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survivorreelsmagicwithin · 4 years ago

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Episode 7- “#MarshmallowMoves”-Landen

I can't tell if I'm in trouble or not. They voted out Nick, which is something I really really didn't want to happen. Kevin is acting strangely towards me. The only person I feel like who is being genuine with me right now is Dan. I'm not sure if I should keep pretending that everything is fine, but I'm pretending that the last vote didn't bother me.

1 hour and 33 minutes later

I hope the relationships I made before that disaster of a vote are real still. That's all I'm hoping.

Today's immunity challenge is a luck challenge. There is no way to be "good" at rock-paper-scissors unless you are playing real-time. For this reason I have chosen to use random.org for all of my guesses. I hope that luck is on my side with my matchup. Also, I went to Potions Class today and looked in some cauldrons. No potions left behind. Thinking I will try luck potion tomorrow. Hopefully I'll be lucky and get an idol. Probably not.

YAYYYYY! Another week with no tribal and I am very thankful because the one we had was wild and I don't have to deal with anything like that again for AWHILE! I should be staying up to search right now but I am about to head to bed and then make my search time earlier for tomorrow, woohoo! I feel like after tribal something like a merge might happen?? maybe? I feel like it should be about time!

so Hufflepuff won (YET AGAIN!) and I'm feeling pretty great about that! there's not much to discuss about the actual events on this tribe, it's pretty much same old same old positioning. like stale cardboard! however, we got an exciting little hint of something at the immunity challenge today. it seems like there's going to be something coming up after tribal tonight, and particularly, i would guess that it will be a merge. of course i could be wrong and we could be thrust into another swap (a horrible outcome, really) but i'm hoping it's a merge. i've had a lot of paranoia about what would happen during a merge ever since the messy Jess rocks vote, so i just am excited to get it over and done with!! that being said i'm also not just like, throwing myself to the wolves of fate or something. i've also been doing planning ahead and thinking about the merge. specifically, i'm trying to calculate where numbers might go. right now, we have a group that is configured like this: -5 hufflepuff -4 Ravenclaw -3 Gryffindor -1 Slytherin (i know, crazy... and it's my least favorite one. UGH!) obviously, this puts a liiiiittle eensie teensie tiny target on the hufflepuffs' back, now doesnt it? and that's not very cute for me, someone who is very much IN hufflepuff - has had no time to form the strong relationships that kevin has with the other side - has burned the 1 ravenclaw and probably 1 of the gryffindors here on this tribe - and hasn't done any looking for spells! no, no, thats not very bueno at all, i'd say. of course, everything could be shaken up if kevin is taken out, but i'm not expecting that. it'll probably be a jacob or autumn boot.. i'm praying for a jacob boot but who knows. honestly just taking out that wildcard, one who is very fitting to his house mascot as a snake, that's something that would be VERY appreciated. i know i can't trust him after our experience in 2020 and it's not just bc i hold a grudge it's because i know the type of player he is, and that's not a type of player i can work well with in this game. Anyway, this brings us into the question of what the hell i am going to do to survive at the merge, and honestly, i have no fuckin clue. the good news is i do not think juls would be on board with a plan to vote me out, or at least she would do her best to vouch for me. as soon as we merge my sights will be set on autumn, too. i need to secure her loyalty and form a strong friendship with her, she's always seemed like a cool person and i wanted to do it anyway, but knowing i need to have her and juls on my side, makes this bond even more crucial. The bad news is Owen on this tribe, is a VERY dangerous player, will come into the merge with an army of 3 strong fellow Ravenclaw, and, last but definitely not least concerning - he comes into the merge with a strong relationship with Ruthie. This is VERY bad for me, because I know that if Owen decides to get Ravenclaw to target Hufflepuff and for some reason the Gryffindors (or potentially Jacob, if Autumn gets targeted, or even worse, Jacob AND autumn if Kevin goes home), he won't be going for Ruthie. If he's not going for Ruthie, he's not going to go for Lily, not to mention I highly doubt the Gryffs will go for her anyway because she's so lovable. Having Lily as my closest ally is a risk/reward, because when I enter the final rounds like 8, 7, 6, etc, she will be a HUGE shield for me and someone that will take off a lot of the heat on my name. But i need to get