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duhragonball · 2 years ago

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Dragon Ball Super 019

Oh great, we’re doing Res F.

Okay, so this is often regarded as the low point of Dragon Ball Super, probably because of the same slipshod animation seen in the previous episodes, but this arc also has the hurdle of adapting Resurrection F, which wasn’t nearly as good as Battle of Gods. Frankly, the plot of the BoG movie was the only thing going for Episodes 1-14, and here, Episodes 19-28 are trying to do the same task without that advantage.

I wouldn’t call this the worst of Super. My personal least favorite still lies ahead. I’ll say two positives about this arc.

1) It’s nice and short. At ten episodes, it doesn’t have time to be too offensive. Then again, I might have said the same thing about GT’s Super 17 arc, but it was pretty vile when I rewatched it recently.

2) Resurrection F wasn’t great, but it wasn’t that bad, either. It lacks the complexities of BoG, Broly, and Super Hero, but if you judge it by the standards of the 20th Century DBZ films, it holds up just fine. One thing that works to the arc’s favor is that Res F doesn’t spend a lot of time on fluff, so there’s not like an episode and a half about a party, or pointless cuts to check in on Oolong or Ox King to see what they think about what’s happening. And while I hate to say it, Frieza has the star power to drag both the movie and this arc out of the bottom tier.

Having said all of that, I’ll repeat my critiques of the movie. Bringing Frieza back was a mistake. This franchise doesn’t do rogues’ galleries like Batman and Spider-Man, usually because the bad guys get killed once they lose. And I think Resurrection F pretty well illustrates why that is. Frieza comes back, but he just makes all the same mistakes that got him killed the first time.

Indeed, this story seems to be about Frieza’s utter refusal to change as a character. The reason Broly was such a success was that they brought back the Broly concept, but retooled him into a more sympathetic character, one audiences could get emotionally invested in. Super Hero saw the revival of the Red Ribbon Army, but that worked because it came back through new characters instead of re-hashing the old ones. Commander Red is replaced with Magenta; Dr. Gero is succeeded by Dr. Hedo. Carmine is the new Staff Officer Black. The Gammas are the new androids, and Cell Max is the new Cell. Everything is familiar, but different.

In Resurrection F, the only real difference is that Frieza’s soldiers are weaker, and Frieza himself is a lot stronger. But so what? Frieza’s soldiers were always cannon fodder, especially compared to Frieza himself. And the original conceit of Frieza was that he was the strongest being in the universe, so making him stronger doesn’t really change him as a person. All it really does is re-calibrate him to the top of the power scale, and he was already at the top before. And when he was on top, he still lost. It raises the question: Why would anyone bother reviving him in the first place? His enemies certainly don’t miss him, and even his most loyal henchmen have to accept that he lost, so what good is he?

To be fair, the movie at least tried to tackle that problem through their depiction of the Frieza Force. Their commander, Sorbet, was a minor administrator during Frieza’s lifetime, but he’s spent the last eighteen years trying to keep the organization running, doing everything he can to hold on to their remaining territory. It’s to his credit that he’s managed to keep the Force alive as long as he has, but it’s an exercise in futility. In this episode, he’s informed that sixty percent of his troops have been lost, and the only sensible orders he can give are “retreat” and “withdraw”.

The only way out he can see is to bring Frieza back with the Dragon Balls, which is literally wishful thinking. He’s had teams working on this, but they can’t locate the Namekians’ new homeworld, so that’s not an option, and the only other set of Dragon Balls are on Earth, the home of the Super Saiyans who defeated Frieza in the first place. It’s too dangerous, but Sorbet’s position has now become so desperate that he sees no alternative.

And that’s what makes him so interesting to me, because Sorbet does have an alternative, but he refuses to see it. He could dissolve the Frieza Force and accept defeat. Much of their best talent have already left, because they understood that the Force was nothing without Frieza to back it up. That’s how Sorbet wound up running things. It’s not that he’s untalented or unfit for command, but the important thing that keeps him in charge is that he’s the only one left willing to do the job.

This refusal to quit is both Sorbet’s greatest strength and flaw all rolled into one. He’s capable enough to run this organization, but all he’s really done is delay its inevitable collapse. A better leader would have enough vision to let the Frieza Force die, or at least repurpose it into something more productive, but Sorbet’s best bet is to try to turn back the clock and relive the good old days.

So this makes Sorbet a pretty fascinating character, but this all gets overshadowed by his own plan. Once Frieza returns, he barely matters, and he gets killed off unceremoniously during the final battle. The big problem with Res F if that it brings up a lot of interesting themes-- failure, second chances, the futility of revenge-- but it refuses to explore any of them.

One other interesting idea was the way Sorbet’s crew don’t really understand what Frieza meant to the Frieza Force. Either they’re too young to remember what it was like back then, or they were too far-removed from Frieza’s person to understand just how powerful he was. Sorbet tries to explain it to them, accompanied by flashback of Frieza destroying Planet Vegeta, but he can’t communicate it with words. He shows them a computer projection that says Frieza’s power would give them control over 70% of the known universe or something, but that doesn’t convince them much. Tagoma just asks if the numbers are accurate. In the end, Sorbet’s men are more accustomed to Sorbet as their leader. For them, Frieza is just a legend, while Sorbet is the trusted commander working tirelessly for their cause. They only go along with his scheme because it was his idea.

So they go to Earth, but Sorbet insists on going in person, without Shisami or any other powerful warriors, since the Saiyans can sense power levels. A guy like Shisami would give away what they’re doing. Thanks to their spy drones, they track down the Pilaf Gang as they collect the Dragon Balls, then Sorbet and Tagoma swoop in to jump their claim.

Basically, things play out like they did in the movie, except for two differences. First, Shenron offers three wishes instead of just two. I’m not sure what that means, but apparently someone thought it was important enough to add a third wish to this story for the second go-round. Mai uses it to wish for gourmet ice cream.

Second, Captain Ginyu is somehow there to bear witness to this event. We’ll get to him later, but for now all that matters is that he’s a frog and he’s very interested in this development.

Meanwhile, Goku and Vegeta are off training on Beerus’ planet in their dumb Res F costumes. Whis is so much faster than they are that he dodges all their attacks and even has time to write his name on their titties without them even noticing.

Whis also takes a moment to discuss their weaknesses in battle. He says Vegeta is too high-strung, and his inability to relax causes him to overthink during battle, which holds him back. On the other hand, Goku is too relaxed, to the point where he gets overconfident and lets his guard down. These aren’t new problems. Goku nearly whizzed the 23rd World Tournament when he assumed Piccolo Junior was defeated, and then looked away during a ten count and gave Piccolo a chance to maim him with a ki blast. Meanwhile, pretty much every decision Vegeta has ever done in this franchise has been clouded by his misplaced priorities. He first invaded Earth to wish for immortality, but then he kept fighting long after victory and his prize were denied him. He trained to defeat the androids and Cell, then kept passing up chances to win because he was more interested in getting bigger victories that never materialized. I think his run as “Majin Vegeta” pretty much speaks for itself.

And while that makes for some interesting character analysis, the problem I have with this arc is that it spends more time on Goku and Vegeta’s development than on villains, who are sort of the focus of the movie. There’s no exploration of Frieza’s character flaw, no quiet moment where Frieza realizes just how pointless life and death have become for him now. The bad guys just show up to attack the Earth and die.

Anyway, getting back to Frieza, Shenron can resurrect him, but he can’t restore his body, which was cut to pieces and vaporized by Trunks. I’m not sure if this is because of the time that’s passed or the sheer extent of the damage Trunks did when he killed him. Oh, wait, maybe it’s because of Frieza being a cyborg at the time? Anyway, he comes back as chunks, but the Frieza Force has greatly improved their medical technology over the years, so they think they can stitch him back together, even when Shenron can’t.

And it works, which is kind of scary in itself. Right before he died, the best his doctors could do was to rebuild him as a cyborg. Now, they can put pieces of him in a tank of goop and regenerate his entire body. I mean, part of this is owed to Frieza’s incredible resilience. He survived getting cut in half (horizontally, anyway) and he survived multiple blasts from a Super Saiyan, and he survived Namek exploding in his face. I’m not sure you could toss Guldo’s head in the modern medical machine and perform the same miracle on Guldo. But still, this is a frightening level of advancement. If Sorbet had been a smarter leader, he might have reorganized the Frieza Force into a network of hospitals, but no.

Meanwhile, Goku’s spider-sense goes off, but he doesn’t know how or why. “You don’t have a spider-sense, you idiot!” Vegeta tells him.

#dragon ball #dragon ball super #2023dbapocryphaliveblog #goku #vegeta #sorbet #frieza #whis #tagoma #shisami #captain ginyu #emperor pilaf #mai #shu

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numberth1rte3n · 2 years ago

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TH1RTE3N'S TR4V3L5: In The Shadow of the Dragon-God

BY NUMBER TH1RTE3N

I have been playing video games my whole life. Since I could pick up a controller with my grubby little toddler hands, the medium has never been far from my grasp. From my first adventures in gaming where I would watch my older cousin play the original Kingdom Hearts on the PlayStation 2, to getting my very own PS2 for my fourth birthday and playing Jurrasic Park: Operation Gensis well into my childhood nights (yes, I DID let my dinos run loose and eat my park-goers, thank you very much). In all my years of playing games across countless genres and developers, there have been few times in my life where playing a game has made me gasp, drop my jaw, make my breath catch in my chest, let a “wow” spill forth from my lips.

