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mrsmess · 5 years ago

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Faves and fails of SPN (season 12):

Favorite episodes in chronological order:

12:3 The Foundry - Mylings! Nuff said. And I knew it as soon as I heard the baby cry. And that makes me feel good about me.

12:4 American Nightmare - Stigmata. Dean dressed as a priest getting stuck looking at a boy lighting a candle in the church. Mr Mess: ”Dean! Time and place!” Sam wasting his sensemaking on a relentlessly angry Dean as usual, but then laying the hard truth on the crazy lady - is it hot in here?

12:5 The One You’ve Been Waiting For - Nazi dirtbags! Referencing one of the great episodes of season 8 too. Good. Good. And Allison Paige is friggin’ beautiful! Nauhaus is such a spoofy villain I think this is a comedy. ”Do you know what it’s like to have en nazi necromancer as a father?” ”He had a guy named Fritz try to kill me!” GOLD.

12:6 Celebrating the life of Asa Fox - badass-intro. And Jody. Hunter community! Canadian hunter community! Here for it. Bucky, or as I like to call him: demon nr 5 from early season.... single digits.

12:7 Rock never dies - Loving this glam-metal thing. Crowley in LA. And omg! Cass being snarky with Dean of all people. ”Atleast I don’t look like a lumberjack.” I laughed. And Mr Mess pointed out that Cass is tired, that that’s why he snapped, and it dawned on me that Cass is *choosing* to be kind under normal circumstances. My heart! ”I work for sexists, rasists, even politicians.” Lol. Loving the group dynamic of the four. But I’m a bit disappointed that Lucifer can’t chill, he could have had so much fun.

12:11 Regarding Dean - A goofy Dean episode. That’s rarely bad news. I like Rowena in this, she’s rly growing on me.

12:15 Somewhere between heaven and hell - Honesty’s the best policy, signed, Dean. Hear, hear! ”So, ten years ago did you rly want something? Like, a Hello Kitty backpack or the death of an enemy?” Lol! Dean and Crowley and Lucifer breaking free! Dean is a hoot this episode. Sam, killing the hellhound like a pro, and thanking Crowley. And Crowley kicking Lucifer’s ass. That’s the stuff. And Sam being honest with Dean and Dean being all reasonable about it! Loving it!

12:16 Ladies drink free - Claire! Nuff said. Loving everyone this episode, except Mick of course, but my homicidal thoughts at the sight of his beard have lessened. ”The experiment was on mice.” Werewolf-mice! XD

12:17 The british invasion - Eileen! God this show needs more women, the brothers are so much better dealing w them, which I guess is a problem on its own. ”Make your voice a mail.” Oh Cass. Eileen and Sam! My heart! Am I shipping this? God I hope not, it’ll mean instant death. God, Mick is an idiot, I mean, I’m obv digging his change of heart, but apparently he hasn’t learned a thing in the entire life he’s worked for his fucky organization.

12:18 The memory remains - Goodness. Loving this intro. Taxidermist sheriff. Man, sometimes I feel these quirky characters are wasted on the just-passing-through format. ”Hunting people! Killing them! The family business!” Lol.

Fail episodes in chronological order:

12:1 Keep Calm and Carry on - ”You’re bad at your job.” Sure, she has a point, but as generous as this british chick’s offer is, her pitch is somewhat lacking. A torture montage is the quickest way to wind up on the fail list. Also ”break his mind”? That’s what it’s like inside Sam’s head *all* the time.

12:2 Mamma Mia - A sexscene featuring Dean Forrester is the second quickest way to wind up on the fail list. You say his name is Sam Winchester? Nah. Nope. Not buying it. Listen, I know I talk a tall game about being a big Sam-fan, I just don’t ship him with a.n.y.o.n.e. So what the sexscene isn’t real!? I still had to see it with my own orbs of sight. ”Your job was to find american hunters and gain their trust.” I’m howling! Maybe *you’re* rly bad at your job, lady!

12:10 Lily Sunder has some regrets - uhm... using demon number 5 to play other randos throughout a 15 season show I’ll forgive them for but you can’t use the same distinct actor (Ian Tracey) to play two distinctly different characters (Lee/Ishim) and not acknowledge it, especially when they could easily explain it as Lee’s body being possessed by Ishim. It ruins the whole episode for me. Also, I’m rooting for the ”bad” guy.

12:14 The raid - The british men of letters are the worst, they are worthless recruiting agents, salesmen and got crappy intel; where the Winchesters go the rest of the american hunters will follow? Pretty sure the opposite is true: ”Oh shit, the Winchesters are joining ’em? Better stay as far away from that shit as possible!” Also Mary’s being more than a little silly and I’m surprised Sam didn’t give her some speech about how he used to aim for big things like killing the devil, closing the gates of hell, before learning to settle for more realistic goals, like, staying alive, keepin your brother alive, savoring the occasional win, y’know, for the sake of your mental health. Anyhoo; Sam’s reaction on finding out Mary gave the Colt to the british men of letters might have been enough put it on the fave list but there are just so many icky characters and so many shots of Mick’s ugly beard I can’t let it slide. Plus Sam winds up joining these assholes. Boooohhhh!

12:20 Twigs & twine & Tasha Banes - Jeez. Petition to have Dean always justify his icky feelings about something w the Star Wars classic ”i got a bad feeling about this.” It would save time and my sanity. Also I have issues w Mary not being reasonable and understanding the basics about the life she and the boys are leading - you’re in or out, but there’s no finishing it w/o finishing yourself. Is this season’s big bad trying to annoy me to death? And the other hunters? What is it with this show and any other fun or awesome characters? Sorry, can’t keep ’em on, it’s a density-thing.

12:21 There’s something about Mary - Booohh! First Eileen, my bae (did I call it or did I call it?) and then the entire episode is full of The Big Annoying. First episode I didn’t bother finishing. Screw this season.

12:23 All along the watchtower - honestly I don’t get the constant jokes about IKEAs manuals, they’re all pictures, you don’t even need to be able to read to read them. Crowley <3 Plz spare me this show’s take on child birth, really just any show, (how is it possible that it’s so frickin’ hard to get right??), but especially this show’s. And Crowley. And Cass. And Mary. Such an intense bummer.

Honorable mentions:

Crowley blowing up Rowena’s scammer! And Rowena’s reaction! ”That is the sweetest thing you’ve ever done for me!” Covered in blood. Priceless.

Cass and his sass is on this season. He’s so done w everyone. The exasperation!

The hug at the end of 12:22.

Dishonorable mentions:

Dean and Sam making a deal to get out of jail, kinda unepic w a predictable outcome.

Mediocre mentions:

The entire episode Stuck in the middle (with you) - It’s a Reservoir Dogs reference right? And it works very well until you realize that, then you just start missing Tarantino’s poignant dialogue about tipping (not fucking!) your waitress. The return of the yelloweyed bloodline. Bound to happen with Mary back. Don’t care about that but I do care about Crowley being back and being awesome. The Dukes of Haphazard. That’s good, I’ve just been referring to them as the Two Stooges.

