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hungry-skeleton · 2 years ago

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And if you want an actual question: what exactly is Skylanders? You post about it frequently, but only serve to vex me further each time.

I'll get to your first ask soon I need to go off about this

Skylanders is a toys to life game from 2011-2016!! Toys To Life is a genre that's died out but basically it means using physical toys to interact with the digital game world. In this case Skylanders uses figurines of the characters called.... Skylanders.. And placing them on the "portal" allows you to play as them!!

The skylanders themselves have things called NFC chips inside them that store data about what character they are and the progress you made with them. So you aren't just using a copy of some specific character, your skylander is truly yours. The upgrades, money, and cosmetics you give them are saved on them forever unless you actively choose to reset them.

^^Not an actual skylander character. This item is called a creation crystal! I'll get to that later!

Over it's run skylanders has made at least 175 unique skylanders characters. Each character coming with their own special animations, personality, and back story. This isn't including any of the gimmick items that could also be used on the portal like the creation crystal from above.

Each game came with a unique gimmick that introduced new skylanders that could do special things in game!

Spyros adventure - the first installment. No special gimmick yet, at this point the entire gimmick WAS the toys to life gameplay

Giants - the Giants!! Characters that were VERY big and could do "feats of strength" and other special actions in game

Swap force - characters that could swap their top and bottom halves to combine and mix abilities

Trap team - introduced traptanium crystals!! A neat idea, you could use a physical crystal item to capture special enemies and use them to fight for you in game! What was cool about these is that they really tried to sell the immersion of the villains being inside the crystals you trapped them in by having the crystal on the portal occasionally glow and talk. It also functioned similarly to a skylander in that the game remembers what crystals you used to capture what villains. Or more specifically the chip inside the crystal itself stores that information

Superchargers - THEY HAVE CARS NOW. Also this game had incredible writing for absolutely no reason what

Imaginators - whatever!!! Make your own skylander!!! That's what the creation crystals are for! To store your custom made skylanders! The character customization is actually pretty good. Also the sensies but all they really do is unlock stuff for you lol

As for the actual gameplay it's a platforming beat em up with puzzle elements, every installment mixes up the gameplay a decent bit though, especially superchargers which focused a lot on it's vehicles. In the end they're still kids games so they aren't SUPER challenging and the story isn't too complex but they're enjoyable nonetheless.

I think one of the biggest appeals of playing is how important the game makes you feel. Like, skylanders tries to make itself as immersive as it can be. There's a canonical explanation for why the skylanders are in your possession and in the form of figures. The player themselves is canon to the story and is referred to as a Portal Master. Essentially, only you can command the skylanders and everyone's lives are counting on you. If that doesn't inflate your ego enough one of the first things that happens in the first game is a major NPC calling out to you like a god. Very good for a 9 year olds self confidence

The overall vibe of skylanders is very goofy and whimsical but it has its more serious action moments too. Skylanders is all about character, I think. Both the skylanders themselves and the NPCs. There's not many characters I can really say I don't like. The lore is surprisingly intricate... Though it also has it's goofy moments.. Like the ancient race of sapient robots having all of its moral members being killed by exploding volleyballs. I don't care who you are that's top quality writing.

Skylanders is very important to me, it was one of my first full video game experiences and it's influenced my art a lot. Not to mention my um... Collection..

Still trying to complete it!!

But anyhow, this game means the world to me. I love having other people I can share that love with, :) I wish the game was more accessible nowadays but I've heard there's some functional emulators!

I.. Wow I really fucking went off here.. Hm.. I guess that counts for your first ask too lmao, I hope this was legible!

#An ask #Skylanders

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hong-kong-art-man · 6 months ago

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Streets In Hong Kong Are Quiet: Why Online Shopping Like Taobao May Uproot More Street Shops?

Shopping is an appeal to innate human rapture. New ideas rise and old shops fall, but we still shop.