Climbing the western edge of the Gerudo Highlands for the first time in Breath of the Wild was one of those times for me. I was following my red pin towards a Sheikah Tower that I needed to unlock. Kind of. I was sort of aimless, wandering the rolling hills of Hyrule, doing that thing I do best when I play massive open-world games like BOTW. That thing being, wandering aimlessly towards the loose direction of my initial objective. I love to lose myself in games. To explore every corner of the map, to drink in the scenery, admire how the score compliments the situations I encounter, and I ESPECIALLY read every bit of lore I can find. Well, at least I try to (looking at you BioWare!) As games get bigger and more grand, and with the apparent renaissance of the open world genre across the industry, I am very grateful for lore journals and notebooks becoming a standard practice.

Wandering through the Great Hyrule Forest for the first time certainly made me say “wow”... sometimes out of frustration!

It was on one of these wanderings that I crested a hill in the Highlands, not even sprinting and using up my stamina, but more slowly and with care, in a strange pseudo-reverence to the talented artists and engineers that built the world that I was wandering in. I remember stepping over the hill with my game camera pointed to what was behind Link. I turned the camera to a gorgeous view of Lake Hylia at sunset. It was a stunning sight, one I decided I would stop and admire for a few seconds. Many real people with real lives and real love for the Legend of Zelda series spent many real hours of their lives on making sure that the wind blew through the grass on the Highlands at just the right speed, and that the crickets chirped at the right pitch and volume. Someone had to make sure the sunset was the right shade of orange, and I intended to be the one to make note of its hues.

I noticed something right then, out of the corner of my right eye. How long had it been there? My reaction was to turn my camera quickly. Was it an enemy that I hadn’t encountered? Some new form of Guardian? Heavens forbid… what if it was another keese swarm?! My eyes adjusted as the motion blur from the camera pan settled. What I saw wasn’t a new enemy; guardian, keese or otherwise. It was… wait… what is that? Is that a dragon? OH MY GOSH THAT’S A DRAGON!!! And a dragon it was. Snaking its way out from beneath Lake Hylia, was the yellow-green visage of Farosh.

My first experience with a Zelda game was in 2013, playing Wind Waker HD on the WiiU. The admittedly charming themed console was pre-loaded with a copy of Hyrule Historia, Nintendo’s attempt at weaving a cohesive narrative from the notoriously incohesive franchise. Like I said, I am nothing if not a lore nerd. At that point, I had been a bit-more-than-casual Zelda fan, and had taken some forays into the “Zelda timeline” YouTube holes, where I spent a bit (read: many dozens of hours) of time.

Seeing the Temple of Time in Ruins after fighting Ganondorf within its halls in Wind Waker HD was jarring to say the least.

It’s moments in games like these that I find myself reflecting on what gaming is to me as a medium. I could have experienced a serpentine dragon-god rising from a lakebottom in a fantasy novel, sure no problem. Heck, I probably have already, who knows these days with all these dragon shows and their houses and stuff! But it wasn’t in a novel. My meeting with Farosh wasn’t planned or scripted. Someone hadn’t written it, published the scene, edited that moment with flowery language until it fit their perspective of what the author thought a mighty creature being revealed might look like. It was my wanderings, a beautifully blank canvas left to uncover built with the love and attention of the people that made Breath of the Wild a reality, that allowed me to cross paths with the dragon. Watching Farosh ascend to light up the skies above Lake Hylia was something I will never forget. I will admit, when starting Tears of the Kingdom this past week, I was nervous that my breath would be measured, that my footfalls would be quicker, that I would press the sprint button more and the camera button less. Thankfully, I can say that is not the case, and I cannot wait to pick my jaw off of the floor once more.

Image Sources: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

#zelda breath of the wild #the legend of zelda #zelda tears of the kingdom #nintendo #gaming #game writing #video games #writers of tumblr #articles #article writing #creative writing #storytelling #gaming news #gaming article #gaming industry #gaming life #gaming world

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wiktorianala · 2 months ago

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Ma yapping about a game I just finished if anyone would care (and probably at some point getting out of topic, so just starting to talk about other stuffs)\/

Ok, so I just finished dsaf3 "good ending" and... what the fuck. Just to make things straight I accually replayed it 2nd time now, because 1st time was few hours ago, in the morning with no sleep so my brain was almost turned off, so ending seemed, not really interesting, nor emotional, at least not as much as innternet maked it seem, so that's why I just replayed it from last save (I just woke up so brain working just finey) and OH MY GOD WHO LET THIS MAN COOK? Like I've gotta say, I thought that I was "crying" hard over "evil route" (because honestly it not really made me cry but rather left me sad as fuck and not knowing what to do with myself), but holy shit after this thing I genuelly was in front of screen crying like a little fuckin baby (and stil left not knowing what to do with myself). I don't really think any game ever made me cry this hard, nah I bet I could say any piece of media. Gosh even now I want to cry again. Anyway I honestly was suprised that part that mostly break me was not the after battle with henry on flipside, but rather, at the end just thos tumbstones and all. Maybe because it all just cumulated at the end, I dunno. Honestly it's surelly gotta be for me one of thos games, for which I wish I could erase my memory, just to expirience them once more for first time. Closest to this might be when I'll finally get out of phase for it, for a longer time, just to replay entire serie again. Gotta say that arter palying all mayor routes from all 3 games (+ quite a few smaller ones) this serie surelly jumps into "fave games" category, right under portal2 (which is hightest place a game for me can go, because srry, but I hold very nostalgic connection for portal, and even if I'll find a game that I'll like more, thare's just like, I dunno a part of me saying "nostalgia at first place" so I can do shit about it), and that means I really fckn enjoyed it, because for now my faves only had "tier one (AKA. portal2)", and "tier two" wich was rest of my fave games, and now it has tier one (still the same), tier two which now include dsaf and tier three which is rest of faves (and if someone's interested "how much games are then here rn in total", answear would be... lemme check, It's five games in total on my fave list or more like "tha ultimate fave ones", and it's not because I play not many games, but rather that I rarelly find games that strike me in the way that, I don't know how to put it into words. I guess I just rarelly find "that one" type of stuff). Wait... didn't I get off topic? Hard to say. Ok, so anyway I really enjoyed it despite all of the cryies that occured ( and by this I mean not only 3rd game but honestly entire franchise because on "good ending" in 2nd game I broke too, and on just as I said somewhere before on "evil route" in 3rd too (on first one not thought, but it doesn't make me like it less) ( but no matter what 3rd is surelly my fave out of all)). And when I'll put my mind together , I'll think about concept for fanart (just like with evil route, a fanart directly of an specific ending) and maybe in spare time will make some doodles ( I'll have to think about in which art style it'll be(or wich one will fit it the best)). I know- I know I tend to make quite a lot (at least for my standards) arts from dsaf, BUT IT'S MY CURRENT FIXATION SO, I'M SORRRRRY. I guess next game I'll be playing will be dialtown, but for that to happen i want it to get on sale (just, so I could buy base game with dlc in price of just base (I know it don't work that way but I don't care))Yeah so ummm, that's all? I guess yes. Just like last time I bet noones reading that(and I don't mind it, after all I'm the one who decides to don't add tags to any just txt type of post, just so it won't pop up at any random person page, god it would feel awkward, especially looking at the point that I'm just writing the way that I would talk to someone so "first thing that comes to mind get noted" so after some amount of time, stuffs that I write feel really stupid/cringey. Shit I'm off topic again) Anyway, Byee~*

#purple shrimp's yapping

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madfantheyinablueblog · 2 years ago

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Hey so super random question time (I don't keep up with the deep lore...or honestly the fandom much anymore so pardon if this sounds really stupid)...how do we know the Master is running the same timeline as the Doctor?

Like...could the current Master have come before Missy? Do we know we're seeing them "in order" so to speak?

(idk I figured you'd be the best one to come to for this kind of question!)

Oh my god! So I've actually been listening to Doctor Who Unbound recently and it really showcases just how inconsistent Doctor Who is when it comes to the multiverse. It's the standard consensus of each choice making a new timeline. Some are larger than others. Sometimes it's alternate timelines, sometimes it's alternate universes. Either way it's pretty jumbled up. There have been numerous instances of the parallel universes though, especially in New Who.

When it comes to the Master, it's honestly really hard to tell because they've had a pretty long track record of being super inconsistent as well. The Master is basically chaos incarnate and jumps along the timeline out of order all the time. Throughout Classic Who, it was a running joke where each story included the Master seemingly dying and then just popping back up in the next episode like nothing was wrong and with little to no explanation. It's happened a few times in New Who as well.

