#and seeing deleted user in place of a name when it was still there just logged out a few days ago was like a blow to my fucking chest ngl

[josephtrohman]

ive made a post like this and then deleted it b4 but it's relevant again. soooooooo annoying how your subconscious can dump dreams on u about things u thought u were feeling ok about

[mangocheesecakes]

the scammer @/rescueplease has now been deleted, but since a lot of people are still reblogging my posts about it, i'm changing my pinned post to a list of currently active scam accounts

scammers with the same m.o., sometimes similar profile pics and linktrees/paypal addresses:

> numberonegoateeeagle (paypal name 'Jeff Owino') new

> nour-samr (paypal name 'Nour Samar') >> nour-samr0 new/remake

scammer pretending to be a sick Black person, using the paypal name, 'Alafred Opondo'

> enchantingqueencreator

the 'insulin scammer''s latest blog (at least i think it's their latest blog:

> fancycoffeepeanut

empty blogs who are mass-reblogging the scam posts and are likely just the scammers sock puppet accounts used to pad the notes of their posts, pls block them too:

> chopra-79

> futuristicphilosopherartisan new

deleted/deactivated/changed url:

maina-3

immariaanszz >> iammarinassaa >> iammarinassaass

jovialsuitdonutai (paypal name 'jeff owino')

khalilhan (paypal name 'samuel obiya') >> khaliilhan

marylinfwaznassar (paypal name 'maryline lucy')

stickytreephilosopher (paypal name 'jeff owino')

perfectlyminiatureface (paypal name 'jeff owino')

optimisticalpacalady (paypal 'jeff owino')

omarkhalini (paypal 'fred odhiambo')

marylinefwaznassar (paypal 'maryline lucy')

khalilhani (paypal 'samuel obiya')

weepingpersondestiny (paypal 'jeff owino')

as always, please block and report these blogs, and more importantly, warn your friends, mutuals, and followers if you see them reblogging their scam posts. if you see a donation post/blog that you believe may be a scam, please do look their url up first on the tumblr search bar to see if someone has already called them out. i will try to update this post with the scammers' new accounts/url as we discover them. please also go to @kyra45's blog, as they are faster and more thorough in updating about newly discovered scams.

some red flags to look out for before sharing donation posts/donating:

new blog, or a couple years old but has only a few random, sporadic posts

backdated posts

spamming asks to a lot of other users, even the ones they don't know or have just followed, and even when the user has made it clear they don't want to receive requests to boost dono posts

is asking you to answer their asks privately, or is sending you a message directly

is straight up asking you for money, and usually for impossibly large amounts

do not put their paypal/money transfer links on their post itself, usually claiming it's to protect their 'privacy'

is using Zelle for their money transfer account, especially if the person is claiming to be in Palestine

please don't be so quick to entertain donation requests and to give away your money, especially if the user ticks a lot of these boxes. if you are familiar with the place they say they are from or the language they are supposed to speak, try conversing with them for a bit to see if their claims would hold. you can also browse my 'donation scam' tag or kyra45's blog to compare if the user has any similarities with past scammers that we've discovered.

that's it po. let's all try our best to look out for each other and make sure that our resources are going to the actual people in need, especially in the case of Palestinians asking for help. the last thing they need right now is for shitty lowlifes to use their suffering to make a profit.

[cleolinda]

I'm gonna admit that I got on Twitter like a big ol' dramatic dork last night and said, knowing full well that Elon Musk was doing exactly this, "If he changes the name to X, I'm out, I can't do this anymore."

Not because "X" is doofy and a terrible branding move, although it is, but because he wants to do THIS shit. Yeah, no, I am not hanging around for your global interactivity "everything app" bullshit. You want me to fucking BANK with you? YOU? You just lost about $30B running a platform into the GROUND by FIRING EVERYONE and doing whatever damn thing popped into your head between shitposts? Are you HIGH? I cannot hang around for this "tech king of the world, 420 blaze it lmao" bullshit. I could not stay at my beloved Livejournal after SUP said all the users would be subject to Russian law in 2017. I know The Moment when I see it. I can't do this.

