#(on a related note: go follow me on Cohost) | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

formicarum-rex · 9 months ago

Text

ive been on cohost on-and-off since november, and i think im going to stick with it (famous last words, i know, but i am genuinely enjoying my time there, meeting some nice people and enjoying the posts that come across my dash)

home page

my blog

general observations, differences between here and tumblr (both good and bad), and caveats under the cut

the ability to use html and css in posts is fantastic, and while i do sometimes miss being able to change the formatting with a simple highlight like on tumblr, the added abilities to customize more than makes up for that. i've only used it a bit myself, but plan to use it more going forward, and you can get some fantastic shitposts on your dash because of this. note that only posts are hyper-customizable. blogs themselves aren't as customizable as on tumblr (think the default/mobile theme here)

i think their pro-privacy, anti-algorithm, anti-numbers philosophy is admirable. it's not perfect-- funding is a continual trouble, although they have plans for making it sustainable.

as with all smaller websites, it is a bit of an echo-chamber and has its share of drama and controversy.

the fewer number of people also lead to there being fewer good posts than on here, especially if you have niche interests, but my dash is still quite active, and i have to check it at least once a day to keep up-to-date.

if you edit your original post, all reblogged versions of the post are updated as well.

it has a comprehensive cw system built into posts, more reminiscent of mastodon than tumblr. there is discourse about its use or over-use, but on the whole i think this is a big improvement.

i (thankfully) haven't run into anybody or any post that required blocking or silencing or muting yet, but the options are there and thorough.

related, there is a no-nonsense attitude towards bigotry. i havent run into any bad eggs myself, but from what i've been given to understand they are sniped more or less as soon as they're discovered. there may be moderation issues as the website expands (this is one issue where places split up into smaller groups like mastodon have benefits) but as of right now, it seems to be working just fine, and better than tumblr.

there's no general within-post search for the sake of privacy and to limit harassment opportunities, but unlike tumblr, the tag search is functional. in addition, all posts with tags you've bookmarked show up in a separate, single tab on your dash, in proper chronological, non-algo'd order, which is a good way to discover new people to follow and posts to reblog. this is similar to "your tags" on tumblr, but unlike tumblr, i trust it to work

i haven't used this yet, but sideblogs are able to comment, ask, like, follow, etc, separately. no more "follows from [main url]"

in general, i like the vibes better than pillowfort, the other tumblr replacement site, and its a much more satisfying tumblr replacement than mastodon, because, well, its not like twitter (although i do like mastodon for other reasons).

there are some odd things that differentiate it from tumblr that you have to get used to at best, and can be extremely frustrating at worst:

notes cant be viewed per-post. they're all under your notification tab, chronologically listed. this hasnt been a problem for me, but i understand that this can get messy if you have a lot of followers/notes

if you are not OP, you cannot view others' reblogs. i've found that this is mostly fine, but it does mean you cant dive into the notes to see if anyone has added anything you'd like to reblog instead of the version on your dash. changing this is one of the most requested features. it doesn't seem to conflict with the site's anti-numbers ideals as long as it only lists contentful reblogs (those with additions), so i'm hopeful it will be added.

OP is not notified of tags on reblogs. all comments that are towards OP and not towards your followers belong in the comments. unlike other things in this list, this isn't a downside so much as a neutral difference that has taken me a long time to get used to.

the comments are generally important. reblog chains are still used, but comments (replies) are more functional than they are on tumblr, with proper ability to reply in comment threads and a better UI. they are used more often on cohost than on here, especially if you want to start a convo with OP and others viewing the post. as far as i can tell, everyone can see every comment, unlike the reblogs.

photoset layouts are not as flexible as on tumblr

no DMs

discovery hasn't been a big issue for me as someone who is primarily a reader/viewer (if anything, the functional tagging system and unified bookmarked tags tab makes it easier), but ive heard that for creators it can be frustrating

i am under the impression that pillowfort is the place to go for specifically fandom posting. more fandom people have been joining cohost though, especially since a bunch of tumblr people joined a couple weeks ago.

i realize this isn't exactly a hard sell, but want people to be aware of potential downsides before creating an account. despite these things, i really do urge you to check it out if youre interested! it's a good place :)

9 notes · View notes

object-show-analysis · 3 years ago

Text

Bow and MePhone’s talk: a full scene analysis

Alright so there’s a Lot that happens in Season 3 Episode 3 that is worthy of analysis but I really wanna go over what I personally believe was one of the most important parts of the episode: MePhone’s conversation with Bow.

When MePhone first walks in on the scene, he starts by saying “just checking in on my lovely contestants!”. It’s unclear if this was genuine or sarcasm, as MePhone is shown to care about his contestants, but also has taken a lot of joy out of torturing them this season. When he spots Bow he’s instantly disappointed to see shes the only one still awake. His anger doesn’t seem to be placed on the fact that everyone else is asleep, he’s more upset that Bow (who he’s never liked) is the only one left awake.

Bow admits that she can’t sleep and is scared of the “monster” that the sinkers created. It’s interesting to note her choice of words here. she says “I can’t sleep *also* there’s a monster and I’m scared”. As if these things are unrelated.

MePhone dismisses Bow’s problems and fears easily, as he’s expected to. But then he does something interesting. He opens up to her.

He tells her how ridiculous the picture makes him feel almost instantly, and then follows it up with “this All makes me look ridiculous. I don’t know what I’m doing. This whole challenge was on a whim.”

Now that tells us a Lot so let’s go through it piece by piece.

First off I don’t think MePhone is referring to just the challenge when he says “I don’t know what I’m doing.” I’ve mentioned this briefly in my thoughts on if MePhone4S will return but MePhone has been severely without direction this season. We see the effects of his loss of cohosts in both his lack of organization, and his new found fragility. Without MePad and Toilet he’s disorganized, unprotected, erratic. Without his producer he’s got no direction. And he knows it. He’s a mess. This also ties in to his earlier line of “I don’t hire anyone *anymore*” which was clearly a direct reference to MePad (and possibly Toilet even though technically he was never hired by MePhone). Which is his first real reference to his lack of cohosts this season, and what happened between him and his last cohosts.

MePhone has shown to be suffering from running the show all on his own, but we didn’t know how much he was aware of that until now. And we see it clearly upsets him a lot.

The real shocking part is how quickly he opens up to her, even sitting down next to her. Something he’s only done with one other person who he put a lot of trust into.

His willingness to open up to Bow may just be because she was directly related to one of his issues. As he states to Bow: “Your magically back alive? It almost looks so silly”

Now this is an interesting line for a couple reasons. It’s definitely of note when considering whatever is happening to Bow in season 3, as she once again doesn’t acknowledge and dismisses any statement about her death. But it’s interesting that MePhone would bring up Bow coming back to life considering He Died With Her.

Bow and MePhone died together that day, only a few inches apart. And MePhone was brought back to life through the sacrifice of MePhone4S. this wasn’t even the first time he was killed and brought back to life.

MePhone’s issue with Bow coming back to life could be a couple things. It could be the fact that he sees himself in her, and finds his own revival to be ridiculous. It could be that he’s upset she was brought back to life without anyone’s sacrifice when his own brother had to die to save him. It could be because he clearly tried to bring her back in the past and had to upset his season 2 contestants with the knowledge that she couldn’t be brought back (something he Clearly did not want to tell them). There’s a number of reasons he could be upset about it.

Now he specifically says it seems silly, which causes Bow to chime in with the fact that maybe things that are silly and confusing aren’t all that bad. Bow starts off by saying “I don’t know what I’m doing either” relating herself to MePhone. MePhone really takes everything she says to heart, and it’s the first time he’s ever seemed like he’s really listening to what Bow has to say.

And we Know he listens because of the Adorable end to the episode where he takes a silly picture with the sinkers, mirroring the pose that Bow did in her own selfie.

Now what happens next in their conversation is Really Interesting.

Bow asks MePhone to take a picture with him

He looks to the side, which is where the sinkers currently are.

It seems he’s noticed them, as face changes as if he’s planning something. And he agrees to the picture.

When Bow turns the camera in the direction of MePhone and the Sinkers, MePhone is gone.

The Sinkers make themselves known to Bow, and she takes the photo that will eventually win for her team.

Now I have seen this interpreted as “MePhone wanted Bow to get scared by the monster” and while that’s possible, I don’t think that’s right.

The fact that he gets Bow to turn her camera in that direction, coupled with the fact that it leads her to taking the photo that he chooses as the best, and even the fact that he avoids judging one of Bow’s team members despite it being established that MePhone is incredibly judgemental while quoting Bow leads me to believe he wasn’t setting her up to fail.

He was helping her win.

