#I appreciate the games that give the option to use standard playing cards instead

[bardicbeany]

With the number of solo ttrpgs I've come across that use tarot to play, I'm starting to wonder if I need to get myself a tarot deck...

[inventors-fair]

Heroes of the Realms

Apologies for the slight scheduling hiccup this week, but nonetheless congratulations to our winners: @dabudder, @dumbellsndragons, and @gollumni!

Immustrum Champion

While I don’t necessarily agree with your critical take on my good friend Arni, this does feel like a pretty natural space for Boast to play in that was surprisingly unrepresented. The body of the creature itself feels appropriate and the first strike helps ensure that it’s safe to attack in with, and the effect seems both exciting enough to justify being mythic, but not inherently so powerful as to be broken. Indeed, I suspect the only reason a design like this didn’t appear in the set was to avoid doubling up with Embercleave in Standard, which already provides a lot of reach to red agressive decks - giving them a second way to go over the top by turn five was probably just a little too much. All that aside, this design was an elegant application of the mechanics from the set, taking advantage of the natural restrictions of the mechanic itself.

Axgard Battlesuit

What I appreciate most about this one is the rather aggressive costing: while there were several elements of the set that encouraged Dwarf/Vehicle/Equipment synergy, none of the ones that saw print felt particularly powerful or compelling. This makes for a potentially playable base that might make some of those less powerful payoffs worthwhile, with a reasonable benefit for running it in a Dwarf-heavy deck while not being necessarily restricted to it. Attacking with 3 power on turn two can be quite the beating, but I suspect the 3/4 body is just enough to keep it from being especially relevant all the way through the late game - which is generally how you want to balance aggressive attackers. I like the way it requires you to risk the Battlesuit itself in order to protect your other Dwarves, always giving your opponents some degree of counterplay.

Tuskeri Obituary

This is a much subtler design, but I was impressed with how well it interacted with several of the archetypes in the set: it slots into the RW Boast archetype, the BR sacrifice archetype, and the UR spells archetype. While the spell itself isn’t particularly powerful, I think that’s something of a boon - being a late draft pick actually takes advantage of its flexibility by allowing it to serve as filler for any of those archetypes by virtue of not being picked too early. I think my biggest nitpick is actually the name: “obituary” conjures up the image of my grandmother grimly perusing the newspaper, while there are more poetic options like “elegy” or “eulogy” readily available. All told, I’m pleased that you were able to get this one in just under the wire, as I particularly appreciate flexible Limited designs in a challenge like this one.

--

Since I slipped up and got this out a day late, I’m going to go ahead and roll straight into the runners-up while we’re at it. Congratulations as well to: @hiygamer, @starch255, and @teaxch!

Runecarver’s Chisel

This is a cute addition to the RW Aura/Equipment theme in the set, and especially clever alongside Runes that are able to enchant either creatures or equipment. This serves as an equipment to place Runes on, but also grants hexproof to the equipped creature making enchantments on it more likely to stick around. The color-fixing element is comparable to the existing Rune payoffs in the set, but on this is intentionally broadened to include all targeted spells - Auras are the obvious ones, but expanding it to instants, sorceries, and even Mutate gives it the possibility of enabling some other interesting things within larger formats. I'm not totally convinced the color fixing is enough to make it constructed playable on its own and I probably would’ve liked a slightly more pronounced payoff, but I’d be interested to see whatever archetypes it manages to enable nonetheless, and I really appreciate its being aimed at broader formats while still capturing one of the important themes of the set itself.

Immersturm Sloop

I can definitely relate to your feeling that Funeral Longboat could’ve been delivered on more flavourfully, and I respect the direction in which you took it. Exiling creatures from your graveyard to crew a funeral boat makes a lot of sense to me, and while sacrificing creatures just to throw them a funeral service seems a little counterintuitive to me, I can see how that plays well with the mechanical themes in RB - I probably would’ve done just the former, since sacrifice themes tend to put creatures in the graveyard on their own. The biggest mechanical issue here is that this simply isn’t how Crew works: you could either do an alternate crew cost a la Heart of Kiran (which would still require a traditional Crew ability), or an activated ability similar to Peacewalker Colossus (which could be done instead of Crew). Deathtouch on something with 5 power feels a little excessive, but I suppose with menace it’s just there to ensure that any block is a two-for-one - or a two-for-two, assuming you sacrificed a creature of your own to crew it in the first place.

Olunuar, the Many-Legged

Sleipnir is a familiar element Norse mythology, and using Pegasus Courser as a model for expressing it as a card design was a pretty clever choice. In a practical sense it’s a little difficult to use this, since by virture of adding all its stats to the rider, it will always be easier to just block and kill Olunuar itself. This makes it slightly frustrating that the recursion effect doesn’t cover itself as well, and makes the recursion a little unlikely to ever see much use. The flavour feels great though, and definitely offers up a Sleipnir interpretation that delivers more on both what those familiar with the myth would expect and those unfamiliar would expect from a flying horse. I could see its effect on either a tap ability or with the recursion covering both itself and the other attacking creature, either way would cover the gap that makes this flavourfully satisfying card feel a little bit hard to play in practice.

--

Thanks as always to everyone who submitted. Now that we’re caught up again, I’ll be working on getting commentary ready for posting, but of course feel free to let me know if you've got any questions between now and then.

~Mod [ @3smuth ]

[casualotptrash]

Why the Persona 3 FES vs Portable Debate Makes Me Want to Fly Into the Sun Pt. 1

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Yes, this is an emotionally fueled rant about Persona 3. No, this is not meant to send hate at those who enjoy Persona 3 FES or dislike Persona 3 Portable.

That being said, this discussion mentally pains me. I won’t go into all of my opinions on the matter here (I’ll probably go into it later with more posts), but I will be talking about one of the most prevalent “points” that I see being brought up every time the comparison between FES and Portable is made:

“Just play FES with the controllable party members mod.”

This point, although it doesn’t say so directly, essentially sends the message to anyone who doesn’t know the differences between the two games that the only thing Portable has to offer (besides the obvious changes to the game) is controllable party members. For the sake of this post, I won’t be going into the obvious changes such as having cutscenes and The Answer in FES compared to no cutscenes and a FeMC route in Portable. Instead, I’m going to rant about every other positive change I can remember that no one seems to talk about.

1. Jealousy Mechanic

Unlike in FES, the jealousy mechanic is completely erased in the Male Route. The dialogue/warning will still show up after hanging out with multiple female social links, but the social link will never reverse or break because of this. Social links are already a pain to try and max out in a run, even on NG+ without a guide, so the fact that you don’t have to stop seeing a social link for awhile or focus on just one girl at a time means this will at least be marginally easier in Portable. For those who don’t care about maxing out all of the social links, it’s still a relief because you can hang out with whatever social link you want without any penalty. This doesn’t apply to the Female Route as there isn’t a jealousy mechanic even implemented into that.

2. Fatigue Mechanic

For the pure amount of people I see complain about Tartarus, and don’t get me wrong I’m one of them too, I cannot comprehend how they fail to mention this change. In Portable, the fatigue mechanic is totally gone. Much like the jealousy mechanic, the text is still there where the navigator will say you’re getting tired, but no one actually gets the tired effect until you leave Tartarus completely. This means you can bust out a whole block in one sitting, if you so choose. I found this extremely useful because I hated being in Tartarus and this allowed me to just get it all done quickly instead of having to go back and forth from the Dark Hour multiple times.

3. Various Battle Mechanics

In addition to adding the “direct” command to the tactics menu (allowing controllable party members), Portable also adds the “defend” option. This is akin to the “guard” option in the other games where you use your turn to gain more defense. The combat system has also been improved to function more like P4′s in the way that you can get a 1-more from knocking just one enemy down, it no longer takes a full turn for a party member to get up after being knocked down (so you can stand up and immediately do your turn), party members can follow up with a co-op attack if you knock an enemy down, and after a certain social link event for the team social link party members can take a fatal blow for the MC. Again, I don’t know how people are not talking about any of these changes besides the “direct command” addition while also complaining about how Tartarus is a slog. You know what makes it less like a slog? All of these additions.

4. Equipment Menu

Many of the changes not talked about are tweaks to Tartarus/battle gameplay, and this is another one of them. Although more of a small quality of life change to save some hassle, I personally appreciate any change that makes Tartarus easier to get through. In FES, if you wanted to change your party member’s equipment, you would have to talk to the party member who you wanted to change the equipment for. That means if you wanted to change your whole party you would have to do your own first and then talk to your three other party members individually. Portable changes this so that there is one overarching equipment menu that you can access (like in the future games) and change their equipment there.

5. Fusion skills being items + Personas giving you skill cards

This is probably one of the smaller changes, but it can still be really useful. First off, fusion skills in FES are activated when you have two specific personas needed for the skill, but in Portable fusion skills can be bought as items from a store. They cost “gems” that are collected in Tartarus and I think some can be acquired as rewards for quests. This can be useful if you want to use a fusion skill without needing to have the two specific personas taking up slots. Additionally, every persona now gives the player a skill card once they reach a certain level with them. Skill cards can also be bought for gems in the same store that fusion skill items can be bought from. With how fusion works in P3, in which skills are unable to be specifically selected to pass onto the persona being fused, having skills cards is a pretty good change.

6. More Tartarus events/anomalies

Sometimes when going into Tartarus, “anomalies” can occur. This ranges from entering a floor and having your whole party be separated or entering a floor and having no shadows present. Portable adds four new anomalies, and although they may not add much sometimes they can be pretty helpful. The four new events are experience gain will increase on the floor, enemy items drops will increase, the floor will become dark and the auto-mapping feature in game is temporarily disabled, and upon entering the floor it can be fully mapped by the navigator. I specifically found the increased experience gain to be useful because that really boosted the experience cards and could easily level you up without having to grind for hours.

7. Two more added difficulties + Vision Quest

With the new changes to combat, some people dislike how easy the game can seem. To counteract this, or for people who really just want to play the game for the story, two new difficulties were added to Portable: Beginner and Maniac. Beginner is below Easy and significantly toned down enemy damage, and the player has 30 plumes of dusk (opposed to 10 when starting on Easy). Maniac is above Hard, and it adds a heap of new things to make the game more difficult such as enemies deal 2 times more damage than normal, can gain a higher chance of Enemy Advantage when not taken by surprise, and certain weapon fusions cannot be performed. If this still isn’t hard enough for you...I’m sorry, or something? I personally played on Easy because I was working my way through the Neo-Persona (3-5) games and didn’t want it to take ten years.

If you still want more of a challenge, or a fun time-killer, Portable also added Vision Quest. Like the Monad Depths, it’s accessible through Tartarus. Upon entering there are is a door corresponding to each Full Moon boss (besides the Magician) and five special doors. Each Full Moon boss door can be fought with any party members, but the bosses are much stronger than when they were originally fought. For example, the Hanged Moon boss (last one fought) is level 54 in the base game. In the Vision Quest, the Hanged Moon boss is level 95. I did complete all of the doors in Vision Quest (on my NG+) and this one took me almost as long as the final boss of the game to beat, because of the level and the fact that is has 18,000 hp. Yes, I was around level 95 at the time too because I wanted to fuse Messiah. For reference, the final boss has around 25,500 hp in total and is level 76. The five special doors are more so puzzles rather than standard fights in my opinion because you’re forced into the fight with specific party members and stats. Each special door also has its own strategy to beat it, which is where the puzzle part comes in. An example of what these doors offer ranges from having three strong enemies you can only hit with physical attacks that consistently switch between nulling, being weak to, and absorbing all three kinds of physical attacks (and the three enemies switch at different rates/patterns) to fighting an enemy one on one that you need to kill in a certain amount of turns before they insta-kill you (and there is also a pattern of what these enemies are weak to/null/etc.) If you even try looking up what the Vision Quests are you’ll likely to see a plethora of guides because these fights can be very frustrating if you can’t get the patterns down on your own. However, that’s still good for a challenge. In addition to all of this, if you beat all of the doors you get the option to fight a second secret boss: Margaret (from Persona 4).

8. More part-time jobs

One of the more minor changes, but in Portable there are more places where you can work at for part-time jobs. I don’t know if it follows the same system as FES, but generally the longer you work at a job the more money they will give to you. This can be helpful in the early game if you want to raise a stat by working and gain money at the same time.

9. Soundtrack 

This one is tied in directly with the FeMC Route, but a whole new soundtrack is available in this game. You are able to hear almost the full Persona 3 FES soundtrack in this game with the Male Route too, so if you play both routes you won’t miss out on a majority of the songs. Personally, I like a lot of the songs from both soundtracks (and the P3 soundtrack is one of my favorites, if not maybe my number one favorite, of the 3-5 series). I believe it is also widely regarded as a solid soundtrack, and some even like it more than the Male Route one. You could just listen to the soundtrack without playing the game, but again this list is just going through changes from FES to Portable that people don’t often mention.

10. Extra scene at the end of a NG+ run (Spoilers for those who do not know the end of the game)

For everyone out there who likes the dating sim portion of Persona and a heaping of heart-breaking angst, this is for you. On a NG+ run of either route, in the final scene before the credits roll you are able to spend your last moments with whoever you romanced. They each have their own personalized little scene, that is beyond adorable and sad, and the game ends with one last loving comment/sentiment from them before you fade away and Memories of You starts playing. In my opinion, it’s a great little addition, especially for those who like to play multiple runs.

And that’s the last of it I suppose, although there are some other minor changes I probably missed because they’re too small or probably can’t be considered either a “good” or “bad” change. Anyway, asking others for their opinion on the two games is obviously fine, but if you’re someone who boils down the situation with providing the input “Just play FES with the controllable party members mod.” ....don’t. Please :)

[enbyleighlines]

Okay it's not a shippy prompt but I would love some bffs nhs&wwx. Maybe a little good natured teasing from wwx about how nhs could possibly fall for his snappy grumpy baby bro?

Yeeeeee yes I love this idea, thank you! Wei Wuxian and Nie Huaisang’s friendship is so important to me

Oh, and please be aware that there is some suggestive talk in this one

I hope you enjoy!

—

Wei Wuxian was bound to find out eventually. Still, Nie Huaisang feels like the universe could have given them a little more time to prepare.

The two of them are in the middle of enjoying their weekly “Hump Day Ritual.” It involves some wine, reruns of a show from their childhood playing in the background, and a deck of cards. They use the time to catch up, to swap stories about the grind of daily life, and most importantly, to reminisce about the good old days.

In truth, Nie Huaisang should have had plenty of time to prepare. But Huaisang so enjoys their Wednesday evening get togethers, and in their anticipation they had overlooked the fact that this will be their first time seeing Wei Wuxian since they went on a couple of dates with their Didi, Jiang Cheng. Hence, it will mean telling Wei Wuxian about the dates. And Huaisang doesn’t know how their friend will react.

So when Wei Wuxian asks, “What’s new with you?” Nie Huaisang freezes.

There’s a split second where Nie Huaisang considers lying. They wouldn’t keep this a secret forever, of course, just put it off a little longer. But that would be an insult to their friendship.

So Huaisang answers, “Ah, well... I went on a date.”

Wei Wuxian reacts with exaggerated surprise. “What! You went on a date? And I’m just hearing about it now? Is it someone I know?”

“Yes,” Huaisang admits, “It’s... someone you know very well, in fact. Your, uh, Didi.”

“Huh?” Wei Wuxian blinks, his face blank. “My Didi?” It seemingly takes him a moment to process the meaning of Huaisang’s words. And then his mind finishes buffering, evident by the way his eyes nearly pop out if his skull. “You don’t mean... J-Jiang Cheng?!”

“Do you have another Didi I don’t know about?” Huaisang demands.

“No, but— Jiang Cheng?” Wei Wuxian waves his hands in a complicated manner, like he’s speaking gibberish in sign language. “My straight, thick-headed Didi? That Jiang Cheng?”

Huaisang finds themself smiling despite their annoyance. “Yes, that Jiang Cheng.”

“How did that happen?”

And so Huaisang tells Wei Wuxian the story: “I approached him at Jin Zixuan and your Jiejie’s wedding. I told him I had feelings for him, and a few days later, he texted me and asked me out on a date. Two, in fact. One to the zoo and one to a botanical garden.”

“Wait, wait, hold up.” Wei Wuxian holds his hand up like a stop sign. “Since when do you have feelings for my Didi?”

Huaisang avoids looking at Wei Wuxian’s face as they answer, “A while. I think it started in... sophomore year of high school. You convinced me to come watch your soccer game, and I saw him playing for the first time.”

Wei Wuxian does not immediately reply. When Nie Huaisang glances back, Wuxian is just staring mutely into space.

“That was... six or seven years ago,” Wei Wuxian says at long last.

“Yes,” Huaisang confirms.

“Six or seven years,” Wei Wuxian repeats. He sounds absolutely confounded. “You’ve liked my Didi for that long? And you never told me?”

Huaisang winces. This is the reaction that they were afraid of.

“To be fair,” Huaisang says, “I was afraid you would accidentally mention it in front of him. You’ve always been really bad at keeping secrets. Do you remember when we used to go to Wen Ning’s house sometimes, and you’d do that obnoxious nudge-nudge wink-wink think to Jiang Cheng every time Wen Qing came into the room?”

