#And MMO Logic

[shining-scion]

ADDING ONTO THIS TBH? (I think I’m reblogging this from someone’s tags I was reading on accident and I am so sorry)

The whole bit about arc 2 was setting up the dynamic between light and shadow and about how the wizard has to become both.

I’m almost done with the last world and that’s the vibe I got, anyway?

And I’m not about to say “azteca died for the wizard’s character growth” so just. Please understand I’m talking about thematics rn and nothing anyone inside the narrative is concretely aware of.

What I am gonna say is that narratively Avalon and Azteca show the wizard the extremes of both

Because Wizard101’s overarching theme is balance

Well

Maybe a better word is harmony

The Spiral cannot exist without chaos. It cannot exist without shadow magic— because shadow magic is change. There is an argument to be made that the spiral is resistant to change in its base state, that to change is to admit something you were doing was wrong or not the best method. That’s what Raven was trying to do, in a way— keep her children and her husband in stasis forever, static and unmoving?

Shadow rejects this notion outright, enabling the caster to make change, should they be brave or reckless enough to face the backlash and consequences because no choice is perfect. Morganthe was the extreme in that she was reckless and uncaring, only wanting the power for her goals, changing and tearing apart with not a thought to the consequences— that’s why it consumed her. She didn’t acknowledge its true nature. The wizard, through their journey, learns the consequence of choice and decision and is thus able to use the shadows for good. (They say use the shadows for the light but tbh this metaphor gets confusing when everyone is suddenly talking like Mickey Mouse is in the room)

The spiral needs to be able to change, but that change should be brought by people who understand what the spiral needs. No one person can make decisions for everyone.

WELCOME BACK TO SLAY THE PRINCESS I’M SQUIDKID AND I’M HERE TO SAY THAT THIS AND WIZARD101 ARE THE SAME THEMATIC THING /J

Is anyone else insane about the fact that Avalon was its own self contained epic hero fantasy and then Azteca had the darkest ending in the entire game.

Crazy about when stories do that thing where they give you the fantasy and the idealism and it’s right there and then it vanishes like smoke.

[tourettesdog]

I am having extremely specific and niche ideas I must share. Specifically headcanons for Danny Phantom characters playing World of Warcraft

I feel like Sam would have been the first of them to get into WoW. Something other to play than Doomed, with a heavier focus on questing. She'd play on a PVP server and would be something of a legend on her realm.

She'd pretty much do everything, from hardcore raiding, to achievement hunting, to a little roleplaying on the side with friends.

She'd have two characters she swaps between, a troll warlock and an undead rogue, and would have the most min-maxed gear she can possibly get at all times. A "for the Horde!" girlie all the way. The warlock has tailoring/enchanting for professions, and the rogue mining/jewelcrafting, and she's got every recipe she can get her hands on for both.

I could see Sam trying to get Tucker and Danny into WoW, only to be wildly disappointed with their character decisions as both of them cozy up Alliance-side on a roleplaying realm.

-

Tucker takes one glance at worgen and goes "I'm gonna be a fucking werewolf" and it's all over from there. His main would be a guardian/feral druid (tank and melee dps) with the corniest RP name you've ever seen, and he loves them dearly. He's always looking for new transmog to dress up with, and he takes his mining/engineering professions a little too seriously. He mostly plays with Danny, but probably has a horde alt Sam forced him to make so they could actually play together before cross-faction became a thing (I am being intentionally Vague about what expansions they'd be playing in).

Tucker's horde alt would be a tauren druid that ALSO runs engineering. Pretty much the same character, especially considering he spends 90% of his time in animal forms.

-

Danny would start off playing a night elf monk and would get more into the RP of it than he ever wants to openly admit. He loves all of the flips and shit the monks do, and he's all in on the night elf aesthetic. He swaps between mistweaver and windwalker (healer and DPS), depending on what him and Tucker need to get shit done. He doesn't really focus a lot on the professions, instead going for dual gathering with mining and herbalism so he just has a lot of rocks and plants to throw at Tucker or onto the auction house.

After the accident though, Danny takes a long, staring look at death knights and decides he needs to play one-- for the memes. He's dogshit at it after playing monk for so long, but you can pry his frost (dps) death knight from his cold, half-dead hands.