People used to shop in stores; swiping through hangers or caressing items on supermarket shelves. Now, products are mere digital images that you can scroll past. You can log on to an online shopping platform from anywhere and order even chicken and papaya. Shopping online is all about ticking boxes: species, colour, size, number and grade of quality which are all options appearing on the screen of your computer or mobile phone, with no need for personal touch. It is a mechanical process but worth on its own.

Online shopping can never completely replace some shops especially those restaurants where romantic ambience is the reason for enjoyment. It will not replace shops selling luxury goods where you want to be treated like a VIP. For shops which are ordinary and cannot offer competitive prices of their products, it is hard to see how they will be able to battle against their online counterparts. At the end, only the convenient shops satisfying a customer’s daily needs may survive. This is why I still frequent 7-Eleven or Circle K. In a competition, there are always winners and losers. Losers will disappear.

In Hong Kong, Taobao(淘寶) is the market king. It is an online shopping platform headquartered in Hangzhou(杭州), China and owned by Alibaba which at first targeted at a ‘B2B’(business-to-business) and later at a ‘B2C’(business-to-customer) operating model. Taobao is almost the most-visited website for shopping among the Chinese.

Few years ago, I resisted but now Taobao is too hard to resist for me.

My friends said the following: “China used to produce low-cost and low-performing goods, and the focus, in recent years, has shifted to high-quality goods. The trick is to look for the mid-range prices and you seldom get disappointed.” “Most shops in Hong Kong typically close at 7pm. With the rise of e-commerce, I can buy what I want from the comfort of my own home, any time of day or night.” “Buying something online is often cheaper and delivery is much faster, usually within 1-3 business days.” “My God! One of the benefits of online shopping is that specialty items, hard-to-find products and almost everything under the sun particularly out-of-stock goods can be found on the internet.” “Shoppers’ comments are available on Taobao and I can assess at once which is good and what is bad. I can also know how many items that the manufacturer had sold. I just wisely follow the crowd.”

Chinese people are very creative and this is why you will be amazed by the innovative products which emerge from Taobao every day: curtains without drilling nails, bedside tables with different lighting ideas, fake muscle T shirts which can make you look like having a six-pack abs, slippers which feel like jelly, ladders that can be turned into a chair and more…

Some Taobao sellers hire Hong Kong transportation companies to take back the goods back to the Chinese Mainland if you are not happy with the quality that you have bought. Some Mainland suppliers display their samples in Hong Kong and let you go to check out the grade. Some house fittings manufacturers employ local Hong Kong workers to provide installation services at your home.

Taobao is a wonderland where you can pay no mind—just relax, enjoy and spend your money in full swing.

Online retailers such as Taobao, Amazon, Carousell, eBay and Tmall are popular in Hong Kong and are quietly forcing many small street shops to close down. Land and labour in Hong Kong are expensive. This is why the prices of products in physical shops with the same quality can be 3 or 4 times more. Only those who are not accustomed to ‘cyber shopping’ or who insist on personalized encounter still do in-store shopping.

The big challenge to cyber shopping is the cost of ‘e-commerce logistics’ which term refers to the movement of goods in online retail. It involves managing inventory, order fulfilment, warehousing, transportation and delivery. The latter two are not cheap. Often, transportation charges are equal to the price of a product and you are forced to buy many other things at the same time in order to justify delivery charges. It encourages ‘prodigal spending’.

It is also a pity that most e-commerce sites are just a product list. They do not have stories or human inspiration. They do not tell you why the products are made or who developed the idea behind.

My life has changed. I seldom go out for aimless shopping. I simply wait happily for an order to show up at my door every single day. It is always like Christmas! Online shopping wins because I can do it in bed or even in my toilet! Carrying stuff which is a kind of heavy lifting can cause a problem to us after a certain age. There is already too much stuff to carry around like cellphone, wallet, keys and a briefcase when we go home. Grocery bags surely piss us off now!

Great shopping is when laziness finds respectability.

