#I enjoy following them too

[monkesupreme]

ref

a satisfactory answer for Selina

[ktarsims]

SO. I decided to reblog this, because I have a lot to say on this subject, so let's bring it all together. There's a few different types of answers to this question.

One type of answer is: "Well yes, you have to do this to get a lot of followers, sadly."

A second type of answer is: "Aesthetics are important to me personally, and that's what I enjoy about the game, is making things look pretty."

A third type of answer is: "Aesthetics don't matter that much, because if you just put out what you enjoy, people who like what you do will eventually find you regardless."

ALL three of these types of answers are true. None of them are wrong.

If you want more than say, 20 or so consistent followers, aesthetics are your first and foremost tool to attract those followers. (Unless of course you're releasing custom content.)

A secondary tool, much more difficult to use in gaining popularity, is storytelling. I know at least a few storytellers that I follow who don't put a ton of effort into altering their screenshots (though they might put a lot of effort into setting up scenes to screenshot), whom people follow for the story. (And I'm not saying all storytellers are in it for the popularity, but some of them ARE very popular.)

So if popularity or gaining influence in the community is your goal, aesthetics are likely going to be very important to you. There's nothing wrong with that, but if you don't enjoy doing the things that will bring you popularity, it may not be a good path for you.

(Popularity's also not all it's cracked up to be, on the internet y'all, since it's as likely to bring you hate as love and can sometimes make you a target. I kind of dread being popular, personally. Too much drama.)

~~

On the other hand, some people don't really care about popularity, but simply want their OWN game to look pretty when they play, or really enjoy mucking about in photo editing software to produce various effects and improve images.

To this group of people, aesthetics are also very important, for entirely different reasons. They do what they do for themselves. Popularity may follow, but it isn't the goal. I think this is fabulous. They're doing what they love, and the rest of us love what they do. (Except the ones who don't, and decide to be insulting about it. Block them swiftly.)

~~

Lastly, there's those of us for whom aesthetics aren't that important personally... we might use re-shade because we like colors to POP, or we might use a lighting mod because we like the mood, and then we just post unedited screenshots and call it a day. Or some of us don't use anything at all, and just post unedited screenshots.

We learn things about the game from seeing other people post about their gameplay. I discovered a new gnome yesterday I didn't know existed before and now I'm dead-set on getting one to spawn in my game...

We're not the 'popular' crowd. But we often have the same 20-30 followers who continue to comment and like our posts for years.

We joyously welcome newcomers, and we worry when someone falls silent for too long. Not because 'why aren't you posting new content for me??' More because we hope you're ok.

In my little corner of simblr, it's far less common for a lot of people to unfollow you just because life happened and the blog had no new posts for a couple of weeks, months, or sometimes even years.

We want community, and we create our own community to share things about the game we all love without burning ourselves out doing things we don't enjoy in an effort to please the masses.

There are, of course, simblrs of every walk and variety who fall somewhere in between or overlap with these three diverse pictures I've painted. (And some fall outside of it... creators are whole separate ball of wax, and sometimes they enjoy creating more than they enjoying playing the game.) But I think these three cover the majority.

~~

So are aesthetics important in the simblr community? That really depends on why you're here.

~~

As a parting thought, I was unhappy to read that in some corners of simblr there are people who try to tell other people, unsolicited, what they should do to make their game look better. Or who put insults and hate in people's inboxes because they don't like how someone's game looks.

That kind of mentality is toxic.

If you ever get such messages, I hope you swiftly block whoever sent them. Turn off anon asks if you have to. And if you make those messages public, do it to call out that toxic behavior and get some affirmation from the rest of the community that such people should STFU and GTFO. Because honestly, that is 100% ALWAYS the only response they deserve.

I know it’s a broad term, but for clarification, “aesthetic quality” for me can be summed up by use of third party shaders ( Reshade ), Photoshop, Blender, high quality graphics, pretty much anything that requires extra work for the aesthetic grind, but if you can think of anything else ( attractive sims, elaborate builds, drawn on details ) feel free to add it in the tags, along with an explanation for your answer, if you feel up for it of course.

