#I have all the jpegs now I can play with them like dolls

[stopmyhearts]

some romana profile pictures for @smallerontheoutside

[drtanner]

You know, I think I'm starting to understand why the sharing culture on this site is such dogshit now.

As I mentioned earlier in the week, I spent several solid hours going through my art and writing tags as far back as 2012 and manually deleting everything I found, including all of my own reblogs, because I don't expect my opt out from having my blogs' data scraped to be honoured, and seeing the difference in the way people interacted with my work back then and the way they interact with it now (or the way they don't interact with it at all, more specifically) was deeply and tragically enlightening.

tl;dr, despite having had a fraction of the followers back then that I have now, as well as being an objectively better artist and writer than I used to be 10+ years ago, my work travelled further and people engaged with it more, and they also sent me asks with drabble prompts and questions about my OCs all the time, whereas none of that happens at all anymore. This place was a lot more communal back in that pre-2016 era and generally a lot more rewarding and fun.

There's been plenty of posts going around over the last few years begging people to reblog because that's how this site works, but every one of those posts always winds up lousy with people saying they just click "Like" on things because they like them but not enough to put them on their own blog, or because they don't want to clutter their blog, or because tagging things is too much effort or whatever, and I'm noticing a pattern. There's something that all of these common responses have in common:

All of these people are wholly concerned with themselves and the way their blog looks, or what their blog is supposed to be for, or some other similarly entirely self-centred point of focus.

Listen. Other people have already tried to explain to you that that's not what this place is about or what this place is for or that you can make as many sideblogs as you want if you're trying to curate something specific, and they've had little success in emparting understanding to you, so I'm going to try a different approach.

Here are ten (10) benefits of reblogging that will make this site more fun and engaging for you, personally! ( b ._.)b

You get to keep the thing for yourself, but you also get to pass it along for other people to play with, too! Best of all worlds. How often do you get to keep a thing and share it?

Look in your Activity after you reblog something you enjoy to find other people who like the same things that you do! This is a terrific way to find new people to follow.

Sometimes you'll make a comment when you reblog something and later find that an awful lot of strangers are reblogging it from you directly for some reason. This is usually because someone else later down the line made a much stupider and worse comment and those strangers are now all clicking on your reblog so that they can reblog the post without that other person's stupider and worse comment on it. I like it a lot when this happens. You can get a lot of new followers this way, too!

Even if you don't have the time or spoons to play with jpegs like dolls yourself, your reblog can put the post in front of those folks who do. Playing with jpegs like dolls is half of what makes this site function; give it a bit of time, and the jpegs will cross your dash again with new additions. As it is with anything you love, set it free, and the love will come back to you one hundredfold. 💜

Look in your Activity after reblogging some art or writing to see people going nuts in the tags. You can also go nuts in the tags if you want; everyone loves seeing this when it happens, especially the artist or writer themselves.

Commenting with your reblog is like raising your hand to share your opinion with the whole room, whereas reblogging with your comment in the tags is more like whispering to the person next to you and keeping it between yourselves. Contrary to what you might have been told by others, both are perfectly fine and good and they each have their place. You can do both on the same reblog, even! Take part in the conversation!

If you're too shy to talk, reblogging without commentary is a lot like parallel play. You're all enjoying the same thing quietly together!

When you reblog things a lot, you'll start to see the same people popping up in your Activity feed all the time. These people are your friends whether you actually talk to them or not.

Stuck for something to say? Point out something you liked about the post! It can be something small! Acknowledging things that make you happy out loud is good for your mental health and also your soul.

Reblogging also invites other people who are doing all of these things to find and follow you!

There's so much to do on here beyond checking your dash and occasionally looking at the For You tab. You can discover all kinds of people and things by making a bit of an effort and having a poke around in your Activity feed and on the blogs of people who interact with the posts you're seeing and passing along! I promise you don't need an algorithm to do this for you; the action of exploring the landscape around you on this website is fun in its own right!

Get out there and see who your neighbours are. 💜

[my-insanity-is-an-artform]

Woe, Crack Baby Shitten au be upon thee.

(@bamsara 's little doodle of Nari being dubbed Cult Babysitter and holding a little lamb irrevocably changed my brain chemistry. So of course, I'm now making it everyone else's problem with the headcanon that Narinder is good with children of all ages.)

A couple of months before Lamb gets captured, they meet another lamb or a very small flock that have to split up very quickly after meeting since there's more chance of the lamb species surviving if they aren't all together. In the meeting, Lamb agrees to try continue the lamb species and gets pregnant via *magic* or afab.

Of course, all of the lambs are captured and killed with Lamb being the last, still a few months away from giving birth.

But then they are chosen and resurrected by The One Who Waits.

Fun fact: a fetus can survive for a few minutes after the death of the carrier. (Also this is a world with magic and gods in it. Logic means nothing to me.)

Lamb starts their cult, crusades across the lands and meets all sorts of allies and enemies. All while quietly mourning their entire species and the child that never would be.

Right up until they go into labour.

The baby is lamb through and through with soft wool, wide eyes, tiny cloven hooves and floppy ears.

But the influence of the crown is blazingly obvious since the baby's wool is jet black and they have three red eyes.

