#and i think it was a chinese player who joined the guild and asked

[ohtobearandomftblog]

guess what more headcanons but this time lacrimas and i dont think its long enough for a read more

lacrima are used for everything.

hearing aid lacrimas.

phone lacrimas.

internet lacrimas.

inhaler lacrimas.

music lacrimas.

sound-proof lacrimas.

your wheelchair has fuckin lacrimas in it.

as mentioned before most lacrimas do have electricity in em so yes if your hearing is good/if your brain doesnt tone it out you will hear them buzzing

again. internet lacrimas. theres youtube and twitch and twitter and tumblr (bc it is so difficult trying to explain how someone knows of a meme when there isnt). theyre not called tumblr etc but theyre somethin similar

laxus is Big on tumblr. he makes sure no one fucking knows it with few exceptions.

will quote “it fukin wimdy” and cana constantly chokes on her drink. she knows he knows where thats from. she fucking follows him. she KNOWS its him. she does this shit right back and he continues it.

will mutter “and now: the weather” whenever he hears music a moment before any normal mage would. this gets mirajane and she is Terrified about how he knows that. she never asks

the few times he was at the guild hall early in the day were for the tumblrsexyman polls on twitter then on tumblr. was one of the top blogs that did #cecilsweep, which made cana ask him what the fuck that was. she was quickly educated. mira did not hear but now cana also quotes wtnv and mira is, again, Terrified

most of the lamia scale/sabertooth/blue pegasus/fairy tail/etc guilds have a big twitter and most of the members have their own separate ones

non-mages treat the guild twitters like brands. it annoys most of the non-mages to no end and the mages themselves Will Block the dumbasses

teen laxus once took over the fairy tail twitter. makarov found out quickly and the damage was minimal.

teen mira then took over the fairy tail twitter and makarov Didnt find out quickly. the damages were astronomical.

the guild twitters follow all of the member twitters and sometimes retweets the more “consumer friendly” tweets. except for fairy tail. what the fuck are they gonna retweet like “just watched my friend’s exfriend kill their mutual friend who i just met on a giant lacrima that the magic council JUST shot etherion at.he wasnt very obdurate lemme tell ya” like NO

you could get lacrima implants. like a phone lacrima implanted behind your ear so long as you dont mind a big ass lump. its just a phone and like a music player unless you implant a screen lacrima between your eyes. barely anyone does this because it sounds like a scam and Why would  you do that are you really That addicted

after lucy joined fairy tail but after eisenwald she started a youtube series called “a day in the life of a new mage”. its how jude knew she joined fairy tail. she uploaded the entirety of the phantom bullshit and not only did it help soften (by maybe 20% at MOST) the magic council interrogations of fairy tail but it made jude’s business start going downhill.

people would randomly stream and upload fights natsu and gajeel were in. its how sting and rogue became their fans.

the raijinshu have their own twitch and sometimes start streaming whenever laxus starts talking about something weird. like the random noise only he hears and hes losing his mind. or when he gets really into talking music. or when he starts talking in chinese and doesnt realize it to bickslow who’s slowly turning more and more pale and starts sweating because What Is He Saying

all of the thunder legion have started streams when laxus was speaking not english to another member. currently evergreen’s started stream 14 times more than the others and freed’s been streamed 9 times more than the others. their followers keep count. freed gets so embarrassed when its mentioned again.

there was a time where someone (coughbickslowcough) accidentally started streaming and just left it on. for like four hours. it was in makarov’s living room where they were all hanging out for a bit. when the legion left laxus turned on his own music and started cleaning. chat was Shocked that there was actually barely any R&R on his playlist. he deleted the vod when he realized it was on.

laxus’s entire playlist has actually been leaked this way. chat does not know how to handle laxus listening to natewantstobattle and fucking luhan.

laxus got back at the legion for that. many times. like when he “accidentally” starts talking in another language and sees someone inching towards the shared lacrima.

