#and a very fulfilling way to interact with the mv

[amygdalagustd]

I put snippits of my own "ptsd art" on top of the amygdala mv. All of these come from paintings, comics and drawings where I tried to capture trauma. I wanted to explore how yoongi expresses his experience in the mv and match it with my own.

[a-star-that-burns-brightly]

The scene where Xander stabs Teruko is like, hands down one of my favorite scenes in the entire series so far. Can I like, talk about that for a bit? It is genuinely such a god-tier setup for not only the themes of trust and deception in DRDT, but how it sets up one of my favorite things about the writing of DRDT as a whole. That is: how painfully aware DT-Dev is of how the standard Danganronpa tropes affect how us as audience members and fans (former or otherwise) of the canon series read and interact with fangans.

lets play spot the komaeda

()()()()() is like the byakuya/nagito/kokichi of the cast

I just hope ()()()()()() doesn't go crazy and kill in chapter 3. that would be way too predictable

()()()()() will obviously die in chapter 5

I think this scene in the LGI MV is the most upfront example of this (and though I won't get too into it because this post isn't about the David MV, I do think it's particularly interesting to note that this scene is in David's MV. Y'know, the liar character. The character that is known to put on a metaphorical mask to hide parts of himself.) And what I love so much about this is that DT-Dev uses these preconceived notions we've gained from our experience with the canon games, and uses that experience to enhance the themes of distrust and deception that are so prevalent in DRDT's story. Enter: Our lovely british boy.

this picture choice has nothing to do with the analysis by the way, I just think it's cute :) Xander is set up throughout the prologue and the first half of CH1 as Teruko's support character, presenting a very similar role to Sayaka Maizono from the first DR game, or Kaito Momota from NDRV3. Kind, upbeat, and supportive, so much so that David basically praises him for it

David: You're always full of energy and bravery to achieve your goals, no matter what they are. Yet at the same time, you're a compassionate person who takes the time to help others.

At the same time, he is by far the most mysterious character at this point of the story, due in part to his missing eye and the knowledge that it was uninjured before the events of the death game. This factor of early-game mystery also brings up some parallels between Xander and characters like Ultimate Impostor and Rantaro Amami. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't think anyone was expecting Xander to survive. Given the similarities he shares with first victims of the first game I'm sure a lot of people suspected he would be the first victim of DRDT, and if not that, most likely die in Chapter 5 due to canon danganronpa's self-fulfilling prophecy of killing off the support characters in the fifth case (Chiaki, Kaito, and Kyoko if we're counting DR1's bad ending.) And this is the thing that really makes me go insane. The way DT-Dev subverts these tropes that we've grown accustomed to is by taking them and spinning them on their head. Usually giving us the same, or a similar ending to these tropes, but twisting the execution in ways that leave us surprised and second-guessing what we know. But DRDT doesn't do this immediately. In fact, the first ten episodes of the series follow a very similar formula to the danganronpa games, even having a very similar motive to the first chapter of DR1 in the form of loved ones being threatened. That is, until the end of CH1-5, in which you are hit with this.

Xander: Sorry for this.

This scene makes me go insane. Apart from being wonderfully animated, executed, and amazing for both Teruko and Xander's arcs, it is also the first clue to us as an audience that this is not an ordinary fangan, and that fully putting our trust in the knowledge we have from the canon danganronpa games is a mistake. Because that knowledge will be used to deceive us when we least expect it to. In simpler terms: All that glitters is not gold - not everything is as it seems.

[heartofbusan]

TLDR: re-entry into the bangtan gravitational field at your own pace in 2025. Guilt free!

2024 was such a re-set year for me when it comes to engaging with bangtan. Can I be fully honest and say that their enlistment has been relaxing for me? Sure, we had a shit tonne of content to wade through, but without the members themselves being present for any of it, it meant a less direct engagement with the work during their 2024 releases. For me, that meant fewer feelings of guilt towards 'being present' with them. Does that make sense? It's like I got room to engage at my own pace and on my own terms. Or I might just be getting older, lol. Not discounting that possibility.

The music we got still had great impact on me. It felt sensual to engage with it as if it was a new discovery and less of an obligation. Time constraints sometimes meant it took me weeks to watch an mv, or listen to an album without distractions. Quite a different way of being army than I was before.

I became an army during the pandemic, right at the very start of our first lockdown. I allowed myself to delve into something that had only existed in my periphery. With their amazing music, which was second only to their interactions and personalities, came a whole boatload of content to wade through. All the while, Dynamite was being launched as my first official comeback. Growing up with that juggernaut meant feeling deeply invested and also responsible for their success. The results were very much a shared success. The perfect fertilizer for the parasocial relationship I'm currently involved in with seven Korean men I've never even met.

It took me away from my own life. Kept me in that state of detached social contact that was created thanks to the pandemic. Yet, I felt sated, my joy became engaging with these men, their art. What need did my surroundings fulfill that couldn't be met by army as friends and by bts as my sole purveyor of art?

Fleeing the horrors of Twitter and learning to navigate this platform also meant a deeper focus into one aspect of army that I never felt fully comfortable doing there. Jikook.

What can I say? They have my full attention. I lost some, what at the time I thought were some very good friends in this process. I barely gained any new ones. Yet, in this year, I did discover the power of a restful thought written into sharp observation. And nothing compelled me to write as much as jikook does.

But, all good things must evolve in order to be sustainable in the long run. I don't want that period to sour, to become just a hyper fixation. BTS' enlistment period meant I could take a step back and re-evaluate what it all meant to me and how I could keep it for the long run. As we roll into the sanctified year of 2025, the year that means the end of bangtan's mandatory enlistment period, we'll being sucked back into that vortex. I want to do it on my own terms.

My personal goals for 2025.

More: engaging with new content in my own time. Less: obsessive streaming and the feelings of guilt others put upon behavior that might be detrimental to your peace. Sorry, but this behavior is not sustainable in my life as it once was.

Less: buying dopamine. More: buying with intention, whether it be music or merchandise. Those tickets will not come free of charge, i hope you have been saving up ☺️

Less: engaging with content as it drops. Yes, even lives! Argh. As much as it pains me to feel like I'm ignoring someone. More: Being present in my real life.

No one gets to dictate who is army and who isn't. These are arbitrary rules set upon by some who are willing and able to direct a lot of time and money to a singular goal. I know as I write this that I'm making excuses for myself. Yet, I need it to be true. I want to carve a place for bangtan into my life, not the other way around. Let's not let a corporation dictate our genuine feelings for the sake of capitalism.

Most of all, I hope health and general well-being are what carry us all into 2025. Nothing is certain, but love is a very powerful feeling. One which can move mountains. Sometimes to great personal cost. Yet, it is worth it in the long run. Wouldn't you agree?

I hope you have a very calm and enjoyable end of year. Be safe and tell your loved ones how they make you feel. It's important to hold on to the things you have control over and to let go, nay, expell the things that are beyond your reach.

[helloworldjj]

no thoughts only tsukasa and the way he emphatically includes anyone without a second thought

he may be just the littlest bit dense and overwhelming when interacting with others but he has that bright-eyed enthusiasm and willingness to accept others wholeheartedly that reminds me of how younger kids are. and not in a “wow he’s so childish and immature” way. he’s just so BRIGHT and unapologetically himself in the way that kids who are beginning to experience the world tend to be. and that’s such a perfect contrast to the rest of the cautious heart class.

despite his childhood loneliness, his personality wasn’t dampened and he’s honestly not what you’d describe as “cautious” lmao. he kinda skipped that phase where kids become self-conscious of their actions and suppress themselves for the sake of fulfilling expectations. whereas the others in the aptly named cautious heart class have aren’t as true to themselves in some way and are working to be more so

mafuyu, trying to find herself again and obviously having her “good girl” persona

honami, working to stand for her own opinions and ideas instead of always appeasing everyone

kohane, learning to be more out there and to stop worrying about what everybody thinks so much

haruka, always being in idol-mode and realizing that it’s okay to take breaks from that. (her story is different from shizuku’s and how shizuku previously had to hide her clumsiness and whatnot to be the perfect idol in Cheerful*Days, but I think that naturally as an idol, there’s going to be discrepancy between Haruka as a person and Haruka in the eyes of others/fans. this is very apparent in the miya girls school festival event where a girl tells haruka that she’s realized haruka isn’t some unapproachable professional idol that people think her to be. saki inviting haruka to the event committee provided haruka the opportunity to relax and show the less serious, regular-high-school-girl side of herself)

at first glance, tsukasa might seem like he’s an outlier in the cautious heart class. but in actuality, he fits so well because he’s just so great at encouraging the rest of the class to throw away any “cautions” about fitting into a certain expectation and just be themselves instead. obviously he himself doesn’t seem to care much about what others think of him, so he shows the others that it’s not so bad to put yourself out there

hence why he seems to be leading the class in the MV (when I watched it, I initially found it odd that he was so prominent lmao. I have thoughts on rui’s placement in the MV as well but i feel like that’s gonna turn out to be another long ramble LMAO)

tsukasa tenma, you endearing, endearing little man <3

[blueepink07]

Some of my Milgram trial 3 predictions!

First off, I will start with a little introduction with my thoughts of the newest conversation between Haruka and Kotoko!

I was surprised that they decided to drop this conversation so early considering that it is very important in order to move the plot forward, despite trial 2 not even being finished... Untill I realized that it is the perfect time for Haruka to proceed with his plan. If he waits for the trial to end, there is a high chance for him to be restrained immediately. We don't know how the restraints during third trial will look like, but there is a high chance for them to look similar with those from Undercover, where their hands are fully restrained.

If that's the case, then Haruka wouldn't be able to hold a weapon at all and to harm himself.

He knows that he was voted guilty. It makes sense considering that since his birthday, he started to think about a plan in order to protect Muu.

23/06/22 (Haruka’s Birthday)

Mu: Haruka-kun, I brought your food. Are you still alive? Has any mould started growing?

Haruka: ……ah, thank you very much. Mu-san. Sorry, um… I…

Mu: You shouldn’t just lock yourself in your room all day. You have to eat your food properly. Hm, well…… I do understand why you’re feeling down. It feels bad. The atmosphere recently

Haruka: Um, I’m totally fine…Just a bit, I’m thinking, about how to do it. What to do, what to do, to… fulfil my promise. For Mu-san’s sake…

Moreover, Mahiru and Fuuta, during first trial, started to feel judged by people who told them they were in the wrong, not long after their guilty verdicts. It was also before Kotoko's voting period...

Kotoko's MV will be released on 17 January (also Mahiru's birthday) and her voting period should end around May... Unless we will get another portal timeline conversation which is not for a birthday, we have two more timeline portal timeline conversations for this trial Mahiru's and Fuuta's birthday (19 April) .

We will just have to see when Haruka will actually go along with his plan... Since on Mahiru's birthday it will be released Kotoko's MV, I kind of doubt that Haruka will do something at that time... I feel like it would be too much content and it would be hard to catch up with everything... So my prediction would be that something will happen on Fuuta's birthday or around that time. I feel like it would also end in a very dramatic way the second trial.