Wei Wuxian continues to stare for a second. But then he recovers, and starts to laugh. “Did I really do that?”

“Yes, you did.”

Wei Wuxian gives another laugh. He doesn’t seem particularly remorseful. Then he says, “But wait. What about Wen Qing? I thought the two of them were— well, not dating, but...”

“Yeah,” Huaisang hums, “I still don’t know exactly what’s going on between them. I think it’s some sort of friends with benefits situation? In any case, yes, they’re still seeing each other. And yes, before you ask, Wen Qing knows that Jiang Cheng and I have been going out on dates.”

“Oh wow, okay.” Wei Wuxian is frowning. “I didn’t take my Didi for the type of guy to sleep around like that.”

“It’s not like that,” Huaisang scrambles to explain, their face no doubt taking on a bright pink hue, “Jiang Cheng has been a perfect gentleman! It’s not— it’s not about sex.”

“So he’s taking you out on dates and then going home to hook up with Wen Qing?” Wei Wuxian shakes his head. “That... doesn’t sound right. Also, I thought Jiang Cheng was straight. I know that I’m still a baby gay, and I don’t have the best gaydar, but I did not ping him as bisexual.”

At that last part, Huaisang shrugs. “We’re still figuring this whole thing out,” they admit, “Jiang Cheng doesn’t know why he’s attracted to me, or if that makes him bisexual. And honestly, I don’t care if he’s still hooking up with Wen Qing. I’ve never been a conventional person, so I don’t mind having a nonconventional relationship. I mean, it’s 2015. Monogamy isn’t the only option. I’m just glad for the chance to get closer to Jiang Cheng. Maybe it won’t work out, in the end. But I want to give it a try anyway.”

“Oh.” Wei Wuxian takes a moment to digest Huaisang’s words. Slowly, gradually, a smile begins to unfold across his face. “Wow,” he says.

“What?”

Wei Wuxian’s grin takes on a mischievous curl at the side of his mouth. “Huaisang,” he coos, “You really like him, don’t you?”

Huaisang rolls their eyes. “Yes. I already told you that.”

“But you really like him,” Wei Wuxian presses, “Tell me, do you like him in spite of the fact that he’s a grumpy troll, or because he’s a grumpy troll?”

Huaisang’s face warms. “I’m not answering that,” they say.

“You don’t have to,” Wei Wuxian teases, “I can see it on your face. You like that he’s a big grumpy grouch, don’t you? That’s right— you always did like tsundere characters the best. So you’re a sucker for that kind of guy, right?”

Huaisang almost aims a throw pillow at Wei Wuxian’s head, despite the high probability that it’ll just cause him to spill his wine all over the couch. Instead, they shout, “Stop it!”

“No, no, this makes perfect sense to me now!” Wei Wuxian spins the wine around in his glass, all while sporting a deviously triumphant smile. “I don’t know why I didn’t guess it earlier. And now I know why you kept coming to my soccer games, even though you hate sports. It was never about supporting me, was it? You just came to gawk at my tsundere Didi.”

“Don’t forget that I can give you the same treatment,” Huaisang warns their friend, “I know who you have a crush on.”

“Yeah, so?” Wei Wuxian lounges back further, not looking threatened in the least. “I’m not ashamed to say I have a crush on Lan Wangji. He’s a talented man. He’s probably got heaps of admirers. But my Didi— you know, my Da-yima used to call him unmatchable? There was this smart period of time when my Da-yima was obsessed with matchmaking. She set Jiang Cheng up on so many blind dates, and he kept scaring all the girls away.”

“Ah, I remember that!” Huaisang giggles, the memories flooding back into their mind’s eye. “Jiang Cheng complained about it nonstop!”

“I know! None of them were stylish ever enough, according to his impossible standards. He just kept critiquing their clothes and makeup, until they went away. Which, now that I think about it, is weird. Wen Qing’s not a fashionista, but he still loves her.”

Huaisang shrugs, not finding it quite so strange. “I mean, her sense of style is casual, but it’s not bad,” they point out, “She knows what looks good on her. But more importantly, she makes it look effortless. Jiang Cheng appreciates understated beauty. His aesthetic taste is real picky that way. He likes a woman to look beautiful, but he doesn’t want her to look like she spends too much time making herself beautiful. In other words, he wants a natural beauty.”

By the time Huaisang finishes their little spiel, Wei Wuxian is arching an eyebrow at them.

“Unfortunately, I can never be that,” Huaisang adds, with no small touch of sorrow seeping into their voice, “In order to keep up the illusion of androgyny, I need makeup and accessories. There’s no telling if Jiang Cheng will still find me attractive underneath the countour.”

“If he doesn’t, I’ll beat him up.”

Nie Huaisang snorts. “I appreciate the offer, but Jiang Cheng won’t be able to help how he feels. Like I said before, I’m just happy to get this chance in the first place.”

“That’s true, but still.” Wei Wuxian puts his wine glass on the coffee table, and adds, “I wouldn’t worry too much, Huaisang. I mean, I once saw Jiang Cheng kiss Wen Qing when her face was all splotchy and snotty from the flu. And I’ve also seen you without makeup. Trust me when I say that your naked face is far prettier than a feverish Wen Qing.”

The mental image of Jiang Cheng caring for a sick Wen Qing has Nie Huaisang smiling. He would have such a concerned face, which for Jiang Cheng means that he would be scowling like usual, with the addition of pain wrinkling the skin around his eyes.

“Oh man, you really do have it bad,” Wei Wuxian says with a whistle, “Look at you, swooning like a schoolgirl.”

Nie Huaisang lightly slaps Wuxian’s arm. “Yes, yes, I’m a lovesick fool,” they whine, digging into their thespian past to amp up the melodrama, “Haven’t you teased me enough, Xian-xiong?”

“No.” After years of friendship, Wei Wuxian is completely unaffected by Nie Huaisang’s little act. “I think it’s cute. Oh— have you ever tried to make Jiang Cheng angry on purpose? Just to see how he’ll react? Be honest.”

“Ah,” Huaisang says, “Maybe... I don’t remember.”

Wei Wuxian gives them a knowing look. “Uh-huh, sure you don’t,” he replies, tapping his nose, “I won’t blame you, if you did. Jiang Cheng can have some really funny reactions. But, of course, I prefer Lan Wangji’s reactions! It’s so hard to make him lose his temper, but when he does!” Wei Wuxian clasps both hands over his heart. “I honestly don’t know why I love it so much. Maybe I’m a sadist? Is there a word for wanting to see your crush angry all the time?”

Huaisang laughs, and immediately reaches for their phone to look it up. A cursory search doesn’t turn up much, however. “It’s probably some kind of BDSM thing,” they decide.

“Probably,” Wei Wuxian agrees, “I’ll keep that in mind for later.”

“Hmm,” Nie Huaisang says.

“Oh!” Wei Wuxian jolts forward. “Oh no, I just realized something.”

Fearing the worst, Nie Huaisang takes a deep inhale. Then, carefully, they ask, “And what is that?”

And sure enough, Wei Wuxian doesn’t disappoint. “You won’t be able to tell me about all your fun sexcapades,” he blurts out, “I mean, you could, but I don’t want to hear about my Didi’s sex life, so please don’t.”

Huaisang is caught somewhere between amusement and horror. “And why is that a problem?”

“Because I bet you’re a real freak,” Wei Wuxian puts it bluntly, “And don’t try to deny it. I’ve known you for a long time. I know you hide a devious mind underneath that timid exterior. I bet you’re even more of a freak than I am. But since I’m probably not going to get laid anytime within the next decade, I was hoping to live vicariously through you, whenever you finally began dating.”

“At least you’re honest,” Nie Huaisang says with a roll of their eyes. They carefully do not deny Wuxian’s claims.

“I guess we’ll just have to keep all date talk PG for now,” Wei Wuxian decides glumly. But, in the usual Wei Wuxian manner, he doesn’t stay down for long. He perks up and adds, “But I’m still going to tease you about having a crush on a real-life tsundere.”

“I know,” Huaisang sighs, “I know.”

[sylvianancy88]

47 Best Gifts for Boaters They’ll Actually Love

If you have sailors among your family or friends, you will know how crazy these people are about their hobbies. For these boaters, what would be a better gift than sailing-related gifts?

But now you may be wondering which sailor type gift you should choose? If you do not have much experience with sailing itself, this task may be difficult.

But do not worry my friend, here I have is an article for you filled with a brilliant list of best gift ideas for boaters that related to sailing, and your boater enthusiast friend would be thrilled to have.

I hereby present to you this inspirational list of ideas featuring the best gifts for boaters. It doesn’t matter if your friend is a wannabe sailor or an experienced one, maybe they have just started sailing, this article has gift ideas for all of them.

Trust me when I say, all the products listed underneath will make your boater friend very happy and they would appreciate you even more. Let’s see if we can get you the perfect boating gift for your sailor friend.

What Would be a Better Gift for this Particular Boater?

While looking for a gift, this is something you need to ask yourself first. There are many kinds of boaters out there. You need to figure out what kind of a boater your friend is at first. What kind of a sailor are they?

Do they sail only on warmer climates? Then maybe don’t give them cold-weather wear such as woolen socks or thermal jacket.

Are they into sailing but don’t like to be an active crew member? Maybe they just don’t feel comfortable in the role of a crew, and they just want to relax. Then get them something fun and relaxing, like a board game or a book, instead of let’s say a sailing knife.

In any case, simply trust your instincts, because at the end of the day, you are the one who knows this better. And they would definitely appreciate your gift.

Best Gift Ideas for Boaters with Different Categories

Clothing Gifts for Boaters

1. Sailing Gloves

For boaters who like to be active crew members and do any kind of deck works, sailing gloves are a perfect gift. When steering the steering wheel, lifting the sails or maintaining the deck, even in bad weather conditions, the correct sailing gloves can keep your hands warm.

2. Sailing Shoes

When the weather starts to affect the crew, the sailors like to show an elegant and stylish appearance, just like on the old marine postcards. Traditional leather sailing boots are one of the best fashions and are also very practical.

3. Warm Socks

When paired with rubber boots, always wear thick warm socks. Preferably, two or three pairs at a time. As I said before, in difficult and stormy sailing, warm feet can maintain a noble morality. If you want to buy a pair as a gift for sailors, please pay attention to the materials.

Sometimes, socks may look warm, but if they are mainly made of synthetic materials such as polyester, it will only cause the feet to sweat. Therefore, look for materials that are naturally warm, such as merino wool. It guarantees warm comfort.

4. Sailing Jacket

For sailors, another basic wardrobe element is a high-quality sailing jacket. Usually, this is the first large investment in this hobby. In general, we can distinguish sailing jackets by waterproofing:

One that keeps the sailor’s body dry in light rain, and occasionally splashes time at sea is shorter; and another one that Keeps your body dry in harsh weather conditions, such as continuous rain and regular splashing for everyday occasional sailing, a lightweight waterproof jacket will be a perfect choice.

5. Rubber Sailing Boots

High-strength rubber boots are life-saving during heavy rain and cold weather of the sea. They help keep the sailor’s feet dry while on duty on deck. Every boater knows that there is nothing worse than wet and cold socks.

When buying rubber boots as a sailing gift, please pay attention to the sole, it should have good adhesion to ensure balance when walking on the wet deck.

6. Thermal Underwear

You should not underestimate the significance of thermal underwear as a practical gift for your boater friend. People sailing in non-tropical climates will definitely enjoy this significantly.

Also, look for durable materials with proven efficiency. Merino wool is great for keeping your body warm. Comfortable and practical underwear is essential equipment for every sailor.

Packaging Gifts for Boaters

7. Compression Packing Cubes

Packing luggage for navigation is a difficult task that requires a high degree of organization. You can help your sailor friend do this by helping with his compressed packaging cube.

After filling such a cube with clothes, zip it once to close it. Then remove it with a zipper a second time to remove all unnecessary air and make the package as thin as possible.

This simple technique helps to pack all the required clothing layers in bags of any size.

8. Laundry Wash Bag

After a few days of sailing, there is nothing better than being smelly. On long journeys, sailors have limited opportunities to wash clothes.

Especially when they are sailing in areas where less popular terminal infrastructures are not yet available. In this case, a wash bag is a perfect solution.

These are pocket-sized portable laundry bag, and they are a life-saving item for washing clothes on the go. Just put the dirty clothes in, add some water and washing powder, then close and scrub.

Perfect help for the inoperable washing machine.

9. Waterproof Backpack

The right backpack is one of the most important parts of a sailor’s equipment. Due to the lack of space on yachts, they should be flexible enough to be stored in a small cabin. When choosing a backpack as a boating gift, please pay attention to the particularity of the boat.

The backpack should be waterproof, without a fixed shelf, and equipped with a practical pocket to easily organize internal items. The washing machine cannot be used to wash this though.

10. Dry Bag

Instead of professional sailing backpacks, large dry bags may be a cheaper option. But it is more suitable for short voyages. Although, small dry bags are ideal for storing smaller items such as electronics and documents.

Compared with standard backpacks, smartphones, cameras, passports, and wallets have much better moisture resistance in dry bags. This is very useful equipment for short trips on small sailboats (especially without cabins).

11. Waterproof Watch

Another good item to wear on-board is a waterproof watch. Many people cannot imagine a day without a watch, so why must a day on a yacht be different? If the watch is waterproof, sailors can soak it without looking after it.

Therefore, this small object will become a companion for sailing, helping you to count the time until the end of duty.

12. Sunglass

We can assume that sunglasses are another must-have equipment on board. It protects the eyes from the harsh sunlight reflected by the sea water. However, when water drops splash from the board, it also helps the sailor to open his eyes.

When you buy sunglasses for sailors, one of the most important tips for you is to choose a floatable model. In case of a fall, there is at least an opportunity to drag them up.

Entertaining Gifts for Boaters

13. Board Games

Board games are always a fan favorite. Who doesn’t like to play a cool board game to pass the time? And especially while sailing on a boat, there might be some quiet days where one would just love to play a board game. You never know.

14. Sailor’s Journal

On the other hand, some people like to spend time alone. It is a very intimate moment to think about the surrounding environment on a boat in the water. In this case, many people like to write down their ideas.

So, what are you waiting for? Get an ocean-inspired diary for your boater friend.

15. Ukulele/Guitar

Surprisingly, a lot of sailors can play musical instruments. But when you imagine the tranquil ocean around you and the warm sunlight above your head, this is completely understandable. The song falls on your mouth without asking. A ukulele or a guitar is a perfect sailing gift for a music cruiser.

Gadgets as Gift for Boaters

16. Waterproof Bluetooth Speaker

However, if you don’t believe in buying a real instrument, then waterproof Bluetooth speakers will also play an excellent role in cruise entertainment. The music in the happy hour on the sailing boat may play an important role.

Be sure to purchase a waterproof speaker to keep it safe from occasional splashes of water. If it can hang it safely on the deck, it can add points.

17. Mini Movie Projector

For the movie fanatics, a miniature movie projector will be an interesting gift for sailing. Sometimes sailors spend hours or even days on the pier. Watching their favorite movies is a good way to wait for the right time to leave the port.

18. Mobile Hot Spot

In many parts of the world, the marine terminals are still not equipped with Wi-Fi. For this situation, it is a good idea to have your own SIM card and wireless hotspot. Elevated hotspots allow access to 4G/LTE networks, high-speed data, and battery operation.

19. Action Cam

For people who like to keep vivid memories on the road, professional action cams are a good idea in other sailing gifts. Action cams can be easily installed in different positions on the ship to capture any kind of extreme scenes. When sitting on the sofa and watching the record safely, you will think of exciting spikes of adrenaline.

20. Drone

If you want to bring more fun to the sailor, please give them a drone. Flying with this toy can take the sailing experience to the next level. Capturing good times is a good way to capture sailing from the sky.

21. Solar Charger

Stable electricity is a major problem on small boats. This is why solar chargers are the perfect gift for boats that like to travel shorter distances without an engine generator. When purchasing this device, please pay attention to its portability, efficiency, and water resistance.

22. Power Bank

Similar to the charger, the mobile power supply can provide useful help when there is no electricity in long transportation time. It helps to charge the battery of the mobile phone so that the sailor can maintain stable contact with family and friends.

Education Related Gift for Boaters

23. Kindle and Audible Books

Under the conditions of the sea, it is great entertainment to spend a quiet moment on the boat, reading or listening to books. Kindle e-readers or audible books are ideal gifts for shipping because they help to spend time on board in a more meaningful way.

24. Online Courses on Sailing

If the person you are looking for a gift intends to grow into a sailor, then education may be a perfect nautical gift idea. On the Internet, you will find some interesting online sailing courses, which may be helpful for learning new skills. You will find courses on navigation, electronic systems on board, etc. here.

 Boat Accessories as Gifts for Boaters

 25. Hammock

After a difficult voyage, finding a calm bay in the rough water is a wonderful moment for the sailors. With the help of ultra-light and compact hammocks, the coolness among the trees near Paradise Beach created the moment we depend on for survival.

If you decide to buy a travel hammock, please note its size to make it small enough to fit the sailing package.

26. Charts

The chart is a friend of any senior sailor. If you want to give someone a plan to travel to distant waters, a chart is an ideal marine gift. They help sailors keep a safe track and swim peacefully from one port to another.