Maurice Lee

Chinese Version 中文版: https://www.patreon.com/posts/you-yi-zhong-qu-104771940?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

Online Shopping Fraud https://youtu.be/gQBNkKdecCc?si=YPwHvFlgDNDwhmil Acknowledgement-HK Police

Even kids do online shopping https://youtu.be/9PtwmK36Of8?si=lQfOAN5PaFF2T0bN Acknowledgement – RTHK

Development of online shopping in HK https://youtu.be/pbGU74aURvg?si=ezNc59RssgZcoh-r Acknowledgement – China Daily Asia

#Taobao淘寶 #Amazon

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maacwanowrie · 2 years ago

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What You Need For Stop Motion Animation

Would you like to create your own stop-motion video? It's simpler than you would imagine.

There aren't many materials required, and they're all reasonably priced. Only paper, scissors, sellotape, and an old shoebox are required! Anyone who has successfully finished their 10+2 or an equivalent degree with at least 50% overall marks is eligible to apply for the 3-year B.Sc. Animation and VFX program. One will learn about the field of animation and visual effects in this course (VFX). A large number of animation institutes provide you with the best VFX course in Pune.

Motion Stopped The art of animation has been around for a very long time. There have been several uses for it, but the most popular one is to make short films with puppets and other props.

You may create a simple stop-motion animation video using items you can find around the house or at your neighbourhood hardware shop by following the instructions provided below. If using clay is more convenient for you, you can alternatively use yarn!

The best thing about these videos is how reasonably priced they are.

In stop-motion animation, objects are animated by physically moving them from frame to frame. Stop-motion animation is frequently utilised in movies and television shows, but it can also be produced using clay or paper cutouts.

A camera, tripod, light source (either natural or artificial), background, and props are the bare minimum tools required to begin stop-motion animation. This will show you how to use these everyday materials to create an interesting stop-motion video!

The process of making a stop-motion animation can be thrilling and enjoyable, but it's crucial to have the correct tools.

Fortunately, a wide range of businesses sell everything you require for your job.

You will gain knowledge of the tools you need to do animation quickly. Also, it will give examples of some of the top products available, simplifying your search!

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carminite-wyrm · 3 years ago

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A Sunless Skies!AU fic, Part 1

So I've...ended up writing a fic for my Sunless Skies x Hermitcraft AU. At first it was meant to be just like, a ficlet, but it's kind of spiralled a bit into a multi-parter fic. So here's the Part 1!

Again, credit to @redstone-sun for the FL!AU that kickstarted my inspiration for the Sunless Skies!AU!

Ren and Doc, brave Co-Captains of the Octagon Van, seekers of secrets and conspiracies, have for once, decided to take a brief vacation from their adventures and accidental incidents in the High Wilderness. Their vacation of choice? A few days at the most desirable holiday destination in all of Albion: Worlebury-juxta-Mare.

An idyllic holiday spot, where nothing is amiss, and nothing can go wrong. Right?

(Spoilers for Sunless Skies lore!)

The admission passes for a weekend stay at Worlebury-juxta-Mare had been a gift from the Boatem Crew, after a series of incidents that were probably best to never be spoken about again, on both groups’ parts.

Specifically, Scar had handed over the admission permits with a wink, tipping them out of his top hat with a dramatic gesture, along with a pamphlet.

“Should be fine for a weekend stay, gentlemen! I’ve heard that they even sell genuine rubbery lumps there, tastes just like it does back in London, apparently. Haven’t tried any myself, admittedly.”

And with that parting note, the Boatem Crew had set off from their rendezvous, leaving behind Ren, Doc, and their horde of semi-displaced goats.

A few weeks later, they had finished finding decent homes for the goats across the entirety of the High Wilderness, with a few exceptions who were still very much at home onboard their locomotive. And finally, the two could head off to their first vacation in several months.

“So, Worlebury-juxta-Mare.” Ren commented, staring at the cursive writing on one of the passes, and checking the pamphlet’s travel details with the map in front of him. “Have you gone there before?”