Now that this part is done, I will begin explaining some predictions for Haruka and a few other prisoners (Yuno, Fuuta, Mahiru)

Haruka -> I think that he will go along with his plan before the end of the second trial. This will give him enough mobility to hold a weapon and actually cause himself harm. What Haruka asks from Kotoko is simple: to let him harm himself and to stay away, letting him go along with his plan.

Haruka: ...Please, be quiet about this. And you, please don't get involved. All I can do is ask this of you...

Kotoko: Fufufu, fufufufufu. You're thinking some outrageous things. To be frank, it's abnormal. But I don't dislike it. If only all sinners were like you.

Haruka: No... That's not it... I don't mean it that way... This isn't for me... it's to protect... so, Kotoko-san... please...

Kotoko: Eh? Yes, yes. Well, I promise not to interfere with your plans. Even though I'd like to do it myself, I'll leave it to you. What happens after that... depends on Es, doesn't it?

Other prisoners will sure try to stop him, thinking about Kazui, Mikoto, since they seem the most able, physically speaking. However, I'm afraid that Kotoko will interfere and slow down Kazui or any prisoner who is trying to help Haruka. I'm imagining that it will be a big mess... It's possible that even other prisoners, except Haruka, will get injuried somehow, trying to interfere...

Yuno -> Not very fond of social interactions. Her mental health will deteriorate even more, but she will not show it. Will find more information about Milgram (the only one who starts to question her own existence)

I really think that it will be revealed that she is in fact dead.

Let me explain, how it would work!

The second Milgram novel, (for the sake of not giving much spoilers, I will not say the name of who I'm talking about!), introduces us with something new! Three of the characters are aware that they are dead. Why? Because they remember killing themselves. They died with this memory...

Yuno, on the other hand, states that she had many abortions... It's true that the stairs should be taken as symbolism for the stages of her pregnancy, however Japan is known for it's expensive abortions!

Moreover, it is usually required the partner's consent in order to have an abortion..

Not only Yuno would never want her family to struggle with money after such a big payment, but I also don't think she would manage to gain the signature of one of her clients.

So what option she would have? It seems that falling down the stairs might have been a good option...

Going back, imagine being in Yuno's shoes. A legal, medical abortion is not possible, so she decides that harming herself might help her escape from this situation. It worked before, so why it wouldn't now? However, something happens, she falls dangerously and suddenly everything goes black and she wokes up in Milgram. Now, falling down the stairs can cause instant death if the head is hit or the neck snaps.

"By hitting your head, or breaking your neck, either of which could easily occur in a staircase fall. You can hit your neck at an angle where it would snap due to the pressure of falling and cause instant death."

This means that her brain will stop working shortly after death, so she will not process the fact that she died. Remember what I said before? That the three characters from the novel were aware that they were dying, so their brains processed that and had this memory in Milgram.

Yuno doesn't have this privilege, however she could suspect her death, if her last thing she remembers is her falling down the stairs.

Fuuta -> it's so hard to imagine something for him... But I truly think he will give more assistance to the younger ones. He already expresses concern for Haruka, despite saying in the interrogation questions that he can't bother, considering his mental health and injuries.

I've made a post a while ago talking about how passage of time in Milgram is really weird and that their bodies don't seem to grow at all. Their injuries which should have been better after a few months, during trial 2, also didn't get better at all, especially considering Mahiru's case and Shidou spending most of his time with her.

At that time, I've been thinking that once somebody has an injury, their body will be unable to heal. So I think that Fuuta's physical condition will not change much.

Moreover, I believe that Fuuta and Amane will get closer... I'm expecting a timeline conversation which would explain better what is happening right now. No, I don't think he will be fully indoctrinated, I think he will be given just that hope that there is somebody there who loves him and appreciates him. (I think he will be really distrustful of the voices that he will hear, even if they are positive) To believe all that Amane has been taught, means to stop receiving medical care. And if his body doesn't heal, he will still be in constant pain.

I doubt he will refuse medications, considering that he is very desperate to relieve the pain. Also, forgot to mention, but there are a few religious aspects that Fuuta has in his MV or VD, even before his interactions with Amane...

Mahiru -> what I'm going to write are my thoughts after I've been asked what romantic pairing I think would become canon. (for this, I'm not really sure, but I thought it will be interesting to share!)

Trial 3 is stated that will be worse than this trial, which as well, had lots of conflicts between prisoners and prisoners experiencing mental torture and physical injuries. If there will be any romantic ship canon, I really think that it would be something that makes the characters to be even more absorbed by their beliefs.

Any romantic relationship between Amane(obviously), Kotoko, Fuuta, Yuno, Muu, Haruka, Kazui, Mikoto (John and Mikoto, I doubt that an inno vote will have them in better terms, Milgram will sure make the situation worse somehow 😭) seems unlikely for me.

Yuno, because she wishes more and more to escape from Milgram and she will sure be more distant with the others, especially if Mahiru heals.

Fuuta, he was distant before, even if his condition gets better I can't picture him having as a priority to be in a romantic relationship.

Kotoko, she is too absorbed in her ideals to deliver justice, also no one is really approaching her.

Muu and Haruka, their relationship dynamic is not balanced at all. One sees the other as a friend, the other as a parental figure... The guilty vote will just strenghten this condepency and they will need eachother more, but that's it.

The only relationship that I can possibly see is one between Mahiru and Shidou, but it would most probably be one sided (Mahiru will express some attachment to Shidou). It is stated that Shidou spends most of his time with Mahiru.

Especially the last timeline conversation seems to hint that they will still spend lots of time together, at least until the beginning of the third trial.

Mahiru: Shidou-san, you have a family...right? Having family, having children, how does it feel...?

Shidou: ...Yes, it's a wonderful thing. Children are... Well, they're hope itself. When you have children, growing older becomes enjoyable. The more you age, the more your children grow.

Mahiru: Ah...how wonderful. It was my dream to become a bride. It may be a little old-fashioned but, I wanted to make it come true...

Shidou: It's not too late. I will keep you alive, Shiina-kun. Let's get out of here and make that dream come true. ...You still have your whole life ahead of you.

Moreover, Mahiru states that she doesn't want to change her ideals, because she can't live without love in the second voice drama.

That's why I'm thinking... In what way they could possibly show the characters getting worse, if they don't let the prisoners to overindulge in their own desires and ideals? To Kotoko this already happened, so what would stop a romantic relationship between Mahiru and someone else, most probably Shidou (as he seems the best choice so far) ? We, as voters, wouldn’t be so impacted by the way prisoners could change outside Milgram (if they will ever get out) than inside, with the characters we love so much.

To finish off, I would say that this will most probably be the only romantic relationship that I can think of happening, but even so, more from Mahiru's part.

I personally don't really ship Milgram characters, so here is me just thinking about the worst possible outcome that it comes to my mind right now!

Trial 3 will sure be awful, so I'm expecting the worst. 😭

[ateezaligned]

ok so im a gay psychology student w adhd who ults onlyoneof!!

after reading the description box of libidO (check it out at 6 pm kst!) i couldn't help it but make a mini essay about the implications it may have!

okay so, the main character is The Boy Wearing cdg. This boy is in love, this love is fervent and unexpected, like a “fever in the summer”, there’s no way to escape it. He is still childish, and his infatuation is impulsive and capricious, despite how strongly he feels it.

they say the whole instinct is based on Freud's theories (some who are awful, others very interesting and accurate in some way). i wont get into edipus complexes and the phases, i'll stick to the basic premise: the human psyche is composed by three main parts Id, Ego and Super Ego. each one of this parts, no matter how much we despise any of them, is crucial to who we are as a person.

Ego is what we do and the way we interact with the outside world, translated more literally as I, the ego mediates between the Id and Super-Ego, trying to walk the line between them without falling to deeply in any of the sides of the spectrum.

Super Ego is basically our moral code, what we have learnt about society and its structures and what we need to do and the duties we need to fulfil to be worthy (translated as Super-I). the super ego is shaped not by our parents (or caregivers) themselves but by our parent’s own Super Ego, what they wanted to fulfil and be is passed down to us. most of the time, there’s a religious component in it, and guilt can be one of its main tools to keep us in shape.

finally the Id is what bring us to Instinct. The Id is the first part of us, we are born with it and we navigate life hearing it faintly, in the back of our heads. it’s the subconscious, and it can be dormant most of the time. until we want something desperately. here is were libidO makes its appearance. The libido, according to psychoanalytical theory, is not only a sex drive, but a full on life force, our energy comes from the libido under the principle of pleasure, which makes us look for everything that makes us feel good, it can be food, riches or a person, it doesn't understand waiting or patience, it only wants instant relief. therefore, the libido needs to be contained, for our own good, we cant only listen to it, because the Id is selfish and animalistic. Instinctual.

so, the Id and the Super Ego fight. a lot of the time, our desires are unavoidable, we cant escape them, but we can simply not act on them.

so, as the description box says, the Boy tries to ignore it and conceal his love and attraction. he tries to suppress the libido, do his part and what his moral and conscious tells him to do. but he can’t really help being in love, as he is young and therefore still deeply connected to his instincts, almost like a newborn. and what happens when you suppress something? It only sticks into your subconscious harder. dreams, according to Freud, are where our subconscious has all the power and we’re defenseless against them. so maybe the love story between the boy and his object of affection happens in his dreams, and dreams talk very loudly, deafening volumes, which will only make the boy craves this love more and more. so, finally, he gives up and lets his libido run wild.

but!! tear of gOd is another song in the album, and they tell us the Boy is having a talk w god in it (probably the woman in the sage mv?). god, at least in christianity, is the main source of a moral code, so in it basically the Boy will be answering to his own Super Ego about the whole giving into his instincts thing.

so yeah!! i said nothing new sorry if someone actually read all of this? lol ill probably edit this once the album actually comes out

[explorerswiftie]

Happy New Year

Tag 5 or more people whom you are thankful for, in 2020. People you've met whether through random reblogs on your posts, or people you have had full blown conversations with. Whether it’s just seeing them on your dash, or interacting with them. Spread some love!     

2020 has been one hell of a year for all us on a global level as well as personally for me. I’m so thankful to this glitchy website for introducing me to a bunch of people here from the swiftie fandom and so grateful to @taylorswift for bringing us together. Here are my friends I’m truly thankful for, this year.You all made my year better in some way or the other. I wish you all a very happy new year!! Love ya

@jenniferdong23 - I love you so much lovely and although the time zones are crap among us, I really like how we stay connected all the time. You’re one of the few people who’s still in touch with me since a year now

@13-taylor-swift - Ash!! ILYSM my lil sis. We can literally chat about anything and anytime which is super awesome. You’re such a funny and smart gal in school and I am sure you’ll grow up to fulfill all your dreams. Baina gang for evermore ;)

@lost-in-translation1-3 - I like your covers dude, so good! You aren’t online often here but it’s always nice to see your messages in my inbox and talk about all things Taylor™️. I will forever remember my typo of ‘trumpet’ in our group chat lmao...also I can’t wait to meet you and Ash someday!!!