The episode Who we are - There are separate aspects of this I like: Dean and Sam blasting their way out of the bunker, Jody and Alex, Dean dreamwalking Mary back home. Ackles is a genius with this sort of thing. But it’s just so silly: The british men of letters are just so unepic, it ruins everything, wraps it in a mediocre blanket: They’re bad at their job, have inexplicable motivations, are such annoying stereotypes the only way this would be a win would’ve been if Sam’s speech went something along the lines of ”I’ve had this fly buzzin’ around my ear all year, I could use your help squashing it.” But at least, then they do.

Summing up:

I’m rly enjoying the warped relationships early in the season. Crowley and Cass. Rowena and Lucifer, Rowena and Crowley. Sam, Dean and Mary. But my usual creed about the gooey middles of seasons doesn’t hold true this time and I rly feel like it gets good only when it’s almost over. And honestly on whole the season is the worst so far. The british men of letters are so annoying and they’re everywhere, tainting everything. Ugh.

#supernatural #spn meta #no longer a rewatch #no this is not a supernatural blog #favorite episodes

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mellowrants · 2 years ago

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Just watched Tale Foundry’s video on what makes writing hard on youtube, pretty good video. Gave me some motivation.

Check tags for content warnings, cause this post actually needs em.

So about the question in my first post about what happens when a type B multiverse is destroyed. Well lets answer that.

First I’d like to clarify. By ‘destroy a multiverse’ i really mean ‘make the multiverse implode on itself’. And what happens when that happens? (besides the obvious of it being destroyed). Well, lets take a look at the last time it happened; about 5000 years ago in the multiverse that in TLR’s records has the ID of 0.

Nobody knows for sure what happened that day, but out of the blue the multiverse experienced a sharp spike in Celestial Energy, which caused it to implode on itself. Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on your perspective), there were 9 beings in that multiverse who managed to absorb the celestial energy that would have killed them instead. Today, these 9 are known as the Eternals (shut up marvel fanboys I came up with it before the movie). The Eternals are an extremely unique bunch. I’ll go into each individually in another post, but there are a few things they share. Their skin is as dark as a black hole, unable to reflect any light. The only thing in their eyes is their respective color, which is unique to the individual, and they seem to move around their face to look around. They can shape their own bodies to suit their desires, as they, at default, have no organs or bodily functions besides the celestial energy that they can use at their own will. The main thing powering them is what is dubbed as a ‘core’, a hard orb that at default is situated in the center of their chests. Not much is known about eternals’ cores since obviously none of them would want anyone to experiment much on the one thing keeping them alive. The only downside to their existence is that are physically very frail, taking only one good punch to the chest to knock them out at default. Of course, they can add body systems like muscles and bones but that comes at the cost of somewhat lowering their ability to use their magic. They have a near infinite amount of celestial energy, which is why they are often called the gods of the gods. There’s a reason why there’s a very highly common superstition that a full on war between two Eternals would cause the ultriverse itself to implode.

There are a couple of other categories of people who share a unique relationship with Celestial Energy as well.

Once in a blue moon, a child is born with the ability to control the celestial energy around them. This ability manifests itself by the time they turn 5, and the aura they gain is so unique that every Eternal can feel it the moment the child gains it. These folk are called Celestlings. However, because of the prevalent theory that a Celestling is what caused the implosion of multiverse 0, the eternals agreed on a drastic yet depressing decision many years ago. They decided that every Celestling must be killed by one of them before they turn 7, in order to prevent any more Eternals from being created. The rule has been enforced ever since. Though, with a little help, it might be possible for one to slip through the cracks...

Then there are the few that can absorb celestial energy directed at them, most commonly through an attack by an Eternal. These folk are called Celestial Sponges, or sponges for short. The amount absorbed varies from individual to individual. Sponges with a incredibly high absorption rate (>85%) can even stand a chance against an eternal that does not carry any weapons, though still not a very good one. Sponges with over 95% absorption rate are theorized to be able to even kill an eternal, however, there’s currently only one known person who has that high of an absorption rate. Though there are some Eternals who do not like Sponges, and would like them killed just like Celestlings. However, this does not happen because A; It is not as easy to find out who is a sponge as it is to find out who a Celestling is, and B; politics, and since nobody wants a war they have to deal with it.

So yeah. Also, feel free to ask me questions on my ideas. Actually, please ask me questions about my ideas, it gives me power and motivation.

#murder cw #child murder mention cw #politics mention cw #just in case #project ultriverse #writing #worldbuilding #i dont really know how to do this cw stuff #pls let me know if im doing it wrong ill fix it #next up is either the individual eternals or how multiverses work

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titleknown · 8 years ago

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Abomination Foundry: Making Mine Marvel. Mine I Say! MINE!

EXCELSIOR TRUE BELIEVERS!

I’m stuck here in the middle of Earth-404 by the horrible nightmare of Marvel’s existential collapse, and I’ve decided to make gross moldy lemons to make bitter unpleasant lemonade by remaking the ALL NEW, ALL STUPID MARVEL UNIVERSE, copyright-law be damned! Though the names will be changed because copyright law deserves to be damned.

This will be done in Heromachine, the dollmaker-bane of Open Source Character Design but good for aesthetic shitposting!

Alright, let’s go, past the jump!

So, what is the first being in the Marvel Universe? Galactus of course!

Yes look it up if you don’t believe me, they were the first, made from a being from the previous universe who jumped into the Big Crunch and was told “Sorry, your universe is ending, but hey to make up for it here’s some cool Cosmic Vore powers!”

And, as a being from the end of the last universe, I figured any not-Galactus should be an advanced being! And what is more advanced than the deadly King Cobra? NOTHING! NOTHING I SAY! And since she’s a being that A) Mainly travels through space and B) Eats everything, I figured all she needs is head, arms to bring food towards head, and lots and lots of rockets!

I call her King Kirby, because lord knows Jack Kirby deserves more credit in our ALL NEW; ALL DIFFERENT MARVEL UNIVERSE! And yes, our not-Galactus is a girl now. They’re all girls now. EAT ME!

It’s said that the two main American artforms are rock-n-roll and comics, and since we’re already working on the latter, I think an updated Captain American deserves the former!

Meet Captain Rock-N-Roll, given AWESOME JUICE created by the only scientist awesome enough to create a soldier with the power of rock-n-roll several decades before rock-n-roll was invented to beat the living FUCK out of some nazis!

Then suddenly some asshole comic book writer whose name rimes with Sick Nencer came through time to try and change things so the Nazis won. The scientist was so busy punching him super hard in the dick that he didn’t notice his lab was on fire, and thusly only one copy of the AWESOME JUICE survived. It was given to a black woman because it was the only one it’d work on and also because it’d be really stupid and terrible if a white dude was the first rock-n-roll powered hero.

She was frozen post-World-War-II via being too cool for this world, but punched her way out out of sheer rage when post-Grunge was invented because FUCK POST-GRUNGE! She not only has all the peak-human abilities of classic-Cap, but also a shield with speakers that turn her HOT LICKS into defending/deadly soundwaves. And an also a guitar-gun because ROCK-N-ROLL MOTHERFUCKERS!