I am incredibly excited the see how Bow and MePhone’s relationship develops past this point especially considering she was the one he wanted gone the most out of any season 1 contestants (rivaled only by Taco). They seem to be on a lot better terms and MePhone appears a lot happier because of it. I can only hope that this continues, for the sake of both Bow and MePhone

#tags for organization:#inanimate insanity #MePhone ii #Bow ii #inanimate insanity invitational #tags for filtering:#long post #ii spoilers

174 notes · View notes

morningflames · 4 years ago

Text

a word of warning

well here’s a post i never thought i’d be making

it’s come to my attention that a Certain Someone is planning on making a comeback to WrA soon and it fills me with nothing short of dread. i spent the day yesterday warning people he terrorized and manipulated that this was happening. you know it’s bad when there’s a literal network of people who share an abuser that have remained in contact for years in the event this happened again.

i am not going to lie and say that making this post does not terrify me but i cannot in good conscience sit back and let him worm his way into the rp scene again and do what he did to me and at least half a dozen others all over again.

to summarize: tarcanus aka tarcanus frostborne is a manipulative, emotionally abusive and predatory individual that should be avoided at all costs.

i am the player behind lyrinel, a former officer of his and someone who was on the receiving end of nearly a years worth of abuse and manipulation. my experiences pale in comparison to those of others who dealt with him and came forward to me after i left his guild, and i cannot speak for anyone who does not feel comfortable coming forward. if you do want to let your voice be heard, feel free to reblog and add your own anecdotes.

my story below the cut.

tw: manipulation, emotional abuse, gaslighting, coercion, grooming

i first joined coram populo in early 2014 after my best friend and fellow survivor (i will refer to her by her character’s name of thradia from here on out) joined the raid team in december of the previous year. we were both just looking for a social place to park our characters and maybe start role playing again, as we hadn’t had a guild or dedicated rp group in a while. things were fine and friendly for the first couple of months, though it’s worth noting that a large part of the office corps had just left or was in the process of leaving when thradia and i joined. we were both 18 at the time.

i made the mistake of reaching out to tarc in the spring, when i noticed him posting to his tumblr about how busy he was. i offered to be an IC assistant of sorts to his character and he was more than happy to toss me into an absolute whirlwind. we still didn’t know much about each other, but in the span of a couple weeks we went from casual contact in guild chat to immensely long (sometimes between 10 and 12 hours) skype calls, constant DMing, and an almost uninterrupted stream of conversation. i was struggling to finish high school at this time (spoiler: i failed to graduate) and found myself suddenly caught in an all-consuming relationship with this man and his guild. from the moment i woke up to the moment i finally hung up and crawled into bed, my time was taken up by tarc and the guild and the game.

i was promoted to officer less than five months after joining the guild. this was overwhelming for a number of reasons, chief among them being the fact that i had never been an officer in a guild like this before and i was very quickly escalated to tarc’s “inner circle.” this was a circle that he evidently didn’t even include his most senior officers in, as he didn’t seem to communicate with them to the extent or abundance that he did with me - and later, when she was ALSO promoted to officer, thradia.

within a few weeks i found myself at the center of dozens of micro-confrontations and venting from tarc about other members of the guild, raid team, and even fellow officers. every time, i would tell him he needed to take it to his co-gm and talk it through with her. she, like him, was a grown woman with a lot more experience and better people skills than me, a teenager barely out of high school, but tarc insisted on beating me over the head with his frustrations and then proceeding to guilt me and tell me i was a terrible friend when i didn’t agree with him or expressed i was uncomfortable being in the center of a vent session that i felt was unwarranted.

tarc was never wrong. he did not apologize. the words “i’m sorry” did not exist in his vocabulary, and if they did, they were almost always followed up with the word “but.” constantly he would be sending multiple messages to me or thradia while we were running events and raids for the guild, ranting about a few particular members that he disliked at the time regardless of how we felt about said members. thradia and i would both be reduced to tears and/or anxiety attacks by his outbursts that all but demanded we take his side even if we didn’t. his feelings and circumstances were paramount. everyone else’s were just inconveniences.

tarc was always the victim. no matter what was going on, no matter who had instigated whatever vein of conversation we were on that had gone awry, he had a way of making you feel like utter shit until you grovelled for his forgiveness, which he rarely gave. instead he would move on without giving any closure or allowing you to discuss your feelings at length. if you tried, you were the insensitive one who he couldn’t go to with his “unfiltered emotions,” which was the entire purpose of his inner circle to hear him say it. i was not allowed to just be his friend or just be an officer, i had to be both and neither at the same time, and it still was not the right course of action. nothing ever was.

tarc was openly manipulative and antagonistic, always citing it as an “inside joke” when called on it. i opened up to him once about my father’s alcoholism and how i was uncomfortable with alcohol culture and being around drunk people. regardless, he would constantly call while drunk (or maybe he was pretending to be to get a rise out of me, i honestly do not know what was genuine and what was put on with him) and make me stay on the call with him for hours. when he was (allegedly) diagnosed with an inability to process certain alcohols that could be life threatening, he continued to drink (or claimed he was drinking) dangerous amounts, which lead to me begging him to stop as i feared for his life. one of the worst anxiety attacks i have ever had was over him endangering his health and me believing i was going to see a friend die. he knew how much this upset me and he did not stop. he held me as a captive audience to his self destruction (or the playacting of it) and let me cry and beg and plead with him to take care of himself.

tarc loves to promote a clean, “family friendly” persona online. he will go on and on about the positive atmosphere his guild provides and how progress and accepting he and his “safe spaces” are. as soon as you are inducted to his inner circle, however, you learn otherwise. he will gladly engage in sexually charged conversation with you, even if you are ten years younger than him as thradia and i were. we were both legal adults, yes, but just barely. i can’t count the inappropriate remarks and jokes made about us, our friends, and even minors all in the spirit of joking “what if” conversation. he has a history of making young LGBT+ people uncomfortable, making their sexualities and identities about him and how he can relate to them.

tarc was the most two-faced and divisive guild leader i’ve ever seen. he would rant to me mercilessly about wanting to kick one of the junior officers and raid team members in private while never saying a word to their face or bringing it up with the co-gm. he would start schisms between people, telling each what they wanted to hear and encouraging both parties not to confront each other about it, allowing the resentment and distrust to grow as he fanned the flames on both sides. he wanted people to stay in the guild and continue to basically work for him while also putting him above anyone else in their friend circles. he told straight up lies to thradia and i, claiming one of us had said things about the other that we never did, driving a wedge and distrust between us.

tarc treats his guild(s) like a business. he is entirely capitalist-minded even in an MMORPG that people play for fun, churning out “content” and keeping up appearances like a machine. he treats his officers and guild members like employees, not people. any time irl would demand attention away from the game, forcing someone to miss or cancel an event, he would subtly guilt them about it until they apologized, even if it was a dire situation or a family emergency.

when tarc wanted to start a wow roleplaying podcast, he approached me about cohosting. he wanted a female voice, and since i was out of school and had no job lined up due to not graduating i was the perfect candidate. i came on to narrate and research the lore segment of the looking for roleplay podcast, which was little more than me paraphrasing a wowwiki article, but i was held to a “professional” standard. i had to have my research done by a certain day, my recording done in advance, etc.

the podcast was a spot of contention for several reasons, one being the mysterious emails tarc would allegedly receive about it. the podcast had a shared email account that all three of us could access and look at, but tarc claimed that people sent emails directly to him since “everything’s under his email.” he would use these strawman emails as indirect criticism of turwinkle and i, reading them aloud or typing up what they supposedly said but NEVER producing a real screenshot or address to verify them. i’m convinced he only did this as a way to make turwinkle and i feel badly and work harder “for the listeners” to appease things tarc didn’t like about our segments. he also insinuated he got inappropriate emails about me specifically at this account but, again, i was never allowed to see them with my own eyes, just hear about them secondhand, which is why i believe they did not exist.

around this time, tarc began recording conversations without mine or thradias consent. he would start recording random sections of calls and taunt us, playing back out-of-context lines and joking that he would make “podcast commercials” out of them. they were often embarrassing, personal, or just wildly out of context lines that we didn’t want played to the public, and i heard only a fraction of what he possibly recorded of me. i have no idea what kind of material he has of me and thradia that was recorded without us knowing or consenting. it felt like blackmail. it still does.

i internalized all of this. i thought this was normal. i thought he was an excellent guild leader and a role model for leadership. i had begun to treat world of fucking warcraft like a goddamn job and i thought that was fine. my life revolved around coddling and entertaining him, socializing and promoting and recruiting for the guild, raiding, running pvp entirely on my own, keeping up IC connections and attending events, recording for the podcast, all of it. i ate, breathed, and slept wow and coram. it was insane. i had been talked into having no boundaries for myself and my time, and any time i tried to correct that and build a boundary i was attacked for it until i backed down. i have never felt worse about myself than i did while i was in this guild. i trusted no one. i was worn thin.

i finally had enough early 2015. at this point this man was trying to get me to come live with him hundreds of miles from my family so that i could attend a technical school in his area. i am still 18. he was 28. i had been trying to step down from my position as an officer, citing if i was going to be LIVING WITH HIM that it was going to give me an unfair bias in my standing in the guild. this set him all the way off. he was planning a trip to atlantic city for me, himself, and thradia, who i had a ticket to visit for my birthday. he was getting frantic because he had been pursuing thradia for months, and i was no longer cooperating.