The DK is just another night elf and when he's RPing, Danny likes to say it's the same character as the monk.

(Also I specifically think that Danny would play a nelf instead of a draenei because, as a trans Danny truther, I feel like the too-buff male draeneis would be a little Much for him, and the femme ones would be too dysphoric.)

-

Val would very begrudgingly start playing WoW with them once she joins Team Phantom. She'd go Horde-side with Sam, with a tauren warrior decked head to toe in red. She quickly gets sucked into the game, and gets a little intense with farming for all of the things she wants-- mounts, cool transmog, some battle pets. She likes to do a lot of content alone, finding it fun to just go off questing, but she'll let herself be dragged into dungeons ever now and then. She just doesn't have the time or energy for raiding consistently.

Val winds up making a bunch of different alts eventually to keep collecting shit, and she gets scary good at gold farming so she can pay for her subscription with in-game currency. She's got a bunch of different professions she runs on her various alts, but the warrior's got mining/blacksmithing since the idea of making her own armor won her out.

-

Dani plays on a laptop bought with Vlad's money, on a subscription also bought with Vlad's money. She takes one look at Val and Sam playing Horde-side and decides there is no other side to play.

She mains a vulpera hunter and is a troll through and through. She lives up to the hunter stereotype of accidentally pulling everything, but makes up for it by being scary good at DPS and PVP. Her and Val do a lot of mog and mount farming together, and some of her favorite things to collect are the battle pets and toys. She's got Meerah's Jukebox (a toy that plays a song about alpacas before exploding) hotkeyed to drop at a moment's notice.

She winds up getting a little too invested in alchemy, insisting she needs to be good at making goop.

-

Wes would not play WoW, and would instead play FFXIV and would never shut up about how much better it is than WoW.

Bonus:

Lancer plays a lot of WoW during the summer when school is out. He's got a human mage who looks a bit like a buff version of him that he's been playing since the game released, and he's got all sorts of achievements and collectibles held onto from that era. He runs herbalism/inscription as a profession, and has every recipe for it under the sun. He still insists on riding his first horse mount that he ever got, and it has a Shakespearean name.

[whohasfourthumbsand]

>//:hash/3dnrifj38487ddmfk9

>//:uplinkstate_RDY@1754hr/num_usr_1

>//[NewUserG192]: How would I replace a slightly irradiated waist drive assembly that's been penetrated by enemy fire? Model Blackbeard, Block XVI. The securing bolts appear to be fused to their screws. Our unit's technicians have prevented me from handling it due to fears about radiological contamination.

+ It sounds to me like your unit's technicians have the situation handled, and that you shouldn't intervene and risk your own safety for no good reason.

+ That being said, here's what you do; + First off, make sure you got your PPE in order. Some hardsuits are rated to handle certain kinds and levels of radiation; If yours isn't, you'll have to get your hands on someone else's. + Replacing a busted drive assembly isn't the worst process in the world, just make sure your Blackbeard is powered off completely. It's a hardy frame, but woefully top-heavy. If you can lay it supine (not prone), preferably elevated, do that. As for the fused bolts, I'm assuming whatever irradiated your poor striker probably melted or misshaped the metal; You may have to deconstruct a good portion of the surrounding articulation. Good news! The Blackbeard's disconcertingly slim waist makes this process easy. + If you have access to your Blackbeard's printer files, pinpointing the replacement part is also a convenient process. The entire ordeal- from start (beginning disassembly) to finish (reattaching the Blackbeard's hip axles) it should only take the better part of a day.

[alphagodith]

wizardmon in digimon masters online, so nobody has to go through the pain of actually playing that dumpster fire just to see him in it.

(poor translations and boring gameplay aside, every single thing that makes the game somewhat bearable is behind a paywall, and even items you pay real money for only last a short while or only give you a CHANCE at a thing rather than just giving it to you outright)

i farmed candlemons for over an hour just to get 8 data input failures in a row (you need 3 successes to hatch an egg) and then a kind soul on reddit gave me a ready-to-hatch egg for free, which is the only reason these gifs exist.

