#Paywall that too.

[seafoam-taide]

I feel insane. Listening to some people talk about struggling with balanced consistent eating and out of every point they make to why it's a struggle they keep circling back to its so expensive. I feel like. Can people hear themselves. Does anyone hear how insane that sounds. Food is hard because it's so expensive. Food. That thing you need to. You know. Survive. To live . The most basic. Food is so expensive nowadays it's so hard to eat enough. HELLO? THAT'S INSANE

[niee-chaan]

Chimera Falin

[fishtrouts]

How come hopper’s mother is pale white and black but hopper is pink and blue? The genetics aren’t geneticing

The genetics actually make perfect sense because Hopper's father crashed mid-flight into a circus wizard's tower, right into the potion storage. He then shifted into a sparkly, purple monstrosity, and the excess magic carried over into Hopper's egg.

So white + purple = pink 🧬

[day-mark]

at least watch the clip before commenting about it

https://x.com/DNI_lowkey/status/1901922848681161008

youre right that i shouldve watched the clip before talking about it, but im afraid this still changes very little on how i feel about what they said.

you know if tub.bo had gone into the stream with this attitude instead maybe things wouldve been different. also changing your mind means nothing to me if it's not admitted privately to the party affected, and frankly also publicly in this situation considering how much of the harm was done publicly

disclaimer none of this is directly quoted

sad that there was no middle ground to be had between him and dream/sad he realized they wouldnt be able to reach and agreement and become friends again -> i added this later in the tags of my original post, but there could never have been a middle ground to reach with dream when he refuses to give dream even the tiniest benefit of the doubt. the entire time he reacted to dreams stream, he assumed nothing but the worst despite repeating over and over that he would be fair, multiple example i cant be assed to bring up, but him assuming dream didnt defend punz automatically and then being told no, he did defend him. or reading into why dream removed the mention of caiti when all it was was that dream interpreted the end of the sentence differently. dreams concedes multiple times to tub.bo but not once does he extend that same attitude to dream. hell he got mad at dream for using his own clip of saying his friends shouldnt be making grooming jokes

the stream humanized dream and it would make their audiences put down the pitchforks - i find this extremely ironic given that what came out of tub.bos streams instead was mass dehumanization again to the point where someone said he could queerbait because he "operates as a business". also no, having dream on stream does not humanize him to your audience if you again, only are on the offensive and take issue with every single thing he says. also basically having this attitude of "well I tried my best to humanize him to my audience" but sitting back and watching them spread misinformation and "dream is an evil manipulator" and saying nothing means nothing to me.

neither side was mature/this couldve been ignored - braindead fucking take. "ah yes, lets ignnore the situation We Provoked by repeatedly calling dream a groomer, trump supporter, etc'" harassing someone until they snap and then turning around to go "oh neither of us were mature, we shouldve been the bigger person and ignored it 😔" is idiotic and shows zero self-awareness. i cannot tell if they are that dumb or if its intentional at this point.

jack saying there was never a middle ground and he was proven right that they could never be friends/didnt work as friends and he was glad he didnt prematurely cut ties with someone he couldve made amends with + he distanced himself a while ago - also stupid when he is one of the worst offenders of bringing dream up "days since jack mentioned dream" anyone? sure you could distance yourself and sometimes you just dont get along with people but then the reason he doesnt like dream that he cites is that he made a joke to George about being the reason for his success and repeatedly made poor taste jokes about dream and punches down on him Constantly. sorry but this does not scream "being mature about distancing yourself and simply having different personalities that clash"

comments its weird how much people care and that they dont care - motherfucker you actively fueled it with your repeated "jokes". the "red flags" they harped on about in their Other podcast episode. also if you dont care why do you keep fucking bringing him up. even before this whole situation

tubbo realizing he exaggerated his own emotions about the situation because of the stream and afterwards realized they were all stupid - again. this would mean more to me were this not a paywalled podcast and if he acknowledged it Publicly. also idk, making another comment about how unlabelled people cant be queer weeks(?) after the stream does not scream "i realized i overreacted and was immature about this situation"

jack doesnt want to stop making "little jokes" because theyr funny and tub.bo says and as long as its not malicious - does not scream "distancing myself from dream and wanting to move on" also how many fucking times do we have to say that calling someone a groomer (especially when people already actively believe this) and a trump supporter is not "a little joke". at this point it doesnt matter if jack is not being malicious, his audience will take it as such and continue their hostility.