I can't tell which would be funnier. Lamb giving birth in The Lonely Shack or while they are physically in The Gateway just post-beating Leshy. Like they were in active labour right throughout fighting Leshy and had no idea. Either way, it's Shocked Pikachu .jpeg all around. (My fucking KINGDOM for a doodle of this.)

Various dot point shenanigans under the cut

There are two ways to go about this. But either way, Baby is not staying in the Cult. Too dangerous, especially if word gets to the Bishops about there being another lamb. So Lamb can and will speed-run this shit. So it takes them about 4-6 years to fully defeat the Bishops.

Baby stays with Ratau:

Lamb goes and yells at TOWW. They are panicking because they have no idea how to raise a probably-half-god baby.

Narinder has no idea what happened right up until Lamb comes in screaming about him being a Baby Daddy and child support.

Ratau is Grandpa now. This is his fate. He embraces the Grandpa life.

Baby learns how to play knucklebones before they can speak.

Shrumy tries to wager with Lamb/Ratau for the whole Baby. Once and only Once.

Baby's first word is dice. Or die.

Baby worships TOWW, but they are a Baby and don't really comprehend worship so the small shrine gets a lot of flowers, neat rocks and some drawings. Narinder always gives a lot of gold for them. And No, it's not favouritism. Shut up.

Baby knows curses. This is concerning for everyone except Baby.

Baby gets a little TOWW doll. It's their favourite, it goes everywhere with them and washing it is a nightmare for everyone involved.

Baby is jokingly referred to as TOWW's most Devoted Follower because of the doll.

↑ this action will have consequences.

When Baby is not so baby, they make stuff out of their wool for TOWW and for his disciples. Or asks their parent to help them make stuff.

Cue Lamb awkwardly giving the three some very wonky scarves or hats.

Baal loves it.

Aym refuses to take his off. Ever.

Narinder is actually upset cause his doesn't fit. He's too big. He had to wear it like a little ring.

Or Baby stays/is brought to the Gateway ala Aym and Baal situation:

If Lamb gives birth in the Gateway, everyone is getting a free midwifery education and free trauma. The cats want a refund.

Ya know when a baby instinctively clasps their little hand around a finger and it's like a crime to pull away? That but with Narinder's big ass claw that Baby can only barely cling to.

Aym cries the first time he holds Baby.

Baal straight-up refuses to give Baby back for a good hour.

Lamb visits at least once a day.

Lamb also brings baby things since a baby will do what a baby will do.

Depending on how old Aym and Baal were when they were gifted, Narinder is either learning all of this for the first time or is reminded of how challenging baby care can be.

Narinder purrs = a zonked Baby.

Baby's first word is Vessel.

Baby is taught to fight. Lamb doesn't like it but accepts it.

Baby has a little lamb doll. It is only due to the fact the afterlife doesn't have dirt that they avoid the nightmare of trying to wash it.

Baby is jokingly referred to as TOWW's most Devoted Follower since they refuse to be parted with him for long.

↑ this action will have consequences.

Lamb teaches Baby about being a lamb and if Aym and Baal join in, well who are they to deny their child's only friends/guardians this?

Narinder and Lamb figure out how to get Baby to teleport to the Living World and Baby gets to visit Grandpa Ratau.

Post-game shenanigans.

Narinder: Give me back my crown. Lamb: Ok. Sure. Narinder: I will now sacrifice my most devoted follower (the Lamb) for my freedom. Lamb: *Kill Bill sirens*

Lamb somehow doesn't kill Aym and Baal and instead kidnaps them via Indoctrination Circle out of spite/ reluctance to hurt them.

Narinder feels betrayed that the Lamb would refuse like this and kidnap his acolytes. He was going to resurrect them! He can't fully commit to raising a child while being the God of Death.

Lamb feels betrayed that Narinder would want to kill their child. After all they've been through together! After the way they saw him treat Baby with such gentleness and now he wants to kill them?!

This comes out in the very final moments right before Lamb goes to give the final blow.

Narinder: You are a vengeful false idol and a traitor! Lamb: At least I'm not a monster who wanted to kill my own child! Narinder: Wait. What.

This devolves into a massive argument with divorced-couple vibes.

Narinder is insulted and a bit hurt they thought he would kill his own child.

Lamb is hurt that Narinder would just demand their sacrifice without even talking to them about the whole situation.

Either way the lesson learned is Narinder needs to be more blunt and Lamb needs to not jump to conclusions.

So they are left with a newly usurped Narinder and a newly crowned Lamb. Oops.

Baby is with Ratau when all of this is going down.

Baby is happy their family is all together properly. Baby is Not Happy about this whole cult thing demanding attention from Their Baba.

The Cult is baffled by the sight of their leader with both a baby and a Spouse? Bitterly Divorced Ex? Estranged Co-parent?! What ever it is, most of them have elected not to touch the whole situation with a 10ft barge pole.

Baby learns what the word Father is and how that word refers to Narinder.

Baby calls Narinder Father/Papa/Daddy. Instant KO.

Narinder somehow gains a small hoard of children that like to follow him. Baby Does Not Approve.

Baby also Does Not Approve of this newly formed rift between their parents.

Cue Parent Trap level of Shenanigans.

Aym and Baal are recruited.

The Hoard of Children are recruited. Baby now Slightly Approves.

Narinder and Lamb have an Actual Conversation after the 18th time they get locked in the confessional together.

This of course evolves into Narilamb.