Honestly, until we get an official answer, it's kind of up to personal preference as to if Dhawan's Master comes before or after Missy. And honestly, I can see both reasons:

Before Missy: It shows the loads of trauma that the Master experienced before-hand and it gives the character a massive character arc and a final conclusion, in a way. It shows how the Master as a character does actually care about the Doctor and their strange friendship.

After Missy: It shows how all of this trauma that Missy experienced eventually led to Dhawan's Master going 'screw it' and snapping, and just going back to being evil again. They've just decided they're done trying, and there's no real use in being good.

So yeah tbh it's kind of up to you about what you personally want to believe. I think that's kind of the fun of Doctor Who, being able to decide what you like the most with the franchise's media and having fun with what you enjoy.

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giorno-plays-piano · 3 years ago

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Vicious

Part VI

Pairing: Steve x reader, Bucky x reader, Thor x reader, Loki x reader, Peter x reader

Warnings: yandere, obsession, stalking, possessiveness, theft, mention of blackmail, all characters are adults.

Words: 1567.

Summary: Transferring to Stark Academy that has only allowed to take in female students last semester, you realize you are just one of three young women among hundreds of students. Your things are constantly being stolen, and soon you begin fearing for your safety.

Part I

Part II

Part III

Part IV

Part V

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You spent the rest of your evening like a somnambulist, barely able to concentrate on your projects before you went to bed, barely finishing half of the things you planned for today. Even the change of locks didn't make you as happy as you thought it would. It felt like something between a dream and a nightmare.

Lying in the dark, you stared at the ceiling, thinking of what happened just a couple of hours ago. Why did he do it? Was it just out of habit and didn’t mean anything? Naturally, with his appearance and easy-going attitude, he probably dated many girls and didn’t think much before kissing someone he liked.

Remembering the way he talked to you in the morning, you thought he must have pretended to be shy around you. Thor certainly wasn’t sheepish.

Was it all a sham? Was Loki right about all of them, playing their roles to get close to you? You couldn’t forget the way Thor looked the moment he told you about being smart. It was like something switched inside him, and for a second you saw the real Thor who was far from being your simple, good-natured athlete.

Why did you keep thinking about that stupid kiss even after seeing the man could be dangerous?

Aroused and angry, you tossed and turned until you fell asleep.

____________

Waking up was especially tough, despite the fact you didn't really do much yesterday, meaning you were going to spend your weekend studying. Shoot, and that's when you planned to visit that new chocolate boutique in the city. Maybe you could still make it if you spent more time studying today?

But then again, going to the city alone might be a bad idea. Even if the guys who stole your things were beaten, it didn't mean it had always been the same people following you. The school was full of weirdos, in the end. What if somebody went after you? Steve would definitely say you had to bring one of your guards with you.

Damn. It was better staying in the dorm then.

"Good morning! Are you ready?" Peter's voice broke through the silence, and you flinched, hurriedly applying some lipstick because you didn't have enough time to put your makeup properly.

Well, at least you were fully dressed.

"Just give me a second!" Picking up your bag, you put your shoes on and opened the door, looking at a young guy who's face was lit up like a Christmas tree. "Hi!"

He definitely liked what he saw, and you felt your cheeks growing hot from embarrassment. From the very start of the semester Peter acted very sweet around you, and you thought you could be friends with him. He wouldn't do something as ugly as blackmailing, would he? Thor said it too. Clearly, Steve was exaggerating.

"Did you sleep well? I've heard you changed your lock, so now it'll be better."

"Ugh, I hope so. But I still sleep with my dresser blocking the door." Sighing, started walking, afraid to look in the faces of other students, hurrying off to school.

They must have been disgusted, watching you being friendly with one guy after being all lovey-dovey with the other just yesterday. Although you didn't see anyone in particular, you were sure somebody saw Thor kissing you. And now you were walking the corridors with Peter.

"By the way, what's your Insta?"

What? Your Instagram? Whatever for? Although you had no idea why he needed it, you let him add you, by the time leaving the dorm and walking towards the main building.

Suddenly, Peter got pretty close, his arm on your waist as he lifted up his phone and hummed, "Look here and smile!"

Before you realized what he was doing, the boy kissed your temple, and you heard the sound of a photo being taken by his front-facing camera. What the Hell?!

"Peter!" Pissed at him, you quickly break free and stepped back, but he was already looking at his phone, editing the photo and posting it almost immediately.

You heard your phone buzz when he marked you on the photo.

"That's a good one. You look very cute here."

"What are you doing?!"

"Making a proof we're dating, of course?"

You were taken aback by the sincerity in his voice, and Peter smiled from ear to ear like an excited teenager, showing you the picture: it wasn't that bad, and you looked as if you were slightly embarrassed by Peter's closeness. Oh, of course. He had to convince his friends he was dating you, but he didn't kiss you on the lips that could make other people too suspicious. Instead, friends of Barnes or, say, Thor, would still think it was all for show, and it was their friend who dated you for real.

Shit, Steve's plan was incredibly complicated, and you didn't like it at all.

"Oh, alright." You mumbled, lowering your eyes to the ground, and Peter laughed.

"We'll make a TikTok dance later. If you wanna make people talk, just use your social media." He winked at you and put the phone in the pocket of his pants, resuming walking, and you moved along, your face still hot.

God, what did these guys got you into? You felt like you were lost in the middle of a play, not even having a script to read what was your role in all this.

Before you parted your ways, going to a different classrooms, Peter talked about videogames, the upcoming Resident Evil - apparently, his favorite franchise - and some Dota tournament, but you didn't know much about it, and Peter offered to show you his favorite games "because you can't spend all your time studying!"

He was as careless and sweet as always, but you couldn't get Steve's words out of your mind. Damn, if only you could know for sure that Peter didn't blackmail anyone. Who could you talk to about it? Obviously, not Peter himself, but every time he spoke you had that nagging feeling you needed to talk to him. You barely kept your mouth shut before he went to a different room.

Ugh, why didn't you transfer anywhere else when you still had a chance? Obviously, now you could only drop out of school, and it definitely wasn't something you were going to do.

Luckily, the next couple of hours you were busy with your classes, trying your best to prepare for the upcoming exams. The academy held high standards, and even though you were a good student, it still took lots of efforts to keep up the good work. How Thor even managed to get enrolled, judging by the fact he hated studying and often skipped classes?

Ah yes, he mentioned something about getting a scholarship from the academy for his success in the sport.

By the lunch time you were drained, listening to Peter chatting with an absent-mindedly epxression on your face. Funny enough, Peter's grades were better than yours, even though he spent much less time studying. What, was he some genius like Loki? You felt a little envy.

"I gotta go take my tracksuit, I have PE next," the boy said, and you nodded, throwing away the leftovers of your lunch.

As you stood close while he grabbed his sportclothes, you heard two guys talking behind the lockers to your right.

"Have you seen her today? She's with Parker!"

You tensed immediately. Of course, they were talking about you.

"Yeah, so what?"

"She was with Thor yesterday!"

Watching you froze on the spot, Peter stilled too, listening carefully. Oh shit, you hoped no one cared about who you went with - why should they, in the end - but, apparently, you were drawing too much attention simply because you were a girl among hundreds of male students.

"So what?" The other guy asked impatiently, growing tired of this conversation.

"Are you stupid? She's going out with them! I bet she's looking for a guy." The first student said with excitement, and you cringed. No, you weren't going out with anyone, you wanted to stop the weirdos from following you and steeling your things. Was it too much to ask?

"Yeah, who cares?"

"We have three fucking girls in the whole school, and you don't care if one of them could be going out with you? Besides, this one's pretty. I'd fuck her!"

You felt like you were going to puke any moment. Why on Earth did you decide to transfer to an all-boys school? It was like the whole school were a men’s room filled with stupid-ass guys, and you were locked inside, forced to listen them talk junk.

"You'd fuck a sheep, weirdo. Go get yourself a girlfriend if you can’t stop thinking with your dick.”

Laughing, the guy left, and his friend followed him, shouting something stupid while you breathed out a sigh of relief. Of course, you knew there would be some talk, but you didn’t expect it to be so... gross. Were you really gonna spend the two remaining years here?

Watching you getting frustrated, Peter gently touched you by the arm and said softly, “Don’t worry. They won’t talk rubbish about you.”

“What do you mean?” Suddenly thinking of Steve’s words, you blurted out exactly what you were thinking of the whole day, “Are you going to blackmail them with something?”

“I... what?”