I admit, I might go back every few months and say "Hey, I posted XYZ on any platform but this, please leave this godforsaken place," and I don't want to delete my accounts. I've been on Twitter since 2008, and I have a ton of livetweet threads (on my main and also on an alt for that purpose. Remember that time I livetweeted the Twilight gender-change book? That glorious trainwreck?). I've saved some of them via Thread Reader PDF downloads, but there are still more to get. I don't want to utterly destroy book and TV discussion we did over there.

I haven't used Twitter regularly since maybe 2016 (about the time the post-Gamergate alt-right really moved in), but the conversation and community, decentralized though it was, before that--we're going to lose the last vestiges of that, the way everyone on Reddit was upset about losing the collective knowledge over there. And I'm so fucking angry about it. I'm so angry. I immediately came back here the week he took over last year because I knew, I KNEW, somehow that Twitter would be destroyed. I just thought it would burn down in a smoking heap of rubble, not turned into a shambling tech zombie under a different name. I just. I can't do this anymore.

Also, shut the fuck up, Linda Yaccarino. Just because you can put Elon Musk's nonsense into coherent verbiage doesn't mean "a global social media/marketplace/banking system/walled garden that's basically X-Treme AOL" isn't a fucking nightmare. I hope the EU bans the fuck out of you both. See you in bankruptcy court.

[whimsicalhorss]

The Recent Nevermore Drama.

Red, I think it's quite sad that you decided to delete all the original comments going against you and reexplaining what went down within your 'apology', which was 95% calling out rather than talking about the cause of the whole uprising. Nonetheless, here was my original reply, just so everybody who stumbles across this post can see the reply from somebody who's viewed it from both sides. The original message was, as follows:

'Hey Red,

I hope you're managing amidst everything that's been going on. I know you've been through a lot recently, and I hate to add to the messages you've been receiving. However, there are some things that I really need to talk to you about.

Over the past few days — even years — I've noticed some things that really concern me. It feels like there's been a lot of blame unfairly placed on certain individuals within your community, which is incredibly damaging, especially when it unfairly paints others in a negative light. I understand you've been trying to address the situation with Crimson, but the approach taken hasn't been effective and has caused more harm than good.

In terms of the Crimson drama, I think it could have been handled more sensibly. Consulting with Laci and others involved would have been beneficial before making the decision to introduce Crimson back to the server. When you were writing your explanation, which I know was rushed, you should have stepped back and consulted for longer - I know you felt pressured, but.. you needed to give yourself time to handle it.

With the screenshots, too - they were only censored to the point of concealing most of the users involved to keep the MINORS safely out of the evidence, and yet you continued to banter on about how they were censored and unable to interpret what happened. As well, you tampered with evidence when you sent a screenshot, CUTTING OUT the part where Laci mentioned they could give you the evidence uncensored if you asked, yet you continued to complain.

On the topic of minors, you name dropped SEVERAL in your apology. Do you know how endangering or scary that can be? It's insane that you felt the need to name anybody involved to get people off your back.

There's also Sardonyx - I don't know if you'll share this with your patreons but, if you do, hello Sardonyx. They casually aggravate people, make NSFW conversation in YOUR SFW server, and you still allow them to pursue in such a way. They continued to temper people after the initial Crimson argument and started their own, which could have been avoided if you had muted both persons involved (rather than banning everybody against Sardonyx) and asked for them to calm down and explain their conflict in dms.

Also the Bunnybel issue - I know the topic was discussed by people banned, but there's also the factor that neither you, nor your mods stepped in to stop it. Matter of fact, you contributed to it, and everybody went along with it as a fun easter event of drawing your two main protagonists in these outfits that, when looked at closer, actually have a much more terrible implication. You should have handled this earlier, rather than blaming it on somebody and ranting about how it's all their fault and they're in the wrong.

Again with Laci, too - you outright blaming her for everything that has occurred is terrible. Whilst that may be what you see in this whole confrontation, in truth, it really isn't anything like that, Red. Saying that everybody else involved were her 'lackeys' and 'twisted around her finger' was an incompetent, foolish way of pinning all these hardships on her. Some people involved, including me, had barely spoken to Laci prior, because a lot of people cared about the fact that YOU had unbanned a potentially alleged pedophile back into your server full of minors. I know it doesn't seem like everybody cared, but we all did, otherwise we wouldn't have started this whole 'riot' thing or whatever to go against it. I surely cared, considering I have been at the face of two pedophiles sending me unsettling, inappropriate images, and I know that it is hard to reach out to somebody or stop them when they shrug it off so nonchalantly.