[remma-demma]

I’m imagining there’s an emergency ER healer at every major Aetherite on Etheris because of the mechanic where when you die from battle in the over world you return to your home Crystal. I imagine adventurers do that like in game but are decidedly not alive until they are revived by a healer.

[quokkafoxtrot]

Yesterday I called someone a boogereater because they killed me outside spawn and it tilted someone on my team.

[meagenimage]

Meanwhile in Guild Wars 2: You travel to a hellish dimension where twisted creatures of madness that feed on emotions live. On your way to topple the local demon warlord, you briefly stop at the side of the road because one of the smaller purple plants covered in teeth looks harvestable. A few whacks with your trusty sickle and you get something that you decide is basically equivalent to a head of cabbage (or a lotus root, or a chili pepper) and can be used entirely interchangeably with the cabbages or lotus roots or chili peppers from back home. Sometimes you get a piece of leather.

i finally hit level 100 cooking in ffxiv and these recipes are getting a little silly

oh i need to make some vegetable soup let me just gather uhh

1 carrot from the moon

2 cloves of garlic from an alternate dimension

1 potato from the past

1 onion from the furthest point in the universe

1 head of broccoli from fucking HEAVEN

salt

and youre done 👍 enjoy the minor damage buffs

[spiribia]

they should do an MMO where everyone is a shapeshifter and you can go live with animal herds in the wild if you want for a time but you are never entirely one of them, noting that the wild animal npcs partake in behaviors with or make calls to one another that you may not understand the logic of but can try to learn to repeat the musical cadence of. this is true of even the human npcs, whose musical language is the most intricate and complex to learn of all and who will ostracize you readily if you do not use it properly. other players are not marked as players and there is no chat feature. as an elk you may not know if the wolf chasing you is an npc or another player who does not know the same of you, and there is no chat. maybe the players would develop a sort of musical cadence to identify other shifters. no one would like this game and it would not be fun. but i would like it

[misairuzame]

Talisman Online - Daring Angel Amulets are MUST HAVE (Light in Darkness)

[returntotheground]

showed the husband the new dragon age trailer (a bit of it at least) and he said it looked like those stupid raid shadow legend trailers but worse lmaooo

[tovaicas]

re: this post, I think the reason I’m so stuck on Eulmore’s involvement is bc I 100% thought ShB was gonna use the WoL’s biggest character flaw (debatably. but it’s their tendency to simply follow directions in pursuit of What’s Right:tm:) via the Exarch intentionally holding details back but you going along w/ it anyway both as a character growth thing and as a meta-commentary on the MMO player’s tendency to just follow quest objectives, but maybe that’s a bit much to expect outta an MMO VHSFVHVSFH

[paper-mario-wiki]

Shangri-La Frontier mid-season review

This is by far the best fake video game I've ever seen written in fiction.

Most MMO-centric isekai stories have trouble with providing accurate and realistic depictions of the complexities and minutia that give MMOs the allure they have. I've seen so much handwavey bullshit tacked onto fake-games that introduce unrealistically overlooked mechanics for reasons like giving the protag immense power just because they're the protag and the story is about them. A good example of this is another MMO Isekai airing this season, "A Playthrough of a Certain Dude's VRMMO Life", wherein the main character becomes extremely rich, powerful, and famous by episode 2 because he stumbled into a stealth archer playstyle, a build which apparently no human in that universe had ever conceived of before, and then making a fortune by selling basic potions to everyone after NPCs stopped selling them (another thing he was uniquely able to do because not a single other player had the forethought to spec into alchemy). These lesser, dime-a-dozen isekai add up to be boring fantasy strories with gaming elements clumsily put in so that the author can demonstrate how powerful the world's inhabitants are by showing their stat allocation screen instead of, say, explaining anything about what they do that's so uniquely powerful and how they figured it out. Ya know, stuff you'd hope to hear about from any competent story.