when i threw this wrench in everything, our relationship devolved in the span of a few hours. within the day i left the guild on all of my characters and pulled myself out of all of his projects. within the month i had frantically faction changed several characters and eventually unsubscribed from the game for two years because i lived in fear of him. he had always alluded to “knowing people” who could hack and track IP addresses and kept tabs on everyone who visited his blogs and websites. i didn’t know what i thought he was going to do - all i knew was his thinly veiled brags and threats were at the forefront of my mind. i have played this game since 2006, but for the first time in my life i couldn’t enjoy it out of fear and exhaustion caused by him. he had ruined my favorite game in less than a year and made me paranoid about my entire online presence, to the point where this blog was abandoned for months before i turned it into what it is today.

and the thing is, tarc’s not a creepy or abrasive guy when you first meet him. he’s funny and charismatic and outgoing. he loves to tell you about his world travels and show you pictures of him petting baby tigers at rescues in southeast asia and go on about these crazy winnings he would have in vegas. he’s larger than life - at least online. he came to visit me twice in the year that we knew each other. the first time was also the first time i had ever met thradia in person, and we had been friends for six years at that point. he has met my family, and that of several other members (both my age and older). no one ever questions why he’s there. no one ever thought it was odd that for a week he hung out with three teenage girls exclusively.

this horrifies me to this day.

thradia and i are still best friends. we compared notes and were sickened at how we were played against each other. slowly, i returned to the game. i reached out to people who had left or been on their way out when i first joined the guild, curious to see if there was a common thread. there was. everyone i spoke with had similar stories: being made to feel like shit, nothing they ever did for the guild was enough, they weren’t allowed to miss events or raids no matter what the reason, they were questioned and joked about inappropriately and made to feel uncomfortable and preyed upon, etc. i was not the only one. thradia was not the only one. at least half a dozen other former members and/or officers had these stories, and tarc just kept getting away with it.

he cannot keep getting away with it.

i am being open with this for the first time in six years because i don’t want to see it happen again. because i don’t want to know that, had i said something sooner, more people could have been protected. i was 18 when this was going on. i had no real world experience. i had no standard for how i should be treated, much less by someone almost ten years my senior and who claimed to be my friend. but he knew better. he should have had boundaries and space and lines he refused to cross. he did not. he crippled my trust in people for a very long time. i have only become comfortable playing wow on horde side again in the past year or so. i finally stopped looking over my shoulder, /who’ing him and his guild, avoiding rp hubs. but now i feel like i can’t do that anymore. the safety i have worked so hard to achieve for myself is now threatened.

i understand my experiences are mild in comparison to what some offenders on this server have done. but at the end of the day, this year was the worst year of my life. to this day, the skype ringtone literally triggers me because i associated it with him and his endless calls that i never knew what to expect from or how to get out of. i can’t look at certain parts of the game without feeling fear. for months i held my breath going online or logging into wow because i was waiting for him to pop up and start accusing me of things or trying to guilt me into coming back.

tarc ran coram populo, a guild that, as far as i know, still staggers along with a few members who can’t be bothered to leave. whether or not he’s planning to return there, i don’t know. he organizes and runs (from what i can tell) the azerothian trade federation (whatever the fuck that is). i don’t know what his plans are. i don’t know what his online presence looks or will look like when he comes crawling back. but i beseech you, do not give him the time of day. do not give him a platform, no matter how nice and “woke” he makes himself out to be. he lures you in with humanist ideals and then sucks the absolute life out of you- and that’s if he doesn’t want to pressure you into a relationship on top of it.

to tarc: if somehow you’re reading this, stay away from me. keep my name out of your mouth. i do not want an apology and a string of half-assed, gaslighting excuses. i have records of past conversations. i have screenshots. i know what you fucking did to me and to my friends. i do not want you back. i do not want you here. i do not want to share space with you. i want you to go away and never come back.

you alone made it so hard to trust myself and other people. thradia and i both have had to seek therapy due to you. and now, you have the audacity to come riding back into the scene on a white horse, being self righteous about abuse and predatory behavior online, and have the utter gall to condemn behaviors you yourself emulated without apology or second thought. i know you think you’re a good guy. that’s what makes you so fucking dangerous. you genuinely don’t think you’ve done anything wrong, and if you do, you’ve buried it and squirreled it away and have covered it up to the point where you can turn any accusation back on the claimant.

do not attempt to contact me. do not try to threaten or appease me. go back where you were. i am finally at home again, and you will not take that from me. go. away.

#wrymrest accord #wra rp #wra community #okay to reblog #i am going to basically go dark on here now and not check on this #i have gotten ohysically ill from dredging this shit up #i will not be engaging past this point so whether you believe me or not i do not care #i know my truth and i know what happened to me even though i was gaslit to hell and back

140 notes · View notes

titleknown · 7 years ago

Photo

The following is a partial transcript of the events of what is widely considered one of the key matches of the “turning point”

MJ: Hello folks this is your announcer Matt H. Justice, and with me is my cohost D.W. Devlin who…

DW: Only hosts because I’m the best they can afford and I need the money to do actual fucking journalism. And this looks like enough of a shitshow to make Heroes of Wrestling blush.

MJ: What do you mean D.W.?

DW: Well, there were no promos, no ad spots, just this weird fucking viral marketing goddamn everywhere with wildly underpriced tickets. You’d think that with a promo with this persistence they’d want to give you an idea of what it’s about. But nada, zip, zilch. Just one free webcast and a vague promise of “Wait and see”..

MJ: I’ll say. Most of the wrestlers seemed to be flat-out terrified!

DW: Terrified nothing! When I tried to press them, they did the same message! Eyes fucking glazed over saying the same words again and again! Granted, I was too high out to remember the specifics, but jesus h god it was some fucking La Le Li Lo Lu bullshit.

MJ: Right, but contracts are contracts, and I wouldn’t quit this for the world. But, you’re a free agent, why did you-

DW: Because of the money you fucking dingbat! But, there’s weird shit happening in the biz that I think this is related to...

MJ: You mean the Gash stuff?

DW: Of course I mean the Gash stuff! Like, you see a motherfucker killing wrestlers from promo to promo, the crossovers, the events that turn into live fucking executions, the unnatural natural disasters that aren’t from global warming?!

MJ: I literally was covered in blood from one of those. But, it could just be old [NAME REDACTED] capitalizing on the contro for the promo.

DW: Oh, if that old sack of shit wanted to do that, he’d be trumpeting it to the high heavens. Man’s got no subtlety. Doesn’t it seem like the fact that there are no goddamn definitive heels booked, the fact that “Card’s subject to change” disclaimer is posted on every one, and the fact that I keep hearing about this “Kill Factory” training program in my other work, mark my words it’s-

MJ: Well, if you’ll excuse me for commentating on the actual match, it’s ten minutes in and it seems like we’ve seen no sign of our heels or our face of the first match. It seems like a guard is walking in from the back door. Huh, doesn’t look like any I’ve seen.

DW: Well, you’re good with filler at least. That’s why I like yo- OH SWEET FUCKING JESUS!

The guard, a rotund appearing man, rips off his skin and out of it comes a lean; muscular skeletal being, shining prismatic gold as the blood drips off him and he steps from the shadows. The crowd screams.

MG: I WELCOME YOU TO THE MAIN EVENT DISTINGUISHED VICTIMS! THOUGH, AS YOU CAN SEE, I WAS HERE THE WHOLE TIME!

Megaton Gash cackles and raises his staff. The audience is screaming right now. A few try to run towards the doors, but they act as if they are almost welded shut.

MJ: Oh my god I don’t believe what I’m seeing here folks, this is not kayfabe, this is real! I think I’m going to throw up!

The camera tries to avoid showing MJ vomiting as well as the sheer amount of gore dripping off of Gash, neither with much success.

MG: YOU BELIVED THAT THE FATE OF THE WORLD WAS A GAME OF POLITICIANS AND GENERALS, BUT THIS, LIVE BEFORE THE NATION, IS A GAME OF GODS! AND NOW. A DEMONSTRATION OF THE POWERS WHICH YOU VIEW!

Megaton Gash raises up his rod. From the darkened rafters of the arena, a massive spike of lightning strikes downward into one of the bleachers. There are screams, cut short by the sounds of crackling electricity and smoke. When the long flash ends there is what was later determined to be blood and human ashes there!

DW: Holy literal fucking smokes! This is not a fucking dream, hoax, imaginatry story, or whatever Stan Lee bullshit you came for, this fucker came in wearing a fucking perfect human skin suit, and vaporized a quarter of the fucking audience!

Megaton Gash strides up to the ring, the ropes sizzling away as he walks straight through them. He poses with his rod.

MG: SO. WHO AMONGST THIS RABBLE HAS COME TO FIGHT A GOD?!