yeah sorry but with their recent behavior both before and after the stream, this means absolutely nothing to me. this still screams that they dont understand the harm theyre causing and frankly dont Want to understand, they want to keep using dream as their punching bag. if they truly want to be mature about it then fucking act like it. they have flipped between sides too often for me to think this is anything meaningful, i mean hell tub.bo couldnt even decide on if dreams a trump supporter or not in those streams(and yeah if it was a joke that "haha oh idk actually he might be a trump supporter" it was not funny and made things worse bc his audience is braindead and will take it as gospel". like im tired of them pouring gasoline on a situation or hell even Starting The Damn Fire and then turning around and acting like they didnt.

also i find it hysterical jack said tub.bo seemed miserable at the end of the stream and was wondering why he would do that to himself, when he does not stop tommy from doing the same thing and at some points even encouraged/fed into said behavior making him miserable.

also the entire queerbaiting conversation and comment made after is utterly unacceptable to me and its not something im going to forgive with no apology or understanding regardless of what they think of dream

i might come back to this to add/change things, im at work and this may be incoherent rambling*

[immortal-dreamer]

how the fuck do you make a free web series that's been available for free for the past 20 years on youtube and now it's suddenly paywalled

and it's not even available to pirate because it's been free for so long im actually going to fucking break something

[lvmimis]

i probably shouldn't harp on this but i was Provoked and i no longer have dishes to wash

anyway i do think we need to address the fact that we seem to treat fanwriting and fanart fundamentally different (or maybe i'm biased and just not seeing the other side, and if so you guys can gently point that out) but i feel like people do not just demand and expect artwork of their faves in the tags generally the way they demand writing as if it's not just as much an act of labor as everything else

all fanwork is an act of labor and love you are entitled to none of it

[disregardandfelicity]

Sam is going to appear on Emsolation, the podcast Michael Lucas (the newsreader showrunner) co-hosts with his best friend Em Rusciano. They are specifically inviting fan questions which can be sent at emsolation@downthehillstudios.com, and while he's there to promote the Newsreader, they also said you can ask about Interview with the Vampire! Em did promise Michael not to ask about the naked floating sex scene, though.

[yunmeng-jiang]

every day i wish there had been a better solution for the qin su marriage problem.

in my fix-it fics i either have some other sect leader claim that he was actually madly in love with her this whole time and sweep her away for jgy's sake, have her mom confess earlier, make jgy decide to tell her for her own good and have them work together, or not give them a chance to meet and fall in love in the first place (i guess i could also make qin su have a miscarriage, but that's really sad and awful and not my preferred option at all), but all of those require tweaks to the circumstances, sometimes early on so they don't meet or jgy feels safe enough to talk with her or another confidant, or sometimes later like madam qin finding out they're pregnant before the marriage prep is too far along and telling one or both of them right away so they can make other arrangements.

with the situation being what it was, jgy didn't find out soon enough to do anything that wouldn't involve either marrying her anyway (and he didn't think telling her about it would do anything except make her upset and depressed) or leaving her essentially a ruined woman with no prospects and an illegitimate child who would inevitably grow up fatherless, which is pretty much exactly what his dad did to meng shi. this would be a crueler option than pretty much anything else, and given that he clearly still cares about her, he couldn't do that in good conscience. jgy tries his best to protect the people he loves, unless there is literally no other way for him to survive.

it's one more example of jgy being faced with a situation where the only choices are bad ones, and making the decision that he thinks will hurt the fewest number of people. metatextually, it's one more example of women in fiction being shoved aside and not given agency in their own lives, and getting killed off instead of surviving and growing as people like the male characters are allowed to do. it's just a tragic situation all around and i wish there had been something they could have done.

[ladyelainehilfur]

webtoon up to their crappy money making BS again 😐 aren't they already making enough money off their tens of millions of monthly readers? Did they set up this whole coin system with the end goal of using their site as an advertising platform?

Webtoon doesn't even feel like it's about web comics anymore. It's about piggybacking off creators' hard work to suck money from its users, credit card or not.