This might be the opportunity you’re looking for to get some feelings around this very elephant in the room question off your chest.

[lucabyte]

On autonomy, and what it means to be Obliged to Help.

Bonus:

[keferon]

*clasps your shoulders gently and looks you straight in the eye*

Keferon. Please read Ninth by Kyn on AO3. I think you would love it very much. It has a large chapter count, but don't be intimidated, it's very easy to get into. It is currently unfinished, but is being updated regularly.

You are the seventh person that recommended this fic to me so ahahahaha yeah

I’m doing great Help I hate some parts of it but I love the other parts I’m spinning in the blender

…..I made the moodboard….

[sweet-rabbit]

fiddling around with how i want to draw kabru. this is what happened. enjoy...?

[fluffclan]

Can y'all look at tumblr, or just post? If yes to the former.. What kind of content do you each like??

(//ooc: featuring all my favourite clangen blogs!! Go check them out!!)

Rustbee and Mossfrog belong to @fallenclan

Rimestar and Foxflit belong to @bitterclan

Pachirisu belongs to @sporeclan Belle belongs to @almaraclan

Mistlestar and Slightpaw belong to @whistleclan

Rainpaw belongs to @cats-of-rainclan

Coniferpaw belongs to @castaway-clan

Luckpaw belongs to @lotusclans-luck

Fieldfeather belongs to @gray-thistleclan

Sootsnow belongs to @chasing-faith-and-fate

Bleakpaw and Howlkit belong to @dawn-clan

[clownsuu]

Ay. An offer; one doodle of lovelie for the price of answering my question 🦅

Eh? Eh?— Anyways my question is; what’s an art tip you can give that really helped you? Anything special when drawing or do you just have a hand of god?

(Btw your one of my favorite artists and I love seeing your work homie, number 1 inspo fr. Keep on cookin 🦅💞)

WAHHH THEY LOOK SO SCRUNGLYYYY (despite his many, m a n y crimes)

[six-of-cringe]

tumblr is to moral ocd what tiktok is to adhd and post

[yuhi-san]

Say about red vs blue whatever you want but it is fucking comedy gold. The dialog is hilarious, dumb and clever at once and the flow is amazing and the interactions so organic (also the voice acting is A+). And season 6? Reconstructions?

Like, the shift of it. Its still silly and dumb and they are so far from competent but putting agent Washington into the mix is soo good. Like before it was a bunch of bumbling fools trying to deal with whatever dumb shit but really not wanting to and generally making things worse. Now you have wash who is driven and goal oriented and driving the narrative compared to the blood gulch crew who was mostly unwillingly draffed along by the narrative (and now Wash lol).

And the back and forth of the chairmans and the directors letter? The way it gives us crombs and little implication but not really any explanation but as time goes on you can slowly puzzle it all together. The ever growing hostility and intensity of the exchange.  The way it all falls into place at the revelation of the ai. The impact of washs line of “You are the alpha” (and frankly how fucking hilarious churchs reaction was).

The joke about the reds deleting the blues from the database as just something dumb they did that just happened to stop wash from proving church was an ai but actually shaped the story so much. Causing wash to end up in prison because he had nothing to prove his story and argue his case. The fact the unsc couldn’t take epsilon because they didn’t know about caboose. How wash could use that as leverage lately.

And yeah, it does not yet have the same amazing action scenes we get from this one goes to eleven on or anything but damn, the confrontation between wash, the director, the consoler and the meta was still so intense, like goddamit.

The line “And while the law has many penalties for the atrocities we inflict on others, there are no punishments for the terrors that we inflict on ourselves.”? Uff…

And by then, you know, right? But still the absolute gut punch of the seasons final words

Sincerely yours, the former director of Project Freelancer, Doctor Leonard Church.