“Nope.” Doc replied, most of his focus upon repairing his mechanical arm after their last goat drop-off resulted in a very close call with some of Albion’s native wildlife. “It’s…off to the east, isn’t it?”

“Past London, yeah. Not close to the Avid Horizon, though.”

“That’s good to hear, I don’t think they’ll be happy to see us again so soon after that one, uh, incident.”

“I thought we agreed to never speak of that again.”

“True.”

The journey to the holiday destination took a little under a fortnight, with the last of the goats willing to leave rehomed on the way. The one remaining goat ended up being named Vigenere, and appointed as the Octagon Van’s noble mascot, screams and all.

The island that Worlebury was located upon was shrouded in mist, which slowly parted to reveal a quaint-looking town, with multiple other locomotives docked at the port, and the faint outline of amusement park rides in the distance.

“Well, it certainly looks like what the pamphlet described.” Doc said, as their locomotive was guided to a docking station.

As they stepped onto the wooden planks of the docks, they followed the signs leading them to a sizeable queue in front of the main gates of the station. A few signs, all in the same fanciful cursive as the passes that they carried, directed visitors either to the queue for those with passes, those bringing supplies, those waiting for regular entry, and workers. Right by where all the queues began, they could see a bright turquoise banner for a Swaggon Inc. stall, set up in what looked like a cart, and selling all manner of knickknacks to the passing visitors.

“Suppose that’s us.” Doc pointed at one of the shorter queues, patrons in fine clothing and clearly of noble or wealthy backgrounds murmuring among themselves as their passes were checked and stamped.

As they waited, an official suddenly wandered by, stared at them for half a second, before making a ‘come over here’ gesture. Curious, the two headed over, and the man held out a hand, the badge of a government representative clearly affixed to his lapel.

“First time in Worlebury-juxta-Mare? Excellent, excellent, right this way then.” He said, a businessman’s grin fixed upon his face as he shook their hands in greeting. “I’m a representative of the Bureau of Entertainments, and I’d like to welcome you to our fine port. Now, I know queue jumping is a little uncouth, but well, for fine gentlemen as yourself, I am certain you would rather be enjoying the sights rather than mingling with the proletariat for hours.”

Ren and Doc shared an awkward glance, silently comparing their practical, but significantly less extravagant, attire with the shining emerald suit the official was wearing. Over by the admission pass queue, one of the women’s hats looked more expensive than all of Doc’s prosthetics combined, and Ren knew for a fact that Doc had not spared any expense with his equipment or materials for that.

“Uh, thanks? We do have passes though.” Ren held up the aforementioned two items.

“Consider this a courtesy for your first time visiting. We are, of course, absolutely certain that you will be returning guests, after all.” The man smiled at them, before showing them to a door that had a brass plaque with the words ‘Fitting Room’ etched onto it. “Now, there is a dress code, so please do step inside and let the good Couturier find you a suitable outfit.”

With only the slightest amount of hesitancy, the duo stepped into what turned out to be a sizeable room that had all manner of clothing hung up in the wardrobes and racks that lined its walls. The Couturier took one look at Doc’s labcoat (missing a sleeve after it was ripped too many times by him using his mechanical arm to physically fend off the creatures that attacked their locomotive), and Ren’s combination of overalls, tinted goggles, and a ragged red shirt, seemed to grind his teeth in silent outrage, and stalked over to one of the racks.

“Pick an article of clothing you imagine suits you, and I’ll…figure something out to match it.” He said shortly.

Doc immediately gravitated towards the rack of coats, finding a white coat that was almost like his labcoat except with all its sleeves, and also made in the fashion style of decades past. The Couturier seemed to calm down upon seeing his choice, and immediately busied himself with providing the rest of a three-piece suit to accompany it. Off to the side, Doc saw Ren contemplate a lavish velvet-lined hat, before putting it down and flicking through a selection of dress shirts and blouses.