there, and that means i can't get taken out for being an extra vote for her during the early stages of the merge, i have to find my own way to survive. There is always the possibility they would target Max, but I have to be VERY careful in just assuming this, because i also know Max is probably going to look like a tempting goat to most people. he's not very great socially (at least individually) and he's not very active with his mom kinda grounding him all the time, like he just looks like an OTT goof and he'll probably come across as easy to manipulate once his ally Landen gets blindsided! I'm very worried that'll be the perception. So i need to start taking action now to make sure this early merge doesn't go down a dark path i see as a possibility. Step 1. Owen and Ruthie, Today. This is CRUCIAL. I am going to talk to Owen about game today whether he likes it or not, I'm going to drag it out of him and i'm going to fight like hell to get him to trust me even a little bit. I know I can be a good social player and I KNOW i can talk convincing game, but I also know Owen is very good at social skills and reading me so it's going to be a bit of a cagey death match with this one. I need to make sure Owen feels good about me moving forward into the merge and that I can "repent for my Sins" so to speak after basically throwing him up for crucifixion during the Jess boot round. If I can get owen into the idea of possibly an alliance of me, him, and ruthie, then maaaaybe i could protect myself a bit from him. perhaps i could also very subtly hint that lily is the one that's been coming after him harder than i have, i have to be careful with that because if it gets back to her i'm fucked, so i'll keep an eye out on the conversation and see how the tide's going and if it's worth hinting at. i also need to discuss with Ruthie and figure out what her other pregame relationships are, and see where we can get ins. I know being honest and open game talk with Ruthie earlier is what got her trusting me a bit more, so I want to just expand on some of the personal stuff I've been building on with her in the past couple days and just really start hitting the game talk home. Step 2. Max and Chips. If i can drive this wedge further, it would be faaanfuckintastic. I need to re-iterate to people that I DONT got Max's back. If people start pushing the narrative of me and max as a thing, or me as a hufflepuff strong person just because of the jess round, i'm screwed. so i'm going to have to be very careful to Make sure everyone knows exactly how willing I was to cut Max. When i get to the merge, the FIRST thing i'm going to do is literally have like, an hours long call with Kevin. I want to establish to him that i'm his extra number, his goat, his whatever he needs. I want to tell him how i was ready to sacrifice Max, i want him to give me ALL the details. Of course if Kevin goes home before the merge this is going to be a million times more difficult and so that brings me to Chips, my key plan today besides working on Owen is going to be to work on Chips. I don't want to give Chips too many promises I don't plan to keep because I don't see myself working with him super long-term, but I do want to Get a better read on him. Right now Chips is just an enigma to me and I need to get into his head, maybe at least get him to open up a *little* bit more, bc our game relationship right now is just a mess, he's so hard to talk to about these strategic things at times, even before the jess boot but especially after. as far as the other people go, the ones i didn't mention - owen's ravenclaw buddies, joanna, jules, and dan - who's to say they're even really tight with owen! I'll be curious to meet them, specifically Jules is someone that strikes me as someone I'd get along with. I also see a lot of potential for me to get along with Dan but we'll have to see on that one. I'm going to try to work on my relationships with Ravenclaw once I hit the merge too, but I'm gonna be careful because if I come on too strong, they'll consider me even more of a threat and that'll give them more of a reason to target me instead of Lily or Max. i know i'm in a precarious position and that's not even to mention spells, but I'm really trying to think over every angle here, and i think with some luck on my side and hopefully, some Kevin on my side, i can utilize kevin, lily, juls, and max as tight shields for my game, and continue working my way through the middle to make it alllll the way to the end. #MarshmallowMoves. i know this was an ESSAY so thanks for sticking it through. i really hope i don't write all this for nothing, because i'm starting to get excited that the big leagues are almost here, it's finally time for me to stop winning immunity every single round and actually experience the game, and i would hate for it to get cut short so soon. Game on wizards, cus this honey badger DONT care! >:D *flashes my claws but not in a furry way* haha thanks. bye ^_^ <3