Part VII

__________

Tags: @finleyjayne @alexakeyloveloki @helenaeisenhower @villanellevi @hurricanerin @inlovewiththefictionalcharacters @chris-evans-indian-fanfic @navegandoaciegas @rosalynshields @brattycherub @sllooney @angrythingstarlight @lookiamtrying @buckysbunny @stargazingfangirl18 @dillybuggg @literate-lamb @cosicas-cuquis @sarge-barnes-sir @buckybarnesplumwhore @jaysayey @megzdoodle @gotnofucks @lux-ravenwolf @ximebebx @jeremyrennerfanxxxx123 @sourpatchspinster @biiskuitx @stupendouslovegardener @iheartsebandchris @lovelydarkdaydream @soleil-dor @illyrianprincess @vampirestrawberries @goodgodimaweirdperson @frontmanash @freya-heya @yandematic @mariatietacapitu @d3monslust @maybesandohnos @ibeatuptwinks @mangobangi

#bucky barnes x reader #steve rogers x reader #thor x reader #loki x reader #peter parker x reader #dark steve rogers #dark bucky barnes #dark loki #dark peter parker #dark thor #yandere

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crapmagak · 2 years ago

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Engage Drip Marketing: Alfred

Oh boy, we finally get to learn about one of the cover characters, Alfred.

They struck gold with Xander, and they struck god damn platinum with Dimitri, so it seems they’re going for round three. Perhaps in terms of the franchise's future, Dimitri has spawned a whole new character archetype, kind of like how Tharja has made the sexy goth woman a staple in this series with Camilla, Shamir, and now purple haired woman in the trailer.

As for Alfred himself, we get these tweets

Alfred (VA: Ryōhei Kimura) is the first prince of the Firenese Kingdom, a brisk young man who battles alongside the Divine Dragon. He’s a kind, disciplined and flower-loving pursuer of happiness.

Then the cutscene tweet

It seems Alfred had visited the sleeping Alear many times. He's surprised that Alear woke up.

Alear: "Alfred... of the Kingdom of Firene?"

Alfred: "You... Could it be?

The Divine Dragon Alear? You woke up?"

Alear: "Y-yes."

Alfred: "I see... This is great! You've no idea how long I've waited for this!"

So, first off, we finally have a name for the Verdant kingdom; Firene! Seems I was right on the mark about which country Firene referred to. I’m also excited to see more characters representative of this region. Though a west european base is the literal standard for fantasy, adding a flower and plant motif definitely helps. Reminds me a bit of the Tyrells from A Song of Ice and Fire.

As for Alfred himself, despite my Dimitri jokes, he actually gives me a different set of vibes. Specifically, I have a theory about the four other box art characters, the one we saw in that sequence were they fight a bunch of corrupted. They each adhere to a sort of classic Fire Emblem Archetype, especially those relating to royalty. So, while Alear is our Avatar lord, I think Alfred is meant to be more of our classical lord. Think Marth, Eliwood, or Eirika, the more gentlemanly, peace loving lord, as opposed to the more warrior esc lords like Hector, Ephraim, or Ike, who I think will be the red haired swordsman. I think the dancer will be that innocuous traveler who turns out to be royalty, like Lewyn, Joshua, or Virion. As for the goth woman… I have a strong prediction but it’s based on the leaks. And unfortunately, I can't black out text for easy spoiler warnings on tumblr. I'll just have to say it once we get her posts. I’m also certain that for the Firene arc of this game, Alfred will serve as the Deuteragonist/ focus character. Hell, there's a strong chance he’ll get a legendary weapon as well.

One thing that did surprise me is that Alfred is the first prince. Considering Celine wears a crown but he doesn’t, I assumed Alfred wasn’t even royalty. Makes sense though. Seems like we’re getting a classic Fire Emblem story of a Prince trying to defend/ reconquer his homeland. If he’s a prince, I also assume that makes Celine his younger sister.

Another big thing is that we get a good look at Etie and the fighter character early. The first thing that struck me was just how tiny Etie was. I kind of assumed she’d look older, like Chloe, but she looks younger than Framme. The fighter was also a shock, considering how small his head is compared to his body. Now, a lot of that bulk’s probably do to his clothes and armor, but it still looks off a bit. I’m fairly sure the two are Alfreds retainers, which makes me wonder if Chloe and Louis are Celine’s retainers as well, and all the major characters get a pair like in Fates. That's not the only thing that reminds me of past games, though. Etie and the fighter have pretty similar hair and eye colors, along with overall aesthetics. I kind of wonder if they’re siblings too. If they are, then that’d make them the third pair, considering the dragon guardian twins, and the Firene royals. We also see Citrinne in a map with a blond cavalier too… I wonder if we’re getting a predominantly sibling cast, like in the second half of Genealogy. Then again, the hair and eye colors are exactly the same, so perhaps I’m over thinking things. Overall, they give me Lethe and Mordecai vibes; tiny mean girl and big nice guy.

We also see this cutscene at the night bridge map, meaning you probably meet the three during or after the it. I’m guessing the attack happened on one of his visits. Perhaps after the attack, our heroes flee to Firene after the Holy Land is captured.

Next, we get another juicy, juicy crit clip…

Alfred's starting class is Noble/ Cavalry. With blood of noble royalty running through their veins, they ride a horse, and elegantly wield a lance.

So, it seems like Alfred gets a fancy flourish on his crit. Perhaps it’s exclusive to him, or just major Firene characters in general. We also get to hear more of that sweet, sweet Firene map theme. This is a new map too, taking place in a village with bushes and small forests. Alfred is level seven, so it appears to take place after the Firene castle chapter. Perhaps that wasn’t a castle, but a simple fort.

Green units are confirmed. There are six on the map, but we can only see five. We have three civilians, one presumed cleric, and a monk in the back. Seems like we’ll need to rush to their aid before it’s too late.

What really caught my eye, though, was that someone else is engaged to Sigurd. This completely obliterated my assumption that only certain pairings of characters could engage. As for the character in question, it’s hard to tell cause they face away from the camera, and because of their glowing hair. Considering who else we see, and that they’re on foot, my guess is Clan or Louis. I lean more towards Louis for one reason. Each of the engaged characters have a sort of glowing halo thing along their backs. Alear has dragon-like wings, Celine a halo, for a brief second we see wing-like ornaments of Alfred’s form on the map, and the red haired swordsman has a bunch of glowing weapons on his back. This figure has either large wings around their shoulders, or a kind of shell like pauldrons. My new theory is that the ornament is based on class categories, and armored units get the shell. If this is true, I wonder if there are limits to who can engage with who based on weapon type (as an example, SIgurd can only engage with characters who use swords or lances, and Lyn would be locked to characters who use swords or bows.)

Finally, we get a quick look at Alfreds inventory. He can use an iron lance, or a javelin. However, he can’t wield the poleaxe, meaning he really is lance locked (probably until he promotes).

As for who we see next, my bets on either Etie or Celine. If we do get Celine next, I’m curious if we’ll see her crit with a sword or magic.

#alfred #fire emblem #fire emblem engage #It's Firene time baybee!

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imperiuswrecked · 3 years ago

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To me, it doesn’t make sense to make Magneto the main villain because it has been done so much before and it would connect it so much to the Fox Films. Also I think there is a GREAT laziness in writing Magneto especially in films. He generally didn’t want to kill all humans, subjugate them yes because he doesn’t trust them. Which isn’t a ‘good guy’ move in itself and he slips in and out of.

He legit murdered genocide I think when he was going to kill all humans. Like no.

I also think that the average cinema goer likes Magneto too much… or maybe that is me. It would also require them to recast the most famous faces of the franchises?

Like is anyone going to care if they recast Jean, Scott, Iceman, Rogue, Kitty, Beast even Mystique but Magneto? I don’t know. I have long been a fan of an actual Jewish actor playing Magneto but following Ian McKellan would be difficult for the casual fans to accept. I don’t think Fassbender left such an amazing impression.

Even my most average MCU fans friends (and god they love the MCU 😤 but I see past it) still talk about how much they want to see a Magneto solo film.

To me I would put the focus on their reveal and sentinels. Then again I thought they’ll go through Krakoa stuff. Like it turns out the mutants have been living on this Island etc

With the ‘simpler times’ comment I have to for the sake of my sanity have to think that it was because Pietro knew where he was. Things were clear to him, as much as it hurt he had his sister. The following trauma had not occurred. Again I don’t think this is true but I am trying to reason bad writing. He didn’t doubt his morality but was indebted and controlled. Shitty actions were out of his control.

I don’t read Avengers so I didn’t know he was shelved for so long.

I think the Trial of Magneto is trying to ride on the coattails of Wandavision because even though she’s not a mutant a lot of the internet was wanting Magneto to show up. So what is the best way to get those fans who wanted to see that? Set up a family comic book where they establish the family again because I guess the MCU fans heard they’ve changed their background and themselves didn’t like it.

I see the Trial of Magneto as something poorly thought out as they saw what the audience was interested in. The timeline kind of clashes uncomfortably with Inferno. Which makes me think it was wedged in there to ride the Wandavision train and undo the retcon on the side of the main storyline.

Thank you for reading my essay/rant

Ok so I'm going to first say you have a lot of great thoughts and great on picking up the whole forced feeling. You are right, it does feel wedged in there and it does feel forced because that's exactly what Marvel did.