Okay, so Iron Man AKA Captain Privelege is a rich dude, and I think we can all agree FUCK RICH DUDES!

So our newest Iron Man would be poor as shit; a homeless lady sleeping in a junkyard that collapsed into the earth in an earthquake and saying FUCK THIS and building herself a robot-suit out of the crap she was trapped under.

Since she made it IN A CAVE-IN, WITH A BOX OF SCRAPS, I thought it should look like it; like junk that can punch you.

Hence her name, Junk Puncher. I see no alternate meanings to this that are comical or clever.

And boo hoo, Tony Stark has a heart problem, FUCK THAT! She lost her FUCKING LEGS in that cave in and replaced them with FUCKING SWEET ROBOT-LEGS! Which is also why she doesn’t have a secret-identity because YOU CAN’T HAVE A SECRET IDENTITY WITH FUCKIN SWEET ROBO-LEGS!

Okay, much like the Marvel Cinematic Universe I had almost no idea what the fuck to do with Hulk here, until I thought, The Hulk is based on id run rampant? So what’s a primally indulgent aesthetic filled with id run rampant? Furries!

Thusly, Yiff Hulk was born! Or Yiff for copyright-dodging short. She’s purple because the Hulk became green instead of grey due to printing grey in old comics being a massive pain in the dick; so I chose what is currently the most obnoxious color to print. Because RESPECT!

Her origin’s pretty much the same as regular-Hulk complete with traumatic childhood abuse by a shitty father except she was a huge furry beforehand. And also that her adventures are also very, very not safe for the Comics Code Authority. For obvious reasons.

For Hawkeye, the shitty Avenger nobody likes, I decided; you know what would make them more interesting? Being an actual hawk. And fuck that useless “arrows” bullshit, this is the 21st century, give her some big fuckin guns already! Call ‘em fuckin Gunbird!

This is likely even less faithful to the original character than everything else I’ve done, but the best part of it is, nobody gives enough of a shit about Hawkeye to care! Fuck that guy!

Oh. I had intended to make a Black Widow revamp, but this is just a Perfectly Normal Secret Agent Lady, who is definitely not thens of thousands of spiders in a trenchcoat lead by a singular “queen,” because the Russians did all sorts of wacky bullshit during the cold war. I don’t know what happened, but she turned out thoroughly unremarkable, so MOVING ALONG!

You know, in revamping Spider-Man, folks almost always go Cronenberg-style body-horror because spider or robots because Japan, but NOBODY’S DONE BOTH BEFORE, HAVE THEY?!

So, Petit Parnell-Ko was bitten by a radioactive robot spider, and through the power of NANOMACHINES SON she became an arthropod/robot abomination. All those guns shoot webbing, both in the “biologically-accurate” and the “not-gross” positions, and after her Aunt Benni died due to a deranged pro-wrestler she let pass, she realized “With great screaming body-horror powers comes great; horrifying responsibility” And thusly; Nightmareborg Hellspider was born!

You fuckin’ thought High School was bad? Well, it is, but it’s even worse when you’re a BIOMECHANICAL SPIDER NIGHTMARE, NO BULLSHIT SECRET IDENTITIES WE DEAL WITH PROBLEMS LIKE PROPER SCIENCE-ABOMINATIONS!

And yes she does get a robot, which by sheer coincidence is from space. Which I need to make in a later one of these.

And; finally, re-inventing Thor or Loki is kinda needless given they’re already public domain, albeit Thor would have to be more red-haired and muscular-Brian-Blessed-y. But you know who isn’t? Beta-Ray Bill.

If you don’t know who that is; it’s basically a fucked-up atheist space-horse-alien who yoinked Thor’s hammer to save his world, being one of the very few beings pure of heart enough to carry it, and who did such a good job that Odin made him his own hammer. Because comics are fucking awesome sometimes.

So, I made Gamma-Ray Guen, who is pretty similar in terms of backstory except I added more horse. And more cyborg. And instead of a hammer she gets the magical staff Spacebreaker/Brestaginnung because ODIN HAS A SENSE OF HUMOR ABOUT THESE THINGS, OKAY!

So, that’s all I did today, but I will make some villains, eventually! Or the X-Men or Fantastic Four I couldn’t be arsed to do. But first, I must go to do other things! Like working on the novella I am terrible about writing! Or probably something else!

And remember, while the exact images are the property of the Dollmaker-makers, the designs and concepts are free to use under a CC-BY license; with me Thomas F. Johnson credited as creator and the pics declared as a decent starting point!

Feel free to redesign/redraw them as done by an actual unique stylist not working with pre-made assets! Until then EXCELSIOR!

#dollmakers #heromachine #marvel comics #character design #abomination foundry #superheroes #beta-ray bill

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funkymeihem-fiction · 8 years ago

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Chapter 7

Junkrat returned from the other side of the van, re-buttoning his shorts and adjusting his belts. “Piss break, last chance!”

Mei didn’t even glance up from where she had been going through her phone’s files, holding up a bottle of clear liquid and waving it from side to side. “Hygiene.”

The wiry junker rolled his eyes, protesting aloud with a “Tchuh! Really?” but cupped his hands together anyway as Mei doused him in sanitizer. “Been wipin’ my ass without sanitizer for years and I’ve been fine, ya know.”

“Jamie, just…no. I understand not wasting water, but we’re all making concessions about our cleanliness levels here, please meet me halfway.”

He grumbled and scrubbed his hands together, wrinkling his nose at the chemical smell before flinging them off. “Ugh. Lemony fresh.”

They had stopped on the side of the road, in the middle of another large flat expanse of rocky outback desert. The early afternoon sun was brutal enough that Mei had finally relented to tying a rag over her head for fear of her hair simply combusting into flames, and sweat was streaming steadily down the layer of brown road dust that had caked onto her face from the open windows. She was perspiring so much that it was washing away the protective layers of sunscreen sprays, and she was sporting a tan on top of a rather painful sunburn, her once icy-pale skin looking a bit more like a freshly boiled lobster. She looked a mess, but Junkrat had swooned over the appearance and declared her ‘almost a quarter of the way to looking like a real junker’.

Roadhog had the hood of the van popped, rummaging through the engine and occasionally taking pieces of it out, shaking off clogged dust from the breeze, and putting them back in. Junkrat was busy re-applying the layers of dirt on his hands by wiping them against his shorts as he loped to the back of the vehicle, hopping inside and holding his ear to the large tanks of gas in the back, prodding them with his peg leg and listening to them slosh. Mei twisted around in her seat to look back at him.

“How are the gas levels?”

“We’re gettin’ low. Good thing we’re coming up on the next stop. Few hundred more kilometers and we’ll reach Lucky’s Knob Station, where we can top off and supply up…hope they got beef jerkys and tea bits, don’t want to run out.”

“Lucky’s Knob?”

“Yeah! It’s owned by a bloke named Lucky, set up just below a great big cock-lookin’ rock formation.”

“…Of course.”