Lastly, I think it's hypocritical you spoke about how certain groups were stalker-ish and stealing messages from a patreon chat, despite you taking a chat from private servers and dms. The behaviour is equal, is it not? You used your influence to alter certain texts and take them out of context, and the other groups simply took what you said and proved that you, and unpunished, favourited people who have been held dearly, have done terrible things yourself.

I understand that this whole thing has been overwhelming for you, Red, but I believe that there was a real need for you to approach each situation differently, and not to compile everything into an 'apology' that is 5% apology, and 95% calling out people and altering the blame to be put on them. I think that the tactics you used were poor, and I hope that you do figure out something better in the future.

Take care, and I'm here if you'd like to discuss this any further.

Best regards,

A bystander.' And the second reply I made, aimed at one of her patreons (or moderators? who knows.) who put a whole lot of shit behind a paywall and then continued to support her. Aha, Debobble, if it wasn't illegal, I'd show the whole world you trying to make a fake screenshot of Laci 'configurating her hate schemes', and how terribly it was done. 'Hello!

I hope you're having a joyous, maybe even 'whimsical' day!

A lot of things that have occurred recently are the fault of both 'sides' (if we can call them that. Not 'Laci's lackeys' or 'Clique 1 and 2'.) and I think I should refer to the way that this has been dealt with again. 

Yes, the server was owned by somebody different who was capable of banning Crimson, and it was intended for less SFW purposes, but I think Crimson went outright too far in a predatory way. They put a teenage oc with an adult oc, which is pedophilic behaviour, and sent several overly NSFW images. I assume that this chat was intended for 'implied sexual circumstances', rather than overly perverse, but I could be wrong. I agree in the fact that something should have been done, and I approve of Laci's initial reaching out, but I don't approve of the way Red banned them for as little as they did.

As I like to say; 4 months, 4 minors. You afforded Crimson a month for each minor they influenced in such a predatory way, and I think the time should have been extended.

Might I also add, these screenshots were not 'heavily' censored. They were censored for the safety of the minors and other persons involved and, yet.. Red seems to be content with name dropping every minor who was involved. So much for the safety of her members!

AND I have more to add, which I trust you to hand over to Red for me since you seem content to do that quite often for her - do you mind reminding her and the entire patreon and mod chat that Crimson (and Red, I'm pretty sure) knew the age of one 12 year old, who we might call 'Green'. They continued to share NSFW things to them, including making jokes about what I assume was a 'vibrator in public'. How SFW for a child! Crimson is VERY innocent.

I agree that all of this has gotten out of hand, but both responses, from Red, the moderation team, and the patreon chat against the groups banned for involving themselves, but I wouldn't consider it a mob. Both sides had good intentions, it's just the way Red has gone about it - framing others for her mistakes and outright dismissing people for being concerned about the safety, that has made this come to such a volatile level.

And the whole, breaking several TOS, and a law? If thats what we're doing, what are you doing? Leaking private messages, encouraging predatory behaviour, endangering minors, leaking names which could result in a witch hunt from Red's expanse following? Oh dear..

How volatile.

Best regards,

A bystander.' Red, every little detail you have undergone is such a negative, unredeemable smidge to this massive whiteboard of what you could do. Instead of handling this like the adult, you undertake criticism harshly, which is detrimental considering you are somebody who has been writing for years, which means that you should have matured and adapted to take this kinds of things. You could have taken a month, maybe two, maybe three, to explain the whole Crimson thing - it would have been much less detrimental to yourself, and your community. You absolutely wrecked every second, third, fourth, fifth chance people were tempted to give you with every detail that went in to making sure that YOU felt like you had to be right - name dropping, which could lead to witch hunting with your massive following, especially since the people were minors and specifically requested you keep their names out of it. You allowed an alleged, potential predator back into your server without consulting it with victims - and don't get me started on the whole 'Crimson didn't know!', they knew at least one of them, and still continued. You pinned the blame on Laci, on another person (who has asked me not to say their name and, like the respectful person I am, will not be namedropping. That doesn't seem like a familiar concept to you, does it?) and you keep all these little dirty secrets behind a paywall. Red, in the most respectfully disrespectful way, grow up and learn to be better. You spout all this bull, every little detail and, when it backfires, you cower into a corner, guilt trip, manipulate, and eventually resort to the potential physical or mental harm of other people. It needs to stop. The icing on the cake, to all of this? YOU, as the 'mature adult that would never stand for pedophilic behaviour, that loves their audience, that has a server full of minors', that YOU would delete messages explaining the situation in a different point of view. You don't want your vast following to see these and think, 'huh, maybe Red isn't as good as I thought they were?', well they aren't. I don't know if people will see this but, sincerely, I hope Red, Flynn, DeBobble, the patreons, the moderators, and all of the discord and general following of Nevermore and RnF know that what Red spouts isn't necessarily all true.