The Trial of Magneto was supposed to be an X-Factor plot, it was Leah Williams next arc, here's an article link talking about her podcast: link (yes I know it's bleeding cool but I don't have time to listen to the podcast)

Leah Williams tells us that X-Factor was canceled because Leah's pitch for the Magneto/Wanda story for X-Factor, now called Trial Of Magneto, became such a popular pitch at Marvel but they thought the reader numbers for X-Factor wasn't big enough for this story, so they wanted it as a separate comic. And canceled X-Factor #10 rather than seeing it run as originally planned, with the Trial beginning in X-Factor #15. Williams says she only learned about the cancellation of X-Factor when she was writing #9, so as she had to finish the series quickly, squeezing six issues worth of story into those last two issues, calling it "cramped and rushed".

So I'm not a fan of Leah but the way Marvel treats it's writers has always been terrible so this cancellation doesn't surprise me. Could this be about W*ndaVision? It's likely, but it's more likely this has to do with Hickman bowing out. It's no secret literally everyone hated the retcon and I always knew it would be undone but I didn't think it would take 6 years but here we are.

Hickman leaving is a bigger thing, he stated in an interview ( link ) that he had planned Krakoa and X-Men to be a 3 arc story, and he wasn't allowed to move onto the 2nd arc because the clowns at Marvel liked the idea of Krakoa too much and I'm so mad because that's exactly the kinda behavior that annoys me with the fans, them thinking Krakoa is just a fun playground for the mutants to mess around with.

"Oh, plans have changed entirely," Hickman says. "When I pitched the X-Men story I wanted to do, I pitched a very big, very broad, three-act, three-event narrative, the first of which was House of X. And while this loosely worked as a three-year plan, I told Marvel upfront that I honestly had no idea how long the first part would last because there were a lot of interesting ideas that I had seeded that other creators would want to play with, and so, we left this rather open-ended. I was also pretty clear with all the writers that came into the office what the initial, three-act plan was so no one would be surprised when it was time for the line to pivot." Hickman continues, "However, I also knew that I was cooking with dynamite, and it was very possible that what I had written in House of X, and the ideas contained within, was not actually the first act of a three-act story, but something that resonated more deeply and worked more like Giant-Size X-Men, where it would represent a paradigm shift in the entire X-Men line for a prolonged period of time. So, during the pandemic, when the time came for me to start pointing things toward writing the second-act event, I asked everyone if they were ready for me to do that, and to a man, everyone wanted to stay in the first act. It was really interesting, because I appreciated that House of X resonated with them to the extent that they didn't want it to end, but the reality was that I knew I would be leaving the line early."

I'm so MAD because the thing I was predicting, that Hickman would have it come crashing down and everything would be revealed to be terrible and Mutant Death Sex Cult Island wasn't a paradise is never going to happen because the fucking CLOWNS at Marvel don't want him to move past it. I may have my personal gripes about some of Hickman's writing but we can't deny the man wrote one of the best if only the best Marvel Event with Fantastic Four/Avengers/Secret War.

As for the simpler times comment, like I have my theories that I wrote out here, and that's what I think is most likely but I do think Pietro's life has never been easy or simple once his adoptive parents died. Pietro could be drinking to a time before the Brotherhood.

I would love for a Jewish actor to play Magneto and any other characters who are Jewish. I would love for a Jewish writer to be able to write them too. However Ian's performance literally set him in the minds of the people as Magneto, not even Fassbender's bleh one note Magneto could compare. Imo the only reason people liked the younger Magneto was because he was young, handsome (? ig idk i dont simp for him) and they could ship him with young professor X (cowards. where is the old man ship???) But I feel like a new actor could definitely fill the role if they are Jewish and the writing was good.

Magneto's writing in comics... well I just wish we could have a Jewish writer for him. There's some great stuff for him but I feel like characters like him and Doom could be written better by non white/american writers.

Although by today's standards the og X-Men trilogy doesn't hold up I will defend the first two movies with my life simply because after Blade these movies opened up the idea that a good serious, non campy version where characters called Magneto and Cyclops were taken seriously. X2 in my mind was the definitive X-Men movie. Was it totally comic accurate? No, but it doesn't do what the MCU does, it doesn't treat the watcher like they need to have their hand held through all the military propaganda and "hints to the comics". Also side note; the reason no one cared about any of the other X-Men being recast is because all through most of the X-Men movies the focal story point has been Professor X vs Magneto. If they really want people to care about those characters/actors then we would need stories that focused on them. Not like how Storm barely had any character growth or plot in the og X-Men and even young Ororo got mishandled by the script. This is why I feel we should have "origin movies" for the X-Men that don't do what Wolverine Origins did and try to make a whole new cast but instead should use the stories as they are. If it was Kurt's story then we would see him join the X-Men, and have the other actors revolve around that. Same with each of the others, the X-Men work best when they are working off each other and each given enough screen/page time to shine. Unfortunately we all have our favorites, even movies and writers, so those are who are going to be pushed for fans to love.

Thank you for your long rant and sorry for my own long rant/reply.

#xmen #x men #comic talk #xmcu #magneto #erik lensherr #imp answers

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felassan · 4 years ago

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Insights into DAI’s development from Blood, Sweat, and Pixels

The book is by game industry journalist Jason Schreier (it’s an interesting read and well-written, I recommend it). This is the cliff notes version of the DAI chapter. This info isn’t new as the book is from 2017 (I finally got around to buying it). Some insight into DAO, DA2 and cancelled DA projects is also given. Cut for length.

BW hoped that DA would become the LotR of video games. DAO’s development was “a hellish seven-year slog”

The DAI team are compared to a chaotic “pirate ship”, which is what they called themselves internally. “It’ll get where it needs to go, but it’s going to go all over the place. Sail over here. Drink some rum. Go over here. Do something else. That’s how Mark Darrah likes to run his team.” An alternative take from someone else who worked on the game: “It was compared to a pirate ship because it was chaotic and the loudest voice in the room usually set the direction. I think they smartly adopted the name and morphed it into something better.”

A game about the Inquisition and the large-scale political conflicts it solves across Thedas, where the PC was the Inquisitor, was originally the vision for ‘DA2′. Plans had to change when SW:TOR’s development kept stalling and slipping. Frustrated EA execs wanted a new product from BW to bolster quarterly sales targets, and decided that DA would have to fill the gap. BW agreed to deliver DA2 within 16 months. “Basically, DA2 exists to fill that hole. That was the inception. It was always intended to be a game made to fit in that”

BW wanted to call it DA: Exodus, but EA’s marketing execs insisted on DA2, no matter what that name implied

DAO’s scope (Origin stories, that amount of big areas, variables, reactivity) was just not doable in a year, even if everyone worked overtime. To solve this problem, BW shelved the Inquisition idea and made a risky call: DA2 would be set in one city over time, allowing locations to be recycled and months to be shaved off dev time. They also axed DAO features like customizing party members’ equipment. These were the best calls they were able to make on a tight line

Many at BW are still proud of DA2. Those that worked on it grew closer from all being in it together

In certain dark accounting corners of EA, despite fan response to DA2 and its lower sales compared to DAO, DA2 is considered a wild success

By summer 2011 BW decided to cancel DA2′s expansion Exalted March in favor of a totally new game. They needed to get away from the stigma of DA2, reboot the franchise and show they could make triple-A quality good games.

DAI was going to be the most ambitious game BW had ever made and had a lot to prove (that BW could return to form, that EA wasn’t crippling the studio, that BW could make an ‘open-world’ RPG with big environments). There was a bit of a tone around the industry that there were essentially 2 tiers of BW, the ME team and then everyone else, and the DA team had a scrappy desire to fight back against that

DAI was behind schedule early on due to unfamiliar new technology; the new engine Frostbite was very technically challenging and required more work than anyone had expected. Even before finishing DA2 BW were looking for a new engine for the next game. Eclipse was creaky, obsolete, not fully-featured, graphically lacking. The ME team used Unreal, which made inter-team collab difficult. “Our tech strategy was just a mess. Every time we’d start a new game, people would say, ‘Oh, we should just pick a new engine’.”

After meeting with an EA exec BW decided on Frostbite. Nobody had ever used it to make an RPG, but EA owned FB dev studio DICE, and the engine was powerful and had good graphic capabilities & visual effects. If BW started making all its games on FB, it could share tech with sister studios and borrow tools when they learned cool new tricks.

For a while they worked on a prototype called Blackfoot, to get a feel for FB and to make a free-to-play DA MP game. It fizzled as the team was too small, which doesn’t lend itself well to working with FB, and was cancelled

BW resurfaced the old Inquisition idea. What might a DA3 look like on FB? Their plan by 2012 was to make an open-world RPG heavily inspired by Skyrim that hit all the beats DA2 couldn’t. “My secret mission was to shock and awe the players with the massive amounts of content.” People complained there wasn’t enough in DA2. “At the end of DAI, I actually want people to go, ‘Oh god, not [another] level’.”