A large mechanical hand punches its way out of the center of the ring. Out of it climbs what appears to be a heavily cyborgized female human, covered in bright-colored plating with very little flesh visible. Its faceplate lights up and jets behind it begin to let out a burst of flames.

The figure brushes herself off before seamlessly moving to punch MG in the face. MG skids back, leaving visible markingso n the ring, but remains standing on the edge.

BD: Name’s Burn Doll. And I thought I might give it a shot…

Yes folks, as decided by five-dollar donors on the Patreon, which is a tier you can donate to if you want to influence future drabbles like this (Though all donors are beloved and welcome), it’s a wrestling drabble, featuring the TITLEWave wrestling characters!

Along with DW Devlin, who’s popped up now and then in my work and who I hope becomes a thing. Tho I do need to draw ‘em.

Note I do not know much about wrestling aside from the weird shit, so feel free to correct me if I fucked up.

And, as per usual, while the story/direct adaptations thereof are CC-BY-SA, the characters/settings/situations/ect are vanilla CC-BY, so feel free to use those bits in whatever you like so long as you credit me, Thomas F. Johnson, as their creator!

#open source characters #drabble #drabbles #short fiction #my writing #weird fiction #open source character #pro wrestling #pro wrestlers #weird wrestling

3 notes · View notes

markgottliebliteraryagent · 5 years ago

Text

Hollywood, NY & SF Book Fest Honorable Mention Recipient Andrew Buckley

Andrew Buckley is an editor for a small press, a professional copy and content writer, and a cohost for a geek movie podcast. He is the author of The Perils of Growing Up Werewolf series. His forthcoming book is The Fate of Freddy Mitchell, book one in the Dead Kid Chronicles, about when the fates of the underworld fail to capture a young soul at his scheduled time of death, and the very fabric of the universe begins to unravel—while the fates scramble to correct their mistake, he is forced to deal with a chatty crow, dark and sinister creatures hunting him through the night, a murderous gang of soul hunters, and the fact that he no longer appears to be as alive as he used to be. Andrew now lives happily in the Okanagan Valley, BC with one beautiful wife, three kids, one cat, one needy dog, and a multitude of characters that live comfortably inside of his mind.

Many of your books seem to have a humorous bent to them. What do you feel the comedic storytelling medium affords authors?

I’ve always thought comedy was a great way to break down barriers as it comes with an inherent sense of relatability. I don’t know that it’s quite as safe to do so today as it was ten to twenty years ago as people seem to take far more offense to things these days (thanks, internet)! However, comedic storytelling gives you the opportunity to attack a story from a different angle. It skews perspective and allows you to explore something in a different way. Also, who doesn’t love to laugh? Go on, name someone! Can’t, can you?

Are there any particular authors or books that have influenced you as a writer?

My favorite book of all time is The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. It was the first real humorous bit of fiction I read back when I was around eleven or twelve years old. I’ve since read it twenty to thirty times. Adams' humor struck me as something special. It wasn’t that he was just being funny, he was doing it in such a smart and satirical way that it was impossible not to fall in love with it. His asides and tangents were almost as entertaining as the main storyline. He made a robotic sliding door have a personality! The man was a genius! I later also fell in love with Terry Pratchett’s work, and later still with Neil Gaiman (more Neverwhere than American Gods). Douglas Adams in particular has always had a strong influence on my writing and my sense of humor in general.

“I’ve always found a lot of inspiration in fairy tales and myths, and stories that teach some sort of moral lesson.”

Your children’s middle grade fiction series, The Perils of Growing Up Werewolf, begins with the title of Hair in All the Wrong Places…does it contain an important message about going through puberty?

It does! At least I hope it does. I’ve always found a lot of inspiration in fairy tales and myths, and stories that teach some sort of moral lesson. When I started writing about a teenage werewolf, I wanted to run his werewolf transformation story parallel with his journey through puberty. While the main character, Colin, is dealing with his new powers as a hairy creature of the night, he’s also struggling with hormones, girls, and homework. The lesson I wanted Colin and the readers to learn in that story is that even though your body changes as you get older, you’re still the same awesome person.

Werewolves seem to be the perfect engine for exploring what it means to go through bodily changes. Did any other monsters, such as vampires or zombies, previously come to mind?

The subject of teenage zombies was already covered very well by Isaac Marion’s Warm Bodies. I’d considered a vampire at one point, but it felt like they’d been done to death (pun intended). I always thought I had a really great werewolf story inside of me (I loved Michael J. Fox’s "Teenwolf" movie when I was a kid), and while this book started out as an adult werewolf novel, it quickly became apparent that the main character was meant to be a tween. The werewolf changes of more hair, confusion, and hunger, is basically puberty in a nutshell. What I’m saying is, all teenagers are werewolves.

Hair in All the Wrong Places was a Hollywood Book Fest, New York Book Fest, and San Francisco Book Fest Honorable Mention recipient. What was it like to win so many honors for your first foray into middle grade fiction?

It was certainly an honor to receive such honors. Joking aside, it’s always nice to be recognized for work you produce. Writing middle grade fiction was a surprising turn for me and occurred when I had young kids who wanted to read something I’d written. Hair in All the Wrong Places was the answer to “Dad, why can’t I read your books?”

“Being able to speak with teachers, librarians, and parents has been a great way to spread the word about my books...”

You seem to do a lot of speaking engagements at schools and libraries. Do you find these events to be a helpful way of connecting directly with your readership of parents, teachers, librarians and students?

In the last three years I’ve spoken to thousands and thousands of students, from elementary to middle schoolers, to high school students and beyond. It’s an interesting byproduct of writing for a younger audience. Connecting with students who have read or want to read my books has been amazing. I get lots of messages asking questions about the story and about the characters. Being able to speak with teachers, librarians, and parents has been a great way to spread the word about my books and word of mouth has been one of the driving forces behind me getting an increasing number of requests for speaking engagements.

How did you find your current literary agent and go on to get future books published?

Well it was a tricky process. I had to wait for a full moon, there was a sacrifice involved, and a lot of Latin. Once the incantation was over, the hellfire had all fizzled out, and the portal was completely closed, and there stood you, Mark Gottlieb from the Trident Media Group. Okay, fine! I didn’t summon you through some elemental dark magic. I was reading acquisitions for a small publisher and met you when you submitted some queries. What struck me was that we shared a similar sense of humor and so we hit it off. Your dedication and hard work has resulted in five of my books being sold to publishers. You're a supportive agent who has been instrumental in my career as an author and is always looking for new ways to push further, something I truly appreciate.

Earlier in your career, you were working as an editor at Curiosity Quills Press. Has a background in editing helped to inform your novel writing career?

It certainly has, without a doubt. For one thing, it introduced me to my agent. But working as an editor and consequently working with other editors has been one of the best learning experiences of my life. Every single time I work with an editor, without fail, I learn something new. As a consequence, my writing is constantly improving.

“...while it’s not an easy thing to get published, it’s the authors that persevere and keep trying that make it in the end.”

What have you learned from the book publishing experience, now as an author of multiple books? Do you have any wisdom to share with writers hoping to become published authors?

I teach a novel writing course that I developed and the final week in the series is dedicated to talking about the publishing industry. The main takeaway, and the best advice I can share is that while it’s not an easy thing to get published, it’s the authors that persevere and keep trying that make it in the end. If you quit after your first rejection letter, you’re 100% guaranteed to fail. However, if you keep going, take the rejections as they come (I received over a 100 rejections for my first novel) and continue working on your craft, you’ll get there in the end. Oh, and keep writing. That’s important. Nothing worse than a writer that doesn’t write.

Can you tell us a bit more about your forthcoming book The Fate of Freddy Mitchell, book one in The Dead Kid Chronicles series?

I’m not an author who is inspired by dreams... Except this one time. I dreamt about a teenage boy chatting with a talking crow. The crow was trying to explain to the boy that he was dead, and the boy was in denial and arguing back with the crow. I woke up and made notes for a new middle grade series: The DeadKid Chronicles' The Fate of Freddy Mitchell follows the title character through a darkly hilarious adventure of murder, mayhem, and supernatural shenanigans. It’ll be my first illustrated middle-grade chapter book and will be published in 2020 from Month9Books. Follow my social media for excerpts, news, cover reveals, release dates, events, and more!

#andrewbuckleyauthor #month9books #mglit #middlegradefiction #childrenssciencefictionandfantasy #kidlit #TridentMediaGroup #literaryagentmarkgottlieb

0 notes

ionecoffman · 7 years ago

Text

Marijuana for Moms

Many a meme has been made about “wine moms”—mothers who joke online about their love for a relaxing glass of cabernet, or three. But a new drug is gaining popularity with the playgroup circuit. As it becomes more socially acceptable, more moms are using marijuana and its various incarnations to deal with everything from the daily aches and stresses of motherhood, to postpartum depression and anxiety, to menstrual cramps. And forget the simple bongs and pipes of the past; as the industry expands, it’s creating a whole new world of sprays, drinks, drops, and oils. The needs of this market of marijuana-friendly mothers have inspired a new crop of cannabis products.