@longlivetayswift-13 - I like how we converse about life in general and your merch issues :( I am so grateful to have a friend in you and thank you for being with me during the most anxious weeks. 

@rainy-cab-ride - You’re such a fun person to talk to. Plus, you know a few things about our culture which is super great! I love your involvement with SEN students and can’t wait for spring now lol

@folklore19 - NOVAAAA babey I like how I can just scream in your inbox about the new fandom things!!!!! You sing so well and cruel summer, willow are my favourite covers. You’re such a fun person to talk to

@nikkinevergoesoutofstyle - Our very own baking queen Nikki ! I miss your cat pics here :(  We’ve been through exciting days here, even our social media hiatuses and my uni stress haha. Your positive outlook towards life is infectious and I’m so grateful to have met you here

@thelasttimeyoueversawme - While typing this I was reminded of all your previous url’s!!! You come across as a chilled out person and it’s super awesome to chat with you. You always drop by for ask games and I love your Talking Tom ;)

@tswiftgolsa - Golsa I love you a lot!!! Your excitement for my happy moments is so special to me! You’ve hustled hard for getting into uni and I hope you enjoy fully, love

@ishaadorestaylor - Gurl how I remember us freaking out over Taylor notices and the exact moment when she liked your The Man MV analysis!!!!!!! Our only wish to bring Taylor here should become true in these eras *-* 

There are a few more lovelies out here with whom I’ve started interacting more recently @miellekingsleigh  @slowmotiondoublevision @newyorkromantics13 @afolksongs @yourheartbeatonthehighline @lasingphomustra @tomlinsno @whoanotwoe @feellike22 

[rpgmgames]

August’s Featured Game: Marinette

DEVELOPER(S): Teal Crown ENGINE: RPG Maker MV GENRE: Horror, Puzzle, Adventure WARNINGS: Sensitive Themes, Blood/Light Gore SUMMARY: A little girl named Marinette, in the wake of a splitting family and a change of homes, is having a birthday. But this, her eleventh birthday, will present a deadly opportunity to fulfill a special promise. On the night before her birthday, she is drawn into a strange realm; an unnatural dollhouse, populated with dolls who are not quite what they seem. A web of strings lying in wait, and threatening to ensnare the poor marionette; warping her perception, and twisting her every move. Will the strings attach, and force her to become an unwilling puppet, or will she escape this surreal web of strings? What will she have to do to avoid the dangers of the dollhouse, and set herself free?

Our Interview With The Dev Team Below The Cut!

Introduce yourself! *Mitty: "Hello, I'm Mitty! Thank you so much for the opportunity to participate in this interview. I'm the main developer of the game and I'm working with a team of friends to make this game a reality. I work mainly on the visuals and programming, and I'll be representing the team, alongside Third! I've been on the community for around two years, even though I tend to not be active very often." *Third: "Hoi, I’m Third! I appreciate you reaching out to interview us. I’m the main composer and writer of Marinette, and I work under Mitty to make the story and soundtrack what we want it to be. I’ve been in the community for little less than Mitt but am even less active in most of my developer discords."

What is your project about? What inspired you to create this game initially? *Mitty: "The game is essentially about a girl that gets trapped inside a dollhouse. A simple concept really can go far ahaha I've always loved themes related to creepy dolls so I wanted to create something related to that. What pushed me initially to start were obviously the inspiration of seeing other devs creating, seeing how far you could go with these engines and create amazing interactive stories, however the huge support from a friend was what made me actually start past the planning and dreaming!" *Third: "Marinette is a story about a little girl becoming entangled in the complicated family and supernatural landscape she finds herself in on her birthday. I enjoy writing short stories about this kind of thing so it’s fantastic to work on a larger project about one of my favorite subjects. My primary inspiration and introduction to this kind of game in general was Pocket Mirror, and I use it the most as a model for how to do certain things. However, I also draw a lot of inspiration from masterpieces like Aria’s Story, Ib, Witch’s House, and Alice Mare."

How long have you been working on your project? *Mitty: "The project has been in the works for around two years now! The first year was mostly planning and right now we are on the right track with the programming and asset creation for the demo, as well as music and sound design for later development. Planning isn't over yet though, especially for the final game." *Third: "I’ve been working on this for almost two years. The soundtrack possessed most of my earlier attention, but now it’s taken a backseat to writing, now that I’m actively writing the scripts for the game now. "

Did any other games or media influence aspects of your project? *Mitty: "Yes! The game has inspirations from plenty of sources, not only strictly RPG Maker Horror games, or games in general for that matter. If I were to mention those, of course games like Ib, The witch's house, Alice Mare, Pocket Mirror, Yume Nikki & .flow, Stray Cat Crossing, Mogeko's games...etc quickly come to mind. When it comes to the aesthetics and visuals, the inspirations come from several different places, including games like Alice Madness Returns, Dofus, Yomawari, The Legend of Mana, Little Nightmares...the list goes on; or other media, like Inu Curry's animation style or video creator nana825763, as well as some anime and music videos. Silent hill is also a huge inspiration for the atmosphere, and hopefully we can pull it off well!" *Third: "My primary inspiration, as I’ve said earlier, is Pocket Mirror, both for its masterful writing and soundtrack. The game’s soundtrack is the main reason I still play piano. Whenever I’m feeling musical, my fingers always hunt out the same kind of haunting, mysterious, and sometimes peaceful and playful melodies that Pocket Mirror is rife with. In the end, our soundtrack is probably going to sound like Pocket Mirror and Aria’s Story’s soundtracks were meshed together. Story wise, commonplace elements in this genre like demons, monsters, mean parents and puzzles that tell the story are commonplace for a reason, and certainly find their way into this one, in their own special way. Every other game I’ve mentioned involves them in some form or another. And young, curious protagonists are also a blast to write and do evil things to and put in difficult, dangerous situations. "

Have you come across any challenges during development? How have you overcome or worked around them? *Mitty: "We surely have! Many of them in different areas ahaha Taking away bug hunting, I am primarily an artist, so programming for me is a secondary thing. Because of this it's easy to get carried away and hard to realise what can and can't be done. I don't want the game to be visually boring if I can make things move and seem alive! The way I'm handling it is programming like an artist: I think in my head what cool things I can do with my art by not having it completely still, and then it's a matter of executing it on the engine. However this comes with a downside. I tend to tweak things a lot, and that takes quite some time, but I honestly think it's worth it ahaha Also I find it hard to start writing, but when I do, I can't stop orz. Other challenges are also finding plot holes. This is fixed with a lot of studying the story, gathering inspiration and talking with the team. I also struggle a bit with communicating with the team, but thankfully they are all very nice and understanding." *Third: "Main challenge is overcoming the sheer weight of how much I have to learn about music and writing in order for this game to be what I want it to be. I’m a perfectionist, and when I care about something, I can’t tolerate it being worse than it could’ve been. Also, writing is getting more and more complicated and there’s more things and details to keep track of so as not to create inconsistencies or plot holes, especially as we try to revise it and make major changes to the story (Mitt will know what I’m talking about). "

Have any aspects of your project changed over time? How does your current project differ from your initial concept? *Mitty: "It changed a lot, not only in terms of the story and writing, but visually too. The basic concept is close to being the same, though. You can check out old posts in the blog where I consider different styles of mapping and such. Actually, don't, please. It's too old...and my writing...oh god." *Third: "The writing has come a long way, but now that we’ve fleshed out and written down much of the backstory, it’s a much more complicated story than what Mitt first showed me when I joined."

What was your team like at the beginning? How did people join the team? If you don’t have a team, do you wish you had one or do you prefer working alone? *Mitty: "Initially it was just me, occasionally having Mia to talk about the story and help develop it. Rindre joined as a voice actress very early on and also helped in other aspects of the game. Then I also talked about it with two friends I know in real life, one helped with organization and the other with some concept art, but they aren't that active anymore, even though I still count them as part of the team (Thank you guys btw if you're reading this). Eventually I met Third, an amazing composer and writer, and I asked him to join in! He brought along a friend who is also an amazing composer and writer, Code, and these two are complete madmen of music and writing and I'm super glad to be working with them, as they are super passionate and it makes me really happy ahaha. Bruno is also a really dedicated composer that is helping with a few tracks as well! Miku and Luccinia are two super talented and kind artists that have also been helping a ton with concept art, and their ideas have certainly improved the game as well. We are welcome to more concept artists, though! More heads, more ideas ahaha Recently we got the voice actresses for a few characters in the game, when we did the auditions, and hopefully soon another friend will jump aboard and help with organization and writing! We are a relatively small team, and sometimes progress goes a bit slowly since we can get busy, but we are all doing our best! I’m glad that I’m not alone. Links for their pages and such can be found on the team section on the blog, go support them if you can!"

What is the best part of developing a game? *Mitty: "For me, personally, I love seeing what my team mates come up with, whether it is music or concept art. I also enjoy the love and support we get, and it makes me excited in the development. As for the creation part, I like programming challenging cutscenes and doing cool things with the assets. Progress updates can also be fun to make when I have the time." *Third: "My favorite part is showing Mitt what I’ve written and composed. Making her happy and excited with my work is extremely fulfilling. "

Do you find yourself playing other RPG Maker games to see what you can do with the engine, or do you prefer to do your own thing? *Mitty: "Oh, yes! Besides being a cool break from programming hell, it helps me make it less of a hell ahaha I like improvising, though, so I think I play RPG Maker games because I enjoy them for the most part." *Third: "Occasionally, not really. I don’t play many games and I’ve played the heck out of the ones I have."

Which character in your game do you relate to the most and why? (Alternatively: Who is your favorite character and why?) *Mitty: "Ah I don't know, honestly. I think I can relate to every character in one way or another, and it's hard picking one, especially since the game isn't out yet and I'd like to keep most characters hidden until the demo. Marinette is definitely one of my favourites, though, I just love how innocent and cute she is. Her cheekiness can be made super interesting ahaha" *Third: "My favorite character is definitely Pierre. He’s a complete blast to write, and gives me lots of cool things to describe and say through him, from his magic tricks to his killer lines and quotes."

Looking back now, is there anything that regret/wish you had done differently? *Mitty: "Hm...Having organized things better in the beginning would have saved a lot of time now, but I don't think it's been that big of a deal anymore. I don't have any regrets that I'm aware of at the moment since everything until this point was necessary to learn and get to where we are now."

Do you plan to explore the game’s universe and characters further in subsequent projects, or leave it as-is? *Mitty: "I'm not sure yet, it depends on the reception and how willing I'll be to continue the story. Even though I would find it fun to make comics, another game or a different midia, realistically I can't tell how willing I'll be to continue developing content about it after the game is finished. Honestly, I hope I can develop more projects on Marinette, we do have content for that, and I absolutely love it with my heart! But it's also equally important to move on to another story. Only time will tell!" Third: "I hope to, but that day is very far away for me. I’ll be gone for quite some time after Marinette is finished, and I hope I’m not forgotten by the time I return. Perhaps I’ll entertain myself with additional short stories exploring the various aftermaths of the game."