27. Thermos Bottle

Nothing tastes better than the sweetness of the black tea brought to the helmsman by another crew member. Ideally, if this tea can keep warm for a long time.

At this moment, a high-quality thermos will help. Just pay attention to the time to keep the high temperature of such bottles, the time to drink easily, and the quality of the materials.

28. Satellite Communicator

Safety is the most important thing at sea. Stable communication is one of its main conditions. One of the best gifts for ship delivery may be a tested satellite communicator.

These clever devices allow the crew to send and receive text messages through the satellite system. In this way, they can keep in touch with family and friends.

With the correct subscription, it can also access weather forecasts and navigation maps.

29. Travel Coffee Bottle

For coffee lovers, there is no better sailor gift than a travel coffee machine. With this clever thing, sailors can enjoy the taste of fresh coffee almost anywhere. Even in the ocean.

30. Waterproof Binoculars

The waterproof marine binoculars are the perfect sailor gift for two reasons. First, they help the crew to really pay attention to the dangers at sea. Using binoculars makes it easier to analyze rocks, shoals, small navigation route signs or other ships above sea level.

31. Headlamp

Bright headlights make the unexpected work on the deck at night much easier. This simple device is also useful for playing peaceful nights with friends in the wild bay, playing guitar, and having fun.

32. Waterproof Phone Case

This is a great gift idea for rowers who only sail occasionally and are not very advanced in this sport. The waterproof phone case is a perfect sailing gift, ensuring that all smartphones are safe on board. With it, the splash of water will not be scary, and even on rainy days, sailors can use mobile phones.

33. Sailor’s Knife

A solid knife is a practical tool on board. It is mainly used to cut the rope when needed, but it also does a good job when opening food cans. Knives with nails are particularly useful. This thick needle unwinds the tangled rope well.

Boating Gifts for Your Male Friends

34. Sailor’s Tie

This is a gift for sailors, for those who like to have a connection with sailing ships even on official occasions. The exquisite sailing pattern silk tie will definitely be appreciated by elegant sailors. I also recommend choosing silk instead of synthetic materials to make a high-quality wardrobe.

35. Nautical Cufflinks

These are gifts that will subtly remind you of your passion for sailing. The classic cufflinks with marine motifs are original marine gifts for fathers or boyfriends. 36.

36. Sailing Bracelet

If your sailor friend prefers casual accessories, the sailing bracelet is the perfect example of a boating gift for him. This simple decoration will assign him to the elite club of dedicated amateurs.

Boating Gifts for Your Female Friends

37. Boating themed Jewellery

Many women like beautiful jewelry. Any sailor woman likes more jewelry with a sailing theme! You can find various masterpieces of sailing jewelry by local artists online. These trinkets are a gift for her beautiful sailing boat.

38. Sailing Scarf

The scarf is a useful wardrobe, and the sailing scarf is a great item to remind the sailor of her enthusiasm. Silk, cotton or viscose scarves are good nautical gifts.

39. Waterproof Toiletries Bag

A waterproof makeup bag may be the perfect gift for your sailing girlfriend. Here is a tip: choose a waterproof version.

Personalized Gifts for Boaters

40. Customized Engraved Compass

Personalized nautical compass is a personalized nautical gift, but also a very symbolic gift. Not only is it a good decoration, but the engraved text will remind the sailor of home and the people waiting for him to return. This is a sailor’s gift that melts the heart.

41. Personalized Captain’s Hat

Here, we have one of the sailors’ most interesting gifts. The personalized captain’s hat is a good ship gift for your father or any other strong leader among your sailing friends. Of course, this helps to maintain the correct level and discipline on the ship.

Cool and Funny Boating Gifts

42. Ocean’s Bracelet

This bracelet may not be spectacular, but it is definitely important. 4Ocean is a company that rids the ocean from plastic pollution. The rubbish they dragged from the water was treated as a bracelet.

The sales revenue of these bracelets is used to pay for the company’s operating costs. You can learn more about them here. It’ll be a perfect gift for someone who cares about the ocean.

43. Sailing Themed T-Shirt

T-shirts with funny quotes are also great gifts for rowers. Sailors usually like to show their commitment to this hobby, so a T-shirt with funny sailing texts would be perfect.

44. Sailor’s Cup

Just like T-shirts, funny cups are popular gifts for everyone. You can find a lot of funny cups in online shops.

45. Wooden Toy Boat

If you are looking for a gift for a rower, then a wooden toy boat may be a surprising idea. But I’m sure it will melt the heart of any sailing enthusiast, and will proudly stand above the fireplace or on the desk.

46. Boat Adventure Saving Jar

Another cool personal gift for sailors is a jar that saves sailing adventures. You can browse Etsy by yourself or find a beautiful ready-made jar in it. This gift will definitely inspire the sailor to save some money for the next adventure. Who knows, even a boat?

47. Sailing Trip

What better gift for a sailor than the adventure itself? Get them a sailing trip and make them the happiest person on earth, they literally will be.

It might be a daunting task, picking a gift for someone you care about, but don’t share interests with. Articles like this feel like a lifesaver on those times, or at least I’d like to think that they do.

Pick a gift that seems to suit your boater friend’s style and make both yourself and your friend happy.

via WordPress https://ift.tt/3j1z5k8

[baconpal]

pokemon isn’t for us anymore

ya that’s right it’s time for a daytime juvenile rant cus i’m angry and finally think i can put my thoughts to words, 

if you like the new pokemon then this isn’t really for you, cus pokemon is still for you. enjoy it while you can. otherwise click that read more

i’ll start by making my opinion and background immediately clear, so you have something to compare to and such. I loved Pokemon as a child, and for a long while afterward. I think the series’ highest moment was black and white in terms of art and story, and the gameplay was at its best in black and white 2. Gen 5 is also the gen where I have the most competitive experience. 

And my opinion is that every single thing that’s been shown of pokemon sword and shield is really, really bad. Not even as a hyperbolic statement of “wow i hate new thing!” but as a fan who wants nothing but for the series to realize its potential, not one thing they’ve done has made feel anything besides disgust and disappointment. But this is not a normal thing, this isn’t what everyone thinks, i’m not preaching to the choir by saying i hate sword and shield. I’m the contrarian, i’m the one whose saying shit nobody agrees with, and I’m the voice who will be ignored. And that’s because pokemon is no longer being made with someone like me in mind. 

The question then becomes, what is pokemon now? What did it used to be? What should it be?

POKEMON AS A BRAND

Pokemon today is not a game series. It’s a brand, a franchise, something that has weight simply by existing. Of course pokemon has been more than just games for forever, the shows, the toys, the side games, everything about it is marketable and marketed. But the main line games were separate from that to an extent. They were the new bits of source material thrown out into the world without concern for how it would all fit together. A video game was made first, and was then marketed to whoever would buy in whatever form hey wanted.

Today pokemon games themselves are a tailored product. People of today don’t care about the actual video game, many wont play it, and many won’t even realize when it comes out, but gamefreak doesn’t need the game itself to sell (though it will), they just want everyone on earth to know about pokemon and to be excited about it, it’s advertising for their brand. As long as people know pokemon exists and is out there, it will make money. 

So instead of holding their cards and releasing a video game to let people mess around in, the entire game is drip fed to us on social media before it’s even out. The days of korokoro leaks and blurry photos of pokemon are over, the discussion of what they might be or do is over, and a joy in the exploration of the unknown is gone. Instead, a trailer will be split up in to a chain of individual tweets, all tailored to be as easily digestible as possible. Videos or photos that require seconds of attention, and descriptions of characters and pokemon that make it easy to form a shallow attachment, enough to repost it and say “oh that’s so me” or “love this kind of character”, and that’s free advertisement. the kinds of people who live on social medias will translate genuine advertisements into a form of speak their friends will appreciate and thus engage with the advertisements further. The job is done and pokemon is making more money than ever. 

POKEMONS ART DIRECTION

Again, something many disagree with, the art is fucking awful in the new games. But that’s because its not art meant to impress me, an artist with his own design sense and standard of quality, the art only needs to be serviceable, enough for someone who can’t draw to appreciate. The standard of what will be accepted is never actually very high, but pokemon no longer makes any effort to exceed passable. Fanartists will be essentially forced to draw better versions of all their characters since pokemon is once again the hot new thing, so the actual quality of the original art will not be reflected in peoples perception. The model quality as also awful, every design manages to look even worse in motion and in game. But since the goal is not to make an enjoyable game, this is again not a problem. 

POKEMONS SETTING

This extends to the clothing the characters wear as well, but pokemon no longer is its own universe. It is doing all it can to act as if it takes place in the real world, and making the clothing its characters wear bastardized versions of modern aesthetics, instead of the unique and simple sudo-sporty aesthetic the other games had, where clothing was cohesive and sleek, looked fit for various kinds of weather, and seemed generally comfortable. The new gym leaders for example, wear horribly messing and unneeded sportswear based mostly on real life soccer clothing, but without any of the benefits, as they are also loaded with unneeded accessories that go in direct contrast to what they’re supposedly doing. Nessa is the worst offender to me (and what do you know she’s the most popular), compared to misty’s attempt at being part time swimmer part time trainer, nessa looks absolutely ridiculous, and not prepared to do either swimming or pokemon battles. She wears a swimsuit, but not an actual swimmer’s suit, and she’s covered in jewelry, accessories, makeup; things that would ruin any attempt to go swimming even casually. And yet she doesn’t look like she could comfortably go on an adventure or catch and raise pokemon. She is a bland aesthetic mess of what people want a cute swimmer girl to be.

Custom trainers are a whole different problem in that no game with custom characters actually has good ones. The best result you can have is funny looking characters, which is actually a pretty good goal, but gamefreak still wants everything to be samey and appeal to broad aesthetics so people can post their own characters and share some feeling of attachment. 

POKEMON THE VIDEO GAME

the quality of sword and shield from a technical standpoint is clearly very low, and this is one of the few things people have been willing to call out. The model quality hasn’t improved, the animations are sparse and bad. The wild areas are a mess and run terribly, the game crashed trying to handle multiplayer bosses live on stream. The national dex has been removed for literally no reason. The gyms have been completely gutted and reduced to just the fights (which are still nothing but bland checks for type advantage) and the new gimmick is just “make your guy strong” and is obviously best used in response to the opponent using it. the pokemon wonder around the open area and yet wild grass is still there, there’s no option to approach pokemon peacefully and capture like in let’s go, so even the few out there things they’ve tried aren’t going to be used in any meaningful way. But repeat after me, the game doesn’t matter! As far as gamefreak is concerned, the game could crash 40 minutes in and they would have done all they needed to do.

THE GOAL IN POKEMON

so i’ll end this stupid rant with something the new pokemon games don’t have, even the ones I really like don’t have em. Multiple goals to achieve, multiple ways to approach the game. Even the originals didn’t truly have multiple ways to play, but they started you off by presenting you multiple goals, which were tangled together to start but by the end of the game would become 2 very seperate things, becoming champion and completing the pokedex. Johto did it best, to complete one goal, you had to make a pretty good chunk of progress on the other, it was impossible to not “beat the game” if you actually wanted to accomplish either goal, but after that you were free to tie up whatever goals you had left. It was primitive and mostly meaningless, but it was there. The shows and the manga also put a lot of emphasis on the fact that every trainer can do something different, and their own ultimate goal is completely different from everyone else. 

The closest the games come now to this idea is having your rivals go off and do something else other than fight the elite 4. Some of them aren’t even actual rivals and just like pokemon, like lyra from HG/SS. But there is no pokemon game in which you, the player, are presented a goal other than to beat the game, winning the elite 4 and defeating some evil plot along the way.

For me, an ideal pokemon game would be about giving complete freedom, start off with some explanations of what all the possible goals are, completing the dex, becoming champion, winning all the contests, defeating the evil organization, exploring the world, anything. And once the player gets an idea of what they want to do, they’re set free into a world where they can find pokemon and do whatever they want, working towards whatever goal they want. Other aspects will naturally come into play, battling pokemon and making them stronger would help you catch more pokemon, learn moves for contests, explore more dangerous areas, beat stronger trainers. So no matter what goal you have, you’d still interact with many of the systems and areas in the game, and make progress on all goals at the same time, but ultimately feel satisfied when you accomplish your own, personal goals, instead of following the straight line gamefreak set for you.

Obviously that sort of thing will never happen. That’s just what I think pokemon has the potential to become, but pokemon isn’t made for me, anymore.

Thank you for reading.

[championfrita]

Pokémon Sword and Shield Review

So...I've taken some time to fully play Pokémon Shield. Now, I know this is pretty delayed, and I got the double pack so I wanted to play Sword first to see if how I felt was really accurate or if I was being too harsh. That said, let's talk about my experience with the Galar Region.

Initial Impressions

Overall, I was excited to play Shield at first. Everything was bright and exciting and the characters were easy to recognize and not overly generic.

The first few hours of this game, well it's a slow burn. And I do mean SLOW. Even with the text set to Fast and me taking things at my own pace it took me at least a good couple hours to reach the Wild Area. Furthermore, this game has an infernal amount of handholding, even when given the option to say "I know all this already" it still gives a brief explaination for almost anything and STILL makes you sit ALL THE WAY THROUGH the catch tutorial.

It's 2019 and older players still don't get the option to skip this. Come on GameFreak.

That said, the longer I played the more I began to notice...how should I put this? Blatant laziness?

The Wild Area

Now, the CONCEPT of the Wild Area in theory is amazing. It's still not too bad as is, but there are definitely flaws. For starters, the same tree has been copy pasted all over the place to make up 90% of the foliage.

More than that, though, despite the Wild Area having a good selection of Pokémon and a fairly varietied environment (desert, lakes, forest) it feels oddly...empty. There are no real secrets to speak of, no hidden areas, no easily missed items. Everything is all right out there to see and spread pretty far apart. I don't know if it's a lack of Trainers or the fact that I don't have an Online membership so I played alone, but the Wild Area feels like it just needs something MORE.

Dynamax Raid Battles, even when done alone, are fairly fun and sometimes challenging with the turn limit. Radiant AI Trainers spawn in to assist you if you're playing alone so there's no worries about having to take one on with just one Pokémon.

Camping, which can be done anywhere but is introduced to the player here, is an absolute treat. Have YOU played fetch with a unicorn? I have, and I love it. The wide variety of curries you can make with different ingredients is nice, and your Pokémon even get EXP boosts if you play with and feed them while camping.

The Pokémon

Honestly, I'm really not impressed. The Galar Dex of new Pokémon feels painfully small, so much so that playing Pokémon GO and catching a few Unova Pokémon made me yearn for the days when we used to get regions completely FULL of new Pokémon. Remember when you had to wait until AFTER the main game to start catching Pokémon from past gens? I...well, this might be an unpopular opinion, but I LIKED that.

That said, using a sparse selection of Galar Pokémon and Galar Regional Variants on my team definitely made the Gym Challenge more difficult. I picked Scorbunny, because Fire Types, and honestly didn't really care for it or its evolutions at first. Cinderace has really grown on me though and I like Pyro Ball as a move. It's flashy and powerful and that suits me just fine. Most of the new Pokémon's DESIGNS were good and I liked them, there just really weren't ENOUGH of them.

I'm fairly pleased with the regional variants as well. It was difficult to adjust to Ponyta and Rapidash being Psychic Type, but I really liked having them on my team. At the same time...Meowth not evolving into a Persian doesn't really sit right with me.

I'm all for branch evolutions, but Perrserker honestly just looks more like a giant Galar Meowth than anything. I played this with only the info given in the few scattered trailers I'd seen, so I was genuinely excited to see what a Galarian Persian would look like only to end up with Perrserker. The Typing is phenominal, and I think it's great to see a Steel Type Meowth for a change, but I just don't like where they went with it. Eh. Ces't la vie, moving on.

The Story

It's weak. Straight up, the story in this game is poor. There were so many directions they could have gone. I really liked the idea of Rose being this charismatic chairman hype man for the League and being the bad guy. I saw it coming, but it was a nice change to see just based on his personality. Still, it feels rushed. His motivations are really one dimensional and glossed over. Like, "Oh, here's the bad guy. Go get him." It worked in Gen 1 because Giovanni was a MOBSTER. He was MEANT to be a bad guy straight to the core in general, but Rose just doesn't have that vibe.

Not only that, but the "Bad League Members" are kinda meh. That feels REALLY lazy. They didn't even really get a decent uniform change when they started taking on the name Macro Cosmos in Rose Tower. They got black glasses. That's it. Just that. The fight with Eternatus feels painfully rushed and shoehorned in too, almost like they thought "Oh no, we need to give them a big nasty boss to fight! Let's just throw a random monster at them and say Rose summoned it. Seems like a solid plan."

I DID like the after story with Piers though. It really solidifies that older brother sort of nature with him, even if he tries to hide it most of the time.

The Characters

I liked Hop. As a character he's really fun and I like how they gave him this over excited very grand gestured sort of personality. He's really just happy to be ANYWHERE as long as it's with his Pokémon and you. His admiration for his big bro might come off strong and make him seem a little flat at first, but he's overall portrayed as a good kid and I like him.