It was originally called Dragon Age 3: Inquisition

BW wanted to launch on next-gen consoles only but EA’s profit forecasters were caught up in the rise of iPad and iPhone gaming and were worried the next-gen consoles wouldn’t sell well. As a safeguard EA insist it also ship on current-gen. Most games at that time followed this strategy. Shipping on 5 platforms at once would be a first for BW

Ambitions were piling up. This was to be BW’s first 3D open-world game, and their first game on Frostbite, an engine that had never been used to make RPGs. It needed to be made in roughly two years, it needed to ship on 5 platforms, and, oh yeah, it needed to restore the reputation of a studio that had been beaten up pretty badly. “Basically we had to do new consoles, a new engine, new gameplay, build the hugest game that we’ve ever made, and build it to a higher standard than we ever did. With tools that don’t exist.”

FB didn’t have RPG stats, a visible PC, spells, save systems, a party of 4 people, the same kind of cutscenes etc and couldn’t create any of those things. BW had to create these on top of it. BW initially underestimated how much work this would be. BW were the FB guinea pigs. Early on in DAI’s development, even the most basic tasks were excruciating, and this impacted even fundamental aspects of game design and dev. When FB’s tools did function they were finicky and difficult. DICE’s team supported them but had limited resources and were 8 hours ahead. Since creating new content in FB was so difficult, trying to evaluate its quality became impossible. FB engine updates made things even more challenging. After every one, BW had to manually merge and test it; this was debilitating, and there were times when the build didn’t work for a month or was really unstable.

Meanwhile the art department were having a blast. FB was great for big beautiful environments. For months they made as much as possible, taking educated guesses when they didn’t know yet what the designers needed. “For a long time there was a joke on the project that we’d made a fantastic-looking screenshot generator, because you could walk around these levels with nothing to do. You could take great pictures.”

The concept of DAI as open-world was stymying the story/writers and gameplay/designers teams. What were players going to do in these big landscapes? How could BW ensure exploring remained fun after many hours? Their teams didn’t have time for system designers to envision, iterate and test a good “core gameplay loop” (quests, encounters, activities etc). FB wouldn’t allow it. Designers couldn’t test new ideas or answer questions because basic features were missing or didn’t exist yet.

EA’s CEO told BW they should have the ability to ride dragons and that this would make DAI sell 10 million copies. BW didn’t take this idea very seriously

BW had an abstract idea that the player would roam the world solving problems and building up power or influence they could use. But how would that look/work like in-game? This could have used refinement and testing but instead they decided to build some levels and hope they could figure it out as they went.

One day in late 2012, after a year of strained development on DAI, Mark Darrah asked Mike Laidlaw to go to lunch. “We’re walking out to his car,” Laidlaw said, “and I think he might have had a bit of a script in his head. [Darrah] said, ‘All right, I don’t actually know how to approach this, so I’m just going to say it. On a scale of one to apocalyptic... how upset would you be if I said [the player] could be, I dunno, a Qunari Inquisitor?’”

Laidlaw was baffled. They’d decided that the player could be only a human in DAI. Adding other playable races like Darrah was asking for would mean they’d need to quadruple their budget for animation, voice acting, and scripting.

“I went, ‘I think we could make that work’,” Laidlaw said, asking Darrah if he could have more budget for dialogue.

Darrah answered that if Laidlaw could make playable races happen, he couldn’t just have more dialogue. He could have an entire year of production.

Laidlaw was thrilled. “Fuck yeah, OK,” he recalled saying.

MD had actually already realized at this point it’d be impossible to finish DAI in 2013. They needed at least a year’s delay and adding the other playable races was part of a plan/planned pitch to secure this. He was in the process of putting together a pitch to EA: let BW delay the game, and in exchange it’d be bigger and better that anyone at EA had envisioned. These new marketing points included playable races, mounts and a new tactical camera. If EA wouldn’t let them delay, they would have had to cut things. Going into that BW were confident but nervous, especially in the wake of EA’s recent turmoil where they’d just parted ways with their CEO and had recruited a new board member while they hunted for a new one. They didn’t know how the new board member would react, and the delay would affect EA’s projections for that fiscal year. Maybe it was the convincing pitch, or the exec turmoil, or the specter of DA2, or maybe EA didn’t like being called “The Worst Company in America”. Winning that award 2 years in a row had had a tangible impact on the execs and led to feisty internal meetings on how to repair EA’s image. Whatever the reasons, EA greenlit the delay.

The PAX Crestwood demo was beautiful but almost entirely fake. By fall 2013, BW had implemented many of FB’s ‘parts’, but still didn’t know what kind of ‘car’ they were making. ML and team scripted the PAX demo by hand, entirely based on what BW thought would be in the game. The level & art assets were real but the gameplay wasn’t. “Part of what we had to do is go out early and try to be transparent because of DA2. And just say, ‘Look, here, it’s the game, it’s running live, it’s at PAX.’ Because we wanted to make that statement that we’re here for fans.”

DA2 hung on the team like a shadow. There was insecurity, uncertainty, they had trouble sticking to one vision. Which DA2 things were due to the short dev time and which were bad calls? What stuff should they reinvent? There were debates over combat (DAO-style vs DA2-style) and arguments over how to populate the wilderness.

In the months after that demo, BW cut much of what they’d shown in it. Even small features went through many permutations. DAI had no proper preproduction phase (important for testing and discarding things), so leads were stretched thin and had to make impulsive decisions.

By the end of 2013, DAI had 200+ people working on it, and dozens of additional outsourced artists in Russia and China. Coordinating all the work across various departments was challenging and a full-time job for several people. At this sheer scale of game dev, there are many complexities and inter-dependencies. Work finally became significantly less tedious and more doable when BW and DICE added more features to FB. Time was running out though, and another delay was a no.

The team spent many hours in November and December piecing together a “narrative playable” version of the game to be the holiday period’s game build for BW staff to test that year. Feedback on the demo was bad. There were big complaints on story, that it didn’t make sense and was illogical. Originally the PC became Inquisitor and sealed the breach in the prologue, which removed a sense of urgency. In response the writers embarked on Operation Sledgehammer (breaking a bone to set it right), radically revising the entire first act.

The other big piece of negative feedback was that battles weren’t fun. Daniel Kading, who had recently joined BW and brought with him a rigorous new method for testing combat in games, went to BW leadership with a proposal: give him authority to open his own little lab with the other designers and call up the entire team for mandatory play sessions for test purposes. They agreed and he used this experiment to get test feedback and specifically pinpoint where problems were. Morale took a turn for the better that week, DK’s team made several tweaks, and through these sessions feedback ratings went from 1.2 to 8.8 four weeks later.

Many on the team wished they didn’t have to ship for old consoles (clunky, less powerful). BW leadership decided not to add features to the next-gen versions that wouldn’t be possible on the older ones, so that both versions of the game played the same. This limited things and meant the team had to find creative solutions. “I probably should’ve tried harder to kill [the last-gen] version of the game”, said Aaryn Flynn. In the end the next-gen consoles sold very well and only 10% of DAI sales were on last-gen.

“A lot of what we do is well-intentioned fakery,” said Patrick Weekes, pointing to a late quest called “Here Lies The Abyss”. “When you assault the fortress, you have a big cut scene that has a lot of Inquisition soldiers and a lot of Grey Wardens on the walls. And then anyone paying attention or looking for it as you’re fighting through the fortress will go, ‘Wow, I’m only actually fighting three to four guys at a time.’ Because in order for that to work [on old gen], you couldn’t have too many different character types on screen.”

Parts of DAI were still way behind schedule because it was so big and complex, and because some tools hadn’t started functioning until late on. Some basic features weren’t able to be implemented til the last minute (they were 8 months from ship before they could get all party members in the squad. At one point PW was playtesting to check if Iron Bull’s banter was firing, and realized there was no way to even recruit IB) and some flaws couldn’t be identified til the last few months. Trying to determine flow and pacing was rough.

They couldn’t disappoint fans again. They needed to take the time to revise and polish every aspect of DAI. “I think DAI is a direct response to DA2,” said Cameron Lee. “DAI was bigger than it needed to be. It had everything but the kitchen sink in it, to the point that we went too far... I think that having to deal with DA2 and the negative feedback we got on some parts of that was driving the team to want to put everything in and try to address every little problem or perceived problem.”

At this point they had 2 options: settle for an incomplete game, which would disappoint fans especially post-DA2, or crunch. They opted to crunch. It was the worst period of extended overtime in DAI’s development yet and was really rough: late nights, weekends, lost family time, 12-14 hour days, stress, mental health impacts.

During 2014′s crunch, they finally finished off features they wished they’d nailed down in year 1. They completed the Power (influence) system and added side quests, hidden treasures and puzzles. Things that weren’t working like destructible environments were promptly removed. The writers rewrote the prologue at least 6 times, but didn’t have enough time to pay such attention to the ending. Just a few months before launch pivotal features like jumping were added.

By summer BW had bumped back release by another 6 weeks for polish. DAI had about 99,000 bugs in it (qualitative and quantitative; things like “I was bored here” are a bug). “The number of bugs on an open-world game, I’ve never seen anything like it. But they’re all so easy to fix, so keep filing these bugs and we’ll keep fixing them.” For BW it was harder to discover them, and the QA team had to do creative experimentation and spend endless late nights testing things. PW would take builds home to let their 9 year old son play around. Their son was obsessed with mounting and dismounting the horse and accidentally discovered a bug where if you dismounted in the wrong place, all your companions’ gear would vanish. “It was because my son liked the horse so much more than anyone else ever had or will ever like the horse.”

