#a lot of hardcore competitive players be like that

[penandwind]

Honestly as someone who did play in the competitive pokemon scene for a bit, this is news to me but not the least bit surprising.

hey guess who just went down a weird rabbit hole

[shikai-the-storyteller]

A few notes about Realm SMP:

Tubbo hopes to have an event every week and ideally thinks this would be a 6 month server

There's a "level up" system but it will be tailored so people won't be left behind if they can't log in much

Armor and Combat is DND inspired, but it's not 100% accurate to DND

Tubbo looked at the 5 main MCYT communities he's been in / watched and that's the "pool" he chose people from

There's no plans for an in-game translator because it's expensive and also Tubbo "doesn't want to step on Quackity's toes" :(

Tubbo says he doesn't have a lot of Spanish-speaking streamers on his Discord friend list so there was a limit to how many people he could message, but he wants to add more people (he has 5 planned already)

Lore is dependent on what the people on the server do, he likes more freestyle flowing RP

There's no big team behind the server, it's just Tubbo and Tango helping him with some things he might not understand (however, he has a team he wants to use for the New Year Event he has in mind). He may look into getting some admins to help enforce rules

He made it so players can play Realm SMP with default Minecraft, he doesn't want to overwhelm people with too many mod downloads.

There is NO mod pack! Realm SMP is vanilla, it's just custom texture packs and plugins.

Tubbo says he's been overwhelmed by the amount of support it's received so far, but he's a bit nervous too

He says he doesn't have Missa added on Discord but he tried to contact him (?)

No set classes, but people can specify their skill points to unlock certain things on skill trees and build their own classes

There IS a life system (😰) but it's a bit different. There's 3 lives — if you die 3 times you're out, but it's only semi-hardcore because when you die, your stats are set to 0 and you're in spectator-mode, but players can craft an item to bring you back at 1 life and you get all your stats back.

There's no "downing" system, if you die you did, you can't be picked back up like on QSMP

No "keep inventory" on death

There's no limit to the amount of times you can be resurrected (thank god) Tubbo says it would kinda suck otherwise because then people would just get banned off the server at some point after dying x amount of times

The Nether IS enabled, the End isn't enabled yet because Tubbo wants to make a cool custom boss fight.

There will be proximity chat

Etoiles (in chat) asked about armor and Tubbo tells him he'a really glad Etoiles agreed to join, even though he wasn't planning on doing much Minecraft stuff anymore

Streamers can play off-stream

Tubbo says he has a "Badboyhalo Contingency Force" (it's Tubbo and Tango)

Tubbo says the Realm SMP concept came to him in a dream

Mob strength will scale as players "level up"

Deaths to a bug or glitch don't count, but all othet deaths will

Events won't be all PVP-based because he wants people to enjoy the events even if they aren't a huge Minecraft player

Two banned items: mending books and elytra, which will be tied to future events

Tubbo says he's happy to do anything himself, but if anyone really wants to be an admin, it'd be voluntary like a Twitch mod kind of deal since it's just him and Tango. (He already has a team of people he goes to for admin stuff, it wouldn't be random people being admins)

In the hour before the server launches, he'll be showing off server features

He reminded people in the player Discord it's just for fun, the life system isn't meant to be competitive and he doesn't want sweats to be dicks about it since not every player is a big Minecraft player

He has a 6 month timeframe in mind but it'll last as long as people want to play, if it fizzles out in a month then it fizzles out in a month, it lasts as long as people play it.

There will be NPCs "When he gets them sorted" but he's a one-man army doing everything

He reminds people to "manage their expectations" because he's only one guy – he can't do events like Purgatory like Quackity because he doesn't have a massive team like he did.

He says if his merch stuff goes well then maybe he can get 1 or 2 people to help with the Realm project

Tubbo is still answering Q&A stuff on stream right now, but these are the biggest things he's said so far!

[creepsopasta]

playing games with some pastas

includes; eyeless jack, jeff the killer, hoodie, masky, ticci toby, homicidal liu, kagekao

eyeless jack:

- bit of a sore loser. not good with games that make him rage or online games

- voice chat with him is crazy!! he is literally foaming at the mouth yelling and cursing he is so bad at games :(

- “jack it’s gonna be okay” “FUCK you”

- he is not very kind about his losses

- most likely ends up throwing the control at the tv and breaking it (bad ending)

- whenever he ends up winning he’s ecstatic he does not stop talking about it and will brag about it to you exclusively. just go with it okay he needs it for his already shattered ego

- 0/10 experience would not do again.. okay maybe he would if you talked him into it and told him how much of a great player he is

- “i AM awesome aren’t i???” “yes you are <3”

- the more you play together the more he’ll learn to calm the fuck down and just enjoy himself

- still rages a lot tho

jeff the killer:

- plays board games like candyland and twister

- he’s a fucking shark he’s got all this shit down he knows how to win

- anyone who gets paired up with him for game night is 85% guaranteed to win (unfortunately there is someone out there who’s better than him)

- gets PISSED over not winning twister fucking furious he is literally the most flexible guy in this house he can do so much with his body

- monopoly is his favorite game. he esp loves to play with the younger pastas bc they believe anything he says and he thinks it’s hilarious

- “NOOOO PLEASE DON’T TAKE MY HOUSE” “your rent is $500,000, sally… it’s my house now”

- not a very avid video game player. he never really played a lot tbh

- good at everything EXCEPT connect four. do not make him play connect four he hates it he has terrible memories of it

- mastermind strategy planner. it’s a shame he doesn’t think this much at any other time

- boasts about it big time if you lose (you will probably lose) but might even try to let you win on purpose if he feels bad or sees you’re upset

hoodie:

- more of an arcade game guy. if you’re looking for like pinball games or pacman or space invaders or maze games or those weird money machines (that he kind of just. steals from) then he’s like great at all of them

- has spent hours honing his skills in his free time so you’ll be grinding for a while if you wanna beat him

- all the highest scores on the arcade machines are his. no one has topped them bc they’re fucking insane

- “wow you really have nothing better to do huh” [takes out gun] “that’s enough out of you jack can’t even fuckin move the joysticks around”

- tries to act like he isn’t competitive about it but he really super is

- thinks it’s just adorable that you think you can defeat him. no he will not be humbled by his lover of all people… that would make him a weak man

- goddamn merciless. no favors for anyone he revels in the rage he causes (see jack for more)

- if you’re a beginner he’ll take it easy on you until you learn the ropes and will offer tips but as time goes on he’s gonna be looking for a fight

