast wish everyone a Happy 2020. I'm like wtf I'm not that drunk. Checks the time on my phone. 2020 again fuuuuuck another year of listening to the msm bitch about Trump! Ah yeah and covids coming soon better make a TP, N95 mask and hand sanitizer run and buy that bidet I've been wanting now. Oh yeah and stock up on ammo that's gonna be expensive in a few months.
Alright now time to buy up Stock in Tesla, Disney, Netflix, Amazon and watch them go to the moon before I sell them around the time people start running out of unemployment then cash out and donate it to people in need.
Now that that's taken care of proceed to bet on LSU crushing Clemson in the championship by exact scores. Then fly out to Vegas and party like it's 2019 off my winnings before SHTF. While I'm there might as well put in a bet on a world pandemic happening in 2020 and also that all the casinos in Vegas will close. They'll give me 10,000:1 odds. I'll make an easy 20million off of it come April..... literally betting against Vegas and winning. I'll come back home mid January and while I wait on my big payday I'll put a bet on the Superbowl while I'm at it.
Okay so we're up to early February now. Chiefs just won the Superbowl. Got some more funny money in the pocket to play with. Gonna buy an ebike and dress like a Cyberpunk character so I can roam the empty downtown streets in another month when the lockdowns hit and it's a true ghost town. The virus news is starting to go mainstream but no one's really taking it seriously yet. Wuhan is in lockdown. Vegas chuckles slightly worried....hehe. I decide make a bet with a friend $50 that Trump will name it China Flu and call it a democratic hoax. Plan to buy a 100 piece chicken nuggie platter with the winnings and eat them with my dog just cause we can.
March hits. The chicken nuggies are all gone. Time to start doomer posting about the lockdowns coming and businesses closing and historic unemployment levels about to come. Nothing I didn't already do. Also start a campaign about the coming explosion in Beirut and hopefully it goes somewhere to prevent that shit from happening.
Ok so April rolls around. I'm calling Vegas and they sound like their whole family died in a car wreck when I call to collect my $20 million. Tell them I'm a time traveler from the future and hang up. He'll spend the rest of the year thinking I was. I'll quit my job soon as the check clears and buy an RV and travel the US. I wanna go through Oregon and Cali before they burn. I'll post murals of George Floyd along the route with a BLM sticker on it. Also I'll post Proud Boi posters in every town I visit with a pic of two guys banging. While I'm at it I'll buy up billboard ads in every state that reads "Fish was right".
I'll finish my end of the world tour in early May as the lockdowns have ended and settle on nice ranch I bought with my winnings. Start a doomer cult of the most worthy Doomers of collapse. We will make sour bough bread and donate it to the food banks. We'll preach the gospels of the 350k deaths to come this year of Covid and the Presidential Coup.
Come June my cult will gain even more followers after the George Floyd events unfold and the months of riots begin. All of the murals I posted of Floyd will have lead them to the doomer cult website I made that was posted at the bottom of every mural. Also Rudy Giuliani will get millions of dick pics and gaping asshole pics sent to his email....his email account will be listed below all of the Proud Boi posters. As for "Fish was right". It will be linked to collapse. The sub gets flooded with new followers. We hit 10million within a week. The mods are so desperate for help they hire Satan to help filter out all the spam. He ends up just sending all the shit posters to hell. The subreddit loses 5 million followers within a month. Satan is just happy to have all the souls.
July roles around and it's hot as hell. Satan confirms. Spend the month on the ranch building a giant wooden fish. We're planning the largest doomer gathering that didn't end in mass suicide. We all just do drugs and have orgy's for the month. Of course we keep it safe with 2 covid tests and a week of quarantine before they enter. Everyone shows up with their newly bought camping gear because everyone will become campers now. u/DJdickjob smuggles in the drugs up from Florida. I made him get rid of the heroin crack and meth though. Only the good drugs. The mass gathering was only supposed to last for a month but turns into 3. Summer of love is over.
We all sober up mid October just in time to vote. I remember before the election to copyright the term "270" so I don't have to hear this buzzword a million times post election. We all vote for Bernie Sanders. Realized that we forgot he was screwed again and it was actually the dementia dude running for the ruling elite. That dude wins anyways.
The Election has been unofficially called for Dementia. The doomer cult disperses to put up posters of Rudy Guliana with black goo running down his face. We put a link below that looks like it's a website to donate to Trump's election fraud battle. All the Trumpers donate. They get scammed. All the money goes to black families that need rent and food assistance during the pandemic. Somehow Gulianis email gets flooded again with dickpicks and assgaping. His email wasn't even included this time. 3 weeks later Gulianis head starts to ooze the black goo. We get more donations because of this. They think it's apart of the prophecy for Trump to win. More money goes to help black families. Over $1billion donated by Trumpers. I guess Black Lives really do matter to them after all.
December roles around and Gulianis in a new scandal. Pictures of his gaping ass make it to the front page of cnn. Turns out he ended up emailing a few of the guys back and sending them pictures of his gaping ass with a nazi flag sticking out of it. Trump followers twist it as a sign that he's telling them that the Deep State made the Nazis look bad. That it was all propaganda and that they were actually the good guys. They excuse the gay image as him doing it for the cause and that the thigh highs, nipple clamps and dick cage were symbolic signs of how the deep state has made us weak and submissive. Trumper Q Anons start wearing nazi flags sticking out of their ass in unity to protest against mask wearing. Half of them decide that they like the flags so much that they need bigger flags. Ironically they chose black flags because they're bigger right. Now the Nazi flag Trumpers think that the Black Flag Trumpers are Antifa. They start fighting each other pathetically in the streets until they both Realize that Black Flags do matter and reunite the right. At this point I call it a year and go chill out until Christmas......oh shit I forgot about Nashv.....oh well too late gotta get ready for the last doomer gathering of the year. We're lighting the giant wooden Fish at midnight to see what happens.
Will Fish get us out of the loop?