“It’s a junker stop, it’ll have petrol, a shop, and a scrap heap. It’ll also have a lot of junkers. Uh, maybe you should wait a bit in the car? Or you could be in charge of the pump for us? You know, stick around the van, we’ll be in and out before you know it.” He rubbed the back of his neck uneasily, fingers coming away sooty and black.

She couldn’t help but rankle a bit at that for some reason. Innocent suggestion though it was, it almost sounded like he was trying to give an over-eager child an ‘important job’ to do to keep them out of the way. And after the incident with the dog, she couldn’t deny that she felt the need to prove she wasn’t so incompetent. “Or I could go in the shop,” she offered quickly. “I can buy some supplies. Just make a list for me, I’ll go in.”

“Ehhh…” He didn’t sound convinced.

“Plus I have to go to the bathroom,” she lied quickly, searching for some semblance of a reason she might need to go in a junker shop.

“We’re literally on a bathroom break, right now.” He gestured out to the surrounding desert as if the connotation should have been obvious.

“Well, I-I want to go to a proper bathroom,” she winced a bit at herself, becoming more aware of how petulant it sounded. “With, you know…ah, toilets.”

Roadhog’s deep chuckle rumbled from the front of the van outside. Of course he would find all this amusing.

She coughed, abruptly facing the front to hide the deepening shade of pink across her cheeks. Much like Junkrat, she couldn’t keep a poker face for the life of her. “So! Just make a list and I’ll go in the shop. I’ll buy what we need and come right back.”

“Well, I guess it would give me and Roadie a bit more time to go over the scrap heap, see if there’s any good parts we can use. S’pose it might be all right, if you’re just in and out real quick-like. Maybe if we made you look a bit more local, though. You’re still real obviously a tourist.”

“How do you intend to make me look more ‘local’? I’m not going to like this, am I.”

“Can’t just have a tourist wandering into a junker shop without getting into trouble. You gotta look like a junker.”

“Oh dear.”

“What was it you said earlier, ‘bout making concessions about your clean levels? Hehehe. Oi Roadie, got some grease ready?”

Junkrat jumped to the front of the open van, arms disappearing into the engine and both hands coming out fully blackened, and then Mei was suddenly being pulled through the open door, standing in the sand as the disgusting black ichor was smeared across her cheeks and arms, stained into her poor headscarf, and scrubbed into her hands.

“Get it real good in there, under the nails! No proper junker got clean nails!” he urged, rubbing his blackened thumb under her eye as she squinted unhappily. “And uh, I assure you this is not me copping a feel on ya, just need to get your chest and arse…”

Mei slapped his hands away. “I can get that myself,” she said quickly, saying a brief prayer for her deceased garments, as she ruined her tanktop and leggings with more splotches of black ooze. "Do I actually need to look like a junker or is this just because you want to see me all greasy?"

“I choose not to comment on that question! Hmm…needs more. Wait, I got just the ticket!” He ran back to the van, bustling and clanging about, before reappearing with a pair of driving goggles, latching them onto her headscarf before pulling the glove off his flesh hand and rolling that onto her as well. Tapping his narrow chin like a thoughtful fashion designer, he snapped his fingers and undid one of his belts, pulling it from his narrow waist and wrapping it about her. Mei looked and felt like a very strange and very filthy doll that was being dressed up as something she wasn’t, but she bit her tongue and stood still as he finished his adjustments.

“Ta-daaaa! Roadie look, it’s our Junker Mei!” he announced, stepping away and waving both arms to the disheveled and confused woman behind him.

Roadhog gave her a thumbs up.

---

The van had long ago crested the hills that started to separate the lowland plains into a much rockier badlands area, with rising buttes and shallow canyons. One of them in particular stood out from the rest, a great red sandstone rock formation that must have stood for eons in the middle of an ancient and long-dead inland sea, when the canyons had been marine trenches. The seas had eaten away at the rock for eons, scraping and scraping, pebble by pebble, sand by sand, until all but these cliffs remained. Perhaps the highest pinnacle of them had stood above the waters, leaving a rounded wide head at the top of a long, narrow shaft…

Mei readjusted her glasses as she looked up at it. “Okay. It really does look like one.”

“I told ya, it looks just like a great big rocky donger. That’s Lucky’s Knob, and we’re coming in on the station.”

At the bottom of the offensively-shaped escarpment was something that resembled more of a small town than any gas station she had seen. There was a cluster of ruined buildings that had been hastily repaired and re-shaped with pieces of cars and metal and old shipping containers, surrounded by sheet metal walls and gates. Several of the structures were mechanic shops, and at least one with several chimneys spewing out thick black smoke might have been some sort of foundry, which for some reason was directly next to (and spewing fumes into) an establishment that looked like a pub or drinking room. And in the center of it all was the gas station, which seemed surprisingly intact compared to everything around it. There were still pumps for the petrol, an overhang to keep off the sun and rain, and the main station shop was just inside, underneath a light-up sign that had been rigged to spell LUCKY’S with letters that were clearly purloined from other scavenged signs from long ago.

The station was also infested with junkers, the most people she had seen in several days. They were all shapes and sizes, with many missing pieces of themselves as usual, and all were covered in dirt and ash. They stood smoking and chatting with one another, playing cards outside the bar, working on their numerous vehicles by the mechanic shops, and judging from what little she could see in the shop’s windows, there were quite a few of them inside as well.

The van sputtered into one of the wide gates and pulled up alongside one of the gas pumps, hissing as it came to a stop. Roadhog’s motorcycle came rumbling up behind them before switching off as well. They were officially at their first junker stop. Mei sat transfixed in her seat, grease-painted face peering out the windows, watching wide-eyed as a brawny man wandered by with the limp body of a dead kangaroo slung over one shoulder, sending a suspicious glare her way before vanishing into the pub kitchens.

“You can still wait here, if you want,” Jamison offered blithely, scratching at his gold tooth with a fingernail.

She frowned back at him, “No. I’m going in and I’m going to buy our things.”

“And use the bathroom,” he grinned.

“…Yes! Yes, and use the bathroom. Inside. The bathroom…” she trailed off lamely, knowing her bluff had been called as the man giggled madly.

“Arroight, darl, don’t get in a twist. Just go on into the main store, pick these up if they got ‘em.” He shoved a crumpled piece of paper into her hands with a hastily-written list. “I’m going to go get a few parts from the scrap heap so this piece of shit don’t break down too soon. I’ll be round back if you need me. Come right back to the van, and if anyone gives you shit, you gotta look tough and tell them to fuck right off. You’re a junker now, love! You gotta act like one!”

“Okay. Look tough, I can do that. I’m sure everything will be fine.”

“Oi, Mei…”

She looked at him.

“Have a great piss!” he gave her the wink and the gun, hooting and cackling madly as he loped off.

“Xiăo huài dàn!” Mei called after him, making a rude gesture.