Shangri-La Frontier is a breath of fresh air for anyone who, like me, is sick of authors ignoring the things that actually make video games compelling in service of creating a stock-standard narratives in fantasy worlds because it allows them to get away with bullshit. I've always found it very convenient that many isekai narratives indulge in things like chattel slavery, because it's societally normal enough for the protag to purchase a beautiful, vulnerable girl to add to his harem (dont worry, she is always inexplicably in love with him no matter what because he's SUCH a kind master). And it never really seems to go anywhere. Because the Video Game Isekai, while an interesting premise in theory, is more often than not used exclusively as a means to simplify the structure of a world's power scaling to abide by an arbitrary set of omnipresent universal rules (e.g. what people who have never cared to look into game development think of video games). This anime, by comparison, is VERY clearly authored by someone who plays a LOT of games.

Every piece of logic used to drive the plot forward, so far, is congruent to a real-world example of video game conventions, and I'm not just talking about levelling up and selling monster parts. Story elements that I've rarely (if ever) seen explored in other isekai are ever-present and genuinely clever and amusingly introduced. My favorite example of this so far has been the way the protagonist has been able to go head to head with so many overlevelled foes in the first 9 episodes. The story of course makes note of how good of a gamer Sanraku (our hero) is, but much like in real life games, being super duper good at dodging attacks doesn't really make up for a 70 level gap in items and learned skills. For that reason, he gets his ass whooped more often than he actually outsmarts others (so far he hasn't beaten a single player in pvp). So how is he getting out of these situations without dying so frequently? Simple: he got access to a later area too early relative to his level (sequence break) and got access to a high level follower NPC that's been carrying him. This is something he acknowledges directly several times, specifically using words like "Emul has been hard-carrying me for a while." This, to me, is extraordinarily meaningful. That's something you can exploit in Skyrim, man. That's REALISTIC CHEESE STRATS. The excitement and wonder I find in this show doesn't come from watching the protag do something unexpected, but by watching him do something that I would think to do.

This knowledge the author has demonstrated regarding modern gaming culture extends further into the actual realistic nature of game design and community. The story exists in a reality where full-dive VRMMOs are the be-all-end-all of gaming, and given the prohibitively expensive nature of developing and designing expansive, immersive worlds, most games are pretty shit. It's been hinted at so far that this is due to a monopolistic megacorp which is one of the only entities rich and powerful enough to make a good game (the game in question being the one that shares the title of the anime), but so far the strife of the characters have been pretty centralized to the happenings of the game world and its politics. By the way, lets talk about the game world's player base politics, which I'm also quite pleased with. It exists in the form of guilds and clans who struggle for power not by participating in seemingly random pvp with other powerful players to see who is the most epic and badass warrior (again, like many contemporary isekai typically opt for), but by gaining actual realistic support from a fictional playerbase with realistic desires and playstyles. Some guilds are interested in lore, some gather for alliance and boss raids, some for things like animal husbandry, and (naturally) at least one is dedicated to trolling and PKing. Each of these factions, through the very little that we've seen of them so far, communicate on forums and only know as much as is reasonable for them to know. The only reason they give a shit about the protagonist at all is because he gained access to a high-level unique scenario quest that they want information on how to access, and the only reason word of that got out in the first place was because someone posted a screenshot of him with a unique NPC onto a forum, asking about it as "where can i find this pet summon, its super cute!" That's real. That's video games, baby.

I like this show a lot so far. I like that it cares about video games, but I also like its writing. I like the main character and how hes less of an ultra badass super cool guy, and more of an earnest challenge-run lets player. Like, a lot of his dialogue straight up sounds strikingly similar to Japanese youtubers. And he's naturally always quick to point out inconsistencies in the game world's logic. I ALSO really like his community of pals from a janky old fighting game, and I ADORE the girl from his school who has a crush on him and also just so happens to be an exceptionally high level player from a top clan, and how she had to spend 9 episodes working up the courage to send him a friend request. I love that so, so much, dude.

I highly recommend this show if you're into a single thing I've mentioned. The animation is great. The world is beautiful. The character design is immaculate. And I'm looking forward to watching it continue.

[cosmerelists]

Favorite Video Game Genres of Cosmere Characters

As requested by @thesternest :)

1. Silence

Silence: Don't know why, really, but I like casual games, games that are just like real life. Silence: Something about doing your daily life, but in game form--very relaxing. William Anne: Uh, mama? I think "Silent Hill" is a survival-horror game. Silence: It is? How so?