Leon on the other hand...well I hated him for most of the game. His design is great and he looks fabulous, but he just has the most cocky, obnoxious, pandering personality 90% of the time. Still, I have to give credit where credit is due and recognize that he IS actually a multifaceted character. He showboats not just because he's too confident but also to give the crowd a show and put people at ease in times of danger. Not only that, but his recognition of his little brother's accomplishments and his graceful acceptance of defeat when you beat him reveals a really well written character.

I don't DISlike Sonia, and I have no problem with Prof. Magnolia sitting on the sidelines, but she can be a little...irritating at times with the way she speaks about and to people. The Gym Leaders, aside from Piers, feel a little...light.

I mean, most Gym Leaders don't have detailed backstories, but these ones feel paper thin personality wise as well. I had to look at the official GUIDE just to be sure what the relationship between Melony and Gordie even WAS because you only seem him in her Special League Card in Shield and that tells you nothing about him. The only real leaders that stood out to me were Piers and Raihan, and while I was iffy about his design at first I LOVE Raihan. He has so much more personality and ferocity than any of the other leaders. And the social commentary about him needing to constantly take and post a selfie, even after losing, is a nice touch.

The Galar Region

Is very linear. Like, VERY linear. Even when you take a branching path it either loops back around or gives you a free ride to wherever you have to backtrack to. I hope you like Hammerlocke, cuz you're gonna be visiting there several times.

I know that the region is based off the UK, and maybe my Americanized idea of cities is different (idk, I've never been to the UK), but a lot of the towns in this game feel really small. Like, almost smaller than some of the towns in Hoenn small. Maybe it's a lack of significant interactable buildings, but despite many of them having multiple floors you typically can only access one and that's kind of a disappointment. The hotel in Wyndon won't even let you get in the elevator, and while I get that Alola also did that, it's kind of jarring when the hotel in Motostoke WILL let you see other floors.

That said, I kind of expected more than ONE Wild Area. The one we DID get is fine, and I appreciate what it is and lets us do, but I honestly thought there would be multiple places to really explore outside the standard straight lines. Pokémon has never been a franchise to shy away from puzzles before so I expected this to not be any different. Unfortunately, I was wrong.

Moreover, many of the environment pieces are just UGLY. A lot of the ground textures are reused 3DS assets, and those copy pasted trees I mentioned earlier? Also 3DS assets. How do I know? They're pentagonal instead of round. In other words, they have five sides. Why? Because the 3DS hardware couldn't handle complex environmental shapes that well so they could get away with it, but now that we have nice round berry trees the contrast becomes painful. The Wild Area is so ugly the first time you see it is at NIGHT. They were so aware of what they did they hoped making it darker would hide the lazy flop instead of showing off how bad it was.

It isn't like they COULDN'T fix it either. Look at Ballonlea and Glimwood Tangle. They're absolutely beautiful and very well done. The modeling with them is fantastic and I love the glowing effects. They absolutely could've made the poorly done areas look amazing, but for some reason they didn't and the game suffers some as a result.

Other Thoughts

The Gym Challenges...they were not fun. Like, honestly some were ok. Herding Wooloo was easy, but they really didn't feel like anything I would expect from a Gym. The water puzzle in Nessa's Gym was fine, and I personally liked the spinning cup ride, but the rest just felt like agonizingly long padding because they couldn't come up with anything. Look at Circhester's challenge. It's a dowsing rod gauntlet where you have to avoid falling in pits in an artificial blizzard. It. is. SO. SLOW. That said, Spikemuth having just a Trainer gauntlet instead was kind of awkward. I reached the end and asked myself "Was that it? Is this it? Is this all there is to Spikemuth? Just one giant alleyway and a Pokémon Center?"

Raihan's three trials of worthiness challenge? It was more difficult than the battle AGAINST RAIHAN. Speaking of, I beat Hop, Marnie, Bede, all the Gym Leaders, Rose, Oleana, and Leon on my first try every time. While it was more difficult with my specific Pokémon choices, it really wasn't much. And can I just say that the Gym Badges are kinda lame? I get what they were going for, but the designs of each piece could've been really unique and intricate and instead we got glorified stamps.

I liked a lot of the general features of the game. Camping, clothing shops, League Cards. I love designing League Cards, even if I'm the only one who's ever gonna see em. That said, the clothing choices were really narrow based on what we got in Sun and Moon. The variety of different items was pretty small, though I loved all the punk leather stuff but WOW IS IT EXPENSIVE. Like Lumiose Boutique expensive. AND WHY IS THERE NEVER A REDHEAD HAIR COLOR THAT ISN'T JUST AUBURN RED? There are actually A LOT of redheads with LIGHT RED hair (that's more a personal gripe than anything, I know).

A lot of the music felt almost like rehashes of older BGMs. Like, Postwick, Route 1, and Wedgehurst all sound like they have remixed Hoenn music. A lot of the other music tracks just don't feel fitting for the areas or for Pokémon games in general. I like parts of the Slumbering Weald music and I like the Gym Music, but the opening of Slumbering Weald feels awkward and like it doesn't fit a mysterious forest we're not allowed to be in.

I know I've complained a lot, but there were some things I genuinely liked. A lot of the Pokémon designs, place names, and other radiant decor and parts of the region are actually subtle and not so subtle references to cultural points of the UK. Skwovet and its evolution for example are a gray and red squirrel respectively and are a nod to invasive species, which is neat.

In Conclusion

Is Pokémon Sword and Shield amazing? No. Is it bad? No. Sword and Shield fall into that mediocre middle ground of being ok but nothing to write home about. Could I have done without them? Sure, they aren't some world ending imperitive must play. They're ok, and they make for a fine jumping on point and a fine little adventure if you have spare time. Have other mainline games done it better? Heck yeah, but that doesn't mean Sword and Shield haven't done a few good things too.

Overall, it sort of feels like GameFreak bit off more than they could chew, or were afraid to make changes because of unfamiliarity with the Switch's hardware and software limitations. Pokémon Let's Go had a lot more effort, but it also was much safer and had a much easier to work with art style to everything. Chibi proportions are a lot easier to fake than a more realistic counterpart. Things can be not perfect and it's less noticable than with more realistic proportions, and I think they were afraid to push back the deadline any further for the inevitable backlash despite that being what they likely needed. The DLC may change my mind, but as it stands, just the fact that they feel they can JUSTIFY their laziness with DLC packs really upsets me.

I give Pokémon Sword and Shield a 5/10.

It's just, OK.

[zdbztumble]

“Reverse/Rebirth” revisited

I’ve mentioned a few times now that, in this look back at the Kingdom Hearts series, I’ve finally come to like Riku as a character. That’s in part due to seeing everything in context again several years after my last play-through, but another thing that helped put things into perspective was a LP by YouTube’s Frustrated Jacob. He worded Riku’s story in a way I could finally grasp: that Riku sees himself, and is treated, as mature and trustworthy, but ultimately proves himself to be selfish, insecure, and childish, while Sora is a more childlike underdog who ultimately proves to be mature, responsible, and heroic. Riku does, of course, redeem himself after realizing to what end he’s being used for, and with the context straight in my head, I could finally appreciate that story on an emotional level, instead of conceding its technical merits but remaining cold to Riku himself.

Given all that, I was curious to see if my opinion on Reverse/Rebirth would change after playing though it again. As it turns out, it did change - for the worse.

My issues with the gameplay remain. I just couldn’t enjoy the card-based battle system without having the option to customize. Besides taking a lot of the fun away, it made troubleshooting against challenging bosses (which, I’ll admit, there aren’t many) more hassle than it needed to be. Riku’s lack of magic or summon abilities is another thing that just makes for a less fun game. The limited number of sleights available in Dark Mode gave some little bit of variety, but I so rarely needed to use Dark Mode that it wasn’t worth dragging out battles to build up the meter.

Riku does pack a lot of power in his attacks - that was the reason I hardly ever needed Dark Mode. This makes much of the game a cakewalk, even compared to the later stages of CoM proper, but the difficulty spike in the boss battles with Zexion and Ansem are ridiculous. The decks you get against them are pathetic, and their abilities are overwhelming. Having a real challenge was a nice change of pace at first, but the disparity is too great.

And I still can’t get over the way this game’s “worlds” are structured. My memory of this game was that Riku got all the same world cards as Sora, in reverse order (except for the last three floors), which would at least make some sense, tying into the “reverse” of the title. But they aren’t strictly in reverse order; some of the Disney worlds aren’t even in the same set. And Riku wasn’t in most of those worlds. There shouldn’t be any memory cards of those places for him. The game does acknowledge this, in a sense, by leaving out any Disney characters from these worlds. But that’s another problem with R/R: nothing happens for most of it. If the Disney worlds in CoM didn’t tie in to the larger story except in a thematic sense, they at least had self-contained plots that gave you something to follow. Riku just wanders through rooms here, to no aim.

Like with CoM, there was a missed opportunity to give the Disney worlds more connection to the plot. Riku was in Monstro, Neverland, and Hollow Bastion, after all, and spent most of KH I in Maleficent’s thrall. Having him deal with the memories of that - of his actions, of his alliance with a confederation of Disney villains - would have provided story material and illustrated his dilemma more effectively than cutscene after cutscene with blather about the darkness (and yes, I know this series is notorious for this - but even by KH standards, the word “darkness” is abused to all hell in this game. I’m not sure how they could have avoided that, given what Riku’s story is here, but it was still excessive). At the very least, Maleficent should have been a recurring character in Riku’s memories. Wasting her as the start-up boss is still an unfathomable decision to me.

Really, the lack of content is enough to make one wonder if this story warranted its own title. To call it the “B side” to Sora’s story in CoM suggests more than it can provide. If it had been cut down to just those three Disney worlds Riku actually visited, with more story content for them and cleaner writing for the larger story, the ten hours the game took (compared to just under 40 for CoM proper) might have felt worth it, instead of rushed and empty. But at that length, I would’ve just presented it as a bonus mini-game to be unlocked after a certain level of completion, not as a B-story you get to play no matter what.

As with CoM, I have to take issue with the villains here. I’m convinced now that his battle in this game is the only reason anyone remembered Zexion well enough to justify giving him a backstory, because there’s nothing else to his character, or to Lexeaus. I may not have liked the villains of CoM, but I can concede that Axel, Vexen, and Larxene are memorable (and no, I didn’t forget Marluxia - he’s off the memorable list for a reason XP). These two are devoid of even one major identifiable personality trait (and I would note that Zexion’s backstory hasn’t solved this problem). I suppose Zexion staging an elaborate illusion of Sora to torment Riku rather than killing him outright might qualify as sadism - if it were played as such, and if Larxene hadn’t claimed that territory, so that whole sequence doesn’t have a lot of foundation. Though I will concede that, prior to the realizing it made no sense, I found the impersonation of Sora an effective story beat that fed well into Riku’s fears.

Of course, the ultimate antagonist in R/R isn’t anyone from the Organization, but the darkness still within Riku, and the trace that “Ansem” left on him. Whether this Ansem is meant to be the real deal, or some residual trace or memory, I was never quite clear, but in any event, the solution to the conflict turns out to be that Riku chooses neither to reject the darkness nor succumb to it, but to straddle the line between light and dark, a trait unique to himself in this series. That’s been criticized as an idea, but I don’t object to it in principle, the same way I don’t reject efforts to move Star Wars beyond a black-and-white conception of the Force. But in execution, there’s a lot wrong with it.

1. With hindsight, we can see that it was never really followed up on. Darkness = evil in the first KH game, and that’s been true for the games that have followed R/R. For this idea to really work, it would’ve needed follow-up that it never got.

2. That this idea comes to Riku from Namine of all people feels extremely abrupt. Granted, if I were writing a story about someone learning that light and dark sides to their soul could co-exist extrapolated into a fantasy setting, I would want the revelation to feel abrupt at first glance, with hindsight showing seeding throughout the story. That seeding isn’t here, and Namine is an awkward choice to deliver the message to Riku given that they have no connection prior to this point in the story.

3. Namine’s line about how “no power can defeat [Riku]” makes no sense to me. He’s defeated throughout these games by light and dark powers. A lot of the wording of the dialogue on this plot point just seems designed to try and make Riku seem more special and marked by destiny. Of course, this ignores the element of the first game where Riku appearing to be the person suited to a great destiny was part of the problem.

4. On that note - as has been pointed out to me by @themattress​, Riku declaring himself unafraid and accepting of the darkness, and using it to ends he found right, was what led him down the path to possession in the first game. Now, I do think there’s reason to doubt his bravado in that scene in KH I; his pretense at maturity and confidence both fall pretty quickly when his jealousy and paranoia of Sora set in. But it is true that Riku accepts, embraces, and abuses the darkness in KH I, and what fears he does have aren’t tied to that. I still wouldn’t say I object to R/R trying to twist that idea around in principle, but just as it needed more follow-up to work properly, it needed more set-up than this game provided to work properly.

In a way, though, the biggest fault with this plot point is that it doesn’t really impact Riku’s behavior all that much. I’ve seen some critiques that praise Riku’s development in this game over Sora’s, and I can’t say I understand that. You can like Sora’s story in CoM or not, but he experiences a lot and undergoes dramatic changes over the course of that story. Riku here is pretty static. While I’m now fully on-board with his arc in KH I, I’m afraid I still find him rather bland here.

To be honest, the best bit of story content in R/R IMO isn’t even concerned with Riku; it’s a cutscene that expands on Sora’s story. It’s the scene I wanted in that story, where Namine calls herself “the shadow of Kairi” and explains how her messing with Sora’s memories of Kairi can’t truly erase them. When the best story beat in the B-story is an expansion on the A-plot, you know you have trouble.

And then there are the things about R/R that are just weird - turning Riku and Zexion into bloodhounds comes to mind. Has that whole “scent” business ever really come up sense?

So, that’s where I stand with R/R now: it’s unimpressive fare and wasted potential. Playing through it again has actually forced me to give some new credit to Dream Drop Distance. I still consider that game a worse story, and more damaging to the series overall, but there are two points I must concede to it: 

1. It handled two player characters much better than CoM and R/R did. Whether they were any good or not, the game gave Sora and Riku each stories to follow in the Disney worlds, enough content to fill out a full game, and tied them together in such a way that one didn’t feel like the superfluous B-side to the other.

2. I thought DDD was where the retconning of Sora and Riku’s friendship began, but it was here in R/R, with Riku describing Sora as someone who “always did as he pleased” and setting up the idea of he, Riku, being the responsible one. Granted, he’s being rather jokey when he says this, but accusing Sora of being the lazy one while he does all the work just rubs me the wrong way. When I thought that DDD was the one to introduce this change, I could at least credit it that such a retcon helped explain their dynamic in that game. But now I just can’t understand why they went down this road. Everyone who played the first game spent the first few levels on Destiny Islands, working on the raft as Sora. And Riku complaining about anyone else “doing as they please” at this point in the series, when we’re only one game removed from him plotting to run away and never come home (embracing the power of darkness to do so) while Sora took on the responsibility of being the Keyblade Master without protest is really pushing it.

Well, that’s that. No need to revisit that game for a long time. Now, on to KH II - the one I’m most interested in replaying. Will it hold up as well as KH I did? Only time will tell...

[playeroneplayertwo]

The Ten: 5.19

It seems a good icebreaker, or as good an icebreaker as any, to lay bare my top 10 of all time. Clear the air, so to speak. Get to know each other. It’s fair to say that this may be a make or break moment for us. Hopefully, I won’t lose you. Let’s see.

This is a list I imagine I’ll update periodically (which is why it’s dated), as my wife Kathleen (Player Two) and I play a lot of games, and a lot of new games. I’m a notoriously curious and searching type, and I love trying new games, sometimes to my wife’s chagrin. More often than not, my spare change goes to new games for the house. New games that make a splash tend to spike pretty high and then slowly fade. It’s not a great trait to have, especially in someone who tries to speak or write critically about quality (ie write reviews). But being that I’m aware of this, I hope that tempers it at least somewhat.

Anyway, where’s the list, you say? Here we go:

1. Brass: Birmingham (2018)

Oh boy, it’s a new one. Cult of the new? To be fair, Kathleen and I have played this game fairly regularly for the last eight months. By our third play or so, I knew it had locked itself into my top spot. I’d done a fair bit of research on the OG Brass (now Brass: Lancashire) prior to purchasing Brass: Birmingham, and by the time I eventually took the dive and purchased Birmingham, I was as excited to try it as I was unsure we’d actually enjoy it. At the time, it was the heaviest game we’d played, and it also relies heavily on route building–it’s in fact one of the most important parts of the game. I mention this because tactical spacial elements are not Kathleen’s forte. In fact, it’s one of her least favorite mechanics.

This is a good time to tell you that Kathleen and I think (and play games) very differently. Kathleen is a strategic player, relying on long term planning and execution to maximize scoring/performance. I, on the other hand, do not make long term plans. I find it not only remarkably difficult, but also unenjoyable. I’m a short term/tactical player. On my turn, I’m more likely to look over the board, get a lay of the land, and make the best, most advantageous play available to me at that moment.

Brass: Birmingham remarkably manages to cater to both of our play styles, which is one reason it ranks so high. Birmingham presents a myriad options for players to pursue. You’ve got a whole pile of different factory tiles you can build, a whole mess of locations or regions to move into, and about as many different strategies to pursue on your way to the end game. I don’t think I’ve ever played the same game of Brass: Birmingham twice, nor have I ever pursued the same options. The card play means, for me, that I will go where the cards lead, and I find using these cards as a guide to build my engine incredibly satisfying.