MD had a knack for prioritizing which bugs should be fixed, like the one where you could get to inaccessible areas by jumping on Varric’s head. “Muscle memory is incredibly influential at this point. Through the hellfire which is game development, we’re forged into a unit, in that we know what everyone’s thinking and we understand everyone’s expectations.”

At launch they still didn’t have all their tools working, they only had their tools working enough.

DAI became the best-selling DA game, beating EA’s sales expectations in just a few weeks. If you look closely you can see the lingering remnants of its chaotic development, like the “garbage quests” in the Hinterlands. Some players didn’t realize they could leave the area and others got caught in a “weird, compulsive gratification loop”. Internet commentators rushed to blame “those damn lazy devs” but really, these were the natural consequences of DAI’s struggles. Maybe things would have been different if they’d miraculously received another year of dev time, or if they’d had years before starting development to build FB’s tools first.

“The challenge of the Hinterlands and what it represented to the opening 10 hours of DAI is exactly the struggle of learning to build open-world gameplay and mechanisms when you are a linear narrative story studio,” said Aaryn Flynn.

“DA2 was the product of a remarkable time-line challenge,” said Mike Laidlaw, “DAI was the product of a remarkable technical challenge. But it had enough time to cook, and as a result it was a much better game.”

Read the chapter for full details of course!

#dragon age #bioware #video games #SW:TOR #mass effect #I've seen plenty of this info discussed in articles/thinkpieces and on online communities over the years #but it's nice to read it first hand #some very insightful stuff here #these behind the scenes looks are very valuble #a lot of DAI's elements make sense given the context and what was going on in the background and the tech challenges they faced etc #be kind and respectful to devs folks they're human beings #also in general this book is really interesting and easy to read #funny in places too #it has lots of other chapters on lots of other games including Stardew Valley #I def recc buying it #anyway hope this post is useful/interesting to someone!#oh and as always support good treatment of game devs #crunch culture in the industry is harmful and exploitative

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letterful · 3 years ago

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Curious, what all fandoms have you attempted reading fanfics for?

oh, man. plenty. i'm mostly into niche stuff, background characters, and crackships, though, and my standards are not so much high as they are... specific, i suppose. but, yeah, the usual run-of-the-mill ones (parry hotter, asoiaf, glee), a lot of folklore and mythology inspired stuff (some of my favourite ao3 works are fairy tale and myth retellings, actually), non-franchise movies (especially oldies), musicals, classic literature, a couple of tv shows (it’s my blind spot, but i lack the attention span required to sit through longer series)... i might be pretentious, but, thank god, i'm also pretty eclectic. i like anything experimental, too, especially re: form! also, worldbuilding. also, character studies.

#i love fic exchanges too!

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himbeaux-on-ice · 4 years ago

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Can I just say that Habs “fans” who act like Carey Price’s contract is somehow patient zero of all this team’s problems drive me absolutely fucking insane? Seriously. Buckle up. This is about to be a rant.

Now. First things first. Is it ideal that the $10 million goalie is currently uh, not doing very good? Fucking NO! I am disappointed as shit with that and I don’t like seeing him struggle. I know he can be better. He has to be better. Obviously.

However. That being said.

Do I think it’s an incredibly stupid look to spend several tweets complaining about all the issues Habs defence have been having, and then also griping that they haven’t started Jake Allen enough for how he’s performing, only to then for some inexplicable reason state that the FIRST THING, the first thing that needs to be dealt with after the new coaching staff have had ONE GAME (and zero practices) to work on things, is somehow “well, the ten million dollar man in net is weighing them down, that contract has gotta go!”?

Yes! That’s stupid!!

I think that’s a very ice cold small-brain take, and not just because Price is my favourite of favourites for as long as I’ve been a hockey fan! I have reasons, dammit!! I put THOUGHT into this!!

Here, dear ppl of Habs twitter who will never read this, are some reasons why this narrative you’re concocting is dumb, and why management/coaching are unlikely to think of trying to ditch Price mid-season to fix the current problems:

1: Time. It has been one (1) game under Ducharme. He has been able to run zero (0) full practices on off days with the team. We just changed up a major piece on the Habs chess board — why don’t you give it a minute to see what fresh eyes and minds can do with this roster before you decide we are fucked? This season is fast-moving, sure, but there is time for us to ride out some little bumps here and still make a playoff spot in this Canadian division. Have patience. Do you remember what patience is? Dom is a new head coach, not a wish-granting fairy godmother. Chill. Do you remember chill?

(rest of this under a cut because I actually LIKE Habs Tumblr, and I want to be nice to you all by not making you scroll past all of it if you don’t want to)

2: Jake Allen exists. There are a couple of things I like for what this means for the Habs. Firstly, for basically the first time in his NHL career, we are not in a situation where if Carey Price is in a slump, we have to go “Ah, shit, so now our options are let his stats tank while he tries to get the groove back in net, OR throw whoever the poor backup is out there to get murdered while we plummet through the standings.... 😬” We don’t have that problem right now, because the backup is... actually good? Oh my god, the backup is actually good! Thank fuck! We’re not doomed. If I’m Ducharme, I put Allen in net for a few consecutive starts to put a solid backstop behind all my fun experiments I’m probably planning with the skating roster (to catch their slip-ups, while also giving Carey lots of time and rest with which to work hard on sorting out whatever his issue is along with the goalie coaches).

2b: Jake Allen exists and is competition. Hell, if I’m Ducharme, maybe I even play a little hardball and say “Look, Carey, I don’t want you to be an expensive benchwarmer, but if things don’t pick up soon I am going to start whoever is doing best and you will have to compete for that net.” Related to my last point, when was the last time Carey Price had to push himself to compete for net time against anything other than his own injuries, and wasn’t simply always the default starter? Has that EVER been a thing? Honestly as much as I love the idea of him being The Goalie for the Habs, I also kinda like this idea a lot because I think it could really push him to a higher standard of performance. Maybe that kind of high-pressure situation (given how much he thrives in the pressure-cooker of the playoffs) could be what he NEEDS in order to Be Carey Price again. Worst comes to worst, he doesn’t respond to that challenge, and I am very sad but the Habs have a good goalie in net anyway, because Hallelujah, Jake Allen exists! God, isn’t it nice to have Jake Allen? Bless him.

3: Money. Guys, this league is so broke right now. Seriously. Seriously. Nobody has any fucking money. The Habs probably have more money than most teams, and that does not help when it comes to offloading large contracts. Trades are a NIGHTMARE both because of the flat cap but also because travel is complicated (especially cross-border) but also nobody wants to trade within their division if possible because all your games are against them. Who in the name of fuck do you think is jumping at the idea of taking the $10 million per through 20-lots-and-lots-of-years-from-now contract of a goalie who is currently struggling, impressive past record aside? What kind of astral plane of fantasy hockey are you on to think there’s a trade out there for that within this season. Shut up. And no, don’t bring up the expansion draft, this post is a rebuttal SPECIFICALLY to the people who think that Price and his contract are the biggest problem that needs to be dealt with RIGHT NOW and first on the list of ways to immediately remedy the team’s struggles.

4: Spite. Specifically to piss you off, bud. You personally.

5: Knowing how to troubleshoot properly. Fellas, if my computer is running slowly and freezing up a lot, do I immediately decide the first step to fixing it is to crack open the chassis, remove the hard drive, and try to sell that hard drive to someone to see if I can enough money back to somehow get a better hard drive for less? No, dipshit. That’s not how troubleshooting a complex system works works. It’s the same with hockey teams. Ah, my star goalie is not performing great. This situation is deeply less than ideal. If you’re actually good at troubleshooting, the first thing you do is not “WELL. I GUESS WE’LL HAVE TO THROW THE WHOLE GOALIE OUT. HE’S TOAST.” The first thing you do, if you’re a smart coach, is you say “Okay, what are my defence doing in front of him? What are they doing to reduce the amount and quality of our opponents’ scoring chances? Oh. Oh, they’re taking a lot of penalties, and... oh, uh, some of this is very not great. Yikes.” And then you start your work by trying to make the defence actually work instead of running the same Pairs That Everyone Is Very Much Over And Tired Of, because your goalie is actually supposed to be your Last Line of Defence. And maybe during that time you give more starts to Goalie Who Is Absolutely Slaying It, so that when you start trying new D-pairs and they inevitably have some mistakes, it doesn’t immediately turn into an Oh God Holy Fuck moment every time, because that last line of defence backstopping them is solid. The reason you need to deal with defense first is because a) You know you have a reliable goalie (Allen) in your pocket right now if you need him. What you don’t have is a whole-ass proven and tested and practiced Backup D-Core you can swap into the roster in front of your goalies to make their lives easier. Fix your defense and it WILL improve your goalies, even marginally. Defrag the hard drive before you ask why it’s not working. and b) If you need to go looking for any new D-men to solve the issues, those are WAY easier and cheaper to find than top-tier goalies, and you always want to start any troubleshooting process with trying the simplest solutions first to hopefully save time and money. The better that D-core is, the less it fucks your team over if the goalie isn’t feeling themselves, because the D is going to stop more of those pucks before they ever even become the goalie’s problem. FIX. DEFENCE. FIRST. Then try to train your goalie back into top form. THEN explore your other options.