What do you most look forward to upon/after the release of a project? *Mitty: "I honestly just want to get the story out there. I'm hoping people will enjoy it if they play the game, and will have a special place in their hearts to keep it on. This project means a lot to me, and having it making people feel things is what I'm looking forward to. I'd love to see other people playing it, definitely. I imagine I'll eventually be relieved to have finally completed it, it'll be a big moment for me to sigh be proud of creating. I'll be able to move on to work on other fun things while I see how this little child of a game is going to do out there in the wild, and that's always nice!" *Third: "Fan reaction, 100%. Having people ask me questions about my work and telling me how much they enjoyed it is my favorite part of writing."

Is there something you’re afraid of concerning the development or the release of your game? *Mitty: "Yes, I don't want to feel empty with nothing to do when I finish the game. I know it will be great and all, but I've been working on it for so long that it's hard to imagine not working on it ahaha! It's a really fun hobby, but it's also engraved in my heart. I want it to be the best it can be, of course, so I'm scared of bugs, inconsistencies and overall it being clearly a bad game. I'm hoping that people will help with critiques on the demo, so I have a better outside perspective of where we are going. I don't want to drop the game, so I'm scared of having to take a long break from it during the development. I'm worried of being a terrible team leader as well." *Third: "I dread plot holes more than anything, and I dread a dull and overall unimpactful story. I want a tale that will punch the viewer in the gut, hard. I want to make them cry. I want to make them laugh. I want them to draw what I wrote, and explore it further in hopefully-not-too-sexual fanfiction."

Do you have any advice for upcoming devs? *Mitty: "Don't be scared to start. You're going to suffer mid-way if it's a long term project, but keep pushing through, you'll learn a lot and it becomes easier with time. Take breaks and take it easy, step by step. LIST STUFF AND MAKE BACKUPS. Learn with short projects first. Ask for advice from people you admire, but never hold them on a pedestal. It’s always helpful to be a jack of all trades! Try to think from an outsider perspective if you're not sure of how it's going, and if you can, tell people you trust about the game and ask for opinions. Always take criticism well, but don't stress too much over harsher or even meaner comments. Have fun and never forget your starts, the people you meet and the reason you're doing the project for. If you're also an artist, writer, musician, remember this is a great opportunity to add something interesting to your portfolio. Cool visuals attract people, but they are not everything that will keep them hooked." *Third: "The best part of making a game is the people you make it with. The story is the most important ingredient of your game. Prioritize it first, and everything else will fall into place around it. Otherwise, everything will serve some other aspect of your game, and that’s rarely a good thing. Always speak your mind; do not every not say something just because it’ll hurt someone’s feelings. Obviously don’t be a tool, but if you ever have to choose between hurting the game and someone’s pride, pick someone’s pride. It’s much kinder in the long run."

Question from last month's featured dev Froach Club: Have you ever had a moment where you got completely stuck or became intensely frustrated while using RPG Maker? *Mitty: "Yes I have, I think everyone has QwQ Despite silly mistakes, I've gotten stuck several times, but honestly it's usually either us doing something stupidly hard that can be done another way, or we are just not skilled enough yet, and it's better to come back later. You can usually do most things you wanna do if you have the advantage of knowing the programming language your RPG Maker Engine uses I think. Google is your friend always, and sleeping about it also helps. I once dreamt of a whole sequence to fix a problem, and it worked! ahaha Always take it easy and don't give up, but know your limits and the limits of the engine!"

We mods would like to thank Teal Crown for agreeing to our interview! We believe that featuring the developer and their creative process is just as important as featuring the final product. Hopefully this Q&A segment has been an entertaining and insightful experience for everyone involved!

Remember to check out Marinette if you haven’t already! See you next month! 

- Mods Gold & Platinum

[comebeforegod]

Is the Gender of God Incarnate Surely a Male? I Got the Answer

By Wei Na, Philippines

Dear brothers and sisters, I am Wei Na and I’d like to tell you how I welcomed the returned Lord Jesus. Just like many brothers and sisters in the Lord, my greatest wish was to wait for the Lord to come and rapture me into the kingdom of heaven. However, in recent years, I felt I was very far away from the Lord; I was unable to feel the presence of the Lord even when attending worship in church and always felt drowsy when reading the Bible at home. In order to find a church with the work of the Holy Spirit, I visited several other churches in succession, but the sermons of the pastors there were all the same old stuff—the biblical knowledge and theology—which failed to provide sustenance for my spiritual life. This left me feeling lost, empty and lonely. Therefore, I prayed to the Lord time after time.

Afterward, one day, I came across the website of The Church of Almighty God on Google. Out of curiosity, I opened the website and discovered that the content was very rich, with books of God’s word, hymns, movies, MVs, and so on. It really opened my eyes. In particular, Almighty God’s words benefited me a lot and excited me; the more I read these words, the more I felt encouraged. So, in the several days that followed, as long as I had time I would read Almighty God’s words, from which I understood many truths that I had never heard in my church. Thus, my relationship with the Lord gradually became closer, and I was always moved by the Holy Spirit and felt very fulfilled in my heart. I went back to the feeling of when I first started believing in the Lord.

After investigating on the website for two weeks, I established contact with The Church of Almighty God via the live chat. After that, the brothers and sisters of this church frequently fellowshiped to me about truths such as the method of the Lord’s return, what the wise virgins are, how to recognize God’s voice, etc. Also, they explained to me why the religious churches have become so desolate. After hearing their fellowshiping, I came to know that it was because God has done a new work, the work of the Holy Spirit has shifted, and only by following God’s footsteps and reading God’s new words could we be supplied with the living water of life. I also understood why God worked through the Spirit in the Age of Law and worked as the incarnate flesh in the Age of Grace and the Age of Kingdom. And so on. Their fellowshiping resolved many questions of mine. After several meetings with them, I felt like a vagrant child who had returned to his home, and my heart felt very much at ease. Accordingly, I believed from the heart that this was the church I had been looking for.

Later, in a meeting, I was shocked when hearing a sister say that this time God has incarnated as a woman. I thought: “How can the Lord be a woman when He returns? We call the Lord ‘Heavenly Father’ in our prayers. Isn’t ‘Father’ male in gender? I can’t accept that God has incarnated as a woman.” I then said to the sister, “You are saying that the Lord Jesus has returned as a woman. This is impossible! Many passages of the Bible record that the Lord Jesus called God in heaven ‘Father’ and that God in heaven called the Lord Jesus ‘Son.’ Since They are Father and Son, doesn’t this imply that They are male? So when the Lord returns, He should be a male.”

After hearing what I said, Sister Lucy fellowshiped, “There is a context to the titles of Father and Son in the Bible, and the true meaning is different from the understanding based on our notions. Let’s read two passages of God’s words and then we’ll understand. God says, ‘When Jesus called God in heaven by the name of Father as He prayed, this was done only from the perspective of a created man, only because the Spirit of God had clothed Himself as an ordinary and normal man and had the exterior cover of a created being. Even if within Him was the Spirit of God, His exterior appearance was still that of an ordinary man; in other words, He had become the “Son of man” of which all men, including Jesus Himself, spoke. Given that He is called the Son of man, He is a person (whether man or woman, in any case one with the exterior shell of a human being) born into a normal family of ordinary people. Therefore, Jesus calling God in heaven by the name of Father was the same as how you at first called Him Father; He did so from the perspective of a man of creation. Do you still remember the Lord’s Prayer that Jesus taught you to memorize? “Our Father in heaven….” He asked all man to call God in heaven by the name of Father. And since He too called Him Father, He did so from the perspective of one who stands on an equal footing with you all.’ ‘There are still those who say, “Did not God expressly state that Jesus was His beloved Son?” “Jesus is the beloved Son of God, in whom He is well pleased” was certainly spoken by God Himself. That was God bearing witness to Himself, but merely from a different perspective, that of the Spirit in heaven bearing witness to His own incarnation. Jesus is His incarnation, not His Son in heaven. Do you understand? Do not the words of Jesus, “The Father is in Me and I am in the Father,” indicate that They are one Spirit? And is it not because of the incarnation that They were separated between heaven and earth? In reality, They are still one; no matter what, it is simply God bearing witness to Himself.’ It can be seen from God’s words that the Lord Jesus is God Himself and is God’s Spirit clothed in an ordinary and normal flesh and that He looks like us created humanity. When the Lord Jesus called God in heaven Father as He prayed, He did so from the perspective of a created being, that is, from the perspective of the flesh; when God in heaven called the Lord Jesus His beloved Son, it was God testifying from a spiritual perspective that the Lord Jesus is God incarnate—which has nothing to do with God’s gender, instead of testifying that the Lord Jesus is His Son. When God completes His work in the flesh, there will no longer be any Father and Son. Thus, we can’t define God as male just because the Lord Jesus called God in heaven Father and God in heaven called the Lord Jesus Son.”

I was amazed to hear the sister’s fellowshiping. It turns out that the terms the Father and the Son in the Bible don’t refer to God being male. But I then thought of the first man God created being a male. Thereupon, I said, “Genesis 1:26 in the Bible records, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ Adam, the first man created by God, was a male, and we know from this verse that he was made in the image of God. This is sufficient to prove that God is a male.”

Sister Karina patiently fellowshiped, “Sister, it’s true that the first person God created was a male, but the Bible also says, ‘So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them’ (Genesis 1:27). This verse tells us that God created both man and woman in His image, not only man. If we define that God is a male according to the fact that Adam, the first person created by God, was male, then how can we explain that God created females in His image? Doesn’t it contradict this verse? Actually, God’s essence is spirit and spirits are sexless. God incarnates in the form of a male or a female according to the needs of His work of salvation. And thus His incarnations are differentiated by sex. However, whether God incarnates as male or female, as long as He is the flesh that the Spirit of God wears, He is God Himself; His adopting the form of a woman basically does not affect God’s essence. This is why we should not rely on our notions and imaginations to delimit the gender of God incarnate.”

Though what Sister Karina fellowshiped was reasonable, it was very hard for me to accept that God has incarnated as a female, because this did not fit with my notions at all. I thought, “With regard to the Lord’s coming, I must think it over carefully. I can’t make a decision lightly before investigating it clearly. If I start believing wrongly, won’t my over twenty years of faith be wasted?” So, I silently prayed to God asking Him to guide me.

After the meeting, I searched online for The Church of Almighty God and saw some different opinions about the Lord returning as a female. As a result, I felt even more confused. During that period, the sisters from The Church of Almighty God always fellowshiped this aspect of the truth with me, but I still could not accept, so I decided to stop gathering with them. After that, I felt really uncomfortable. Thinking back to that period of time, when attending meetings with them, I did understand many truths that I had not previously understood and felt edified. Nevertheless, there was no way that I could accept the fact that the Lord has returned in the flesh as a female.