So..... once again, I lost a BEST FRIend to ROCKS! I swear I’ve got some kind of curse. Every time people have gone to rocks for me in games, it’s always my closest ally that leaves. And this time is no different :( I’m so sad Jess is gone, but I know she’s rooting for me, and that’s what will get me through this. I know I should’ve known better than to leak everything Ruthie said but I really trusted that juls chips and jess would act in their best interest. Apparently it was Landen who told Ruthie..... so I dont know. Maybe I accidentally told Landen the things Ruthie told me!? Or maybe someone else threw me under the bus. Either way, all bets are off now. I want to get to a merge with dan Jules and Joanna and paint a huge ass target on these hufflepuff nerds. I’m boutta hex the shit out of those four til they’re all out of this game. I WILL! Get my revenge for jess. But to do that it’s basically about winning challenges to merge which thankfully we have done. People tried hard on the music video thankfully and then we got lucky with attack defend balance. All I can hope is we MERGE NEXT!!! There’s a bounty on my head and if we don’t merge soon I’m heading to Azkaban :(

I’m soOoOoOoOoOoOo paranoid! I feel like it would be such a good move to get me out this round because I’ve been so loose with my powers. I feel like all it will take is for Jules to want jacob here more than me, tell everyone about my powers, and then have everyone vote for me!!!! Do I just waste powers tonight to make sure that doesn’t happen? Maybe.

I think jacobs going home :c which is so sad but he’s not really trying, it’s really quiet tho so anything could happen, joanna might still be upset I lied last round and flip things on me who knows !!

Maybe Jacob is actually going home this time? Idk, last time they said Jacob and Nick went home so who knows what these people are telling me.

The good news I pulled off the Nicholas vote. The bad news is we're back at tribal but are we even surprised lmao https://media.giphy.com/media/l4pTsh45Dg7jnDM6Q/giphy.gif the tea is I'm mad but I'm not pissed because I only want people who are down for the cause. It's gonna be all hands on deck once we hit merge and I don't have time for any disloyal non-Hufflepuff people. So Gryffindor constantly losing really means Owen, Chips, and Juls will actually live to see merge, all three of whom I know will join the coalition. Nicholas and Jacob on the other hand would probably link up with Hufflepuff and that's what I don't need. So if we merge tonight, it's a 7-5 breakdown with Hufflepuff being outnumbered. Mind you that depends on everyone in that 7 cooperating with each other but let's be optimistic and assume that everyone recognizes ALL of Hufflepuff is still in the game. And if you ain't Hufflepuff, you can and will get snuffed so don't fall for the hype at merge and any member of Gryffinclaw who does is dead to me. Ok now Imma need y'all to go ahead and merge us thanks

IT BETTER BE MERGE!!!! IT BETTER BE MERGE~!!!!!!

I can't remember if I wrote one of these or not this round so here is another... Things are quiet on the Hufflepuff tribe and I'm nervous about the swap that i think is about to happen!! It has been kind of quiet today. I've talked to Owen a lot and Landen, Lily and Juls a little today. Being safe is nice but it will be fun to start competing for things individually. If we do merge I am excited to maybe work with Dan. I want to be on his good side, lol, but he is a good player and I feel like if he doesn't go home tonight he and Owen will single handedly win every individual immunity.

We won the random.org immunity! I think we will likely merge now that numbers are low enough. You can not find an idol by brewing luck potion. You suck at brewing potions. Duh!

Y’all I’m fucking screaming!!!! I found a third power lmao. I’m gooped! I found the riddikulus charm or something and I had to play a fake advantage at a tribal in order to power it up and I used Raffy’s rat ass to make it happen! I’m not sure what my power is rn but I’ll add it to my vote steal and my idol 😌

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vroenis · 5 years ago

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Art Created For Mood

I was watching a YouTuber I really like playing a game I really don’t like but from a developer that I also don’t like who does a thing I actually really like. That’s an opening and a half, but bear with me.

I don’t know if this book is good or not, but it’s here for the puns, and so am I. So is Max Kornell, it appears. I sure hope he’s an alright guy cos his children’s book is on my tumblr for a visual gag now.