all of natsu’s social media (twitter insta and twitch) are unnecessarily popular. he barely posts on the first two and has never even talked in anyones chat on twitch. he doesnt even know how people found it but whenever he tunes into cana’s drinking tournament streams he gets gifted a sub by a different person every damn time. hes a bit concerned.

gray’s is also popular but it does make sense this time because he posts a Lot. whenever he posts a picture/uploads/streams he always realizes After it uploaded/started up that oh hes shirtless when the FUCK did that happen. juvia now makes sure his shirt is on at All Times. sometimes they forget he strips his pants. thankfully no ass has been shown yet (sadly for his followers (juvia is a follower))

[boundlss]

"Shiroe-senpai!"

Soujiro's visage exuded bright excitement as he waved his hand, catching the eye of both players and townsfolk alike as he passed by. It wasn't often when the leader of Log Horizon (or a player of his caliber in general) sought out external assistance, let alone Soujiro's. Needless to say, he was eager to hear what Shiroe had in mind.

Could it be another raid? Some important mission? Or even just a secret mission with just a few members senpai handpicked? Uwahhh, I can't wait! I can't wait!

Once Soujiro's presence was acknowledged, the said excitement changed into calm gratefulness instead. He felt glad and relieved that someone like Shiroe started asking for help these days, rather than the old days by working by himself most of the time. Soujiro thought had the best ideas, to the point that he could be quite oblivious whether there were devious intentions behind them.

"I'm sure you either had something important to ask from me, or that you want to simply play catch up," he chuckled. "But we both know that the latter is more of a luxury these days."

Unbeknowst to Shiroe, Soujiro's admiration towards him alone would make him stop anything else he was doing, if it meant acknowledgement and praise from one of the players he respected the most. (As Nazuna would put it from time to time, like a puppy eager to please.)

( so this is an ask of all time... Hello!! Shwksns )

Ha. Unfortunately, Soujiro isn't exactly wrong about the lack of freetime they all have. As everything surrounding their circumstances comes closer to slotting perfectly into place, the gaps between "incidents" seem to shrink.

But neither of his guesses are entirely off the mark.

"Actually, you could call it a little bit of both..." Shiroe begins, a little vaguely. "That is, it's something important that I trust you with, but I wouldn't say that it won't involve any catching up..."

It's true that he probably could have asked just about anyone to join him for what he was planning to do with enough preparation beforehand. As far as operations went, this one wouldn't require a particularly large group of people, nor did Shiroe think it would require an especially particular team composition. It wasn't reported to be as difficult as an ordinary "boss fight" in terms of raw power, after all. But he stands before Souji now for a particular reason.

"For a while, I've been working with Rieze and Misa from D.D.D. to keep an eye on the waters that separate the physical locations of the Chinese server and the Japan server, since that's the shortest way for Kanami and Krusty to make their way here. Recently, Misa informed me that a Genius had been spotted who was able to completely disable an Adventurer's capability to do things like view the menu, or communicate with eachother through telepathy."

According to his meeting with the two interim leaders of the guild, the Genius hadn't been particularly strong, but things like menus and telepathy are vital to a party of adventurers, especially during sea-based battles. Cutting off access to menus was already bad for spellcasters and healers, but parties spread across multiple ships would have been essentially unable to convey anything to the members of their party on a different ship. Which was why...

"If it's a small enough party, using menus and status screens isn't strictly necessary, and we'd only have to use it with one ship if we only took a few people. But, just in case, I figured it would be best if I were fighting with people who I can trust myself to figure out. So far it's just me, Naotsugu, and Nyanta... But I wanted to ask if you and Nazuna would be willing to accompany us."

Shiroe can't help sounding sheepish, uncertain of himself. It's still just a little difficult, getting used to asking others for help, even knowing Soujiro likely would jump at the opportunity.

unprompted. / accepting.

[weaselishmcdiesel]

done!! (also if u have any more tips or just anything abt the game id be happy to hear them 👀 yes this is also an excuse to ramble abt it im listbenin)

I got the reward!! :DD!! Thank you so much XD!!