Looking to trade! I have over 100 confirmed trades :) Right now I am mostly looking for the wants I have listed below, especially the high priority stuff, but I may be open to offers. Just please do not be offended if I say no!
p.s. "CIB" means complete, as in including all the booklets and such that were supposed to come in there, otherwise I will clarify what is included. "NIB" means New In Box, aka sealed, "brand new," in the shrink, etc.
p.p.s. If we are going to trade, all I ask is please be honest about the condition of your items. I can provide pictures for anything I have, please be willing to do the same! Thanks!

HAVE

Mini Consoles

• Famicom Mini (JP) - NIB hard trade

GameCube games, accessories and packaging

• Animal Crossing memory card
• 007 Agent Under Fire - box and disc only, box has wear
• Army Men Air Combat The Elite Missions - disc and manual only
• NFL Blitz 2003 - CIB
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - manual only
• Zoids Battle Legends - game in rental case with authentic (but damaged) cover art
• Action Replay - manual only

N64 booklets

• 1080 Snowboarding - manual, operations card
• Army Men Air Combat - manual
• Banjo Tooie - manual
• Battletanx Global Assault - manual with wear
• Bomberman 64 - manual
• Donkey Kong 64 - manual
• Kirby 64 the Crystal Shards - manual
• Mario Kart 64 - manual, operations card and player's guide offer booklet
• Mario Tennis - manual
• Rugrats Scavenger Hunt - manual
• Star Fox 64 - manual
• Star Wars Episode 1 Battle for Naboo - manual in poor condition
• Super Mario 64 - manual
• The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time - manual with wear

Switch

• Aggelos - NIB
• Battle Chef Brigade - NIB Best Buy version
• Blasphemous - NIB hard trade
• Dandara CE - NIB
• Danmaku Unlimited 3 - NIB
• Darius Cozmic Collection CE - NIB
• Darkwood - NIB
• Death Squared - NIB
• Divinity Original Sin 2 - NIB hard trade
• Downwell with Flip Grip - NIB, slight box damage
• Dragon Quest 1 2 3 Asia version (not English cover) - NIB
• Fairy Tail - CIB hard trade
• Fire Emblem 30th Anniversary - NIB
• Flashback - NIB
• Freedom Finger - NIB
• Gekido Kintaro’s Revenge big box - CIB and like new
• Graceful Explosion Machine - NIB
• Grip Combat Racing Airblades vs Rollers Ultimate Edition - CIB, DLC code used
• Guilty Gear 20th Anniversary Pack EU - CIB
• Ittle Dew - NIB
• Jumanji CE - NIB
• Kero Blaster - NIB
• Korg Gadget JP - NIB, would love to trade for North America release
• Little Inferno - NIB
• Lode Runner Legacy - NIB
• Neurovoider - NIB
• Old Man's Journey - NIB
• Old School Musical - NIB
• Ori CE - NIB
• Pawarumi - NIB
• Pode Artist's Edition EU - NIB but has some box damage
• River City Girls - NIB hard trade
• Robotics / Notes Double Pack - Have day one edition and standard, both are NIB
• Sayonara Wild Hearts - Have 3 NIB, two have exclusive iron-on patch the other does not
• Shakedown Hawaii CE - CIB but contents are sealed, outer box has very minor wear
• Shantae and the Seven Sirens CE - NIB with card
• Skullgirls 2nd Encore - NIB
• Splasher - NIB
• Steamworld Heist / Dig Double Pack - NIB
• SuperEpic badge edition - NIB
• The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa - NIB
• Thumper - NIB (small nick on spine)
• Tricky Towers - NIB
• Ultracore - CIB
• WRC 8 - CIB

3DS consoles, games, accessories

• Art Academy - CIB
• Conception II: Children of the Seven Stars - NIB
• Zero Escape Virtue's Last Reward - CIB, has a hole in front of case/cover art
• Nyko Game Boost power attachment for launch model 3DS - NIB, some box damage

3DS boxes and manuals (no games)

• Poochy and Yoshi's Woolly World EU region big box only (can hold both game and Poochy amiibo from any region, really nice display piece)
• Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright MANUAL ONLY
• Tomodachi Life MANUAL ONLY
• Operations manual and other inserts (no AR cards) for launch model 3DS in bag
• 2DS XL quick start guide
• Outer box only (no tray) for NSMB2 2DS console (white/red)
• Nintendo 2DS manual only

DS console, games and accessories

• Jewel Time Deluxe - loose
• Korg DS10+ Limited Edition JP - CIB except missing the styrofoam tray
• Viewtiful Joe Double Trouble - CIB, has a hole in front of case / art
• EMS NDS Adapter - CIB (Not the newest version, works best with Windows XP)

DS boxes and manuals (no games)

• DK Jungle Climber - box and manual
• Okami Den - manual only
• Scribblenauts Unlimited - manual only
• Operations manual and other inserts for black DSi in bag

GBA games and videos

• Boktai - game only
• Dragonball Z Supersonic Warriors - CIB
• GT Advance 2 - CIB
• Muppets Pinball Mayhem - game only
• Nickelodeon Rugrats All Grown Up! Volume 1 GBA Video - NIB
• Sonic Advance / Sonic Pinball Party combo cart - game only
• Sonic Advance 2 - game only
• Tales of Phantasia - loose