Fifteen minutes later, they had finally shoved Ren into a tailcoat set, much to the relief of the Couturier, who had seemed close to sobbing after the twelfth time that Ren had thought the chosen attire did not suit him.

“I still think the fur coat would have looked better.”

“It looked like someone had stitched together a bunch of rats, Ren.”

Ren sighed dramatically, before immediately lighting up once again as they finally made it into the port town proper, and spotted the wide variety of shops and amusement park games that lined the streets.

“Oh, there’s a stall for the rubbery lumps that Scar mentioned!”

And with that, the hours whirled past as they visited shop after shop, Ren gleefully taste-testing several shops’ worth of tea variety before ordering a few caddies for them to take with them. At one point, Doc swore there was something more wormy than earthy in a particular cup of tea, staring suspiciously into his cup before setting it down. There was something…just a bit odd, besides the fact that the mists really were vaguely corrosive and causing their clothes from the fitting room to slowly disintegrate and unravel as time went by.

But, on the other hand, Ren did seem to be having a good time, and the shop with a wide array of elaborate tea sets, and other porcelain objects, was quite enjoyable to wander through, even if the screams from the nearby donkey ride was a little disconcerting.

Wait. Screams?

Doc whirled around, to where the donkey ride was. No, he must have been mistaken, it seemed like nothing was amiss, though his mechanical eye did focus upon an odd reddish stain that seemed to shimmer in and out of view. He blinked, and the stain was gone.

Huh, his eye probably needed a little bit of a tune up once they were back on board the Van.

“Hey, Doc, want to get some candyfloss?”

He turned away from the donkeys, to where Ren was tugging him over to a stand with multicoloured sticks of candyfloss. Still perturbed, he absently took a bite out of the pale green spun sugar that Ren had purchased for him.

It was sweet. A bit almond-bitter, if he thought about it for long enough.

Their hotel resort room was actually quite comfortable, considering they were essentially visiting for free. The Department official had said that their stay would be the equivalent of their usual pass, just without needing the actual pass, for some reason.

Ren tugged awkwardly at his clothes as they settled for the day, the fabric already looking a bit threadbare. Doc simply huffed, sitting down in one of the armchairs with relief after a whole day of walking and running around.

“They sure weren’t joking about the mists.” Ren joked, looking out at their beachfront view. “We��ll probably be lucky to get to midday tomorrow before we have to leave because our fitting room outfits are in tatters.”

“I thought we already saw everything today?” Doc eyed the bags of souvenirs that they had acquired, and the stack of cargo receipts he was dreading having to file away at a later time.

“There’s an art exhibition tomorrow, and we still haven’t seen the beach.”

“Hm, alright.” Doc sighed, sinking further into his armchair. “I’m going to be honest; I’m looking forward to being back on our locomotive, my eye’s been seeing some strange things and I think it might need a tune-up.”

“Probably isn’t anything serious, Doc!”

“I hope so.”

Roughly eight hours later, Doc was deeply regretting everything as the sky above the beach shimmered and doubled, the sight of an idyllic foggy day overlapping with scintillating tendrils of unsettling light. Off to the side, Ren was attempting to skip stones along the sea of mist, which quite frankly wasn’t working on account of the ‘water’ not being water in the first place.

“Ren, I think we should leave.” He said, catching the other man’s attention. “I’m…The place is starting to look a bit weird.”

“Ah, is the eye giving you that much trouble?”

“No, it’s-“

“Eh, we can always come back later, we still have the tickets Scar gave us.” Ren shrugged, and the two of them slowly made their way back to the dock. As they stepped back out onto the wooden platforms that formed the dockside, Doc blinked as the double vision he had been experiencing slowly cleared up, fading away almost like mist on a windy day.

An hour or two later, and Doc held up his mechanical eye to the lightbulb above his workstation, frowning in consternation. There didn’t seem to be any faults with the eye, and he even swapped it back out again with the spare, to compare the two. For all intents and purposes, his eye was perfectly functional, down to the polished glass lenses within it.