HEHE OK YOU LEGALLY ASKED FOR IT THIS TIME IM GOING TO RAMBLE SO HARD:

Never buy the supreme chest chest/pet egg if you can get the special chest/pet egg. They cost the same but the special has a higher chance to get you newer characters, it’s totally worth it

Same goes for treasures. Always do the special draw, not the regular! (Unless you… somehow maxed out all the new treasures) Also for treasures, don’t buy the draw 1. You get one free draw if you get the 10+1.

Rainbow cubes are so so so so so rare. If an event is selling rainbow cubes, prioritize getting those before any other reward. (Unless of course you don’t care for costumes? But they aren’t purely cosmetic like with other games, they can be a good investment!)

Treasures go in and out of popularity ofc, but ones i recommend to level up would be X-tra hot Turbo Engine, DEFINITELY, and maybe Coin Fireworks Box (used to farm coins if you need to) and Red Egg of Resurrection (it’s very useful for getting good scores in cookie trials!)

Cookies and pets. go in and out of popularity HARD… I cant think of any that are super important to max out? Just try to focus on the newest ones for now and they should help you in all the different modes ^^

Playing in Main Story is. So helpful. It’s a fairly newish feature so it’s a breeze for me and all my maxed out cookies but it’s made for new players to get a grasp of mechanics! It also has great rewards that will help you max out captain ice cookie and beetroot cookie (they should help you progress in trophy race? I think?)

If you don’t want to play every day that’s totally understandable! If you can, then try to get some trophy races in! They’re the only way to open golden chests which ALWAYS contain epic cookies n are super super helpful ^^

Don’t fall madly in love with any of the cookies. They will break your heart. My text tone is herb cookie’s slide noise. I’ve known nothing but heartache. Wouldn’t trade it for the world.

I hope this. is good advice XD i havent been a new player in a long time clearly but hopefully the game is also pointing you in the right directions!

(also my friend id is LTGSF1658.... if you.. wanna be my fren 👉👈)

[syncogon]

[QZGS TL] Butterfly Blue 2019 Ye Xiu Birthday Interview

For Ye Xiu’s birthday on 05/29/2019, Butterfly Blue did an interview with thepaper.cn (澎湃新闻). You can read the Chinese here: https://card.weibo.com/article/m/show/id/2309351002454377326526805418?_wb_client_=1

I’ve translated most of it below. I omitted some questions that I felt weren’t super relevant, such as the progress of the live action (since it’s already out now), and some of his other works.

As always, let me know of any major errors! Past translations that I’ve done of BB’s words may be found /tagged/bb-interview.

***

Q: Ye Xiu’s birthday is coming up, is there anything you’d like to say to him?

A: Happy birthday, you not-old youth. 

Q: Asking on behalf of many fans, why don’t you establish a pairing for Ye Xiu?

A: Glory is his official pairing.

Q: Where did the inspiration for Ye Xiu’s character come from?

A: Michael Jordan was an inspiration, the idea of “even after retiring I can still do this.” I’ve actually always been following basketball and soccer, first through newspaper, and then through blogs and media. I’ve accumulated a lot, and when I was writing The King’s Avatar I used all of it. Many people have asked me if I know a lot about esports, but in reality I know less about esports. More inspiration came from sports that were more developed. I drew on real sports and esports, and at the time I even watched many Chinese Go competitions.

Q: Ye Xiu has many female fans, because his personality is quite different from many classic male webnovel protagonists.

A: It’s because his character setup is different, he’s not some lowly noob. Even though he’s 25 at the start of the novel, which sounds young, in reality his mental age is much higher than his actual age when it comes to his professional resume. He’s calm and stable, because he knows that he’s already at the top of this profession. It’s like if you took a professional soccer or basketball player and put them into a high school league, they’d feel no pressure at all. In general, that’s what being in-game is like to him. Later on when he’s playing matches, he still has that confidence, because he has strength, and he has already proven this strength. 

