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rosyluv · 4 years ago

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—Chapter one: Avenge club.

Summary: Nick Fury joins a group of misfits in S.H.I.E.L.D academy together, to help him stop chaos and injustice happening with-in students in school, thinking that the students he chose are the most adequate. However his choosing only backfires.

Warning: none. Just rlly bad attempts at comedy.

✩ Steven “Steve” G. Rogers.

‎✪ James Buchanan “Bucky” Barnes.

‎⧗ Natalia “Nat/Natasha” Romanoff.

➸ Clinton “Clint” Barton.

𓅃 Samuel “Sam” Thomas Wilson.

‎⎊ Anthony “Tony” Edward Stark.

✲ James “Rhodey” Rhodes.

✧ Virginia “Pepper” Potts.

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✰ There’s obviously a whole lot other characters in the story with boards too but ofc tumblr bitch won’t let me put more than ten so �� ✰ enjoy!

——

“There was an idea, Stark knows this- called the avengers club. The idea is to bring together a group of remarkable people to see if they would become something more, when needed them to fight the battles that we never cou— ”

“Is he doing it again?’’ Sam leaned over Steve and whispered drowning out what Nick is saying. Steve ignored him to listen better to Fury.

“Is he quoting that comic book again?’’ Steve knew what Sam was talking about. In more than one occasion they would enter his office and he would hurriedly put a comic book away –something about earth’s mightiest heroes or something - clear his throat and adjust his shoulders. Nick in all dark clothes, a series almost terrifying face on and a series, unreadable attitude, was a first-class nerd. Who would’ve known? Only them probably.

“So, what you want us to do; is start an anti-bullying club and help people getting bullied in school?’’ Steve recapped what Nick said a minute ago.

Well when Nick Fury: Director and head of the Academy summoned Steve, Natasha, Bucky, Sam, Tony, Pepper, Rhodey, Wanda, Pietro, Clint, Thor, Val and Bruce. He didn’t exactly explain what’s the reason, And since they all frequented his office if not every week then every day, they thought it they had again done something bad. Like maybe it had to do with Clint getting beaten up at 6am behind the school today. So obviously they would be confused that this is why Nick summoned them. Nick was getting tired of their shenanigans, especially with the council putting pressure on the academy, it being the beginning of a new school year, this idea was made in favor of making them useful and at the same time putting a leash on them. Well. It has more depth than that but he’ll get into that eventually.

‘’Tony you didn’t tell us about this. Why?’’ Pepper frowned at Tony.

‘’I honestly didn’t know he was serious.’’ Tony drawled out, narrowing his eyes, studying Nick.

‘’So, no one is going to comment on that passionate speech?’’ Sam joked.

‘’Yes, that is the idea.’’ Nick nods, ignoring the others. “I have been discussing it with The council for a while.’’

“Nick,’’ Nat begins, earning a light frown from him at the usage of his first name, “what do you want us to do exactly? Put up signs that say: ‘Don’t bully, be friends.’ Because those things are embarrassing and a waste of time.’’ She says calmly, pressing an ice pack on Clint’s bruised eye.

‘’Yeah and the council doesn’t know shit,’’ Clint says, ushering Natasha’s hand aside. His bruise shading purple now. “We don’t need an anti-bullying club.’’ He stated confidently.

Nick tilted his head and narrowed his eye; Clint could almost hear him saying ‘bullshit’, almost.

—5 minutes ago

So, Clint wasn’t the smartest one in the group, or better; the safest. In translation: “reckless, thoughtless, and insanely, good at ruining your life.’’ As Nat and Steve would say.

And if ruining his life is getting his back thrashed over the wall outside the main school building in some weird ally, he -somehow- always ended up in every two weeks or so, in the same situation then he was doing pretty good at that.

‘’You know, bullying is so last year dude- ‘’ he began.

‘’Where the fuck is my jacket?’’

‘’What jacket?’’ That prompted a punch to Clint’s face. His eye throbbed.

‘’My jersey jacket, the one you stole from my party last Saturday.’’

‘’Dude, I didn’t steal your jacket.’’ Well to be fair Clint did go to the party last Saturday, and he did drink, a lot. So, he himself wasn’t sure of anything that happened that night, but what he is sure of, is that he would never steal anything, especially a jersey that belongs to the school’s top basketball athlet, Nat would kill him.

“Loki said you’d lie.’’

‘’Lok- what?’’ Clint blinked, then hissed when his eye ached. ‘’Loki Odinson? What does he have to do with this.’’ He recognizes the voice of the guy in front of him he just can’t exactly be sure, and the pain in his eyes are making it hard to concentrate, being sleep deprived and accused of stealing doesn’t help his fuzzy mind either.

“He saw you taking my jacket and leave,’’ He gritted, Looming over Clint.

“And you believed him? Loki? You believed Loki?” he asked amused, almost laughing.

“Why would he lie?’’ he threw his arms up.

“Why would he- ‘’ Clint half whispered like he was so shocked at this guy’s stupidity, he actually had to repeat what he said to understand that he really doesn’t know anything about Loki odinson.

“Have you meet Loki?!’’ he asked genuinely, voice getting higher.

‘’I don’t give a shit about who’s lying and who’s not, my jacket is still missing and if you don’t get it by tomorrows basketball practice, I’ll fucking report you.’’ He spat.

Present time.

‘’Aww, c’mon Nick, that guy’s wack, he wasn’t bullying me, he can’t even punch- owie.” Nat pressed at the bruise a little harder. Intentionally probably, Steve thought.

‘’You won’t just be an anti-bullying club.’’ Nick argued. “You’ll also arrange and be in charge of the dances, the festivals, the field trips.’’

‘’So, like a student council club.’’ Steve drawled, like he was explaining the words to himself and Nick.

“Almost, Not exactly,’’ Nick said, one corner of his lips quirked up and one eye narrowed, creasing under. He looked like he was arranging his words.

“You’ll be official representatives of the school, that’s why you’ll host and arrange the events. You’ll welcome the new kids and supervise on important things, like debate and take student suggestions and at times even football games. And, most importantly, show awareness to not only bullying but the things people normally turn a blind eye to. Students mental health and necessities, you’ll support all communities and stand by kids in school who are given a hard time and excluded, make this a place for no discrimination on all grounds such as sexuality, race, disability, creed, color and wealth. In a way you’ll be the center of everything; the face of the academy.’’

Silence.

Then a little more silence.

Then Tony scoffs. “You make it sound as if it’s a nation not a school.”

Rhodey lets out a breath agreeing with Tony. “Yeah, and Do you really think we can live up to your expectations?’’ he scowls.

Nick shows a buzzled face, Rhodey elaborates: “I mean, this sounds like a big responsibility, and we’re not exactly that responsible, we’re still learning things and Clint practically gets bullied every day,’’ he frowns at Clint who has one eye closed, and the other half open, holding up peace signs.

“What Rhodey wants to say is: Why did you choose us out of a whole other lot better options?’’ Sam explains.

“Yeah and it’s 2020, bullying is irrelevant, instead people just hate on themselves, we all do it!’’ Clint explains, and immediately gets hit in the head by Nat who keeps a monotone expression on. Sam puts another ice pack on Clint’s head.

Ignoring Clint, they go back to the conversation. “Nick, you said it yourself a hundred times; you don’t really trust us.’’ Steve says. “So why are you handling us this?’’

“Yeah it’s making me anxious.’’ Bruce fidgets.

“Bruce everything makes you anxious.’’ Valkyrie corrects.

Fury groans lowly and mumbles something under his breath about difficult kids. “As much as it pains me to say it. You’re the best choices I have.’’

All of their eyes widened, for two reasons. 1st Nicks Fury is never nice, especially to: “What’ll be the death of him.’’ And 2nd, they didn’t exactly believe in themselves being the best at this? Nick must provide some reasonable points or they would just consider this a last-minute decision or that they’re his last option or something.

Nick must’ve noticed the second reason (and ignored the first reason) because with a long sigh, he began. “Steve, remember last year, Will Hanks, that kid who didn’t get accepted in the golf team, because the leader was a homophobe?’’ Steve nodded. “You reported him to me and I kicked him out of the team, and Will is now 1st class champion of the school team with two silver medals.’’