GBC games and more

• Dragonball Z Legendary Super Warriors - CIB
• Hole in one Golf - CIB
• M and M's Minis Madness - CIB
• Pokemon Gold Version - Trainer's Guide only
• Worms Armageddon - CIB-ish
• GameShark Pro - box, manual (no tray or gameshark)

GB games and more

• 4 in 1 Funpak Volume II - game only
• Alleyway - CIB-ish
• Barbie Game Girl - game only
• Battletoads - CIB
• Bo Jackson Hit and Run - game and manual
• Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle 2 - game only with worn label
• Casino Fun Pak - game and manual
• Dr. Mario - CIB-ish
• Face Ball 2000 - game only
• High Stakes Gambling - CIB-ish
• Kwirk - game only
• Ms. Pac Man - game only
• Nemesis - game only
• Pinball Dreams - CIB-ish
• Pinball Fantasies - box, tray, game
• Super Mario Land - game only
• The Amazing Spiderman - game only
• Zoop - game only
• Nuby Worm Light safety instructions - booklet only

GB manuals (no games)

• 4 in 1 Funpak
• Aladdin
• Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle 2
• Centipede Millipede (creased front)
• Ducktales
• Galaga Galaxian (creased front)
• Game and Watch Gallery
• Jurassic Park Part 2: The Chaos Continues
• Kirby's Dream Land
• Kirby's Pinball Land (stained front)
• Paperboy
• Tetris Attack
• Solomon's Club

Wii U games

• Assassin's Creed III - CIB
• Madden NFL 13 - CIB
• Splatoon - CIB

Wii games and accessories

• 30 Great Games Winter Fun - CIB
• ABC Wipeout 2 - CIB
• AMBL Alien Monster Bowling League - CIB
• Cooking Mama Cook Off - Box and disc
• Despicable Me The Game - CIB
• Ford Racing Off Roads - CIB
• Gallop and Ride! - CIB
• Game Party - CIB
• House of the Dead 2 and 3 Return - Box and disc
• LEGO Harry Potter - CIB
• Kart Racer - CIB
• M. Knight Shamalayan's The Last Airbender Toys R Us Exclusive - CIB
• Mario Kart Wii - CIB
• Mario Party 8 - CIB
• Metroid Prime 3 - promo inserts only
• MLB Power Pros 2008 - CIB
• Monster Hunter 3 Tri - CIB
• Nascar Kart Racing - CIB
• New Super Mario Bros Wii - CIB
• NCIS - CIB
• Okami - CIB
• Pac Man Party - CIB, some wear to case
• Petz Horse Club - CIB
• Petz Sports - CIB
• Press Your Luck 2010 Edition - CIB
• Shaun White Snowboarding Road Trip - CIB
• Sonic and the Secret Rings - CIB
• The House of the Dead 2 and 3 Return - Box and game
• The Island of Dr. Frankenstein - CIB
• Transformers Cybertron Adventures - Box and disc, box and cover art are damaged
• Vegas Party - CIB
• Victorious Boxers Revolution - CIB
• Wii Fit - CIB
• Wii Play - CIB
• Zhu Zhu Pets Featuring the Wild Bunch - CIB
• Manual and other booklets for original Wii console

NES games and accessories

• Original game pad - loose
• Hogan's Alley - loose
• Tiger Heli - loose
• 4 cart sleeves

PS3

• Disgaea D2: A Brighter Darkness - box and manual only
• Final Fantasy XIII-2 Walmart exclusive poster bundle - NIB

PS2

• Broken PS2 console (heatsink issue) with cords
• 007 Agent Under Fire - CIB
• Ace Combat 04 greatest hits - CIB
• Alter Echo - CIB
• Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance - loose
• Call of Duty Finest Hour - CIB
• Champions Return to Arms - CIB
• Crash and Burn - CIB
• FIFA Soccer 2003 - CIB
• Gadget Racers - CIB
• Grand Theft Auto Vice City Greatest Hits - CIB
• Grand Theft Auto San Andreas - CIB
• IndyCar Series - CIB
• Madden 2003 - CIB
• Maximo - CIB
• Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks - CIB
• Need for Speed Underground greatest hits - loose
• Onimusha Warlords - CIB
• Onimusha 2 - CIB
• Onimusha 3 - CIB
• Psychonauts - CIB
• River King A Wonderful Journey - box and game only
• Romancing Saga - CIB
• Rumble Racing - CIB
• Shadow Hearts - loose
• Sky Odyssey - CIB
• SpyHunter - CIB
• WWE Crush Hour - box only

PSX

• Classic controller
• Memory card (authentic original)
• 2 Xtreme - CIB
• Blast Lacrosse - CIB
• Blood Omen Legacy of Kain Collector's Edition - CIB
• Bloody Roar 2 - loose, have both discs
• Cool Boarders 2 greatest hits - CIB
• Crash Bandicoot 2 Cortex Strikes Back - Case, back cover art, disc (missing manual)
• FIFA 99 - CIB
• Final Fantasy VII - loose, have discs 1-3
• G-Police - CIB
• Gex - CIB, also have loose
• Gex: Enter the Gecko - CIB
• Heart of Darkness - loose
• Einhander - CIB hard trade
• Jeopardy! (case is cracked) - CIB
• MDK - CIB
• Metal Gear Solid: VR Missions - CIB
• Medal of Honor (case is cracked) - CIB
• MLB 99 - CIB
• Moto Racer 2 (case is cracked) - CIB
• Need for Speed Hot Pursuit greatest hits green label - CIB
• NFL Blitz greatest hits green label (case is in poor shape but could swap) - CIB
• NFL Gameday 2000 - CIB
• NHL 99 - CIB
• Rainbow Six greatest hits - CIB
• Sled Storm - CIB
• Sheep Raider - loose, 2 copies
• Star Wars Rebel Assault II - CIB, case is damaged
• Tetris Plus greatest hits green label - CIB
• Tiger Woods 99 PGA Tour Golf - CIB
• Tomb Raider greatest hits green label - CIB
• Tomb Raider 2 - CIB
• Uprising X - CIB
• Wheel of Fortune greatest hits green label - CIB