It doesn’t matter what the game was, and it so happens it was DLC - some of you will be able to figure out what it was once I describe it, but very early on in the gameplay minutes of proceedings, the developers have the player-protagonist/avatar and your companion-of-the-moment engage in messing about in an old, abandoned fancy-dress store, picking up costumes and masks and larking about. I appreciate the YouTuber in question may have been partially or wholly playing up to the streaming audience ever-present at the time when they impatiently remarked “is this all we’re going to do” and “when do we get to actually play the game” etc., “when does the game start?” and so on, but as you may remember in my commentary on the Uncharted games a while back, interactions like these to someone like me are most often the most important - and now there’s no question what the game is if you haven’t figured it out already. As a side-note, I think the problem in this particular instance is one of pacing, and cold-opening the DLC with a scene like this may have been the issue. Video game pacing is tricky, tho, so it’s difficult to consider whether most players would be playing this content months after having experienced the main game, or whether the majority of players will be those who will have purchased it fresh on the newest generation of hardware, given the title actually launched a whole console iteration ago. Assuming that might be the case, the pacing experience might be entirely different, but I’m getting side-tracked.

I can’t account for what the YouTuber/Streamer was thinking and I don’t want to throw any shade and suggest they may have been performing for their audience - even if they were, it’s still fine - Streaming is performance, I feel like that much should be clearly evident. It’s not important to me where the truth lies within that individual. What the exterior performance telegraphs tho, is perhaps a misunderstanding of what the purpose of a scene like that is. I realise that in games that feature frequent occurrences of brutal violence, tension, excitement and anxiety, scenes of levity and peacefulness offer reprieve and introspection. They’re effective because of context and their rarity lends them power.

I’m still here to say a whole game of those kinds of things can still be powerful, you just have to be intelligent about the context. Reframing maturity to mean something other than violence takes real intelligence. It makes me question just how many actual adults we have developing video games. No, I don’t hate to bring it up again, but you need to play Kentucky Route Zero, Howling Dogs and a myriad of other Twine games and many other games created in queer spaces to perhaps broaden your understanding of what adults create when they don’t look to violence as a banner for maturity.

Naturally I’m going to turn to the most cliched of mediums; film.

For which I won’t apologise. That’s a frame from the montage in the middle of Mamoru Oshii’s 1995 movie Kōkaku Kidōtai - Ghost In The Shell, based on Masamune Shirow’s manga of the same name. I’d like to say that frame or the set of frames it’s taken from is one of my favourites from the film, because it is, but to be honest, the entirety of the three and a half minute montage is absolute perfection and every frame is equally important. It encapsulates the essence of the film without a single line of dialogue by playing a haunting piece of music expertly crafted by Kenji Kawai and showing seemingly disjointed images of the city in which the film is set. The film’s protagonist does appear in several shots, and some frames exhibit the city in decay, but some are completely urbane and simply show life in ordinary existence. Without discussing the main text of the film further, suffice to say it is the perfect frame for the subject of the narrative without stating it.

Before I embed the Ghost In The Shell montage, however, I want to share one Oshii created 2 years before it in Patlabor 2: The Movie. Let’s watch that one together, and even if you’ve not seen the film yourself, note in particular how topical the images are today, if you’re reading this some time around July 2020.

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For those who’ve not seen the film, I highly recommend it. It’s not necessary to have seen either the series or the first Patlabor movie. It may help a little to watch the first film, mostly just to familiarise yourself with characters and terminology, but it’s not a necessity. The first film is much more comedic and while the second still has its funny moments, as evidenced in this montage, it takes a much more dramatic and sombre turn. Various domestic terrorist and military activities cause a declaration of martial law in Tokyo at roughly the mid-point of the film at which point this montage appears. The depictions of the citizenry, their interaction with the military and vice-versa are particularly interesting, and the film’s commentary as a whole is fascinating. That this has for the most part been lovingly and agonisingly rendered by hand in stunning animation detail is amazing.

Feelings are wonderful, weird, oddly shaped things. We use a lot of words in our lives, pragmatically to communicate, to instruct, to describe and tell stories. Funnily enough, when I was deeply entrenched in video games culture doing podcasts, playing a lot of games and writing a lot more about game studies etc., there was a lot of writing about the place about game verbs and it’s a great synthesis of design - a tool for describing the most simple actions in a game; move, jump, shoot, collect, talk, choose etc. In my introductory example, there are still a lot of verbs in play, like move, but the one most absent is of-course shoot, and the one that comes to the fore is talk. I feel like the scene at the beginning of that DLC is wholly intended to create a sense of atmosphere, to evoke certain feelings. Is it there to set the scene for context later on? Maybe. Is it for reprieve from violence? Also possible. But perhaps it’s just there to be relished, to be indulged. Maybe it’s OK to just be there to be felt, because feeling it is good, or even just feeling it is feeling something. Maybe it doesn’t have to be good, it’s just a different feeling to the way we feel when we’re reading an action feedback-loop where we’re engaged in move/shoot/wait/don’t die/melee/die-reload-repeat.