In her recent High Times article, Jessica Delfino discusses the changing social attitudes toward motherhood and marijuana: “Mothers and women who use medical marijuana…are often put into a position in which they feel they have to explain themselves and what their condition is, and then steel themselves for the judgment that will inevitably follow,” she writes.

But also, Delfino tells me: “I think cannabis use in moms is becoming more widespread because it’s becoming more legal, and so people feel more willing and able to discuss it.”

Adam Grossman, the CEO of the cannabis company Papa and Barkley, has also noticed a burgeoning interest in marijuana from moms. “In the last month alone, we have seen the emergence of cannabis-and-parenthood workshops, new ‘parenting and cannabis’ publications like Splimm, and Facebook groups," he says. “More and more parents are starting to have the conversation about cannabis and breastfeeding, cannabis and pregnancy, and cannabis and parenting.”

But according to those in the pot industry, one new product in particular is spreading fast in mom circles: sublingual spray, a convenient, THC-infused ingestible liquid.

Once you spritz the liquid under your tongue, it activates quickly (within 60 seconds), it’s hard to overdo, and the high doesn't last very long, says Leslie Siu, the CMO and cofounder of cannabis company Mother and Clone. “After a minute you’ll start to feel this uplifting euphoric feeling, almost like a gentle rush,” Siu says of her sublingual nano-sprays. (Nano-sprays are a form of microdosing—Mother and Clone bottles deliver a metered dose of the drug.) By the five-minute mark, she says, you’ll know just how strong the effects will be for the next hour and you can decide to re-up and spray some more—in the industry this is called “stacking.”

Siu was moved to start Mother and Clone after she experienced postpartum depression. “Everything felt dark,” she recalls of that first “ominous” year after having her daughter Veda. Siu started searching for ways to ease the overwhelming, stressful feelings she was having. “Then a few things happened that got me back on track,” Siu says. "Time, therapy, running, and weed.”

Siu wanted to create a cannabis product that would be easy and safe for mothers in similar situations to use, and she landed on sublingual sprays. Because it’s easier to control the dose with sublingual spray, Siu says that it’s ideal for parents (her products also have child-resistant bottles). The sprays can also help with sleep, she says. “A lot of [postpartum depression and postpartum anxiety] sufferers develop terrible insomnia even if the baby starts to sleep through the night.”

Although they are ingestible, sublingual sprays are a gentler and more predictable experience than edibles. Edibles are more potent, and factors such as meal size and metabolism can make dosing with them unpredictable. A public-education campaign in Colorado (where Mother and Clone is based, and marijuana is legal) from the Marijuana Policy Project has a slogan for edibles: Start low and go slow.

When someone eats a brownie, candy, or other edible laced with marijuana, the cannabis is metabolized in the liver. Enzymes in the liver turn the active compound in cannabis, delta-9-THC, into the more psychedelic compound 11-hydroxy-THC. With sublingual spray, 11-hydroxy-THC is not a factor; you're only ingesting delta-9-THC because the drug is absorbed into the bloodstream under the tongue and doesn’t get processed by the liver. “This is more like a Xanax,” explains Siu. “It leaves you very clearheaded, you’re able to stay productive, and you don’t feel guilty or irresponsible around your kids.”

Siu says she doesn’t think it’s possible to go overboard with her sprays. “I took 30 times the recommended dose as an experiment once,” she says, “and it still only lasted just over an hour and I didn’t feel paranoid or weirded out.” Uma Dhanabalan, a physician and cannabis-therapeutics specialist, agrees that it’s difficult to take too much sublingual spray. Since you can feel the effects immediately, it’s easy to tell when you’ve had enough. “The worst thing that can happen is you may feel overwhelmed,” she says. “Nausea, vomiting, paranoia, anxiety. These are symptoms of overconsumption. You cannot die.”

Dhanabalan says she can see the appeal of sublingual sprays as a delivery system for new moms. “Because it’s discreet, and they can use it without anybody knowing.”

Other marijuana products gaining popularity in parent circles, sources say, are drops, drinks, and tinctures made with very low levels of THC, or none at all.

Papa and Barkley sells cannabidiol (CBD) tinctures, which, like sublingual sprays, can be a way to get controlled pain relief. CBD is a compound found in cannabis, and when isolated—as it is in Grossman’s products—it’s more predictable than smoking or edibles. Ingestible tinctures take effect in 15 to 20 minutes and can be mixed into foods like smoothies, or taken under the tongue. Grossman says a number of his clients who are mothers are drawn to cannabis because of its reputation for combating nausea and depression.

Carrie Hoffman, a mother and jewelry designer in Los Angeles, uses CBD products to help with the pain of breast cancer, and the stresses of being a single mom to a toddler. “By using it, I was able to reduce all the other drugs they gave me for nausea and pain,” she explains.

Another Los Angeles mom, Lauren Steil, even uses cannabis for breastfeeding-related ailments. “I felt mastitis coming on, so I just nursed a lot and rubbed some CBD pain relief oil onto my breast and it was all clear the next day,” she says.

Moms are finding that cannabis products can help with a range of issues that may crop up after having children. “I’ve been microdosing CBD capsules made from whole-flower cannabis (no hemp) for about two months and it’s really helped my osteoarthritis, as well as sleep and anxiety,” says Brandi Emma, a singer-songwriter and new mother.

As mom-conducive products have sprung up, so too have education and advocacy initiatives begun to see parents as part of their clientele.

Kristie Amobi is the founder of the cannabis-education company Rebalan, which advocates for the benefits of low dosing (using cannabis products with no more than 5 milligrams of THC per dose). “In my own experience of educating women—and moms—on this topic, I have been surprised by how many people are really having a hard time,” she says of the prevalence of stress and anxiety. “There’s no magic bullet, but I’m confident there is a place for cannabis in low doses to help people manage stress, especially when compared to the side effects of using alcohol and other prescription medications.”

“This industry is changing and growing at such a rapid pace,” says Royya Sardari, a Los Angeles mother who cohosted a “cannabis cabaret” last year to celebrate the substance and provide pot education. What happened at the themed event? Live music, a burlesque performance, photography, and cannabis treats, among other things. “[You] partake of course, and leave feeling good about your decision to use cannabis,” says Sardari, who opened her studio space to Katie Partlow of the cannabis-friendly events company Little Face. Partlow’s legendary parties (Rolling Stone dubbed one the “best pot party in California”) will soon get a maternal spin—she’s planning a “mommy’s marijuana picnic” for May. The event will be geared toward the needs and interests of mothers, both those who already partake, and those who are interested in learning more about cannabis. Says Sardari, “I think there’s a lot of misinformation out there and a lot of moms that still aren’t super cannabis savvy.”

Part of that may be because cannabis research isn’t yet super mom savvy. Psychiatrists and physicians are generally hesitant to recommend marijuana products to breastfeeding mothers due to lack of research. The InfantRisk Center—which provides research-based information on medication, pregnancy, and breastfeeding—warns that studies have shown that cannabis exposure via breast milk or in utero may cause long-term changes in the child’s mental health and behavior. However, the center also notes on its site: “We do not know much about the transfer of the active ingredient in marijuana into human milk, nor how much gets to a breastfeeding infant.” The InfantRiskCenter, which is affiliated with Texas Tech University, is currently working on a study to find out more, according to a post on their site. Marijuana is legal in 29 states for medical purposes (and in nine states and Washington D.C. for recreational use), but whether postpartum depression is recognized as a valid medical reason to use cannabis products depends on different factors: the state laws, your doctor, etc. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists also discourages the use of marijuana while pregnant or breastfeeding, due to insufficient data. However, what has traditionally been looked at is the THC in marijuana, which gets you high. New cannabis products often feature CBD, which doesn’t have the same effects. (Even still, Grossman says he doesn’t encourage nursing mothers to use his tinctures.) Not enough is known about products featuring CBD and how they relate to breastfeeding at this point.

Nehama Dresner, a professor of psychiatry and obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, does not recommend using marijuana products to treat postpartum depression. “It may be calming, but that is the equivalent of putting a Band-Aid on a problem—like having a cocktail to manage anxiety,” she says. Dresner notes that there are no double-blind placebo-controlled studies showing marijuana’s efficacy in treating depression. “But there is evidence that regular marijuana use increases the risk of psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia.”

Dresner also worries that using marijuana to cope may delay or prevent a pregnant woman or new mother from seeking treatment for anxiety or depression. She notes that though there is a greater sense of safety around marijuana due to recent decriminalization and legalization, she does not recommend it in pregnancy or breastfeeding. “Occasional use in the postpartum period under supervision may be considered on a case-by-case basis,” she says—for instance, with a patient who has already been using cannabis for medical reasons.

Though medical professionals don’t recommend that pregnant or nursing mothers use marijuana products, cannabis use for everyday stresses and pains is growing. It’s little wonder that business is booming for companies creating products designed for gentle highs and relaxation. Or that playgroups are trading their wineglasses for vape pens, sublingual sprays, and CBD tinctures.

