#That's a personal opinion of value

[shiroselia]

Just because I’ve seen the discussion going around and whenever we talk about if SSO is “worth it at all” in any capacity the cost of it fucking always comes up, and while I obviously have opinions on the larger debate I don’t really care atm to comment on it, but I Will say something about how people seem to think SSO is uniquely utterly completely fucking ridiculously expensive compared to, eh, whatever it is we’re comparing it to actually I’m not entirely sure, but TLDR is:

It isn’t.

SSO is not uniquely expensive. It isn’t even like ridiculously priced either for that matter. And let’s also remember that what is “worth it” and “priced fairly” is incredibly fucking subjective and in a society where costs wildly vary depending on where you’re looking and from who you’re buying, there really is no such thing as a “true fair price” because even though there is “objective” ways to value things, they are usually never followed because that’s not how to capitalism like a true capitalist. And that goes no matter the industry.

But here’s the thing. Video games cost. This has always been the case. Every video game is expensive to some degree to someone. And as I said, expensive is incredibly subjective and contextual, but considering that around 60€ is standard for most games these days (especially if they have the company attachment to “justify” that price), SSO isn’t unique in its pricing. It’s average as hell. “But Manda!” you say “Aren’t every other 60€ or above game made by way better game companies like Nintendo?!” Well. (Actually no but that’s a whole other tangent) That’s partly brand attachment, not quality assurance. See for example the Switch era Pokémon games, that all cost Atleast 60€. They have gotten their quality justifiably dragged through the dirt ever since the Switch started having Pokémon games, and Yet people buy them even though they’re an absolute disgrace of a game development mess to anyone who cares to research that. And yet people buy them. Because it’s a Nintendo game (brand recognition) and a Pokémon game (brand recognition). And also because some people geuinely do not think they’re bad. Even tho they “objectively” fucking suck ass. Yet that’s considered a justifiable price and people buy it. So just because something is priced a certain way doesn’t mean it reflects its quality. Especially not if you can get away with convincing people you’re worth that price for other reasons. So at the Very fucking least it’s not an SSE-made strategy, it’s just capitalism.

Second of all, SSO is an MMO. And anyone who knows anything about MMOs the genre know that SSO is both incredibly unique and also like. hella standard with this. Because here’s the thing. SSE are losing themselves money. And I’ve said this before because it’s true, and I’m literally a case example of that myself. So here’s the thing, MMOs usually work on a subscription payment, that’s standard. You buy a subscription and pay monthly (it’s usually monthly) and you pay a smaller (usually) sum every month. SSO has this too, but where SSO is unique (as in non-standard, not alone) is that they a) have more than just a monthly subscription and b) allow a single purchase subscription. This is what is formally known as “flexible payment options” but really it’s just “When do you wanna pay and for how much?”. But here’s the kicker, this is why you can’t really go “SSO is expensive because of lifetime” because if you’re planning on investing in SSO fulltime then you’re really just buying any other game. And also, Not Everyone Pays For Lifetime. As I said 60€ is average as fuck. But you have Options. You Can pay like. Idonno exactly how much but like 11€ for a month if that’s better. But it’s not worth it in the end, longterm. It’s probably better if you don’t have the funds to make singular high-investment purchases, which some don’t, and for them that’s more worth it. But as I said, it’s more expensive in the long run, and that’s why SSE even Allowing us to buy lifetime is a) a good thing for consumers b) terrible for them. It loses them MAD money. Myself as an example: I’ve played SSO since 2011, I bought lifetime in the summer of 2012. I’m still playing 11 years later. And I haven’t payed a single subscription ever since. My lifetime cost SSE the equivalent of 6 monthly subscriptions. I’ve lost them like. over 100 monthly payments since?? So basically what I’m saying is that for an MMO SSO is actually pretty cheap, especially considering that there’s people who have invested the same amount I’ve invested in SSO in other games, and spent Way more. But I’m not saying SSO is cheap, because a single 60€ purchase *is* too much for some people, but it isn’t uniquely so and there’s no such thing as a real objective not worth it, that’s a personal opinion, not fact.