Bishops are saved from purgatory.

Despite all attempts otherwise, Baby is introduced to them.

Shocked Pikachu .jpeg x4

Maybe after a few more years, not-so-baby Baby wants a sibling.

This got so much longer than I thought but yes. Shitten Shenanigans: Accidental Child Acquisition flavoured.

[darkfrost-star]

Dang, I didn't even know people were doing that. I probably had the highest amount of frustrations and grievances regarding the Green / not / Leaf debate. All of that is entirely tied into my childhood coping mechanism to promised self-indulgence fic that grew up with me. And the uncanny valley of their similar design had me tearing my hair out, metaphorically. I've opt to settle this the way Pokemon generally tends to run "same character, different people" in the way they make cross-canon counterparts. But the issue arises in how while yes, LGPE is an entirely different timeline, making that idea viable; unlike any of the protagonist duos, excluding Kris, Leaf NEVER exists as an NPC if you choose the other avatar. And that's just what player characters are: avatars. Pokemas breaks away from that and gives them starter mons and personalities that I personally feel aren't the "end all" for their canon. As there's so many universes and alt timelines and simply the fact the developers do want players to interpret it however we like or simply don't because it would break our brains. [According to some interview: but really it's the sacred creed of video games anyways.] It goes against a lot to establish a canon for characters intentionally kept and made to be vague: hence, the constant Pidgey in the face when animating game-verse and lack of speaking lines. Look at Pokemas!May and the one from Evolutions. Or the way some treat Ethan and Gold differently when it comes to personality. Or even the black-haired!Red from LGPE based on Gen 1 and the Gen 3 brown-haired spikey flare Red we see continue into Alola. They are the same character despite it all. Just different in the hands of who made them, and those people are not the final authority. Pokemon has no canon to me. It's like Marvel and it's many retellings of Superhero stories. So many agencies get their hands on this story, it's more of a genre now. Did you know there's a manga out there for ORAS where Brendan is split into two twin brothers for Omega and Alpha? This stuff just happens. For all intents and purposes, Green is the third Pallet trainer. Her and Leaf fulfill the same role in the trio. She will never exist as a fourth girl beside them. Her design is to me, what it would have been had she been included in Gen 1, as Red and Blue's designs also reflect Gen 1 not Gen 3. Her different personality is because she is an NPC playing as a rival character for the first time ever in a canon game-verse appearance (even if an AU timeline) (also why we were blessed to have speaking lines for her in Evolution) while Pokemas does whatever the heck it wants with their own personality canonizations. For main characters in Pokemas are always going to get on someone's nerves because they have to commit to certain playthrough routes for the characters, the hero or the friend, etc, and surface level personalities while NPCs like Gym Leaders or supporting cast feel more accurate; because there's an actual canon to pull from. For what it may count for though, there is official merch out there showing Leaf with Squirtle, Gengar, and Clefable. Sound familiar eh? I suppose the best compromise at this point is to stick with our own preferences and not invalidate others. This goes fully for the anti-Green = Leaf crowd because their stance makes up the majority of Leaf posts and arguments. Generally YouTube LMAO I started staying away from there. Meanwhile, ig Pokemon will continue to mix and match what they want treating their characters like jpeg dolls and driving us up the wall with uncanny valley. See: Akari and Dawn, Lucas and Rei. Implications galore everywhere, multiverse is real and apparently it can hurt us haha. Sorry for the info dump.

Yeah Ikr! I guess it comes to show that people will make up anything to defend their stance on an argument. This is exactly why I have a problem with the idea of making them another Kris and Lyra 2.0 situation, it just feels way too forced because of their strong design similarities and how they’re obviously derived from another. At least Lyra was made from scratch as wasn’t derived from Kris and it shows, as the only significant design similarity they have is the gravity defying ponytails. Green and Leaf on the other hand? They just look like the same person wearing somewhat different outfits! They have the same hair color and hair style, the exact same shirt/collar pattern, and even the same yellow bag! And tbh, I think they are strong together than they are separate, as if they’re split into two different entities, then that means that Green never got the chance to be a playable character, and likewise Leaf never got the chance to appear as an NPC in any of the mainline games, and that is just unfair to me. 

And yes I definitely agree with you on the idea that Green and Leaf are AU versions of the same character, I mean it should be very obvious. Also yeah, even if pokemas exists people are still allowed to have their own interpretations of the characters, even my headcanons for them aren’t one to one with how they portray the protags!

And that’s not even mentioning pokespe, with all of its wild interpretations of the protag’s personalities that totally seem to come out of left field! They literally made Lucas (Diamond) a pokemon trainer version of Chowder for example! And oh wow, I had no idea that there was manga out there that made the two versions of Brendan twin brothers, kinda reminds me of that one manga that makes Classic! Red and Remake! Red two different people as well…  Also tbh I never even felt like LGPE! Green was all that different personality wise from PMEX! Leaf in the first place, as they both have that cheerful and feisty pokemon enthusiast/fanatic characterization going on. The only real difference is that Green is a bit more competitive and mischievous, whereas Leaf is more wholesome. But again, that probably comes from the fact that she plays the role of the rival in LGPE, as you said. It really does come to show that the TPC will always experiment with different personalities for all the different variants of their protag characters. Also EXACTLY, Leaf is literally associated with half of Green’s team in official merchandise man! That’s another reason why I can’t bring myself into thinking they’re somehow completely different… 

[dear-indies]

Evolution (2001) Quotes! - trigger warnings: nsfw, swearing, gun, and military mentions.