Q: Why didn’t you add a romantic storyline to The King’s Avatar?

A: It might have to do with personal views. In particular, female writers when writing esports might include a romantic storyline, romance above all else, anything can change for the sake of love, etc., but I don’t really agree with those kinds of views. When I write love, even though it’s important, it’s not the most important, and many things can surpass it. So when the career storyline becomes the main storyline, it doesn’t really matter whether love is present or not. It can be a helping thing, but it won’t be the main focus when I’m writing. I hope to write a relatively pure story. You can fall in love, but it can’t interfere with your profession. 

Q: I’m actually somewhat curious, have you watched Love O2O? 

A: I have. When I first wrote about gaming, there were three main types. One type was where it became more romance-focused as it developed, and the focus was not on gaming but on falling in love. Another type was alternate world [i.e. isekai], the type where you enter the world of the game. Then, the third type was esports. My earlier books were only focused on playing games, and it was very cut off from reality. Whatever results you had in-game, they couldn’t really help you in real life. Gaming was just a pastime. But esports is different, esports is a profession. The King’s Avatar is like this.

Q: How do you feel now that The King’s Avatar has gotten so popular? 

A: It’s nice not having to work. Actually, we writers all were writing right as this profession was developing. The webnovel profession was developing really quickly, and we reaped the rewards of being a part of this emerging industry just as it was experiencing explosive growth. Because this was the early days of this new industry, many people had tremendous gains. We joined at just the right time - this is luck. You have to enter this industry, and then if you persist, you will most likely profit. 

Q: In The King’s Avatar, are there any shadows of your real self in there?

A: Not really, to be honest. I play games myself, the first time I really got into them was in college. But at that time, I wasn’t in so deep that I’d be helping guilds or anything, I wasn’t that sociable. The game I played was called Westward Journey (大话西游), and I was basically still in the stage of treating it as a chat room. Very different from mobile games now, where you have to join a WeChat group or QQ group as soon as you enter, otherwise you’ll get wiped out.

Q: What are you aiming for now?

A: Accuracy, the accuracy of my words and sentences is what I’m aiming for. When there’s something I want to express, I want to be able to find an idiom, a phrase, to accurately express it. Funny or not funny, I’ll let it come naturally, I don’t need to purposely try to build a moment to make people laugh, I don’t need to purposely edit in an online segment just for that purpose anymore. In the past I might have done this, but this is the difference between my past and current self. It’s not that my style has changed, it’s that I realized that that’s useless work, it’s putting the cart before the horse. 

Q: Now that you already have God Ye Xiu as such an iconic character, how will you surpass that?

A: Ye Xiu will always be 25-26 years old, and now it’s really been a while since I’ve written him, so I’m a little distant. Now, I’m already 35-36. I feel that I’ve already written enough about Ye Xiu. If I were to write more, there’s really nothing more I could write. For pro esports players, continuously playing matches is enough, but for me there isn’t much meaning anymore. It’s all repetitive, and there isn’t going to be any big turning points. I still want to find some new material. 

Q: How do you feel about your position right now? If you could use a few keywords to describe your current life, which words would you choose?

A: Stable, everything’s revolving around stability.

Q: Do you think it’s more important for life to be interesting or for life to have meaning?

A: What meaning. I’m one of those people who, since I was young, was very worried about dying. I actually discussed this with Mao Ni [t/n: another webnovel author], and we talked about ghosts in hotels and whatnot. I actually really want to meet a ghost, I think that if I met a ghost I would be very at ease, because if I knew that we become another kind of existence after dying, then there’d be no need to be so afraid.

Q: Many people online say that, looking at Bug Dad’s words you can tell he’s quite a good person. Is there anything you’d like to say to that?

A: They have sharp eyes, it’s irrefutable.

Q: It seems like there’s some story about you circulating online, that you always like to pay the bill.

A: No, that’s just politeness, we’re adults, we have to refuse each other, you know? But in the end none of them took out their wallets.

Q: Is Bug Dad normally a cold and distant person?