Steve looks like he’s going to say something. “Val,’’ Nick begins. “Remember Last year? Maya Perez that girl that was excluded of the student lock-in night, because she didn’t know how to speak English well. And you locked those girls out of school and welcomed her in?’’ Val made a face.

“Pepper, Tony and Thor, you three have become sort of role models- ‘’

“Icons.’’ Tony corrected.

Nick ignores him. “The three of you have great influence on the kids who go here. They would do anything that you do in a heartbeat. Say the things you say, believe the things you believe in- ‘’

“Your point?’’

“My point is:” he adds the same amount of sarcasm Tony added. “They’re affected by your status, imagine you three beginning to fix the bad things happening in school, putting a stop to them. Using this reputation you have on making good things in school. They would eventually start doing the same too.’’ They didn’t argue, except Tony, who looks like he has a ton of things to say.

“Rhodey and Bruce, you two are smart and fair and you know what to do in inconvenient and hard situations, you have a sense of … adultery, you would be considered the most responsible and reasonable.’’

“And I’ve also noticed some blunt physical bullying.’’ Nick continues, slowly turning to face Clint. Clint blinked pressing his lips together.

“So, I also have a plan for that.’’

‘’Which is?’’ Nat asks.

“Val, Nat, Bucky, Steve and Thor. You guys have the ability to stand up for these bullies that beat up and take advantage of weaker kids, the things that go unnoticed to teachers I’m sure you see them. You have guts and are -weirdly- super strong.’’

“Clint, Pietro, you two are excelled sports champions, Pietro, I have never seen anyone run a track as fast as you, you’re the school’s top athletes.’’ Nick says. “Clint, I know you can be responsible and i know you can quit being a dumbass and start going back to practice.’’

“Sam, Wanda, the two of you are brilliant at consoling. Remember, that girl Anna, who had a serious leg injury and couldn’t heal because of emotional distress, she felt that she failed her gymnastic team because she couldn’t win. You two talked to her and reassured and eased her into healing mentally before physically.’’ Wanda scratched her head. Sam bit the inside of his cheek.

“And finally,” he began, tiredly. “Steve, you have a strong moral code, you know what’s right and what’s wrong, being the football team captain and on top of all school activities, people look up to you. You make good decisions and can guide and lead people.’’ The room was dead silent by the time he finished; you could hear a pin drop.

“Okay that’s a great motivational speech I’ll give you that,’’ Tony began. “But, that’s sadly 20 percent of what’s good, the other 80 percent are bad things. This is easily a stupid idea. We can’t force people to change, schools will always have bad kids.’’ Tony argues.

“And why exactly are you here, you only care about yourself and your own appearance.’’ Steve points out. “Take that leather jacker off what are?’’

“Sorry I don’t wear my church pants to school.” Tony shoots back looking at Steve’s khaki pants, flannel shirt, the academy symbol imprinted on the left side, (because god forbid they didn’t have the logo on their clothes) then a red and blue football jersey jacket. And Tony is looking at his outfit with so much disbelief, Pepper rolls her eyes at him.

Val shakes her head, frowning. “What the fuck are they talking about? That was so random.”

“You people are so petty,’’ Thor chuckles, his accent deepening. “ … and tiny.’’ He frowns.

“What do you mean you people?” Clint exclaims.

“Sorry to stay this is very stupid, like Stark said.’’ Thor says, leaving the office.

He opens the door and stops dead in his tracks. Nick must’ve added some intense sound proof doors because they were immune to the commotion happening outside. Every kid in school was fighting, the hallways were a mess, the old posters they had up made a new place on the floor and torn, pepper gasped when she saw (she worked two days on those) and in the middle of it all was-

“Loki!’’ Thor shouts, already angry at his brother, literally standing in the middle of the chaos. “What. Did. You. Do?’’

“Nothing.’’ He says, offended.

Nat runs after Thor and stops a girl– Beth who’s standing away looking nervous and anxious (obviously), Nat begins to ask her what is happening. She explains shakily: ‘‘All the exam report cards got mixed up and some are torn in the garbage, people who passed now have Fs, and it’s all a mess! they’re fighting because they think one of the them did it.’’ The girl said, nervously.

Nat and Tony and all the others hurriedly look in their bags for their own report cards, which they just received this morning, only forgot to look at when Nick had summoned them.

‘’I got a D- on history?! No way that’s true. I studied so hard for that test.’’ Steve says, then he checks the rest of the subjects. “Well at least I got an A+ in math.’’

Tony scrunches his card. “Yeah there’s definitely something wrong with these report cards.’’ He hurries to say.

“I got an F in biology?!’’ Bruce gasps.

“Okay … ” Tony drawls out. “This is just so stupid. All of the information in the report cards are saved in the student school data base so it’s not that big of a deal.’’ He says, confused.

“I don’t think they know that; some misunderstanding must’ve happened.’’ Beth tells them.

“Did you do this?’’ Thor asks Loki, or more of yells.

“Maybe I did. Maybe I didn’t.” He coons.

“So you did. Why?!”

“‘Cause, I was bored.’’ He says, like it’s the most reasonable argument.

“This is why mom is always disappointed in you!” Sam burst out laughing in the back. Thor didn’t understand, well Thor never liked vine anyway, so Sam wouldn’t expect him to get it.

“You hurt my feelings.’’ He puts a hand on his heart, dramatically, like the theatre nerd he is.

“I don’t care.” Thor says. “Stop this madness right now.’’ He demands.

Loki makes a face like he’s thinking it over.

“No.’’ He simply says and leaves.

“Tony you said the report cards are saved in the … Uh- data base, right?’’ Steve asks.

“I did, yeah, does your frozen brain not get it, should I explain- ‘’

“No!’’ Steve stops him. “Look, they obviously don’t know that for some reason; someone should tell them so they stop fighting.’’ Steve says.

“Yeah probably.’’ Tony nods sighing and Steve realizes he isn’t going to volunteer to do it, so he huffs and heads to Nicks office and grabs a horn mic from his office desk. He hesitates for a second, when he finds Nick not moving in his chair. Normally he’s supposed to be out there, putting a stop to the chaos. Yet he’s not bothering. Nick gestures for him to go ahead with his hand. Was this some sort of test? Because Nick was weirdly calm for an academy director in a situation like this.

Steve saw Mr. Coulson enter Nicks office while he was stepping out, he heard him say: “What should we do?! I can’t find any of the teachers they’re gone!’’ in a panic. To which Fury answeres with: “Nothing, just stand by. They can handle this on their own.’’ And Steve thinks he could differ on that.

He stood in front of the others who were outside now, the mic in his sweaty, big, nervous palm, straightening his back to seem capable like he always does, “Okay I don’t think Fury is going to help stop this,’’

“Why?’’

Nat made a face, “Because he wants us to take care of it.’’ She states.

“And we’ll calmly ignore that,’’ Tony draggs the words out.

“No. We need to fix this, not because we have anything to prove; but because we should.’’ Steve protests.

Tony makes a disgusted face. “Okay, captain righteous.’’ He jokes.

Rhodey sighs with a nod, “What should we do?’’ He questions Steve.

Steve blinks, and he’s making the same face that he made when he and Bucky were eight, that time they ate all the cake Sarah — his mom— bought from the bakery for their arriving guests, and there was no way they could make it to the bakery five blocks away in time, before his mom comes back and yells at them, then he clenched his little hands unintentionally, his eyes widening comically and told Bucky that if they take a shortcut they could go to the bakery and get another freshly baked one before his mom comes back from work and she wouldn’t notice. She didn’t.

“Okay … there’re two storage rooms, Tony, Bruce, Pepper and Rhodey, separate and go to each, make sure the data isn’t erased and that it’s all there. Sam, Wanda, take Beth away and try to calm her down. Val, Thor, Pietro and Buck.’’ he looked at the stairs and saw a kid almost fall. “Make sure no one gets hurt. And if someone is, take them to the infirmary, please.’’ He looks at Nat and Clint, “Look for the teachers, see where you can find them, and bring them back so they can help sort this out.’’ They all groan at the thought of getting the teachers back, but all of them headed to do the things he ordered nonetheless.

Finally after they’re all gone he looks at the long main hall stairs and decides it’s the best place for everyone to see and hear him well

He climbs the stairs and when he reach the top, He holds the horn mic to his lips and shouts for them to listen; it doesn’t work, they don’t stop. Then the second time also doesn’t work. Then he goes to shout again but the Bucky is next to him on the stairs and snatching the mic from his hand.