She climbed out of the van, looking down at the list. Junkrat’s wild handwriting and numerous misspellings aside, it was an easy list; more water and drinks, a jug of coolant, toilet paper, another tarp, some new books for Roadhog, and a few other items. She grabbed an empty backpack and shrugged it on before slamming her door and taking a deep breath, ready to give to herself a little pep talk. She immediately inhaled a face full of stinking fumes from the blacksmithing area as the wind changed, and she coughed before simply dashing out of the smoke and towards the gas station shop.

Roadhog stood quietly at the gas pumps, refilling the tanks as he watched her go.

The bell above the door jostled and chimed as she went in. The inside was a dreary place, dimly lit with flickering light bulbs and poorly insulated, with an untidy amount of sand and dust on the floors, blown in from the outside. But that was easily explained away by the holes in the metal ceiling and the bullet scars in the walls. An old junker with an eyepatch and a metal jaw sat idle behind the counter, ignoring the flies buzzing around him as he read his magazines. The store itself was little more than randomly places shelves of goods, and a smaller area at the back with a few refrigerated storage units. It really was just a gas station after all, though Mei felt distinctly out of place, trying to ignore the other junkers already browsing through.

She went through her list quickly enough; drinks, supplies, and a jug of engine coolant that had been underlined, so it seemed important. The only thing available for Roadhog in the book bin was a few torn magazines and some pulpy romance paperbacks. They were the kind with red lipped women swooning and fainting against burly men with perfectly windswept hair, usually in a field of flowers or on the top of a cliff somewhere. Is this what Roadhog read to pass the time out here? Making a mental note to buy him a better collection of reading materials, she grabbed a few of them anyway. The refrigerated food and the glass bottles felt like heaven to her, and she couldn’t stop from literally hugging one against her cheek, enjoying its cooling touch. It melted away some of the dark grease on her face and the label came away black, but she scrubbed at her cheek to try and correct it before moving towards the food and snacks.

To her delight, there was a tin of oatmeal that wasn’t too far past its expiration date. And not only was there oatmeal, but there was a large package of beef jerky. No doubt Junkrat would love those, so she leaned down to the bottom shelf and snatched them up. As she lifted back up, she took a step backwards and found herself slamming into another person, who stumbled and almost fell onto the display. Mei whirled around in horror, finding an older woman with tanned and leathery skin, wearing black leather biking gear with far too many skulls on it, and with a wild shock of frizzy dyed white-blonde hair that was dark brown at its roots. She was tall enough that she dwarfed Mei when she straightened to stand.

“Oh! I’m so sorry! Excuse me!” Mei squeaked automatically, going to grasp her by the arm to help steady her once more.

The woman flung her off, and was immediately joined by another junker dressed in similar black leather and skull-emblazoned biker clothing, half his face taken up by cybernetic parts, including a false eye and ear. He was just as tall as Junkrat, but far more top heavy, and his bicep was tattooed with a skeleton being kissed by a voluptuous woman in a red dress, much like the kind would be found on one of Roadhog’s pulp romances.

“Excuse me. Please,” Mei tried again. “It was an accident.”

The woman stared her down, her eyes a vivid and extremely poisonous shade of green, nearly as bright as Jamison’s own. “Yeah. An accident, shoving ladies down.”

Mei blanched visibly. “Sorry. Sorry. I’m very sorry. Are you all right?”

The biker lady seemed emboldened by her apology. “I’ll get better once you hand over those jerkies and then turn about and piss off.”

“Oh. Ah, of course. Here, it’s all right, you can have them. I don’t mind. Sorry again.” She hurriedly set the package of beef jerky down on the shelf before turning to go.

“And that other tin.”

Mei bit her tongue and quietly put down the tin of oatmeal as well, backing away.

The blond woman stared her down, motioning to the jug of coolant in her other hand. “That was mine first too.”

Mei tightened her grip and held the bottle behind her, not liking at all where this seemed to be headed. She met the other woman’s eyes and pointedly shoved it into her backpack. “I’m sorry, but my friends need this. It’s ours.”

“No, see, I had me eye on it the whole time before you took it. So it’s mine.” The frizzy-haired biker woman smiled unpleasantly.

The barrel-chested man turned on her, cybernetic eye whirring audibly as it focused. “Ours.”

Mei licked her chapped lips, trying to remember what Junkrat had told her. She had to seem tough. Stalwartly, she puffed her chest up and picked up both the oatmeal and the jerky again. “No. Now you’re just trying to bully me. I had it, I was buying it. And the beef jerky. And the oatmeal. Um…sorry.”

Her gaze darted, looking to the man behind the counter for help, or the other junkers perusing the shop, but none of them seemed interested. The little gesture of desperation only seemed to refuel the aggressive junkers’ efforts, and the man stepped forward to block her path as the woman slithered around behind her.

“Nice tan lines, love. Never seen a ‘junker’ so soft and white under her shirt straps before,” He leered a grin, reaching out his mechanical hand to prod hard at her arm with a metal digit. “Yeah, real soft, actually. Fresh sunburn too, musta been so pale. Ooo, fancy.”

She backed away, trying to shove his hand off her. “Excuse me!”

The junker followed her, his hand still around her upper arm before sneering aloud in amusement, “Oi, Tilda, she’s wearing a fancy real brassiere too! Aww, it’s gettin’ all mussed. Here, lemme get that for ya!”

The woman behind her laughed derisively as the man ignored Mei’s attempts to shrug him off, hooking a finger around her bra strap and pulling the elastic until it stretched up and out, and then let it free, leaving it to snap back against her flesh with a sharp popping sound.

“Qīfu rén!”

The can of oatmeal hit him square between the eyes, bursting open and showering him with dried oat grains. Mei clenched a fist, slamming it as hard as she could against the forearm that was holding her. It did little to dissuade the oatmeal-covered bully, who narrowed his eyes down at her and started to snarl a retort.

He never got the chance.

Mei’s punch had been mostly ineffective. The same could not be said of the gigantic spike-gloved fist that came hurtling in from the side, a blur of movement just before it slammed into the man’s head with a sound that she could not even describe, a flesh-and-bone crunch as metallic knuckles met human cranium. It knocked the skull away first, and then the features followed slowly as if being dragged after, his meaty face twisting grotesquely as he went flying away from her. He literally spun like a football, droplets of liquid red whirling after him, going airborne as he was knocked away into the far wall with a painful thud.

Roadhog snorted and drew his bloodied fist back, offering his other hand out to help the startled climatologist back up. She grasped onto it and pulled upright, only to whirl back around as there was a loud clicking noise. Tilda, the woman with the shock of fried white hair, had pulled out not one, but two sets of cobbled-together semi-automatic firearms. Mei couldn’t even begin to guess where she had been hiding them.

“Oi, biggest and last mistake you ever made was sockin’ my man!” Tilda’s green eyes blazed, aiming her guns at the massive bulky wall of Roadhog as he stood in the way.

Mei lifted a placating hand. “W-wait! I’m sure we can still talk this out!”

“Tilda, you drongo! Biggest mistake was you drawin’ on me mates!” A familiar voice interrupted.