Inspired by @syfyhq​!

"Despite all the warnings."

"Bad move."

"It's showtime."

"Don't worry, ma'am! I'm here to save you!"

"Keep those people back! This is an emergency!"

"Though it may be hard to believe a single biology professor..."

"As you can see, there was a shocking statistical anomaly."

"Congratulate yourselves. I have a good feeling about this group."

"There seems to be a mistake here."

"A meteor? Where?"

"Wouldn't you prefer a different profession?"

"Actually, what I want to be is Miss Arizona."

"Ready for lunch?"

"Let me grab my stuff."

"A meteor hit last night."

"I'm taking you in case I have to do something scientific."

"I signed up over the Internet."

"That's my baby. Take it easy."

"So I'd appreciate it if you'd let me go."

"Now that's a hole!"

"I believe we've located the target."

"Look at these jackasses."

"Muscle pose. Give me big smiles! Looking good."

"At ease, gentlemen! The feds are here."

"Let's not get combative."

"We're just here to get some scientific samples. If that's okay."

"It just hit last night and it has stuff growing on it."

"Let's get a sample and get out of here."

"Let's bag it."

"Your résumé will shine."

"The meteor samples are teeming with one-celled organisms."

"Their metabolic rates are off the charts."

"They're dividing at an incredible rate. Almost exponential."

"Their DNA has ten base pairs."

"The DNA of all earth life has only four base pairs."

"...these are organisms from another world."

"They're aliens."

"I'm not. I'm concerned about the potential tax consequences."

"If we want to be big important scientists, you have to act the part."

"It's like they're evolving."

"It's evolution."

"But it's million years worth in just a few hours."

"At least you have the pool gig at the country club."

"Wear your protective gloves at all times."

"We came to pick up the rock."

"It's very technical."

"I know these look like mushrooms, but refrain from eating them."

"It's the game we play, baby."

"It's converting the atmosphere."

"Look at all this rudimentary plant life. It's amazing."

"Not to get all girly here, but I feel something wiggling around my toes."

"Flatworms."

"Come here, little buddy."

"The oxygen must have killed it."

"It must need its own atmosphere to live."

"Grab a specimen jar. We'll scoop some atmosphere in there with them."

"It took us two billion years to do what they did in a couple of days."

"Those germs are the embodiment of the American dream."

"It's mitosis. That's how they reproduce."

"We call no one, we tell no one. This is our secret."

"What about the government? They usually get involved."

"This is our discovery. We must maintain absolute control."

"We have to do more research and check our findings. Document everything."

"You know what to do with the towels because you're the pool boy."

"Not anymore. You're not on the list."

"White man doesn't like to be yelled at."

"Get his gun!"

"All this time I thought you were just a schoolteacher."

"You should've known better than to keep something this big from us."

"I'd heard about your recklessness but you are way out of line on this one."

"Nice to meet you, too."

"You son of a bitch."

"We've already secured the area."

"Did you catch that condescending tone?"

"You're a disgrace, and a dangerous one at that."

"Forget the foreplay. We just got screwed."

"I don't care who they are. Stealing is stealing!"

"They took the rock, the samples, all the little wormy critters."

"All the data's gone. The JPEG files, the DNA sequences. They cleaned us out."

"I'm calling the cops."

"They are the cops!"

"Let me ask you something."

"The penalty for impersonating an officer is five years in prison."

"Testing, one, two."

"I don't have anything on my schedule."

"Our little babies are growing up."

"Three weeks, it's already like a rain forest in here."

"That tree just ate it."

"Everything here seems to be food for something else, so let's stay off the menu."

"Come here, look at these little things."

"Yeah. Snag one and put it in the bucket."

"Don't be scared. We came for a specimen, now snag one."

"Come on, my little red lobster."

"Come on, my sexy little crustacean."

" Let's bag that and get the hell out of here."

"The fly! There's a fly in my suit!"

"I'll get the lubricant."

"There's always time for lubricant!"

"Ice cream. I'd like an ice cream, please."

"I'm thinking seriously about moving. Maybe to California. Start over."

"You know how many times I've flunked in my life?"

"Damn it! That's going to stain."

"Something just ate Barry Cartwright!"

"Thank you for not calling the cops."

"What's in the bag, your blow-up doll?"

"No. I've got something you're really going to like."

"A guy got killed at my country club last night."

"It was an animal attack."

"It's like nothing I ever saw before. I thought you guys might want to see it."

"You have a serious bug problem."

"When did you guys get a dog?"

"I don't think that's a dog. It's like some kind of rodent."

"Come on, cutie pie."

"What the hell is that thing?"

"Pick me up in an hour. No, two."

"Two single beds, please. We're fighting."

"They're adapting. We have got to shut it down."

"You're overreacting. We can handle this."

"I used to be arrogant like you."

"We have to kill these things while we still can."

"All right. I'll talk to him, but I can't promise anything."

"Why the police escort? You're not under arrest, are you?"

"You'll take care of the check, right?"

"You have to admit, this animal attack has kind of an ominous feel, doesn't it?"