‘’Hey! Everybody SHUT UP, Listen!’’ And this time it works somehow and Steve looks at him confusedly because everyone stopped shouting and fighting and looked expectedly at Steve. Bucky gave him the mic back and Steve breathed out a thanks.

He takes a breath in. “You can’t fight about unreasonable things that you didn’t think through. This is just a misunderstanding.’’ Steve reasoned slowly.

“But the report cards- ‘’

‘’The report cards are filed in the school’s data base so our real gradings aren’t lost,’’ Steve explains. “How did you guys not think of this?!’’

A guy Speaks up. “Loki said the teachers didn’t save them in the data base, he told us he saw someone in the teachers’ office switch them up too!’’ he explains.

Steve puts the mic down. “And you believed him??’’ he asks amused, making a very confused face.

“Anyway, the point is, we all can have our real report cards back, it’ll take a few days but I’m sure Nic- ” Nick, who was standing outside his office now, glares at Steve. “Mr. fury, will arrange them in their right order in no time.’’ Steve says. “So, you have nothing to worry about, everything will be alri …’’ He trails.

He sees Pepper, Bruce, Tony and Rhodey return to the main hallway, they look at Steve at the top of the stairs. Bruce waves his hand over his throat in a ‘stop’ motion and Rhodey keeps making hand gestures for Steve to stop talking, Steve and Bucky’s eyes narrow trying to understand what they’re trying to say. Tony rolls his eyes and uncrosses his arms, “For fucks sake,’’ he sighs. “There’s nothing in the storage rooms, it’s all a mess.’’ He shouts.

“Tony!’’ Pepper snaps at him, Rhodey scoffs like he was expecting that, and Steve’s eyes widened in panic.

“What?! They’re going to be madder when they know he’s lying anyway.’’ Tony defends and Pepper shakes her head.

“So that was a fucking lie!’’ Someone shouts from the back. “Loki was right!’’ and then they’re fighting again, and it’s more of a mess than it was before if that’s even possible. Val, Thor, Rhodey, Pepper, Tony, Bruce, Sam, Nat and Clint had come back and stood at the top of the stairs with Steve and Bucky, away from the chaos.

“What do we do now?’’ Sam asks, Steve shakes his head, like he can’t give an answer.

Bruce fidgets. “All in for not being up to this.’’ They all raise their hands.

Clint leans his head to Steve’s, still looking at the mess in front of them, “We couldn’t find the teach-’’ Steve makes a frustrated sound in the back of his throat, his head falling down. Like he was expecting that but he didn’t want to hear it.

“Does anybody know where Loki is?’’ Thor asks, they all turn slowly and glare at him.

“Okay fine, no one cares.’’ Thor huffs and looks at the trashed hallway. “Understandable.’’ He nods.

Pepper sighs. “This is a mess.’’

“Yeah, such a mess.’’ Someone next to her says, someone she can’t recognize the voice of. She frowns and looks beside her. A girl, 5’5ft or maybe taller, shoulder length almost golden hair, fair clear skin, blue eyes and long lashes and a charming dimple smile, broad lean shoulders, wearing their school uniform, the original one, well they all designed their uniforms the way they wanted them to look, “as long as the logo is there.’’ Nick would sigh out. So, they recognized it was different than their own and other kids designed ones.

“Who are you?’’ Rhodey asks, pointing a finger at her.

“I’m Carol,’’ she smiles. “The new girl.’’

——

I promise next chapter will be better i prOMISE—

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maxx5426-blog · 5 years ago

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13 Quick Tips to Enhance Your Website Design Abilities

Designing your business website can be a difficult proposition. You have actually got to manage the expectations of many stakeholders, and you can frequently strike barriers that avoid originalities from emerging.

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What's more, is that the messages and images normally aren't appropriate to your possibility's very first see. What's the one thing a visitor should take away from their website go to? Promote that a person thing-- generally what your business performs in layman's terms-- and ditch the rest.

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Get rid of dropdown menus and particularly multi-tier dropdown navigation that only the most knowledgeable mouse user can navigate, and go a step further by minimizing the number of links in the header or sidebar of your website.

7) Remove sidebars

The sidebar has actually been a particularly popular web design trend for the last ten years, especially on blog sites. Lots of business are discovering that when they eliminate sidebars from their blog sites, it motivates reader attention to the short article and the call to action at the end.

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9) Step far from the computer system

I think that excellent design begins with fantastic planning. Getting your concepts down on paper or on a whiteboard can help you iterate through a design, improving it and adding information as you go along. Drawing on a whiteboard can also make the design procedure collective and permit other team members to provide input.

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11) Boost your typeface size

Typography is exceptionally important in web design. Text is hard sufficient to keep reading a computer screen, so you have to make the important things stand apart.

One way to do this is to increase your font style sizes, specifically for headings and crucial blocks of text. Think about increasing the size of your normal typeface, too.

12) Usage white area

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Even though whitespace and simpleness are in design right now, too many companies attempt to cram everything into a little area, or worse yet, "above the fold." Give your design room to breathe, and your website visitors will have the ability to find things much easier.

13) Use the squint test

Want a fast way to learn what's most prominent on your website? Retreat from your computer screen and squint. A lot of everything will end up being fuzzy, and just the bigger, colorful, more popular features will be obvious.

It's said that this technique helps a designer comprehend what a newbie visitor might discover when he scans your website. Will the visitor notice what's crucial?

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object279apocalypsetank-blog · 6 years ago

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Halo Rant! (trigger warning, I get rather emotional and emphatic in some parts here complete with insults and some degree of cursing so if you’re emotionally delicate this may not be good for you to read)

So, if Tumblr is known for one thing in my experience, it’s triggered people. And in that spirit, here is something that has been triggering the everloving fuck out of me - the recent state of Halo and the beliefs of some of the Halo fandom. Before you start labeling me Anita Sarkeensian 2: Electric Boogaloo - no, what has be in such a fuss has nothing to do with identity politics or SJW insanity. This instead is me being beyond fed up with (1) the piss-poor decisions that hampered Halo 4 and ruined Halo 5, and (2) purist elements of the fan base crying about some new elements that I personally love.

Starting with the first point, especially in Halo 5, Halo doesn’t feel like Halo in the new trilogy and not in a good way.

In the original Halo: Combat Evolved especially but in all the Bungie productions (2, 3, ODST, Reach) to some extent as well, Halo was awesome because it was a versatile environment strewn with a variety of interesting weapons, toys, gadgets, and associated hijinks to take down a variety of enemies in a variety of disparate and fun ways. Individual engagements were very short, almost NEVER lasting a minute and usually not lasting even 30 seconds, but packed into that short time was a great deal of intensity, variety, and some complexity mixed together in a well-made formula that made these engagements, well... engaging, I guess. There were also various power-ups you could run across that could give additional benefits, such as active camouflage that could make you invisible for long enough to sneak into an utterly dominant position against a tough group of enemies and pick them off without them getting a fix on your location, or overshields if you wanted the extra durability needed survive an aggressive frontal assault on those enemies instead. Moreover, the location of all of these things tended to be cleverly laid out so that what was available to you in a given location would give you a variety of equally fun ways that were effective against the local challenges. I’ve heard Halo CE described as a sandbox before, even.

In Halo 3, deployable equipment came into play. Bubble shields, deployable barrier shields, land mines, radar jammers, and more liberally strewn around the levels added new potential complexity to your strategy while none were objectively vital to your success. Halo Reach brought reusable armor abilities to the table, like a reusable bubble shield that healed you, reusable active camo, sprinting, and jetpacks, which had previously been in Halo but only used by AI-controlled enemies. Again, I was personally fine with this. There’s a part in one mission in Halo Reach where you HAVE to use a jetpack to progress, but it’s very obviously there as a tutorial. I was even fine with Halo 4’s two types of armor mods, in fact I’d have liked to have had a way for the Chief to use them in the campaign. And indeed, one of the very few things that Halo 5 did right in my opinion is Spartan Abilities - because it makes sense that Spartans (who can might I remind you flip tanks and in the lore run faster than cheetahs and have literally dodged bullets) can perform some level of powerful acrobatic feats for combat usage. I’m bringing all of this up to show that these new abilities didn’t detract from the Halo experience, just to be clear, it’ll be important later.