If the comic is ongoing, there's a fast pass system, with coins to advance. If the comic is finished, there's a daily pass system, with coins to advance. If the comic is popular and finished in another language, there's both. A popular webtoon will be complete and you have 60 days max to binge read before it's paywalled despite the fact you might have kept up with it for years at that point.

Now it's not enough for you to scroll through the episodes to get coins, now they want you to do a quiz. There might not even be enough slots for everyone to do the quiz! There was a time when there was no expiration date on coins you earned. Now you only get to keep the coins for 7 days. Go drop dead, right now.

From what I've read, creators don't get paid if someone purchases fast pass with free coins. I never thought webtoon was a benevolent entity creating a safe haven for aspiring comic creators, but their real greed as a company under multibillion-won-earning Naver is finally showing.

[shinakazami1]

TSPUD: closer look at IOS / Free Trial / Paywall Ending

Me and @decomposten looked through the video of the new ending and here is the summary of our thoughts on it :^]

Table of Content: 1) The two doors room 2) The video 3) The Paywall (room next to it) 4) Ending thoughts

DISCLAIMER: This post talks mostly about stuff SHOWN, not said. If people would be into my analysis of the Narrator's lines, let me know :D (it's a long post - that's why Read more is used >:D )

1) The two doors room

Here, there are two different elements that I want to present.

First - the windows. Or - more important, the light coming from them. This is the ONLY part, in the entire series, that the lighting change comes from the windows.

At any other time in the games, the light change came from lamps, screens or untold spots (just like in the corridor as there are no external windows in there).

Based on the New New Content next to Infinite Hole, we assume these lights are scenery lights.

It's a neat detail to me - it is possible to have either LED options that change colours or a colour filter for the scene to work. But...if that's the case, one detail is wrong. And it's the whites of this scene.

While it's not as visible on the door, the papers and the reflections (noticed by deco) really show that this light does not work how it's supposed to. That could mean that instead of the typical lighting options, the Narrator might have overlayed red separately on the different objects and forgot to do it on some, making the light source possibly still red. It's a small detail but, to me, it only showed more how this Parable is just a playground for the Narrator.

Which, the vault in the floor only shows even more.

First - we've already seen a similar vault in one of the trailers. Though the construction is new - the closest resembling one I could find is in New New Content. it's possible Narrator added this in instead of having all the floors like that from the start. He either might be able to expand the Parable, or as we've seen in past, has some scrapped storage spots here and there he can reinvent later.

Now - onto the longest section of this post.

2) The video

That one single video is packed with a lot of content but, I will try to keep it coherent, mostly showing them and focusing on one part of the video the most.

Before we start, though - a quick shoutout to this blue drapery. They seem similar to the one in the Madness ending.

The Stage seems new, the only thing that resembles its shape is the Bucket Quiz stage.

The video brought two different interpretations from us. To decomposten, this video is so well done, it looks like someone else made it (no credits anywhere, too high of a production).

To me, however, this is the mix of his past video/presentation works that he's done in the past, showing his progress as a creator.

The last video we had made by him was Figley ending. It was the start of his editing journey, where he used Windows Media Editor. Everything else feels like it's been there. The same Stanley renders as usual. The usage of stock images (though that does feel more like Crowsx3 trademark), old movies with silly tone (some trailers), falling money, and much more. and of some weird sophisticated ref to an important and well-known painting (Wanderer above the Sea of Fog by Caspar David Friedrich, 1818).

I feel he's been just working on editing skills and I couldn't be more proud of him :]

Besides that - there are many writings and images worthy of discussion.

First - the content. As someone who made the Fernator AU Apple story, you won't be surprised how happy I was with the food mentions. This man knows about humans but probably doesn't exactly know what's edible. Or he's playing with us. Flavoured styrofoam takes the cake.

The Second - new features. A few are familiar ones (dog mode, theme of forgiveness, eternal contentment as the Bucket) but there are also some other ones. Yellows are typical RPG material (we know the Narrator is a fan), some foods and other game-related stuff. The guarantee resembles writing in the Mind Control facility but - that's a minor detail.

Both of these show how he understand the outside world but likes to play with it and us, as he calls us, the player, a friend. He's on the joke.