"This entire area is just a honeycomb of caves and old mine shafts."

"It's flying away. Is that a bad thing?"

"You know how I hate shopping."

"I think that colour is great on you."

"Ladies, there's a flying extraterrestrial in the store. Can we focus?"

"I said, just a second, bitch."

"Here, birdy-birdy-birdy-birdy-birdy!"

"If I was a giant, nasty alien bird in a department store, where would I be?"

"I think we've established that "ca-caw" and "tookie-tookie" don't work."

"Please stop. You are embarrassing me."

"Sing. Rub some funk on it."

"Can someone tell me why I was not informed..."

"Right now, media vultures are camped outside my office."

"The red markings indicate the growth of the alien ecosystem."

"In two months, the United States officially belongs to them."

"And we are extinct."

"Admit it. You're glad to see us."

"We just blew a giant alien bird out of a store."

"We're covering up your mess."

"Disseminating the alien organisms outside the secured area."

"My state is being overrun by aliens."

"My plan is to evacuate everyone from within five miles of the perimeter."

"...then burn the alien menace the hell out of there."

"With napalm. Lots and lots of napalm."

"All this talk about napalm and burning makes me nervous."

"Sir, one of the creatures just destroyed video four."

"They've evolved into primates."

"All the monitors are down."

"The fuzzy no-nose chimp?"

"They're coming through the elevator!"

"Hold your fire. You'll get someone killed."

"Science project is over."

"The real money's in the private sector."

"This may not be the best time to be drinking."

"You can trust me. Just talk to me."

"Some of the original liquid material from inside the meteor."

"Why hasn't it evolved like the rest?"

"Being in an airtight case, nothing to metabolise with. But we've still no clue."

"The organisms were dormant in space. They hit Earth's atmosphere and bam!"

"Heat. Fire. That's the catalyst."

"So much for the military option."

"We're going to blow those creatures straight to hell."

"Oh, really? Well, unfortunately, I'm not available."

"Thought you could use a brew so you can mellow out."

"Have a beer, relax. It'll help with your research."

"I'm looking at the periodic table on your T-shirt. I'm seeing a pattern."

" We are a carbon-based life form."

" But the aliens are nitrogen-based, right?"

"Selenium. How much do we need?"

"I hate to be a buzzkill, but where will we get that?"

"Head & Shoulders."

"Yeah, that's the stuff. The active ingredient is selenium sulphide."

" We'll get the troops together. We're getting shampoo!"

"There's something I should tell you, but I don't know exactly how."

"Let's shampoo us some aliens!"

" Where are you, my little aliens?"

"We've no time for you to act like you know what you're doing."

"I'll take a pair of spy glasses and a hot chocolate."

" Run for your life!"

"Survival of the fittest. Often, the simplest organism is the strongest."

"It's getting ready to divide."

"Wait. There's going to be more of these things?"

"So that Head & Shoulders idea. Is that still the plan?"

"We have to find a point of attack."

"It's payback time!"

"Give me back my friend, you big sphincter!"

"Fighting the alien menace can be tough work."

[kinsie]

Game Impressions from PAX Aus 2019

Wake the fuck up, samurai. We've got a city to burn.

Every year I go to PAX Aus with some close friends to check out the Incredible Future of Games that everyone else already checked out six months ago, along with some cool weird indie shit and some awesome retro stuff. And every year, I write a little diary of what I saw to share my impressions with my friends. This is that diary.

Doom Eternal

Okay, let's get this out of the way. I played Doom Eternal pretty much as soon as I got on the show floor. It may shock you to know that it is, in fact, good.

No pictures of the demo units, sorry, so have this big logo.

The demo started with a little grey-box tutorial map just to teach you what you need to know for the demo level, since it was taken from the middle of the game. It looked very Snapmap-y and had some Doom 2 MIDI music playing. After that we were given about 25 minutes to acquaint ourselves with the lengthy "Mars Core" mission they've been showing since E3. I was at the start of the first arena of the hell bit when I ran out of time. :(

Here are some scattered thoughts from playing:

Your standard running around and double jumping feels much the same as in Doom 2016. The dashing feels great, although I think it might reduce your air control a little afterwards as I had some trouble overshooting a platform in the floating debris bit.

Climbing walls felt a bit weird to me. You have to press E on the wall manually to grab onto it, which feels a bit unintuitive when you're plummeting past it. Also feels a bit odd considering mantling up walls is automatic. You can auto-grab onto walls if you dash into it, but I think it's only for the first bit of the dash? Maybe I'm just bad at videogames.

I think the Combat and Super Shotguns now use different ammo types? I could have swore there were situations where I could select the Combat Shotgun but not the SSG.

The Chainsaw now no longer has even the slightest pretence of being a "real" weapon. It's now just a swing animation when you press the button, like a melee attack, before bringing your weapon back up.

When you have the SSG's Meat Hook attachment, a little meathook icon appears below the crosshair. When you're close enough to an enemy to grapple onto them, the icon floats over them, indicating that it has some kind of auto-aim mechanic to reduce frustration.

There was a monster with swords on its arms that acted an awful lot like the Baron of Hell (might have been the Hell Knight, looking at the Quakecon footage of the same fight) but it looked quite different. Looked fuckin' cool, whatever it was.