2. Covert (2016)

Dice placement. For some reason, this mechanic sounds incredibly unappealing to me, and I think it’s because it’s literally a portmanteau mechanic consisting of the worker placement mechanic using dice, two individual mechanisms that I seem to enjoy less and less. Dice I tend to avoid for their randomness (yes, I know that’s the point), and Worker Placement, in it’s most stereotypical application, I find frustrating. Why can’t I just put my worker wherever I want and just run my engine? Being stymied in a worker placement game just annoys the hell out of me.

So why do I love Covert?

It’s a pretty straightforward points race built around mission cards that have specific requirements. And using the dice as workers seems a fairly typical euro mechanism, but what I like about Covert is how puzzly it is. When you place your dice workers, they’ll be placed on round tracks with spaces numbered 1-6, and you won’t be able to place a die unless it’s adjacent to another die. In this case, you can do anything you want, but only if you plan correctly and work well with the other players. It becomes an order of operations puzzle, which may frustrate some, but I love it.

Also, I can’t get enough of that spy theme. And the production is fantastic.

3. Eldritch Horror (2013)

Ah, Cthulhu. For being the spawn of such a troubled person (HP Lovecraft), I find Cthulhu’s mythos and surrounding universe positively enthralling. 

But dice! Ugh yes, this is a huge, sprawling, long, and [sorta] bloated game that is built all around a very simple dice rolling resolution system. I have no way of justifying why this doesn’t bug me, but it just doesn’t.

Maybe I’m just a sap for the theme (Indiana Jones + Cthulhu = Win). Or maybe it’s nostalgia, considering this is the game on my top ten that I’ve played the most and had the longest. But, if I try to dig into the real reasoning here, it’s probably because this game manages to give you a big, rich, story-based experience that feels like an event when it’s over. Yes, it’s the biggest, longest play session on this list. But I love every minute of it. Even those maddening bad dice rolls.

4. Lord of the Rings: The Card Game (2011)

A long time ago, Kathleen and I came to this hobby via Magic: The Gathering, the deep, long standing king of the collectible card game. Magic is a great game, but it brings out the worst in me as a gamer. Playing Magic makes me both a bad winner and bad loser. Frankly, that’s a terrible combination. Why would you want to play with me at all?

This obvious problem led us to cooperative board games. If I’m gonna lose, why don’t I just lose with you. That’s a refreshing change of pace!

And speaking of losing, hey let’s talk about Lord of the Rings: The Card Game. The word used most frequently when talking about this game–by me and pretty much anybody who’s ever played it–is PUNISHING. And yes, it’s punishing. Kathleen and I have played a few punishing euros at this point (feed those people), but this is something else. Get a few bad card flips from the encounter deck and you’re suddenly up to your eyeballs in LOTR baddies. Orcs and goblins? Oh hai. But your dwarves or hobbits or whatever are never really out of it. Smart deck building (and luck) definitely has carried us out of the tall grass on more than one occasion. And there’s something to be said for a game as well balanced as Lord of the Rings. More than once, a game has concluded on a turn where we either win or lose based on that single turn’s outcome.

The theme doesn’t really do much for me, but I took the dive on this game because it looked like a well-designed and well-supported cooperative card game (of which there really aren’t too many). It’s stood tall over the years, and I hope it continues for a while. When I first played Arkham Horror: The Card Game, I figured it would knock this down a peg or two. But the designers’ ingenuity in the LOTR quests and encounter deck designs has been (for me, at least) a much more rewarding experience.

And I appreciate a cooperative game where you actually lose more often than you win. It seems a rarity in the co-ops we have.

5. Great Western Trail (2016)

I’d heard and read so much about this game prior to purchasing it that I almost didn’t even want to get it (which is exactly how I feel about Concordia and Trajan, subsequently). I dig the cowboy theme, but beyond that, I’d pretty much phased out all the actual details on this game’s gameplay.

But yeah, it really is good. Ya’ll were right. I love games that are heavy but are built around simple gameplay, and Great Western Trail epitomizes that. One your turn you move your cowboy on the (effectively) huge rondel board and then take an action on the space where you stop. That’s it. 

The beauty of the game comes from the remarkable breadth of options you can pursue. Using cowboys to buy cows, hiring engineers to move your train and build stations, hiring carpenters to build buildings and busy up the board, and completing objectives are some of the main tasks you’ll be focusing on, and what really clicks for me with Great Western Trail is that it’s a tactical player’s dream. The board is constantly changing, and as it changes, so must your plans. The objective cards steer you somewhat, but you’ve really gotta cut your own path across the wilderness here.

Oh, and I love deckbuilding as a sort of side dish mechanic. It isn’t always enough to sustain a whole game, but it’s great as a single piece of a pie.

6. Gloomhaven (2017)

All right, so this big beast has moved all over my ranking in the year+ since my first game. I won’t lie, it sat at #1 for a while. Then it slid a little, then a little more. I mean, it’s still at #6, so it’s not exactly plummeting. It’s the Board Game Geek #1 game of all time (as of this writing), and it’s hard to say if it’s deserving of this (and if not, what deserves the spot instead). Again, this is so subjective, and games like this or Scythe tend to be lightning rods for people who want to take a shot at the new hotness.

But yes, it’s good. It’s very good. I’m not as enamored by the sprawling nature of it as I was, nor the campaign, but being a person who loves variety, it’s scope is certainly a nice bonus. But after you haven’t played it in a while, it becomes a HUGE box that takes up a whole shelf and is a bear to set back up. And even though the box is 20lbs and takes up a whole shelf and the game takes 20+ minutes just to set up, the card play in Gloomhaven is just stellar. I love that this is essentially a tactical minis game with a euro engine. Tactical minis games rank incredibly low on my chart o’ interest, but this game takes that standard tactical minis expectation and smashes the shit out of it. 

Despite its niggling flaws, it’s an excellent game.

7. The Exit Series (2017-?)

This is the last co-op game on my list, and I just looked back and saw that there are four on here. I was just talking to Kathleen about how much I’d rather play competitive games instead of co-ops, and apparently I said that in a moment completely lacking self-awareness. Also, this is a cheaty kind of entry considering we’ve played at least eight Exit games.

Remember when I said that I liked Eldritch Horror because it was an event game that provided a big, rich experience? Well, the Exit games give you a meaty, brainier experience in a slightly shorter time period. There’s not much story–despite the designers really trying to cram one in there–but I’ll always love Exit because it’s become our Date Night game. Kathleen and I will get some nice booze, take out food, and sit down with a new Exit after we put our son to bed. The experience can be frustrating–remember we think very differently, but each experience has always been something to remember (except the Secret Lab; what happened in that one?). Special props to Exit: Dead Man on the Orient Express, in particular.

The puzzles are really satisfying when you crack them, especially after working on them for a while. We take longer than average to do these because we resist those hint cards as much as possible, so our games can stretch. But Exit should be an event, and when savored like one, it doesn’t let you down.

Also, if you have concerns about the value of an Exit game, if you look at it as an event (like going to the movies or *cough cough* playing T.I.M.E. Stories), it’s actually a very good value. Recycle it!

And finally, yes, Exit trumps Unlock any day of the week.

8. Glory to Rome (2005)

That Glory to Rome is out of print is a cryin’ shame. Our copy isn’t even a real copy, I printed a crappy DIY version at Staples and then cut and sleeved them with old Magic commons. Our copy looks bad, is cut unevenly, and has eery MTG watermarks shining through the thin weight paper, and I couldn’t care less. This game is awesome. It’s got about a million different combos that are all seemingly game-breaking, but the fact that everything is so powerful is really what makes this game so exciting.

Multi-use cards are one of my favorite mechanic, and this game is completely built around them. And like any well-designed game that is build all around cards, the design of this never leaves you feeling hamstrung by bad card draw. If you’re doing badly at Glory to Rome, it’s your fault. Sorry. You haven’t found the combo that will win the game for you. I can say this because I’m terrible at Glory to Rome, and I know it. That’s not saying I’ve not won before. I have, but more likely than not it was because I accidentally stumbled onto something good. 

Like Brass: Birmingham, no two games of Glory to Rome are the same. There are so many cards in the box, and the subtle sense of humor that permeates some of the cards just tickles me (please see: latrine).

It’s fast and exciting, and giving you options on other players’ turns is also one of my favorite mechanics.  I’ll happily play and lose Glory to Rome anytime.

9. Nippon (2015)

Full disclosure, this is the newest edition to this list, and Kathleen and I have only played this a few times, but there’s something about this game that really fascinates me. 

At first blush, it feels like Brass, but it’s not. Like Brass, this is an economic engine, but it doesn’t allow the multi-turn build up to The Big Turn like Brass. Then I thought it was a little like Great Western Trail, but it’s not really like that either. Great Western Trail presents a ton of options, but by the end of the game, you really need to work on all of them, at least a little bit, or else your score will suffer. Nippon, however, doesn’t make you do a little bit of everything. There are a number of elements in Nippon (like trains), that can be all but ignored except for certain circumstances. It’s a game built around area control via slow burn engine building. A number of other elements to the game are very specific tools you can use to hone that engine, but could just as easily prove useless under the wrong conditions.

This may be misdirected musings by someone who hasn’t played the game enough, but it feels right to me. The last time we played, I came to the realization that the game felt so fraught because I was trying to do too much. The game presents you with a large amount of avenues to pursue because you don’t actually have to pursue them all; you can’t, there’s not enough time in the game (or money!). You need to choose your actions and build the best engine as quickly as possible.

Nippon is a cutthroat fight that feels both wickedly fast and frustratingly slow at the same time. Special bonuses for completely subverting the worker placement mechanic with its own implementation that runs the whole game. It’s a puzzle that I have relished greatly.

10. Star Wars: The Card Game (2012)

Two Fantasy Flight LCGs on the list? Sweet Christmas!

But yes, this is a great game. I’m not sure it ever got much love, and it saddens me that it’s now dead, but it’s such an interesting design. That it does a fine job of simplifying deck construction is just a bonus.

I appreciate that Star Wars feels like a game of high stakes gambling. The first few turns are slow and quiet as you work through your deck and build your forces, but once conflict erupts, everything tends to break wide open. Each decision you make has massive repercussions, as single large mistakes will lose you the game. Add in some actual bluffing and a ticking clock, and this is the simplified and streamlined (if safer and less wild) version of Doomtown: Reloaded, another card game that I absolutely love. 

But where I think Doomtown ultimately fails, Star Wars succeeds. The game doesn’t get bogged down in complexity, and instead feels relatively streamlined considering its medium weight. Every time I play this game, I’m impressed by how smart Eric Lang’s design is. I feel like he played a ton of Magic: The Gathering, and then he removed all the things that bothered him (and bothered me, too).

I think this game is overlooked and underplayed, and dare I say forgotten, but for my money, it’s absolutely worth revisiting. And played over and over again.

Please remember, this list will change. Check back occasionally to see how. If you have any questions or opinions of your own, let me know in the comments!

Thanks for reading!

Eric (Player One)

[thecoroutfitters]

Written by Wild Bill on The Prepper Journal.

Editors Note: A guest contribution from Alex to The Prepper Journal. There is an upside of having a dog alert you and a downside. While we all know the upside of the alert there may be times when you want all, including the dog, to remain silent and Alex provides some insight on how to achieve that with a dog in the house. As always, if you have information for Preppers that you would like to share then enter into the Prepper Writing Contest with a chance to win one of three Amazon Gift Cards with the top prize being a $300 card to purchase your own prepping supplies!

It is comforting to have a dog in your home. You are assured that incidences will not catch you off guard but instead, your faithful companion will alert you. Even so, there are moments when you and your neighbors sincerely wish that the dog would stop barking to notify you of these events, like in a SHTF scenario where you are bugging-in. So, can you successfully train it accordingly? What are the practical steps to take in the training process? Well, this article offers you all the details.

Training a dog to alert without barking involves the following:

Buying the best retractable dog leash

It is daunting to do any form of dog training without having a sense of control. The pet is bound to wander and play because it does not consider the process as vital. As such, you must invest in the best leash with several considerations in mind. First, the leash must fit your dog’s size and weight. It must be comfortable enough to not irritate the dog in normal use, not too loose or too tight, but firm enough to restrain the pet during training.

Second, the leash must be durable. Always go with brands that are designed to offer you value for money, it is a one time purchase and dogs become accustom to their collar, it becomes a part of them. Third, you should consider the length of the leash. For training purposes, a lengthy leash is better than a short one. Fourth, the leash must have an ergonomic handle, for your comfort and ease of repeated use and it should be useful in all weather conditions.

Use of Treats

Dogs love treats, they are after all, walking, barking stomachs with legs and a wet nose. Use treats as rewards for the behavior you are trying to train. The treats to use could range from animal bones, to a through petting/massage reinforced by a standard verbal command like “good girl” or boy (dogs are still binary, I think.) The treats should be ones the dog likes, small and only given when they obey a command, and not the same ones your kids may use in the course of their daily play with the animal. Whatever option you choose, it is critical that you go for a treat that a dog will appreciate. This means that you must have spent enough time with the pet to know its likes and dislikes.

Notably, the use of treats involves four (4) major steps. First, you should create an environment where a dog will bark. For instance, you request someone to open the gate or ring the bell. The dog will naturally want to alert you of the event.

Second, you should acknowledge the barking by checking the source of the noise. A tug on the collar, combined with a hand signal visible to the dog. Show them the treat but do not give it to them until the barking stops. Repeat the tugs until the dog responds. Patience is the key here, this is breaking a natural behavior. Make sure to keep all the tugs firm but not so firm that they injure the dog in any way. And do not give up the treat until the barking stops and do not drop the hand signal until the barking stops. You will be surprised at how quickly some of the smarter breeds (poodles, retrievers, water dogs) learn and how frustrating it is to realize that some of the smaller breeds (the toys, small terriers and miniatures) seem to be in a different universe. Again patience and only give the dog the treat and drop the hand signal when the barking stops. This is work, it can become tedious, but the results will amaze you. No exposed treat, no collar tug, no hand signal and the dog will alert when you want. Add the three controls and it will silence. Of course the key here is getting the dogs attention BEFORE its natural instincts kick in. A properly trained dog will look to you first as opposed to bark when it is alerted. 

Remember bird hunting dogs are trained to point, signal and flush on command with no bark, while small game dogs use the bark to chase, corner and tree some prey.

Perseverance in training is the key, you must keep repeating the processes for the dog to learn that it is possible to get your attention without necessarily barking. Also, varying the amount of time it takes to get the treat is critical. Use of the gestures will also notify the pet on what to do in specific situations. You ability to recognize the alert from the silent dog is something you will have to learn

Be Calm yet Firm

Shouting and yelling will naturally alarm your dog. In fact, it may think that you are trying to join in the attention-seeking behavior. It is, therefore, important to be calm while giving cues in training.

You must realize that you act as a role model and leader during training, you are after all, its alpha dog. Once the pet realizes that you wish to remain calm, it will follow suit. At the same time, the pet must understand that the training is a serious event. Being firm while giving cues is worthwhile in this regard.

Familiarize the Dog with Different Sounds

A dog that does not visit different places in your environment will keep alerting you unnecessarily. If you only take the pet to quiet places or environments that resemble your home, it will unlikely fit in the natural world. It will be apprehensive when in traffic or in an elevator. Therefore, you should take the pet to different places and train it to remain calm, to not react to normal noise. It will take its cues from you and how you react and how you react to its behaviors. Here the hand signal can be worth every second you spent training it! 

Be Patient

Dogs learn how to bark in response to various things from day one of their existence in the world. It will take time to train them to opt for a different path. You must be patient in your training.

Start Early

Do not wait until a dog is fully grown to teach different tricks. Start the training as early as possible to achieve perfect results. Puppies are like children, sponges even when they are chewing anything and everything they can get into their mouths. They look to you again as the alpha dog, work that angle. 

Know Your Pet Well

Dogs respond to issues in their environment differently. For instance, you know that a dog is excited when it is wagging the tail. It may remain inactive and in the same spot when sick. A nip or bite may indicate that the pet is afraid or tired of the training program.

Once you have identified a pet’s behavior and meaning, it will be easy to encourage them to choose certain activities as opposed to barking. This starts with acknowledging the pet and making the necessary changes in the environment.

Ensure That the Dog Is Healthy and Happy

Dogs may bark when they are hungry or sick. The slightest of noises in their environment may trigger excessive barking. You are mandated to check for medical complications and take the necessary measures. Feeding the dog and taking it for exercises regularly is also a part of avoiding unnecessary barking, of socializing.

Work With the Professionals

It may easier to get the results you seek more quickly when your veterinary and qualified trainers are involved. A veterinary will let you understand a dog and check for health complications. They will also let you know when you cross the boundaries.

On their part, qualified trainers offer you unique tricks and tips to help you through the training process. To avoid the costs of hiring them, find websites that provide the relevant information and take notes. Buying books may also be of value as this is not more complicated than training job #1 – house broken. Plus, you will have to learn what the trainer has taught and deal with the dog adjusting to your authority over the trainers. 