“Well, Doc? How’s the eye?” Ren poked his head into the tiny room that housed most of Doc’s tools and other equipment.

“It…seems to be working as normal. I don’t get it, I swear it was glitching out whilst we were in town, but there’s nothing wrong with it! I even pulled it apart to check if some of the internal pieces had corroded or fallen out of place, but it was all fine!”

“Huh, weird.” Ren shrugged. “So, you up for heading back in to the town, or do you want us to go? We did manage to get quite a bit of souvenirs, anyways.”

“Honestly? I think we ought to go, there’s just something not right about this place.”

“Hm, maybe something about the mists is making your hardware go a bit haywire? They do have a corrosive effect, even if its mild enough to only affect fabrics.” Ren nodded. “Anyways, I’ll go tell the crew to get ready to set off.”

“Uh. Captains?”

The two turned, to see one of the crewmembers looking at them with barely hidden panic on their face.

“Yeah?” Ren raised an eyebrow.

“Vigenere. The mascot. We can’t find them anywhere!”

#hermitcraft #hermitcraft au #rendog #docm77 #obviously character versions of them #carminite writes #sunless skies hc au #fic is yet to be titled (mostly because i haven't figured out a cool title yet)#more to come...eventually #hopefully by next week

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askagamedev · 6 years ago

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My brother is a big of Star Citizen. As an non-Game Designer he thinks they are doing a lot of pioneer work for game development, testing more things and taking more risks than other devs thanks to the crowd-funding. Would you say this is in some way true or is it just that Cloud Imperium Games is more open about their development process?

It is definitely true in some ways - Star Citizen has pioneered lot of stuff that other dev studios haven’t. Some of it is technical, some of it is marketing, and some of it probably isn’t what you think. This isn’t necessarily a good thing either - they certainly do some stuff nobody else does that plenty of gamers find distasteful when done by other studios.

First and foremost, the elephant in the room is their current business model. They are the largest crowdfunded project in history and the way that they continue to fund themselves is by selling extremely expensive DLC for an unfinished game. This combines things that players have traditionally disliked - preorder bonuses and very large price tags. We live in an age where players rage when the companies allow players to spend real money to buy powerful in-game items (I remember when [EVE Online players rioted because CCG tried to sell a $60 monocle]), but many backers have no problem with Star Citizen selling in-game ships for hundreds or even thousands of dollars. Furthermore, I keep hearing about how these ships are/will be purchasable in game, but you need in-game insurance in case the ship gets blown up or something. I’m 100% certain that in-game ship insurance is a feature unique to Star Citizen, but I also seriously question whether ship insurance as a feature actually adds any fun or enjoyment to the game. I’ve certainly never seen a game where I thought “You know what would make this game better? Adding an insurance commerce feature.”

There are other features that they have been developing that haven’t been tried before, mostly because many of us have considered them and realized they weren’t really worth the effort necessary. For example, Star Citizen claimed that they wanted to create a galaxy at scale with reality. While this sounds good, the problem is that [the vast majority of space is really really empty]. Building just our single solar system to scale would mean that leaving Earth and reaching Mars at the equivalent speed of going around the entire planet Earth in 1 second (40,000 km per sec) would still take 22 minutes of travel time. If you left Earth and moved at light speed (~300,000 km/sec), it would take just under 7 hours to reach Pluto. Many dev studios working on science fiction games have considered the possibility of building a galaxy to scale because it sounds really cool. But when we try to actually build it, it kind of sucks because most players don’t like waiting for hours to actually get to the more interesting parts of the game. This is why even the hugest open-world games are only a few square kilometers in total; what matters is the density of content to play with, not the total area size.

There are other features they built that most of us have discarded for similar reasons, like physics-based space flight. Building space ships that actually used simulated physics for their movement sounded really cool and a lot of players were excited for it, but there were issues that arose because of it - they had to throw out most of the work they had already done because none of the ships they had built up to that point could work that way, and forcing the physics constraints on ships doesn’t take the way the game feels to players into account. It’s accuracy for accuracy’s sake, but it isn’t necessarily fun. Much of game design is abstraction - removing the dull stuff and distilling down the experience to the fun parts.