The platforming but in the debris section with the giant floating red barrels was actually kind of frustrating. It wasn't always clear where you needed to go, and the climbable bits tended to blend in with the rest of the world. Then again, keep in mind I have a frankly abysmal sense of direction. Thankfully falling into the void just whacks you for a paltry five health and teleports you back onto safe ground.

The locational damage stuff is really fun. Breaking a monster's guns has a satisfying metal "PING" sound to it to inform you that the dude got fucked up and is weaker now, and that you should keep doing it.

When I picked up one of those "?" secrets, the pop-up box told me that they unlocked "collectable dolls" and "cheat codes". The former is vague, but I suspect they'll be like the mini-Doomguys but of more characters. I'd imagine the latter will be like in Rage 2.

Oh, and it looks a million bucks, too. Though you probably didn't need me to tell you that.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with what I saw and it's even more of a pity it's not coming out next month.

Not Indie Games, But Also Not Doom Eternal

The Vive Cosmos felt really comfy - the lack of cabling and the decent display resolution made it feel a lot more natural than the Gen 1 Vives I've previously used. The game they were using to demo (Audica), however, was pretty lame. A rhythm-target shooter that didn't really take advantage of the medium at all.

Bleeding Edge was not inspiring. It was basically the control point mode from TF2 or Overwatch, except every character was a third-person brawler with little emphasis on projectile weapons beyond the occasional special. It felt like someone making a claim at TF2 or Overwatch's throne several years late while bolting a weak character action game on, which is fairly odd considering how innovative and critically acclaimed Ninja Theory's previous game was.

Dreams is fairly fascinating in its potential. The creation tools weren't available in the demo build so I can’t really judge them, instead there was a choice of eight developer-made experiences ranging from Mario-inspired obstacle courses to videogames as art.

I didn't get the chance to actually play MediEvil, but I watched some folks play it and it basically just looks like the PS1 game with more triangles, with all the slightly wonky 32-bit gameplay that entails.

The demo unit for Monkey King: Hero Is Back had some utterly bizarre graphics settings for some reason that made it look like I was playing a JPEG file, with big whopping compression artifacts surrounding each character. Weird!

Not happenin’.

Indie Games

Grabimals is a brilliant local co-op puzzler where players roll around as shapes and link together to solve puzzles like catching a falling water droplet, crossing a gap or casting a shadow that matches an example image. Supposedly it's still a ways off from release, but it's already impressively polished (disregarding one hilarious crash bug we found by accident!)

Hamster Scramble is a really fun take on Puzzle Bobble, with platforming elements, team play and the ability to jump over to your opponent's screen and fuck their plans up directly. It's an absolute blast and didn't feel like it was almost a year away from release.

Fork Knights is a platform fighter with an emphasis on one-hit kills. The character designs are cute, but I can't really say the gameplay itself struck me, to be honest.

Baron is an eight-player single-screen local multiplayer dogfighter. Fairly simple mechanically, but pretty fun all things considered.

Broken Roads had some lovely hand-painted art assets and some interesting ideas like a literal moral compass, but the demo build showcased was waaaaay too early to be shown off to the public. Of the eight or so areas present in the demo, only two had any characters, interactivity or really anything other than wandering around set up, and the combat side of things was extremely rough and sequestered off to a side area as a "well, if you insist..." kind of deal.

Misadventure In Little Lon is a true-crime adventure game for mobile with a unique mechanic - each "scene" is integrated into the real world via AR, with characters (that resemble Poser models more than a little bit) speaking to you directly. Not sure if it holds up over an entire game, but it's attention-garnering at least.

Speaking of true crime, The Black Window tasks players with using an Oujia board to question Australia's first female serial killer, with responses taken from court records and letters from the time. The well-acted performances of the actual individual in question's words lends it an impressive atmosphere, which the booth added to with a big wooden oujia board type thing you could "type" on. Sort of.

ACID KNIFE is real, real early, but the aesthetic is awesome and the pixel art is great. Hopefully it grows and expands into something special.

The Vigilante Proclivities of the Longspur is an oldschool Lucasarts-inspired point-and-click adventure with a custom demo scene set at an oddly-familiar videogame convention. Pretty promising so far, but could do with a good bit of polish - I'm pretty sure there was only one sound effect in the entire demo, and dialogue was often lacking in punctuation.

I didn't get to play Hot Brass but I watched over shoulders and talked with the developers, and it looked pretty cool. It's basically a take on SWAT 4's rarely-imitated brand of tactical copwork, but with a Hotline Miami-style top-down perspective, but with all the characters abstracted down to simple board game like tokens - a circle with a coloured outline denoting attitude towards the player, with a weapon icon if armed.

Blood Metal... Blood Metal is not good. It is extensively not good. Development seems to have only started in July, so one can still hope that the bad AI, unsatisfying gunplay, buggy collision detection and complete lack of damage feedback (outside of some ridiculous, sight-obscuring gouts of blood) get fixed over time. The 80s action movie aesthetic and low-poly artstyle forces it to be compared to Maximum Action, which is at least a fun kind of jank...

This Starry Void is a real-time, tile-based 3D dungeon crawler set in an abandoned spacecraft. It seems pretty cool so far, but it could probably use some UI/UX tweaks. The attempts at a "graphic novel inspired" visual style for the environments could probably benefit from looking at how Void Bastards did things, as well.