[velarisdusk]

i just wanna thank you all for these last 5 months :) i stopped writing for like,, almost a decade, even though i really wanted to. i just couldnt find the push to? until this fandom and until the group of people ive found through this blog. ive written so much more than i ever wouldve thought possible for myself in this time frame and its all thanks to all of you. thank you so much for liking, commenting, reblogging, following, sending in asks and requests, but mostly for reading. thank you for restoring my love of writing. here's to a great 2025 with many more fics from this blog. much love <33

[erabu-san]

What ships with Tighnari would you consider?

i won't tell anything because I am scared of being cooked

[r0semultiverse]

Questions post-release of The Edge of Sleep

Is the dog okay? Did the dog also get possessed? Or are dogs exempt from sleep death and brain branding? The dog was in their cage for quite some hours, which may imply that dogs and potentially even other animals are immune to the beast.

Are possessed folks unable to die from blood loss or drowning so long as they have the mark of the beast?

Who else thinks the doctor isn’t actually dead (there were other doctors at the facility) and was suspiciously on-board with everything happening to Dave?

Is the doctor actually a host for the elephant (alternately just being influenced by it)? Yes, this is partially because his distorted voice in the sleep tube sounds the same as the beast, but the depictions of the beast in peoples dreams does get explained later as being different for everyone (probably based on environment).

Why was he trying to put the moves on Dave’s mom? Probably part of a manipulation tactic or he’s just weird and I’m overthinking his role in this.

What if this is all a dream and Dave is just stuck in one of those sleep pods still? We have yet to see a flashback where he’s a teenager of any sort which gives us a huge missing gap in his memories.

Another question relating to the previous ones is why did Dave see Matteo(?) and Katie(? or is that Linda?) in the sleep pod dream world place very briefly in the the trailer? EDIT: Okay so whoever that is next to Katie/Linda in the cut footage seems to be someone else who would succumb to or almost drink the beast juice (sorry, I didn't know what else to call it).

Are their IRL selves in on it? (this seems silly in hindsight, but I'm not deleting it)

ACTUALLY YEAH JUST IGNORE THESE TWO PREVIOUS ONES ONES, THIS WAS CUT TRAILER FOOTAGE, I WAS TIRED.

Is Dave in a coma and all of this has been one big dream fantasy he’s been in for a long time? If so, how long?

Much like the question of “is the dog important,” is the doctor’s memories when he was talking about his trauma important? Will that come up later given the talk of a season 2 for the original podcast?

Does the Elephant’s host bodies feel pain or is it zombie rules and they’re basically just drones that’ll keep going as long as they have some means to move around?

Do y’all think we’ll get a season 2? The series is pretty good as a stand alone thing imo that kinda lets you fill in the blanks, but I personally would like to see more in some capacity.

What did the dream people mean by “power?” Is Dave capable of the occult?

Does the Beast have access to its host bodies memories and motor skills? We see Katie’s body walking through the water. Could the beast hypothetically fly a plane if it got the right host body to do so? Could it control an entire military fleet?

What is the doctor’s connection to the supernatural happenings of this reality?

Was Markiplier the voice of the blue Modafalyst pill and the voice over of the ad that was playing on the TV in the hospital?

Was the doctor trying to get his loved ones back through the sleep pods like how Dave got that pen into reality from his dream?

How come all of the surviving main cast has had some sort of government or implied government-related job position? Was that intentional?

Each of the surviving main cast also has a double letter placement in their names too, intentional perhaps? This one is probably a reach, but I thought it was interesting!

Why did only one guy foam at the mouth when he "died?"

Why is there a difference between the pill colors in the trailer and in the final release of the show? We're the colors going to be swapped initially? Is it or was it maybe supposed to be a Matrix reference?

Also did Dave's mom seem a little too okay with what was going on at times? Does that have to do with the doctor trying to put the charm on her? Although having someone finally listen to your child's issues and have a clue about what's going on would put you in a vulnerable position, also single mom seemingly.

Who did Dr. Luis Castaneda lose and why did a dream person show up? Was that someone who left him to go live on Aristera for one purpose or another?