It’s hard for me to separate these montages from the films they come from. I want to say they’re powerful outside of the films, but I’ve seen those films so my viewings and re-viewings of them are loaded with my memories of the entire work; I have the full context. Tempted as I am to embed the montage from Ghost In The Shell 2: Innocence, I think that would be spoiling you too much, plus the film in its entirety really warrants a full viewing. Kenji Kawai’s music in the second film along deserves maximum volume and your time uninterrupted, so I won’t demean it with a tiny little window and a wall of text. I promised you the montage from the first GitS movie, so here it is, at three and a half minutes.

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I’m using the word feel quite a lot in this entry and it’s intentional. In recent times, we seem to be de-emphasising our feelings somewhat and I’m all for some semblance of rationality and logic but emotions are important. Feelings are amazing - all of them. The ones that are good, the ones that are uncomfortable, the ones that are uncontrollable. I guess some folks try to talk about understanding feelings and there’s a little truth in that but I don’t think it’s something we can ever fully get a complete hold of, nor should we. I’m not here to attempt to provide you guidance on that, I think if you’re reading this, you’re well capable of gauging for yourself what the impact is of your emotions to your life and what you may need to do about it. Don’t read an implication that I mean to diminish their impact, either - you may well need to amplify their impact, I think a lot of people don’t consider that - now more than ever, but again, I wouldn’t know. You would. Only you do.

Anyway - I feel like a lot of art and moments in art, or sections of art, are being misinterpreted or criticised because people aren’t open to the intent. Again I come back to the example in the opening to this entry. Assuming on good faith that the YouTuber’s/Streamer’s behaviour was genuine, their reading of the activity in the game was that it was somehow not game, and that until there was either shooting or puzzling or adventuring of some kind, that those things would be actually game or real gameplay does that scene and activity a disservice. Of-course, maybe they just straight-up didn’t like it which is fair. I accept that, I guess - but I don’t like it.

It still bothers me tho. Even tho I really don’t like that game, I understand that the point of it is to ground the narrative in very human roots, in emotional engagement so that the character has something to celebrate, to cherish fondly, or even perhaps to regret or look back on with bitterness or anger. Regardless - even if it doesn’t have a payoff in the future, I still feel like it’s important as a representation of human behaviour in a game in which human avatars are depicted. The images on screen within that video game are for the most part not abstract. The themes shown and the narrative woven about their journey, their motivations, the justifications for their actions and the moralising therein within the fictional framework of the universe are all extremely human and intended to be analogous to the real human experience.

That being the case, on that assumption, I’m surprised and even more disappointed that there aren’t more non-violent indulgences of peaceful human interactions on offer in these games.

People’s tastes in films, I guess, has been quite monolithic for some time. I mean, I’ve always had the throw-away semi-casual assumption of such but I didn’t think it was a real thing. I appreciate I’m into some fringe stuff and I don’t expect most people to get into the super-weird films, but that folks would be so narrow? Like... so narrow. I’ve said it before, I’m well accustomed to the art I’m into being heavily criticised by most people, but even the more approachable material I’m into, people seem to either struggle to digest or still regard as boring because it doesn’t register on some level of excitement that scales on a weird, reductive verb-o-meter not dissimilar to video games designed with the fewest of verbs; move, shoot and collect. Sometimes a film isn’t necessarily about what’s literally happening on the screen, or strictly about the narrative playing out. Sometimes art is about how you feel when you experience it - we’ve quite literally been describing art, in particular music, as mood pieces for years, and for quite some time now, video games.

In film, David Lynch is a master at it to name only one, and there are a ton of others. You don’t have to immediately have to be able to process his narratives, your first concern is to how you feel when you view his films. The pragmatics can - and often do - come later. Once you familiarise yourself with his cinematic language of emotional tone and atmosphere, you may find that his narratives are actually quite simple and they quite easily make sense - they’re artfully told and are injected with immense feeling because they’re told in such unique and emotional ways.

How do you go about choosing a frame from David Lynch’s Mulholland Dr.?