PSX boxes and manuals (no games)

• 007 Tomorrow Never Dies
• Army Men World War

PC

• Cubix: Robots for Everyone - NIB
• Mighty Switch Force / Shantae Risky's Revenge double pack - NIB
• Oil Tycoon - NIB

Nintendo Power magazines
I have the following issues available, please inquire about condition because none of them are mint: 27, 30, 31, 32, 34, 37, 38, 39, 42, 46, 49, 50, 51, 86,
Strategy guides

• Advance Wars Dual Strike (NP)
• Conflict Desert Storm II (Prima)
• Mario 64 Unauthorized guide (missing front cover)
• Metroid Prime Official Perfect Guide (Versus)
• Metroid Zero Mission (NP)
• Spyro Season of Ice (BradyGames)
• Super Mario Advance (Prima)
• Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros 3 (NP)
• Super Smash Bros Brawl (Prima)
• Yoshi's Island DS (NP)
• Yoshi's Story (NP)

Books

• NES/Famicom: A Visual Compendium (still in shrinkwrap)

Collectibles and posters

• Ni No Kuni II Figpin "Evan" - CIB
• Hatsune Miku Funko Pop - NIB
• Poster: Monster Hunter 3 Tri 20x27"
• Poster: Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games 40x14"
• Poster: New Super Mario Bros Wii / Zelda Spirit Tracks 12x17"
• Poster set: Bravoman and Bravoman x Wonder-Momo 11x15"
• Poster: Superman Shadow of Apokolips (from Nintendo Power)
• Puma Future Rider NES sneakers in size 10.5 (brand new)

Comic Books

• Marvel - Original Human Torch #3
• Marvel - Steelgrip Starkey #6
• Marvel - Kickers Inc #1
• Marvel - Justice 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
• Marvel - The 'Nam #14
• Marvel - The Punisher Armory #9
• Marvel - Spider-Man Storm and Power Man Battle Smokescreen!
• Marvel - Spider-Man Battles the Myth Monster
• Marvel - Spider-Man Magazine for Kids - Summer 1996, Fall 1996
• DC - Steel #1
• DC - Batman #509
• DC - Catwoman (93 Series) #4
• DC - The Green Lantern Corps #206
• DC - Hawkman #2
• DC - Tales of the Legion of Super Heroes #5
• Dark Horse - Predator Big Game #1
• Dark Horse - Jonny Quest The Real Adventures 1, 2, 3
• image - The Savage Dragon #11
• Star Wars X-Wing Rogue Squadron The Phantom Affair (book)
• Officer Snook #1

Random Stuff

• White Verizon iPhone 5S with protective case and charger
• Sprint Samsung Galaxy Note 2 - Pretty sure this is unlocked, but will not work on Verizon, comes with Cyanogen OS, charging cable and dock
• GameKlip controller mount NIB - Would work great with the Samsung Galaxy Note 2, requires a PS3 (aka DS3) controller, learn more here
• Micro Machines Star Wars Tie Starfighter Sealed
• Holy Ghost - Static on the Wire Vinyl Like New
• ABSRDST - Boss Beats CD sealed (An EP of Mega Man remixes)
• Speed Racer: The Movie VHS CIB
• Adventure Time: Jake vs Me-Mow DVD + Finn Hat CIB
• Regular Show: The Best DVD in the Universe
• Avengers: Infinity War Moviebill
• 2x Madonna CDs
• Trial of the Clone - A modern CYOA style book
• Three Word Phrase Volume One
• Little Red Book Complete Street Guide to New York City
• 2 1932 Olympic stamps
• Dolce and Gabanna Intenso leather bag new, open box
• Mark McGwire 62nd Home Run Gold card

WANT

The high priority stuff:

• 3DS: Etrian Odyssey Nexus cart only
• GBA: Sonic Advance 2 poster only or CIB
• Strategy Guides: Fire Emblem, Gotcha Force

Nintendo Power issues - I am close to completing my set, I need the following issues:

• 57
• 58
• 59
• 61
• 62
• 66
• 70
• 71
• 73
• 95
• 104
• 110
• 128
• 151
• 164
• 166
• 192
• 227
• 273

Lower priority:
Limited Print Switch Games (prefer CIB, also fine with Best Buy retail versions when applicable)

• Double Switch
• Evoland
• Kamiko
• Night Trap
• PENDING IN Oceanhorn
• Quartet Fighters
• Shantae and the Pirate's Curse CE
• The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince
• The Messenger cover art and manual or CIB (already have but looking for a nicer copy)
• Tiny Metal

Retail Switch Games

• Alliance Alive HD
• Crayola Scoot
• Elliot Quest
• Hatsune Miku Mega 39's
• PENDING IN Immortals Fenyx Rising
• Korg Gadget
• Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3
• Okami JP version
• Pikmin 3 Deluxe
• Pretty Princess Party
• Romancing Saga 3 Remastered Asia version
• Scribblenauts Mega Pack
• Scribblenauts Showdown
• Terraria
• Tin and Kuna
• Truberbrook
• Unbox

3DS Games

• 7th Dragon Code VFD CE
• Alien Chaos 3D
• Alliance Alive CE
• Beyblade CE with beyblade
• Disney Big Hero 6 and Frozen Olaf's Quest two-pack
• Final Fantasy Explorers CE
• Hatsune Miku Project Mirai DX big box version complete
• pending in Kirby Battle Royale
• Project X Zone 1 and 2 launch editions
• Scribblenauts Unlimited big box with rooster hat case CIB