Really I’m just saying that if you’re gonna use SSO’s price against it you should really be considering why you think that’s a Unique Bad SSO Thing, and also what else you’re willing to shill out for in the same price range. Especially if you’re an older player with a few years on your resume.

[buggachat]

does anyone else form their headcanons of marinette and adrien largely on the basis of "they have to be opposite each other"? like, creation and destruction, yin and yang, etc. like Marinette being late all the time and sleeping through her alarms? so she's probably a deep sleeper? So that means, by the laws of my lovesquare headcanons according to my brain, Adrien has to be a light sleeper. Marinette is a chaotic creative person and I can imagine her just having so much STUFF all around and living in organized chaos. so therefore Adrien likes his spaces neat and clear. (also something something creation and clutter vs destruction and emptiness) you know??? ???? ? adrien and marinette headcanons just cant be independent of each other in my brain. they are always intrinsically linked

[calware]

genuinely what is the worst that could happen if you stop apologizing for liking homestuck or if you stop saying things like "homestuck is cursed don't read it it's so bad don't make the same mistakes as me save yourself while you can etc etc" when in actuality you enjoyed it. what's the worst that will happen if you just enjoy it like a normal person

[fumifooms]

Chilchuck analysis speedrun: As a hardworking half-foot who grew up poor and discriminated against and had his gullibility taken advantage of multiple times in his early adventuring days, Chilchuck thinks optimism is a dangerous flaw. He’s stressed and strict all the time because his job is noticing details like traps that could get everyone killed before anyone knows it, he takes the lives of everyone to be on his shoulders, and with the way he speaks about it that probably partly reflects how he felt about taking it upon himself to provide for his family too. His life’s always been pretty centered around work and has become even moreso now that his wife left and everyone is independent, and due to past events he’s very iffy with bonding with coworkers. He thinks feelings and job are a disaster mix. Like with his wife or with parties hiring him as sacrifice, being open or having good faith is vulnerability which can get you hurt, so he processes and shows all his stress as anger instead of worry. Doing strict dieting probably isn’t helping the irritability what with hunger, and on top of being a hunger suppressant alcohol might be the main stress reliever he has.

His grey hairs are so earned

[fromtheseventhhell]

I love how people are only ever interested in defending Arya's right to be weird-looking. It's never defending her intelligence from people who claim she's incapable of thinking for herself, highlighting her importance to the plot and refusing to see her as just a prop, acknowledging how much of her story gets stolen and given to other characters, talking about her trauma or how often it gets erased and overlooked, seeing her as more than just an attack dog/bodyguard, etc. Nope. It's just a "why can't people let Arya be ugly/unconventional looking? :(" post every other week because people are, for whatever reason, obsessed with how Arya is visually perceived. One of the most misinterpreted characters yet the issue is only ever with her being portrayed as "too pretty" or the wrong "type" of pretty. This fandom will entirely rewrite a character's motivations, values, and role in the story to the point that they consider references to canon "hate" but! The true injustice to canon is we acknowledge that she is described as pretty several times. Arya simply existing as her pretty, important, and non-conforming self is too complex and confusing for people to comprehend 😔.

[dukeofthomas]

"They were never really that close pre-death" "Dick was mean to Jason before warming up" etc etc are the worst Dick&Jason takes possible. Why would you even say that about them

[forgottenflickr]

I already posted before about this (and with this account too..) but seriously, please stop reposting stuff from this blog without crediting the original Flickr uploader in some form. It’s not hard, you can do it in a variety of ways on twitter. I can’t do anything about it, it’s just shitty

[volitioncheck]

nvm this is still on my brain. kim does not like to watch harry suffer… to say that kim takes satisfaction in harry’s pain is a huge misconstruing of his character.

the “getting thrashed like a schoolboy” line comes from a board game, lol. it’s a tease, not a cruelty. there’s never any line that implies that Kim enjoys seeing Harry taking actual morale damage.

he can be amused if you fail a check, but the check is always relatively inconsequential, and again, Harry isn’t taking damage in these.