- if he’s ever beaten, he will take it in grace and go straight from denial to acceptance

- does not rage that often. just hardcore practices until he’s like fucking unstoppable

masky:

- card player :(

- hates go fish tho he has such bad luck with it and everyone makes fun of him bc it’s like the universe does not want him to win

- good at boring ass stuff like solitaire or blackjack and if you ask him if he can play anything funner he’ll be like “oh so like rummy or spoons :]”

- no masky not like rummy or spoons… like uno or fucking play with some goddamn pokémon cards

- he’s so enthusiastic about it though so cmon just indulge him alright.. he literally has nobody else around him who’s into cards

- “okay so i win” “what… but we just started”

- he plays chess too!!! maybe you’ll find that more interesting?? he’s not very in touch with board games or anything this is the best he’s got

- deadass makes up his own rules if you don’t know anything about the game you’re playing

- “yeah so now you have to eat a rat. sorry babe”

- is never going to make fun of you if you suck at cards it’s not like he can beat jack in video games

ticci toby:

- dnd enjoyer he loves being the dm especially

- he, you, jeff, hoodie, lj, and occasionally masky have game nights and all you guys do is sit around the kitchen table trying not to curse each other out for doing stupid shit

- “c’mon guys this is supposed to be fun :(”

- doesn’t know that most of you have no idea how to play so he makes it super difficult

- has had to REPEATEDLY glue the die back together because jeff cannot stop snapping it in half

- “why does your dumbass partner always win this is fucking favoritism” “and then jeffery fell off a building and into the ocean 🥰”

- teaches you all you need to know about the game he will sit there for hours if he needs to just talking about the complexity of the rules

- he seems to have a lot of fun with it so everyone tries their best to not break the pieces or punch masky or yell at each other or punch masky

- better with snacks and drinks and lots of breaks so everyone can calm down and at least try to find some joy in the game

- 6/10 experience. would only try again without jeff at the table

homicidal liu:

- among us player… pisses everybody off bc he’s unfortunately very good at it and always imposter

- absolutely kills it (pun intended)

- no mercy he kills everyone including his loved ones this is a battle to the death and he is going to win goddamnit

- being imposter with him is some of the easiest shit bc he will carry the team entirely

- nothing to brag about tho since it’s a little space game and it’s really easy

- always knows who the imposter is if it’s not him he’s got some kind of foresight he will go out of his way to sabotage their chances at winning

- “would you love me more… if i killed someone for you 😇😇” “but you killed ME liu” “whoops”

- will stay with you for most of the game so he has an excuse for being innocent. once you are of no use to him he will stab you in the back

- relatively tame over voice chat. unless his brother happens to be there then it’s just jeff getting pissed off bc he can’t activate the reactor

- wakes you up at 2 am, phone in hand, smile on his face, asking “do you wanna play among us?”

- “liu, shut the fuck up and go back to sleep.” “ok.. :((”

kagekao:

- great at those games you play in your yard like frisbee or tag or hide n seek or maybe darts

- since the bitch can fly and run really fast it’s very unfair he pretty much cheats at everything and he thinks it’s funny

- frisbee with him is a literal field day. throws it so far you can’t find it ever again you’ll just have to buy a whole ass new one

- “what the FUCK kagekao” “🤷”

- laughs and makes fun of you for just not being as skilled as him maybe if you could fly you could beat him just get off the ground dumbass

- also likes to race but we all know how that’s gonna go (hint: he wins)

- unless he’s up against candy pop or something no one else really has a chance at beating him

- might help you a little bit if you’re struggling. like that one time he carried you up into the air and then dropped you because he thought it would be funny but then he couldn’t catch you in time so you ended up falling on lj and breaking one of your arms

- wrote you a little heartfelt letter about it later with a very fancy “sorry ❤️” in calligraphy and a few drawings of flowers (it did not help. your arm was still broken)

- really bad sport does NOT like to lose he will completely shut down

- little fuckin bastard

[joejhang]

my input into the thea discourse in the aftg fandom

tw: rape, SA, abuse, violence

spoilers ahead !!! full disclosure: these are my opinions and no one is obligated to agree w me but if u don't i'm literally begging u pls explain urself properly in replies or just don't engage. it's rlly not that deep i just can't w mfs who just say shit like "ur wrong" without giving it any real thought and acting mature and explaining their opinion. if ur a hardcore thea hater/lover honestly just do the smart thing and don't even read on. thanks pooks !!!

gotta preface this by saying: i am not a thea hater. she's done a lot of things wrong that i'll go into but i don't have a strong hatred or even dislike for her. that being said i'm fully aware that if there's anything that will get the aftg fandom riled up it's thea muldani or the extra content. one of those.

first off, i'm well aware that thea is very much a victim of the nest, as much as jean or kevin. and also we don't even fully know how deeply thea was entrenched in the shit that went down in the nest, all we know is that she probably didn't abuse kevin or jean the way others did, considering how she interacts w them in tsc. one of the main criticisms i see of thea is how she "handled" the whole situation w riko and kevin and finding out all of riko's abuse. ppl didn't like her "no harm no foul" attitude re: kevin's broken hand. i get this, considering it wasn't rlly "no harm no foul" given the lasting trauma left on kevin from the incident, and also how long he spent recovering. that shit leaves a long-term impact on ppl and riko still remains kevin's abuser, and thea was wrong for considering it to be "no harm no foul" bc there was harm done. that being said, i think ppl need to be aware that the nest was very much a cult, as neil so aptly puts it. and tbh i have had very little experiences w these sort of environments but i do know that the nest's mentality likely had a long-term impact on thea asw. no matter how deep the abuse went w the other ravens, they were all still subject to the deep-rooted competition and fear that everyone experiences in the nest. idk the full extent of it, but it's pretty safe to assume that thea (given how good of a player she is) is pretty deep in all the cult mentality. this isn't an easy thing to just grow out of, and a lot of the brainwashing that went on in the nest probably stuck w thea and contributed to her responses to finding out exactly what happened to jean and kevin in the nest.