2. Marasi

Marasi: [Looks around nervously] Marasi: I...well, I like first-person shooters. Marasi: I-I just like to pretend I'm in the Roughs, like Wax! Marasi: I don't want to be Wax in real life or anything, but...it can be fun in a game!

3. Dalinar

Dalinar: In real life, war is a terrible necessity. Dalinar: In games, war is fun. Dalinar: ... Dalinar: I like tactical RPGs.

4. Vin

Vin: Huge fan of platform games. Vin: Jumping from ledge to ledge, controlling my speed and trajectory, occasionally swinging from hooks or managing double jumps... Vin: It's just like moving through the city as a Mistborn! Elend: Your high-score is RIDICULOUS, Vin! Vin: I'm also REALLY good at it.

5. Yumi

Yumi: I wasn't allowed video games for a long time, but now that I can play them... Yumi: [eyes sparking] I've become a HUGE fan of visual novels! Yumi: It's like Seasons of Regret, only *I* can be the one making the choices!

6. Leshwi

Leshwi: Like many Fused and Singers, I find myself quite taken with Rhythm games. Leshwi: Now that it is no longer appropriate for me to fight the Windrunners, I do like to challenge them to Dance Dance Revolution instead. Kaladin: OH COME ON I DEFINITELY HAD THAT Leshwi: I always win.

7. Steris

Steris: I used to think games were a waste of time, but then Wax introduced me to these construction simulators. Steris: My city is a paradise with excellent infrastructure, logical layout, and plenty of greenspace. Wayne: You should try to mod that makes a tsunami hit your city! Steris: Oh please, I beat that mod yesterday on my first try.

8. Navani

Navani: Recently, I've gotten into Tower Defense games. Sibling: I can defend myself, thank you very much.

9. Vivenna

Vivenna: Love a good roguelike. Vivenna: It's something about trying it over and over again until you're perfect. Vivenna: The victory is sooo sweet when you've worked hard to achieve it, dying many times. Siri: Oh me too!! I especially like Hades--the art is AMAZING. Vivenna: (scoffs) You mean a rogue-lite? Siri: I'm telling you--you should try one! Getting powerups in between runs is pretty sweet. Vivenna: Hedging out a difficult victory after hours of blood, sweat and tears is also fun! Siri: If you say so...

10. Lightsong

Lightsong: Soooo addicted to Candy Crush. Lighsong: Can't even tell you why. Llarimar: Perhaps your divine eye is drawn to the bright colors. Lightsong: Whatever makes you feel better, Scoot.

11. Adolin

Adolin: Lately I've become completely engrossed with life simulators. Adolin: I make my character get up, make breakfast, go to work, go on dates, learn the piano... Adolin: WHY IS IT SO ADDICTING?? Shallan: This may be a sign that your actual life is incredibly stressful and the allure of a simple, daily life is drawing you in? Adolin: No, that doesn't sound right... Shallan: You want to date a bisexual vampire? Adolin: ...That could be it.

12. Rlain

Rlain: I'm quite taken with these cozy farming games. Rlain: You just build a nice farm, meet the villagers, explore around. Renarin: Rlain, please, it's been six hours! Rlain: Just one more day...

13. Tress

Tress: I've been enjoying survival games! Tress: It's fun to gather and cook and build a base! Tress: A little bit unrealistic, because the rain doesn't make anything explode, but I guess they wanted to make it easier than real life, not harder.

14. Shallan

Shallan: It has to be MMOs for me. Shallan: I like a game where I can do pretty much anything I want. Shallan: Advance the story, collect every type of mushroom, fill in the whole map... Shallan: Plus, I like leveling every class and giving each one their own outfit and personality. Veil: You named the rogue after me, I see. Shallan: It's a compliment.

15. Kelsier

Kelsier: There's only one type of game for me: and that's a game where the name of the, uh, game is survival. Kelsier: And I especially like it when you have to survive as a team. Kelsier: Especially against great odds--like lots and lots of real-life players. Kelsier: Yup, yup. Kelsier: It's all about Fornite for me.