A: I’m alright, but it’s true I don’t speak much.

Q: Why do you have the nickname of “goddess”?

A: Because of my pen name, people think that I’m a female author, and people admire me!

Q: If you write too much and become bald, then what?

A: I’m already balding. [t/n: BB commented in his Weibo retweet of this interview that the picture of him that they used is old; he has much less hair now]

Q: If your daughter wanted to play esports in the future, would you support her?

A: Yes.

Q: Why did you choose to grow your hair long? Is it because you don’t have time to have it cut?

A: Because there’s no need, after all there’s not many strands left.

Q: Is there anything you want to say to the fans?

A: Whether or not you’re a female or male reader, I am incredibly grateful for everyone who likes my works.

[gem-quest]

[ QUEST 01. — I N F E R N A ]

taglist: @ayzrules​ @bebemoon​ @atimefordragons​ @armadasneon​ @now-on-elissastillstands​ @interluxetumbra​ @pulltheskydown​

Inferna was hanging out in her favorite spot in Yue City - the lousy excuse of a Chinese restaurant, because it was just so easy to market her Inferna Sauce and sriracha to players who came away disappointed by the Asian dishes with absolutely zero seasoning - when the announcement popped up in the sky.

[  . . . T O U R N E Y . A N D . F A I R . I N . W I L D F L O W E R . M E A D O W . . . L E V E L . O N E . . .  ]

"Well, shit, that's just right around the corner," Inferna said out loud, putting away her sauce for the time being. She wasn't sure if she was going to compete - she'd prooobably get distracted by the free food - but it might be fun to just watch for a little bit.

So, with one over-dramatic whoosh of her hooded black capelet (which was decorated with intricate gold embroidery, because Inferna didn't wear things that were plain, thank you very much), Inferna was off.

When she got to the meadowlands, the entire place was filled with stalls and throngs of players eager to watch the tournament. Inferna decided that she'd watch the tournament after some refreshments, and immediately headed for the food stalls. She stocked up on some chicken pot pies and mead, nibbling on an apple turnover as she browsed. Eventually, she came across a wyvern being turned over a spit, and tossed the NPCs roasting the thing a coin in exchange for a hunk of meat, which she drizzled her homemade hot sauce over before biting into.

It tasted just like chicken. Then again, most meats that weren't pork or beef also tasted like chicken, in Inferna’s opinion.

Rats, for example; Inferna had been dared to eat a rat skewer in the City of Magic, once. She did it, and got a whole blueberry pie in return. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy. And that pie had been good.

Inferna wandered around for another thirty minutes, snacking on the wyvern kebab, before finally making her way over to the lists. She frowned when she noticed that there were almost no seats, instead hopping up onto the balustrade after shoving all the dumb meatheads out of the way.

There. That’s a perfect view, she thought, satisfied. She was taking in the sight of the Moonstone player with the pretties armor she’d ever seen facing off an Obsidian player in all black, just as she felt someone flick her calf.

“What the f-” Inferna’s muttered profanity was cut off when she noticed who it was.

"Hey, what’s up? You’re Neddy, right?" she asked, grinning widely. Inferna had met Neddy back in Level Ten, AKA Finvarra’s Gardens, and honestly, Inferna thought she was the sweetest thing. And her dragon, ugh - Inferna would never! Get! Over! Jack!!!!

The other girl looked up. "Inferna?" 

Inferna beamed down at her and offered her a hand up instead of answering. 

Neddy took her hand, and Inferna pulled her up onto the balustrade with her. “View’s better up here,” she told her with a wink, grinning her usual shit-eating grin.

Inferna was about to go back to watching the action - the Obsidian player had easily unseated the Moonstone one - when she noticed...was that Jack?!?! Riding in a basket on Neddy’s back?????

She gave an excited half-squeal, half-exclaimation. “God, Jack is so freaking adorable! Does he still like sugar cubes?" she fired off, pulling out a sugar cube she’d gotten from the Tearoom, as well as a tiny bottle of Inferna Sauce (she’d decided that she was going to make mini bottles to carry around outside of her inventory, just for convenience). She dunked the sauce onto the sugar cube.