one of the things i most dislike abt thea is the whole conversation between her and jean in tsc. i appreciate that she cares about jean and sort of took him under her wing, but i feel like what rlly stuck w me abt it all was the whole "tell me you weren't up to your old tricks again" line. obv this pissed a lot of ppl off in the fandom too, so i'm just gonna say my piece briefly; thea referring to the older ravens repeatedly raping jean on riko's orders as jean's "tricks" is fucked up. she probably didn't know that jean wasn't consenting and she didn't know riko ordered it, but she did know that jean was a child at the time and can't legally give consent, and she did know that it wasn't like he fucked his way up to the top cos he's had his number from the beginning. she was an adult at the time, and should've done more to protect jean. still, it's obvious why she didn't, cos again, she was also a victim of the nest, and was definitely not in the best position to help jean. that being said, her line does imply that it was jean's choice/fault for messing around and the wording is just pretty fucked, so i'm not gonna completely absolve her of any responsibility in this convo just cos she was also a victim.

another thing i see when ppl r responding to thea criticism is referring to the criticism as victim blaming. tbf, a good amount of it probably is, but i think there are still a lot of things to criticise about her, and just dismissing it as "blaming the victim" is a disservice to the ppl trying to make a valid point. stating that the way thea responded to finding out abt riko's abuse towards jean and kevin was wrong and careless isn't victim blaming. victim blaming is, as the term suggests, blaming the victim of a situation for the situation they're in. listen. thea is not a victim of riko's abuse, at least not in the same way jean and kevin are. thea was a victim of the nest, yes, but it's pretty clear that what jean and kevin experienced was out of her hands, and not on the same level (esp jean. idk what rlly went down between kevin and riko before the hand breaking incident). at the end of the day, i think the way thea dealt w the issue of riko and his treatment of kevin and jean was thoughtless, and pretty dismissive. but it also bears remembering that there wasn't much for her to do by the time she found out. riko died shortly afterwards, kevin took his place as the best striker on the court and jean was sent to the trojans to heal and recuperate. her response could've been more...sensitive (i don't think that's the right word but we'll go with it) but still, y'all will complain, but what was she supposed to do? nora already stated that she was angry at riko, but riko died soon after and other than her anger, there was nothing else for thea to do in her response.

lastly, another argument levelled at thea is re her relationship w kevin. i actually am not sure abt their age gap (i think kevin was 15 and thea was 18 when they first met???) but i do know that their relationship didn't start properly until kevin was an adult and a player for the ravens. i really don't see the problem with this, considering three years (as far as i know, it is three years) isn't a HUGE gap in maturity and by the time they were together they were both very much consenting adults. as far as we know, thea didn't make any moves on kevin when he was a minor, and (if i'm correct) kevin being 18 and thea being 21 when they first properly started getting together isn't anything problematic. they're in similar stages of life, in a very close environment that's toxic, yes, but that they're both familiar with, and it's clear that the feelings they have for each other aren't the same as the violent, repressed sexual feelings held by some of the other ravens. they do genuinely care about each other on some emotional level, much as the fandom may want to deny it, and i don't really think there was anything wrong with their relationship re: consent and the age gap.

anyway, that's really all i have to say except that i do think thea is a complicated and honestly pretty realistic character, given the horrific circumstances she experienced in the nest. i think the fandom is well within their rights to criticise her actions but it bears remembering that she is just a human being and is never going to be perfect, and i think the way she acts is very real and true to her personality and circumstances and she makes a lot of mistakes, but that's just the human condition. it's also insane how much hate thea receives when she's honestly pretty on par with most of the other aftg characters on the moral "scale", if that even exists here. it's pretty baffling how much hate thea receives when she doesn't act all that differently to andrew, neil and kevin. it erases a lot of her complexity and does a disservice to her character (which, if you think about it, we don't know all that much about) to just label her as a purely "good" or "bad" character. aftg is not meant to be portraying conventionally "good" people, and i just think all the thea discourse is really interesting to put under a microscope and dissect.

thanks for reading and i will say it again: if u don't agree with me, that's fine, feel free to explain ur opinions and ur side of things. if ur just gonna be bitching and moaning abt how wrong i am or how much u hate/love thea, take it elsewhere. just don't engage. how easy is that??? just keep scrolling.

[pompadorbz]

Ok so I've been seeing a lot of critique posts on The Realm and how things are being currently run and I figured I might as well throw my hat into the ring as a guy who is generally passionate about game design. I wanna go over all the moving parts in the server so far and talk about why I feel they do or do not work. Does that sound fun? I hope so. I'm gonna start with the factions, because if I'm being completely honest they are. the root of the problem. If you consider most if not all of the issues so far, they can all be looped back over to the factions as a sort of "inciting incident" to everything. so. Whats up with the factions? How did this all happen? The big issue with the factions that we are still seeing the effects of happened on day 1 of the event. They did something that they should NOT have done, and that's tying the gameplay mechanic to the pre-established cliques in the server. By no fault of the players who were just doing whatever they felt like at their own pace, the Kingdom of fools just so happened to become the most noticeable thing from the moment you spawn in, with foolish already recruiting people in long before the factions were ever established. Now, as a result, the factions are highly unbalanced, with yellow having a much greater number than blue or green. Along with this, there is now the red faction which is also imbalanced against blue and green, and to my understanding, there was also no choice in the matter of whether or not they had to actually be in this faction. For the undecided players, they have to choose a faction whether they want to or not. All of this is what kinda snowballed into literally everything else. Such as!! The weekly item collection quotas.

At a surface level, having a weekly quota to complete to incentivize people to play on the server each week seems like a really good thing! But this is offset by a couple of things right off the bat. The teams are of course imbalanced, and while that doesn't really matter competitively, it has led to the item amounts being increased for yellow to try and balance things back out. But this does something that's kinda becoming a theme on the server, which is instead of going back on one bigger problem, they tack something new onto the problem to fix it. But as a result, all it does is create another problem, or worse, two problems!! Put a pin in that since we got an example of it later. The other issue is that the punishment for failing is a pretty big one; that being losing a life. The reward for completing it is kinda boiled down to short-lived relief until you gotta run it back and do it all over again. And that kind of gameplay loop can be pretty stressful to deal with due to. The many issues regarding the life system.

Once again, I feel like the life system on its own has no issues! It's essentially a different flavour of hardcore minecraft, which encourages players to be more cautious and risk-averse, while also making them do something high-risk in order to get their lives back. On its own, it's a pretty good, straightforward system. But. This is quickly offset by how many things can fucking kill you. For starters, mobs are already more dangerous. I believe they're at hardcore difficulty at the start and that's already a lot, especially if you aren't a hardcore player, but on top of that, there is the threat of losing a life if you can't complete the item quota, and NOW there are other players who are supposed to just go out and kill people, adding yet another thing to worry about. The life system is starting to become a little bit too intense as a result, with there being more and more things you have to pay attention to and worry about.