Article source here:The Atlantic

0 notes

omgtaxtwerk · 7 years ago

Text

The Incredible True Story of How a Florida Teacher Became Head of 1 of the Biggest Brands on Earth

Lydia Winters is living the dream.

As the brand director at Mojang, she’s responsible for maintaining all aspects of the massively popular Minecraft brand – from tiny collectible figurines to international events, Winters has her hands in pretty much everything. It should come as no surprise, then, that her work has landed her on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, or that she was named one of Sweden’s most powerful women in digital in 2016, or that on Nov. 18, she’ll be cohosting the company’s annual Minecon event with none other than the brilliantly funny Will Arnett. What will come as a surprise is how she got to where she is – and what her job entails on a daily basis.

I interviewed Winters by phone in October, and the first thing she told me – from her office in Stockholm, Sweden – was that she was born in Florida. “I have an elementary education degree, and I taught fourth grade in Florida for a year before I decided that I didn’t want to teach anymore – but I didn’t really know what I wanted to do,” she said, laughing. “I was just trying to figure it out, I was 21 or 22, and I started doing a lot of photography and shooting weddings, taking portraits of babies and kids.”

It was only after Winters did a photography workshop in 2010 that she was introduced to video blogging, the medium that would eventually land her in her current role. “I was making these really weird daily videos about a lot of random things,” she told me. “In the house that I lived in, I had baby turtles – so one day I’d be singing about baby turtles, and the next day I’d be like ‘I’m sick! I don’t know what to talk about!’ and the next day I’d be talking about cameras. It was always about different things.”

But despite the initial popularity of her work, Winters knew that she was very much living day to day and didn’t have a plan. After successfully raising $10,000 for breast cancer research (and shaving her head, as she promised to do if she hit her goal), she had begun to question the path her life was on once again. “I was like, ‘OK. Now I don’t have a job. I just shaved my head. I’m making videos and things appear to have gone terribly wrong. What do I do now?‘”

A post shared by Lydia Winters (@lydiawinters) on Oct 29, 2010 at 8:57am PDT

After consulting with friends, she realized that the only way to get her life back on track was to try to do something consistent with her videos, to focus all of her energy on one single topic. Winters decided to focus on video games, but there was one problem: the only video game she’d ever played was Oregon Trail.

“My friends thought it would be hilarious if I played Minecraft from the perspective of someone who doesn’t know anything about playing games,” Winters recalled. “This was after I had done this Susan G. Komen 60-mile walk, and someone had given me a hot pink wig. So I was like, ‘OK. I’ll wear a pink wig, and I’ll call myself – I wanted to be Minecraftgirl, but that username was taken – I’ll be Minecraftchick.'”

So, with a pink wig and a second-choice username, Winters began the next stage of her post-teacher life: becoming the lovable woman behind the cult YouTube series The Misadventures of Minecraftchick.

The concept was simple; Winters learned how to play Minecraft in a series of heavily edited shortform videos, interspersed with snarky, self-deprecating commentary. But in a genius twist, Winters chose to film herself as she played, using the video of her facial reactions as an overlay over her gameplay – something that was unheard of in 2010. “Everyone who was doing a very standard, ‘this is my voice, and I am playing right now,'” she said. “I got so much flak for [showing my face]. Now, everyone does it. It’s weird if you don’t show your face when you’re playing, because it’s so much more fun to see someone’s expression and what they’re doing.”

A post shared by Lydia Winters (@lydiawinters) on Oct 28, 2010 at 3:36pm PDT

“In the first video, I couldn’t even figure out how to walk,” Winters recounted. “I just opened [the game] on my screen, and was like, ‘I am starting this game. I’m so excited!’ And then I was clicking everything, and I’m like, ‘How do I move? I’m clicking the mouse, I’m using the arrow keys, and nothing is working.’ So I’m like, ‘OK. I’m going to google this. Pause!’ and then I come back and say, ‘AH! I figured it out. It’s W-A-S-D,’ which obviously I didn’t know as I had never played games. So of course then I’m like, ‘I can walk! I’m amazing!’ and I’m walking and walking and I go into water and I’m like, ‘Wait, which key do I use to swim?’ and then, of course, I drown.”

An innovative format may have made her videos stand out, but it was the combination of a severe lack of resources around how it was exactly that one actually was supposed to play Minecraft and her charming, quirky persona that really won YouTube viewers over. Winters says her “black and white commentary” – noting that she was from Florida, and as a result obviously knew how to swim even if her avatar didn’t – was what made the videos feel less like a how-to and more like a show. And that show format quickly started gaining followers; in the first week alone, she jumped from 0 to over 2,000 subscribers – and it’s then that she decided to up the ante to making daily videos. For five months, she made the videos every single day.

“I was going through a separation at the time,” she said, “and I was like, ‘Oh, man, I really don’t know what I want to do. I’m making these videos and it’s really fun, but I’m doing a lot of odd jobs on the side – little ad listings and writing for people, or editing or posting stuff – whatever friends had jobs to do, so I can support this pretty hobbyish thing.’ But I was gaining tons of subscribers and it was really fun. Every day, my dad would text me and tell me how many new subscribers I had, which was the sweetest thing.”

youtube

But in June 2011, Winters again began to question what she was doing. The revelation came while she was living with her ex-husband in her uncle’s trailer park house – “the most Florida story I can tell,” she said – and found herself once again struggling to get by. It’s then that she came up with the idea of going to video game conference E3 and interviewing the creators of Minecraft for her YouTube channel. She wrote them a cold email that said quite simply, “Hi, I’m Lydia. I’m a serious person. Here’s My YouTube channel. I used to be a teacher. If you need any help at E3, I can do whatever. I would just love to interview you for my channel. Super short, whatever you want.”

Carl Manneh, the former CEO of Mojang, wrote back with a much bigger offer: asking her to host the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play Minecraft portion of their booth. Winters questioned whether she was qualified for the role, but with nothing to lose, she dyed her hair pink to match her online persona and flew to LA.

Winters instantly hit it off with the team from Mojang, and she aced the job she had signed up to do. But things took an altogether different turn after she ran into a friend from the internet. The friend had just applied for an art position at Mojang and asked Winters to introduce her to the team – a favor that she obliged – but Manneh informed the friend that the position wasn’t in the US and would require a move to Sweden. It’s here that Winters did the unexpected.

A post shared by Lydia Winters (@lydiawinters) on Jun 7, 2011 at 10:40am PDT

“Unplanned, I turned around and I said, ‘It’s too bad I’m not an artist because I would totally move to Sweden.’ And Carl was like, ‘We want someone to work with the community. Let’s talk more about this tonight.’ And I was like, ‘What?’ And I walked away – I remember very vividly being in the LA Convention Center and trying to find some internet because I was thinking, ‘Where is Sweden? I know it’s in Europe, but is it in the middle?’ But then I googled it and was like, ‘That is SO far north. That is really far north in the world.’ But I thought it was all very funny, because obviously it was just a weird conversation and nothing else will come of it.”

Later that evening, Winters attended a mixer – and Manneh essentially told the Mojang team that they were bringing her back to Sweden when they went home. None of the staff could tell if he was serious, but for her part, Winters was over the moon. “I’m texting my mom like, ‘I’m going to move to Sweden, everyone who thought I didn’t have a plan.’ And she’s like, ‘What? No, definitely not.'”

It took until the last day of the event, however, for Winters to finally get a formal interview – and even after all that, she went home to Florida, thinking, “OK, this was all crazy, but they’re going to go back to Sweden – they’ve been swept up in this sort of very American craziness, they’re not going to follow through on this because it’s crazy and they don’t know me. We don’t know each other, and this is insane.”

Two weeks after E3 ended, Winters had been hired by Mojang full-time. Six months after accepting the job, she left Florida and started a new life in Stockholm, Sweden. And she’s never looked back.

A little over six years later, Winters still loves her job. Her American-ness and penchant toward talking (and talking loudly) made her an enormous asset to the Mojang team, composed mainly of Swedes who prefer, in her words, “next-level quiet.” The role that she took initially saw her looking after the community building related to the Minecraft brand but evolved to become a more senior role looking after all of the merchandising, events, and licensing as well.

“Each thing that has happened in the company has kind of always been like, ‘Well, I can do that,’ and you kind of raise your hand and think to yourself, ‘Actually, I don’t know if I can,'” she said, laughing. “But six years later I can spot the smallest detail in [something related to] Minecraft that is incorrect and people are like, ‘How did you do that?’ And it’s because I’ve looked at it, and I care about it, and I’ve seen it for so long. So the tiniest thing I can spot in a slide that was two slides ago, like, ‘Hold on. Can you go back a second?'”

There’s a reason that Winters has trained herself to spot these sorts of things, and it comes from the best imaginable place: for the love of what she’s doing and the people she’s doing the work for. “The amazing thing about Minecraft is that it’s way more than a game,” she said. “It’s a life-changing thing. It’s a way to spend time with people; it’s a way to communicate. It’s so big, and it’s so important that every day I’m like, ‘This is too important to screw anything up.’ I have to make sure everything is amazing, everything is perfect for this incredible brand that I get to have so much ownership over.”