DS Games

• Big Bang Mini slipcover only or CIB
• Bomberman Land Touch 2
• Bookworm
• Dokapon Journey
• Dragon Quest 4, 5, PENDING IN 6
• PENDING IN Gunpey DS
• Harvest Moon Frantic Farming
• Jewel Time Deluxe box and inserts or CIB
• Mega Man Starforce Series
• Okami Den box and game or CIB
• Sonic Rush Adventure
• Zookeeper
• Zuma's Revenge with slipcover

GBA

• Boktai 2 CIB
• Drill Dozer a girl and her dozer mini comic or CIB
• Klonoa 2 CIB
• Kururin Paradise CIB (JP)
• Sonic Advance CIB
• Sonic Pinball Party CIB
• Top Gear Pocket 2 box and inserts or CIB
• Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3 CIB
• Warioland 4 box and inserts or CIB

GBC

• Legend of the River King 2 CIB
• Game and Watch Gallery 2 CIB
• Game and Watch Gallery 3 box and inserts or CIB
• Game Boy Gallery CIB (PAL)
• Happy Hippo (PAL)
• Harvest Moon for GBC CIB
• Konami GB Collection 1-4 (PAL)
• Rhino Rumble cart and manual

Game Boy

• Kirby's Star Stacker CIB
• Ninja Boy 2 CIB
• Pinball Dreams poster and reg card or CIB
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan CIB
• Who Framed Roger Rabbit CIB

Wii U Games

• PENDING IN Bayonetta 2 with 1 disc
• Devil's Third
• Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze
• Hello Kitty Kruisers
• PENDING IN Mario Kart 8
• Pac Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2
• Pikmin 3
• Rayman Legends
• Scribblenauts Unmasked Walmart version with Green Lantern DVD
• The Book of Unwritten Tales 2
• The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild
• Tokyo Mirage Sessions FE Special Edition
• Xenoblade Chronicles X Collector's Edition
• Your Shape Fitness Evolved 2013

(lots more games, I have a long list for Wii U, just show me what you have)
Wii Games

• Babysitting Mama with baby
• Castle of Shikigami III
• Cooking Mama 2-Pack
• Dragon Quest Swords
• Fortune Street
• Lost in Shadow
• Mario Sports Mix manual and other booklets or CIB
• Pandora's Tower
• Pirates Plundarr
• Prince of Persia the Forgotten Sands
• The Sky Crawlers

GameCube games

• 1080 Avalanche with bonus DVD
• Baten Kaitos Origins manual and booklets or CIB
• Cubix Robots for Everyone Showdown
• Medabots Infinity
• Naruto Ultimate Ninja 2 with trading card
• Pokemon XD manual and booklets or CIB
• Pro Rally
• SEGA Soccer Slam
• Timesplitters Future Perfect
• Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 1, 2
• XGRA

PS2 Games

• Dark Cloud
• Monster Rancher 4

PS3 Games

• Boku No Natsuyasumi 3 (JP exclusive)
• Earth Defense Force 2025
• Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon
• PixelJunk 3 in 1 Pack (Asia or KR exclusive)
• Wipeout HD Fury (PAL UK exclusive)

Strategy Guides

• Animal Crossing New Horizons
• Final Fantasy VII and other FF games
• Game Boy Camera Funtography
• Minecraft Dungeons
• Pokemon Black/White Version 2
• Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood
• Super Mario RPG
• The World Ends With You
• Xenogears and Xenosaga 1, 2, 3

Also if you've read this far, I recently started an Instagram dedicated to video game collecting and would love to connect with others! My username is chillcollector.

Looking to trade! I have over 100 confirmed trades :) Right now I am mostly looking for the wants I have listed below, especially the high priority stuff, but I may be open to offers. Just please do not be offended if I say no!
p.s. "CIB" means complete, as in including all the booklets and such that were supposed to come in there, otherwise I will clarify what is included. "NIB" means New In Box, aka sealed, "brand new," in the shrink, etc.
p.p.s. If we are going to trade, all I ask is please be honest about the condition of your items. I can provide pictures for anything I have, please be willing to do the same! Thanks!

HAVE

Mini Consoles

• NES Classic Mini - NIB
• NES Classic Mini Refurbished direct from Nintendo - NIB
• Famicom Mini (JP) - NIB

N64 games

• Army Men Sarge's Heroes 2 - CIB
• Banjo Kazooie - game and manual
• Beetle Adventure Racing - CIB, some box wear
• Diddy Kong Racing - CIB
• Extreme-G - game and manual
• Mario Tennis - CIB
• Mickey's Speedway USA - game only
• Mischief Makers - CIB, some box wear
• Rugrats in Paris - CIB
• Space Station Silicon Valley - game only, rental sticker on label
• Star Wars Rogue Squadron - CIB, box has wear
• Super Smash Bros - CIB
• Tetrisphere - game only
• Wipeout 64 - CIB
• World Driver Championship - CIB, some box wear

N64 booklets

• 1080 Snowboarding - manual, operations card
• Army Men Air Combat - manual
• Banjo Tooie - manual
• Battletanx Global Assault - manual with wear
• Bomberman 64 - manual
• Buck Bumble - manual with sticker and wear
• Donkey Kong 64 - manual
• Kirby 64 the Crystal Shards - manual
• Mario Kart 64 - manual, operations card and player's guide offer booklet
• Mario Tennis - manual (separate from the CIB above)
• Rugrats Scavenger Hunt - manual
• Star Fox 64 - manual
• Star Wars Episode 1 Battle for Naboo - manual in poor condition
• Super Mario 64 - manual
• The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time - manual with wear