And maybe all this isn't so bad. But there's an issue I'm beginning to see and it loops back to that thing I said about adding new problems as means to fix old ones. Snails?

As funny as it is to take a page out of wild life's book and give players with too-high levels immortal snails that decrease their levels, I think it is planting seeds for a much bigger potential issue, and that is the introducing of constant new gimmicks in what is essentially supposed to be a vanilla+ minecraft server. Instead of going to the root of problems and reworking them from the ground up (which, mind you, is very possible to do this early on in the server's run), gimmicks are introduced to get rid of the problem. The more problems there are, the more gimmicks there will be. And too many gimmicks will stop being fun and start being hard to keep track of and annoying. Gimmicks are a longevity killer. So. What can be done to fix literally all of these issues?

It might disappoint some to hear that the answer is sadly and simply put; you have to kill your darlings. Take it from me when I say that sometimes, getting rid of the aspects you love most can sometimes be the very best thing you can do for a project, and can even result in something that you love even more. So let's take this from the top here. Here is my jot list of things that could be done for each of these problems to fix them (this post is long enough as is):

change how the factions are structured entirely. Don't split them up based on cliques, and instead, make people group up with whoever they want, granted those groups are evenly split.

each group has to collect the same item every week. same item, same amount. OR make them all collect really similar items, i.e; one group collects oak saplings, one collects spruce saplings, and one collects birch saplings

Instead of punishing players for not completing the weekly item collection challenges, reward them for completing it! give them tons of skill points or helpful items. have players race for first second and third!

Don't limit the challenges to multiples of one item. Spice things up every week! First team to collect every music disc! First team to complete a scavenger hunt we made! First team to conquer a bastion together! Get creative with it so not every challenge is just grinding for objects!

make the challenges optional! You don't have to participate at all if you don't want to, and your only punishment is getting a smaller share of the team's reward.

please just let people decide for themselves if they want to be in the hostile faction. Or no faction at all! don't force them to choose. That's no fun.

if people are too high leveled, make a lower level cap and slowly increase it as time goes on or players complete more challenges! maybe increasing the cap can even be a reward!

The biggest problem right now is that a lot of the current decisions are squishing down the initial concept of player freedom by forcing them into factions, not letting them level up how they want, and punishing them for being good at the game. These kinds of issues can't go unnoticed for long, especially if more issues start to pile up on top of each other. If the players are ok with how things are then that's all that matters, but these are just my personal critiques as someone who really wants this server to be able to stay alive.

[animentality]

Not that anon, and you're sort of correct, though it definitely wasn't just one one ATLA writer wanting a Zutara endgame. It seemed more like it was several of them, to the point where it caused a split in the writers' room.

John O'Bryan said he pushed for the pairing and likes to think they are canon in an alternate dimension, Joshua Hamilton also says that he favored Zutara and he even alludes to there being an earlier plan of the series where Zutara became canon instead of Kataang, Elizabeth Welch's script for 'The Southern Raiders' flat out drops the word "Zutara" and compares the two to "Mr and Mrs Smith" in the notes, the published script for 'The Ember Island Players' actually makes Kataang look worse by having Aang act even more possessive of Katara and the Zutara ship tease is heightened by not having the two move away from each other when their characters are portrayed as lovers in the play. The final episode of the series, 'Sozin's Comet: Part 4', has the writer's note "Kataang wins!" in its script, which implies there must have been some type of competition up against Kataang.

Janet Varney, the voice actor of Korra who has personally talked to a lot of the ATLA writers, has stated “...even in the writer’s room, as this show [Avatar: The Last Airbender] was being written, writers were advocating for Zutara. Like, they were like ‘No! Come on!’. Like, there was like, the hardcore Zutara fans in the, you know, early aughts when the show was being written. Even if it was a show ostensibly written for kids, people were like ‘Come on! Let’s do this! It makes sense!’”

The wildest one was M. Night Shyamalan asking Bryke about how the series would end because Bryke were the executive producers for Shyamalan's 'The Last Airbender' movie, so they were legally obligated to inform Shyamalan about how Book 3 would conclude. But according to Shyamalan, "At that time they hadn't even decided where things were going to end, even like who Katara was going to end up with." This links up with Christopher Nance's comments (a pro-Kataang storyboard artist in the animation industry) who met Bryke at SDCC 2008 and told them "Thanks for the Kataang", but Bryke responded with "Well, it was a 50/50 chance".

You could be right that the introduction of Aang's attachment arc might have been a set-up for Zutara and it gets even more convincing when you look at how Ehasz has confirmed that the original plan was for Zuko to join at the end of Book 2. They might have decided against it when they had Zuko betray them instead and they had to drop Aang's attachment arc with no explanation. Nowadays Bryke pretend Zutara was never ever considered and that Kataang was endgame from the start (it wasn't, since they don't even end up together in the IP Bible). It's like a full-blown gaslighting of the fandom and it's worse than usual because it's also part of a brutal ship war, lol.

Dude ok, I gotta save this because I never knew any of this, and I find it fascinating.

that's nuts.

and the kataangers act like zutarans are nuts, but this kinda sounds like... we almost had something legendary...

listen.

I must state again.

I hate kataang more than I love Zutara... but Zutara could've been interesting for sure.

the fire/water, opposing nations, prince and pauper, enemies to lovers shit was right there.

aang and katara was meh, but Zutara... ooh.

ugh.

also I would've loved to know if a kid of theirs would be a fire bender or a water bender.

[gold-rhine]

i mean i wouldn't necessarily say that genshin impact is the kind of game that lends itself to a playerbase with an active social life lol /hj

not really? like its so successful because it got a lot of casual players, bc it can be played for just like 10 min a day a few times a week, its very easy, there's no competition or leaderboards or anything that would put any kind of pressure to be "hardcore" and put a lot of time in. like they were marketing for botw fans on release, and for many genshin players its their first\only gacha. the no-grass-touched-until-dendro's-release segment is relatively small, just very vocal, but you can't get genshin market numbers on no-life gamers, come on

[bwobgames]

Previous First

Credits scene

It's been multiple months since the mansion incident

The legal case lasted a good while, but no evidence was found against any of the survivors, so they are okay now.

The blood did not leave their clothes. They got new ones.

Oliver Beebo wakes up another day in his apartment. While a lot of his nights have bizarre nightmares, this one was calm.

Even though they are no longer on vacation, Ángel still stayed on Oliver's apartment, but they plan on staying some time in the capital, just to see what it's like.

