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[persephonesnow]

something about origins darkspawn + darkspawn designs that is lost in future games imo is like... a sense of a strange, unknowable form of "culture". you fight their forgemaster/blacksmith, the strongest ones get a better set of armor and weapons, they add somewhat pointless gory decor to areas theyve overtaken, etc etc

you can definitely argue its the power of the archdemon in that game, use its control to make them act in a more "human" manner, but considering the sentient darkspawn in the expansions, theres definitely more to it

which to me is totally lost in the knock-off-bdsm-most-of-them-dressed-the-same darkspawn of 2 onwards

tldr origins darkspawn designs and behavior are more in line with their "spawned from sentient races" nature than future media, which makes them kinda feel like generic monsters to me

[persephonesnow]

time to put Scrivener on blast

Scrivener has made it clear they’re riding with NaNoWriMo. Let’s put them on blast.

[persephonesnow]

Regardless of what you think about generative AI in general, NaNoWriMo allowing AI-generated works is beyond stupid because that completely defeats the purpose of the challenge, which is for you, a human being, to write 50,000 words in a month. Yeah, that's hard. That's why it's a challenge. Where is the challenge when you can ask a chatbot to spit out 50,000 words of whatthefuckever for you? Even if you think that is a legitimate way to produce fiction, even if you don't care about the ethics of training on stolen works... where's the challenge? What's left of NaNo at that point?

[persephonesnow]

anxiety is so insane bc ppl will treat it like it's no big deal, like it's "one of the "easy" mental illnesses" or something, and then you have it and it's insanely debilitating and you lose most of your life and your time and energy to it. yesterday i spent 2 hours sitting in my bed trying to convince myself to go to a water fountain to get some water. one time i got so scared to take a bus i passed out. like sure it's a spectrum and i'm definitely at the more severe end of it but the fact that milder cases exist doesn't mean it's not still a problem? and it doesn't mean that those people aren't struggling too

[persephonesnow]

So it looks like NaNoWriMo are happy to have AI as part of their community. Miss me with that bullshit. Generative artificial intelligence is an active threat to creativity and the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of people in creative fields.

Please signal boost this so writers can make an informed choice about whether to continue to take part in such a community.

[persephonesnow]

Include ports for different OS/consoles, anniversary editions or similar if it's still essentially the same game, etc.

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We ask your questions so you don’t have to! Submit your questions to have them posted anonymously as polls.

[persephonesnow]

When adopting a dog it’s like. You gotta prep for that. You prep for like a month to get this dog. Meanwhile you’re wearing your pajamas to petsmart at 6am because a cat just showed up at your house uninvited and won’t leave

[persephonesnow]

Would you rather...

[persephonesnow]

Spent a ridiculous amount of time last night obsessively editing my hand written zines in Photoshop to take away any tiny blemishes so they were definitely readable.

Whatever. Understand or don't.

[persephonesnow]

Alistair talks about how he is a “Templar” in a compulsive kind of way, as if he feels the need to apologize for himself in advance. It’s kind of a disclaimer “Oh by the way I have Templar abilities…”

I like to think it’s in part because he acknowledges some of the biases he automatically has from his years of conditioning, and he’s not particularly thrilled that he has them. In fact, in the conversation where he asks you how you feel about different party members, he says something about Morrigan being an apostate, and you have the option to say “Hey your Templar training is showing.” To which he answers something to the effect of “Hah, you’re right. My bad.”

Alistair very openly and bluntly expresses his disagreement with the Chantry as well as the Templar Order, and his failure to understand why anyone would want to serve in a position that mandated killing young mages who fail their Harrowing.

Alistair knows that his presence can bother mages and make them uncomfortable. He states it when you first meet him and he’s talking the Grumpy Mage. He says it again when you arrive at Lake Calenhad with him in tow, and he has a banter with Wynne about it.

He recognizes the power that Templars hold. He asks Wynne how she feels about that, and she has to explain to him that he’s not actually and never has been a Templar, and even aside from that, he is a good person who wouldn’t simply kill her for being a mage.

Alistair is incredibly conscientious and self-aware and I’m not sure why I typed this up. I just really appreciate how we get to watch him struggle with his own privilege and biases, how he checks them, and how he attempts to do better.

I think that’s really cool, and one of the many reasons why I love him.

[persephonesnow]

[persephonesnow]

so the new dragon age dropped for preorders and what im seeing is that the physical merch bundles to not actually come with the game? unreal. unreal. starting off strong with this one. cant wait to witness all of the bountiful discourse cycles this game will provide. as someone who has never played dragon age its one of my favorite spectator sports

[persephonesnow]

Pre-orders for Dragon Age Veilguard are going to open on August 15th. So I’m asking you with a profound pleading in my tone to not pre-order it in respect to the 50 members of the BW team who got laid off with no warning this time last year.

[persephonesnow]

The word 'rural' is in the public consciousness again and every time people start going in about the 'rural values' 'rural way of life' I remember just how subjective that word is.

I have a friend that lives in LA. He considers Columbus, OH to be 'rural.' A population of over 900k. Thriving arts community, tons of culture festivals, every kind of restaurant you can think of, one of the most annoying college campuses ever, several smaller colleges, lots of queer spaces, comic book conventions, huge concerts... rural.

The town I live in considers itself 'rural.' 38k population. Arts festival every year, a small pride celebration, monthly gallery hop, big Halloween festival. Five ice cream shops, three coffee shops, a couple fancy bars, so many grocery stores. Huge library, conservation and sustainability advocates, queer spaces, a hospital, one private college. Rural.

The town we nearly annexed, but lost the deal considers us 'urban' compared to them. Less than 5k. They have a limited hospital, often send their surgeries here. Downtown has hardware store, bars, craft supply store, a couple grocery stores, pizza places. There's some farmland, but much of the square acreage is golf. Mega churches. The houses here are 500k. Most people drive ATVs. They have a handful of festivals in the summer.

A town I would often get sent to to cover their high school sports- a little over 2k. There's a Subway, a Domino's, Family Dollar. Some bars, some corner stores. Some local crafts. All the students grow up knowing each other, most of them stay there. But they have craft fairs and art galleries, still.

Less rural still than the town I go through to get there, population of around 600. Houses, farmland, post office, general store.

Who would still look down upon the town of about 400 that I would go to sometimes- post office. Gas station. Bar. The school is the only big thing there.

And yet still, I have seen towns with population in the double digits that have a church and a post office.

Even just looking at the numbers doesn't lend accuracy to what 'rural' actually looks like. Because this is what it looks like in ohio, but it's different in West Virginia- where your closest neighbor might be a mile down a hill. Or in Montana, where your town might be planned very tightly and your neighbors are very close, but the nearest grocery store is an hour and a half away. These are places I've been, friends that I've talked to. I've never been to Missouri or Alabama or Louisiana- I'm sure they have a unique experience of being 'rural.'

So my point is that when people talk about 'the rural experience' or 'rural values,' they are talking about millions of people across the entire country who all have lived unique lives- and who may not even agree on what 'rural' is.

Think about who is talking, and who is being talked over, and who isn't even being asked to join the conversation.

[persephonesnow]

people with dietary restrictions should be given 500 dollars a day in financial compensation. Per Restriction

[persephonesnow]

I love you PBS I love you NPR I love you public libraries I love you wikipedia I love you project gutenberg I love you librivox I love you libby I love you hoopla I love you openlibrary I love you internet archive I love you resources that make information free and accessible to the public