How many hours was Dave awake in total? So far 87 seems to be a close enough guess, somewhere in that area.

How are the dream people able to teleport into Mark's dream? How is the beast able to get into anyone's dream now that I think about it.

[miumiins]

where did the year go lol

[rawliverandgoronspice]

I have to say, I think I'm conceptually more into ganzelink than into ganlink or zelgan separately

[lesbians4armand]

one of the things that I think would hugely help and significantly reduce discourse in the VC fandom is people accepting these characters are not real. Sounds silly and obvious but when I started thinking about it less like a view of a different world with consequences and more like, idk, me and my friends playing with vampire barbies, it got a lot easier and more fun.

So much discourse is about which characters or ships you are “allowed” to enjoy if they are deemed “good” or “bad” and it all gets so much easier if you just accept that some people will like some things you don’t.

I don’t like certain characters in the chronicles but at the end of the day they aren’t real, and if that’s my friend’s favourite evil little barbie doll that I hate then they can play with that just fine. It isn’t real. They’re all made up, and the characters aren’t particularly worse than each other, you can’t play morals in TVC, they’re all murderous vampires who do evil things.

Just have fun with it. Be a little weird. Have those problematic faves. And if you aren’t enjoying it then put down the dolls and walk away, or play with your favourites away from where your friends are playing with their favourites.

[acrowwithakeyboard]

CVF fights and who seems to be able to beat who if caught in friendly fire

Putting a spoiler curtain over so it isn't taking up a huge chunk of screen unless you want to read

Basically what the tins got printed. While I try to rotate for a smaller group, sometimes my LDBs (mostly Ieama) has 8 people trudging along behind. When everyone aggros on a wolf the chances of someone NOT hitting a ally is never zero. There's been enough fights that I can figure who can beat who in a fight, tie with, or otherwise has a fluctuating score going. I’ve compiled more or less how the followers I currently have fare against each other in those fights. Now this is all based off of fights in my game, so if they are better in someone else's, I'll raise a glass for ' 'em!

Val: Spellswords are devastating. Pirates play dirty. Being both means he's not an easy opponent. He can take Redcap and Auri most times (unless Auri is far enough and has a clear shot she can take him out before his spells can reach her, while Redcap is a fast little friend and dodges his spells well). He hasn't fought Remi, though I think its just luck on that part, and it’s fluctuating with Tally and Xelzaz (I figure them to be a strategic lot, along with Nebarra), Gore has beat him down more than he’s won (their fighting lines really make for a scene) and he has yet to start shit with Nebarra, so we don't know yet if he would win or not. I'm thinking he'd lose though.

Auri: A very good archer indeed, she doesn't miss much, and constantly moves and creates distance between her and whoever messes with her. Can take down Nebarra and Redcap (the former usually isn't fast enough to get into close combat, and she has wicked aim when she's mad). She has not been in a fracas with Gore or Remi (by sentiment or luck I'm not sure) while Val, Tally and Xelzaz and can go toe to toe so the win/lose ratio is fluctuating. Generally, she fights the last three as an aid to someone else. Her taunts and fight lines about her eating her enemies hearts might also add a touch of fear into most of her opponents too. (Also, she keeps shooting me but I usually front line enemies, so, well call it an accident)

Gore: Generally, once he's set to beat someone's face clean through their ass he's not stopping, and will shrug off whatever is thrown at him to get the job done. He can and will fuck up Val, Xelzaz, Tally and Redcap if they hit him, (the first two have had wins, but Gore has beaten them more, the latter two... tried at least, but only managed once each) but he will get cut to ribbons if he pisses off Nebarra. He can adapt or overcome different opponents in close combat very well with his chosen weapon, and seems to have different approaches to each opponent. He will not hurt Auri or Remiel though. Not sure if he’s just never gotten aggro’d on those two or vise versa, if there’s a implemented code to keep him from going berserk on em, or he’s uniquely aware Auri will eat him should she kill him and just decided to Not Do That and Remi is, in his words, like a little sister so he wont hurt her no matter what, but he’s yet to fight them.