What to Avoid  

While training the pet to alert you without barking, you should avoid:

Punishments. This approach only increases a dog’s stress level. It will not learn and instead, the barking will continue. The dog may also resist any form of training.

Rewarding the pet for barking. Resist the temptation to give the barking dog some treats or praise even when they look sad and weary. It will take longer to train it differently.

Giving up on the pet. Any dog, regardless of its age or breed, can be trained to behave in a certain way. You can fine tune your approach to training in case the ideal outcomes are not achieved after a while.

All in all, it is possible to train a dog to alert you without barking. Offering treats, proper leadership, consulting the professionals, calmness, and patience are among the approaches to consider in this process.

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[nubblenubs-blog]

Adventure Into – Eorzea - Final Fantasy XIV

Although I’m not a full, hardcore Final Fantasy lover and lore nerd I fully appreciate each of the games in the series (Especially Final Fantasy X, who doesn’t love the almighty Tidus laugh and Blitzball?!). The one game I have completely fallen head of heals for however, is Final Fantasy XIV. I’ve tried so many MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) games before but this one, somehow, just keeps pulling me back being somewhat of a staple in my steam library. History Today we’re going to be talking about Final Fantasy XIV A Realm Reborn and the brief history of the series. The Final Fantasy series has been around since 1987 in Japan, where it stated as a turn-based RPG (Role Playing Game) it grew in popularity and a few years later, in 1990, the English version was released to the public where still it grew! The turn-based formula has been a solid staple for a lot of the series, the first deviation from the formula, (as well as genre of game) Square’s first of two Final Fantasy MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) created in 2002, Final Fantasy XI. Final Fantasy XI dropped the turn-based system for a more active system and allowed players from all over the world to connect and explore the world in parties and enjoy the story that the Final Fantasy series was known for. But this wasn’t going to be their first rodeo with an MMORPG, as in 2010 Final Fantasy XIV was released and was a vast graphical and performance improvement on its predecessor with all new systems and jobs, people loved it. This however was short lived and didn’t do too well, and the game took a drastic turn in terms of story line by literally plummeting a moon down on the world that, in story terms, destroyed a lot of the land whilst concluding the story of Final Fantasy XIV (Known as version 1.0) in November 2012. But this wasn’t the end of FFXIV at all! With so many stories to be told, a world to still be used and a dedicated team leader Naoki Yoshida we get fast forwarded 5 years in game time and the game was revived into Final Fantasy XIV A Realm Reborn (Or version 2.0) in August of 2013, once again with more graphical and performance improvements and a huge story overhaul that was truly needed. The Game When you launch you’re greeted with a simple main menu and very Final Fantasy-esk music chiming in the background, (and will actually change depending on the expansions you have!) you will then be thrusted into the character creation, one of my favourite parts even if it isn’t as detailed as other MMOs. Once your character is suitably looking, you will have the choice of the standard base game classes 2 Tanks, 1 Healer and 6 DPS’ each based in their respective starting zones.

·         Limsa Lominsa, the city of pirates, beaches – Marauder, Arcanist

·         Ul’dah the rich and merchants, desert – Gladiator, Pugilist, Thaumaturge

·         Gridania very …down to earth people, forests – Conjurer, Archer, Lancer

Once you’re situated into a world one of the MANY cutscenes this game has to offer will start giving you the general gist of the current situation and once completed, you’ll arrive in your starting town ready to get going! Now that we’re finally into the game itself we get the choice to play with either a controller or keyboard and mouse, this is because the game is also on PS4 and has extremely good controller support for an MMO, however, for this I will be using the standard KB+M. Since this is the tutorial I will rush through and allow you yourself, to learn and I will jump past this section. Once tutorial is over you’ll then be put into the world with other people and can properly start your adventure, getting quests, items, fightin’ critters and following the story of The Warrior of Light. The main part of the gameplay is simple and easy to pick up especially as you level up, getting more intricate as you reach the higher levels of 60-70. However, Final Fantasy XIV is still slower than other MMOs with a global cooldown of 2.5 seconds on standard skills and longer for other skills, which can feel particularly sluggish if you’ve come from WoW with a lot of procs (programmed random occurrence) and movement. Aside from the global cooldown though, the skills are all pretty unique with some beautiful animations that fit your level. I also absolutely love running boss fights, from the hard modes to the extreme and savage, it’s a great challenge with friends and randos! But it’s not only that, there are so many other activities you can do in this game that aren’t all about fighting and defeating creatures; you can actually take up a more tame job such as a crafter or gatherer, race Chocobos, play cards, buy and decorate a house, transmogrify your outfit into something adorable or even take a break during your big adventure to play an RTS (Real Time Strategy) instead! There is so much more this game offers you than just questing and fighting and it’s all so well incorporated into the world and lore that you can get absolutely lost in it and experience/enjoy it all! The Ups and Downs The biggest downside of the game is the monthly subscription system. Although personally I feel like I get my money’s worth every month with the amount of playtime I put in and will continue to put in, I know that’s not the case for everyone and can be a huge put off. Other than the price when it originally re-launched on the PS3 there were many limitations though recently they’ve started streamlining it a lot more (Since they had also stopped support of the PS3 in 2017) whilst keeping phenomenal console support which is very impressive. To give the subscription credit, it is cheaper than a fair few subscription games and comes with a couple of options, one being cheaper than the other, 1 character per world or 8 characters per world. The newest expansions are also bundled in the previous ones, so you don’t need to pay for them individually which is pretty awesome. But before even getting the game and the expansion you can play a free trial that allows you to level up all the way to 35 with every vanilla class giving you a small insight into it each one as well as saving you money since it’s an unlimited time trial, however some features are taken out so bots cannot make use of it such as creating parties, trading and mailing. But the biggest thing for me personally is that it’s not pay to win at all, there is pay for convenience but it’s purely optional other, than that it’s just lots of very cute and aesthetic looking things! The Mog Station (as the shop is called) has lots of cosmetic only items such as clothes, mounts, housing so if you want that cute mount ‘just cuz’? You get it! You want that boost because you don’t like that class at early levels? You get it! All in all Final Fantasy XIV has been an amazing experience and probably my favourite MMO out there. It’s is a staple in my library, and I will hopefully be playing it long into the future with the way it’s ever evolving! Thanks to the amazing team behind Final Fantasy XIV and of course, the players that make the experience as special as it is!

[tech-battery]

SAMSUNG’S ODYSSEY G9 DOES THE WORK OF THREE MONITORS

I have been a technology cheapskate most of my life. I’ve rarely bought a monitor brand-new; I’m pleased to say I pieced together my current three-screen articulating swing-arm setup primarily from Craigslist and hand-me-downs. But this fall, I had an opportunity to temporarily replace my three aging displays with the most ridiculous, most advanced gaming monitor ever made: the super-ultrawide, super-curved, ultra-high resolution 49-inch Samsung Odyssey G9.

The Samsung Odyssey G9 is a monitor so big, so wide, so curved, it can fill a midsized desk and wrap around your entire field of view. It’s also simply a phenomenal screen: speedy (240Hz, 1ms, G-Sync, and FreeSync 2), high resolution (5120 x 1440-pixel), and bursting with brilliant color thanks to a QLED panel that tops out at an eye-searing 1,000 nits of brightness. I’m not kidding when I say I have to avert my eyes when I launch Destiny 2 in HDR, and I could swear I felt the flames the first few times my Star Wars: Squadrons’ TIE Bomber blasted an X-Wing into oblivion.

As they say on Reddit, I have ascended — and the past few weeks have been a gaming and productivity experience like few I’ve had before.

But gradually, I’ve been coming back down to Earth.

DESIGN

The Odyssey G9 is a showstopper, and I don’t just mean that figuratively: last January, attendees of the world’s biggest technology show were dazzled by its unprecedented curvature and sci-fi inspired frame.

When I put that same monitor on my humble IKEA sit-stand desk, the effect is otherworldly. Compared to my old hodgepodge of screens and rat’s nest of cabling, this G9 looks like a terminal aboard a Star Trek spaceship... even if my physical keyboard and its long braided cable ruin the illusion a bit.

The sheer size of the Odyssey G9 and its broad-shouldered stand do limit your options. I’m lucky that my small-form-factor Ncase M1 can fit behind the screen, and there’s just enough clearance (a little over six inches) for my Audioengine A2+ speakers to fit underneath the monitor at the stand’s highest position. But if I had a bigger PC or bigger speakers, I might have also needed a bigger desk — or else had to use the included 100mm x 100mm VESA adapter to mount the nearly four-feet wide, one-foot deep, 31-pound screen to the wall. My current monitor arms can’t carry nearly that much weight, though you can buy some TV arms that do.

As it is, I’m a fan of the way this monitor brings my whole desk together. Two DisplayPorts and an HDMI 2.0 port let me switch between three video sources easily, including a side-by-side mode which lets me display two at once, effectively giving my PC and game console (or a second computer) each their own 24.5-inch, 2560 x 1440 displays.

There’s also a two-port USB-A 3.0 hub and a 3.5mm audio output, which worked perfectly with my keyboard’s USB and 3.5mm audio passthrough. As you can see from my photos, I can do a lot with only a single visible cable thanks to those ports. And while the narrow V-shaped stand might seem a little minimal for a monitor this hefty, it takes a decent shove to get it to tip forward even at its highest position.

You can adjust the monitor’s settings using a tiny five-way control nub underneath the power LED, and it’s remarkable how much you can tweak — including the ability to crop the entire panel to 4:3, 16:9, or 21:9 aspect ratios instead of stretching out the image. You can effectively have a 27-inch HDR panel for your game console or TV whenever you need. It’s just a shame that the monitor’s biggest benefits don’t necessarily translate to its side-by-side mode, where your 240Hz HDR screen generally becomes a pair of 60Hz SDR ones.

PRODUCTIVITY

My first big test for Samsung’s Odyssey G9 wasn’t a console or even PC gaming — last month, I co-hosted The Verge’s industry-famous Apple event live blog, capturing every screenshot you saw. I normally run three monitors because I switch tasks like mad, and if there’s a better multitasking test than an Apple event, I haven’t met it yet.

At first, I wasn’t sure this epic screen would work. Most apps and websites aren’t designed to display across the vast expanse of a single 32:9 monitor, so you have to live in windows. I couldn’t simply toss one or two apps onto each monitor like I usually do. But while Samsung doesn’t ship the G9 with any good windowing software and Windows 10’s default Snap is woefully insufficient, Microsoft’s free downloadable FancyZones windowing manager worked wonders.

l built my own set of dedicated snappable spots for the Apple live stream; The Verge’s live-blogging tool; Slack; a browser window to keep track of any Apple press releases that might pop during the show; and even a narrow strip of Windows Explorer so I could see which images I’d already captured and weed them out as necessary. The only other wrinkle was the additional Chrome extension I had to download to ensure YouTube could launch “full screen” in a browser window, instead of taking over my entire ultrawide monitor.

In general, while I did occasionally miss my two vertically oriented monitors for scrolling long webpages, Google Docs, and Tweetdeck, I found the G9’s gigantic horizontal expanse of real estate nearly as effective for most tasks. Where I could only squeeze four narrow columns of Tweetdeck onto my old portrait-orientation screens, the G9 would comfortably fit five, plus a 30-tab web browser, a nice vertical strip of Evernote for note-taking, and our Slack newsroom alongside.

I wouldn’t say it’s better than having three screens for work, but it seems like a sufficient substitute — except maybe that toast notifications now pop up in the corner of my eye where they’re pretty easy to miss. Still, it’s nice not to have to match color, contrast, and brightness across three screens at a time, or adjust how my mouse crosses from one monitor to the next. Having a single, vast, unbroken expanse of real estate that’s always the same distance from my face (as I spin in my chair) is an absolute treat. And while the Odyssey G9’s unprecedented curve does tend to catch ambient light, the matte screen does a great job of diffusing any glare.

The ultrawide aspect ratio didn’t work as well for video as I hoped, though. While you might imagine 32:9 being great for movies, I had a hard time finding anything I could play in ultra high definition that wasn’t 16:9. Most streaming platforms won’t easily let you access their 4K and HDR content on a Windows machine to begin with — YouTube’s the primary exception, though Netflix works if you’ve got a recent Intel processor and use Microsoft Edge or the native app — and you’ll want 4K to take advantage of a screen this high-res and this close to your face. The 4K YouTube videos I played were definitely clearer than 1080p — I could really peep these pixels in Dieter’s iPhone 12 video review. And while standard 16:9, 1080p content does display just fine full-screen with black borders on the sides, it feels like I’m wasting a lot of screen real estate that way. Plus, the blacks are a bit gray, not the deep inky black you’d get from an OLED screen — particularly with HDR on and Samsung’s iffy local dimming enabled.

GAMING

The first thing you should know about gaming on the Odyssey G9 is that you’ll want a serious graphics card to go with it. Technically, 5120 x 1440 resolution isn’t quite as many pixels as a 3840 x 2160 4K UHD screen... but remember we’re also talking about a monitor that goes up to 240Hz. To properly review the Odyssey G9, I borrowed an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 to get enough horsepower, since my GTX 1080 couldn’t even run games like Death Stranding or Destiny 2 at 60fps smoothly at that resolution.

The second thing you should know about gaming on the Odyssey G9 is that it may not be quite as immersive as you’re imagining.

Don’t get me wrong: having an X-Wing cockpit wrapped all around you is an epic experience, and it feels like a true advantage to be able to use my peripheral vision in competitive shooters like PUBG and CS:GO. But it wasn’t long until I noticed something weird going on.

Look carefully at these images: notice how the sides are warped? Imperial deck officers and Novigrad Temple Guards aren’t generally this pudgy.

I tried game after game after game on the Odyssey G9, digging into my Steam, Epic, and Uplay libraries and tweaking a variety of settings, and this is simply the reality: every 3D game gets warped when you’re viewing it in a 32:9 aspect ratio, and there’s not much you can do about it. Changing your field of view in a game doesn’t get rid of the effect; it simply changes how much of the game world appears in the center of your screen (where things look normal) and at the edges (where they look stretched and zoomed). I actually pulled out a tape measure and checked: video game content that measures 4.75 inches at the center of the display can get stretched to a full 12 inches at the edges.

Now, this isn’t Samsung’s fault; it’s just the way games are built. Most games have a single virtual camera that exists at a single point in space, and while Nvidia once proposed changing that (see link above), the company’s Simultaneous Multi-Projection doesn’t seem to have made it into any of the games I tested. And in games with pre-rendered cutscenes, like Final Fantasy XV, you’ll be watching them at their original aspect ratio.

But before you write off 32:9 ultrawides right now, there are three things I’d like you to consider:

You might get used to it.

It’s not that distracting in some games!

2D games aren’t affected at all.

Let me give you some examples.

CS:GO and PUBG are incredibly competitive, nail-biting games where focus is everything, where you always need to have your gun at the ready and be scanning for any sign of movement. I don’t have time to turn my head left and right to appreciate the scenery or think about whether it’s warped. The G9 simply gives me enhanced peripheral vision, and it helps — not hurts — that things which appear in the corner of my eye are zoomed in by default. I got used to treating it as my peripheral vision and nothing else. (The 240Hz also comes in pretty handy in games like CS:GO where you can actually hit that frame rate.)

Genshin Impact, Abzû, Rocket League, and BioShock Infinite are games with gorgeous, colorful worlds whose proportions aren’t “normal” to begin with, and I love having them wrapped around me.

In Destiny 2 and XCOM 2, I found I could forgive the warping because of the enhanced field of view and the ability to easily zoom whenever you want. It’s nice to see more of the battlefield at once in XCOM while planning out how my soldiers will move each turn, and it’s pretty cool to aim down the sights in Destiny without the typical claustrophobia that comes with zooming in, since you’re still able to see what’s going on around you.

2D / 2.5D games like Worms W.M.D and Disco Elysium do look fantastic on the G9 — when you can find ones that actually support an ultrawide screen. That’s not a given: I managed to launch Soldat at 5120 x 1440 resolution, but it didn’t stretch across my monitor. Games with fixed widths like Streets of Rage 4 and Hyper Light Drifter won’t either. Even Disco Elysium only offers 21:9 support, not 32:9, unless you apply a hack.

And for every one of the 3D games that worked, I also found a Borderlands 3 or The Witness or Goat of Duty or The Witcher 3 where the warped geometry really bugged me, either because I wanted to sit back and look at the beautiful vista or because the edges of my screen were moving faster than the center.

In games like the hack-and-slash Mordhau or the road-tripping Final Fantasy XV, the distraction can also be when a piece of geometry that’s critical to the game constantly looks wrong. (Your Mordhau sword or axe often extends into the warped area of the screen; the road itself in FFXV looks curved instead of flat!)

Frankly, the most annoying game I played on the Odyssey G9 was figuring out which games would work in the first place. Here, I have to shout out Rock Paper Shotgun’s Katharine Castle, whose brilliant example-filled guide showcases nearly three dozen titles that do work, complete with GIFs so you can see for yourself. But if you’re willing to work at it (and understand the risks), a community at the Widescreen Gaming Forum (WSGF) and PCGamingWiki can help you hack and patch many existing titles to work at 32:9, too.

