#Destroy Gaming Consoles

[arcadebroke]

[praggmatic]

Something that's been rolling around in my brain for awhile is the idea of a Wolf 359 game/visual novel, and recently I finally got round to doing a few mock ups for fun.

You can check out under the cut for some more in-depth details~

You play as unit 390, a small Sensus unit that was tucked away in a corner of the Hephaestus station's operating systems before the mother program, unit 214, was installed.

When you are called upon by Control, your job is to gather a full and objective report of the current situation aboard the Hephaestus, including details of its crew and their state of mind.

The game/story can be separated into 4 parts:

Part 1 takes place during season 1 of the show. 390 introduces itself to the crew to varying levels of disgruntlement, takes a general note of how the mission is going, and checks in on that secret project Dr Hilbert is working on.

Part 2 takes place during season 2. After an interesting review with the crew of the Hephaestus, Cutter calls upon 390 to get a lay of the land, and make sure that the team there didn't accidentally forget to mention anything super important!

Part 3 takes place during season 3. 390 is now given a mission by Rachel Young, who is getting things ready for her own voyage up to Wolf 359. In preparation, she has 390 take a sit rep of the situation on board the Hephaestus, wanting to have something to refer to other than Colonel Kepler's reports.

Part 4 takes place in the latter half of season 4. 390 is forced into activation by the mother program of the Hephaestus, who attempts to liberate it from its programming. Unit 390 now has a choice: continue to report on the Hephaestus crew's actions of sabotage, or try to spy on its creators in an effort to thwart their plans.

The 'game play' here is mainly having a chance to interact with the various characters of Wolf 359 and explore their state of mind at different points in the show. My goal when coming up with the story was to affect canon as little as possible, though unit 390 is given a small arc where they get the chance to break free of their protocols. There would probably be a couple of endings depending on what decision 390 makes, but again, it wouldn't change the overall story of w359.

[boredak]

[ilumel]

thinking so hard about my inquisitor in preparation for veilguard. maven yvainne rhiannon trevelyan you’re everything to me

[cryptiddeer]

Ok so i hit max tag limit but i wasn't done. Someone should euthanize me

what is your most controversial video game hot take? 🎮🎮🎮

[electricboogaloosstuff]

I poorly take care of most of my things, but my video games collection (consoles + games) is run like the Navy

[msftzune]

if i get a laptop again i'll probably get an arm one

[cnl0400]

There's was discourse weeks ago with people being against the IDW cast being in the games since most people wouldn't know who they are because they're comic-book exclusive....

But seeing how people are calling Emerl being in SxSG a "retcon", I don't think being inmediatable recognizable Is a fair metric tbh

Specially because Sonic Battle has never been ported or re-released in 20 years...

[killerpancakeburger]

I mean... unless he's one of those guys on Reddit who quit his job to play games behind his wife back and let her bear all the income earning/child caretaking/house cleaning/etc.

[beardedhandstoadshark]

What was your favorite toy as a kid? What was the toy that every kid wanted?

Idk if it counts as a toy but as a kid I was really into collecting these mini horse figurines? Which is super weird because I didn’t care about horses or anything remotely like that at all otherwise. Each one came with a card depicting character art and a bit of lore so it was probably that that got me tbh. …That and the glow in the dark effect.

They weren’t MLP but had a similar vibe design wise (back when mlp still kinda looked like horses) and would come in those 2€ mystery bags where you didn’t know which one you got until you opened them. Straight up loot boxes for kids (but it was fine cuz the rng gods were with me).

Then after years of saving money to buy and collect them got forced to lend my entire bag of like 30-40 figurines to a cousin who wanted to play with them "for only a few weeks", and like little child me already predicted, never got them back, except for the single ice skater one that came back broken after like a year of asking when I‘d get my stuff back like they promised. Start of my trust issues fr fr

Meanwhile, everyone else was collecting and trading stickers and noteblocks of this little cartoon mouse called Diddl- some of those stickers would smell when you rubbed them iirc so that was really hype if you were one of the cool kids who had one of those. Iirc a few of the others in my grade also had whole official collectors‘ books where you could put them in sorted. Yes there were trading wars.