A peg leg slammed into the ground next to her, Junkrat’s towering form joining Roadhog’s, his grenade launcher lifted and ready. Apparently Junkrat and this ‘Tilda’ knew each other, and by the expressions on their faces, their relationship was not at all friendly to begin with. And not only that, but there came a series of rapidfire clicks, clinks, clatters, and clacks as every single junker in the shop drew their weapons. Each and every one of them was bristling with some sort of firearm, from the clerk’s shotgun, to makeshift pulse pistols, and what she was almost certain was a junker version of a bazooka, all aimed at the brawlers. And Mei.

This did nothing to encourage the situation, and merely caused Roadhog to pull his massive firearm as well, slamming a handful of scrap into its ammunition packet as he turned on the rest of the shop, while Junkrat and Tilda faced off against each other, still spitting insults and curses. Mei’s stomach dropped as her muscles tightened, face going clammy and pale under her grease paint, adrenaline surging through her. If this escalated any further, the shop would be rapidly reduced to a smoking hole in the ground with all the inhabitants still inside it. She could only think of one thing to do, so she held her handful of money in the air and waved it like one would wave a surrendering white flag, as she started backing away towards the counter.

The old man at the counter, who she could only guess was the eponymous ‘Lucky’, watched her warily, his shotgun still pointed at her junker companions. She held up both hands plaintively, then slowly placed the handful of money before him. “W-we just want the things in the bag, it should cover the spilled oatmeal too...and some extra. I’m sorry for the trouble.”

Lucky glanced down at the handful of crumpled bills and coins, seeming to count it out in his head, before sitting back and pulling his shotgun back behind the countertop. “Get the fuck outta here, take them with you.”

She nodded, then carefully approached her junkers again, hands raised. She hesitated to even touch Junkrat, who was literally growling as he stood off against Tilda. But she took his arm and very gently went to urge him back with her. He took an unsure step, peg leg clacking thudding noisily against the ground.

She very nearly lost his attentions again when Tilda snickered behind her, voice taunting. “Yeah, s’right, run away like you do from everything else, trash rodent.”

Mei had to head him off at the pass when Jamison’s trigger finger twitched on the grenade launcher, pulling him hard along as she whispered hurriedly, “Let’s go. Jamie, please, I’m asking you. Let’s just go.”

With an unhappy grumble, he let himself be pulled towards the door, his enormous bodyguard covering their exit as Tilda finally turned her attentions to her still-unconscious partner who lay in an upside down heap in the corner. Mei half-dragged him outside and didn’t stop half-dragging him until they reached the van, and hurriedly threw the shopping pack inside, climbing in after waving to Roadhog. Junkrat threw another hateful look back at the station shop, then reluctantly climbed back into the driver’s seat.

---

Mei grasped her chest in relief, slumping down into her seat as she let out an exhausted sigh. “That was the most stressful gas station situation I’ve ever been in! I really do not understand junker culture at all. When Bobbero tried to kill you, you acted like it was all a game. Now when that Tilda woman insults you, you’re out for blood and then the whole shop is ready to blow each other to pieces?”

“Yeah, that’s how it is. It’s easy, darl. I like Bobbero. I don’t like Tilda. And Tilda don’t like me. Rankly old hoon should have kicked the bucket ages ago, and now she and her lugs wanna start shit with you? Ffft, if I ever needed a reason…”

“I’m fine, really. Just glad nothing happened. It’s over, let’s just get back on schedule and move on,” she moaned, massaging her forehead.

There was a sharp rap at her window as Roadhog’s still-bloody knuckles met the glass. Rolling it down, she peered up at him curiously.

“There’s a problem,” he grunted.

She looked in the direction his mask was pointed. Tilda was standing outside the mechanic shop, with the half-conscious form of her junker companion slumped over her, speaking to a very large group of other junkers near their motorcycles, all dressed in almost the exact same uniforms with the same skull motifs and colors. At the same time, the entire crowd of them all glared over at the van. Their expressions, especially Tilda’s, were quite murderous.

“Huh. Didn’t know Tilda had made that many friends since we left,” Junkrat muttered.

“That’s a biker gang, isn’t it. We just angered an entire biker gang.” Mei slumped down into her seat, covering her eyes with both hands.

“Oh yeah, they’re going to be right up our arses as soon as we try to make a break.”

“Over a disagreement in a gas station? We were just buying drinks and toilet paper, for goodness’ sake!”

“People been killed for less, darl. Especially over toilet paper. Actually, I got a story about that, if you want to hear…”

“Maybe later. Much later. Thanks.” She pondered a moment, watching Tilda’s gang mill about and prepare their motorcycles, before turning back to Jamison. “Do you have a map of the canyons ahead?”

“The map? Uh, pretty sure it does, why?”

“I think I have an idea. You still have all your bombs with you, right?”

Junkrat’s expression lit up, and Mei could have sworn she saw little hearts appear in his pupils. “Have I ever mentioned how much I love ya?”

She gave him a little half smile. “A few times. Either way, I think you’re going to love this.”

#meihem #Junkrat #mei #mei-ling zhou #jamison fawkes #junkmei #roadhog #mako rutledge #australia #outback #adventure #fanfiction #story #funkyfluff

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berthastover · 7 years ago

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The 6 Emails Every Small Business Needs to Send ASAP

Despite popular belief, you don’t have to be a marketing mastermind to send great emails as a small business.

Many businesses fumble their email marketing strategies because they try too hard to reinvent the wheel. While you certainly don’t want to play the role of copycat against your competitors, there’s serious power in the tried-and-true emails that small and medium-sized businesses have been using since the dawn of email automation itself.

Think about it: building a solid list of subscribers ultimately comes down to consistency. The more emails you have in your marketing arsenal, the better. If you vary your strategy in terms of the types of emails you’re sending, you can regularly blast awesome messages to your list without breaking a sweat.

Perhaps it’s time to start implementing some fresh templates to help kick start your business’ email marketing campaigns. The following six types of emails apply beautifully to business ideas from retail to ecommerce and beyond. Meanwhile, you can set these types of messages on autopilot with the help of a smart marketing automation system.

So, where can you start?

1. Keep ‘em hooked on coupons and deals

If you aren’t offering your subscribers some steep deals and discounts on a regular basis, you’re inevitably shooting yourself in the foot.

Think that your list will see such messages as spam? Think again. In fact, over 80% of people opt-in to email lists specifically to receive coupons.

Simply put, discounts are an expectation of your subscribers, and businesses that deliver will inevitably see more engagement with their lists. There’s no reason why your deals need to be equated to spam, either. As long as you set clear expectations for your list in terms of discounts, you’re golden.

This example from Threadless is a classic in-your-face deal that’s difficult to miss:

Source

Likewise, coupon codes such as this one from Foundry are also fair game for businesses looking to show their lists some love:

Source

How often should you blast deals and discounts to your list? According to our industry data, frequency varies anywhere between four and twelve monthly emails depending on your niche.

As a rule of thumb, always be testing and try to keep your deals as topical as possible. For example, retail businesses will regularly want to capitalize on holidays and other time-specific deals.

2. Don’t ignore your welcome messages…

A simple welcome can go a long way.

Especially in a day and age where your subscribers are bombarded with marketing messages, welcome messages are too important to ignore.