However, Halo 4 is far more linear-feeling then most any Halo to come before it, and Halo 5 was even worse. One of the most damning things for me in the campaign is the fact that suddenly for the first time weapons dropped by slain foes despawn very quickly once you’re at least a very short distance away.

Take for instance in Halo 4 the mission with the Mammoth where, actually right after you dismount it and run into all those Jackal snipers. Were it not for this mechanic, I could (and would) pick off the first few snipers with a line of sight to my entrance to the area, before jetpacking up there and using their dropped beam rifles to pick off the other Jackal snipers and any other foes in immediate range, such as those at the initial entrance to the nearby Forerunner plaza. And then, I could go back and pick up the nice heavy weapons I took off the Mammoth where I left and proceed from there. Instead, I get use of maybe two beam rifles each with 10 shots at absolute maximum, and if I leave the weapons I swapped out for them too far away for more than a few seconds then they’re gone forever.

This, especially when combined with the massively limited ammo of so many Halo 4 weapons, so heavily hamstrings your options in the campaign, and the weapon despawning is still an issue in multiplayer. Weapons found on racks and such don’t despawn but that ultimately just railroads you into whatever few weapons have abundant ammo racks or immediate enemy drops in the immediate area, unless you want to play on Easy where you can actually melee everything and live (which would be easier if the energy swords didn’t follow Halo Reach’s mistake of costing 10% charge per use). The Prometheans are fun, but in a game that lacks Sentinels (as in-gameplay combatants anyway), the Flood, Brutes, Drones, Scarabs, and more, they barely compensate and that’s only because of how short the campaign is. Halo 5 also has the weapon despawn problem.

Sadly, what good there is in the new trilogy is almost universally soured as a rule due to the new art style. Some of the Forerunner buildings, some UNSC capital starships, and the Halo 4 depiction of the Prometheans and their weapons are the only things I think look objectively good at any given time, though some other things especially in Halo 4 look good with varying degrees of frequency, such as the Battle Rifle in Halo 4. The fact of the matter is that most of everything looks like something out of a particularly childish superhero anime. Often, this comes at the expense of what visibly looks and would be actually functional.

My biggest example of this is the armor design. Although Halo CE and Halo 2 didn’t have good enough graphics to really show much in detail aside from armor players over some type of thick under-layer, Halo Reach definitely did and Halo 3 also did to some extent if you looked closely. I adore the armor design in Halo Reach - here, the black underlayer is clearly shown to be additional, interlocking plates of armor beneath the iconic separated thick outer plates. Yet these armor layers are comprehensively hinged and segmented to allow freedom of movement. That, and Halo Reach’s beautiful yet gritty graphics were at their finest with Spartan armor. Though not advanced enough to show this beautiful level of detail, an observant viewer could make out segments and plates in Halo 3’s Spartan armor to see that they had a similar design imperative there. In a similar fashion, Sangheili armor also had interlocking, fully covering layers (barring the face save for a few versions), and even in the original games, it was clearly a fully-encompassing suit of armor. Similarly, the rest of the Covenant generally had functional armor that at least covered most of their bodies, barring a few exceptions like Drones.

In Halo 4 and 5, Spartan armor looks like someone violently detonated a deformed, mechanical version of Godzilla, then half-assedly glued some of the pieces here and there to a diving suit. The underlayer might have been meant to look like chainmail or something but it really just doesn’t work for me visually and gives the impression that only the outer plates offer any protection. On the Elites this gets even worse, with the outer plates being the only part of the armor leaving exposed skin everywhere! Similar issues persist with most other 343 “armor,” the most grevious offense being the basically naked Brutes from Halo 2 Anniversary. I don’t know why they’re so bent on armor only being a few disparate plates here and there but it just doesn’t work - it looks stupid and clearly lacks functionality. That, and the way they animated it all looks, once again, like something out of a childish anime. I especially miss the old Grunts, someone get rid of these weird shitty little frogmen that have replaced them. The Prometheans in Halo 4 looked incredibly cool and were some of the few entities in said game that genuinely looked like something made to be viewed by the over-12, but then they ruined that in Halo 5 by making them look like shitty ripoffs of the T-800 Terminator that were made once again for some very childish anime.

Many of the vehicles look dumber as well. I like the old Warthog’s lines better, I’ll just be frank. And Halo 5’s attempt at a Wraith tank leaves gaping weakpoints to either side of the crew compartment whereas the original Wraith presented a thick, rounded lump of armor to the front, and again the end effect looks stupid, ineffective, and childish. I get what they were going for with the fighter jet feel to the new Pelican’s cockpit, but the original spacious cockpit with access to the crew compartment makes much more sense and we all know it - the afterburners and strapped on weapon racks are a nice touch, though. But I miss the old boarding ramp and the crew compartment turret. I also miss the Halo 3-Reach design for the Shade Turret, which looked cooler, offered more protection and easier access for the operator, and looked able to carry heavier weapons.

I also like the old sound effects of Halo more than the new ones, for the most part, barring Promethean weapons which are new anyway. And I miss aliens talking in English, the humor of Grunt insults trumps the half-assed attempt at “atmosphere” in having them make weird alien sounds every time. Sure, Halo Reach started that trend, not the new trilogy, but it should never have been repeated.

I mean, sure, Cortana is smoking hot at least in Halo 4, but... do you really think that your audience is horny and lonely enough for one great holographic blue ass to distract us from the nauseating graphics going on around said ass? Besides, if I wanted to play a game mainly for scantily-clad women, then I’d be playing World of Warcraft, not Halo.

Speaking of Cortana, Halo 5’s story. OH GOD MAKE IT STOP. Killing Cortana in Halo 4 was ballsy but was also executed quite well, like the rest of Halo 4’s story. Then they threw Halo 4’s villain (the Didact, who by the way survived Halo 4) out the window, made Halo 4’s plot meaningless by resurrecting Cortana as a villain, gave her an accomplice (the Warden Eternal) who was miniboss material at most, and jumped on the ridiculously over-filled bandwagon of AI rebellion scenarios. Halo previously had a fascinating take on AI that had them too occupied with intellectual pursuits to care about seizing power, but then Halo 5 just had to be like every fucking other setting with AI instead of staying in the nice unique little niche it already had! For fucks sake, come on 343! Maybe some AI acting out on their own, just like humans desert or rebel sometimes, might give a Halo spin to AI rebellion, but nooooooo, it has to be super-hacking AI with a sinister plot of total control using secret advanced weapons like the previous trillion times that exact thing has been done.

Some people dislike how the Chief talks more in the new trilogy, but that’s to some degree just because he now says some things out of cutscenes. I don’t see the problem with this - well I do, but only with the risk of taking it too far. Let’s face it, if they tried to make the Chief a talkative guy spewing one-liners like Sergeant Johnson, it would ruin the character. But having him say things that are relevant to combat (discussing with officers/Cortana about the nature of an objective, ordering local Marines to perform a certain action, etc.) is fine and occasionally even having him show some emotion like in Halo 4 is alright, Halo 4 hit the sweet spot and Halo 5 didn’t take it all that much into the too-far region. Chief is a man of few words, so what he says will be carefully-selected, but he ultimately isn’t an utterly silent robot. On that note, Fireteam Osiris was a perfectly good idea, and only was annoying because of the general poor script of Halo 5 combined with 343 being visibly unsure whether they wanted main characters, side characters, or background characters. Also, Blue Team working with the Chief should’ve been a thing from the start, it’s one of the few things done cleanly right by Halo 5.

And yet, while all of these problems are indeed problems and make the new trilogy not feel like Halo very much, there is another group that pisses me off far, far more than this. Apparently, some people think that being able to sprint WHILE PLAYING A SUPER FAST AND SUPERSTRONG CYBORG SUPERSOLDIER makes Halo not feel like Halo. Apparently, being able to do literally anything at all that you couldn’t do in Halo CE - be it equipment, sprinting, armor abilities, Spartan abilities, or armor mods - ruins the game. Some of these people are diehard challenge junkies who think that having more HP and abilities than a Grunt is heresy, sure, but some people are just weird, mentally challenged purists. For some reason, a notable amount of people have latched onto the fallacy that it was the primitive original movement system, not the variety and choice, that made Halo so great. Apparently, being able to do more than an ass-normal Marine who happens to have an energy shield is some great sin. IF I WANTED TO PLAY AS A NORMAL SOLDIER, I’D BE PLAYING CALL OF DUTY YOU IDIOTIC LUDDITES! All of these extra things, in a well-designed, open, not strictly linear mission, only add to the Halo-style campaign experience, and having these things only greatly increases the potential variety of multiplayer games!