A post shared by Lydia Winters (@lydiawinters) on Feb 14, 2015 at 6:00pm PST

Every day presents something new and different, and even she herself admits that no two days in a row are ever the same. I asked her to walk me through a typical day at the office, and what became immediately clear is that she really does have her hands in pretty much everything the company does. But naturally, there are some things that are set in stone.

One of those things is her morning routine. “I get up and work out with my personal trainer or at the gym, because I’m on the road to Minecon and I want to look very buff on stage,” she said, laughing. “After that, since I’m a very late person by nature, I’m always on the run from my apartment [to the office], which is on the South Island in Stockholm. My home is a 10-minute walk from work – but I can make it in seven minutes if I run. I’m usually running with a really delicious coffee that my partner has made for me, and I’m kind of spilling it and drinking it as I run into the office.”

On the day I spoke to Winters, she had kicked off her day with a three-hour meeting with one of Mojang’s merchandising partners, who pitched a whole host of new ideas for her team to consider. Winters, who said she was “maybe the eighth person hired at the company,” now has a team made up of product designers and project managers who help her with the approval process on each and every piece of merchandise. Her focus is making sure that everything that gets made has an extraspecial touch and “isn’t a label slap where the same artwork goes on everything.”

What happens when you aggravate a Wolf? Well, MinecraftChick (aka Lydia from Mojang!) found out the hard way when she first started playing the game. We’ve animated her story with LEGO stop motion, of course! All she wanted was a furry friend… #LEGOMinecraft #Minecraft #LEGO #MinecraftMoments

A post shared by LEGO Minecraft (@legominecraft) on Sep 23, 2017 at 7:30am PDT

“There’s always a reason why something is positioned the way it is,” she said. “There’s a reason why a skeleton is being chased by a wolf [on an item] and it’s because wolves like bones and that’s kind of funny, because it’s something that would really happen. A little kid is not going to say, ‘I understand this shirt was very thoughtfully picked for me,’ but they may say, ‘Yeah, that is exactly what a skeleton does.’ And then there’s the adults who buy products, and you want them to go, ‘Wow, there was extra care put into this. This is more special than I thought it would be.'”

It’s not just animals and baddies that get a critical look, either. Minecraft used to predominately focus on a guy named Steve, and Winters was instrumental in getting a second main character, a female named Alex, added into the game as well. “I was like, ‘We have all this merchandise and it’s only a guy!’ and everyone was like, ‘No, Steve is genderless.’ And I was like, ‘He has a goatee. He is definitely a guy. He can be whatever gender he wants to be, but his name is Steve. How many Steves do you know that aren’t male?'”

Alex has red hair like Jeb, the lead designer, and green eyes like Winters herself – injecting a little bit of the Mojang personality into the game they spend so many hours each day perfecting. But she’s also a focal point for many of the conversations that Winters has with her merchandising partners on a day-to-day basis, pointing out the type of relegation that can happen to a female character without a critical eye: “If you’re not really careful and vigilant, Alex is always pushed behind Steve. Or she’s loving animals, and never doing any of the fighting. They both have to be shown in many different roles, because we have so many different players – on a daily basis, I’m talking about this, and looking at it constantly.”

The conversations that Winters has on a daily basis to avoid gendered typecasting are, in her eyes, crucial to putting forth the best possible version of the game to its users. One example of this is the struggle she went through with a specific brand who didn’t understand the importance of equally weighted roles for the “male” and “female” characters.

“There was a description of Steve and a description of Alex,” Winters said. “In the description of Steve, he was an architect, a designer, or a geologist or something. For Alex, it said, ‘She likes to build, explore, and mine.’ The two were sitting next to each other, and I was like, ‘Look at the difference between these two descriptions. You are saying that because Steve is male he has a job – Steve’s not an architect, he’s just a dude that builds. But if you’re going to say he has a job, at least use the same language for both of them. Either they both have jobs or they both like to do certain things.'”

Over the years, Winters has seen countless examples of Alex being mentioned with regard to fashion and Steve in relation to great careers and always puts the kibosh on it immediately. “You know that this will never go through,” she has told numerous clients, adding, “This isn’t OK. There’s no world in which we will approve this. Rewrite it. This not gender equal.”

The statement applies not just to descriptions of the two characters, but their positioning, the weapons they use, and the real-life models that are used to show off the goods that the company signs off on. In her mind, both characters should be portrayed as badasses – not one over the other. “I’ve had pink hair, I love pink, I love purple, I love animals,” she explained. “That’s fine, but there are also girls who don’t love any of that.”

It’s clear in looking at Mojang’s myriad offerings that these “soapbox moments from Lydia” have made a tangible difference – and an unexpected extra benefit is that it has also affected the workplace culture of Mojang as well. Winters, who once saw herself as a lone wolf hopping around doing whatever needed to be done, now has five people reporting into her and a whole lot more women standing by her side when she has these conversations.

In Seattle. Photo by @vubui. Fashion by @nittygrittywomen.

A post shared by Lydia Winters (@lydiawinters) on Mar 9, 2015 at 11:08pm PDT

“I was the first woman in the office, and then there were two of us – our CFO and I – and now, I’m happy to say, we have a huge amount of women working in the office,” Winters said, noting that she spent her lunch hour after the merchandising meeting doing a one-on-one with one of her direct reports. “They’re all amazing and incredible and save me so much time and have so many amazing ideas – and I’m transitioning into a better leader and a better boss because I take it very seriously, making sure that they’re developing as much as possible, just like I’m trying to.”

But she’s not just a manager and a brand champion. She’s also a brand ambassador, so Winters spent the afternoon before we got on the phone planning out the big reveal for this year’s annual Minecon: that she’ll be joined on stage with Will Arnett.

“It’s both the most exciting thing and the most panic-inducing thing I’ve ever done, because it’s like, whoa, this is the big leagues now – I’m going to be on stage with Will. And I think he’s amazing and I have for so long that I’m like, oh my god I’m going to pass out. And it will be so bad if I just faint,” she said, noting that while she may be fangirling out now, the most exciting part of him hosting is that he’s a huge fan of Minecraft himself.

“He was super interested in cohosting Minecon because he and his kids play together. And we always care about someone having a personal connection to Minecraft. I want everyone to play, but I get that it’s not for every single person – and there’s something really special about finding someone who’s not just awesome at what they do but they also like Minecraft, too.”

It’s awesome to finally say that Will Arnett is my co-host for MINECON Earth http://ift.tt/2m4pG30

The post The Incredible True Story of How a Florida Teacher Became Head of 1 of the Biggest Brands on Earth appeared first on Tax Twerk©.

#Tax Preparation Services

0 notes

aurimeanswind · 7 years ago

Text

Your Emotions in Gaming—Sunday Chats (9-3-17)

Hey! Welcome back to a fun Sunday Chats where I get so ask the audience a question! It was really fun to do this again, and even though this one is a bit more of a lengthy-response time for tweets, I think the turnout was still amazing.

There are a couple of things I want to get out of the way before I get into this first-sunday-of-the-month tradition.

FIRST

Irrational Passions Podcast is switching it’s recording date back to Friday. Yes, it’s a big deal, we have been recording on Saturdays for a little over two years now, but we are going back to our original day of the week that was FRIDAY. It’ll be effective starting at the end of this month! Yay!

SECOND

Irrational Passions is launching a new, seasonal, YouTube Podcast! It doesn’t have a name yet, but the first episode should be recording a week (ish) from today! It’ll be all about Destiny 2! It’ll be our equivalent to Fireteam Chats, and will incorporate a bunch of awesome podcasters from different podcast networks! I am super excited to have a type of show like this, which is more focused on Destiny, for Destiny fans, by a bunch of would-be industry Destiny fans.

It’ll be a bi-weekly show with a rotating cast with a few permanent seats, and be only on YouTube (for now). Currently it will definitely be on YouTube.com/IrrationalPassions, with maybe incorporating other YouTube channels into it as well.

Stay tuned for more details!

Okay, with all that housekeeping done, let’s get into the big editorial of the month.

Games Give You Feelings. Full Stop.

My question today, which I asked my lovely twitter followers and the readers of Sunday Chats, was this:

I like to refer to myself as the “total emotional sap”, which is just the slightly more nice way of saying I’m a bit of a crybaby/emotional wreck when it comes to media, especially video games. I get highly invested in my games, and my stories especially. I’m always perplexed, what with the seemingly constant criticism of video games’ storytelling devices, that people seem to never stop hating on gaming stories.

The recent argument about gaming stories and why they’re more irrelevant than we might think still boggles my mind, and it’s a subject I come back to all the time.

Today I asked you all about the game stories that affected you the most. The ones that touched you in a way that evoked some kind of emotional reaction out of you, whether that be good or bad.