For instance, I installed a trainer that let me run Death Stranding at full-resolution 32:9, with an infinitely adjustable field of view, instead of the 21:9 that designer Hideo Kojima and company shipped.

Using a common tutorial, I hex-edited my Persona 4 Golden .exe and remarkably wound up playing what was originally a 480p PlayStation 2 game — and later a 720p, 16:9 PlayStation Vita game — at a glorious 3840 x 1080 at 32:9. (I do still need to figure out how to un-stretch the UI.) And there’s an old, unmaintained program called Widescreen Fixer that helped me revisit an old favorite:

I wouldn’t say the community is robust enough that you could necessarily find a fix for any game in your library. But the WSGF does now have a Discord you might want to check out.

THE ULTIMATE ULTRAWIDE, BUT THE BEST MONITOR?

The Samsung Odyssey G9 costs $1,479.99 — a premium price for a premium monitor like nothing else on the market. You can find other 49-inch 32:9 panels for less, but none with this combination of resolution, brightness, curvature, and refresh rate. The closest you can come is last year’s $1,200 Samsung CRG9 which maintains the resolution and brightness but with half the refresh rate at 120Hz and a notably less pronounced 1800R curvature — which, I imagine, wouldn’t be as good at giving you convincing peripheral vision in games.

If you’re looking for the ultimate ultrawide, this is currently it. I’m just not convinced that I am, personally, even if I had that much money earmarked for a new screen. For $1,500 and the enormous amount of space the Odyssey G9 consumes, I could buy a 48-inch LG OLED TV instead. I’d get a screen just as gigantic for my multitasking, but taller, with 120Hz G-Sync and FreeSync support, incredibly deep blacks, HDMI 2.1 for variable refresh rate for the PS5 and Xbox Series X, and no need to troubleshoot aspect ratios for my videos and games. Linus Tech Tips has a video that dives deep into the pros and cons of that LG screen, and I came away fairly convinced.

It wouldn’t be the same experience that the G9 offers, of course, and I might regret it if Nvidia and AMD ever dust off Simultaneous Multi-Projection for real. The TV might also cut off access to a large portion of my desk, and I might not be able to place my PC and speakers within easy reach without blocking a bit of the screen. But I’d have a more obviously future-proof setup; an equally, if not more gorgeous image; and a lot less ambient annoyance when I want to game. At the very least, here’s hoping Samsung adds HDMI 2.1 to this epic monitor next year.

[kuwaiti-kid]

How Financial Freedom is Possible on Almost Any Income

No lottery. No inheritance. I did not sell a business for millions, either. I achieved financial freedom at 35 by using old-fashioned money principles that changed my life.

What is “financial freedom”, anyway?

✅ Before you continue! Big Money is a 50-page PDF that will change your life. It is an actionable guide that shows you how to achieve financial freedom by building wealth, reducing risk and conquering your money goals as a professional who earns an income – big or small. 

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Financial freedom means that you live a fully-funded lifestyle that does not require a full-time job to support, though you may still choose to work a job you enjoy.

It means you have complete control over your life and the choices that you make. The money component is no longer the primary factor in your decision-making process and you are not forced to do things (like work) because you need the paycheck to fund your standard of living.

That’s an incredible feeling.

Financial freedom is also commonly known as financial independence, and it too implies that you are no longer beholden to a job to fund your lifestyle.

Instead, your savings and investments are big enough to sustain your lifestyle for the foreseeable future without holding a job. You may choose to continue working jobs that you love, but the ability to quit work at a moment’s notice, without thinking about money, is what makes our lives truly “independent” and free.

How to Achieve Financial Freedom on Any Income

Financial freedom is an equation. And, it's an equation that works almost every time. The equation doesn't know about race or gender. It does not care about your upbringing or your past. The equation is about the numbers, and numbers are nearly as uncompromising as it gets.

Too often, people believe that income is the only part of the equation that matter. In other words, earn a big enough income and, well, obviously they can achieve financial freedom.

But, that's just not true.

When nearly 25% of families that earn over $150,000 a year still live paycheck-to-paycheck, the numbers prove it's not that easy.

According to CNBC, Americans hold over $800 billion in credit card debt, with the average person carrying almost $6,200 in debt.

Source: CNBC

It's because earning an income is only a single part of what it takes to be free from money worries. To never have to stress about money. It's not the only part, and to find out what it really takes to be free from financial stress, we need to take a look at the entire story.

This story begins with income, and how deceptive our paychecks can be.

The Deceptive High Income Problem

There is one major problem with earning a high income: we start to think that we can afford just about everything.

Big salaries give us a lot of resources to play with, and if we are not careful, we could quickly find ourselves spending the majority of what we earn.

And when we do that, nobody is getting ahead. Financial freedom is a distant prayer.

And, high income debt is the common problem.

We like to tell ourselves that since we work long hours, we deserve to spend that money. We are, in essence, rewarding ourselves for all the hours and the stress to do our jobs. But, when those rewards start to become an integral part of our lifestyle, we systematically create a position of weakness.

Incomes are deceptive because when we don't use them properly, we create a false sense of security. As the Coronavirus-inspired economic downturn of 2020 proved, things change.

And sometimes, quickly.

We may not always have good jobs. There is no way we can accurately predict the future. And, our spending habits today effect our lifestyles tomorrow – every time.

Our incomes are powerful forces, and when we use them in a smart and controlled way, we build a solid foundation for wealth.

It all begins with understanding the financial freedom equation.

The Financial Freedom Equation

This equation is simple: First, we earn an income. Nothing can truly happen without some sort of cash flow.

Second, if we do smart things with that income (like save and, more importantly, invest), our wealth grows over time. And finally, controlling our lifestyle helps to ensure that we have enough money, after paying for the basic necessities of life, to save and invest.

Step #1: Earn an income

To achieve financial freedom, your income does not need to be big. Though, the more money we earn, the more we can invest. But strictly, financial freedom is possible with virtually any income provided we are smart with every dollar that we earn.

For most of us, our jobs provide the majority of our incomes. Other times, side hustles and other creative tactics can bring in a bunch of additional income.

Step #2: Invest your income

Investing a good portion of our income is what sets us up to build wealth, and this wealth is what enables financial freedom.

Basic investment guidelines:

Your checking account is not an investment; in fact, it’s one of the worst ways to “save” because your cash will not grow inside a checking account

All real investments contain a risk; know this going into any investment

Most investments are not “get rich quick”; instead, they tend to grow (and sometimes shrink) over time

Be careful before getting into any “hidden jackpots” or investments that seem too good to be true hidden gems exist, but they typically are not easy to come by

Although there are plenty of strategies out there, I am a big believer in “slow and steady wins the race”, and that’s been my personal investment strategy for years.

Examples of common investments

Savings accounts, CDs (Certificates of Deposit), Treasury Bills and U.S. Savings Bonds are lower-risk investments, but they also offer a lower rate of return. Most high-wealth individuals do not solely rely on these types of investment accounts to build wealth, though they may include them in their overall portfolio..

Mutual Funds and ETFs are built for longterm investing and are a diversified set of stocks, bonds and securities in which investors collectively invest. These investment accounts provide a higher return potential, but they also include more risk.

Bonds are debts in the form of loans made to companies (or governments, cities) that pay a set interest rate over time. Bonds are typically less risky than stocks.

Stocks are shares of ownership in publicly traded companies. As investors buy stock, they also buy a stake in the company. Stocks are among the riskier investment options because if the company loses value, the value of its stock shares also decreases. But, if the company appreciates in value, each stock investor builds wealth.

Real estate investments include land, houses, apartment and office buildings and commercial complexes. Investors make money when the value of the land or the building increases in value.

401(k)s are pre-tax company-sponsored retirement plans belonging to employees. Many companies offer a percentage match of money contributed by the employee, making this an excellent option to invest. Note that there is no guaranteed return.

Roth IRAs are post-tax retirement accounts where money grows tax-free, making this another good option for investors to help grow their wealth. Note that there are contribution and withdrawal restrictions for both 401(k)s as well as Roth IRAs.

HSAs, or Health Savings Accounts, are hidden gems when it comes to investing, though they won’t be available to everyone. A health savings account is a pre-tax investment account used for qualified healthcare expenses. Contributions are generally not subject to federal income taxes and money grows tax-free. If you don’t use your HSA money for a medical expense by a certain age (in 2020, it was 65), withdrawals can be taken from the HSA without penalty.

Brokerage accounts are fully-managed accounts set up to allow individual investors to invest money in a variety of different stocks, bonds and mutual funds. These accounts are managed by the brokerage firm, but the money inside the brokerage account belongs to the investor.

Over time, investments tend to build wealth – though, no invest exists without a certain degree of risk.

Our investment playbook

My wife and I achieved financial freedom using 7 basic investment principles:

Technique #1: We always invested at least the company-sponsored match (which was generally 4%) into our pre-tax 401(k)s.

Technique #2: Toward the end of our full time working careers (the last two or three years), we maxed out both of our 401(k) and Roth IRA accounts.

Technique #3: We built an emergency savings account with several years of living expenses.

Technique #4: In addition to our 401(k) and Roth IRA investments at work, we invested post-tax income in a Vanguard brokerage account to further boost our investments.

Technique #5: We automated everything that we could, including our contributions into our 401(k) accounts.

Technique #6: We used a great online tool called Personal Capital to help keep track of our entire financial picture.

Technique #7: We began using credit cards with the highest cash back and travel rewards points to take full advantage of the money that we were already spending.

Step #3: Control your lifestyle

The last step is controlling your lifestyle so your monthly expenses do not get out of control.

Streamlining your lifestyle is a three step process.

Those steps are:

Know where your money is going,

Identify ways to reduce spending, and

Continuously monitor (ongoing)

The first step is the most important because without a good understanding of where our money is going, it's very difficult to pinpoint where we can cut back.

It's a tedious process, but go through your bank and credit card statements, line by line, to understand what you're spending money on.

Avoid lifestyle inflation

A lot of us struggle with lifestyle inflation.

We start making more money and, in turn, we begin spending the majority of what we earn – simply because we have it to spend.

The causes of lifestyle inflation include:

Earning progressively more money each year, with bonuses and raises, which provides us with extra cash to spend,

We fund expensive vacations and huge purchases with all that “extra” money that we make year-to-year,

Many work jobs that expect us to look successful, creating a wicked cycle of earn-and-spend (more on this below), and

We try to keep up with our coworkers by matching (or exceeding) their level of spending on luxury items

As our incomes increase, so do our lifestyles.

In 2015, for example, CNBC reported that millionaires plan to spend $13,000 on vacations – in that year alone!

What’s the problem with that? If we spend the majority of the money that we bring in, we trap ourselves into a position where we NEED a high income, year after year, just to maintain the lifestyle that we built over the previous year.

High spending habits force so many big salaried households into a destructive debt-focused lifestyle that needs a high income to fund.

What happens to our lifestyle after that income stops?

Understand every expense

Make sure that you understand every expense (many descriptions are cryptic!).

Some online banking systems will help you categorize expenses to give you a better visual picture of your expenses. If they help, play with some of those tools to assist you in this process going forward.

This is a critical component in controlling your lifestyle. And, this is not the time to be judgmental. In step 2, we will learn how to decide what expenses to cut out.

Here are two important tips to help you as you dive through your statements.

Look for recurring expenses. These might include subscriptions to magazines, or memberships to clubs or websites, your cable TV package or anything else that gets billed on a regular basis. Highlight these expenses because we will use these in the next step of the process.

Categorize everything. Putting each and every expense into a category will help you to visualize at a higher level what areas of your life are costing you the most money. For example, common expense categories include restaurants, alcohol, groceries, travel, fuel, clothing, automotive repairs, home repairs and improvements, etc.

How to figure out what to cut

Next, we figure out ways to slash our expenses. To do this, I like to ask several questions:

Am I reading every magazine that I subscribe to? Enjoying the wine from that club I'm in? What about Netflix?

Or, are my vacations getting a little out of control? Could I cut back on where I go or what I do while on vacation?

Can I cook a little more at home rather than going out to eat so often?

Can I wash my own car rather than running it through the car wash? Or, cut my own hair instead of going to a barber? Make my own coffee at home?

Only you can answer these questions, but they will help us determine what expenses to lose during this process.

The bottom line with this step: Understand where your money is going, then cut out anything that isn't critical to your life. Then, use this extra month to save and invest in appreciating assets. This is how money builds.

In Conclusion

Financial freedom is a simple equation, but it takes time to solve. Using smart money principles that utilize the true power of our income will enable more choices in our life because money is no longer the primary concern.

Money is a tool, and so is our income. Like a hammer, money can be used to build anything that we want.

We could use money to build a life full of consumption. We can buy the big house on the hill, or the pricey import luxury car, the expensive suits and nice dresses, dinners at high-priced restaurants, season tickets to sporting events, etc.

Alternatively, we could use that money to support the basic necessities of life and protect our futures, like living in a more reasonable home and driving a normal paid-off car, maintaining a 6-month emergency fund and investing the rest for our future retirement.

Or, something in-between.

Everybody’s money goal should be simple: use money strategically. Use enough money to maintain your family’s basic needs (and maybe a little more), then save and invest the remainder so you won’t need to spend the rest of your life working for the privilege of spending.

Saving and investing to achieve freedom from money is the smartest decision that anyone could ever make.

The post How Financial Freedom is Possible on Almost Any Income appeared first on Your Money Geek.

from Your Money Geek https://ift.tt/2SF6Mxa via IFTTT

[lurkingcrow]

Obi-wan shaves the beard... and no one can recognise him. Later once people finally figure out who that clean shaven, auburn haired Jedi is they continue it as part of some elaborate joke, Obi-wan doesn't know wether or not to be amused or annoyed.

[chroniclesofawkwardness]

Hurricane

I.

For years, I was a night owl. When I started my second stint with the company I work for today, I worked a 1:30 PM to 10 PM shift as one of many people answering the phone if you called the number on the back of your debit card. I didn’t much care for the constant what-happened-this-time beep in my ear that meant another call had come through, but some days were better than others. 

I enjoyed helping customers as long as what they asked me to do was within my power, but there were times I didn’t feel like listening to strangers’ life stories or treating their self-inflicted financial wounds. My schedule wasn’t ideal because I had to work one weekend day. Having a day off during the week wasn’t without its advantages, but it also meant trouble might find me at an unexpected time or place.

The first time I saw Kathy, I thought she looked like life had taken a lot out of her from behind the counter of the Circle K, but she was easy to talk to. She was blonde, thin but not sickly, and wore shoes that suggested she was accustomed to being on her feet most of the time. I guessed she was in her mid-forties. She was a nice departure from a lot of the women I saw at work every day. Of course, I couldn’t know exactly what was going on in a given woman’s life just by looking at her any more than she could know what was going on in mine. Still, it was hard to appreciate an individual woman’s beauty when most of them I saw towered over me in their high heels, flaunted legs that kept going until next Tuesday, and looked like they had trained with a Bloodsport-era, badass Jean-Claude van Damme, not the one content with starring in Tostitos commercials breaking chips instead of bones, and taking your place in your circle of friends. Kathy was different. 

Maybe we got along because we were both night owls. Maybe it was because we both found ourselves doing things we never imagined doing when our parents asked us what we wanted to be when we grew up. Kathy told me she’d previously been a waitress at the Olive Garden. I told her how I was rebuilding my life and had had a literal pregnant pause between jobs once I’d come back from overseas. 

Some nights, we’d talk long after she’d rang up my Combos and/or beef jerky. I’d offer general descriptions of the craziest recent customer interactions I’d experienced: 

While working overtime one Saturday (a day I wasn’t even supposed to be there), I heard the beep of an incoming call in my ear, introduced myself, and offered to help, as was standard procedure. The guy on the other end of the line immediately started pulling his cheek back and forth. I could tell he’d moistened the inside of his cheek with spit (probably while listening to the preceding hold music) as an act of premeditation. His vagina song was broadcast directly into my ears and left no doubt he’d been watching too much porn and studying how to replicate the anatomical musical score with himself. Why he decided to share his concert with me, I’ll never know. Some things are best left unsaid. 

When I asked Kathy what the strangest thing she’d ever sold someone was, she replied without hesitation: “I once had a guy come in here at three o’clock in the morning who bought condoms and bleach.” 

I was left wondering why I’d even asked. 

As much as I enjoyed conversations with Kathy, much briefer exchanges were the norm. The place was usually dead when I’d get there around 10:30 PM, but my arrival always seemed to trigger an avalanche of customers who urgently needed gas, cigarettes, or lottery tickets. I usually took the onslaught of humanity as my cue to exit stage right. 

That’s how it went for us. That was our routine.

The first time I saw Ashley, she was telling Kathy about how much she missed. Kayla. Kathy introduced us and told me she used to work at the Olive Garden with Ashley. I was instantly glad I hadn’t earlier ridiculed the wardrobe of white shirts and solid, brightly-colored ties that waitstaff of the Olive Garden in required to wear, though I’d wanted to badly. Ashley talked about how she’d recently had an argument with her mother, whom she hated, and how her son’s father, then serving in the U.S. Navy aboard a ship somewhere off the coast of Greece, was an asshole. 