In the following days, I went back to my previous situation where my spirit felt parched, and my life was very empty, so I really missed interacting with the sisters from The Church of Almighty God. To be honest, though I could not accept that God’s second incarnation is female, I felt that every meeting with them was rewarding. Their fellowship was well grounded and conformed with the Bible. By giving up seeking and studying like this, wasn’t I too arbitrary? I thought carefully for a while and then decided to continue examining and understanding The Church of Almighty God. Thereafter, I secretly started to read the books of God’s word and the articles of testimony on its website.

One day, I saw a passage of God’s word, “Put your conceptions to one side! Stop and carefully read these words. If you yearn for the truth, God will enlighten you to understand His will and His words. Put aside your view of ‘impossible’! The more that people believe something is impossible, the more likely it is to occur, for the wisdom of God soars higher than the heavens, God’s thoughts are higher than man’s thoughts, and the work of God transcends the limits of man’s thinking and conception. The more that something is impossible, the more there is the truth to be sought; the more that something is beyond the conception and imagination of man, the more it contains the will of God. Because no matter where God reveals Himself, God is still God, and His substance will never change because of the location or manner of His appearance.”

These words moved me deeply. Yes! When God’s work was out of line with my notions and imaginings, I held on to them instead of seeking God’s will, and thus refused to accept God’s work. Wasn’t I so arrogant in doing this? God is the Creator and has His own plans and ways when He does His work. As a created being, how could I fathom His work? The Bible records, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, said Jehovah. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9). So, I could not blindly cling to my own conceptions and imaginings and I needed to continue to fellowship with the sisters.

Later, I initiated contact with Sister Lucy again and she got very excited and said, “Thanks to God’s enlightenment and guidance, you finally understand His will and return before Him again. This is truly God’s sheep hearing His voice. Sister, we’ve been constantly praying for you these days, asking God to guide you.” It warmed and moved my heart to hear this.

Then, I told her about my confusions, “The first time God was incarnated, He was male, but why does He adopt the form of a female this time instead of a male?”

Lucy said with a smile, “Sister, I also used to believe that since the Lord Jesus was a male, His second coming would be a male too, which conforms to our notions. However, God has His own plan for His work. As for this, let’s read two passages of God’s word. God says, ‘Each stage of work done by God has its own practical significance. Back then, when Jesus came, He was male, but when God comes this time, He is female. From this, you can see that God created both male and female for the sake of His work, and with Him there is no distinction of gender. When His Spirit comes, He can take on any kind of flesh at will and that flesh can represent Him. Whether male or female, it can represent God as long as it is His incarnate flesh. If Jesus had appeared as a female when He came, in other words, if an infant girl, and not a boy, had been conceived by the Holy Spirit, that stage of work would have been completed all the same. If such had been the case, then the present stage of work would have to be completed by a male instead, but the work would be completed all the same. The work done in either stage is equally significant; neither stage of work is repeated nor conflicts with the other. … If in this stage He did not become flesh in order personally to do work for man to witness, man would forever hold on to the notion that God is only male, not female.’ ‘If God came into the flesh only as a male, people would define Him as male, as the God of men, and would never believe Him to be the God of women. Men would then hold that God is of the same gender as men, that God is the head of men—but what then of women? This is unfair; is it not preferential treatment? If this were the case, then all those whom God saved would be men like Him, and not one woman would be saved. When God created mankind, He created Adam and He created Eve. He did not only create Adam, but made both male and female in His image. God is not only the God of men—He is also the God of women.’”

After reading God’s words, the sister said in fellowship, “God’s words tell us that every stage of work performed by God has practical significance. In the Age of Grace, when the Lord Jesus came to work, He was male; in the last days, when the Lord returns, He is female. This allows us to see that God created both man and woman for His work and that God doesn’t have a gender. Whether God incarnates as a male or a female, as long as He is the incarnate flesh of the Spirit of God, then He is God Himself. If God only incarnated as a man, we would define Him as male, as the God of males, and would never believe Him to be the God of females. In the last days, God becomes the flesh as a female in order to counter our conceptions and eliminate our absurd idea ‘God can only incarnate as a man.’ It can be seen from this that God can become both male and female, that God is not only the God of men but also the God of women, and that He not only saves men but also saves women. Therefore, it’s so very meaningful that God comes into flesh as a female. God is so wise and wondrous!”

After listening to her fellowshiping, I said with excitement, “By you fellowshiping in this way, I now understand. God incarnating as a female this time is significant. It is in order to resolve our conceptions and imaginings about God. This has shattered my conception of ‘God can only incarnate as a male,’ and allowed me to no longer delimit God. God’s work is so wise and almighty!”

“Yes! God choosing different genders the two times He incarnates has significance. What gender God takes depends on the needs of His work. From this, we can see the wisdom and almightiness of His work,” Sister Karina sighed with emotion.

Thank God! Through their fellowshiping, I felt a lot more enlightened and I was willing to continue to seek and study God’s new work.

Later, I saw a passage from God’s word, “External appearance does not determine substance; what’s more, the work of God has never conformed with the conceptions of man. Did not the outward appearance of Jesus conflict with the conceptions of man? Were not His appearance and dress unable to provide any clues as to His true identity? Was not the reason why the earliest Pharisees opposed Jesus because they merely looked at His external appearance, and did not take to heart the words that He spoke? It is My hope that the brothers and sisters who seek the appearance of God will not repeat the tragedy of history. You must not become the Pharisees of modern times and nail God to the cross again. You should carefully consider how to welcome the return of God, and should have a clear mind of how to be someone who submits to the truth.” After reading God’s words, I understood that, regardless of what God looks like or what form God takes to perform His work, it is not important. God incarnate is a holy flesh and can express truth and do His work of saving men. Facing such a big event as the return of the Lord, I should have humbly sought and investigated it, but I had rejected God’s new work because I had held on to my own conceptions and imaginings, determining that God’s incarnation must be a male and couldn’t be a female. I didn’t even realize that I had embarked on the path of resisting God. I was too foolish and muddleheaded! Recalling two thousand years ago, the Pharisees resisted and condemned the Lord Jesus and even crucified Him, offending God’s disposition. Was this not because the incarnated Lord Jesus did not accord with their notions and imaginings? Thinking about myself, if it hadn’t been for God’s mercy and grace, enlightening me with His words and setting up the sisters to patiently fellowship with me, I would have been eliminated by God due to resisting Him by holding on to my conceptions and imaginations. Realizing all this, I thought: “I can no longer rebel against God, and I must accept the truth and follow the footsteps of the Lamb.” As a result, I prayed silently in my heart, “Dear God! May You forgive my ignorance and foolishness. Because I stubbornly clung to my notions and imaginings and didn’t seek the truth, I almost lost Your salvation. Now I’m willing to put aside my notions and repent to You.”

Later on, through a period of examining God’s work in the last days, I confirmed that Almighty God is the returned Lord Jesus. Thinking of how God guided me to welcome His appearance and hear His voice, I feel that I really am fortunate. Now, I have formally joined The Church of Almighty God and have started to live the church life. Thanks be to Almighty God! All the glory be to God!

[c-ornflowertea]

BTS WORLD: A Game Built on a Community

I had been listening to a lot of stories from my brother about the different game communities he has had the pleasure (?) of joining around the time I was researching for this blog. For example, a few years ago, he had played Pokémon competitively both online and offline. His days back then were spent on grinding for good Pokémon stats and natures (did anyone actually understand that back when they played Pokémon as a kid? Like that is seriously a thing?), craftily building mono-type parties to become a community’s Gym Leader, and he even opened a quite reputable Pokémon trade shop to support his eagerness to play in the competitive scene. Compared to the times when he played Pokémon for fun or modded the MissingNo.’s out of the Pokémon Emerald ROM, he had a completely different experience playing the very same game.

At some point, he went on a tangent about another Nintendo franchise, the Super Smash Bros. series. He noted that the game was never really intended to be a part of any competitive scene; the idea was to make a party game, “that was more party than Mario Party.” However, when Super Smash Bros. Melee came out, players saw the opportunity to take the game to another level and created the esports scene around it today. The developers seemed to still be keen on their original direction with their release of Super Smash Bros. Brawl. The game stripped away the more competitive mechanics such as the Wave Dash, guiding players to experience the game within simpler mechanics. The reception around the third installment became mixed; at this point, the competitive scene brewed a specialized community who were primarily invested in fast-paced competitive play. The new game suited players who were more casual and the fact that it was released along with the Wii made it a potential entry point for players new to gaming as well. Super Smash Bros. Brawl simply did not fulfill existing fans’ expectations. Still, the game brought in new fans and expanded the fanbase, albeit having segregation between those who liked Melee (a.k.a. competitive players) and those who liked Brawl (a.k.a. casual players) (Scott The Woz 2018). Future iterations of the game try to strike a balance between these two scenes in the community but still tries to stay true to the developers’ initial vision of an accessible party game.

Through both Pokémon and the Super Smash Bros. series, we can see how a game community influences gameplay experience. Pokémon’s simple premise attracts many children who have just started playing games, but its depth in mechanics allows for more complex gameplay. Depending on who players interact with and how they interact, the community can gear a player towards one playstyle or another, shaping their experience into many forms. On the other hand, the community Super Smash Bros. built up in one installment sets up players’ expectations of their experience. As a result, instead of putting forward initial intentions, developers must also be aware of what fans are attracted to—why do they play the game in the first place—in order to tap into an existing fanbase. It shifts the perspective of why developers make games from creating a game of their dreams into constructing a game that people will play.

This leads to the question of whether or not a developer should stay true to their intentions. Developers want their games to be played a specific way because they want their players to experience specific things, so wouldn’t community input ruin the game itself? Depending on what the game is and what are the intentions of those behind the game, it can make or break a player’s experience. So, following that train of thought, what if, instead of developing a game based on a developer’s personal vision, a game is developed based around a community that isn’t necessarily related to games? What would it be like, what would it take, and why would it be a good idea?

The most obvious reason to create such a game would, of course, be money. There is a community that is already invested in something, and to incorporate that something into other mediums is more or less the 101 of selling more using fewer resources. In a reversed setting, it would be akin to games selling merchandise of their franchise in order to gain more income. The game’s story, characters, and its impression is already deep-rooted in players’ minds. Selling merchandise evokes these impressions without actually having to deliver the actual experience. Utilizing existing properties as a base for a game is, essentially, the same thing.

Another probable reason to develop a community-based game would be to expand a brand. As many have argued, the value of games lies in their ability to create an experience. Having players connect with a brand through a unique experience further develops the brand identity and potentially, a player’s loyalty towards the brand. The brand can introduce new ideas they would like to associate themselves with, but these ideas are also developed through player interaction and interpretation of their experience.

I believe that BTS WORLD is a product of the culmination of these reasons.