He uses all types of products he can find to heal his scar. Beebo doesn't mind much. it's part of the job, he says.

They've been living a calm and domestic day to day life, with ups and down.

The downs are, very down indeed

But the ups are more often.

They got matching tattoos of a sunrise, it makes them feel better.

Oliver has started taking cases again, but he's going for simpler ones.

He has told his fellow detectives to keep an eye out for seemingly supernatural cases.

Ángel has declared that he will invite himself to any case that involves a haunted house. Oliver doesn't fight him on it

They both have gained new fears

Ángel gets very anxious when they're separated for too long. He's also terrible at guessing what time it is

Oliver makes a great effort in overcoming his fear of heights. It's a work on progress.

He's also afraid of developing any kind of memory affecting disease. He keeps an incredibly detailed diary

They are getting help. It's slow and nonlinear, but they can always go to a warm home with a cuddly cat and a tight hug.

Vivi invites Oliver for an exclusive 2-player session with Ángel, as a test for his dnd abilities, she says.

While he's not that good at the role playing, he's very good at strategy. He really enjoys lawful characters.

They have fun.

Marigold and Nina were also invited. It made for a very chaotic group.

Ángel wants to start a new game so he can upload it to his newly made youtube channel

He wasn't satisfied with a normal 9 to 5, so he decided for a more creative job.

He's slowly rising, with titles such as "Doing the 100 babies challenge in The sims 4," "RLcraft hardcore for 100 days", "Top 10 facts about Dominion the jewel thief", "Finishing Overcooked with all stars ft. Vivi", and his personal favorite, "Speedrunning Escape rooms with my bf ❤️"

He claims to be Dominion's number one fan and sells plushies of him. Oliver will never admit he bought one.

Apparently, he is considered a cryptid in Ángel's channel, which he appreciates.

The now officially named Iraola family invites them to events quite often, it's very nice to have a friend group

Game nights are... quite extreme

Turns out teenagers can be very competitive and capable

Nadia and Ángel have a scoreboard set up. The winner gets decided at New years.

Oliver has managed to keep his throne as the master of any and all card games, but for how long?

He can't wait for Christmas, he plans on giving Simon a cool anti-eye contact hat.

Even though he's still terrified of the concept of fatherhood, he really enjoys being an uncle.

Speaking of such, Ángel had to meet his parents. It was awkward at first, but he managed to win them over with his knowledge of old cinema and pretty boy charm.

Oliver met the Ronald Mcdonald statue by Ángel's childhood house. He has a picture with it.

Ángel's mother was sweet, hardworking, and strict. She was not afraid of telling her son how he should be a better gentleman towards Oliver. It was... an eventful night. It's a good thing the lady enjoys mystery novels.

They celebrated Nadia's birthday in spring, cordially invited.

Everyone was sure Ángel would give her a gag gift, like a cd to a boy band she doesn't like or an ugly shirt.

He gave her a key code to an expensive editing software.

She was grateful but refused to say so. She plans on retaliating with an equally thoughtful gift.

They are slowly learning to get along, like a pair of cats that need to be separated by a door when they first meet.

In other news, Oliver recently received an autism diagnosis. He was very surprised. Ángel wasn't. He baked him a cake for the occasion.

The biggest event had to be the wedding

On a warm spring day, in the middle of a flower field, Marigold Iraola and Nina Coli got married.

There was some bad press about it, but a certain reporter was very enthusiastic about how beautiful of an union this was, unlike the previous one.

Marigold decided to disband Coli's company, making a new one herself.

It specializes in medical equipment.

They saw the newlyweds say their vows, Oliver couldn't help but yearn for a moment like that.

He and Ángel danced the evening away

Between the multiple friends of the wives waiting for the bouquet toss, there was a determined man in white

And like a cat to a shiny object

He jumped and got it

They decide spring is a great season for a wedding.

They don't decide which spring though

That's for the future to know.

In a non-specific urban city like any other, an office awakes

Oliver Beebo is ready to start another day on his detective business

[wjbminecraft]

Fun ideas for Minecraft roleplay series gimmicks (that I would do if I did one)

A Hardcore world with a thing called The Murder Box™, which is a giant Concrete-coated Obsidian structure containing a machine that dumps any mobs that enter it into a pit of lava, then dispenses a useful item. Also doLimitedCrafting is set to True. If one of the players crafts a fire-resistance potion then enters, there's a big reveal that the lava-room is connected to a vast underground bunker lined with Bedrock, containing lots of good items and an End Portal.

One of those "the World Border moves as you do stuff" things, but it's kinda like The Eternal Cylinder, so it only moves when the players are outside specific safe-zones. This one is also Hardcore.

Competitive Survival world where half of the players are "gods", meaning they have Creative Mode and infinite particle-free Invisibility, and are given a specific concept, e.g harvest, chaos, earth. Each Survival Mode player has an associated Creative Mode player, but the former does not initally know which concept the latter has, so they have to figure it out.

There's a buildheight tower, and most of the series involves trying to find a way to the top.

Every player has a randomised effect applied to them every minute, Reelism-style.

[hapuriainen]

Hapuriainen's animation, comics & Games from 2024

Anime: Delicious in Dungeon, One Piece Fan Letter

The magical girl stuff: Wonderful Precure!, Heartcatch Precure!, Precure movies, Märchen Mädchen, Sasaki & Peeps, MahoAko, MahoAku, MahoNare, Acro Trip, Magilumiere, Samurai Flamenco

Manga: Shangri-la Frontier, Pokemon Adventures, How Do We Relationship, Vinland Saga, A Sign of Affection, A Sinner of the Deep Sea, Go with the Clouds North-by-Northwest, Enidewi, Is Reiroukan still alive?, A Kingdom of Quartz

Continuing: One Piece, Undead Unluck, My Hero Academia (end), Spy x Family, Frieren, Witch Hat Atelier.

The magical girl stuff: Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card, Shugo Chara Dream Joker, Magical Girl Dandelion, Mermaid Melody Aqua, Champignon Witch, Pretty Guardian Stress, Who Said Blues had to be Cool

Games: Zelda games (Adventure of Link, Majora's Mask, Four Swords, Four Swords Adventures, Minish Cap, Spirit Tracks, A Link between Worlds, Echoes of Wisdom), Pokemon Scarlet DLC, Animal Crossing New Horizons DLC, Ghost Trick. Unfinished: Some Pokemon BW2, Overcooked, Super Mario Wonder.