Much like last month, I am gonna post everyone’s answers here, and discuss what folks have sent in. If you’d like to be a part of Sunday Chats like this, just look for my tweets on Sunday Afternoons (Eastern Daylight Time) with the hashtag “#SundayChats” in it. Responding to that tweet with an appropriate answer will pretty much guarantee you a spot on the roster, so with that said...

Let’s get started.

I think Uncharted is a big one, especially Uncharted 4. There is a series of scenes between Nate and Elena that occur very late in the game that just solidify so many things foreshadowed in the very opening of the game. The scenes toward the beginning of Nate and Elena at home, playing Crash Bandicoot, hanging out, sharing dinner, and kind of spacing on each other all have such a natural and organic feel because of 1, the talent of the actors, but 2, the amount of lore and chemistry built up between the two of them.

The scenes where Nate and Elena have that tension of something they really need to overcome together are like, horrifically painful in a way that is hard to describe. It’s such a satisfying end to character growth for Nate, someone we’ve seen struggle with understanding his own faults in the past.

Uncharted 4 holds itself in such high regard to me specifically because of that last third that features a heavy emphasis on Nate and Elena.

I mean, hey, Duke Nukem Forever probably game some people emotions. Like, I don’t think the story had some sweeping impact on the industry as a whole, but there is maybe sense of... Catharsis, when that game finally came out, came to fruition, and ended up being just a bad game. I feel like above most games that have gone through a miserable development hell in the past few years, Duke Nukem Forever was the game that set the precedent that none of these games could ever be good.

I think Final Fantasy XV and Owl Boy are just recent examples that that isn’t always true.

I think frustration is totally a valid emotion to feel from a game. Only I think in this context it’s different. I think being frustrated at a game and being frustrated by a game are two different feelings.

I think of something like Far Cry Blood Dragon’s tutorial screens, which incessantly pop up to make the bit-joke that “tutorial screens are annoying” is a sense where the game is trying to frustrate you on purpose, and that is evoked through humor.

Being mad at Skyrim’s controls and the opening section of it is less some kind of culmination of a story beat, but really a reflection of your relationship with the game. Which is completely valid, I know that game is absolutely not your cup of tea.

Firewatch is really special. I think there are a lot of great feelings that Firewatch brings out of the player that really encompass the emotional journey it illustrates through dialogue. From the story that kind of makes up the suspense part of everything, to the actual relationship with Delilah herself, there are feelings of love, affection, fear, and sorrow that come from it.

The gut punch of the story hits twice too, and it’s something I still think about in games. For as flawed as some of the delivery in Firewatch is, I think it does an excellent job of making a setting, and making you feel in that same setting. God what a banger and worth a play Firewatch still is.

Infamous is definitely a tricky one. It is a very much younger brother game, and I think it does hit some notes there. I think the reason I never bought in too much is because Delsin and his brother just never seemed like they had strong chemistry? Buying into that brothers concept though is a huge part of the battle though. Look at something like Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, which is all about buying the connection between the two brothers. It’s used and then executed on effectively, and when you can connect with that, you can get those feelings out. Second Son just didn’t quite get there with me.

Gone Home and another game on this list are definitely in my top five as far as really connecting and affecting me emotionally.

Growing up with a gay sibling and slowly piecing together where they were and empathizing with why they wouldn’t want to tell me sets Gone Home up to just hit some relatable notes for me that few games ever get the opportunity to make.

While I love a good love story, Gone Home delivers it in such a video game-y way without feeling forced or disingenuous. It nails what it wants to be, and by doing something first so well, it actually makes it incredibly difficult to follow itself up, something I think is clear with Tacoma, and all the other “walking sim” likes that have followed.

Night in the Woods is absolutely on my list to see through before the end of the year. From everything I’ve heard about its subject matter to the way it’s written like the embodiment of some kind of modern, online dialogue, I am absolutely in. Much like Oxenfree was for me last year, this seems like the kind of teen-y thing that could easily slip through the cracks and get lost in the crowd, but I really want to take the time to play it.

I mean, I know you love dropping those declarative statements, but consider me not so bold, Kevin.

Metal Gear Solid 3 is legendary. I think when I replayed the series a few years ago, and really got to re-experiences the Boss’ death, and for the first time, really understand what she was going through and how that might destroy Big Boss from the inside out, the impact of that ending and its implications still sit with me today.

The Boss’ ideology being based on seeing the entire world from space and seeing it truly as something whole, and one, and deserving of peace, is such a powerful image. It’s the kind of philosophy that makes you feel small, and understand that that’s okay if we all just work together. That imagery being literally the catalyst for the entire events of the Metal Gear Solid franchise is beautiful, and is at it’s core why I think Kojima loved making those games. His image and love for the franchise is as unified as seeing us all together, truly.

The Last of Us is a game that will straight fuck you up. There are maybe four or five just absolutely integral scenes in that game, and all of them are the one on one scenes between Joel and Ellie. The big ones. There are multiple moments in that one story where Joel and Ellie, as a relationship, leaves you breathless.

I think of all the problems with video game storytelling, subtlety is the biggest one. Being subtle in a game is difficult because while things do heavily come down to actors and performances, there is an aspect of technology and uncanny valley to deal with too.

Luckily, Naughty Dog has consistently prove you don’t need to worry about that with them. The final moments in The Last of Us between Joel and Ellie will leave you in bed awake for years to come.

I am totally with you. Mass Effect 3, much like this most recent season of Game of Thrones, is about the payoffs. The trilogy very much sets up the tensions between these major conflicts and events. The Geth and the Quarians, and their war for the home planet. The Genophage and the Salarians delivering it, and how that has created a rift int he galaxy ever since. Those are plot points and arcs that exist, feel like they existed, changed, evolved, and then ending in wonderfully dramatic fashion.

And the Citadel DLC is another absolutely fantastic call out. It was so powerful for my cohost and biggest Mass Effect Fan Brian Nabeshin Jackson that he forced both myself and our other cohost Tony Horvath to buy and play it, and it was absolutely worth it. There is an “earned-ness” to the ME3 Citadel DLC, for it’s just incredible “one last ride” feel to it. It really is the “we’re all about to die so let’s just cut back and be together” story. And it works, because of the notes Mass Effect leaned so heavily into ending on.

Mass Effect is definitely the kind of trilogy that leaves you with an impact, if not only because of taking your character through three games.

Logan Wilkinson reviewed this for our site this year and it’s another with Night in the Woods that I am desperate to see through sometime before the end of the year. It’s an excellent idea and it’s portrayed in a super interesting way.

Rime is one that seemed to go really hard under the radar. This is the first big indicative thing I”ve heard in its favor. I know it reviewed well, but it’s just something that I feel there isn’t a lot of awareness of.

Judging from the vibes you describe here and the ones given off by the trailer, I’m not surprised Steven.

We touched on it above a the top, but yes. The growth is the big aspect of Uncharted that makes the fourth feel like the end of an era. Of a saga. Of course the Lost Legacy is out now (still need to play it) and there is room for more smaller games like that in that universe, but Uncharted 4 is the end of a big story.

The small sections where you get to guide the conversations ever so slightly really do pay off because you feel like you got to make the choice to talk about just one thing, and you can just pick what you want to know the most. It’s something uncanny in the series before, and odd for this kind of “action blockbuster” game. It just works though, setting a tone like this is the last story Drake gets to tell, and you get to make it the kind of story you want it to be.

Journey is the other big game for me personally. Few games have just wrecked me from the inside out. While I’ve only played the game twice ever in my life, I still distinctly remember the tears the game gave me both times in its final moments of just pure bliss and freedom. It’s an incredible story told through visuals and cooperation about the journey of life and death, and it’s visual metaphors are just outstanding.

Few games have made me emotional in the way Journey has, and it absolutely helps to have Austin Wintory’s score on its side. Journey is a full sensory experience, and one I’d even confidently call the Fantasia of video games.

Thank you everyone again so much for participating. These are all incredible and interesting and, even more fascinating, modern examples, that all stand out as real cool ways games can have an affect on you.

The Checklist

Just one this week. And it’s for my boy Roger Pokorny.

IGN Stories https://t.co/kYGdR5dQCx

Roger is making video essays for IGN in a totally new initiative for them, and he is incredible. He delivers fantastic writing and editing together in a sublime series called The Rogformer show on his YouTube channel, and it’s genuinely incredible to see a big outlet like IGN take him under their wing and allow him to bring that format to their site.

Words don’t do justice how proud of Roger I am. This is a long time coming, and no doubt the first success in a string of them, but it’s absolutely worth reiterating how impressed I am with Roger and his growth. He’s a great friend, and a hard worker, and you should absolutely watch his content. It’s worth it.

THat’s my whole bit. I would have written in some more margins, but I am just simply exhausted. It’s off to sleep land for me, but I hope this alternative version of Sunday Chats is still doing you all well. I know the first iteration got a great response, so here’s hoping for round two!

Anyway, that’s all I got.

Cheers.

Goodnight

keep it real.

#video games #gaming #sotries #video game #stories #ign #narrative #emotions #affect

0 notes