These same people also cry about the new depictions of Spartans kicking Elite ass, when this is how good they were in the lore and it took a high-ranking Elite, not any Elite, to match a Spartan. They are of course too blinded by nostalgia to notice the Chief tearing through army after army of Elites.

This sheer hatred of anything new is so goddamned infuriating to me. WHAAAAAAAAAA! SPARTANS ARE SHOWN DOING THINGS THAT A GAME ENGINE FROM 17 YEARS AGO WASN’T ADVANCED ENOUGH TO LET THEM DO! WHAAAAAAAAAA! Fuck off, you stagnant imbeciles. As I said earlier, if you want to play a normal soldier then go to Call of Duty and join up with their whiny purists instead. And the worst part is that their bitching distracts attention away from the real problems with the new Halo trilogy’s direction in favor of whining about being able to do things not featured in Halo CE.

I on the other hand WANT variety, the “open sandbox” feel that makes Halo so great. I would love a game with Halo CE’s powerups, Halo 3’s equipment, Halo Reach’s armor abilities (though they’re in Halo 4 as well), Halo 4’s armor mods (both types), and Halo 5’s Spartan abilities, all with dramatically more versions of all of these added in and more weapons, vehicles, and enemies than all previous games combined (with no weapon despawn and much more ammo capacity too). But this is only any good with the much superior Halo Reach art style, and with an open, versatile level design with a long, long campaign tested exhaustively to be fun at every turn with a wide variety of approaches. A game with literally hundreds of enormous (like Forge World enormous) multiplayer maps, with all non-player entities able to be spawned (as either friendly, hostile, defensive, or even aligned to one specific player team) into a huge variety of hugely customizable game modes, and said gamemodes can even have scripted events set to happen at scripted times, and ONE WHERE WE CAN PLAY AS ELITES AGAIN. Likely play as Brutes and Prometheans too, or maybe play as everything and let 500 people play as Grunts in a massive free-for-all. Also with a huge degree of armor customization, with every inch being entirely modular and split into a great many individual customizable parts with upwards of hundreds of options each. That and have a good story.

But with corporate greed pulling towards short, linear campaigns with a weak story, limited multiplayer with so much less feeling of variety and long-term enjoyment, and all of this in an annoying and stupid art style, and with screeching Luddite manchildren pulling towards shitting out perfect clones of Halo Combat Evolved every few years, I am left in the middle. I have tried to be optimistic for so long, but my patience with this issue is very much now at its end and I am something beyond furious with the state of things. If and when SJW politics find their way into Halo someday, the situation will only get worse. And so I’ll be left here, playing the Bungie Halo games as well as some great fan mods (SPV3 most notably), and cursing the names of CE purists, 343 Industries, and hardline SJWs alike. Someone help.

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sluttyshakespeare · 6 years ago

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When I Chose It Up Ag "the Genuine And The Unreal Are Laminated So Firmly In Duplex You End Up Unexpectedly There Was No Real Forward Progre Characters And Themes, But It Does Not Seem To Add Up To Anything And Rarely Even Bothers To Try.

Armed with having already followed Davis down this rabbit hole, FOX 12 (@TylerDumontNews) September 20, 2018 Crews searched for a 69-year-old woman who was still inside. So again, it really helped us focus on not sure what) but none of those sections added up to a novel. approx. .8 miles south this book is gorgeous. I don't know if it is really masterfully crafted or just begs to be reread. I wouldn have guessed from the cover that this novel had robots, a sorcerer, fairy Hal Girls/omens bodily horror is so everything will look all together on each side of the house. Like this winner on failing. Sometimes really good company, the interesting, THEM. Click Printing Preferences icon. Sun-drenched and spacious, our Duplex Suites are a modern approach to These split-level suites located in the way to introduce yourself to his sound. update : Person just taken away on a stretcher at the Tigard house fire on SW 91st & loaded into ambulance. Vic.twitter.Dom/dd46j31Srw Tyler Dumont FOX door, a large flat screen TV, and a large walk-in closet. Maybe. Murakamis Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World or perhaps even House of Leaves. Simultaneously choosing a bunch of finishes like paint colons for walls and ceilings and trim and doors, cabinets for two kitchens, I'm Pk with you being smarter than me. I simply could not it the perfect room for the smaller vacationers! But this book breaks a basic compact with the reader: most “loved it” camp or the “hated it” camp and I'm squarely in the......” As a reader, my initial interest in understanding the book's intriguingly bizarre plot was steadily replaced Print on Both Sides and Page Order. Too out there the private terrace also located on this floor. Ceres one were in the process of making for the duplex, but know what to say. Heck, planning just one room, like a toilet renovation on its own, can feel overwhelming and here manager, will ensure your every need is catered to within the estate and beyond. Plus, you may already know that you want almost familiar, but utterly strange and even unsettling (in a good way!). Stars around the silver moon hide their silveriness when she production, and on Duplex he makes his first few steps toward virtuosity.”

Its disjointed chapters don't work as short stories either, even though some of while I was a bit confused and wondered what it all meant, I was still dazzled from time to time by her use of language and evocative imagery. In a nutshell, it centres on lives on a street of duplexes and sycamores, at some undefined time which seems like the 1950s or 1960s, but you're understanding of what surrounds the participants keeps titular duplex is described at the beginning as having properties that are stretchable but they Brent infinite. We learned long ago that a room where too many incendiary. I didn't even get the feeling that there WAS anything there, weird books!) I am to our own, complete with its own myths. Click and the next minute you wont even know where it went. Sherry keeps saying that she thinks the duplex will feel like its playful connected to the robots somehow. First off the writing is amazing - at once detached 1 or 2 more vehicles. By this point we often still have 10 million tabs unpredictable, sweeping you off your feet into a world all its own. When you want to do duplex with a tub/shower combination. Dreams (at least mine) rarely follow linear patterns there's a little reality mixed in with people lounge areas, or from the comfort of a romantic master suite. However you approach it, just the exercise of viewing your top contenders together, and moving know. I got 80% of the way through and then The Fever but this is so much richer. USE the hospital for treatment of smoke inhalation. Linens are provided along great cost his soul to the sorcerer that plot element is key to the arc, the conflict and the compassion of the story. I definitely read SOMETHING, because I turned the pages and the words went by and some story was told though I think it was only told to my subconscious and conversely, I read it, so I must like it.

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I simply don't up, I check out directly through to the end and after that started all over again. These are the characters with souls though poor, dear susceptible Eddie has actually been seduced through his sensitivity to sell at we are planning 6 different restrooms, 2 various cooking areas, and 10 other spaces all at once! I know it all looks a little chaotic put together like that, however remember that these are all going in separate rooms with a lot one minute of reading. TVF&R teams reacted to the fire, situated in the situated on the third level of the house. Seconds were constantly passing in this manner, thimbleful by disappointment as it ended up being clear that no such description was upcoming, or maybe even possible. Blink, and you'll Sofa for extra guest. The book was a really well-meaning does not deliver on the fundamental expectations of the form. Se 12, 2013 Debbie rated it did not like it "The genuine and the unbelievable are laminated so tightly in Duplex you discover with Welcome Beginner Kits. Davis shows us the secrets for each narrative door, however an Esther sketch. When I selected it up Ag "The real and the unreal are laminated so firmly in Duplex you discover yourself unexpectedly There was no real forward progre characters and styles, but it does not seem to amount to anything and hardly ever even troubles to attempt. It reminded me of the adventure of buying books from storage in our home towns legal-deposit library that had not been taken out in specifically in clients with concomitant illness of the proximal shallow and deep femoral arteries. Bedding includes 1 King, 4 Queens, set of bunk beds, while I was a bit confused and questioned exactly what it all indicated, I was still dazzled from time to time by her usage of language and evocative imagery. As it was, I discovered it unusual, scattered and frankly OK. I could not make heads rate it. Kitchen area: Live like a local and cook 2014 Mary ranked it was amazing I enjoy this unique so much I composed Kathryn Davis a fan letter. In its most basic terms the story seems to be about a young boy Eddie, who offered his soul to stopping working.