Failing to pry the trash bin open:

Failing to shatter Ruby’s lorry window:

(also in both of these examples he only responds smugly if you choose for Harry to stubbornly dig in his heels. if Harry gets huffy, Kim teases. If Harry backs down right away Kim won’t rub it in, which feels significant to me! it reminds me of that recent post goin around about Kim meeting your energy!)

and here’s some reactions to failed checks where he does take damage.

Failing the jump to get your cloak:

Failing to break down Plaisance’s door:

he’s not laughing if Harry’s taking damage because he’s not a dick lol.

aaaaand here’s some other instances of morale/health damage and kim’s reactions.

alternate dialogue for failing the harbor jump:

after the call with precinct 41:

seeing bullet holes in the wall:

most significant examples to argue this point for me come when harry has done something to jeopardize the RCM’s image. which kim goes on and on about the importance of maintaining— and yet even here, he still extends worry and assurance.

telling Billie about her husband and handling it badly:

hardie authority check failure cock carousel:

aaaaand the car. this line is one of the most mask-off kim moments we get in the game in my opinion, honestly.

tying this back to the schoolboy line— that line doesn’t show up if you have a negative reputation with Kim. if you have <1 rep, it gets replaced with him calling it “about four hours of our lives that we'll never get back,” lol.

it’s affectionate ribbing!! twisting it into anything else is bizarre 2 me lmao!

anyways. kim is a foil to every other cop we meet in the game specifically because he doesn’t view harry as a punching bag or a lost cause. gottlieb does nothing but sling jabs and glib jokes about harry’s health. torson+mclaine and the others laugh at harry’s panic attack over the radio. in response to harry’s suicide-by-car attempt(!!!!) jean yells about RCM budget. all kim’s lines in response to harry’s check failures and health-damage are consistent, explicit textual contrast against the callousness of the rest of the RCM. twisting kim’s character here requires a bad faith interpretation of the whole game.

[twinstxrs]

the gorgug-porter conversation is interesting to me because like. yea for the overwhelming majority of the conversation porter’s being shitty & trying to fit gorgug into a box that gorgug just does not fit into by trying to make gorgug’s relationship with his rage more focused on the aggression aspect of it. but then there’s also this specific thing that brennan brought up again in the ap, which is that gorgug’s relationship with his rage is wholly “this is a tool i use to protect my friends.” which isn’t a bad thing! but that’s his Whole relationship with it, & gorgug seems to place next to no value on his rage in relationship to himself. which is problematic, because it’s first & foremost his rage.

being raised in a household with a sort of toxic positivity largely meant that, whether or not it was his parents’ intention, gorgug internalized the message that more traditionally “negative” emotions such as anger are the wrong response to something. part of the reason he prioritizes his artificing is probably because it’s “fixing” things. in comparison to being a barbarian, which gorgug associates with “breaking” things. good vs. bad behavior, in his eyes.

it’s a totally unacceptable bar to measure a 16 y/o by, but i do think part of porter’s reasoning for not letting gorgug multiclass is him recognizing that gorgug generally does not value anger as a valid emotional response to something, at the very least for himself. & that directly conflicts with what being a barbarian is, because whether you like it or not, that rage is what fuels you. but again, barring a kid from pursuing something they deeply care about in part (not entirely, porter has a lot of more bullshit reasons) because of their fundamental values & world outlook is crazy.

so yes, 98% of porter’s reasoning is pretty shitty, immature, rife with a toxic view that there’s only one proper way to access rage, & generally not a good thing to do as a teacher, but also within that reasoning is the 2% of ‘there is a fundamental part of yourself that you only value if you can use it to take care of other people & you need to accept that as something that can take care of you, too.’ but that’s something to discuss with a therapist or a guidance counselor, not something that should hugely impact gorgug’s academic future.

[popsicle-stick]

leaving this here and running away but i don't actually hate coppola's 92 dracula. as a film, it unironically slaps. however. as an adaptation of the 1897 book 'dracula' by bram stoker, it IS objectively terrible

[slunberparty]

testing a new coloring method with Pinkie!