Switch

• Fornite Wildcat Bundle console - NIB
• Pro Controller with Super Mario Odyssey download code - NIB
• Battle Chef Brigade - NIB Best Buy version
• Blossom Tales - LRG trading card only
• Code of Princess EX launch edition - CIB
• Crayola Scoot - loose cart in a GameStop case
• Danmaku Unlimited 3 - NIB
• Dandara CE - NIB
• Darius Cozmic Collection CE - NIB
• Downwell with Flip Grip - NIB, slight box damage
• Final Fantasy XII - CIB
• Flashback - have CE and standard both NIB, CE has box damage, may trade either depending on value
• Gekido Kintaro’s Revenge big box - CIB and like new
• Graceful Explosion Machine - NIB
• Grip Combat Racing Airblades vs Rollers Ultimate Edition - CIB, DLC code used
• Guilty Gear 20th Anniversary Pack EU - CIB
• Katamari Damacy Reroll - digital code
• Korg Gadget JP - NIB, would love to trade for North America release
• Lumo - CIB
• Neverwinter Nights Enhanced Edition - CIB
• Old School Musical - NIB
• Pode Artist's Edition EU - NIB but has some box damage
• Rive - SRG trading card pack only
• Saturday Morning RPG - NIB
• Sayonara Wild Hearts - Have 3 NIB, two have exclusive iron-on patch the other does not
• Shakedown Hawaii CE - CIB but contents are sealed, outer box has very minor damage
• Shantae and the Pirate's Curse - LRG trading card only
• Shantae and the Seven Sirens CE - NIB with card
• Skullgirls 2nd Encore - NIB
• Snake Pass - SRG trading card pack only
• Super Mario Odyssey - digital code
• The Legend of Zelda BotW Special Edition - CIB
• Thumper - NIB (small nick on spine)
• Tricky Towers - NIB
• Ultracore - CIB

3DS consoles, games, accessories

• 2DS blue with black front - loose with charger
• Conception II: Children of the Seven Stars - NIB
• Disney Frozen Olaf's Quest - CIB with some damage to cover art
• Rhythm Thief and the Emperor's Treasure - CIB except for Club Nintendo insert
• TMNT Master Splinter's Training Pack - loose
• Zero Escape Virtue's Last Reward - CIB, has a hole in front of case/cover art
• Zero Escape Zero Time Dilemma - Pre-order bonus watch only
• Nyko Game Boost power attachment for launch model 3DS - NIB, some box damage

3DS boxes and manuals (no games)

• Fire Emblem Warriors
• Miitopia
• Poochy and Yoshi's Woolly World EU region big box only (can hold both game and Poochy amiibo from any region, really nice display piece)
• Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright MANUAL ONLY
• Tomodachi Life MANUAL ONLY
• Operations manual and other inserts (no AR cards) for launch model 3DS in bag
• 2DS XL quick start guide

DS console, games and accessories

• Brain Age - CIB
• Brain Age 2 - CIB
• Jewel Time Deluxe - loose
• Pac Pix - CIB
• Paws and Claws Pet Resort - box and game only, game cart has wear
• Polarium - CIB
• Spongebob Squarepants Atlantis Squarepantis - NIB
• EMS NDS Adapter - CIB (Not the newest version, works best with Windows XP)

DS boxes and manuals (no games)

• Advance Wars Dual Strike - box, manual, other inserts (spine of box has a tear, cover art not affected)
• Okami Den - manual only
• Scribblenauts Unlimited - manual only
• Operations manual and other inserts for black DSi in bag
• Instruction booklet for launch model DS

GBA games and videos

• Dogz - CIB, some wear to box
• Muppets Pinball Mayhem - game only
• Nickelodeon Rugrats All Grown Up! Volume 1 GBA Video - NIB
• Pocket Dogs - CIB, box has damage
• Road Trip Shifting Gears - CIB
• Sonic Advance / Sonic Pinball Party combo cart - game only
• Sonic Advance 2 - box only (no tray)
• Sudoku Fever - game only
• Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004 - game only

GBC games and more

• Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle 3 - game and manual
• Game and Watch Gallery 3 - game only
• Kirby Tilt n Tumble - game only
• M and M's Minis Madness - CIB
• Tonka Raceway - game only, missing battery cover
• GameShark Pro - box, manual (no tray or gameshark)

GB games and more

• 4 in 1 Funpak Volume II - game only
• Alleyway - game only
• Bo Jackson Hit and Run - game and manual
• Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle 2 - game only
• Casino Fun Pak - game and manual
• Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame - game only
• Dr. Mario - CIB
• Face Ball 2000 - game only
• High Stakes Gambling - CIB
• Hyper Lode Runner - game only, has pink marker along top that won't come off
• Kwirk - game only
• Ms. Pac Man - game only
• Nemesis - game only
• Super Mario Land - game only
• Tetris 2 - game only
• The Amazing Spiderman - game only
• GameShark for Game Boy and Game Boy Pocket - accessory only
• Nuby Worm Light safety instructions - booklet only

GB manuals (no games)

• 4 in 1 Funpak
• Aladdin
• Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle 2
• Centipede Millipede (creased front)
• Dr Mario
• Ducktales
• Galaga Galaxian (creased front)
• Game and Watch Gallery
• Jurassic Park Part 2: The Chaos Continues
• Kirby's Dream Land
• Kirby's Pinball Land (stained front)
• Paperboy
• Tetris Attack
• Solomon's Club

Wii U games and packaging

• Assassin's Creed III - NIB
• Hyrule Warriors - CIB
• Runbow Deluxe Edition - NIB or CIB (willing to trade one of these)
• Shovel Knight - NIB
• Star Fox Zero / Guard Double Pack - NIB, one corner of outer box is slightly bent