Seriously. Smart email marketing isn’t always about being the loudest voice in the room, but rather the friendliest. Starting your campaigns with the right greeting not only sets the tone for future messages, but also signals that you value the attention of your subscribers.

Welcome messages come in many shapes and sizes. Here’s a well-crafted welcome from Zillow which sets a positive tone and provides clear actions for new subscribers to take:

Source

Welcome messages are among your business’ most important autoresponders, ultimately representing your first impression with your list for the long-term.

3. …and the rest of your autoresponders

Rather than spend your time manually chasing each and every subscriber or lead, small businesses should instead put as much of their marketing as possible on autopilot.

After all, three-quarters of marketers who take advantage of marketing automation note that saving time is a key benefit. Meanwhile, those same marketers generate 80% more leads and 77% more conversions by not doing all the legwork themselves.

Autoresponder messages should be the cornerstone of any small business looking to keep their list engaged, but many struggle with ideas. Fortunately, there are plenty of autoresponders you can send to keep in touch with your base such as…

“Thank you” messages upon making a purchase or completing an on-site action

“We miss you” messages that provide stagnant or quiet subscribers a reason to get back in touch with your business

Loyalty messages which reward subscribers with deals or content based on their previous interactions with your business (think: spending a certain threshold, birthday messages, and so on)

The common thread between all of these autoresponders? A positive tone.

This seriously simple “thank you” from Wistia is more than enough to give subscribers a thumbs up for making a purchase:

Source

Seriously. Minimal, text-based messages combined with a well-segmented list allow marketers to keep in constant touch through evergreen autoresponders. Once you craft these messages the first time, your email solution will do the rest of the heavy lifting for you.

4. Use newsletters to keep customers in the loop

Here’s some food for thought: your subscribers are likely going to sleep on your on-site content unless they’re either…

Social followers or

Email subscribers

Pretty obvious, right?

However, consider that 90% of people would rather get updated by a business via email versus social media. This is exactly why email subscribers are so powerful versus fickle social followers or random on-site traffic.

And that’s exactly why newsletters are so valuable, too.

Now, I know what you’re thinking.

“I don’t have time to come up with a newsletter.”

Here’s the thing, though: if you already have any sort of blog or on-site content, you have the makings of a newsletter. Bear in mind that the function of a newsletter is to keep your list in the loop, nothing more, nothing less.

Some of the most popular newsletters out there are little more than content recommendations. Check out this short but sweet example from Medium’s daily digest which suggests relevant content to users:

Yeah, it’s that easy.

A well-done newsletter is all about repackaging what you have already created rather than creating a bunch of new content.

Quotes. Factoids. Fresh blog content. You name it.

For example, CoSchedule’s newsletters primarily consist of a “featured” story from their blog along with some additional relevant posts:

Newsletter are a quick and easy way to deliver messages to your base without having to create anything inherently new. With a snappy subject line and relevant content, you’re well on your way.

5. Show some love with subscriber-only offers

Your email subscribers represent your hottest leads and most loyal customers. As such, it’s your job as a business owner to show them some serious love for giving you their undivided attention.

Oftentimes, exclusive deals and lead magnets are what drive subscribers to our lists in the first place.

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to rewarding your list through exclusive deals or content. That said, it should be a priority of any business to make sure that their lists feel like they’re getting the sweetest deals as a gift for being a subscriber.

For example, flash sales and free shipping codes (like this one from Chubbies) are what keep subscribers in the world of ecommerce glued to their inboxes:

Source

No deals? No problem.

Apply the exact same rules to subscriber-exclusive tips, tricks, and educational content. As long as you butter up your list to help them feel like they’re getting the five-star subscriber treatment, you’re definitely on the right track.

6. Check in every now and then

News flash: you don’t always need an excuse to check in with your subscribers.

When your messages become too laser-focused on offers and deals, it’s easy for subscribers to lose sight of the fact that you represent more than just a business.

Simple check-ins or questioned poised to your audience are an essential but overlooked type of message for modern subscribers. Again, sometimes it’s nice to move away from the noise of marketing and simply touch base with your loyal followers.

Here’s a simple check-in message from pro blogger Jeff Goins who regularly pokes the brains of his audience with straightforward questions and requests:

It’s never a bad idea to ask something of your list if you fear that they might be growing cold. Have a question? Want to say “hi?” There’s no reason to be afraid to do so if you’ve made a personal connection with your list.

What kind of messages are you sending?

If you feel like you’re blasting your base with the same messages again and again, it’s probably time to switch up your strategy. By sending a variety of emails from deals to check-ins and beyond, you better understand what’s working and what isn’t in terms of your email marketing strategy. In addition, you ensure that you always have something fresh to provide your list and make you message heard above your competition.

Which of these types of messages do you think are most important to your audience? Let me know in the comments below!

Best Practices For Organizing Your Digital Marketing Campaigns

Top Lead Generation Tactics for Content Marketers

The post The 6 Emails Every Small Business Needs to Send ASAP appeared first on GetResponse Blog - Online Marketing Tips.

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symbianosgames · 8 years ago

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The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutra’s community. The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company.

[Video Game Deep Cuts is a weekly newsletter from curator/video game industry veteran Simon Carless, rounding up the best longread & standout articles & videos about games, every weekend. This week's highlights include A Night In The Woods' cartoon realism, a history of Loom, and much more.

Well, it's almost GDC time (latest announces here), so next week's Video Game Deep Cuts will be the final one before the show. Then the weekend after that may turn into a 'Game Developers Conference 2017 highlights' joint, because I may be a BIT too busy to find new links that week, heh. BTW, while you're waiting for the show, read up on this year's IGF finalists and with alt.ctrl.GDC exhibitors via the linked Gamasutra interview series.

- Simon, curator.]

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Why road-building in Cities: Skylines is a pleasure (Alex Wiltshire / RockPaperShotgun) "Cities: Skylines is a sim that feels uncommonly alive and reactive to your planning... They may walk or take a bus or train, but you’ll mostly notice them driving, creating traffic which fundamentally represents the health of your city, a pulsing network that’s driven by Cities: Skylines’ beating heart."

'Metacritic' Still Matters, But For How Long? (Chris Baker / Glixel) "Marc Doyle was headed off for a weekend getaway in Santa Barbara with some of his old college buddies when he received the news that the Washington Post's critic did not enjoy the video game Uncharted 4: A Thief's End."

Coming to Video Games Near You: Depressed Towns, Dead-End Characters (Laura Hudson / New York Times) "In the coming video game Night in the Woods, a young woman named Mae decides to drop out of college and return to the former mining town where she grew up. It’s a place where there is little opportunity and most people are struggling to make ends meet."

How to Make the Best of Working on Licensed Video Games (Patrick Klepek / Waypoint) "Bowler is used to games with unique challenges; after shipping Game Party Champions, he was seen as someone who could shepherd others like it to the finish line. It's how he ended up as lead designer on a mobile tie-in game for Zack Snyder's Superman reboot, Man of Steel."