The game was released on June 26, 2019, and have since tapped into many channels of BTS fans. As a group that has been operating for more than six years, their fans vary in age, race, gender, interests, and most of all, opinions regarding the band themselves. To be able to cater to a majority of the fanbase requires a product that not only showcases the group’s familiar branding but also integrates a unified idea that represents the group as a whole. The group does not originally represent a body of experienced players so mechanics needed to be relatively simple, but it has to have enough challenge, variety, and depth in order to sell itself as a justified part of the brand rather than merely a shameless cash-grab. Fans’ behaviors would also need to be thoroughly investigated in order to deliver a compelling experience. Any one-note gone wrong and the whole game would be under fire—just like with Super Smash Bros., the community has expectations and they expect developers to deliver (because, y’know, they kinda have the money). The game did actually receive strong criticism for their lack of gender-neutral pronouns, although it was more of a fault on the localization team’s side than the original writers, and was later fixed in an update patch. Being able to monitor community response and adapt accordingly is perhaps one of the reasons that the game launched so successfully as well.

So with that said, how did the developers manifest the community’s investment towards BTS into the game? First of all, they incorporated many of the concepts fans associate with BTS. In the game’s narrative, the player becomes BTS’s manager before their debut, progressing through the chapters with hopes of bringing the group together and helping them to perform under a spotlight for the first time. The experience is very reminiscent of the relationship between BTS and their fans: in many ways, their following had presented them with the many opportunities they have today. The narrative may seem like a superficial, fantastical romance delusional fans would eat up, but the game’s narrative goal keeps the player’s motivation in focus. Instead of pursuing a character in a game, the player is pushed to help BTS to achieve their dreams and become who they are today. Progressing through obstacles, both through narrative and gameplay mechanics becomes an expression of experiencing moments together, which is another concept BTS emphasizes to their fans.

BTS also invested a lot of their primary source of income—as in music and performance—into the game, tying it back to their prevalent branding. OSTs, cut scenes, and even the promotional MV was created with a polish no half-hearted work could have. They brought in collaborators for some of the songs and added references to theories about their MVs’ lore, showing that the game is an extension of their craft, which fans already adore. Seeing the developers put so much effort into the game motivates fans to appreciate the hard work and explore the content, trusting that they will be served with a familiar enjoyment they experience through BTS’s pre-existing works.

And then there is the “Another Story” section to the game; a side-story collection featuring individual members of the group. It can be said that the whole section is a quality recreation of fan fiction (which is probably where most of its appeal comes from), but developers also made sure to include themes of personal growth that BTS is known for in each storyline. In that sense, even though players are given the opportunity to experience a closer relationship with each member, they are also reminded that the player’s support through the narrative is pretty much what they have been doing as fans: giving support and helping the group’s members progress through their lives. Being able to relive the same experiences through the side-story helps to tie the game’s different narratives together.

In terms of gameplay, their solution to the whole ordeal was to use trading card gacha mechanics. Simple, keep people invested even through loses because it’s a game of chance, and could easily be assimilated with BTS’s visual identity. Player progression is not necessarily locked to these mechanics, but securing better gacha items helps players progress quickly and obtain lucrative bonuses. I personally think that this system is very familiar to BTS fans who play a violent game of chance to get tickets, buy multiple different versions of their albums to complete their photocard collection, and spend a hefty amount to obtain an object representing the member they connect the most to. The developers basically migrated that system into a virtual game space to structure their potential cash flow.

True to their visual novel style, there are also affinity meters players can fill by interacting with the characters through texts and social media, as well as choosing dialogue that would appeal to each individual member. Although in all honesty, I have not found a single reason that makes the affinity meter have as much of a significance towards the narrative as they stereotypically would (more cut scenes, story progression, etc.) aside from unlocking side-story chapters. I suppose that can be attributed to the fact that it gives a reason for the fans to focus on the main narrative, arguably the experiences that are most relevant to them.

Classic energy-based mechanics are also implemented to encourage (or maybe even force) short bursts of play over a long period of time over hours and hours of short-term play. I personally swore off this type of mechanics for a long time, but I found myself working around it because of one, I am interested in the content, and two, limited energy (or wings, as they are called in-game) isn’t the only resource preventing player progression. After I’ve spent all my wings in one sitting, I could level up cards, increase stat bonuses, or gacha my in-game money away to ensure my progress the next time I can play wings-restricted content. Instead of feeling like I had to wait hours to do barely anything, waiting resembles the feeling of discerning the perfect timing to seize the day. It took me some time to realize this but the gameplay structure fits the narrative of waiting for the perfect chance to debut: working, progressing, and having off-times to rest and recover, patiently anticipating the arrival of the day. Perhaps because of its simpler mechanics, some fans even choose to lay out a spreadsheet and calculate the most optimal way to play the game, further enhancing the game of chance into a more elaborate strategic play.

What is interesting about the game is that it gives players enough wings to progress through the first chapter seamlessly. This gives players the starting satisfaction of the narrative and BTS-related content the game boasts of while providing enough motivation for the players to strive for the end goal. In the middle of a torturous grind to complete their launch event, I found myself repeatedly thinking that I’ve come so far and there is no way that I could (read: would) stop now, finally realizing that they’ve got me hook, line and sinker. Using BTS as the bait as well as the end goal, somehow everything in-between can be tied to a journey necessary to develop one’s soul.

Lastly, and by far an observation I am most keen on seeing through, is how the game’s narrative, design, and mechanics can appeal to the many types of BTS fans. Those who casually enjoy BTS’s music might be attracted to the OSTs and sound design, and those attracted to their visual branding will find exclusive new content by progressing through the game. I have seen a fair share of players who claim that they play the game so they can draw visually stunning four-star cards instead of actually progressing through the game, which funnily enough, looked like they were faring better than players who were more invested in the gameplay. There are also fans who could relate to the more personal side-stories, earning an emotional investment separate from the group’s debut story. The side-stories developed on the idea of who they were and who they could be, but essentially adding another layer of depth to the fans’ understanding of the members’ characters and personalities. As I’ve said above, it wouldn’t be strange to see players who go above and beyond to play the game as efficiently as possible either, calculating all their moves to not let one resource go to waste. And, even to those who doubt the narrative of the game and worry that it is a way for fans to step outside of their boundaries and affirm delusional fantasies that should not be encouraged, can see that those ideas are not at the core of the game. Despite the title of “Manager” and chances to interact more with the members’ virtual persona, the game is, as a whole, created for their fans, and arguably, because of their fans. Each fan’s way of interpreting the narrative and progressing through the game is as valid of an experience as any other. In a way, even though the game was created through the representation of a brand and the community surrounding it, the experience of playing through the game is personal to each player. And that, I believe, is why and how a game developed based on an existing community can work to a developer’s interests.

In conclusion, there are countless ways in which a game community can influence a developer’s vision of a game. Players invested in a specific style of game and play may contribute to the developers’ and other players’ decisions and alter a game’s experience. Sometimes, this may be detrimental as the development of the game becomes a fight of balance between intentions and what will essentially sell. However, if taken advantage of, such in the case of BTS WORLD, the game opens up to the possibilities of an alternate stream of income and development of brand identity in exchange for the community’s investment. Even though the community is not primarily based around gaming, the narrative, design, and mechanics all contribute to unique yet familiar experience fans would not be able to obtain otherwise—the perfect merchandise for their ever-growing brand and fans.

References RandomTens 2014, Is Melee Better Than Brawl? - A Super Smash Bros. Love Story, Youtube, 6 February, viewed 13 July 2019, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhHTF3_pON8>. Scott The Woz 2018, Super Smash Bros. Brawl | The Worst One, Apparently - Scott The Woz, Youtube, 29 July, viewed 13 July 2019, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhRx-FHiIvc>.

[ricardo827262-blog]

The Regulation Of Expectation.

The number of opportunities are actually people chose into leadership stances without truly knowing just what their own management anticipates of them? Know the character from the individual you are actually managing to determine how he could answer prior to trying to utilize this technique as a form from regulating expectations. However - offered 50 years from stress in the hunt for gravitational surges - exactly what they discovered exceeded desire: immediately, in the mutual failure of pair of black holes, they could possibly eavesdrop on the physical violence of the universe. This will definitely mean that some of these assumptions associate with ones early childhood years. Bear in mind likewise that people base their requirements on numerous elements like your physical premiums, your surroundings, and so on Linearity of assumption assisted our company compute an apparently complicated anticipated value as well as in a very basic technique (albeit after using a creative idea - yet these will certainly end up being habit with more practice)! Provides the assumption from expr under the presumption that x1, x2, ... follows the multivariate distribution dist. Removal your own self coming from away from the guests chair and also into the motorists chair in your own 'cars and truck from desires.' Make a program to evaluate your requirements right now, just before the added worry of holiday season stress holds. Later on, you might should host an appointment along with several of your salesmen and also, for the very first time, clearly interact your expectations. Historical understanding tells our company that when two or even even more folks are congregated keeping the exact same expectation and goal, their sign power is actually considerably amplified. Given that others are actually believing that you are capable of fulfilling their expectations. Occasionally it's an affordable thing to do that, however regularly it is actually not considering that our company have unreasonably higher, as well as sometimes merely plain inappropriate, assumptions from ourselves and those around our team. When individuals register for your checklist, they discuss personal details with the assumption of getting one thing useful and also rate of interest for the swap. Yet when all those assumptions and also requirements are gone, what is left is the pure unconditional passion that is actually regularly found below it all. Topics checked out a total from 71 sentences over 3 blocks (as detailed in Table 2 ). RC and also MV paragraphes were actually produced that complied with the same template as the critical products coming from Practice 1. 2 speculative checklists were constructed for each group that counter-balanced the disorders (unambiguous vs. unclear) for the sentence kind (MV or RC) used within each block (indicated in Dining table 2 ). For the RC-First group, items in Block 1 included 16 distinct verbs. This approach entails assessing the particular value of the equity through exploring relevant financial & economical aspects. Earlier mobile was introduced in the market as a style declaration as well as a luxurious product, along with minimal assumption that day this will end up being essential need like various other house appliances at home like tv and also refrigerator. This rears the inquiry from how much time subject matters' adjusted assumptions are maintained. View how the recently managed expectations as well as objectives operate in your lifespan and also just how you feel as you perform the much smaller objectives heading to your outlook. The requirement and going along with attitude that you pack is actually likely just what your teen will definitely deliver in come back. If you select way too much from an assumption you may be actually discouraged considering that you are actually certainly not permitting your own self to become available to acquire the ideal responses only the ones that reasonable to you. Order your note pad as well as video camera as well as begin having REQUIREMENT ECONOMIC CLIMATE notes and also photos. I discovered that there were coatings from assumptions I needed to look at. If somebody informed me they were actually going to do something and really did not, I preferred to believe that I could possibly be an exemplary target. Because of the context this offers concerning exactly how intimacy functions and just what this obtains, I like this definition. The Requirement from Task is actually aimed to make a setting where a pupil who has actually acquired medical focus because of an alcohol and/or drug-related accident will definitely modify their potential habits. When again approach its own top can easily cleanse out a client off his whole holding, purchasing such inventories located on the desire that this are going to. The cash delivered is actually below your requirements and a minimal number you have prepared on your own - this work is most likely not the most ideal suitable for you. I soon pertained to understand that it was actually impossible to stay in community and also not possess requirements. He has actually sent out the Holy Feeling to survive on the within you to help you in to all of his honest truth and to carry you to all his requirements that he eats you. I think that is actually a courteous condition for the means individuals feel when they have bought something and also the product or the encounter did certainly not meet their desires. When on the podium to start the second day from the league's media days, Herman failed to even wait on reporters to inquire him about requirements for the Longhorns. For this reason, totally free excellent desire expositions are actually extremely simple to deal with if you follow some directions for composing the necessary parts of an exposition, all you have to perform is actually to read through the fantastic requirement book, research that and also understand the basic motifs of guide, to ensure you could take care of various motifs with various introduction. You could and ought to have to expect the possible- for YOU to ask for absolutely nothing below preparing high-realistic-healthy expectations from as well as for yourself, and that you count on people in your life that could encounter them. Once could after that experience that they are a slave to the repercussions of their requirements and certainly not understand that these expectations are mostly happening as a result of how their ego thoughts functions. In order to lessen the expectation void as well as enhance decision‐making by monetary claim customers, the outcomes of the research sustain the selection from the long‐form analysis report, enlargement from the bookkeeping framework, fortifying of the accountant's honesty, and also ultimately teaching customers on the nature and also features from review. If you enjoyed this post and you would such as to obtain even more information relating to yellow pages online qld; url, kindly visit the web site. An additional direct examination of the speculation that linguistic expectations are actually molded by individual, distinctive linguistic experience appears by Wells et al. (2009) 28 In their cutting-edge study, subjects went to the laboratory numerous opportunities as well as were actually exposed to a large number of object-extracted family member stipulations. Several chooses frequently produce lot of tight spots before us. We improve our concerns through visualizing the outcome from not meeting some ones assumptions. When the functionality appraisal points are actually not predicted as each his assumption, numerous opportunities it is a rude surprise to the employee.