"How are you faring out there?" asked Neddy.

“It’s been pretty chill on my end,” Inferna replied, giving the Moonstone player a cheeky grin. “Haven’t really done anything exciting, besides get some blueberry scones from the Tearoom yesterday; they’re amazing. I was at Level 39 the other day too, but fighting the dragon is so much work, so I fucked off after a few minutes.”

Her attention strayed back to Neddy’s dragon. “Ooh, fuck, Jack is so cute. Here, you’re a good boy, aren’t you?” she said, gently tossing the sugar cube in the air and clapping with delight when Jack caught it in his mouth.

“What about you? Got anything fun going on?” she asked Neddy a moment later, tearing her eyes away from the miniature dragon.

"Nothing quite as exciting as thirty-nine," Neddy replied. "I've just gotten through floor twenty-nine by the skin of my teeth. Mermaid Cove won't be easy for me since I'm currently, you know, on my own."  

Inferna nodded, grimacing. “Oh, yeah, that level’s a pain in the ass if you don’t have a party. I think I got through it by just finding a group that needed an extra person who didn’t care about Angel’s Breath. Aydina - that’s the NPC you go up against - is kind of a cunt, too. Like, I get that it’s just pre-written dialogue, but the lady could be nicer while trying to fuck us over with that dodgeball of hers, you know?”

Inferna rolled her eyes at the thought of the pirate queen. Really, though, she was a cunt, she mused to herself. Everything she said, just - ugh! So unnecessary. 

It was a known fact that Inferna talked so much shit about any and all of the NPCs in the game. She was a bit infamous for it within the Obsidian Guild, actually, which was something that Inferna was immensely proud of.

"I’m not very good at dodgeball," said Neddy.

Inferna shrugged. “It was my favorite thing in gym, when I still had to take that bullshit class. All I did was dick around and throw balls at the annoying people in my grade, even if they were technically on my team,” she said, in the most solemn voice she could muster. 

She continued. “I thought that level was pretty fun, besides Aydina’s totally unnecessary commentary. So I can help you, if you want,” she said, “if you bribe me somehow. Since I don’t see how helping you with dodgeball helps my Guild, after all.”

Neddy seemed surprised. "Bribe?" she managed to get out. "I don't have much in the way of coin. . . . I'm not formidable by any means. Surely, it won't hurt Obsidian any if you help little old me move through a lower floor."

Inferna narrowed her eyes, skeptical. “Little old you and a dragon,” she pointed out, gesturing towards Jack. As cute as Jack was, both miniature and at his full size, he was still a, you know, dragon.

Neddy nodded, slowly. "Yeah. Okay- well, I can give you all the apricot tartlets in my inventory if you help me out."

Inferna bit her lip. Apricot tartlets? That was...that was a tempting offer. Plus, dodgeball was really fun, and plus, Inferna sort of owed Neddy, because Neddy had saved Inferna from being eternally trapped in Level Ten with that insufferable faerie prince (but the sweets on that level all looked absolutely divine, so could you really blame her?).

“Alright fine, I’ll do it,” Inferna agreed, flipping her red hair over one shoulder. “Just tell me when, and I’ll be there. But don’t make it before noon, or I’ll probably sleep straight through it. Like, I’m not even kidding; last semester I somehow slept through ten alarms and missed a 12:30 PM lab. So don’t make it before twelve.”

She narrowed her eyes, again. “Now hand over those tartlets.”

After Neddy had given her the tartlets, Inferna lingered for a little while, then decided to go find some other food to eat, nibbling on one of the tartlets as she went. She bought a steak and mashed potatoes dish, stowing it away in her virtual inventory for the time being.

A commotion by the lists caught her attention, about an hour or so later. Intrigued, Inferna crept closer, just in time to see a fellow Obsidian player wearing a flowy dress win a duel. Inferna cheered with the rest of her Guild, elbowing closer for a better view.