I think that the Star Citizen dev team has done some really impressive stuff, especially technically, but that the real pioneering work that they’ve managed to succeed at has been the marketing (including its own annual convention) and monetization for a game that isn’t anywhere close to finalization. Many of the various developers I know/worked for have considered similar game features before, but we discarded them because they sounded good on paper but weren’t fun in practice. However, to my knowledge nobody’s tried building an entire business model on selling extremely expensive preorder DLC. That’s one field where RSI has been the true pioneer.

The FANTa Project is currently on hiatus while I am crunching at work too busy.

[What is the FANTa project?] [Git the FANTa Project]

Got a burning question you want answered?

Short questions: Ask a Game Dev on Twitter

Long questions: Ask a Game Dev on Tumblr

#Star Citizen #the business of video games #game feature breakdown #personal soapbox #Video Game Technology #Design Philosophy

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trulymightypotato · 6 years ago

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On the Comparative Value of Labor

A few people have told me recently that I should pick up x or y thing and make money with it on the side: knitting, cross-stitching, so on and so forth. “You can sell little embroidered key chains for five bucks some weekend and make some pocket change!” they say, completely unaware that that’s nowhere near the right amount of money to even break even with the cost of material and time that I put into it.

Especially considering that I’m slower at these tasks than most people.

This is, largely, because knitting and cross-stitch are tasks with extremely fine motor control--tasks I struggle with on a daily basis due to both the strain it puts on my joints and my general lack of fine motor control in the first place.

I’m familiar with the basics of both trades. I’ve knitted (though the most complicated thing I’ve ever managed is a scarf, because uneven yarn tension doesn’t matter so much there) and I’ve done a wide variety of embroidery (my current project is a set of throw pillows for a cousin’s wedding gift--a project, that despite the low surface area of the pillows that’s being covered, has taken me six months and I’m still not done).

One of my roommates can pick up crochet and make a scarf in a matter of days.

And yet the scarf that I spent four weeks knitting non-stop to get done in time for Christmas and the scarf my roommate made in a week would be valued the same--if not hers as a higher worth, because she’s able to control the yarn and make for a smoother finished project.

Despite the fact that a keychain-sized cross-stitch item would cost me materials and about four hours of time, it would be valued at five dollars.

My work, at a detail that causes me pain, is valued at $1.25 an hour.

You might be able to see the problem here.

This applies to more than the physical crafts.

It applies to "The market price is crap and also based on people who work faster than you do because they’re not in pain.”

I do digital art. I do it when I have the time and a subject in mind, which means it happens less often than I’d like. I’ve done commissions before, too, and contracted work.

The thing is, even though my commissions are “too expensive,” they’re honestly not costly enough. Not only is someone paying for a digital product, but they’re also paying for my time, for the experience I have in digital work, my style, and the physical effort it takes for me to actually complete a piece with intensive feedback. A total of three (3) people have ever commissioned me, and while I’m glad one of them has repeatedly come back for more, it’s disheartening to see the vast majority of people aren’t interested in paying a still-too-low wage.

As for that contract work I did--legally speaking, I’m not allowed to divulge details, but know that because “it’s a lot of work you’ll get paid plenty by the time it’s all over” I did intensive pieces and got paid under half of what I should have been. By the time I found out how much work there really was, and the changes the other party demanded months after getting a final piece sent to them, I was locked into a contract that didn’t give me any hope for improvement. (Also, they wouldn’t pay me for months at a time and got upset when I refused to hand over the final products until I got paid.)

By the time everything was said and done, I was getting paid about $3 an hour.

Somehow, because some people can draw faster than I can for the same product, that means I get paid less than a fair wage.

It’s one of the reasons commissions haven’t been open in a while. I can’t handle that again--both the mental strain and the physical damage caused by both working a regular job and drawing for another 4-6 hours a day to get stuff done.