[andersdotters]

I think the thing that's easy to forget about Arlecchino is that she is not the original Arlecchino. The one that set up the House of the Hearth, the one that greatly abused its members, the one that lied to Freminet about his mother, the one that brainwashed the members to be willing to give their lives for their family was the original Arlecchino, not the current Arlecchino. The current Arlecchino was previously a child raised by the House of the Hearth that succeeded the original Arlecchino through some kind of "serious clash."

The original Arlecchino was painted to be a very cruel person. She'd would greatly punish members that did not succeed in their missions. She lied to Freminet that his mother abandoned him, then used his mother's well being as a way to threaten Freminet into obeying. Going off of one of her subordinates actions, she would've been fine with the creation of orphans if that met taking them in to become later members of the Fatui.

When the current Arlecchino got into power, she changed many things. Where the previous Arlecchino wanted them to give up their lives for the family, the current told them that they must value their lives. Every single one of them was important. Where the previous Arlecchino would punish members for failing missions, the current does not do so, but chooses to give missions suitable to the person.

What I find really interesting about the current Arlecchino is that she is not without morals. When Lyney asks to receive a delusion to help his sister, though she does not react outwardly, her eyes were described to be full of "wrath." She then shows a startling amount of emotional intelligence and asks if that is what Lynette would want. When it comes to Freminet, not only was she furious upon learning he was cruelly lied to regarding his mother, what I'm shocked is she knew about his mother in the first place. She knew what his mother looked like. Freminet entered the House of the Hearth before she became Arlecchino, but she still knew. If you want to look deeper into this, this implies that she purposefully looked into his past and sought out his mother for him.

People may say she's acting. People may say she is acting "nice" to groom the sibings her way, but anger is not something easily faked. Those seemed to be genuine reactions. I do not think that was a lie. However, I'm not saying that she's not lying or manipulative either.

What the most important thing to keep in mind about all of this is what Wanderer and Childe have to say about her. They both fully state that she is insane. She has no problems betraying people. She seeks to control others. She is insane. No ifs, ands, or buts.

I'm just really curious to see how Genshin will reconcile this conflicting information about her.

((check the tags for more of an analysis on her that goes a bit deeper))

[kazamajun]

I have been meaning to talk about how accomplished Jun is though. She:

is such a powerful psychic that her clan apparently considered her a 'chosen one'

is literally such a strong fighter that she is able to suppress projecting her aura - something only the most powerful are able to do - which is why animals feel safe to approach her

fought well enough in the second tournament that Kazuya still thinks about her strength 22 years later in the story mode and waxes lyrical about it in his character ending (❓ on if she actually faced him though)

defeated Devil while pregnant ✔️ (only the half, but still counts)

has the survival skills to not only survive but thrive far from civilization

defeated Ogre ✔️

achieved the above via drawing power from sacred ground, something the average person obviously cannot do

is implied to have Yatagarasu guiding her per one of her intros

[quibbs126]

I was thinking about the idea of redesigning Dark Cacao (mostly because of the shoulder pads), and honestly, why didn’t they give him the Oreo shoulder pads from his beta?

I mean I guess the justification for his diamond shoulder pads is that they add more of that shape into his design, and the rest of his design is extremely angular so the curved Oreos might have clashed, but still

I think it would have been a way to tie back into Dark Choco’s design, and this particular shape of his shoulder pads is different and looks like it belongs to some above Dark Choco, like his father. So it’s tying in while being distinct

And considering Dark Choco’s like, the only character (at least as far as I can remember) who wears those Oreo pads, maybe it could be like a family thing

Like I don’t really see much of a point to getting rid of them, they would have worked great. And now I want to give Dark Cacao Oreo shoulder pads in headcanon designs

[inamagicalhallucination]

my toxic trait is i get really annoyed when ppl make atsushi and akutagawa's relationship about dazai

[moregraceful]

i know this is all due to a mix of capitalism, global copyright laws, and fandom's economy (gift and paid), but it's absolutely fascinating how next to no sign-ups for fanfiction set a higher than minimum bid whereas the majority of the fanartists valued their work proportionate to the amount of effort they would put in, with a starting higher bid. max and i are in deep discussion about minimum bid amounts for if we do this next year but just going through these sign-ups is such a fascinating look at how fandom's economy has evolved.