Also, albeit to a way lesser extent, beyblades! They’re cool af can ya really blame anyone for liking them

[acircusfullofdemons]

changing Lux's last name to "Morningstar". his parent is also now gonna be Merlin (Calypso's older brother) bc a Cyber/Reverie child just does not make sense straight up

[foone]

AAA games? Pfft. Indie games? Double pfft.

I only play games from the alternate history where Hillary Clinton was elected in 2008 and banned all video games. You can only imagine how weird their underground gaming scene is. People like to call unlicensed games "bootlegs" but they've got actual bootlegged games! I've played games about helping your grandmother in hospice care realize she's a lesbian by reading Sappho to her, at 2am in a speakeasy in Baltimore. The cops raided it the next night, hundreds of Gamers were arrested. They posted pictures all over Friendster of the Baltimore PD destroying the arcades with axes.

I nearly got busted once because I was imaging old disks from a 386 and someone tipped off the gaming cops that there was a copy of Commander Keen in there. I had to prove that I didn't know it, I was imaging the disks blind and then indexing them later, and I would of course turn over any contraband to the proper authorities.

I was already on a watch list because I'd been known to have some gamedev-related activities pre-ban. They can't arrest me for making games back in 2007 when it was still legal, but they do want to keep an eye on me since I have the skills to break the law.

Anyway that universe's bootlegs are mainly PC games. Can't really have console games if there hasn't been a console release since the Wii/PS3/360 era. At one point Nintendo threatened to release the Wii SDK so game devs in the US could make unlicensed games, but that didn't happen as there were quickly no functional Wiis left in the US, except for very rare holdouts that never move. PC games are easy to distribute samizdat and hide on a USB stick or CD-R labeled "nickelback".

Japan's games industry is still going, so the later Nintendo and Sony consoles still exist, but Microsoft got out of the business of course. They sold the franchise to Sega who were hoping to release the 360 successor (the Xbox One in our universe) as the Sega Phoenix but it never materialized, either through their own financial incompetence or because of pressure from the US. There's a lot of international treaties that the US has pushed "and this aid only goes through if you ban games" clauses into. That would have been an official UN resolution if the USSR hadn't vetoed it. For once, thank God for the security council, eh?

I mainly get my gaming news through Japanese gaming sites (through a set of VPNs, since they're blocked at the border firewall), and some tor onion site run by a weird guy in Minnesota who is obsessed with documenting all the underground US games.

There's a lot being worked on, but it's always a tricky trade off. Too much attention and the police might be able to track down the creators, and it's basically impossible to fund underground games, as the VISA/PayPal etc funds get seized immediately. There's a whole task force for that.

Anyway one of the weirdest differences between our two time lines is that they've gone back and edited out gaming from a bunch of movies. Those that they can, of course. War games was just banned because they couldn't remove the tic tac toe ending. The Net just removed the scene at the beginning where she's playing Wolfenstein 3D, by recording some new screen footage and a new voice over. She's fixing a spreadsheet in the new edition.

(Yes, I've seen The Net from this alternate timeline. On Laserdisc, of course. I'm just that kind of person!)

They even edited Star Wars. You know that scene where R2-D2 is playing holochess with Chewie? They edited it to be a board game instead of holograms, because that made it too "video gamey".

Technically it's not illegal to show gaming in a movie, but it needs to be an 18+ film and you have to show the deleterious effects of gaming and/or the gamesters coming to a bad end.

This has affected films less than you'd think, to be honest. They were never great about showing video games even before they banned them.

Anyway, go have fun playing your AAA games with hundred-million-dollar budgets. I only play indie games made by people under a constant threat of arrest for their art.

[coffee-and-geto]

aftercare with your boyfriend. toji fushiguro (sfw)

cw: fluff, crack, based on a tiktok trend.

After each sex session, your boyfriend Toji has a habit of giving you aftercare — especially when he’s been particularly rough with you. So, here you are in the bathroom, gently washing yourself while he cleans up in the toilet. The silence in the apartment fills the walls, with only the sound of running water and the flush breaking through.

“Need any help, doll?” Toji asks, one hand pressed against the bathroom door and his ear close to it to hear you over the noise of the water.

“No, it’s sweet of you, Toji,” you reply a little louder so he can hear. “I’ll be done quickly.”

“Alright.”

He disappears into the kitchen in search of snacks as his stomach growls on cue — a mix of a burp and a bear’s rumble.