Kind regards, A bystander.

[maverick-werewolf]

Werewolf Article - (Play As A) Werewolf Video Games

The results of the poll for this month on my Patreon are in, and the winner is an opinionated article on werewolf video games! Apologies in advance if any of my opinions here anger you. I was asked for opinionated, so I went opinionated and did not hold back.

For clarity's sake: this will be a relatively concise list of SOME video games in which you can or do play as a werewolf. It will NOT include every single game in which you can or do play as a werewolf, nor will it include certain kinds of playable werewolves that exist in gaming, for the sake of brevity. You'll notice some missing and then want to be first to tell me I left out [thing], but I assure you I am aware of those too. I am also not going to list games in which you can play as a werewolf but it requires either user-made mods or else playing in a custom campaign/tileset/server (like Neverwinter Nights <3), only games wherein you can play as a werewolf as part of base game or expansion pack mechanics.

This IS a tiered list. It is tiered based on the werewolf gameplay mechanics and elements in the game.

Let's get started. I will begin at #9, go to #1, and then I will close with some words on some other games that didn't make the numbered list.

9. World of Warcraft: Cataclysm

Note: your player character will never have torn-up clothing or use his claws like in this artwork/like the enemy worgen do

I'm just going to list Cataclysm here because, frankly, I don't even want to discuss WoW at Shadowlands and beyond... even if discussing the model update will reach into that era of content. Obviously, I don't play WoW anymore and haven't in quite a while, but yeah, I used to really enjoy it. Played it for many, many years. Probably too many.

Cataclysm was a pretty outright bad expansion, but it did add playable worgen (something I obviously wanted from day 1 after seeing the worgen mobs running around), and they can even turn into human form, which is a must for me in terms of actually being a werewolf instead of just a wolf-person, which I wouldn't even roll. That was a nice touch I didn't actually expect from the devs.

Unfortunately, the model update turned them into something far "cuter" and more cuddly than I liked, not to mention adding preposterous fur options like stripes and merle, but the human form customization was nice. Still, the model update drove me toward playing different races, like maining my kul'tiran and night elf instead of the worgen I was always ultimately pretty disappointed in, given his wearing fine armor and wielding giant weapons. Anyway, the entire game took a huge nosedive not long after the model change, so it's a moot point for me regardless.

As for the deeper worgen lore beyond "they are werewolves with a funny name": I hate it with all my heart. I did my best to ignore every scrap of that and how they are just self-parodies, to delete the Gilneas/worgen starting zone quests from my entire brain, and especially to ignore the fact that they were all preposterously British despite England being one of the last places historically to even have many werewolf legends of its own. I have an article about that here if you are interested in the topic. The game made all of these things very difficult, especially how hard they wanted to drive home that the worgen are silly posh British parody dog-people strutting around in waistcoats and tophats instead of being fearsome cursed werewolves. So I won't bother going into all that.

The mechanics are fun except for the fact that you have to wear armor and use weapons, so ultimately you just look like a beast-person instead of a werewolf, especially after the model change making them far more appealing to a certain demographic. If Blizzard had wanted to put in effort, they would have made your gear look tattered and would have made you swap to claws when you turn, but that would've been a lot of work. They could have at least added a specialized class or something and then also given it to some Horde races to make the precious Horde players happy. I don't know. I just think werewolves wearing fine clothes and armor and wielding weapons is immensely silly. They're supposed to be werewolves.