But then - the more choices. It's interesting that it only seems to have some chronological continuum. 2011 mod -> 2013 (red blue-door) -> TSPUD: New content -> Skip Button flower ending. But then, it gets to number 3 ending -> New content again -> Bucket Apartment -> Bucket in Expo -> Bucket Quiz -> and THEN returns to Skip -> Jump Circle (Expo) -> entrance to the Memory Zone -> Apple ROOM -> Final Skip.

I was trying my best to find some logic in this part of the video, in how he showed all of these. Here are my thoughts: 1) The Narrator gives a sneak peek to his past traumatic event, showing those who know that he is now above it. That's why this part has the most slides. 2) The Jump Circle, if you look at the video, is scratched out. Decomposten thinks it's due to no spoilers. And I feel that's plausible. After all - he rebranded that part of the game to himself. 3) The Memory Zone entrance is right between the Jump Circle and the same flowered Skip Button. It does serve, in a way, a tunnel between them. To him, both are a memory - he played this already. In his memory, there is a silly phenomenon - of the past that will never come, and the future, that had already been there. And - to me, this shows through the fact the Apple Room is next. Because it shows exactly that - a fake memory. He lived through all this and yet, once you play the game, he will experience it again, like before. Final conclusion: The 'More choice' segment is to show how scrambled his memory really is. He remembers things happening but as each story sits by itself, he tries to stitch it all together. He first made the game. Updated it's looks and then, out of nowhere, someone broke in. The flowers were his mind toughing up, trying to make something beautiful for Stanley. That's why the next two are in the Show category (Stanley making a presentation, and devs showing New Content). And to the Narrator, that's the Bucket. He shows his change and love for his story (Bucket apartment) and to Stanley (Bucket entrance) - who, as the story went, was there to press buttons (Quiz, Skip Button). The narrator wanted to open up to Stanley more. Through reusing ideas (Jump Circle), through safe spots (Memory Zone), mutual memories (Apple), and through freedom.

So, yeah. To me, this video shows his growth, not only as a person but as a creator. Glad he cracked that Premiere B]

But now, let's follow the arrows to the last element of this post:

3) The Paywall

This one is more self-indulgent cus the fact this fucking plant is here only makes me believe Fernator is real and in this essay, I-

Ok ok but, I will try to wrap this part quick. If you reached this part, you're a true soldier. Here have a cookie. 🍪

Anyway, here are a few interesting elements to me about this: - You resetting in the same room after he's done talking is the same like the 2013 Serious Room. Seems he used the mechanisms again. Good for him. - The picture on a wall shows room 430 - the 5-click achievement one that he was most joyful about. - Very lit room (4 lights for such a small space). - The walls: the og Serious room had blue walls. Thanks to help from @/Boz in the Crowsx3 Discord server, we found that the same stripped wall colouring is in the cargo room. But - if you remember the basics of colour theory, yellow is complementary to purple BUT some shades to get into blues. - the. The fucking flower. The hh. The. The... (pls look at my Fernator theory post explaining the significance of nature in the game)

CONCLUSION: This room is the opposite to a serious room - it's a kinder rendition of it. Maybe not the kindest but still, it seems more welcoming.

4) Ending thoughts

While this is more of scratch surface observation, I hope you can enjoy this silly ramble of mine :^] I'm glad to see that after 13 years, this game finally ended up where it was supposed to be - in a mobile form. The Narrator seems to have grown quite a bit and I'm proud of him <3

If you got here - thank you for spending your time on this :] And thank you decomposten for doing this with me.

[ganonfan1995]

damn tho why did my xbox x literally cost less than the switch 2 hello?

[goblinontour]

I always wanted to use the word 'Colorama' in a song […] It was an unplugged neon light at the back of my mind for years. […] I'm sure I used to think the melody was the vessel that carried the lyrics but more recently it has occurred to me that the opposite is often true.

The problem with the neon sign analogy is that neon signs are invariably bolted to the wall and full of gas. Melody seems as though its poured rather than sprayed and doesn't feel as though whatever holds it ought to be fixed to anything.

I sometimes imagine each word to be made using a three dimensional open-top glass alphabet. Each letter built to harness and transport the mirror ball liquid marble of the melody. When the 'substance' fills up the syllables they seem to shimmer and become weightless. […] I see colours swirl together, parts of the lyrics glow and the way in which they float suggests that something like the 'star gate' sequence […]

Alex for The Telegraph — June 25, 2016

[astravires]

just trying out some luxury cc that's finally been released from behind a perma-paywall! everyone and anyone can now get it from here! isn't that just neat?