Movies: Elemental, Spy x Family Code White

Overall I think I watched very little animation that wasn't magical girls, and those have been extensively documented on the other blog. Dunmeshi and the second half of Frieren the only non-mahou anime I can remember, and I meant to watch many of the newer Disney, Pixar and Dreamworks movies but keep missing the chance and haven't even seen Wish yet. Hopefully next year will be better on this front, I do like magical girls but it's nice to branch out too.

The manga side had a bit more variation. I finished/caught up with several titles that were in the Humble Bundle set of award winning manga, but there's still plenty left. Vinland Saga is really good and I'm sad to see it go now that it's clearly about to end, Shangri-la is shallow as a puddle but good fun, and Sign of Affection is ok I guess but a bit bland. I also read a bunch of Harta/adjacent manga this year for the art and vibes.

Then I surprisingly started reading Pokemon Adventures, because I simply need to meet the manga version of Scarlet. I started from the beginning though and haven't even made it out of the Ruby/Sapphire arc yet so it's still a long way. So far I've been really happy with the writing of the female characters, but I hear the quality drops on that front after Platinum which makes me worried.

This year I've been quite the gamer because I played something other than one of the big Nintendo franchises I've been playing for years. Which is Ghost Trick and Overcooked, both of which were great. Mario Wonder is still in progress, it's a fun game but doesn't exactly have a gripping narrative, but I'll finish it for Daisy. Next year looks promising for game variety too since I bought a bunch of games from the Switch e-shop sale (and already finished Gris but that was in 2025).

For Pokemon I unexpectedly became a total hardcore player and voluntarily gave Protect to more than one mon. Ultimately getting into the competitive aspect is way too much upfront work with team building, but I feel I gained a lot of appreciation of the franchise in how there's some really complex mechanics under that kid friendly gameplay. And then I even got into the gotta catch 'em all aspect when I finally downloaded Pokemon Home and started filling my Dex, but that project is on pause right now since there's just no way I'll be able to get some of the rare/version exclusive mons. Also I found 3 shinies in like a week which still baffles me.

Best work: Echoes of Wisdom

Best music: Eow final boss final phase

Best visuals: One Piece Fan Letter, EniDewi

Best character design: Delicious in Dungeon in general

Best OP: Magilumiere (for the song)

Best ED: Samurai Flamenco ed1 is the one I most often didn't skip so I guess it wins, no real standouts this year

Biggest WTF: All those shinies in Pokemon. Also Mikau's death (in Majora's Mask) was really funny. The reveal of the painting in Ghost Trick was a great twist.

Best Girl: EoW Zelda, PokeSpe Sapphire for runner up

Best Boy: Thorfinn (Vinland Saga), Sissel (Ghost Trick) for second place

Best Side Girl: Hilda (a Link between Worlds)

Best Side Boy: Kieran, and also my Skeledirge! (Pokemon Scarlet)

Worst Girl: Lukia from Mermaid Melody Aqua

Worst Boy: This goes to Mermaid Melody Aqua too, forget his name but he sucks

Worst Side Girl: the other magical girl from MahoAku had a cute design but character wise was pretty worthless

Worst Side Boy: the one note big corporation boss from Magilumiere, those blue armoured freaks from Zelda 2 (assuming they're male)

Best romance: Elemental was ok, or alternatively SatoIro from Wonderful Precure

Best non-romantic relationship: I like what they did with EoW Link and Zelda but I'm not sure if I ship them

Worst romance: Lukia's drama from Mermaid Melody Aqua

Worst non-romantic relationship:

Plans for 2025:

Maybe it'll finally be the year of NGE? I should start keeping track of how many years I've been saying I'll watch Eva at some point…

Some anime that is not magical girls

Finish the backlog Precure seasons

Finish the backlog Zelda games

Wish, Inside Out 2, Wild Robot, Moana 2

The stuff from the Switch e shop sale

[the-nexverse]

Let's entertain the idea that your OCs like to play video games (even the ones that might physically struggle with it), which games do you think are everyone's favorites?

If it absolutely wouldn't be up someone's alley, which game do you think they'd at least give a try, and why?

viddygaem.....

Agnes: graphic action games, the first God of Wars come to mind. strangely enough, i also see her enjoying more ambiguous story games like Shadow of the Colossus or Dark Souls. actually, she'd love the soulsborne genre a lot, and would spend a decent amount of time grinding and getting genuinely good at them. feels proud of her hardcore gamer skills, but isn't elitist/gatekeepy about it and would give people advice on what builds would best fit them and their playstyle if she ever found the right forums to do so

Ryan: king of RTS 4X resource management games for sure. always knows what's going on, where's it going on and how's it going on. and of course, it always goes well for him

Lisabel: graphic and psychological horror games. Mortuary Assistant kinda thing. never gets visibly jumpscared, always has some observations about the technicalities of the IRL medical procedures. body horror is also up her alley, Resident Evil and Silent Hill. and of course, The Sims, either no cheat speedruns minmaxxing everything or discovering new ways to torture sims you could've never thought of. with mods, anything is possible :)

Eric: Stardew Valley, Animal Crossing and similar cozy games. something he can sit down and chill with for a while. undisputed fishing minigame master

Léan: FOSSIL FIGHTERS DS!!!!! wacky creature collectors 4everrr!!!!! SPORE!!!!!! HATES the Jurassic World games for the dinosaur inaccuracies

Rask'r: i think he'd go NUTS for VR games! perfect for practising his IRL combat moves. Blade and Sorcery stuff. i think he'd also enjoy stuff like Boneworks. not sure if he'd get dizzy tho. or how he'd fit the headset on his head. oops

Raz: hmmm, not sure. i don't think he'd be a videogame fan, but i see him enjoying Tetris at least. simple to learn, easy to play, a good choice to simply have a short good time. he wouldn't be a pro at it, but he'd moderately enjoy it

Donovan: the Wii fascinates him, and it's good physical pseudo-exercise. oh! and card games. honestly, i see him doing fairly well with MtG Arena and Hearthstone

Lee: you give him a tablet with one of those bug/mouse apps for cats and he slams his hand on it at full force the second something moves onscreen. congratulations, you need a new tablet now

Vreytus: chess. actually, i can see him playing 5D Chess with Multiverse Timetravel. and winning

Bug: oooh this one's hard. hmmm, it's difficult to find something stimulating and entertaining enough for them. maybe something fast-paced, reaction-based... i can't think of any games that fit those descriptions and aren't online competitive FPS games tho. EDIT: HOW DID I FORGET CAR RACING GAMES

Chad: even with his disabled arm, he'd find a viable way to play competitive FPS games. CoD, Counter Strike, PUBG (that one still a thing?), Valorant. knows all the gun names and optimized builds and keeps himself update on his game of choice's meta. he'd even make for a decent esports player! also stuff like L4D2 and Vermintide? idk what that genre is called, but biiig power trip from getting a busted build and mowing down hordes of enemies. hates fortniters and calls them normies alt. Forza Horizon CoD FIFA player. still calls fortniters normies but now it's even funnier

Lewis: cozy game lover, but also VNs including dating sims and puzzle games. i can also see him as a big enjoyer of story-driven games and classic J/RPGs. OH, and Spore of course!!! :DDD

thanks for the ask!! very curious topic for sure 🤔

[ghoul--doodle]

Tell me about the Bailey and Ver Pokemon AU!What kinds of trainers are they? What made them choose the type preferences and teams that they did? Do their Pokemon have nicknames?