Lethal Lawns and Beam Team are fucking arcade games with massive cabinets. In 2019. Granted, they're also on computers and coming to consoles and stuff as well, but still! They're both pretty simple games, and therefore best played in cabinet form.

Unpacking is a "zen puzzle game" by the developers of Assault Android Cactus about the second-worst part of moving house, unloading an unseen character's packing and getting a glimpse into their lives as a result. I wasn’t able to play it due to an unexpectedly-crowded booth, but the pixel art is quite lovely.

Feather is a chill game about being a bird and flying around an island trying to find its secrets. I tried the Switch port, which played alright but obviously (and understandably) toted a lower framerate than the demo PC.

Topple Pop is a cute puzzle game that blends together elements of Tetris, Puyo Puyo and that one joke game that was Tetris but with a proper physics engine. Looks cute, with a fun gimmick!

Shooty Skies Overdrive is an VR spinoff of the popular mobile shmup, and basically similar to that one shmup minigame in Valve's The Lab. Weave your plane, which is attached to one of your hands, through incoming bullets and enemies like a toy! The 3D effect on the incoming projectiles looks great, but they can tend to get in the way of the action sometimes.

Dead Static Drive has been at like the last three PAXes and it looks better every time I see it. I hope it comes out this decade.

Snow Mercy is a third-person shooter/strategy thing where you hunt down icecubes to spend on an army of snowmen to crush your opponent's base before they crush yours. Not a common genre combo, reminds me of C&C Renegade a bit.

The Adventure Pals has graphics straight out of mid-2000s Newgrounds and level design out of pretty much any european platformer, but it didn't seem too bad from my brief prodding at it. The player character is perhaps a bit too small for my elderly eyes in Switch portable mode, but that's about as far as my gripes go.

[multiracialmedia-blog]

Multiracial Media Profile: Sarah Ratliff

Hi! My name is Sarah Ratliff and I founded Multiracial Media with a man named Alex Barnett. We began the site in March 2016. Starting today we are launching a new feature on Multiracial Media called the Multiracial Media Profiles. Quick Q&As about people in the Multiracial Community. I’ll start but below will be a link to a form so you can fill it out and others can learn more about you.

The Multiracial Media Profiles is open to all within the Multiracial Community: Meaning a Biracial / Multiracial / Mixed Race person and/or parents / guardians of Multiracial kids.

So below is me: Sarah Ratliff in a Multiracial Nutshell.

Please tell us your name: Sarah Ratliff

Please tell us your age (if you’d like): I am 50.

Where do you live? (City, State, Country): I live in Utuado, Puerto Rico. Utuado is in the interior of the island about 2.5 hours from the capital city of San Juan. I was born in the Netherlands (Holland), have lived in Nigeria, France and four U.S. states and the capital of Washington, D.C. I grew up in New York City.

And Now for the Really Personal Information About Sarah Ratliff

Did you grow up in a Multiracial family? If so, please tell us about that. I did. Both my parents are deceased now, but my mother was Black and Japanese and my father was German, Dutch and Irish. I recently did my DNA test and learned I have 15 ethnicities. They are: Benin/Togo, Nigerian, Cameroon/the Congolese, Mandinka (from Mali), Bantu/South African and that I also have English, French, Greek, Italian, Iberian and Finish in me. (Some are obviously greater percentages than others.)

My parents, circa 1986.

I have two brothers. One is a dark caramel complexion who can easily (and did) grow out an afro and the other is a shade or two darker than I am with long slightly wavy hair. I don’t have any recent photos of us but this from when my oldest was 14, my middle was 13 and I was 10—before my hair went boing!

If you’re in a Multiracial family or relationship currently, please tell us about that (and if that differs from the family setting in which you grew up, please do tell us about those differences). It depends on your perspective. I am married to a monoracial person (meaning that he is one race). My husband is African American. He grew up with two Black parents but like most Black people in the United States, he is actually Multiracial, due to miscegenation because slaves were routinely raped by their slave owners. This is evident in his medium brown complexion. I consider us to be in a Multiracial relationship. Others may not agree.

Paul and Sarah Ratliff in St. Thomas, April 2017. Photo credit: Toes in the Sand Photography.

Have you ever experienced racism directed at you or a family member (or relationship partner)? If you’re comfortable doing so, please tell us about that. Rarely have I / do I presently experience(d) racism directed at me. I am very light complected and in the U.S. I moved through the world as either a White or a Hispanic woman (this is what most people assume I am). My oldest brother has experienced racism directed him. My parents received some horrific racism directed at them. They were married in 1960 before it was legal throughout the United States for them to be married. My father received a lot of negative comments from former co-workers and friends. However, the worst racism they received was from his own father, who disowned my father for marrying my mother. I never met his parents.

My husband has been on the receiving end of racism too many times to count.

Since we’ve been living in Puerto Rico, it’s dramatically reduced. We both look Puerto Rican and so people assume that’s what we are. Depending on where we are on the island, reactions to my husband can range from curious to somewhat hostile. When I say depending, it’s dependent upon whether there is a light, medium or heavy concentration of dark complected / Black Puerto Ricans or not. The interior of the island, in particular the mountain region where we live, doesn’t have too many Black people. The coastal areas have many more because that’s where slaves were mostly lived.