So while they are extremely far from perfect, the worgen are at least relatively fun in that, if nothing else, you can go between werewolf and human forms and run on all fours as fast as the fastest ground mount, and I am deeply surprised they did either. I immensely enjoyed both of those things during my time playing a worgen, and they helped mitigate the great disappointment otherwise in many other regards - though not enough to keep me from maining other races, especially later on. But, in the end, WoW sucks now and it's unrecoverable, and WoW Classic is a joke, so I'll never be playing a worgen again anyway.

8. Diablo II

I'm sure you were looking for this one - the werewolf druid in Diablo II (preemptive sidebar: I am not going to talk about Diablo IV). I love his design and gameplay mechanics. He's fantastic. However, he is of course yet another instance of "the werewolf must be a druid," which I personally find a little tiresome after so much of it. But hey, this was one of the earlier games to do that, so it predated a lot of the craze.

At any rate, the Druid class in Diablo II obviously gets a werewolf form. It also gets a requisite werebear because werewolves can almost never just be werewolves, but at least the werewolf does not completely suck. You can also summon wolves, which is a bonus.

While I'm not really that big on Diablo-type gameplay - I prefer either third-person or else a proper isometric, party-based RPG - so Diablo II didn't really hold my interest a lot, the werewolf druid is very fun and a very cool werewolf, the setting is great, and the werewolf suits the dark Gothic feeling and look of the game that is enjoyable and well conveyed in the first place. The werewolf druid is a great addition that I am glad they added.

7. Baldur's Gate II

Let me make something perfectly clear: Baldur's Gate II is, in my opinion, the best game ever made (only Uncharted 2: Among Thieves also makes this rank for me). Combined with BG1 to create the Baldur's Gate Saga, it is one of the best stories ever told and also my favorite game mechanics-wise, again alongside Uncharted 2 even if yes, I know that those games could almost not be farther apart in terms of mechanics. I absolutely love BG2 beyond words. Please note I am talking about the original Baldur's Gate II, as released in 2000, not the "Enhanced Edition," which is a disgrace to the game, the entire series, and a piece of garbage. It's shamefully difficult to find the original game anymore, but it's worth it over playing the EE; trust me. I'll try to spare you any further ranting on this topic, as the original Baldur's Gate Saga is something very close to my heart.

Anyway, the werewolf in BG2 is - once again - a druid, specifically a druid subclass called Shapeshifter. It doesn't really have any werewolf gameplay mechanics in that you are not treated differently for it, nor do you transform out of your own control. In fact you will be spending the majority of your time in werewolf form, which can get quite tiresome. I'm not the biggest fan of a werewolf holding normal conversations with NPCs, etc. But regardless, it's there, and I love it, and it looks awesome, and that's more than I can say for so many games. Plus, you get cool bonuses and stuff. The power of it varies over time and with the progression of your character. I will not go too deeply into it, as I am actually an insane D&D video game nerd and even today I can spend far too much time building characters and tweaking numbers and doing ridiculous tricks in D&D games to powergame. If you want just one of my credentials I beat BG2 on the hardest difficulty with Ascension and no other gameplay mods. Long story short, the Greater Werewolf is quite powerful, and it shouldn't be a detriment to your party to either be one or bring along Cernd, one of my favorite companions.

So don't listen to the people down on the Shapeshifter in BG2. You can get mods that make them overpowered, anyway. Also don't listen to my complaints about it not feeling werewolfish enough because that's nearly impossible to come by anyway if you're not playing the #1 game on this list. Go try one out. It's fun! Plus, BG2 is the best game ever made.

6. Altered Beast

What are some of Mav's favorite things? Ancient Greece, hoplites, hot men, werewolves, dragons, tigers...

When I found out Altered Beast exists and is a game wherein you play as an awesome hoplite dude and turn into a werewolf, a green dragon, a tiger-man, and ultimately a werewolf is still the most powerful of all his forms, I was ecstatic. I had to play it immediately.

I wasn't disappointed. It's a fun, unforgiving game, because it was made before video games started becoming what I think we're supposed to call accessible today. I don't know what else there is to say about the game if what I've already said hasn't convinced you to play it. The werewolf form is your first transformation, and your most powerful is a golden werewolf. Me being me, I appreciate that a werewolf form is still the best in the end instead of being outshone by other creatures, and even the other forms available are all very cool.

As I said, I really don't know what more one could ask for of this setting and gameplay. I've never been picky about genre; I play a very wide variety of video games and have plenty of fun, and I certainly had fun with this one.