[mbaljeetsingh]

What Is WP-CLI? A Beginner’s Guide

WP-CLI has been around for quite some time now (circa 2011) and has steadily gained momentum in the WordPress developer community. But what is it exactly, and how can you use it in your WordPress workflow?

The idea behind WP-CLI is that it allows you to interact with, and manage, WordPress sites via a command line interface. According to the official documentation, it's a command line alternative to using the traditional WordPress admin user interface.

The command line approach makes sense as you can typically do things on a computer much quicker via the command line, and the WP-CLI is no different. If you've ever used the command line on Windows, or the Terminal on macOS, then you'll be right at home using the WP-CLI.

However, this is a tutorial aimed at beginners, so don't worry if you're not a command line guru. If you've never used the WP-CLI or the command line before, then you're in good company and definitely in the right place!

Before we go any further, I've a confession to make. As I hinted above, I've never actually used the WP-CLI before! I've known about it for quite a while and have been itching to try it out, but never gotten around to actually installing it and using it. Until now, that is…

So we'll be literally in this together and working out how to use the WP-CLI both as complete beginners. I'm really interested to see how the WP-CLI fits into my existing WordPress development workflow and if it can help boost productivity.

Are you ready to get started? OK then, let's go!

Installing WP-CLI

Installing the WP-CLI for the first time can seem a bit daunting. I had to read the installation instructions a couple of times before it made sense. But, as it turns out, it isn't that difficult once you understand exactly what's required.

To start with, we need to get the latest version of WP-CLI. The recommended way to do this is to download the WP-CLI as a Phar file via the command line. This is just a PHP archive file containing all the PHP files needed for the WP-CLI to run, all wrapped up in a single convenient file ready for us to download.

Installing on macOS

Open up a terminal window and type in the following:

$ curl -O http://ift.tt/1yRwCPC

This will download the WP-CLI Phar file to your computer. Let’s check everything’s OK by testing the WP-CLI archive.

php wp-cli.phar --info

You should see output similar to the following:

PHP binary: /usr/bin/php PHP version: 5.6.30 php.ini used: WP-CLI root dir: http://ift.tt/2qyFjzB; WP-CLI packages dir: WP-CLI global config: WP-CLI project config: WP-CLI version: 1.1.0

To make using the WP-CLI more convenient, we want to be able to run it from anywhere and via a shorter command such as wp rather than having to type in wp-cli.phar every time.

We can do this via the following two commands:

chmod +x wp-cli.phar sudo mv wp-cli.phar /usr/local/bin/wp

Now try to run wp --info in a terminal window (pointing to any directory). If you see the same output as earlier when you ran php wp-cli.phar --info then you’re in business. WP-CLI is set up and ready for use!

There are other ways you can install WP-CLI, such as via Composer, so you might want to check out the alternative methods if you're struggling with the recommended default method.

Installing on Windows

Installing on Windows is slightly more involved, as PHP isn’t available from the command line by default. You can install PHP manually, but the easiest way is to use a local development server such as MAMP because PHP is automatically installed as part of the overall package.

Once PHP is available on your system you'll need to find the path to the PHP executable and make it available globally (this is covered in detail in the PHP Manual).

With PHP installed and available from any directory, download the wp-cli.phar file manually and save it to a folder such as c:\wp-cli. To be able to run the WP-CLI via the wp command just like we did on macOS, create a batch file called wp.bat inside the same folder you saved the wp-cli.phar archive file.

Add this to the batch file:

@ECHO OFF php "c:/wp-cli/wp-cli.phar" %*

Finally, add c:\wp-cli to your global path:

setx path "%path%;c:\wp-cli"

The WP-CLI should now be available from any command line window.

An Even Easier Way!

If you’re feeling a little bit lost right now then I may have a lifeline for you. If you’re a DesktopServer user then WP-CLI is extremely easy to set up. Since DesktopServer 3.8.2, a new developer plugin is available which installs the WP-CLI on all your development sites!

Once it's activated, you can access the WP-CLI via the main DesktopServer site list, or the WordPress Toolbar.

If you do have access to DesktopServer then I'd definitely recommend installing the WP-CLI this way, as it's by far the simplest setup method. I've used DesktopServer for the last couple of years, so I'm lucky that WP-CLI installation was a breeze for me.

Using WP-CLI Remotely

This tutorial is aimed at beginners who are new to the WP-CLI, using a local WordPress installation. However, if you want to execute commands on a remote server (i.e. a live WordPress site) then you can still follow along if you have WP-CLI installed.

You'll need to be able to connect to the server via an SSH client and have your hosting account login details handy. Once connected and logged in, you'll be able to use all the WP-CLI commands in this tutorial.

It's worth contacting your host to see if they support the WP-CLI as installing it will be much simpler.

Testing the Waters

Hopefully by now you’ll have the WP-CLI installed, in which case you can relax a bit as you’ve just done the hardest part!

Open up a command line window in the root directory of the WordPress website you want to work with, which should look similar to the screenshot below.

One advantage to using DesktopServer is that it automatically opens a command window pointing to the correct root WordPress site directory. I thought that was a nice touch, especially if you're working on multiple sites.

Let's now test our installation of WP-CLI. This is our first command…

wp --info

PHP binary: C:\xampplite\php\php.exe PHP version: 5.5.24 php.ini used: C:\xampplite\php\php.ini WP-CLI root dir: C:\xampplite\ds-plugins\ds-cli\vendor\wp-cli\wp-cli WP-CLI packages dir: WP-CLI global config: WP-CLI project config: WP-CLI version: 1.0.0

So, to access the WP-CLI, you type wp followed by a command and/or parameter. If wp is entered, you just get a long list of available commands and parameters (which I won't show here, but try it yourself).

Our first command contained a parameter. The difference is that a parameter is preceded by two hyphens. The key to the WP-CLI is that almost all commands contain sub-commands (and parameters). This hierarchy is very well organized and is easy to understand and follow.

All commands follow a similar structure, so once you have mastered a couple of commands you'll find it easy to expand to learning more commands. The rest of this tutorial will be about learning some of the commands and parameters available in the WP-CLI.

Let's take a look at a few basic WP-CLI commands, and their output, to get a feel for how it works.

First let's get the current version of WP-CLI we're running.

wp --version

WP-CLI 1.0.0

We can run a similar command to find the current version of WordPress.

wp core version

4.7.3

How about a list of all the themes currently installed?

wp theme list

+-----------------+----------+--------+---------+ | name | status | update | version | +-----------------+----------+--------+---------+ | twentyfifteen | inactive | none | 1.7 | | twentyseventeen | active | none | 1.1 | | twentysixteen | inactive | none | 1.3 | | twentyten | inactive | none | 2.2 | +-----------------+----------+--------+---------+

Notice how we get useful information too, such as the status of a theme and its version, as well as if an update is available.

We can do the same for plugins.

wp plugin list

+-------------+----------+--------+------------+ | name | status | update | version | +-------------+----------+--------+------------+ | akismet | inactive | none | 3.3 | | hello | inactive | none | 1.6 | | theme-check | inactive | none | 20160523.1 | +-------------+----------+--------+------------+

We can make use of parameters to refine the list of plugins.

wp plugin list --fields=name,version

+-------------+------------+ | name | version | +-------------+------------+ | akismet | 3.3 | | hello | 1.6 | | theme-check | 20160523.1 | +-------------+------------+

Here we have a parameter that requires one or more values to be specified. This is very common, and you'll get used to this very quickly. In this case, we listed only the fields we wanted to show (name, version).

We can also only show plugins that fulfill specific criteria.

wp plugin list --status=inactive

+-------------+----------+--------+------------+ | name | status | update | version | +-------------+----------+--------+------------+ | akismet | inactive | none | 3.3 | | hello | inactive | none | 1.6 | | theme-check | inactive | none | 20160523.1 | +-------------+----------+--------+------------+

This simply outputted all plugins again as they are all currently inactive. We'll change this shortly when we begin to enter commands to manage plugins (and themes).

You may have noticed in the commands above that there are two command words used (plugin and list). If you type in wp plugin on its own, this won't run a command but list all the sub-commands of wp plugin. Try it yourself.

wp plugin

usage: wp plugin activate [<plugin>...] [--all] [--network] or: wp plugin deactivate [<plugin>...] [--uninstall] [--all] [--network] or: wp plugin delete <plugin>... or: wp plugin get <plugin> [--field=<field>] [--fields=<fields>] [--format=<format>] or: wp plugin install <plugin|zip|url>... [--version=<version>] [--force] [--activate] [--activate-network] or: wp plugin is-installed <plugin> or: wp plugin list [--<field>=<value>] [--field=<field>] [--fields=<fields>] [--format=<format>] or: wp plugin path [<plugin>] [--dir] or: wp plugin search <search> [--page=<page>] [--per-page=<per-page>] [--field=<field>] [--fields=<fields>] [ --format=<format>] or: wp plugin status [<plugin>] or: wp plugin toggle <plugin>... [--network] or: wp plugin uninstall <plugin>... [--deactivate] [--skip-delete] or: wp plugin update [<plugin>...] [--all] [--format=<format>] [--version=<version>] [--dry-run] See 'wp help plugin <command>' for more information on a specific command.