Hey, she thought, suddenly. Isn’t that the girl I saw yesterday?

Inferna let her gaze follow the blonde girl as she collected her prize money and went off towards one of the open areas. She took off after her, finding that it was extraordinarily easy to follow the other player when she was wearing a pretty flower crown - all she had to do was look for the flowers in the crush of people.

Once Inferna reached the grassy field, she scanned the area before finally locating the girl she met at the Descend the day before.

“Oh, hey,” Inferna said, trotting over. A quick glance at her profile said that she went by ‘Morningstar’. “I saw your duel, by the way. Congrats on winning.” She grinned.

Morningstar gave her a scathing look. Inferna ignored it and flopped down to sit on the grass next to her, dragging out a bottle of Inferna Sauce from her inventory, as well as as the steak and mashed potatoes dish she’d just purchased. She all but drenched the food with her hot sauce, because everything in the game was so damn bland - to someone who’d grown up eating spicy food, anyway. 

“Do you want some, by the way?” Inferna asked, glancing up at Morningstar and grinning again. “It’s hot sauce. For when the white people food in this game gets too boring.”

She paused, for a moment. “I’ll trade you a bottle for a potion that makes me feel like I’ve just smoked some weed, if you have any. Or if you have anything like vodka? This mead and ale and stuff is fine, but jesus fucking christ, sometimes I just want to take two shots and be done.”

The two of them talked for a bit. Inferna mentioned that she’d be doing dodgeball with Neddy soon, and asked Morningstar if she’d want to join in. Then, once Inferna was hungry again, she got up and went searching for more food.

I should probably also get something if I’m going up against Aydina again, she thought. God, but she’s such a fucking cunt.

As such, Inferna found the marketplace and bought herself a few propugnatio potions, knowing that she’d need them to up her defense for the underwater dodgeball game; as a fire-mage, she was more vulnerable in aquatic environments. She also stocked up on fortissime potions, just to make sure her fiery attacks would pack an extra punch.

Satisfied with her haul, Inferna tossed the items into her inventory and went towards one of the stalls selling pastries. God, but they smelled good.

[sydneyhongdevblog-blog]

Why People Play Games

There are many reasons why people play games and here I am, sharing my own opinion on why people play games. Do take notes that these are just my personal opinions. If you are interested in the facts, please click on the links to read the full articles. 

Premise 1: People will always yearn for sense of belonging

We as humans are social creature by nature, having needs of the feeling need to belong, this is actually how we as human able to survive till now. The 1998 book, Choice Theory: A New Psychology of Personal Freedom, written by William Glasser - an American psychiatrist, one of the choice theory states that:  

We are driven by five genetic needs: survival, love and belonging, power, freedom, and fun. - William Glasser

Reference: http://www.wglasser.com/the-glasser-approach/choice-theory

As we wake up every morning, we din’t say such things like “Let’s achieve love and belonging today!”. Instead, we say something like “I wonder is Cherry up? Maybe I should give her call for having lunch together.” and “Let’s hit the bazaar with my classmates.” We do such things is because we need relationships, social connections, to give and receive affection and to feel part of a group.

Another theory proposed by Abraham Maslow on 1943, from paper "A Theory of Human Motivation" Psychological Review, he mentioned that after physiological needs like sleep food and safety needs, need of belonging are ranked third on his hierarchy. Because as humans, we need to belong. To one another, to our friends and families, to our culture and country, to our world.

Reference: https://www.learning-theories.com/maslows-hierarchy-of-needs.html

When does humans starts showing the sign of need of belonging? Well, the answer would be ever since human begin to exist. Because of this, mankind was able to survive until now. From hunting food to delegating community jobs, building shelters to helping each other, sense of belonging was showed in these actions to ensure the survival. 