(Note: I'm not going to talk about that 2005 Altered Beast remake, I like to pretend it never happened)

5. Werewolf the Apocalypse: Earthblood

I'll be the first to admit I'm far from the biggest World of Darkness fan ever, as has brought many insults my way already, but I was pleasantly surprised by the mechanics of the werewolf form in Earthblood. I will not call it the "crinos form," as that terminology is so immensely silly that I could no longer take it seriously if I did. So anyway, the gameplay actually lets you feel like a werewolf, and you even get two stances you can swap between for different combat styles instead of anchoring werewolves down to just doing one thing. I'm not going to wax on about the lore, the story, etc. - but man the werewolf mechanics really are fun. It is, of course, the main draw of the whole deal, and they didn't slouch on that element.

It's important to me that a werewolf feel powerful and also violent. Werewolves should not be cuddly, or else they are no longer werewolves. Painting hallways with the blood of my enemies as if I'm recreating the Ninja lead-up in Metal Gear Solid while in werewolf form is cathartic and a good way to give the player a sense of being a werewolf instead of just an animal-headed person. This is a very solid "play as a werewolf" game, and one of the few games that exist with the primary purpose of letting you really play as a werewolf, whether you are a predetermined character or not. Be warned, the game is notoriously janky, but if you're like me, you're enjoying the werewolf mechanics enough that you don't care - or you can be even more like me and not give a toss about "jankiness" in a game in the first place.

4. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

While a significant and crushing downgrade from the werewolves in certain other Elder Scrolls entries - more on that momentarily - at least Skyrim let you become a werewolf in the base game. No waiting for an expansion pack and no waiting forever until you move on (thanks, Oblivion). However, the differences between the mechanics of werewolves in past entries and the Skyrim werewolves are many and tragic. I confess I did not play Skyrim much, partially as a result of these exact elements, and partially because I just don't spend much time playing video games anymore, among other things.

In Skyrim, being a werewolf becomes what is colloquially called an "awesome button," letting you turn into a big, strong, cool werewolf that can eat people to extend your werewolf timer. It's great and enjoyable, don't get me wrong, but it doesn't actually feel as if you are truly cursed with lycanthropy or smelly lupus or whatever silly name Elder Scrolls gave it (yes, I know the name, but that doesn't make it less silly). You have no real disadvantages to being a werewolf, such as having to worry about when you will transform outside your own control - because you never will, which is an immense downgrade in terms of feeling werewolfish and adding appropriate challenge and downside to being a werewolf. You also don't have to worry about being forced to devour a civilized race in order to sate your accursed hunger. Instead, you're doing that on purpose to turn out of werewolf form again, because the more you eat, the longer you stay transformed. Still, the werewolves in Skyrim are good - they just don't compare to previous entries. But I certainly appreciate them and the fact that they are present in the base game.

3. The Sims 3

Trust me, they do look better in game, but I couldn't find any of my own screenshots because it's been a hot minute since I played this.

You probably think I'm trolling you, but the werewolves in The Sims have always been pretty fun; I remember when the ones in 2 first came out, I enjoyed them like crazy. The ones in 3 rocked and were easily the best variant; too bad the game is relatively difficult to get running properly, and many aspects of the werewolves are delicate and easy to glitch, including your entire Sim's werewolf form design. I am not going to talk about those abominations that were added to The Sims 4, because they are some of the worst things I have ever had the misfortune of seeing and are not werewolves by any metric.

Sims 3 changed the aspects of Sims 2 werewolves that I didn't like, such as how being a werewolf altered your sim's entire personality over time and how the werewolf form always looked the same. They made the system much more robust. Frankly, the Sims 3 werewolves are some of the better werewolves in gaming, especially for the kind of game that The Sims is (expect assorted dog jokes, for example, given it's The Sims, yet it still isn't half as bad as it could be). I also love the wolf-man design; it works much better with Sims than something bigger and more wolfish. Certainly far better than whatever the hell is in Sims 4, which again, I will try my best not to talk about.

Anyway, I absolutely recommend Sims 3 if you enjoy Sims games and werewolves and want to have some werewolf fun. I'd probably still be occasionally blowing my finite amount of time on this earth playing it if I had it properly running on my current PC.