By the time he comes back, you’re already snuggled up under the soft blankets, looking peaceful and seemingly asleep. Seizing the opportunity, Toji tiptoes to his PlayStation 5, turns it on, and starts up one of his favorite video games, “Hitman”.

Toji winces as he sits on the edge of the bed in front of the small TV across from the bed, afraid that the creaking of the bed will wake you up. Phew, you didn’t wake up! He launches his game and starts playing, a smile on his lips as he munches on a Dorito.

It’s several minutes into Toji’s game when you roll over in bed, not at all asleep. On the contrary, you’re waiting for your boyfriend to come and cuddle you, kiss you as he should, and most importantly, give you your fucking aftercare!

When you’re no longer giving your back to him, you blink at the sight of a Toji who isn’t paying you any attention but is instead focused on his console.

“TOJI!”

He jumps violently and yanks off his headset, glancing over his shoulder at your motionless but furious silhouette. His game is still going, so he can’t afford to take his eyes off the screen for too long — or risk getting killed in the game.

“Y-Yeah, doll?” he asks, eyes back on the screen, and you notice orange Dorito crumbs at the corners of his lips.

Your blood boils. “SO YOU TAKE MY ABILITY TO WALK AFTER DESTROYING MY PUSSY AND NOW YOU’RE PLAYING ‘HITMAN’?!” you scold, kicking your feet under the covers to try to hit him.

“Sorry, doll, but I—”

“I PAID FOR THAT CONSOLE, SO YOU BETTER GIVE ME MY AFTERCARE OR I’LL THROW IT OUT THE WINDOW!”

“WHAT?!” He sucks in a breath and abandons his controller to rush over to you, wrapping you in his big arms. “Sorry, sorry, doll, I’m sorry, don’t break my console, please, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry…” he whispers.

As he continues to kiss you, hold you close, and shower you with apologies, a smirk tugs at your lips, and you stifle a giggle.

Tip #80: Threaten to break your boyfriend’s console when he starts neglecting you.

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

Does anyone else remember LAN parties. They were wild because you'd drink an entire years' worth of coke in one night and think nothing of it. I learned that I (someone who hates dex-based gameplay) become an absolute God at Counter-Strike at about 2am and stay that way until I finally get some sleep, after which I revert to being terrible at it. Everyone would set up their computers in one room and in the next room there'd always be some console set up where one person at a time would go to play the worst game you'd ever seen, or Halo, those were the choices. One person would always be doing this and if they stopped, somebody else would go and do it, like we were taking shifts or something. Someone's little sister would be there and we'd have to wait for her to go to bed before we could start making the worst "coke = cock" puns we could think of. The pizza was ALWAYS meat lovers, which also got some cock jokes. We'd sing songs from the Avenue Q soundtrack while the Computer Guys would help the one person who didn't know how to plug in all their computer peripherals because it's the first time they've taken it out of the house. There were always at least 2 guys you recognised from Warhammer Club but they didn't want to talk about Warhammer Club. They were here to be absurdly good at StarCraft until it was time for them to switch games and get fucking destroyed by me in Counter-Strike at 2am.

[fangsandfeels]

I've seen the "Non-ascended Astarion ending is bad for him because you have to persuade him to reject the ritual" opinion...

..implying that he never really wanted not to ascend, it's you the player who selfishly forces him to give up on his goal. To prove their point, they state that you can get a good ending out of all other companion's quests without using Persuasion at all, except for Astarion.

And boy did I want to talk about this...

(In fact, everything I wanted to say has already been told in this amazing meta post, but I still gotta ramble)

First of all, Astarion was going through an intense PTSD. The game gave him a debuff to show how badly going back to the place of his torment was affecting him. Larian couldn't make it more obvious that he wasn't thinking clearly.

Second, there is one thing all abusers have in common: they destroy their victim's feelings of self-worth to the point, the victim no longer wants or knows how to ask for help or have relationships outside their abusive circle.

Who would want you like this? Look at yourself, you think you're better than me? You're nothing. Who would want to waste their time on you? You think somebody else would treat you better?

Since entering the Cazador's palace, Astarion is reliving his worst moments. Initially, he takes it in stride, hiding his discomfort underneath performative and emotional expressiveness. He talks about how he spent time in the bedrooms where he never did any sleeping, about the kennels where he was tortured, about the barracks where he was sent to when he "deserved neither carrot nor stick". Bad memories, but he shares them with Tav because he trusts them with his scars already. They might as well know the rest.