So the list command is just one of multiple sub-commands available for the 'parent' plugin command. Many other commands work in a similar way.

Type in wp core and wp theme to see a list of their sub-commands too.

You can use multiple parameters on the same line too. For example, if we wanted to list plugins with updates available, and restrict outputted fields, we can combine parameters onto a single line as follows:

wp plugin list --fields=name,version --update=available

By default, you get results of a WP-CLI command outputted in table format, but this can easily be changed to JSON or comma separated value (CSV) instead by using the --format parameter.

wp plugin list --format=json

[{"name":"akismet","status":"inactive","update":"none","version":"3.3"},{"name":"hello","status":"inactive","update":"none","version":"1.6"},{"name":"theme-check","status":"inactive","update":"none","version":"20160523.1"}]

wp plugin list --format=csv

name,status,update,version akismet,inactive,none,3.3 hello,inactive,none,1.6 theme-check,inactive,none,20160523.1

Now that we have a handle on how to enter basic WP-CLI commands, let's see how we can do some useful WordPress admin tasks via the command line.

Plugins and Themes

The real power of the WP-CLI becomes clear when you start manipulating WordPress via the command line. In this section we'll see just how easy it is to install/delete, and activate/deactivate plugins and themes via the WP-CLI.

For plugins and themes hosted in the WordPress repository, simply enter the name after the install command as follows:

wp plugin install jetpack

Installing Jetpack by WordPress.com (4.8.2) Downloading install package from http://ift.tt/2q3tIW4; Unpacking the package... Installing the plugin... Plugin installed successfully. Success: Installed 1 of 1 plugins.

Let's output a list of plugins again, to make sure Jetpack was installed, but this time just list the plugin name.

wp list plugin --fields=name

+-------------+ | name | +-------------+ | akismet | | hello | | jetpack | | theme-check | +-------------+

We can install themes in a similar way:

wp theme install twentyeleven

Installing Twenty Eleven (2.5) Downloading install package from http://ift.tt/2qyDwdS; Unpacking the package... Installing the theme... Theme installed successfully. Success: Installed 1 of 1 themes.

And let's just check the Twenty Eleven theme was installed correctly:

wp theme list

+-----------------+----------+--------+---------+ | name | status | update | version | +-----------------+----------+--------+---------+ | twentyeleven | inactive | none | 2.5 | | twentyfifteen | inactive | none | 1.7 | | twentyseventeen | active | none | 1.1 | | twentysixteen | inactive | none | 1.3 | | twentyten | inactive | none | 2.2 | +-----------------+----------+--------+---------+

For plugins and themes hosted elsewhere, simply enter the full path to the zip file. The plugin/theme name is actually the slug, which is handy to remember if your plugin/theme name is made up of more than one word.

For example, to install the Theme Check plugin from the WordPress repository:

wp plugin install theme-check

To activate a plugin, use the activate command.

wp plugin activate jetpack

Or you can install and activate a plugin all on one line.

wp plugin install jetpack --activate

To delete a plugin, use the delete command.

wp plugin delete jetpack

Notice that you didn't have to deactivate the plugin before we deleted it, as you have to do in the WordPress admin. The install/activate/delete process is the same for themes.

Posts and Pages

There are various WP-CLI commands to manage any type of post, including a way to mass generate posts.

First, let's output the current list of posts.

wp post list

+----+---------+---------+---------+---------+ | ID | post_ti | post_na | post_da | post_st | | | tle | me | te | atus | +----+---------+---------+---------+---------+ | 1 | Hello w | hello-w | 2017-04 | publish | | | orld! | orld | -04 09: | | | | | | 18:12 | | +----+---------+---------+---------+---------+

Now, let's generate some posts.

wp post generate --count=5

Generating posts 100% [=============] 0:03 / 0:02

Let's take a look again at the updated post list.

wp post list

+----+---------+---------+---------+---------+ | ID | post_ti | post_na | post_da | post_st | | | tle | me | te | atus | +----+---------+---------+---------+---------+ | 32 | Post 2 | post-2 | 2017-04 | publish | | | | | -14 19: | | | | | | 01:24 | | | 33 | Post 3 | post-3 | 2017-04 | publish | | | | | -14 19: | | | | | | 01:24 | | | 34 | Post 4 | post-4 | 2017-04 | publish | | | | | -14 19: | | | | | | 01:24 | | | 35 | Post 5 | post-5 | 2017-04 | publish | | | | | -14 19: | | | | | | 01:24 | | | 36 | Post 6 | post-6 | 2017-04 | publish | | | | | -14 19: | | | | | | 01:24 | | | 1 | Hello w | hello-w | 2017-04 | publish | | | orld! | orld | -04 09: | | | | | | 18:12 | | +----+---------+---------+---------+---------+

As you can see, five new posts have been created, each one with a generic title and no post content. We can generate any number of posts and for any post type.

wp post generate --post_type=page --count=3

Generating posts 100% [=============] 0:02 / 0:03

This generates three new pages with generic titles and no page content. I'm not too sure about how useful mass post creation is. However, it could be pretty useful for testing purposes.

wp post list --post_type=page

+----+---------+---------+---------+---------+ | ID | post_ti | post_na | post_da | post_st | | | tle | me | te | atus | +----+---------+---------+---------+---------+ | 42 | Page 2 | post-2 | 2017-04 | publish | | | | | -14 19: | | | | | | 06:21 | | | 43 | Page 3 | post-3 | 2017-04 | publish | | | | | -14 19: | | | | | | 06:21 | | | 44 | Page 4 | post-4 | 2017-04 | publish | | | | | -14 19: | | | | | | 06:21 | | | 22 | Title | title | 2017-04 | publish | | | | | -07 15: | | | | | | 42:27 | | | 2 | Sample | sample- | 2017-04 | publish | | | Page | page | -04 09: | | | | | | 18:12 | | +----+---------+---------+---------+---------+

If we want to create individual posts then we do have full control over post content. Let's create a single post with a specific title and sample content.

wp post create --post_title='Just a Post' --post_content='I wandered lonely as a cloud.' --post_status='publish'

Success: Created post 45.

This creates a post with a specific title, and content. By default, posts will be created with draft status, so if we want them to be published straight away then we need to set the post_status parameter to publish.

Creating a page with content is just as easy—simply set the post_type parameter to page (this is set to post by default).

wp post create --post_type=page --post_title='Welcome to a New Dawn' --post_content='Read on for some amazing insights.' --post_status=publish

We can also update existing posts by using the update command.

wp post update 45 --post_content='I just updated the post content via the WP-CLI.' --post_status='publish'

Success: Updated post 45.

Make sure the post ID is correct; otherwise, you'll get a Warning: Invalid post ID error message. And again, you can update any post type, not just posts!

As you'd expect, you can delete posts via the WP-CLI too.

wp post delete 45

Success: Trashed post 45.

This will send the post to trash. If you want to bypass this and just permanently delete a post then add the --force parameter.

wp post delete 45 --force

Overall, I think it's pretty intuitive to manage posts via the WP-CLI. It doesn't feel like I'd have to remember lots of details every time I want to create or update a post.

This is great as it means I'm far more likely to keep coming back to the WP-CLI rather than sneaking back to using the cosy WordPress admin user interface I'm more accustomed to.

WordPress Comments

Managing comments is pretty similar to posts. To see all the comments on your site, use this command:

wp comment list

+------------+-----------------+---------------------+------------------+-----------------------+-------------------------+ | comment_ID | comment_post_ID | comment_date | comment_approved | comment_author | comment_author_email | +------------+-----------------+---------------------+------------------+-----------------------+-------------------------+ | 1 | 1 | 2017-04-04 09:18:12 | 1 | A WordPress Commenter | wapuu@wordpress.example | +------------+-----------------+---------------------+------------------+-----------------------+-------------------------+

Be careful, though—this might take a while if you have a lot of comments on your site!

To create a comment, use the create command we're now familiar with.

wp comment create --comment_post_ID=1 --comment_content='Just adding my 2 cents worth!'

Success: Created comment 24.

wp comment list

+------------+-----------------+---------------------+------------------+-----------------------+-------------------------+ | comment_ID | comment_post_ID | comment_date | comment_approved | comment_author | comment_author_email | +------------+-----------------+---------------------+------------------+-----------------------+-------------------------+ | 24 | 1 | 2017-04-14 19:24:45 | 1 | | | | 1 | 1 | 2017-04-04 09:18:12 | 1 | A WordPress Commenter | wapuu@wordpress.example | +------------+-----------------+---------------------+------------------+-----------------------+-------------------------+

Notice that to generate a comment, we needed to specify an ID of an existing post, as well as the comment content.

Just like we did for posts, mass comments can also be easily generated.

wp comment generate --count=3 --post_id=1

Generating comments 100% [==========] 0:02 / 0:03

wp comment list

+------------+-----------------+---------------------+------------------+-----------------------+-------------------------+ | comment_ID | comment_post_ID | comment_date | comment_approved | comment_author | comment_author_email | +------------+-----------------+---------------------+------------------+-----------------------+-------------------------+ | 26 | 1 | 2017-04-14 19:27:54 | 1 | | | | 27 | 1 | 2017-04-14 19:27:54 | 1 | | | | 25 | 1 | 2017-04-14 19:27:53 | 1 | | | | 24 | 1 | 2017-04-14 19:24:45 | 1 | | | | 1 | 1 | 2017-04-04 09:18:12 | 1 | A WordPress Commenter | wapuu@wordpress.example | +------------+-----------------+---------------------+------------------+-----------------------+-------------------------+

Make sure to specify the count parameter if you don't want 100 dummy comments generated, as 100 is the default!

To delete a comment, simply use the following command with the ID of your comment and optionally the --force parameter if you want to skip sending it to trash.

wp comment delete 26 --force

Success: Deleted comment 26.

Remember, though, the Id here is a comment ID and not a post ID.

Recommended WP-CLI Resources

That's it for our basic introduction to the WP-CLI. Below is a list of resources if you want to dig a little deeper and expand your knowledge.

Conclusion

We've just scratched the surface of what you can do with the WP-CLI. But hopefully, you'll now have enough confidence to delve deeper into the WP-CLI and experiment with more advanced commands.

We learned what the WP-CLI is and how useful it can be in your day-to-day WordPress development. Even though the commands we covered were rather basic, they were still pretty useful!

This was the first time I'd personally used the WP-CLI, and in retrospect I can honestly say I don't know how I managed without it. It's definitely something I see myself using a lot more.

I'd like to get some experience with much more complex commands next to really see what you can do with the WP-CLI.

Some users, particularly beginners, could be put off by the default recommended installation process, though. This is a shame as the WP-CLI is extremely useful and all WordPress developers should at least check it out. 

It's great fun, as well as being useful. If you have access to DesktopServer then definitely use that to install WP-CLI—it's really a no-brainer.

Finally, if you're interested in more WordPress development, don't forget to check out the other WordPress material we have here on Envato Tuts+.

Do you already use the WP-CLI, or was this your first time experimenting with it? If so, how did you get on? I'd love to hear your comments!

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