It applies to “Other people have more time to do things than you do, and yet you’re held to the same standard.”

I record videos and put them on YouTube for fun. There was a period of time, about two years ago, when I was able to put out a video nearly every day. It was expected of me, so why wouldn’t I? And then, very suddenly, videos stopped for several months. Why?

Well, because I was taking 15 credits of college classes and working.

I would get all my homework done on my commute on public transport to and from college and in the breaks between classes. On particularly rough days I’d do a few more hours of it when I got home.

Then I’d have an irregularly-scheduled job where I’d work two 8 hour shifts back to back (either on sequential days or, on a few notable occasions, on the same day--you read that right, 16 hour days) and then a single 4 hour shift and then I wouldn’t be allowed to work more because then they’d have to start paying me benefits.

Because of this, money was so tight that some months I could barely pay rent, much less afford to eat.

I’d have chores I needed to do, ranging from the basic “clean room” and “dishes” and “laundry” (a task that takes several hours, assuming all the washers and dryers at the laundromat are working properly) to the more technically complicated “grocery shopping” (since I didn’t and still don’t have a car and had to rely on public transportation) and “scheduled appointments”.

I didn’t have time to put out videos, and yet I still felt I had to. My mental health was suffering to the point where my physical health was suffering (something I’m still dealing with the ramifications of to this day), and the only thing I could cut was videos.

So I did.

I stumbled through my last semesters of college (and I graduated with a GPA lower than I’d wanted but above a 3.0 so really that was nice) and got a new job--one that works me regular hours, even if those hours start at 4:30 in the morning.

And for several months into 2018, that was all I could do.

Sure, I managed to get out a few videos in that time, but I wasn’t really happy with them, and judging by the analytics on my channel, neither was anyone else.

It applies to “There’s a lot of invisible work that goes into this.”

I know I write fanfic for free. I’m planning on keeping it that way. It’s a good way for me to clear my mind and get creative, without the pressure of having a “final product” to show off at the end. I mean, I will have a final product, hypothetically, but I’m not really expected to show it to anyone in a professional context.

But then there are those comments--comments at the ends of chapters and in articles written by “professionals” and “experts.” The ones that say “Anyone can write. You’re just making things up for the fun of it, of course it’s not difficult” and “It’s been so long, when’s the next chapter going to be out?”

Except that it’s not so easy as that.

Yes, absolutely, I do it for fun. I do it for fun all the time. I do it for the satisfaction, and for the enjoyment of writing.

But the final product you see? Is not just something I tipped out onto the page.

In Royal Flush, for example, each and every chapter is started with a specific purpose in mind. A thing, a very specific thing, needs to happen. Maybe someone needs to learn information, or an aspect of 1920s culture needs to be showcased to better explain someone’s motives and actions.

All of this requires research. Research into clothing customs, and into social greetings and actions out in public and the customary ways to do such and such. Research into the vehicles of the time. Research into the medicine of the time (which is a particularly tricky one). Research into politics and public opinions and real-life historical figures.

The average chapter of Royal Flush takes me a week to a month to write.

This is a call to remember that just because a job looks easy, it’s probably not. If you think you can do it better, feel free. If you’re going to be That Person, then I don’t want to work for or with you. If you approach me on social media, I will block you.

Remember: for the vast majority of the “easy work for easy money” I perform, the work begins as soon as negotiations open--not as soon as I actually sit down and start working on the art, or the chapter, or the cross-stitch.

By engaging in someone’s work, you are agreeing to THEIR terms, to THEIR labor, to pay THEM a fair wage for the time and work THEY put into it--not your neighbor, not yourself, not a robot in a factory.

You are hiring a person. Rates may vary.

#value of labor #work is work #that's what it is #even if you don't think it counts as work #i promise #it's work #long post

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dionnecox0576-blog · 6 years ago

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GYM FITNESS - a Short Overview

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