I tend not to discuss general release films much - I don’t have any particular distaste for them at all, I’ve mentioned that I have a great appreciation for them but if there’s any way I can speak to the emotional responses I have to them, it’s that in a broader sense, most of my responses are more or less the same. That’s why I don’t really talk about them. Their impact to me and how I engage with art in my life is minimal. That doesn’t mean I don’t think they’re important in the world culturally or that I discount their cultural importance to others - not at all. If they’re important to you, then that’s wonderful and amazing and you should celebrate them. Nevertheless, there’s also a place for independent cinema and art and creating things that don’t directly speak to the most transparent of feelings. I understand that the audience is smaller and the financial availability is going to have to be smaller - that’s OK, but mood pieces are special and amazing and weird and sometimes indescribable and maybe you should give them a try because they can make you feel real strange and sometimes strange feelings can be powerful too.

Once in a while, some folks do make something that is super approachable and bridges that magical gap between indescribable emotion and mood, and audiences that need the most gentle of entry-points. I think Thatgamecompany’s video game Journey has to be one of the best examples of a work that transcends and overcomes a lot of barriers by removing so many obstacles not only typical of video games but art in general. It’s a truly gorgeous experience, and one that is uniquely evocative not only for its own but any medium.

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While I’m sure there where throngs of mouth-breathers who flocked to reddit et al to decry Journey as NOTAGAME™, there were plenty of people who found themselves disarmed by its approach to play, playfulness, narrative and emotion. While you can watch a full play-thru video of the game, once-again I do encourage you to actually play the game itself altho so far from its release, there may be a critical component of the experience missing. A minor spoiler; central to the game is a sense of connection and yet separation. Lead designer Jenova Chen at the time was dismayed by online gaming behaviour and that engagement between players was so so toxic - it remains so today. He wanted a way for players to connect but not be able to be harmful and hateful to one another. The game will actually pair players together via online services, but there is no VOIP or text communication utility at all, nor can you see the username of whom you’re liked to. There is almost no way to communicate, save for a single button that will emit a musical note and an abstract symbol above your character’s head - that’s it. Beyond that, you may freely move about the world together, choosing to follow one-another or separate and ignore each other. That is the extent of interaction, and when the game launched in 2012, we discovered this together as a community - it was amazing and breathtaking, especially as the whole experience unfolded.

If Jenova Chen and his team at Thatgamecompany can teach people who usually shoot heads that moods can be engaged in and enjoyed with Journey, I feel like people have the ability to identify all forms of art that does the same. Art that deviates from the usual MO of fulfilling our usual roster of base needs. I’m not denigrating mass-market art by describing base needs - not at all. Base needs are hella important, but if the violence in The Last of Us gives the reprieve of giraffes context, surely the base needs of mass-market art does the same for mood pieces?

This is a frame from Exit (2011) directed by Marek Polgar and you should 100% find it and watch it.

These are some of the more fringe works I’m into, if you’re particularly daring. I’ve no doubt that someone will find them pedestrian and that’s fine. At some point, tho, people have to be able to either go to a shop a buy it, or at least find it online somewhere, so I’m sure the video your mate from uni made is the highest of couture art, but if no-one other than you and ten friends have seen it, it legit doesn’t count ay.

By the way - these are all listed in Film Notes, but I’ll lazylink their IMDB pages here so you can see how bad their audience scores are.

Tokyo.Sora (come-on, it’s my favourite film of all time) Exit (OK so as much as I was being facetious just before, this is going to be difficult to track down, but worth it if you can) Womb (CW: incest) The Sky Crawlers (my favourite of Mamoru Oshii’s) The Limits Of Control To The Wonder (I know - Malick, but I feel like if you’re going to try one, try this - shorter, more intimate, less abstract - I find it’s his most tender) Holy Motors (be thankful I’m linking Carax and not Noé/Void or Climax)

#2020 #chrono #film #writing about film #ghost in the shell #art created for mood #patlabor #patlabor 2 #patlabor the movie #patlabor 2 the movie #mamoru oshii #anime #anime movies #writing about video games #video games #david lynch #thatgamecompany #journey game #journey playstation

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solutelabs · 5 years ago

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React Native v/s Flutter: Here’s how not to get overwhelmed in the debate

The answer isn't as simple as Left or Right. But, exploring different approaches keeping in mind your business objectives & product goals, can lead you to make the right choice.