6: The vicious cycle. Guys. We literally do this once every year or second year. EVERY time Carey Price has a slump, this fanbase gets into a tizzy like the Bell Centre is burning down and he was the one with the matches. And what ALWAYS happens literally within the year, every single time? He gets his mojo back like he did last summer in the bubble and goes on a heater and everybody goes “JESUS PRICE!!!! 🙌” and is ready to name their firstborn kid after him. Until eventually that performance becomes unsustainable, and he becomes mortal again, and suddenly he’s The Real Problem With This Franchise once again. I know he’s the guy they chose to build the team around instead of a superstar forward, but oh my god folks. You’d think he was the only player on the team. Guys, I feel like fucking Sisyphus pushing a blue blanc et rouge boulder up Mont Royal once a year with this shit. This man’s entire career has been a constant seesaw narrative between “Carey Price is our saviour!” and “Carey Price should be exiled to Nome!!!!” from parts of this fanbase, I swear. Look, slumps suck, but for once we are actually lucky enough to be in a position where this team, for the first time in YEARS, does not solelylive or die by the inscrutable magical cycles of Carey Price’s goalie powers — because when he has to step back and work to get back into his groove, there is FINALLY a SECOND GUY who is GREAT. Honestly, given that the state of this team for so long has been “they will go as far as Carey Price can take them” and he has put in a pretty fucking decent job of it despite all of the team’s other struggles, I feel like it is owed it to the guy to be like “Okay, well, we have somebody else solid to fill the net right now, and a chance to really figure out our defence and special teams with this new coach. Why don’t you take a step back and work your ass off at trying to get back into the form I know you can still perform at, and we’ll go from there?”

Anyway. Some parts of this fanbase have been waiting for a fresh excuse to claim Price is overrated, washed-up, and to blame for all of this team’s flaws and ills ever since he signed that contract, if not since the start of his NHL career. Just unreal how nasty some of this fanbase is willing to be about a player who is ON. YOUR. TEAM.

Am I saying he is beyond critique of his play and can do no wrong and his contract is perfect? No! I want this team to have the best goaltending it can get, and I want them to kick ass and take names. The difference is, I still believe Carey Price is a part of that winning formula, and I also think Twitter is overflowing with idiots who just repeat what everybody else says. He’s still a better goalie than your ass would be if I stuck you out there to stop shots from Mark Schieffle, for crap’s sake.

“The first thing that has to go is Carey Price’s contract 🤪”. Shut the fuck up. You are actively making other people stupider by talking. Go eat sand. Good day.

#It’s Time For My Opinion #I put so much time into this I hope it’s coherent lol #habs #Carey price #montreal canadiens #long post

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henpendrips · 4 years ago

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Top Ten #1 - Final Fantasy X (PS2)

Yup, it's this'n. So let's get right into it.

Boy, oh boy, Final Fantasy X. Is it the best entry in the series? No. Is it a better game than God of War 2? Definitely not. Yet as I struggle to write this summary, there is no other game that I can think of that would fit the #1 spot. And that's because, not only do I love the turn-based RPG genre, but... it was also the first Final Fantasy game that I really got into; from first coming into contact with it to finally buying and playing it for myself, a game that easily consumed five years of my life.

The story and world in FFX might be the most blatant in terms of points made, and as the last SquareSoft Final Fantasy, it also marked the end of an era, while being the start of another, more superficial and uninspired future for the series (with the MMOs and FF12 barely scootin' by, considering what was to come). However, that doesn't stop me being enamored with the two protagonists and the journey they go through: Tidus, the energetic blitzball superstar that functions as the audience surrogate; and Yuna, the reserved summoner carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders.

While most previous FF games start out small, and opened up as you progress, FFX presents you with big questions right from the start, and Tidus' clueless ass is the perfect vessel for players to take in this adventure one step at a time. His own confidence and playful nature also helps set the audience at ease, rather than feeling lost amidst the chaos. But it is through Yuna that the story of this game moves forward; she is the reason the party (and through Tidus, the player), continue this journey, her pilgrimage across the land of Spira, in the hopes of achieving a means to stop the cataclysmic monster Sin. And that's also why Yuna is my favorite character in the entire franchise (Zack Fair is a close second), as her determination and drive are apparent even through her shy and meek demeanor when you're introduced to her initially; and given how, unlike Tidus, she DOES understand what her journey might entail, she is aware of the consequences that might present themselves, and how her faith is challenged every step of the way, really showcases a strength not just in the character, but the writing as well.

In terms of exploration and level design, while FFX might have been a big step forward for the series, shedding the pre-rendered backgrounds of the PS1 era, Spira is left quite linear and restrained. It's no FF13, thankfully, as you're allowed to revisit almost every area you go to, and after a later point in the game, unlocking an airship gives you free range on where to go, including some optional dungeons and secret areas. It's no grand expanse, but you're given plenty of reasons to explore every nook and cranny for sidequests, extra gear, and additional skills. The equipment mechanics are interesting in concept, the ability to craft and graft specific abilities to your weapons and armor, but given the limited models for it, and the existence of Celestial Weapons, like a lot of aspects in the game, it comes off more like a means to extend gameplay needlessly, as several other games of that time did.

The combat system, meanwhile, is undoubtedly my favorite in the whole series, because it embraces the fact that it's a turn-based RPG. I've never been too keen on the ATB, and have definitely disliked the real time/turn-based hybrids that are leading the franchise further and further away from its roots, but FFX knows what it is, and fully embraces it. Based on specific stats, the Conditional Turn-Based Battle (CTB) system places every participant in the fight on a specific order, and every action taken by a character will affect how subsequent turns play out. Spells such as Haste will accelerate and give a character more turns, crippling abilities will push enemies further away from taking their own turn, and with the ability to switch party members on the fly, you have an approach dedicated to the player controlling the flow of combat, by taking advantage of enemy weaknesses and impeding them from attacking at all, something that, as the game progresses, especially with optional superbosses, develops into quite the challenge that is still all in control of the player.

Probably the most distinct aspect to FFX combat, however, is how summons, called Aeons, act as their own characters, all with stats and abilities of their own. All of them are informed by Yuna's development, and spamming them will definitely leave your other party members lacking, but it's always thrilling to drop yor giant monsters on the field and let them lay waste to your enemies. This also provides you with the Summoner fights, where Aeons can't be summoned by both parties at the same time, and how several bosses can easily destroy your summon, leaving you to plan out when it is most appropriate to use them. A very nice touch that is in line with the story of the game.

The progression system in FFX also deserves a highlight. The Sphere Grid replaces the usage of EXP with AP, and each character is placed upon a giant grid with slots to fill up, so as to increase their stats and learn new skills. Special key slots keep your characters on set paths at first, but you'll eventually be able to cross characters onto others' sections, allowing you to increase each party member's usage beyond their initial limitations, while minimizing their weaknesses and shortcomings as character-locked roles. It's definitely another aspect of the game done to extend gameplay, especially given how you can customize the entire Sphere Grid for all seven characters, but after playing FF12, I'm much more content with a system that provides unique roles to characters, letting you familiarize yourself with them, and then expanding their arsenal and abilities later on. Seriously, if you want to play FF12, which I recommend as my fourth favorite FF game, play it on PC with a merged License Board mod, it'll be so much more satisfying.

And to close it off, given how most of the positives above also provide some detail on the negatives, the art direction in FFX is just the right amount of overly-detailed before going down Belt Buckle Avenue. There's an overall ocean theme to the designs, with a lot of spirals and natural patterns to the architecture, character design, and even the monsters, that I enjoy massively (and the PS2 limitations probably kept it from going balls-to-the-wall insane). There's an obvious jank when it comes to facial animations and how a lot of voice lines are delivered, but the emotional peaks are all there, a prime example of both the good and bad being one of the speeches later in the game, how the animation and delivery contrast immensely with all the other characters in the scene. And of course, how can you forget the ridonkulously catchy tunes such as 'Hymn of the Fayth', 'Challenge', and 'Otherworld' (the song that until recently, I still believed had been composed by Ramnstein).

With that, it's done. Years ago, when I first thought of which game was my all-time favorite, I definitely had a big thunk on whether it was God of War 2 or Final Fantasy X. But in spite of all that has happened since, the state of the games industry as a whole, and how I changed in terms of standards, taste, and preferences, putting FFX on the #1 spot of this list is not a regret. It defined me as a person, as an enthusiast, I'm very happy that it opened so many doors and how it motivated me to push forward as an artist for several years now. Also, Rikku with X-2 costume was top tier first waifu, fite me.

#art #artists on tumblr #final fantasy x #final fantasy #FFX #tidus #yuna #top ten #videogames #fanart #illustration #print

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