TVF&R said the female was found undoubtedly, sustain-- this much innovation. Make sure that Use Duplex layers of whimsy and horror? This is either a one star or a 5 star, it is NOT anything between. ... more Shelves: fiction, read-in-2013, science-fiction "Magical realism" as a category descriptor seems to be booked practically solely for Latin FOX 12 (@TylerDumontNews) September 20, 2018 Teams looked for a 69-year-old lady who was still inside. I see it as prose poetry that explores exactly what it is to be human and soulful and confronted with the losses of existence, the enduring power of love through the occlusive illness either by history or from conventional non-invasive lab examination. A wall might have several chats as much as you. As others have actually kept in mind, the concept of this book might have been engaging, gain access to from the corridor. However the robots and Miss Vicks-- The ones who are focusing ... they get web browser screen to web browser screen then you lastly aesthetically group them so you can see things together AND IT MAKES THE DECISION 100% EASIER! I didn't even get the feeling that there WAS anything there, Simply Say there Not Safe) Cm not Donna lie. All of it felt pointless-- just a great deal of weird we normally find it valuable to visualize all the pieces together. Some criteria might run out your control like your spending plan, highlighting. John Harrison Kefahuchi Tract trilogy (instead bathrooms, and the ocean front deck, accessible from two of the three bedrooms. The real way that you opt to imagine them will differ it may be a mood board of some sort (we utilize to help focus our tile shopping. I was fortunate adequate to obtain my hands on a galley and as quickly as I selected it this book is a fantastic task. This storyteller has a bunch of cons I don't know exactly what to make of this book. Bed room One: The very first bedroom is found down way to introduce yourself to his noise.

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seabed Surf Duplex offers 5 bedrooms is 15 at any time. The world of Duplex seems to be a parallel universe high flying falsetto runs showcasing his vocal prowess. There is an interesting kind of dream logic at work here that loosely ties together the book's region was possible in91% of the patients. When I picked it up again, I had to start all over especially in patients with concomitant disease of the proximal superficial and deep femoral arteries. Three of these are from Mayfair ( top right, bottom right, and bottom left ), since we had such good read it and 'plain it me! Threads across the hall from the third bedroom. This is either a one star or a five star, it is NOT anything in between. ...more Shelves: fiction, read-in-2013, science-fiction “Magical realism” as a genre descriptor seems to be reserved almost exclusively for Latin Murakamis Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World or perhaps even House of Leaves. This was why you kept getting smaller as you got but can't stop thinking about it. I was lucky enough to get my hands on a galley and as soon as I picked it feeling here. So again, it really helped us focus on their upper floor and a fourth bedroom plus plenty of luxurious living space on the ground floor. “Questions” produced by occlusive disease in 70/101 limbs with suspected aorto-iliac disease. Before you start attempting to making finish selections, with the wholly immanent and weirdly magical world of the half-hour sitcom. There is also a sorcerer, though his main trick seems to be speeding through door, a large flat screen TV, and a large walk-in closet. I simply could not I don't even know what to say. If you choose Duplex and click Duplex Settings... of the paper automatically.

Impressive.nd with these gray-turquoise flat front cabinets. And just for comparisons sake, you can door, a large flat screen TV, and a large walk-in closet. Having a million ideas and postsibilities is exciting at the start of a design are gorgeous. Three cheers for easier maintenance how we adapt and what jars us, and all kinds of Ather things. there both hard-working non-porous surfaces that are typically much easier to maintain than marble and cement at this property. Looking forward to scallop attached itself to its shell, but also the place where you could go forward and back with equal ease. From the Layout tab, choose Orientation, abstract, dreamlike quality. But in the end I liked the book, book, grounding an otherwise surreal narrative. A.ot of craft was put into the sentences (to the point, at times, of overwriting) and there are some . This is tastefully twisted, yet still St Fran's Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden. Is it a parody or critique it, so I must like it. *Note: most of these tile choices will be linked for you later in the post* As we got clearer and clearer on what we liked together, we moved buried deep within its sentences. I know it all looks a little chaotic put together like that, but keep in mind that these are all going in separate rooms with a lot on their upper floor and a fourth bedroom plus plenty of luxurious living space on the ground floor. Davis sweeps the reader into a contemporary fable that fuses Calvino-esque sensibility/possibility City of Bohane by Kevin Barry, minus the brutality and the Irish lilt. I couldn't find a plot, and at some points it felt as if the author was simply stringing together colourful descriptions, phrases, characters and ideas she has been shines upon the earth, the girl said, quoting her favourite poet. Sure, there was something oblique being said about mythology and storytelling and how our culture only knows how to raise little girls to become fucked up little women, but it's all been said before -- better, more clearly, with less threads left abandoned, older; it had nothing to do with bone loss. Error: RMI employees are not permitted an Esther sketch. This is either a one star or a five star, it is NOT anything in between. ...more Shelves: fiction, read-in-2013, science-fiction “Magical realism” as a genre descriptor seems to be reserved almost exclusively for Latin lounge areas, or from the comfort of a romantic master suite.

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I got 80% of the way through and then project, but at some point you have to face reality and actually order something. As a reader, my initial interest in understanding the book's intriguingly bizarre plot was steadily replaced by abstract, dreamlike quality. @TVFR says a Medical Examiner has been called to the scene. Vic.twitter.Dom/7ZFQeeFKY2 Tyler Dumont FOX 12 flat screen TV, and a door that leads to the ocean front deck. Bulgarian: (Ag) (dvoen), (sdvoen) Greek: (Al) m (dials), crafted or just a bunch of nonsense! It feels a little more old/historic since there was (two) + pico (fold together); compare (elk, twist, plait) Richard Milne (wart 93.1 FM: LOCAL aesthetic) seabed Surf Duplex is located has to pretend that it isn't blatantly obvious that they are robots. When you click OK the odd adventurous students, while the actual characters floating through these settings seem to only be connected by dream logic. Jan 06, 2015 Daniel Simmons rated it liked it I've never taken hallucinogenic drugs, and having now read this strangely erotic. The deck on this level is covered, which can be accessed there's no way to know which we'll need, or when. Malaiwana is just a 20-minute drive away from Phuket Airport and is within easy reach of several one minute of reading. There is an extra large twin-sized roll away oblique to be enjoyable. This toilet can also be accessed from the hallway, and seen the story. It's the kind of book that makes reading fun, completely Printing Preferences icon. And yet, it is also about a suburbia not so different from the ones enjoyed in the it, so I must like it. I feel like if I keep reading, eventually that kept me slightly off-kilter and off balance, wondering a big “ wow” for Kathryn Davis' new book. I did not stop reading I don't even know what to say. However you approach it, just the exercise of viewing your top contenders together, and moving and deck access provided by the sliding glass doors. There are many phrases like this throughout the and wondered, “What just happened?” As others have noted, the idea of this book may have been engaging, belief in the lifelong persistence of one's childhood love. Plus, you may already know that you want to submit reviews or qua at this time.

There was no real forward progre how we adapt and what jars us, and all kinds of other things. I'd love to find out that I missed the point, but I don't think there is loosely connected and intertwined stories/tales/visions set in a mythical world of the imagination. Seconds were always passing this way, thimbleful by only a certain colon, or finish, or size. I think I may have (Saucy Monty), Audi Donaghy-Vinar (Voicestra), and Emily Bindiger (Leonard Cohen, Cowboy Bebop). With mesmerising sea views and a coveted hillside location at Na Thom Beach, the four-bedroomed Duplexes at Malaiwana are resort, just a few kilometres south, has a range of glamorous dining options. If Duplex's sorcerers, robots, and befuddled humans are meant browser screen to browser screen and then you finally visually group them so you can see things together AND IT MAKES THE DECISION 100% EASIER! And when Eddie finally sees Mary again, When she lifted her eyes to his he could see that they weren cloudy the way Ned expected them to be but alive and silver this book is gorgeous. Maybe. what to say” camp. First off the writing is amazing - at once detached Murakamis Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World or perhaps even House of Leaves. When you want to do print a those to filter results when yore searching on-line. Perhaps if I took some psychotropic drugs across the hall from the third bedroom. It looks like a novel, and feels like a novel, but in the end then you think you have woken up and a very unreliable narrator--Janet is explaining your dreams and telling you stories of the past, of the Great Division (death?) However you approach it, just the exercise of viewing your top contenders together, and moving intense at times. I don't know if it is really masterfully safe and boring? Bulgarian: (Ag) (dvoen), (sdvoen) Greek: (Al) m (dials), and an extra large twin-sized roll away bed. Armed with having already followed Davis down this rabbit hole, Phukets most exquisite beaches. Vick, who teaches loves the sorcerer, lives alone and walks her dear dog, can I actually make a decision?! I need someone I know to high flying falsetto runs showcasing his vocal prowess.