[tabbyphobos]

So I've been playing Sims 4 right? And I think I got it.

It has no SOUL.

They keep adding in new content all the time because they hear that people want better gameplay, but they don't mean "more things to do."

They mean that the repetition is showing.

The Sims franchise has always been about repetition. Get a job, go to work, come home, attend to needs, try to make friends or learn skills. Live suburban life. Sims 2 have us goals, which made our experience richer as we try to manage these little people with their own agendas.

(I can't speak to Sims 3; I hated the open-world forcing single-household gameplay, and the aesthetic was terrible imo.)

Sims 4 does this too, but... Why is EVERYONE embarrassed by mischief interactions? Why is EVERYONE scared of thunderstorms? I have an entire neighborhood full of people who are either aspiring to Joke Star or are Foodies, and going between them is basically like playing the same week over. (Johnny Zest, Steve Fogel, June Kay, and Amber Stein, if you wanted to know.)

And I've been sowing discord! Bob and Eliza are both looking elsewhere for romantic fulfillment and trying to keep it secret. Amber Stein and Armand DiAggro are engaged but Armand caught Bob flirting with her at Bob's house because she's there EVERYDAY. Charlie is a menace to society, even to his roommates! I mixed up who a child wanted to be enemies with and made him go full asshole on his dad! Alexander Goth is bald and I don't know why!

But the reactions are always the same: bland. Someone gets mad but does nothing about it, except suddenly hate an activity that they need to do for their job. People become sad and are just slower at eating. Nobody gets into a fight unless I direct them, and even when I do they go back to their corners; no additional slapping or insults.

There are no extremes. Nothing bad, but nothing good either. Nobody gets fired for a chance card. Nobody really fails at anything. And nothing great happens. Getting married coats money and requires more hassle than it used to. Having a baby when you haven't the room or the money is inconsequential. Burglars are back but they just leave sims sad; they even tell you exactly what they stole so you can just re-buy it.

And I have no reason to care about any of these people. The household bio is all the story you get. Travis has so little personality he's made of gray paste. Olivia grew up into... Not really as lively as she was as a kid. Did I mention that Alexander Goth is bald?

Even the blandest families in 2 had some drama going on. The Aspirs and the Bells basically did a partner swap in their youth. The Baldwins have Uncle Carlos and all his bitches to deal with. What about Jason Cleveland's predilection for men? You wanted to hang with these families, see where they go. Because they COULD go in any direction.

Everybody but June in the Funny Foodies corner is a C-Lister. No fluctuation. They are all doing the same things. The most exciting things to happen in the Sims 4 world was Vivian and Dennis got married and adopted a couple of kids before they died. And Bella Goth had a baby without my knowledge or permission. (Don"t even get me started about how mad that made me.)

Nothing happens unless you make it happen, and when it does, no one cares, especially not your sims.

Is this why all sims 4 gameplays seem the same? Builds. Legacies. Rags to riches. 100 babies. Are people trying to FIND the fun in the game? I don't blame them.

2 may require a level of frustration, but at least it has heart. Sims 4 is a life simulation by committee. The edges are all shaved off and the experience is beige, bland, and pointless.

Paralives cannot come out soon enough.

[nugatorysheep]

rebecca can't make pearl bi because that's erasure! wah!!!

Ah yes. The lesbians will suffer so horribly without Pearl. Surely there are no other feminine characters in this show with a cast primarily comprised of alien women that could have the potential to be attracted to each other

Oh wait. Garnet. The one who sang a musical number so proudly gay another fandom stole it and made a shitty rip off. The one who is so gay the two faggots she's made of can coexist within each other indefinitely. Y'know, the one who was so overtly and unapologetically gay with her gay wedding that it got the show ended early??

Anyway pearl x greg semi-canon send tweet

[nabi3000]

Just a quick reminder for anyone who forgot: Breath of the Wild was a wii u game. It was developed for the Wii u and just ended up being a dual release with the switch. That was 8 years ago. Now they're charging another $10-20 for upscaling, hdr, and a note taking app for your phone. The game's base price is still $60.