Why Yakuza 0 is a Masterclass in Managing Tone (Writing On Games / YouTube) "Yakuza 0 is a wildly dissonant experience, swinging violently between super-serious gangster intrigue, slapstick violence and over-the-top melodrama. It's the absolute best. In this episode of Writing on Games, I analyse why embracing this dissonance allows the game to tell more human stories."

Direction (Rob Fearon) "We are in times where games are in abundance. I wrote about this a few weeks back and I think it’s (hopefully) a useful primer for understanding why Valve are doing what they’re doing. We’ve gone from not many games being sold under our noses to lots of games."

What do developers and publishers really think of SteamSpy? (Ben Barrett / PCGamesN) "It’s constantly referenced by players, journalists, publishers and developers for a variety of reasons - but how accurate is it versus Steam’s unpublished numbers? What do developers think of it, and the ways it’s used? Importantly, do they wish they could be removed from it?"

The long and troubled history of Apocalypse Now, the video game (Adi Robertson / The Verge) "In late January, an exciting and unlikely project showed up on the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter: a request for $900,000 to make a video game adaptation of Apocalypse Now, officially blessed by the film’s director Francis Ford Coppola."

Bonchan Looks Back on His Rise in eSports Unfold (Mike Stubbsy / Red Bull eSports) "Bonchan’s Street Fighter origin story is one of the most unusual we’ve heard yet. As he tells us in the latest episode of eSports Unfold, back when Street Fighter was on something of a hiatus, Bonchan met up with a legend of the scene, and quickly rose to the top when things started to pick up."

The Gamer Motivation Profile: Model and Findings (Nick Yee / GDC / YouTube) "In this 2016 GDC session, Quantic Foundry's Nick Yee presents the results of a global survey that help inform game developers about the different motivations of players, showing the different types of potential customer that exist in the video game market."

Game Director Ion Hazzikostas Explains Blizzard’s Newest Experiment, the 'WoW' Token (Heather Newman / Glixel) ""It’s kind of my baby," Ion Hazzikostas says about the WoW token. Though he's now WoW's game director, Hazzikostas has worked on the initiative since its inception. Here, he talks with Glixel about how the death of the Diablo RMAH made the WoW token possible, what people have been spending it on, and its impact on gold farming."

How Chicago's Overlooked Video Game Creators Scored an Extra Life (Sam Greszes / Thrillist) "Yes, dear Chicagoans, your humble hometown, the Second City, the City of Broad Shoulders, the Many-Nicknamed City That Is Barely Habitable Eight Months Out of the Year, deserves some recognition when it comes to gaming. It doesn’t get as much credit as the tech havens on both sides of the Pacific Ocean, it really is at the forefront of video game development -- and has been for years."

Metacritic's 7th Annual Game Publisher Rankings (Jason Dietz / Metacritic) "Which game publishers released the best games last year? For the seventh straight year, we have sifted through 12 months of data to determine the best and worst game publishers of the year, based solely on the quality of their 2016 releases. [SIMON'S NOTE: I find this a little bizarre, but it's certainly interesting to peruse!]"

Loom (or, how Brian Moriarty Proved That Less is Sometimes More) (Jimmy Maher / The Digital Antiquarian) "In April of 1988, Brian Moriarty of Infocom flew from the East Coast to the West to attend the first ever Computer Game Developers Conference. Hard-pressed from below by the slowing sales of their text adventures and from above by parent company Activision’s ever more demanding management, Infocom didn’t have the money to pay for Moriarty’s trip."

For Honor's mastermind: "My greatest fear was that I would die before I could share this with the world" (Wouter McDutch / GamesRadar) "According to Jason VandenBerghe, creative director on Ubisoft’s For Honor, there are only a handful of lucky developers who get to create the game of their dreams. It took him almost ten years to get the vision he had for For Honor greenlit and the game has since been in development for almost five."

Art Of The Title: Doom (2016) (Will Perkins / Art Of The Title) "DOOM’s end credits are the perfect coda for that kind of gameplay experience. A four-minute reprise of the player’s gib-filled journey, the title sequence is a hard rockin’, shotgun-blasting, demon-dismembering battle across Mars and into Hell itself."

The story of Warframe: how a game no publisher wanted found 26 million players (Tom Marks / PC Gamer) "In early 2013, Digital Extremes finally released the free-to-play space-ninja shooter it had wanted to make for over 13 years, but that doesn’t mean it was a happy time for the studio. Every publisher with an opportunity to back Warframe had passed, and most even said outright it would fail."

How the Yakuza helped sell Nintendo's first game (Chris Bratt / Eurogamer) "Join me in today's episode of Here's A Thing, as we take a look back at a very different kind of Nintendo and how, surprisingly, the Yakuza helped ensure its first game was such a massive success."

Other Places: Hitman (Other Places / YouTube) "Other Places is a series of short films celebrating beautiful videogame worlds. [SIMON'S NOTE: not writing, but certainly beautiful and a great idea - there's a whole YouTube channel of more if you like 'em.]"

Devs discuss the history and the future of so-called 'walking sims' (Jon Irwin / Gamasutra) "In many games, walking around is just something we do before jumping over that wall or shooting that menacing enemy. But an increasing number of independent games are tamping down on feature-creep and reimagining how we consider putting one step in front of the other."

The Story Behind YouTube's Strangely Compelling 'Hot Pepper Gaming' Channel (Patrick Klepek / Waypoint) "Nothing lasts forever, not even a YouTube channel about people eating obnoxiously hot peppers and trying to talk about video games. On February 6, Hot Pepper Gaming uploaded its its final episode, a tear-filled video about The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim's recent remastering."

Meet Hungrybox, the Most Resilient 'Smash Bros.' Champion (Justin Groot / Glixel) "'God, I'm crying a lot, I'm sorry,' said Juan "Hungrybox" Debiedma, one of five Super Smash Bros. Melee players (the others being Adam "Armada" Lindgren, Joseph "Mango" Marquez, Kevin "PPMD" Nanney and Jason "Mew2King" Zimmerman) known as "Gods" for their lopsided domination of the modern competitive scene."

Darwin's Demons - Natural Selection Applied To Space Invaders (Scott Manley / YouTube) "Darwin's Demons is a student game project which applies genetic algorithms to space invaders to make each level harder than the last. "

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[REMINDER: you can sign up to receive this newsletter every weekend at http://ift.tt/2dUXrva we crosspost to Gamasutra later on Sunday, but get it first via newsletter! Story tips and comments can be emailed to [email protected]. MINI-DISCLOSURE: Simon is one of the organizers of GDC and Gamasutra, so you may sometimes see links from those entities in his picks. Or not!]

#IFTTT #Blogger

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symbianosgames · 8 years ago

Link

- Simon, curator.]

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#IFTTT #Blogger

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symbianosgames · 8 years ago

Link

- Simon, curator.]

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#IFTTT #Blogger

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symbianosgames · 8 years ago

Link

- Simon, curator.]

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#IFTTT #Blogger

0 notes

symbianosgames · 8 years ago

Link

- Simon, curator.]

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#IFTTT #Blogger

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