I made their teams with the idea of them being gym leaders in mind

I remember vaguely hearing something about generally people don’t actually have a full team of Pokemon unless they’re either a trainer battling the gyms or a gym leader (or something to that extent) so that’s what I went for, mostly

Bailey’s team was originally all going to be ghost type Pokemon! But there weren’t enough ghost pokemon that I liked for him so he’s ended up with a mix of ghost and dark types

Bailey sorta suits the ghost type aesthetic anyway so I figured I’d lean into a lil bit!! That and he has a small interest in ghosts/the paranormal in his regular version

Veronica got fairy type! She’s definitely suited for fairy type pokemon anyway, like if she was building her own team she would absolutely pick fairy

But also! She gets to dress in sylveon colours which is very gender of her

Bailey is more of the strategy type, he definitely looks into move sets and setting up strategy like some hardcore competitive players do

Veronica is on the other end of the scale where if she just hits her opponent hard enough they pass out first and she wins, who needs setup moves or stat boosts, those are for cowards

I’d say individually they’re good trainers! They definitely both love their pokemon a lot

They also definitely got their eevees at the same time!

And they got their gengar and clefable to sorta parallel each other since a lot of people associate them together

Bailey got his absol for a very *specific* reason and it’s probably the pokemon he has out with him the most often because he feels the most safe when its around

Also they absolutely both nickname their pokemon and Veronica is 100% the type to dress up her silly lil guys in all the accessories she can manage

They’re both relatively strong trainers I’d say (not that I know jack shit about team building. I’m on Veronica’s team personally) but I definitely wouldn’t put them in such as like. The elite four.

Bailey’s flaw as a trainer is probably over planning whereas Ver’s is not planning at all

The main issue with Bailey is that if his plan starts to fail he doesn’t really have a backup

And Ver’s direct opposite is she struggles against opponents who take the time to set up certain stat boosts n such

If I’d designed them to be regular trainers rather than gym leaders I’d downsize their team to maybe half

Bailey would keep Absol, Gengar and Umbreon. Veronica would keep Tinkaton, Clefable and Sylveon

And if I had the energy I’d definitely design all their pokemon individually and give em all funny nicknames and accessories

They’re probably also just as competitive in the pokemon universe as they are their regular one

Neither can turn down a challenge

[cosmicredcadet]

I'm going to be honest here, splatoon 3 is probably the least fun splatoon game. the culture of the game has changed so much and I've barely played it since it's release. The splatfests aren't fun, the turf wars usually end up with people camping you 90% of the time, the weapon and map selection has been lack luster, they pretty much made salmon run (my favorite game mode) a nightmare to play with how shitty the maps are. I have no care for the idols. The only fun I had was when big run happened because somehow the turf war maps are better fit for salmon run than the salmon run maps are. And like... the story is fine but I don't feel compelled to play the single player much.

Splatoon used to be a more casual shooter. it was made to be a casual shooter. but now it's like everyone is overly competitive and hardcore and willing to spawn camp because they're more focused on winning than having a fun game. Splatoon 3 was very much catered to the competitive audience and the fact that it's an Esport now and I hate it. I just keep going back to splatoon 2 because the vibes are just so different than in splatoon 3. It's a lot more casual and a lot more fun.

I probably won't pick up splatoon 3 anytime soon. Even with the DLC I just can't see myself opening the game and having fun.

[watatsumiis]

omg ok. who do you think would be a minecraft speedrunner though?

The first person to come to my mind, for some strange reason, was Barbara. It would be something that her fans asked her to do as a joke, but she had a lot of fun with it and does casual speedruns every now and then! I could see her hosting a lot of games and events that everyone always participates in because she's just such a sweet and bubbly person! She does a lot of lockouts, building competitions and hide and seek, just lighthearted things like that! She's had a few very lucky speedruns so is right up the top of the leaderboard! She also finishes most runs, even if they're going poorly, so she's experienced with most aspects of speedrunning!

Scaramouche would be way into speedruns, he's super hardcore about them, like makes one tiny mistake and resets, so he hardly ever actually finishes a run. His best time sits a little below Barbara's, which he's secretly super bitter over. Both of them play together every now and then and they have surprisingly good chemistry - the grouchy hardcore player and the bubbly easy-going player collaborating seems to be a really popular duo!

Childe also does speedruns, but less as a competitive thing (though it definitely is that too) and more of just a way to keep his brain busy, he likes having a set direction to go in and tasks to complete. He livestreams his runs, but doesn't provide much commentary or interest, it's mostly just him staring intently at the screen for upwards of eight hours. He's up near the top of the leaderboard, simply due to the sheer amount of the game that he plays. All the little tips and tricks are like muscle memory to him now, and he sometimes 'trains' other streamers (like Barbara!), teaching them all the corner-cutting tricks he knows!

Bennett also speedruns - he hovers down near the bottom of the leaderboard, the only reason he's on there is because of this hilarious string of upwards-oriented fails that somehow managed to turn out well for him. He's not an amazing player, but his determination makes his runs very fun to watch, because even when everything is falling apart, he's so sweet and optimistic, and always bantering back and forth with his chat! He's still rising in popularity, and it's a well known fact among his chat that he's a huge Barbara fan - he occasionally gets invited along to her events, but he often fails in the first round.

Columbina also speedruns on occasion, but her runs are more like her satirising other players, or very obviously cheating because she thinks it's super funny.

