The Self-Destruction of Pirate Software: Ego, Errors, and the Internet’s Wrath

After watching a gazillion "The Fall of Pirate Software" videos tonight... over all the events of the last 2 weeks, I felt like doing some writing tonight:

### The Self-Destruction of Pirate Software: Ego, Errors, and the Internet’s Wrath

Pirate Software. The name once conjured images of a talented, if smug, figure in the gaming world—charismatic enough to command a following with his natural deep yet soothing "made for radio" voice.

Today, however, his name is synonymous with hypocrisy, selfishness, and a five-act play of public humiliation that could rival a Greek tragedy.

Yes, Pirate Software is entitled. Yes, he embodies the worst of nepotistic privilege. And yes, his fall from grace has been entirely self-inflicted. But as much as I want to revel in the Schadenfreude, I find myself grappling with an unexpected feeling: pity. The internet has united in what can only be described as a collective takedown of his ego, and while the criticism is warranted, the sheer scale of it is unnerving.

So, how did he get here? Let’s examine the five missteps that turned Pirate Software from internet darling into a pariah.

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#### 1. The Raid That Sank His Credibility

In *Ashes of Creation*, a botched raid set the stage for Pirate Software’s downfall. Someone pulled the boss too early, resulting in a catastrophic wipe. Fueled by frustration and self-righteousness, Pirate Software declared, “Whoever pulled the boss is kicked from the guild.”

Enter irony. The postmortem review revealed that the culprit was none other than Pirate Software himself. Confronted with video evidence, he didn’t apologize. Instead, he doubled down on deflection, conveniently forgetting his earlier promise to exile the guilty party (which, in this case, was himself).

It was the kind of blunder that leaves an indelible mark, not just for its hypocrisy, but for its sheer refusal to acknowledge reality.

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#### 2. Ratting Out in WOW Hardcore

If the raid fiasco was a stumble, his actions in *World of Warcraft* Hardcore were a full-on faceplant. In a high-stakes situation where death is permanent, Pirate Software chose to prioritize his own safety at the cost of two player's characters (and this is Hardcode mode - which means death is permanent). Pirate Software just ran like a rat, effectively ensuring their demise.

It wasn’t just cowardly—it was downright Machiavellian. He could have intervened, lent a hand, or at least gone down swinging alongside his comrades. Instead, he opted for self-preservation, leaving the internet to label him as the very antithesis of a team player.

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#### 3. The Deflection Heard 'Round the Internet

Rather than issue an apology or take responsibility for his actions, Pirate Software resorted to his favorite defense mechanism: denial. When the internet came calling for accountability, he met them with deflection, blame-shifting, and an air of entitlement so thick it could choke a dragon.

It was a masterclass in ego-driven damage control, except for one small problem: it didn’t work. Instead of quelling the flames, his refusal to admit fault poured gasoline on the fire. The internet smelled blood, and a hate campaign was born.

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#### 4. Striking Out at Critics

When backed into a corner, some seek redemption. Pirate Software, on the other hand, opted for retaliation. He began reporting fellow Twitch streamers who dared to criticize him, attempting to silence dissent by weaponizing moderation tools.

This move was not just petty—it was career suicide. His actions led to his expulsion from the *Only Fangs* guild, a collective of content creators and streamers. The message was clear: even among his peers, his behavior was unacceptable.

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#### 5. The “Roach” Monologue

As the backlash reached fever pitch, Pirate Software released a video announcing that he would no longer play *WOW Hardcore*. What should have been a moment of humility turned into a spectacle of self-pity, prompting viewers to dub him a “roach”—a metaphor for his ability to scuttle away from responsibility.

The nickname stuck, and the video became the final nail in his reputational coffin. Instead of garnering sympathy, it reinforced the public’s perception of him as a man incapable of self-awareness.

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### The Anatomy of a Fall

Pirate Software’s descent isn’t just a cautionary tale of ego run amok—it’s a case study in how not to handle public criticism. His actions reveal a pattern of hypocrisy, selfishness, and an almost pathological inability to own up to his mistakes.

And yet, as justified as the criticism may be, one can’t help but feel uneasy about the internet’s collective glee in tearing him apart. The online mob is an unrelenting force, and while Pirate Software has certainly earned his share of ridicule, the scale of the backlash raises uncomfortable questions about how we, as a society, handle public figures who stumble.

Will Pirate Software learn from his mistakes? Can he rebuild his reputation? Or has he cemented his legacy as a cautionary tale for streamers and gamers alike? Time will tell. But one thing is certain: in the game of public opinion, he’s lost more than just a raid—he’s lost the trust and respect of his community.

How many times is 1d3 reference in the 2014 Dungeon Master's Guide?

I OCR'ed the 2014 DMG down to a text file and then grep'ed out '1d3' to see how many times '1d3' is actually referenced in the 2014 DMG, and the answer is 17 times.

13 of those involved regaining expanded charges for magic items.

$ ocrmypdf --sidecar /tmp/output.txt "Dungeon Master's Guide.pdf" /tmp/output.pdf --force-ocr

$ egrep 1d3 /tmp/output.txt | wc -l
17

$ egrep 'regains? 1d3 expended' /tmp/output.txt | wc -l
13

Yeah - I'm a nerd.

updated my anyflip downloader script.

Was bored.... so I updated my anyflip downloader script.

It does this:

1- downloads each of the pages as raw .jpgs
2- combines all the raw jpgs into a PDF
3- then takes that PDF and runs it through OCR software to create a new OCR'ed version of the PDF (so you can search for text inside the PDF, instead of just having a PDF of images)

I updated the script to download everything into a randomly created temp dir.

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jackal242/brads_scripts/aa9c06a2d4cb48b738008157b4e01b98f065b574/anyflip-pdf-getter.sh

video-resize.sh

resize videos 

#!/bin/bash 
ffmpeg -i $1 -vf "scale=trunc(iw/4)*2:trunc(ih/4)*2" -c:v libx265 -crf 28 output-half.mp4

Alternatively ... if you know you want it to be 720 (width) and you just want the height to scale accordingly use:

#!/bin/bash
ffmpeg -i $1 -vf scale="720:-1" -c:v libx265 -crf 28   output-resize720.mp4

How does DNS work?

Simple terms resolves a domain name (URL) into an IP address.

In actual terms:

First DNS checks cache to see if the name is locally configured (via /etc/hosts) or is already in the local DNS cache. If it is, it checks the Time To Live (TTL) and sees if the time is valid. If it is, it uses that.

Otherwise, the operating system reaches out to a thing called a Resolving Name Server. Again, it checks if the resolving name server already has the name in cache first. If not, then the resolving name server points to the root domain for the address.

The root domain server knows where to find the Top Level Domains (like .net, .com, .edu, etc..) and the root domain server will point the request to them. The resolving name server puts this information in its cache so it doesn’t have to do this step again later.

The Top Level Domain server will not have the answer either, but will know where to find the domain name itself for the primary name. For example, if we are using example.com, then the TLD would know where the DNS server for example.com lives, and will point the resolving name server to that IP address. Again, the resolving name server puts all this information into cache so it doesn’t have to do this again.

This next set of name servers are called “Authoritative Name Servers.” When the domain is registered, the authoritative name servers for this domain are registered with the TLD.

At this point the Authoritative Name Server will reply with the IP for that domain name.

At each step in this process the information queried for is cached into the resolving name server. This is why DNS is so fast. Everything that can be cached is cached.