If you think from development perspective, ever since infanthood we have already show the sign of the importance of belonging. When we are all babies, we rely on our parents to give us food, shelter and love so we can grow healthily. Throughout these actions it has giving us as the babies some instinct of belonging to our parents and unconsciously our parents will also looking out of us. Spending times together makes “being together” feels good and it triggered the feeling of happiness and love which we seek out in life by finding friends and partner, build a family and also joining the community. 

But why do we do all these? Mainly it was because being needed by someone will give more meaning to our life and increase our desire of surviving. Besides, belonging to a or multiple groups will be able to boost our self esteem. Especially when the group is going well, it will generate feelings of being love, needed and wanted which will makes us feel valuable and treasured by being in the group.

A positive self image and healthy self esteem is based on approval, acceptance and recognition from others; - Abraham Maslow

Besides, being in groups also give us a sense of identity. Example when people ask me, who am I. I will answer them, “I am a student” or “I am a Chinese” and so on. It can be related to religion, race, profession and much more.

Reference: http://www.saywhydoi.com/belonging-why-do-we-need-a-sense-of-belonging/

Premise 2: Games provide player with sense of belonging

You must be thinking that I am joking about this, but no. By playing games was able to deliver the feeling of belonging but how you asked, following are the examples. 

For online games, most of them are always required to play with another human player and some required a number of players to team up in order to complete the task. So, players will always need to form a semi-permanent team or permanent team in order to play some certain games or they can just join guild, where is a place where players gathered. 

While playing the game and communicating with the other players, they were able to develop close relationship. As a team or guild member, players can be very highly supportive when they get to know each other overtime, which will increase the experience of feeling belong, valued and needed as a member. 

Now, online games are not just that, many online game has become the back bone of eSports world. Fans buy tickets to watch their favorite players play live in front of them and cheer to support them, cosplayers put on their favorite character’s costume and gather together and let the photographer take photos of them. 

For brands and fans, eSports offers something that most traditional sports cannot—nearly unprecedented access to star players. This mostly occurs online, where players routinely interact with fans via social media or with YouTube videos. - E.J. Schultz

The sense of belonging and feeling needed are very strong when it on eSports event and people cannot stop loving it. 

Meanwhile in Japan, Romance Simulation Games a.k.a. Otome Games are really popular among the ladies, especially with married ladies. In Otome games,  the usual objective is to fall in love. Player can have multiple boyfriends at one time and decide on the interaction with boyfriends that decided the fate of the game.

One of the many reasons on why this genre of games are so popular are Japanese ladies are being afraid of having judge by the society because of having an affair, so by playing Otome games that offer virtual relationship will be able to fulfill the need of belonging to the ladies. 

Each character have their own story which give them some depth. So some people can find a character more attractive than real man. -Ai Aizawa

The first simulation game that focus romance was appeared on 1994, it was called “Angelique” by Koei Co. and made for Super Nintendo. After that, successor games such as Messiah’s “The Maiden of Albarea” launched in 1997 and E3 Staff’s “Graduation M” in 1998 further diversified the genre by adding in elements of fantasy, history, and adventure. Otome games are so popular nowadays, produced on most gaming system like Playstation, Nintendo DS, PSP, PS VITA and smart phones. This market makes $135 million per year and with the popularity of Otome games raising, Japanese game retailer even designate a shelf purely for “games targeted at women”.

Reference: http://adage.com/article/news/e-sports/308447/

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/this-is-what-esports-will-be-like-in-2016-435 

http://www.netaddiction.co.nz/whygames.html 

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2004.tb00229.x/full 

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0263276409103132

https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/my-sensual-journey-into-japans-90-million-fake-anime-boyfriend-market

https://sites.duke.edu/unsuitable/otome-games/

https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera/videos/10155211829673690/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2M4ICwmhxU

Conclusion:  To attain the sense of belonging, people will play games.

If the above is true then the following could be helpful when developing video games in the future as an artist:

have good character and environment design and drawing skills.

knowledge of  shading/lighting technique.

play games and look out there and see what other artists are doing.  

*Do take notes that these are just my personal opinions. *