Sometimes, I honestly, get riled up when I am not able to keep pace with technology.

As a Solution Architect & CEO managing a team of 25 product developers, there have been countless instances when we come back to the office the next morning, see an update and are like -

There have been instances, too, when we are all pumped when a new tech framework finds its way into the market because it solves a lot of problems for us, clients and end-users.

It is not uncommon for an aspiring entrepreneur or product owner to get overwhelmed when it comes to choosing between different frameworks and technologies available. Also, it can turn stressful because you don't want to make a costly mistake. You want to get to the market as quickly as possible while keeping a check on your spending.

In recent times, React Native and Flutter are quickly becoming the go-to choices when it comes to developing hybrid and cross-platform mobile apps. If you are a startup owner, product manager or developer, you might have been a part of the never-ending React Native v/s Flutter debate in your meeting room.

I have seen people getting stuck endlessly in this Flutter v/s React Native tech drama and this is precisely why I wanted to quickly pen down this post for budding & existing product owners and help them weigh the options carefully.

Just knowing the pros and cons is not enough. Each product is different and so are the users. What can be a pro in your situation can be a con in your friend's situation.

Flutter v/s React Native - What's right for your product?

Source : Thedroidsonroids

Native fanatics will always argue you can't get the best experience on both platforms (iOS & Android) unless the app is native. However, the overheads can be a killer, hiring can be difficult. Plus, if you are a startup which needs to go on both these platforms simultaneously to reach a larger audience, a cross-platform app is the way to go. And, it saves both time and money.

Those who have been familiar with React for Web Development can go the RN way to develop cross-platform apps. For those that hate JavaScript, you might want to take a look at Flutter before you start because it won't disappoint.

One of the biggest downsides of using RN is when Google or Apple changes something, these things can break the components in your app. However, with Flutter (since you are using its own rendering system), that won't happen.

So, how do you choose?

Start by writing your app idea on a paper. Think about the features it needs and prioritize them. List down all the functionalities. Now, look into RN or Flutter to check if they have got good support for it. Compare and then make a decision. If none of these have support for functionality which is going to be a major part of your app (like the success/failure depends on it), you might need to go the native way.

For instance, assume you are building a ride-sharing app like Uber. Now, background location tracking is an important part of such apps. And, think about this feature when the app will not be in use. Such apps are very resource and power-hungry. Such an app built with RN will drain a lot of battery and impact CPU cycles.

While I understand this might confuse people further, but better early than getting into a messy code. Check this. In case more than a small part of your app needs native code, most likely you will be better off with native.

Having said that, RN can be an excellent choice for simple apps which need simple widgets like buttons, texts, lists, images etc. There's considerable support for integrating video features too.

You might fall in love with RN's simplicity. But hold on. Don't let it fool you. For complex apps, you will need more time to polish the app. You can easily lose a track of where state changes happen. For this, I reckon, you use a trusted architecture and stick to it. When the complexity increases, like to get to 60fps, you will have to know how and when to make state/UI updates. Precision is super-important here.

The optimization can take time.

Go through the components in a tree to manually disable un-necessary re-renders, or delay re-rendering after some animation has completed. Never use React-Router here. Not advisable for native needs because it keeps all previous views from the stack active which spurs problems.

RN is extremely fast and efficient when compared to building native apps. So, when you don't need native modules, RN should be your choice.

I am not a fan of RN's way of handling issues. This is my opinion. Yours might differ. Usually, I'll check on the internet if I'm having an issue and go to a report that might have the answer to my problem. This only frustrates me further because the thread was closed because of inactivity. Comments will be active and people will ask to re-open it. That leads to opening it as a new issue. The chase continues only to realize later native is the only way to go.

JavaScript is 2x less energy efficient. Re-iterating the point I made earlier, RN based apps will drain the battery twice than their native counterparts. Plus, there is more overhead with the extra layer of JS underneath. This is an issue with apps that need constant refresh like Games or Slack (just an example) and not with apps that run code only when a user interacts with it. Here you will have to spend time testing and optimizing.

I am not saying you avoid RN totally in this scenario. If you have the time and resources to pour in, by all means, the RN can be fantastic. For instance, there are plugins available to optimize performance. You might have to buy the license but it's well worth it.