Remi: She generally gets people with a combo of skill and teamwork, and is pretty resourcful, Scrap helping out is also a given. Has beaten Xelzaz but apologized profusely, almost beat Redcap but stopped herself, and tried Nebarra but it, didn't go well. Most time if she is hit someone jumps in to help (Scrap automatically, but Gore also jumps in, and he can smoke quite a few folks in the party). She hasn't attacked Gore, Auri or Val, as of right now, BUT has had a near 10 minute long knock out drag down fist fight with Tally on a mountain in the Rift that ended in a tie and I’m waiting for round two to see who wins. They've yet to re-instigate the fight since. Scrap helped but she held her own very well without him after he was ejected quite suddenly from the fight.

Tally: He lasts a longer in a fight with people than other combinations, win or defeat. I chalk it up to him being used to close combat, working in and out of groups, and his experience in the Great war. Him and Nebarra are long time contenders and he’s won by both scrape of luck and strategy, has fought Xelzaz well and won more (only recently, not by much though). He got folded by Gore a lot when we first found him, still gets folded on the occasion, and he's only had one win against him. Auri has head shot him more than I can count but ultimately they are fluctuating, and Remi and him have had no winner but the longest fight I’ve ever seen between followers without one or the other falling. Neither were downed and I am waiting for the next one with concern and excitement.

Xelzaz: That Telvanni's stray firebolts have started a lot of fights. But as a good poisoner and a well taught wizard, he's got a good standing with most combatants. He has won some fights (Nebarra if he’s not right next to him immediately, Auri he has surprising good aim on though they are more or less equal) he can contend with Val and Tally for a bit, situational on who loses more, but apologizes to Remi and Redcap if he starts something with them, though he's been downed by Redcap. Gore I think has the drop on him with heavy steel and fast reflexes and the general bullheaded determination that affords pushing through being actively burnt and poisoned by Xel’s spells and weapons, so Xelzaz loses a fair bit more with him.

Redcap: Small body, big determination. He has beaten Gore, once. It was in Bleak Fall and he had 4 spears launched at him before he got close enough to hit Redcap, after which he made short work of the fight. He has had fights with him since but Gore is not an easy fight and gets the win now. Tally is his most recent win, (I got hit in the crossfire in that one), and he has taken Xelzaz down a few times but does stop the fight usually before that, same with Remi, if it happens at all. He’s been skewered by Auri, her aim is pretty damn good despite his small stature and speed, and he does damn well against Nebarra but ultimately loses (Nebarra usually gets him from behind first for some reason). Val can contend and win sometimes but hes small and VERY good at dodging Val's lightning. He also has skewered me and I and pretty sure I have died from a spear and low health combo once, so I’ll give that to him.

Nebarra is a vicious, embittered veteran of the Great war and it shows. Gore is often down in seconds, Remi taken off guard faster than you can say Dwemer, Redcap didn’t know what the Oblivion hit him, pretty sure Val hasn’t fought him only out of some begrudging respect for his skills. Regardless of these wins, him and Xelzaz have an Equal standing score more or less. Auri and Tally though are the closest thing to HR intervention to his not-so-appropriate comments on other races, but even then, those are hard won fights on their side. He's an old soldier doing whatever it takes to survive. This mer does not pull punches.

Finally, Scrap has taken down Gore, Auri, Xelzaz, Val, Redcap and a two of Xelzaz’s flame Atronachs, and they’ve all only fought him once ish to a completion. (the rest were stopped before his intervention) He attempted to aid Remi with her and Tally’s throw down but was blasted off the cliff by a well-placed ice spike. So, technically, Tally has probably the most wins against scrap in the group. But in conjunction with that, Scrap is the best fighter based on ratio of wins vs loses.

Ieama is one who has seen the most of these fights, and mostly let them resolve with a win before intervening. She is of the idea that beating the Oblivion out each other builds character and strengthens relationships. She is also a firm believer of 'talk shit, get hit' in Nebarra's case.