[kerubimcrepin]

Liveblog: Wakfu Season 2 (episode 17)

I find myself liking Eva a lot, during this rewatch, because I really am realizing that Eva&Joris is a very interesting and insane duo to consider.

If Ankama was wiser, they'd make them friends explicitly. Oh well.

Joris watching Adamai say this (Adamai is living through his worst nightmare of the person who loved him dying and coming back without memories, this time for real): 😬💀🚶‍♂️

This seems like some sort of waiting room for the meeting, judging from the fact that all the participants (as well as Grougal, but, to be fair, he's like a baby, it's logical that he'd be present with him until the very last possible moment, before being passed on to babysitters.)

I think it's interesting that Joris is sitting quite neutrally, looking exactly at Adamai and Armand, while Qilby is turned fully towards him.

...Studying him, perhaps?

Judging from the fact that Qilby was appealing to Sadida royalty by having studied their texts, and claiming to have met their god, he seems interested in learning more about people — maybe to manipulate, maybe simply curious.

Considering Qilby's connection with dragons and millions of years worth of memory, I could wager that he can feel/see that Joris is a bit weird.

(I know I am reading way too much into this, but let me have this lmaoo.)

This is why I find it quite fascinating that Qilby (interested in studying people around him, maybe seeking an advantage) is telling Joris (an old, dragonized Bontarian deligate) about a dragon that razed Bonta before Joris was born (Arty (Goultard's Dead Dragon Husband)).

Trying to gauge if Joris is secretly a dragon? If he knows that dragon? Trying to gauge his age? His opinions? Hmm???

This is one of the most short and uninformative Joris one-liners in the whole franchise. He's so epic for the way he dodges saying anything here.

Considering the fact that Joris is 1. pretty gullable, actually, 2. generally distrustful of people he doesn't know, especially royalty, 3. sounds pretty happy about this interaction here, I think Joris's opinion of Qilby is "this is a foreign leader, and the whole thing is going to cause a lot of issues. Eliatropes' happiness is worth it, though, and also he seems nice enough. But we are not friends."

Basically, I think Qilby has Joris on his side hook, line, and sinker. Lmaoo.

HE LOOKS SO AMUSED BY THE SHENANIGANS.

Joris LOVES Sadida Kingdom.

I'm insane about Brakmar. Of course the prince of Brakmar (a capitalist hellhole) would be the only one to give a lowly servant a coin.

[wipes tear] Tipping culture is real in Brakmar because otherwise people will not survive on their wage alone. Just like in America...

While none of them are shown, this meeting implies the existence of a kingdom for every race. (I need ecaflip lore so bad...)

I love this animation error so much. How did this happen.

Sitting cutely with his hands crossed.

Guys I think Qilby might have supremacist beliefs about his people. Idk, just a hunch.

And in THIS shot, the animation error is gone.

I want so, so bad to know about whatever the Ecaflip equivalent of Cra City/Sadida Kingdom may be...

Kerubim has canonically been to Trool fair and he LOVES fishing for quaquacks, and we know this from the anniversary map commentary (despite his painful and traumatic memories from episode 48 of Aux Tresors de Kerubim. He talks in the MMO about being uneasy about quaquacks since then.)

Another error — Joris sits there quite inconsistently...

@dullard @dullard @dullard @dullard @dullard @dullard @dullard HEY DULLARD HE SAID THE LINE—-

I love this so much. He's been dealing with politics for centuries, and he's so fucking angry that he allowed himself to slip up and say something antagonizing.

This is a bunch of rich people who have not known orphanhood or living in squalor in their entire lives, talking about putting children in mines, and trying to pass off a bunch of children who lost their parents in a war like a hot potato. And one of them, from a country that his country fucking hates, says that this might lead to a war.

I think Joris, with his life story and opinions and the tragedies he's witnessed in life, must be thinking things much harsher than this. Just a hunch.

This "us" doesn't include Bonta, btw :)

While I have issues with season 4, I do like that there was some moral ambiguity to the world leaders: with hindsight, I think we can say pretty easily that Brakmar's concerns are quite valid, even if false this time.