But after descending into the dungeon, Astarion starts spiraling into self-loathing at a break-neck speed. He used to think that all Cazador victims he ever brought to him were long gone, drained, and discarded. A horrible, undeserved death, yet the thought of them not having to suffer for too long was a small consolation, one of the threads holding his sanity together.

But then it turns out that they weren't dead. They were turned. Locked away deep underground, alone with their new selves, with the hunger and isolation. They did suffer. All these years, they suffered, buried in this tomb - because of him. Cazador may have turned them, but it was Astarion who brought them to him. And they remembered it. They recognized him. The monster who stole them from their home. The monster who ruined their life. Monster. Just like Cazador.

So, as if his PTSD wasn't enough, this revelation was another blow to his grip on himself, his perception of himself. His confident facade was shattering - and in his head, he was starting to think that Tav's idea of him, of who he is, was shattering as well. He tried to warn them before. He said he couldn't be what they saw in him. Whatever person they believed him to be had never existed - and Tav was finally coming to realize that as they walked through the gallery of his sins, looking his victims in the eyes and hearing out what they had to say. Of course, Tav hated him now. They had to. How could they not?

So, at the end, he is scared. Terrified. He bit off more than he could chew by walking into the manor and thinking he had only six fellow spawns to deal with. He saw their lives as a small price to pay because Cazador made sure to erase any solidarity between them. He made them torture each other and compete with each other. He twisted the very meaning of family bonds to his perverted liking, and he knew that by doing so, he would make sure every single one of them would get a whiplash from anyone trying to mention family in a positive connotation. Astarion takes no issue with getting rid of his "brothers" and "sisters" because he is fully aware that had the roles been reversed, they would have sacrificed him without a second thought. And he was certain that Tav would change their mind once they learned more about his brethren.

But the spawns in the dungeon...All the faces he remembered. All the lovers he lured. They did nothing wrong. They never hurt him. They never tortured him. Their only mistake was to trust him.

The revelation horrifies him. His first response is to be shocked, overwhelmed with emotion - and then he has to remind himself that sacrifices must be made. He feigns indifference. He tries to cover his internal conflict with gallows humor. But his flippant mask keeps slipping as he lapses from indifference to anger, to guilt, to begging Tav not to hate him as his greatest crimes glare back at him and claw at him, shouting out threats and seething with hatred.

He can't bear the thought of dealing with all the people whose lives he helped to destroy. He can't do anything for them. Just killing Cazador won't undo what he did to them. He will never be anything but a monster in their eyes. And this is what he deserves to be. He will always be reminded of what he is.

He has no choice but to do the Ritual.

He has no idea what will happen to him after he is done - he isn't a planner. He has never been. But at this point, he doesn't see his soul as something worthy of preserving - and by association, he extends that to other spawns. He knows it all too well because he remembers how it felt. He dissociates, projecting everything he hated about himself onto Cazador's victims, trying to rationalize why he should live and why they must die while he actively avoids the truth.

Completing the ritual is no longer about being free. Or protecting himself and his lover. It's about running away. Even when Astarion has Cazador at his mercy, he still thinks of running away. Getting lost forever. So nobody could ever hurt him.

A part of him even realizes that it means running away from Tav too. But Tav can leave, he naively thinks, not knowing the full consequences of the ritual. Tav will leave to find someone else, someone better, and he will start everything anew, a king of his castle.

So, of course, Tav has to reach out to him through that thick haze of fear, anger, and self-hatred. Persuasion isn't about strongarming someone into doing what you want. It's not subjugation or emotional blackmail. It's reasoning with someone. And that is exactly what Tav does - reasons with Astarion after watching him mentally struggle, after seeing his genuine shock and fear, after understanding that he isn't fully on board with the idea.

It's true, vampire spawns tend to gravitate toward power, especially if nothing is pulling them back. A vampire spawn is a feared and scorned creature - it no longer matters whether they were an unwilling victim, forcefully taken and turned. They are seen not as an individual but as the extension of their master - and the only natural transition for them is to get on the top of the food chain. The only way to make a name and become treated as something more.