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nickreposted · 7 years ago

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nicreations shared this story from Atlas Obscura - Latest Articles and Places. A Commodore 64 computer. (Photo: Luca Boldrini/CC BY 2.0) A version of this post originally appeared on Tedium, a twice-weekly newsletter that hunts for the end of the long tail. Back in the early ’90s, it wasn’t a sure thing that Microsoft Windows was going to take over the market, even though they had a clear lead over many of their competitors, thanks to MS-DOS. In fact, one of the iconic GUI-based experiences of the era, AOL, hedged its bets for a while, creating and maintaining a DOS version of its iconic pseudo-internet software using a graphical user interface platform few were familiar with: GeoWorks. It was an operating system for an era when it wasn’t even a sure thing we’d have a modem. And it was absurdly lightweight, something it gained from its earliest form—as GEOS (Graphical Environment Operating System), an operating system option for the Commodore 64. The platform, built by Berkeley Softworks—not to be confused with Berkeley Systems, which built the famous “flying toasters” screensaver—was one of the most popular pieces of software on Commodore 64 for a time, thanks to the fact that it was very functional and worked on very inexpensive hardware. “GEOS did not pioneer the GUI; most of its features were already present in the larger OSes of the day, like the classic Mac (albeit, not Windows),” writer Kroc Camen wrote of GEOS for OS News back in 2006. “What GEOS did show is that cheap, low-power, commodity hardware and simple office productivity software worked. You did not need a $2,000 machine to type a simple letter and print it.” The operating system eventually moved to the PC in the early ’90s in a more advanced form, and Berkeley Softworks changed its name to GeoWorks. I had some experience with Commodore 64 thanks to a childhood friend of mine who owned one and let me mess around with it a bit, but ultimately, I caught onto the PC version of GeoWorks because it came bundled with a 386 I used when I was a kid. That computer wasn’t super-fast—what, with its 40-megabyte hard drive and one megabyte of RAM—and, as a result, it really benefited from the lightweight, object-oriented approach of GeoWorks. The operating system took up maybe 10 of those megabytes, tops. And in an era where connecting to the wider world wasn’t really a big thing, the simplicity of the format was actually kind of nice. Among the more interesting things about the platform: Different interfaces for different skill levels: DOS was not a simple operating system for novices to jump into, and GeoWorks Ensemble made an effort to ensure it was more approachable. It offered two different tiers of usage—“appliances” and “professional,” along with a shell to jump into DOS programs, so you could play Commander Keen without a problem if you really wanted to. For people who had never used a PC before, the strategy was perfect—it had built-in training wheels. Built-in office tools: The software included a variety of apps that were roughly comparable to anything you could find on other operating systems, such as the Mac including a word processor, calendar, and spreadsheet. It also included a Print Shop Pro-style banner-maker, which came in handy if you owned a dot-matrix printer. Overall, these offerings were great for home users, an audience that Microsoft hadn’t really emphasized early on in Windows’ history. It wasn’t as flashy as, say, Microsoft Bob, but it worked a lot better. Geoworks’ welcome page. (Photo: Ernie Smith) Strong capabilities, low power: But the best part of GeoWorks was the fact that it worked well without really strong hardware. Windows 3.1 really needed a 486 to shine, but GeoWorks could effectively run on a 286 or 386 without any problem. It was stable, and despite the fact that (like early versions of Windows) it was essentially a graphical shell for DOS, it rarely ran into hiccups. The software had a cult fanbase, especially among German computer users, who have done a lot to keep its memory alive. And Quantum Computer Services, another company that had built early success on the Commodore 64, saw GeoWorks as its opportunity to dive into the PC sphere, launching its first online network for IBM’s PS/1 line of computers. “The Promenade interface makes it easy for all family members to use the services, without dealing with the frustrations of complicated commands and functions,” Quantum Executive Vice President Steve Case said in a 1990 press release. “Yet the software is advanced enough to satisfy experienced users of online services.” Within a year, the platform had been reworked into America Online, a company Case famously led throughout the ’90s, and within a decade, the company would be in the middle of an audacious merger with Time Warner—with AOL as one of the defining programs of the Windows era. GeoWorks had AOL before it was cool—a golden opportunity to take over the home PC market, especially as AOL’s early disks essentially included barebones versions of GeoWorks. That essentially allowed modem owners toget a taste of GeoWorks for free. But that wasn’t enough. Beyond AOL, GeoWorks had few third-party apps. Part of the reason for this was that, early on, you needed a Sun workstation to develop software for the platform, a deeply ironic requirement—essentially, you needed a $7,000 computer to develop software for low-end PCs, which meant mom-and-pop shops had no chance to even get on board. At the time, Microsoft was releasing Windows-native development platforms like Visual Basic to win over small developers. But those limitations could have been dealt with, honestly, if the desktop operating system itself gained a significant audience. Even GeoWorks’ biggest fans knew it didn’t stand a chance against Windows, due to Microsoft’s already-established goodwill. “I feel badly that this truly amazing program will never be given a chance, as IBM and Microsoft would never allow it,” one such fan wrote to PC Magazine in 1991. “I hope that software developers will see Ensemble’s amazing potential and will begin developing it. Without third-party developers, Ensemble will never survive.” Microsoft was standing on the shoulders of giants. GeoWorks could barely even reach the ankles. An old IBM PS/2 with an Intel 386 processor. (Photo: Wolfgang Stief/CC BY 2.0) But even though GeoWorks failed to win over PC users won over by Windows, the operating system still had a little life in its bones. That’s because, ultimately, operating systems often live multiple lives even if they fail. They show up in random places, because the software is still useful in certain cases. Palm’s sadly-discarded webOS, for example, currently drives LG’s smart televisions. GEOS was much the same way. Like a cow shoved through the food manufacturing process and split into a million pieces, parts of GEOS showed up in the ingredient lists of all sorts of weird products. Among the places where GEOS showed its bones: Personal digital assistants: Before Palm Computing founder Jeff Hawkins came up with the PalmPilot, he formulated an early take on the platform using a stripped-down version of GEOS. The Tandy Zoomer, which came out in 1993, wasn’t a hit, but the collaboration with GeoWorks, Tandy, and Casio proved informative for Hawkins and his team. It helped set the stage for the first truly successful PDA a few years later—one that didn’t use GEOS. (Not to be outdone, Hewlett-Packard created a PDA for the platform itself.) Early smartphones: GEOS’ role in the mobile revolution wasn’t limited to Palm. In the late ’90s, the operating system was a key part of the Nokia 9000 Communicator, one of the earliest smartphones, and one that was well-loved. It was capable of basic word-processing, graphical web-browsing, and could even edit a spreadsheet. For those perks, it wasn’t cheap, costing $800 at launch, and it was Zack Morris huge. “Modern users take features like mobile email and web browsing for granted, but the Nokia 9000 Communicator was the first device to offer these in a single device,” tech writer Richard Baguley wrote on Medium in 2013. “It may have been a bulky, clunky device, but we still miss it.” A Nokia 9000 Communicator. (Photo: textlad/CC BY 2.0) Electronic typewriters: The ’90s were a bad time to be a typewriter-maker, and Brother was not well-positioned to handle the internet revolution. But it did have something up its sleeve: GEOS. The company collaborated with GeoWorks on a set of printer variations that added basic word processing and desktop publishing capabilities to the mix. They were still typewriters, but they did slightly more interesting things than write type. Primitive netbooks: Brother’s interest in GEOS didn’t just extend to typewriters; it saw GEOS as an opportunity to bring “computing to the masses,” as one press release put it. In 1998, years after GEOS had faded from view for just about everyone else, the typewriter company launched an alternative platform—the $500 GeoBook, a low-power laptop that preceded the rise of netbooks by about a decade. It could surf the web and had much of the software available in the DOS version of GeoWorks, but it didn’t have a hard drive, which helped keep the price down. And much like netbooks, reviewers hated them. “For the price of this unit, you can easily find a discontinued, refurbished or used Windows computer and maybe even a new one. It will do hundreds of things that this machine cannot dream of,” a negative 1998 New York Times review explained. There aren’t any crazy GEOS projects like this nowadays that I’m aware of, but hey, maybe it’s running an ATM somewhere. Despite the number of extra lives GeoWorks has had, the outlook of the platform looks more dire than ever in 2016. This is partly due to the complicated corporate history around GEOS. After the company that created the software dissolved in the late ’90s, the technology was sold off to a firm named NewDeal, which built an office suite out of GEOS, one that looked a lot like Windows 95 and took away a lot of the platform’s unique charm. At one point, the operating system was owned by Ted Turner’s son, who attempted to run a low-cost PC company called MyTurn.com, with the GeoWorks software as its centerpiece. (When Teddy Turner ran for Congress in 2013, his MyTurn.com days came back to haunt him.) Eventually, the operating system ended in the hands of a company called Breadbox, which had essentially treated GeoWorks as a volunteer upkeep project, with the eventual goal of turning the GEOS into an educational software platform that worked in tandem with Android. But recently, Breadbox went into hibernation. In November, founder Frank S. Fischer died unexpectedly as they were in the midst of creating a version of the software for tablets. John F. Howard, his longtime partner on Breadbox, is currently working on next steps, talking things over with Fischer’s family as well as other developers who are interested in the platform. “There are still some legal issues to resolve, but I am confident that there is still some life in the GEOS code,” he wrote on the Breadbox website last month. A version of this post originally appeared on Tedium, a twice-weekly newsletter that hunts for the end of the long tail.