Wii games and accessories

• 30 Great Games Winter Fun - CIB
• ABC Wipeout 2 - CIB
• Ford Racing Off Roads - CIB
• Gallop and Ride! - CIB
• Game Party - CIB
• Hello Kitty Seasons - CIB
• M. Knight Shamalayan's The Last Airbender - CIB
• Metroid Prime 3 - promo inserts only
• MLB Power Pros 2008 - CIB
• NCIS - CIB
• No More Heroes - CIB
• PBR Out of the Chute - CIB
• Petz Horse Club - CIB
• Petz Sports - CIB
• Press Your Luck 2010 Edition - CIB
• Shaun White Snowboarding Road Trip - CIB
• Vegas Party - CIB
• Victorious Boxers Revolution - CIB
• Wii Fit - CIB
• Zhu Zhu Pets Featuring the Wild Bunch - CIB
• Big Town Shootout 2 Blasters big box - NIB (game download no longer works) (these blasters are attachments for Wiimotes to make them into pistols, great accessory IMO)

GameCube games, accessories and packaging

• 007 Agent Under Fire - box and disc only, box has wear
• Army Men Air Combat The Elite Missions - disc and manual only
• Custom Robo - CIB
• Godzilla Destroy All Monsters Melee - CIB
• Mario Party 6 - CIB
• Superman Shadow of Apokolips - CIB, also have a Nintendo Power poster to go with it
• Tak the Great Juju Challenge - CIB
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - manual only
• Action Replay - manual only

NES games and accessories

• Original game pad - loose
• Hogan's Alley - loose
• Tiger Heli - loose
• 4 cart sleeves

PS3 boxes and manuals (no games)

• Disgaea D2: A Brighter Darkness

PS2

• PS2 console with cords and three controllers (one authentic, two aftermarket)
• Ace Combat 04 greatest hits - CIB
• Alter Echo - CIB
• Call of Duty Finest Hour - CIB
• Crash and Burn - CIB
• FIFA Soccer 2003 - CIB
• Gadget Racers - CIB
• IndyCar Series - CIB
• Madden 2003 - CIB
• Maximo - CIB
• Need for Speed Underground greatest hits - loose
• Rumble Racing - CIB
• Sky Odyssey - CIB
• SpyHunter - CIB

PS2 boxes and manuals (no games)

• River King A Wonderful Journey (has wear)
• WWE Crush Hour BOX ONLY

PSX games

• 2 Xtreme - CIB
• Blast Lacrosse - CIB
• Cool Boarders 2 greatest hits - CIB
• Crash Bandicoot 2 Cortex Strikes Back - Case, back cover art, disc (missing manual)
• FIFA 99 - CIB
• G-Police - CIB
• Gex - CIB
• Einhander - CIB
• Jeopardy! (case is cracked) - CIB
• MDK - CIB
• Metal Gear Solid: VR Missions - CIB
• Medal of Honor (case is cracked) - CIB
• MLB 99 - CIB
• Moto Racer 2 (case is cracked) - CIB
• Need for Speed Hot Pursuit greatest hits green label - CIB
• NFL Blitz greatest hits green label (case is in poor shape but could swap) - CIB
• NFL Gameday 2000 - CIB
• NHL 99 - CIB
• Rainbow Six greatest hits - CIB
• Sled Storm - CIB
• Star Wars Rebel Assault II - CIB, case is damaged
• Tetris Plus greatest hits green label - CIB
• Tiger Woods 99 PGA Tour Golf - CIB
• Tomb Raider greatest hits green label - CIB
• Tomb Raider 2 - CIB
• Uprising X - CIB
• Wheel of Fortune greatest hits green label - CIB

PSX boxes and manuals (no games)

• 007 Tomorrow Never Dies
• Army Men World War

PC

• Cubix: Robots for Everyone - NIB
• Mighty Switch Force / Shantae Risky's Revenge double pack - NIB
• Oil Tycoon - NIB

Strategy guides

• Advance Wars Dual Strike (NP)
• Spyro Season of Ice (BradyGames)
• Super Smash Bros Brawl (Prima)
• Conflict Desert Storm II (Prima)
• Mario 64 Unauthorized guide (missing front cover)

Books

• NES/Famicom: A Visual Compendium (still in shrinkwrap)

Collectibles and posters

• Ni No Kuni II Figpin "Evan" - CIB
• Hatsune Miku Funko Pop - NIB
• Poster: Monster Hunter 3 Tri 20x27"
• Poster: Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games 40x14"
• Poster: New Super Mario Bros Wii / Zelda Spirit Tracks 12x17"
• Poster set: Bravoman and Bravoman x Wonder-Momo 11x15"
• Poster: Superman Shadow of Apokolips (from Nintendo Power)

Comic Books

• Marvel - Original Human Torch #3
• Marvel - Steelgrip Starkey #6
• Marvel - Kickers Inc #1
• Marvel - Justice 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
• Marvel - The 'Nam #14
• Marvel - The Punisher Armory #9
• Marvel - Spider-Man Storm and Power Man Battle Smokescreen!
• Marvel - Spider-Man Battles the Myth Monster
• Marvel - Spider-Man Magazine for Kids - Summer 1996, Fall 1996
• DC - Steel #1
• DC - Batman #509
• DC - Catwoman (93 Series) #4
• DC - The Green Lantern Corps #206
• DC - Hawkman #2
• DC - Tales of the Legion of Super Heroes #5
• Dark Horse - Predator Big Game #1
• Dark Horse - Jonny Quest The Real Adventures 1, 2, 3
• image - The Savage Dragon #11
• Star Wars X-Wing Rogue Squadron The Phantom Affair (book)
• Officer Snook #1