The person who holds the top record, however, is Sandrone! She's a brilliant mathematician, and has a lot of the odds memorised off of the top of her head, and has an uncanny knack for being able to tell whether or not a run is 'a good one' within the first minute and a half. She's quiet and doesn't provide much commentary, because she's just running the odds in her head, concentrating on this mental equation that most people couldn't even begin to parse when written out. She often gets accused of cheating, but she just likes numbers. She's extraordinarily good at calculating where the end portals are, and only ever needs to glance at the coordinates once when she spawns in or teleports between dimensions because she can just track it in the back of her mind.

[single-malt-scotch]

uh

i was starting to turn my head to the washed up etho jokes recently was bc someone on my own video was starting to direct conversation into it and was being like, a bit too actually mean about it. like there can be genuine analysis about How someone can beat a player like etho was beat like gem

as in my consensus in a non-joke way: gem, and honestly any experienced MCC player is more than capable than beating someone like him. we focused on etho due to the jokes just before but we saw doc, ren, and xisuma all get destroyed as well. yes etho had more of a rep for it, but its no different really, its just that the joke timed perfectly.

i think etho even said himself, in relation to comments about him doing MCC (i think in someone's stream) was that he didnt think he could keep up with the fast paced ways 'young players' do these days. and hes totally right on that. i mean, there is a SUCH a huge divide between casual and older minecraft players versus the immense number of young minecraft players who are hardcore into MCC and other similar speed games. younger gamers are often way more adept, i think thats a fact. the culture of gaming alone has shifted and e sports are huge along with all the methods those ppl use- MCC is pretty much in that vein.

ANWAYS..... the genuine point is. etho did have a well deserved title and impression of being good at pvp. honestly i dont think hes bad still- but when you put him next to others like gem then its no competition lol. in terms of his current skill i think him, and many others, fall behind just after all those years of playing and 1) not playing as much UHC/death games as before and 2) the overall change of the game. when you prime time was 9-10 years ago in UHC, a lot has changed. and bdubs and etho both joke about not using shields enough but i get it too- i never fuckin use them bc im old school and forget they exist. i would be smashed by someone who is far more accustomed to new methods. i also think the nerves got to him more in those two episodes lol... dying a ton+the joke, then getting destroyed by gem in hc, then returning to lim life only to see gem again. it was funny as hell but it probably didnt help him lmao. in short etho is in a sense, a good player still in those situations. but hes not at the standard that has spawned since more extreme players have come to the front. you dont see Life series full of MCC gamers right? i mean, we see Scott (and martyn as well) doing SO well multiple times and we all know why that is. if we had more MCC players im sure we would see them flourish too.

and also if youre turning into actual meanness when discussing the washed up topic i do not want to know you. there is a joke to be made but then there is just being mean when you talk about someone performing poorly in fuckin minecraft.

[kieuecaprie]

I wanted to wait until after the Big Run in Splatoon 3 is over before posting my thoughts but I think I'll post them now.

If you want to know my opinion about it and don't really care about reading what is potentially a wall of text, lemme give you the teal deer version:

Big Run is a completely terrible "gamemode" that only causes unnecessary stress upon everyone, casual and hardcore, and also serves to divide the already small pool of Salmon Run players even further. A co-operative gamemode is no place for a hyper-competitive event where the goalposts are completely invisible until the last second.

Now, with that out of the way, lemme write my thoughts on Big Run now that I have played through TWO of them, below the Read More:

The Platonic Ideal of Big Run

Initially, I thought the idea of Big Run is incredibly sound, a two-day event in the same vein as Splatfests where the cities get new decor and background events with new music tracks to listen to and a reason to play Salmon Run for longer than an hour per rotation.

Not only that, you get to play on the PvP maps. That's right! A PvP map gets pulled out of rotation and becomes the staging ground for the Big Run where you go through familiar territory fighting off the Salmonid hordes!

Cool, right? Yeah, it is, but the execution? Absolutely abysmal and it makes me want to break into Nintendo HQ, shake the lead developer by the collar, and get escorted off the premises.

The Botched Execution of Big Run

Let's begin with the obvious: collect enough golden eggs, you achieve a high score. Get a high enough score, get a reward! Simple! There are four tiers: Participant, Bronze (Top 50%), Silver (Top 20%), and Gold (Top 5%).

Okay, so, you just get enough eggs to achieve what you want and you're golden, right? Hahahahahahahaha, not even close mate.

So the cool thing about this is that you never see the numbers, you don't see a goalpost or a checkpoint or anything. You don't even get a single idea of what you're supposed to achieve, you're supposed to play the mode, get a good enough score and pray it's good enough. And if it isn't? Well tough luck, pal, you should've no-lifed HARDER.

See where the problem is? There's no indication that you're even close to achieving a good enough score for your desired bracket and GOD(s) help you if you choose to chase after gold, like I have been TRYING TO DO, because you will drive yourself insane playing the same map over and over and over and over, praying, hoping, pleading with the game to give you a good RNG seed with a GOOD loadout.

Forgot to mention that the loadout for Big Run is not fixed, it's random, with a Grizzco weapon being a rare chance. At the time of writing, it was Grizzco Brella.

And so, I'd like to say that Big Run is a fucking miserable piece of shit gamemode that Nintendo should've thought much more about before deciding they wanted to induce stress on an already small population.

Eggstra Work is looking to be a smaller version of this but I'm hoping that with that addition, that would mean they could retool Big Run into something BETTER than this.

The How-To Improve of Big Run

Of course, I'm not here to completely bitch about Big Run, as much as I want to, I'm here to potentially offer some hopefully reasonable suggestions on how to make Big Run feel like a Splatfest, if Splatfests were a bloodbath of sorts...

Ditch the whole "high score" system entirely.

Implement a community goal of golden eggs collected to do something. (I dunno, maybe some sort of Salmonid repellent?)

Give greater rewards to those who put in a lot of time grinding it out, maybe something a little extra for those at MAX level?

Quadruple the superbonus or at least let us gain money in addition to chunks during Big Run.

Offer more scales during Big Run to give people more reason to keep going and playing because the scale grind is fucking terrible.

If you absolutely MUST have the leaderboard, you have a phone app, use it. I think, in the past, Splatfest power has been tracked and placed on the leaderboards before, so why can't "highest number of eggs collected in a single shift" be given that same prestige? You don't see teams in Splatfests be given a golden Ultra Signal statue for being in the top 5% of squads, do you?

The Conclusion of Big Run

In the end, though, Big Run is a cool idea executed poorly and with rampant connection issues, slowdowns (the timer still moves at a normal pace btw), and just general unfairness, the whole thing is a complete letdown and I'm surprised Nintendo has kept it the way it is despite the issues it has.