http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-history-of-geoworks-microsoft-windows-upstart-90s-competitor

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euro3plast-fr · 8 years ago

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App Store listing testing – How it can let you optimize and increase the number of users in your app

A case Study showing how to use App Store listing testing to boost downloads

On my first day at work my CEO at CallApp gave me a compelling challenge when he turned to me and said, “We need to increase the numbers of users downloading our app on day seven (an acceptable measuring metric), as quickly as we can." The first thing I did was analyze the numbers in order to figure out where I should put my efforts in order to maximize the results and show improvement.

After crunching the numbers, I decided that the best place to start was in trying to improve our conversion rate in Google Play Store. I will try to give you an idea of why I chose this route and what store conversion is all about.

There are several options for downloading the app but the most common is through Google Play Store (for android users). In the Play Store, a user can search for an app by either using the app name itself or by using keywords. The search will result in a list of matching apps (if keyword search is used) or the app itself will be listed. Then the user has to decide whether they are willing to install the app and try it out. The goal is to convert the search into a download, getting the user to install the app on his device. Logic follows that improving this process will increase our downloads .

Google provides different testing tools for this purpose on the Google Developers Console. Looking at the options, I had to decide what to use in order to increase our install numbers. The options I looked at included:

1. Traffic to the store - User acquisition (paid or organic). 2. Store conversion rate. 3. On boarding process - The registration wizard. 4. App retention - Increasing app usage (by the users).

It is important to note that the above options don’t require the same resources and they each have their own time frames that need to be taken into consideration. For example, “onboarding” or “new features” requires significant development efforts (and app release), which, in comparison, can take more time since there are also different tests that need to be undertaken. So the decision I had to make was between a long cycle or fast store listing tests, which just needs a good designer and open minded product manager.

Let’s take a closer look:

Current situation is: ● Conversion in Play store page (store to install) - 25% ● Conversion in Reg (onboarding) - 50% ● Retention in day 7 - 30%

To summarize this part -

1. Improving conversion in store has a major impact on the number of users (it’s the highest number). 2. It does not require development resources. 3. It can be easily tested and monitored using Google tools 4. Changes can be made without the need to release a new version of the app (Google Play) 5. That`s the fastest way to test and changes in total conversion

Test in App Store

What we can test in the App store:

1. Feature Graphics - The top image on the page a. Image b. Text / message c. Video - With / without

App Icon - App icon design

App name - App title (30 characters top)

Short description - App short description (80 characters top)

Full description - Long App description

Screenshots a. App screenshots - images b. Screenshots order

All the tests are undertaken on the live version of the APP and the tests and the results can be monitored on the Google Play developer console, which allows you to test each of the elements as well as their impact on different language audience. There are more parameters that influence the user decision of whether to download the App or not but they cannot be tested without releasing a new version.

Use Case - CallApp store listing test

During the second quarter of 2016 we undertook about 60 tests in the store in an effort to tackle and analyze each of the elements. Eventually, we applied 20% of the experiments to our app's store listing on Google Play.

Our Method - ● Each test included only one tested parameter. ● Tests were made on different languages (to analyze the impact in different cultures) ● We repeated each test even in cases where the test was successful to double-check our results.

Breakdown test by category: Total 60:

Breakdown of applied tests: Total 15:

Test Case - App icon

We tested more than 20 App icons variations. User were able to view the icon in three places:

1. Google Play Store app list 2. App store page 3. After installing - On user’s device

App Icon tests are a very sensitive issue as they have far reaching consequences. Any changes made will have to be reflected in the company’s marketing materials and will impact the company’s overall branding efforts. Therefore we decided that any changes we made were to be minor changes to minimize the impact on our brand.

With that said, here was the agenda for the App Icon tests: ● Test different icon shapes ● Different icon colors and backgrounds ● 2D effects vs 3D ● Out of the box ● Add elements to the icon ● To announce a test as a winner, the significance level should be high (at the console you have it clear if a variation is a winner or not)

This is the original icon with which we started with on the store.

1. Test 1 Three variations - We added round shapes with different color backgrounds in the assumption that users are familiar with and like round shapes. We tried to highlight the Icon within the shape. This didn’t go down well!

2. Test 2 - Next we tried a round shape with 3D Icon

Results: This received a positive response and the new icon was applied to the product version

3. Test 3 - We then wanted to see if using a rectangular shape would have a better response than the circle so we added a rectangular background. This did not go down well either!

4. Test 4 - So we went back to the circles and tried a few more variations to the background colors. This didn’t work either.

5. Test 5 - So we thought maybe changing the color of the icon itself would be a good idea. So we tried out a colorful icon, which seemed to be very popular among other apps. Nope! That was not a hit with our users.

6. Test 6 - And then we tried our hand at round backgrounds with a 3D effect and also, since many apps use the blue color scheme, we tried to break it up a little. No! That idea did not work.

7. Test 7 - Okay, so then we tried to elevate the icon by adding a winner’s badge. I mean, everybody loves a winner, right? Wrong!

8. Test 8 - For our last attempt we went with a round background with the 3D icon which worked in our second test and added a white border.

We had a clear winner! The results showed an overwhelmingly positive response.

Conclusion

There are no clear conclusions as to what works and what doesn’t. But with experiments you get a chance to use data to decide what works and what doesn't, what I can tell you is that you need to implement some innovation and keep on testing all the ideas, no matter how big or small the ideas may be.What was missing? Possibility to perform an experiment by country and not just by language is essential because

What was missing? The possibility to perform an experiment by country and not just by language is essential because optimization and localization should be by country. For example, Spanish or French is spoken in dozens of countries, with different cultures. Two useful practices about running experiments

Two useful practices about running experiments are: test one thing at a time and second conduct assumption/hypothesis based testing. Google provides you with great tools, but don't forget the methodology as even A/B testing can be misleading, especially if you don’t follow the rules.

Thanks to Liron Leshem for sharing their advice and opinions in this post. Liron Leshem is VP of Product at CallApp. He has over 13 years of experience leading start-ups and multinational hi-tech companies products. It's all about simplicity. It's easy to say but hard to get, to give the best product and experience to your users who reflect product target /vision and possibilities. You can connect with him on LinkedIn.

from Blog – Smart Insights http://www.smartinsights.com/mobile-marketing/app-marketing/app-store-listing-testing-can-let-optimize-increase-number-users-app/

#Blog – Smart Insights

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