Random Stuff

• White Verizon iPhone 5S with protective case and charger
• Sprint Samsung Galaxy Note 2 - Pretty sure this is unlocked, but will not work on Verizon, comes with Cyanogen OS, charging cable and dock
• GameKlip controller mount NIB - Would work great with the Samsung Galaxy Note 2, requires a PS3 (aka DS3) controller, learn more here
• Micro Machines Star Wars Tie Starfighter Sealed
• Holy Ghost - Static on the Wire Vinyl Like New
• ABSRDST - Boss Beats CD sealed (An EP of Mega Man remixes)
• Speed Racer: The Movie VHS CIB
• Adventure Time: Jake vs Me-Mow DVD + Finn Hat CIB
• Regular Show: The Best DVD in the Universe
• Avengers: Infinity War Moviebill
• 2x Madonna CDs
• Trial of the Clone - A modern CYOA style book
• Three Word Phrase Volume One
• Little Red Book Complete Street Guide to New York City
• 2 1932 Olympic stamps
• Dolce and Gabanna Intenso leather bag new, open box
• Mark McGwire 62nd Home Run Gold card

WANT

The high priority stuff:

• 3DS: Etrian Odyssey Nexus cart only
• GBA:
  • Bomberman Tournament cart only
  • Sonic Advance 2 poster only or CIB
• GBC: Wario Land 2 cart only
• GB:
  • Kirby's Block Ball manual only
  • Kirby's Dream Land 2 CIB
• N64: Mario Party 2 CIB or box and game or box only

Lower priority:
Limited Print Switch Games (prefer CIB, also fine with Best Buy retail versions when applicable)

• Axiom Verge Multiverse Edition
• Battle Princess Madelyn any version
• Double Switch
• Earthlocke
• Evoland
• Fox n Forests
• Night Trap
• Puyo Puyo Tetris big box with target exclusive decals or CIB
• Shantae and the Pirate's Curse CE
• Shikhondo
• The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince
• The Messenger cover art and manual or CIB (already have but looking for a nicer copy)
• Tiny Metal

Retail Switch Games

• Alliance Alive HD
• Captain Toad Treasure Tracker
• Crayola Scoot case or CIB
• Dragon Quest 1 2 3 Collection with English cover
• Korg Gadget
• Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3
• Okami JP version
• Pikmin 3 Deluxe
• Romancing Saga 3 Remastered Asia version

3DS Games

• 7th Dragon Code VFD CE
• Beyblade CE with beyblade
• Cooking Mama Sweet Shop
• Disney Big Hero 6 and Frozen Olaf's Quest two-pack
• Final Fantasy Explorers CE
• Kirby Battle Royale
• PENDING IN Mario Golf
• PENDING IN Mario Tennis
• Project X Zone 1 and 2 launch editions
• Scribblenauts Unlimited big box with rooster hat case CIB

DS Games

• Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Apollo Justice
• Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Justice for All
• Amazing Adventures the Forgotten Ruins
• Big Bang Mini slipcover only or CIB
• Bomberman Land Touch 2
• Diddy Kong Racing
• DK Jungle Climber game and booklets or CIB
• Dokapon Journey
• Dragon Quest 4, 5, 6
• Harvest Moon Frantic Farming
• Jewel Time Deluxe box and inserts or CIB
• Little Red Riding Hood's Zombie BBQ
• Mega Man Starforce Series
• Okami Den box and game or CIB
• Sonic Rush Adventure
• Veggy World
• Viewtiful Joe Double Trouble
• Zuma's Revenge with slipcover

GBA

• Klonoa 2 CIB
• Mega Man Battle Chip Challenge CIB
• Warioland 4 box and inserts or CIB

GBC

• Legend of the River King 2 CIB
• Game and Watch Gallery 2 CIB
• Game and Watch Gallery 3 box and inserts or CIB

Game Boy

• Kirby's Star Stacker CIB
• Ninja Boy 2 CIB
• Pinball Dreams poster and reg card or CIB
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan CIB
• Who Framed Roger Rabbit CIB

Wii U Games

• Pac Man and the Ghostly Adventures 1 and 2
• Pikmin 3
• Scribblenauts Unmasked Walmart version with Green Lantern DVD
• Wii Party U
• Your Shape Fitness Evolved 2013

Wii Games

• Babysitting Mama with baby
• Bit.Trip Complete with soundtrack
• PENDING IN Dragonball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 3 with bonus DVD
• Dragon Quest Swords
• Fortune Street
• Lost in Shadow
• Mario Sports Mix manual and other booklets or CIB
• Okami
• Pandora's Tower
• Prince of Persia the Forgotten Sands
• The Sky Crawlers

GameCube games

• Baten Kaitos Origins
• Pro Rally
• SEGA Soccer Slam
• Tales of Symphonia
• Timesplitters Future Perfect
• Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 1, 2, 3
• Viewtiful Joe Red Hot Rumble
• XGRA

PS2 Games

• Monster Rancher 4

PS3 Games

• Earth Defense Force 2025
• Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon
• Wipeout HD Fury (PAL UK exclusive)

Strategy Guides

• Animal Crossing New Horizons
• Final Fantasy VII
• Gotcha Force
• Minecraft Dungeons
• Super Mario Odyssey
• Super Mario RPG
• The Legend of Zelda Oracle of Ages / Seasons Nintendo Power
• The World Ends With You
• Xenogears and Xenosaga 1, 2, 3

Also if you've read this far, I recently started an Instagram dedicated to video game collecting and would love to connect with others! My username is chillcollector.