As I've said — Joris, like Yugo and Adamai, thinks pretty simply that everyone should always do good things, and that it's so so simple to be good — you just give people what they need! :) It's literally so so simple.

And that's how he, after becoming the ruler of Bonta in Waven, got to the point of having: cannibalistic wars, using living beings as building material and weapons, having 999 prisoners of war, spies and guards everywhere, implied slavery, as well as—- [I am forcibly taken offstage]

Once again, Wakfu demonstrates that Bonta and Sadida are very closely aligned.

me and @dullard have had countless conversations about this fucking episode, and he said a lot of interesting things. Here are some highlights, which he has allowed me to include:

I literally don't even know how to put my opinions into words, besides including these screenshots.

[psychedelic-charm]

This image was discovered by @s1ndle and @simnostalgia. It's a list of icons for "Interests" that EA was originally going to put into The Sims Online, but was unfortunately scrapped. The interests are as follows:

-Adult Entertainment (thank God this one was scrapped because it's too mature for a family MMO)

-Alternative Music

-Alt Lifestyles (in this context it's referring to LGBT relationships, but the phrase "alternative lifestyle" could mean anything)

-Anime (love the Sailor Moon icon!)

-Antiques

-Automobiles

-Beer (an explicit reference to alcohol)

-Board Games

-Books (I can see this interest giving Sims an advantage in building their Logic skill)

-Camping

-Children (I don't think you could even have children in TSO, so what would even be the point of this?)

-Cocktails (missed opportunity to introduce the Mixology skill before The Sims 3 came out)

-Collectables

-Comedy

-Comics

-Cooking (one of the iconic skills in the franchise)

-Costuming

-Creative Expression

-Crime (committing crimes or solving crimes?)

-Disco

-Documentary Film

-Entertainment News

-Excercise

-Film

-Finance

-Fine Art

-Fine Dining

-Flirting

-Gardening

-Golf

-Gossip

-Goth (wouldn't this count as an alt lifestyle?)

-Hip Hop

-Interior Decorating (ironic since one of the features in the Sims is building and customizing your own homes)

-Jazz music

-Meditation

-Medieval

-Moshpit (why?)

-Oldies

-Party Games

-Pets (The Sims Unleashed, which allows your sims to have pets, would not be released until a year after TSO)

-Photography

-Pro Wrestling

-Rap

-Religion

-Robotics

-School

-Skateboarding

-Skiing

-Soaps

-Sports Fan

-Stage Shows

-Theater

-Travel

-UFOs

-Vegitarianism

-Video Games

-Wine (Nectar in the Sims world)

-World News

-Writing

-Xtreme Sports

Which interests would you have chosen for your Sim?

[cheval-grand]

it makes me feel a kind of way when i see SSO complaints that are just players not understanding very basic game and business logic.

"why don't they add XYZ?" SSO's framework is over a decade old, it has limitations as to what they can do.

"why are there always bugs when an update is released?" because not all bugs can be found in testing. this happens with every single game out there; there are singleplayer games from 15 years ago still getting bug fixes to this day.

"why does Star Rider cost $80?" you are getting over a DECADE of content, in the form of areas, quests, and star rider exclusives, as well as a weekly allowance of paid currency, for LIFE! A MAJORITY of MMOs charge annually ONLY, and a lot of those also charge you for new areas in the form of expansions on top of being billed monthly, half-yearly, or yearly.

"why don't they just remake SSO?" That's like deciding to tear down a mansion because you want to add a room onto it. Building games is HARD. And it costs a LOT of money.

"why does everything cost star coins, or a ridiculous amount of shillings?" because most of the playerbase bought lifetime membership YEARS ago; those funds have LONG since been used. SSE's revenue is mostly likely coasting on star coin sales.

"why isn't SSE more transparent about things?" Probably because of how consistently there's backlash to the smallest things. It doesn't look good for interested new players when your playerbase is actively hostile about the game, especially on official posts. The best damage control is to not cause damage in the first place.

SSE aren't saints or without fault, but I will say. I've been playing consistently for almost a year now, and they have fulfilled every promise they've made so far. And it's A LOT considering what was the starting product. Enjoy what we have! Celebrate the progress! And continue to anticipate and encourage what's to come!