In your job/career, do you work on issues relating to the Multiracial community or the Multiracial experience? If so, please tell us about that. If you have samples of such work that you’d like to share (jpegs, links to video or music, etc.), please do send along. I am an activist and a writer and most of my writing is advocacy related. I co-authored a book called Being Biracial: Where Our Secret Worlds Collide.

Being Biracial: Where Our Secret Worlds Collide

Good, bad, ugly and illuminating—everyone has an opinion on race. As Biracial people continue trending, the discussion is no longer about a singular topic, but is more like playing a game of multi-level chess. The anthology, Being Biracial: Where Our Secret Worlds Collide, cites the experiences of twenty-four mixed-race authors and parents of multiracial children of all ages and backgrounds, from all over the world. It blends positivity, negativity, humor, pathos and realism in an enlightening exploration of what it means to be more than one ethnicity.

My co-author is White and she’s married to a Black man. Together they are raising three Biracial children in England. Being Biracial, as we affectionately call it, is on sale exclusively through Amazon in the U.S. and in the UK it is on Amazon and in Waterstone’s.

My writing can be seen on my personal website. I am also one of the two founders and publishers of Multiracial Media.

What do you think are the biggest misapprehensions or misunderstandings that people have about Multiracial people and/or Multiracial families/relationships? How much time do you have? Sarcasm aside, I’ll make a list.

That we (Multiracial / Biracial people) are stuck up and think we’re better than people who are one race. Get to know us; we don’t bite and there are jerks as well as nice people among us.

That Multiracial / Biracial people are healthier and/or more beautiful. People, we’re not dogs. Our parents weren’t / aren’t breeders who looked for the best traits in each other so they could make a master race of genetically superior kids. Shocking though it may seem, our parents—like yours—fell in love and wanted to make a family.

That our parents didn’t think about the implications of having Biracial / Multiracial children. Quite the contrary, they spent long hours talking ad nauseam about it. They stayed up late and worried how society, their families, the cops, the schools, the neighbors, their coworkers, etc. would react to their kids. Parents of Multiracial and Biracial kids are continually shocked when people treat their kids like they’re normal. That we know we’re all normal isn’t the issue.

That our musical taste, interest in art and other forms of culture, sense of style, the way we talk, etc. are tied to being Multiracial. I don’t love rock, disco, funk, hip hop, jazz, salsa, classical, reggae, etc. because I am three races and 15 ethnicities. I like those genres because I have eclectic taste. And guess what? I know monoracial people whose musical tastes are similar to mine. I know people of all races who dress the way they want to dress not because they’re Biracial but because it’s what appeals to them. I know … shocking!

That I don’t wear makeup because I think because I am Multiracial I am prettier than monoracial people. I don’t wear makeup because I feel it’s artificial and I want people knowing what I look like.

That we like complete strangers touching our hair or asking questions about. People, please! Again, we’re not dogs, dolls or some science experiment.

That we’re exotic. Lord, if I hear one more person call me exotic, I might actually scream. We’re not dolls. We’re people, just like you. Please stop fetishizing us!

That we only have Multiracial friends. I have friends from all over the world—most of them are one race.

That we have or don’t have a “type.” I have dated men from various monoethnic groups as well as a few Multiracial men. I am interested in someone for what’s going on in their brains and hearts, and they may or may not correspond to his race / ethnicity. I have known Multiracial people only date… Like you, we’re all different and you can’t shove us in a box.

That our parents had children with each other to be different or unique. Going back to the second bullet, my parents were actually pretty reluctant to get involved with each other. They met over the phone and my father had no idea my mother was a woman of color. They broke up over it several times. They were together during the Civil Rights Movement and at a time when it was illegal for them to marry in many states. They really didn’t want to bring any personal, societal or legal trouble on themselves.

There are many others, but I think those could be the highlights.

Do you have a favorite Multiracial celebrity or celebrity Multiracial family/couple? If so, why? 

I have a several celebrity crushes and some of them are from “back in the day.”

Ed Norton (he’s White, I think of Irish descent)

Nicholas Turturro (he’s Italian)

Henry Simmons (he’s Black)

Daniel Sunjata (he’s Biracial)

Erik Palladino (I think he’s Italian)

Esai Morales (he’s Puerto Rican)

Jimmy Smits (he’s Surinamese and Puerto Rican)

Michael DeLorenzo (he’s half Puerto Rican and half Italian)

Malik Yoba (he’s Black)

Eriq La Salle (he’s Black)

Mark Consuelos (he’s half Italian and half Mexican)

Wentworth Miller (he’s both Biracial and gay, but I think he’s fine)

LL Cool J (he’s Black)

I am not noticing a pattern here. 🙂

That’s me: Sarah Ratliff in a Multiracial nutshell.

To Reach Sarah Ratliff on the ‘Net

Sarah Ratliff’s personal website

Sarah Ratliff’s content marketing agency website 

Sarah Ratliff’s co-authored book, Being Biracial: Where Our Secret Worlds Collide

Sarah Ratliff’s eco-organic farm website in English

Sarah Ratliff’s eco-organic farm website in Spanish 

Sarah Ratliff on Facebook

Sarah Ratliff on Twitter

Here’s the link if you’d like to create your own profile for us: Multiracial Media Profile.

Multiracial Media Profile: Sarah Ratliff if you want to check out other voices of the Multiracial Community click here Multiracial Media