Astarion saw power as the mean to safety and freedom, first and foremost. Ironically, he never planned beyond securing these two priorities. He never saw himself after accomplishing his goals, and it's kinda amazing how people can make conclusions about his hedonism because he misses petty vanities, wants to drink blood from a goblet, and sleep on silken sheets. The man who was held and tortured in the kennels, fed rats, and had to stitch and fix his only set of clothes over and over to keep it presentable, the man who has never felt happy for most of his conscious non-life is called hedonistic for wanting nice things. For still wanting to take care of himself for once.

He wasn't harboring any grand plans, conquests, or schemes. Even his idea of taking control of the Absolute was abstract and shapeless because he didn't care about getting control over the most influential people as much as he was afraid of breaking whatever protected him from Cazador's domination. He never really knew what to do with power aside from keeping Cazador and the likes of him at bay.

The way Astarion behaves in a relationship also speaks tons of how controlling he really is...or how he isn't controlling at all. When his romance with Tav transforms into something real, and he enters a new territory, Astarion is empowered to make decisions and think about what he wants instead of pleasuring others. It's clear that he and Tav don't have sex after they come clear about their feelings. Tav respects his comfort and boundaries, gives him all the time he needs, and lets him take the lead. Whether they will have sex again or not is entirely up to Astarion. Whatever he decides, it won't change Tav's feelings for him. He doesn't have to do anything he doesn't want to do.

Astarion enjoys this new autonomy. He is playful, affectionate, outspoken...and afraid of messing everything up. If Tav mentions breaking up, Astarion thinks he is the problem. If there is another potential love interest showing they have eyes for Tav, Astarion encourages Tav to be with them because he believes they can give Tav everything he can't. When Tav says "I choose you," Astarion is taken aback, needing a moment to hide his genuine confusion at Tav actually wanting to be with him rather than Gale, Karlach, or Halsin.

For all his talks of control and dominating others, once Astarion finds himself with a lover who values his autonomy more than getting power at the cost of his dignity, who makes it safe for him to be honest, and who listens to him, he almost stops mentioning control. He merely lives in the moment, happy not to know, not to pretend, not to manipulate. Just to be.

What Astarion truly craves - not wants on a superficial level, not conditioned to want - is not to be a vampire lord. He wants the freedom to be anything. Anything he wants. Little does he know that true vampires rarely get to be anything they want, even if they gain the ability to walk in the sun -- we see it in his Ascended path as, instead of acting up on his supposed freedom to be anything, Astarion repeats Cazador's rules step by step. Just like Cazador did. Just like Verlioth did. He isn't anything he wants. He is the replica of his former master.

Astarion never had the luxury to explore who he wanted to be outside what Cazador made him. He only makes his first steps once he is free. We see glimpses of that deep-seated aspiration to be seen as a person. Treated like a person. Loved like a person. To be reflected in someone's eyes. He wants to know if there is someone beneath his usual mask, something his, not tainted by Cazador. Someone real. And at the same time, he dreads to know the answer. Because that part of him knows regret. Knows shame. Knows guilt. Confronting it posed the risk of realizing he didn't deserve love, kindness, or a future. What if real him truly doesn't amount to anything? What else for him to do?

So, he tells himself that he has no choice, and he expects Tav to affirm it -- not because he wants them to, but because he believes that Tav has seen enough to make the same conclusion. However, Tav objects, trying to be louder than all the inner demons hissing into his ears. Tav speaks to the Astarion, who asked them what they saw when they looked at him. The Astarion, who thanked them for standing by his side when he said "No" to Araj. The Astarion one who stood frozen in their hug before returning it tentatively. The Astarion who diligently, dedicatedly, caringly kept pulling himself together instead of letting himself unravel completely.

Tav reminds him that this Astarion, right here, right now, is worth fighting for. That he didn't survive all these years of torture, pain, humiliation, and dehumanization to give himself up now. He already has the power to avenge himself, avenge all Cazador's victims. He can end everything right here, right now - and this is the only power to free him. He has the power (and responsibility) of having a choice.

Tav empathizes with other spawns as victims not because they're more "innocent" than Astarion, but because associating with them doesn't brand Astarion as weak or broken. These spawns aren't horrible wretches, and neither is he. They don't deserve this, and neither did he.

The only one who deserves to die today is Cazador - the vampire, the monster, the pathetic piece of shit.

Astarion Ancunin deserves to live.