I’m not sure if Ashley interpreted the fact that I asked her questions as a sign of genuine interest, or if I was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. As luck would have it, this was not one those nights when we were interrupted by strangers seeking swizzle sticks. She went on and on about how she missed Kayla. I just kept nodding, unsure of what else to do. I could have left at any time, but I was overcome with curiosity, as if I’d passed a really bad car accident, one that when you see it, you instantly ask yourself if somebody died. You feel bad for staring, but you can’t look away. 

This carnage involved conversation instead of cars. 

After an eternity of my unanswered prayers to be interrupted by a customer, Ashley suggested I join her for a drink. It was a Friday night and I didn’t have to work the next day, so against my better judgement, I agreed to go with her. She must have had to use the bathroom before we left; once Ashley was out of earshot, Kathy leaned over the counter and told me to be careful because Ashley may have already been drunk, high, or both. When we finally got into her car and pulled away from Circle K, I caught a glimpse of Kathy through the window, motioning to me with her hands as if putting on a seatbelt, reminding to me to do the same. She was trying to keep me safe with (or from) a woman I’d known for all of three hours.

Our first stop was a sports bar called The Crown, merely feet away from Circle K. Ashley ordered a Blue Mojito. I don’t remember drinking anything, but I do remember her taking my tie off without really asking if she could, and putting it around her neck as she continued to drone on about Kayla, her bitch of a mother, and her son. 

Next, we went to a bar called the Keystone Pub and Patio. It had to have been around 2 AM; chairs were already turned upside down on top of tables when we walked in. Ashley must have known the bartender, who poured us shots of something that looked like Fireball. I don’t remember either one of us paying for them. 

We were supposed to go to Waffle House after this, but that’s when shit got really weird. Ashley drove us there, but we sat in the parking lot for what felt like forever. We never made it inside. At one point, she just lost it:

Her: ”I miss KAYYYYYYLLLLLLAAAAAAAAA!!!!”

Me: “Um…. I’m sorry for your loss. I can tell she meant a lot to you.

Her: “I wish I could just crawl down into her grave any lie beside HEEEEEERRRR!!!! Oh Gawd!!!”

Me: “Okay.”

Her: “Put your hand on my chest and feel me sing.”

Me: “Ashley, I don’t know if that’s such a good…”

Before I could finish my sentence, she grabbed one of my hands, placed it just above her breasts and held it there. The next song was I Believe You Liar by Australian singer/songwriter Washington. It started with a hauntingly beautiful piano intro, the kind that made me stop (despite the awkward position of my hand) and listen. The first verse is:

All the things you've said And things you've done I remember, in memoriam You said that you did But you did not Oh, you ache for something God knows what

I’d never heard the song before. Even now, I still can’t listen to it without thinking of that moment in Ashley’s car. The piano part still gives me goosebumps, the kind you get when a song truly captures your attention, the kind that form long before you’ve heard a song 500 times thanks to Top-40 radio, TV dramas, and being a resident of planet Earth. I haven’t heard I Believe You Liar anywhere near 500 times. I don’t want to. For some reason, I don’t want to spoil it despite the ridiculousness surrounding when I first heard it. 

Once it became clear that we wouldn’t be going inside Waffle House, I was slightly pissed off. I was hungry, dammit. We'd been drinking, so the conditions were perfect; I’d heard most people only go there when they’re drunk anyway. But I wonder now if listening to Washington’s song wasn’t a better fit than intoxicated waffle consumption for what Ashley was going through. It’s easy for me to describe the absurdity of our encounter, but there may have been more to it. However demonstratively, Ashley was grieving, aching. for her friend who died unexpectedly. I just happened to meet her that night.

Ashley had been in my life for about eight hours when we pulled into the parking lot of my apartment complex. The sky was starting to change color, signaling the beginning of a new day. I thought of a video game I used to play as a kid, Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest. One of the most annoying aspects of which is that you never knew when night was going to transition to day or vice versa. 

If you were in a town when a transition to night happened, all the townspeople vanished, and you were faced with zombies that moved like rejects from Michael Jackson’s Thriller, plus bats you couldn’t even see coming because they blended in almost perfectly with the nighttime screen. When the lights went down in the city, you, Simon Belmont, the next in a long line of heroic vampire slayers, were reduced to jumping around whipping at shit in your 8-bit leotard while a soundtrack played that didn’t exactly inspire fear in, or of the undead. 

Whether you were in town or out and about in the blocky wilderness, your only salvation from the darkness was another seemingly randomly timed pop-up box like this, which meant it was about to be daytime again:

I hated not knowing when day or night would come next. Even as a ten-year-old, the unpredictability made me nervous. You might say it was my first encounter with a pop-up ad, long before the modern incarnation those annoying little fuckers (or the option to skip ads) existed. This might be why I hate most ads to this day. Still, that night with Ashley, I actually prayed for the first time in my life that a Castlevania II pop-up would appear in the sky overhead, vanquish the horrible night, and send her back to wherever she’d come from.

Only that’s not what happened

II.

“Do you mind if I stay here tonight,” she asked. 

“Not at all (this night couldn’t possibly get any weirder),” I said.

We went upstairs and went straight to bed. I couldn’t sleep, and my occasional attempts to kiss Ashley didn’t escalate into anything more. I just tossed and turned, unable to sleep thanks to the alcohol and the stranger in my bed. Ashley didn't have any such problems. 

After hours of restlessness, I gave up trying to sleep and decided to go about my normal Saturday routine, beginning with doing laundry. I tiptoed around to avoid waking Ashley, but this didn’t stop me from checking on her every few minutes to make sure she was still breathing. After she'd spoken so agonizingly about missing Kayla, I seriously believed Ashley could kill herself right there in my bed without a second thought.

She finally woke up in the middle of the afternoon. We sat on the couch and talked about books and what we wanted to do with our lives. I agreed to let her borrow my copy of Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky, and she said she let me borrow her copy of The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom. Notes from the Underground was one of those books I was supposed to read in college but never did. I was looking forward to reading it on my own time, when a requirement wasn’t hanging over my head. I’d read one of Mitch Albom’s other books, Tuesdays with Morrie, which heart-wrenching though it was, had been a fast read. I thought I could get through The Five People You Meet in Heaven quickly, and reasonably expect Ashley to finish Notes from the Underground in about the same amount of time. I figured we’d meet up after reading, give each other their book back, and that would be the end of it. 

That’s not what happened either. 

First, we drove to her mom’s house so she could pick up The Five People You Meet in Heaven. Ashley decided she was hungry, so we stopped at Wendy’s on the way back to my place. Eating fast food was a rare experience for me (but the whole night before had also been). Until 2017, I had no idea Wendy’s had a vanilla Frosty on their menu, an item that had already been around for more than a decade by the time I caught on. I’d had other things on my mind.

We went back to my place to exchange books and phone numbers. Ashley finally left at around 6:30 PM, capping a whirlwind twenty hours. I wasn’t sure what had just happened, or why, but it did happen.

I finished The Five People You Meet in Heaven in about a week, and texted Ashley to let her know I was looking forward to giving her back her book. I got a brief response like, “Hey” and something about her work schedule being crazy.  At first I didn’t mind having her book (and not having mine), but as time passed, it started to bother me. Not a lot gets on my nerves, but two things that do are owing people money and having something that doesn’t belong to me. Every time I’d see Ashley’s book on my shelf, I’d think: “Man... I really should get that back to her.” Then a more basic thought would creep into my brain: “I hope she hasn’t made good on her desire to crawl down into the grave with Kayla. Fuck... I hope she’s still alive.”

Over time, my texts and her replies became more and more infrequent. I’d joke with Kathy that I was reaching out to Ashley once every season, just to prove to myself that I was still trying to do the right thing by returning her book. As the months passed, I started to just want my damn book back, and to give her hers so I wouldn’t have to think about it anymore. 

That’s how it went for me. That was my routine. Until the day she just showed up in my parking lot. 

By September 2013, I’d found a job in fraud prevention. I jumped at the chance to learn something new without subjecting my ears to incoming vagina songs. I was still a night owl, but struggling to work at a pace that met the expectations of my new department. To help me acclimate, management had me do a few days of side-by-side training with a more experienced specialist. This meant I also got to temporarily change my schedule to a more traditional 9 AM to 6 PM.

For some reason, after working my temporary shift one day, I decided to walk through the rear parking lot of the complex instead of the front one. Then I saw her. She was in a car I didn’t recognize, but she was with two guys I did, from Circle K. The driver’s side door was open so she'd gotten a bit of a head start towards me before I realized what was happening. She ran into my arms and hugged me like I was someone she truly missed:

“Hiiiiiiiiiii!!!! I am SO sorry!!!!” She was practically squealing. 

You’d have thought it had been only a week instead of nearly a year since I’d wished for the morning sun to vanquish that horrible night. All I could think was, “Finally! Here’s my chance to return her book and be done with this shit once and for all.” I’d aged almost 365 days since the last time I saw her, but Ashley must have thought I was elderly and feeble. She took me by the arm and helped me up the stairs and into my apartment. Once inside, she helped me take off my shoes and put on house slippers though I never asked her to. 

“Ashley, what about your friends? Aren’t they still down there with the car running?” 

“Oh, they’ll be fine. They’re just down there smoking weed...”

’WHAAAAAAAAAA!?!?!?’

I have absolutely no problem with recreational marijuana use, but I also knew that if the cops showed up (seeing law enforcement officers driving up and down my street was not uncommon) and started asking Cheech and Chong questions about why they were there and who they were with, I wasn’t going down with them. Even in their intentionally altered state of consciousness, I was convinced they could still identify me. 

I case you’re wondering, Ashley left before I had a chance to bring up the books. I think I’d pissed her off by talking shit about her to one of my neighbors that night without realizing she was close enough to hear me. I should have whispered like Kathy had the year before when she was sure Ashley was out of earshot.

Still got it.

I never heard from Ashley again. I haven’t reread The Five People You Meet in Heaven, and the piano in I Believe You Liar still makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I’m okay with that. Why? Mitch’s book and Washington’s song make up the eye of Hurricane Ashley, a storm I won’t soon forget.

[level99games]

Weekly Article: Pixel Tactics Formats by D

Hey, everyone! Welcome to our new piece of Daily Content! Every Tuesday, we will be releasing articles about our games! These can range from simple things like analyzing the base pentagon in BattleCON to complex card counting in EXCEED. This week, we have a wonderful Pixel Tactics article from community member D (Daniel Zeiger).

            Howdy, folks! I'm here to talk to you about Pixel Tactics Offline. That's the print version, which uses old-fashioned physical cards instead of fancy bits and bytes.

            You might be wondering why this matters when Pixel Tactics Online is so far along in development (and looks so incredibly good). Well, PTO and the print game are different games. The core mechanics are similar, but a few slight changes make a world of difference.

            Plus, lots of people already have the physical game. It's not like releasing PTO will make the physical game obsolete!

 Pre-Constructed Decks

            You might've heard the term "pre-constructed deck" (especially if you've participated in any Pixel Tactics Organized Play events) without knowing what it means. Chances are, it's all you've used if you've played any physical copy of Pixel Tactics.

            Anyone who sits down to play with a copy of Pixel Tactics 1 will always have the same 25 cards in their deck. The same goes for every other Pixel Tactics set; that's why they're called "pre-constructed." When you start taking cards out or putting cards in, you're no longer working with a pre-constructed deck. This is where shenanigans begin.

What Is Deckbuilding?

            Deckbuilding is the act of changing the cards in your deck—or putting together an all-new deck—to change your play experience. More information than I'm giving here can be found in the current official rulebook; I'm just going to cover a couple basic ideas... and then explain what I meant by "shenanigans."

            Format defines the rules of deck construction you're following: Standard or Epic. Standard Format specifies that you must have exactly four Leaders (no more, no less) and between 25 and 30 Heroes. You can't have more than one copy of any card, which means you can't use both the Hero and Leader sides of the same card. (You also can't use two different versions of the same card, like having both Borneo and Juto.)

            Constructed Deckbuilding means "you built your own deck ahead of time and brought it ready to play." Note that it's different from pre-constructed, because you're not using a single set's deck as-is!

            Draft Deckbuilding means "you participated in an event where you and some other people built your decks at the same time by choosing cards from a shared pool." There are different ways to draft, each of which specifies exactly how players choose cards and what the pool looks like, but that's the basic idea.

            Combination Deckbuilding means "you took a pre-constructed deck and shuffled in a Minipak." This is a casual deckbuilding method; it's a great way to spice up a pre-constructed deck for a game with a friend, but don't expect it to result in a legal Constructed deck!

 Why Drafting Is Fun

            Whichever way you cut it, Draft is an exercise in creating order from chaos! You don't know going in what cards you'll be dealt, so you have to build a strategy on the fly to suit the cards you run into. This makes Draft exciting and unpredictable; no two Draft decks are alike!

            Draft also usually has just enough cards for all the players to participate. Since most of the cards end up in someone's deck, you're likely to encounter a wide variety of decks and run into Leaders and mechanics you may never have seen before.

            Another big benefit of Draft events is a highly practical one: the organizer brings all the cards, which means attendees can participate without having to worry about deckbuilding in advance and bringing their cards with them.

Why Constructed Is Fun

            Now, about those shenanigans I mentioned.

            In Constructed Deckbuilding, you have the ability to customize your deck from scratch. This means that you can experiment with new and unusual combinations of effects to build a completely unique deck! Also, unlike Draft, you have as much time as you're willing to take to practice with your deck and make improvements to it, since it all happens on your own time.

            As long as your deck is legal (meaning it follows the Format rules and respects the ban list), you can bring it to a Constructed event and expect to be able to play it—no need for the organizer to bring extra cards. (This might not seem like much of a benefit, but the organizer probably appreciates it!)

 What Was That About A Ban List?

            A Ban List is a list of cards that are officially banned; they can't be used in Constructed decks, and they must not be included in the pool of cards available for Draft events.

            The incredible quantity and diversity of effects in Pixel Tactics means that a lot of things are possible, some of which work together in extraordinary ways! Part of the fun of deckbuilding is finding such intriguing combinations, of course—and if certain cards are so incredibly powerful that they're mandatory in every Constructed deck, that means they're going to take up room in every deck, which gives everyone fewer options.

            In Draft, the problem is even worse, since in any given group of players, only one of these "power cards" can exist. Whoever gets one has an advantage they didn't gain by strategy, but by sheer luck of the draw. While this doesn't necessarily make the game itself less fun, it makes the tournament less fair, which is no good at all.

            Besides power level, there are two other reasons a card hits the ban list:

            Card Management. When players start taking Rival cards into their own hands, it's easy to lose track of who started with which cards. This is particularly troublesome in Draft, since everybody builds from one pool and the cards don't have different backs (or are sleeved).

            Examples: Iaxus, Endrbyt, Mage, Deceiver

            Game Breakers. Some cards can be combined in ways that do things that simply aren't supposed to be possible. For example, with the right deck, Shoshannah Kasselock can draw and play her entire deck multiple times over on the first turn after Ceasefire!

            Examples: Shoshannah, Laine, Failsafe, all promos!

Where To Start

            Even without the game breakers, there are endless strange and interesting combos to discover! In fact, there are so many possibilities, it's easy to be overwhelmed by all the options available in Constructed play.

            The simplest way to build a deck is: start with a deck.

            No, really! Pick a set of PT you've played before, or PT1 if you've never played. Remove any banned cards, then pick a Leader you like (or one at random). You'll find that you don't have enough cards for a legal Constructed deck: you need three more Leaders, and (if you didn't start with a Mega Man set) you'll also need more Heroes to fill out the 25-Hero minimum.

            This is where the magic happens. Filling in the gaps in your deck is where you can start to think about what you want to see or use when you play. You don't have to build the whole deck at once! Just think about your Leader's ability and try to pick other Leaders who do similar things, then Heroes that seem like they’d work well with it.

            Whether you're able to build a legal deck on the first pass or not, the most important part of deckbuilding is testing. Even if you’re a few cards short, you've got to play your deck a few times. After some practice, you'll start to notice which cards aren't useful and think about which effects would be useful to have. Change things up as often as necessary and keep testing, and your deck will begin to take shape.

 But Wait!

            There's more! Some of the Pixel Tacticians in the official Discord server post regular deckbuilding prompts, which provide some optional structure if you're still stuck on where to start. It's not a competition, and there's no prize beyond recognition; we just want to see what people can make!

            Leader: Runika Zenanen, ???, ???, ???

            Format: Standard (4 Leaders, 25 Heroes)

            Special: Can't use Leaders from odd-numbered Sets

            Try building a deck of Heroes with Runika as their Leader, then pick a few even-tempered Leaders to round it out. If you end up with a legal deck (or if you don't but still want to show it off), come by the official Discord server and share your creation!

            You can also come by if you're having trouble with deckbuilding, if you have questions and want to learn more, or if you're just looking to talk about the game for any reason at all!

            Want to deckbuild, but don't have the cards? No worries; an online reference document for all the cards is being developed for just this reason (and an accompanying document will be out soon to make deckbuilding even easier)! It's fan-made and fan-maintained, so if you spot any errors, feel free to hop into the Discord server and let someone know!

Hope to see you there; happy gaming!

~D

(Daniel Zeiger)

Thanks for the awesome article, D! If you, reader, have an article you want to share with the World of Indines, contact Marco on the Official Discord and we'll get it sorted out!