2. The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall

Bet you didn't expect to see this one, did you? You thought I was gonna say Skyrim as #2, right? Actually, I bet you thought I was going to say that one as #1.

The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall is a game many would consider unapproachable today. I enjoyed it. Obviously, I played it for the playable werewolf, and I had fun! They work similarly to the ones in Bloodmoon, but, in my opinion, they still aren't as fantastic as the Bloodmoon ones. But the game does force you to actually live and behave as a werewolf - I love the werewolf hunter[s] mechanic - which, again... it's almost the only one of its kind other than Bloodmoon. For that, it gets #2 on this list.

And that means you know what makes #1, untouched in its glory, undimmed by time...

1. The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind - Bloodmoon

Alright. Have I ever talked about how this is the single greatest werewolf game ever made? I think I have, but let's get into it again.

I like Morrowind in the first place. I think it's hands down the best of the Elder Scrolls series and, frankly, the only one really worth dedicating much time to (forgive me). I played it when it first came out, and while I have never been the kind of person to pour hours into any ES or even any other open world game, Morrowind held my attention even as a kid - before I knew about "open world" and before it was such a buzzword - whereas other games before and after it struggled to do so or else failed entirely. Morrowind was groundbreaking for its time in many ways. And then they announced the expansion pack called Bloodmoon that would let you play as a werewolf. I was so excited I could hardly stand it, and even with my extreme werewolf pickiness, I was not disappointed. At all.

This is a game wherein the werewolves are treated as a serious threat, they are insanely rare to encounter in the wild in any capacity (I actually became a werewolf through a random encounter because I ran around on Solstheim obsessively every night rather than just becoming one through the story - it took me many nights, IRL, to encounter one), and when you do run into them, they are likely to destroy you. You are insanely, over the top powerful when you turn into a werewolf, yourself. Some would even call it stupid. I would not. You run at the speed of light and your jump turns into borderline flight. It's basically gliding. You're also preposterously powerful in general. I love it.

Most importantly of all, however, is that you are actually forced to roleplay as a werewolf. You will turn each night, and you must consume 1 victim NPC of any of the playable races. Solstheim is full of assorted enemies that will work for this, but when you go back to Vvardenfell, it can be harder to find a nightly meal while avoiding devouring any quest NPCs. Plus, you have to manage your gear before and after transformations, and you have to be sure you are never witnessed transforming. The entire system is in-depth and very awesome, making you actually feel like a cursed being that has to worry when the sun starts to set, forcing you to run far from civilization.

I cannot put into words how much I adore this game's werewolf system. Nothing compares. This is a real werewolf system, instead of "play as a wolf-person" or "hit the awesome button to become a werewolf for a little while with 0 consequences" like basically every other werewolf game out there.

So long story short, if you claim to love werewolves and want to play as one in a video game, and you haven't played Bloodmoon, then you're lying to yourself and the whole world. Shame on you.

And now for things that didn't make the list...

10. Assorted Acknowledgements

This category is for ones I don't even really have a lot to say about, but I figured I would mention them.

Terraria - You can get an item that lets you turn into a werewolf when night falls. It's pretty fun! I like the mechanics of it, plus it has a neat werewolf design, to boot. I dock serious points in this game for straight-up replacing the zombies with hordes of werewolves in hard mode, though. "Werewolf infestations" and werewolves being zombie stand-ins these days is preposterous and overdone. But I had a lot of fun running around as a werewolf and exploring, so it's absolutely top of the non-tiered list especially as far as werewolf mechanics go.

Pillars of Eternity - The "werewolf" in this game is one of several animal-person forms the druid can get, continuing the common theme in gaming of druid werewolves. The wolf is decidedly the worst of the lot, less useful even than the prey animals available. Put bluntly: they are basically terrible, and you're an idiot to ever use this form when there are so many build options available. There are also lots of other RPG options available. As in other games out there in the world. You should play those instead.

Guild Wars 2 - You cannot actually play as a werewolf in Guild Wars 2, but I figured I would mention it because lots of people do. If you want to roll one of the Norn giant race, either as a pretty giant woman who is the mommy stepping on you from some men's dreams or as the ugly tiny-headed cartoon men, you can get an ability to turn into a werewolf for like 30 seconds; it's far from exciting. And like so many werewolf abilities today, it comes with the option to also turn into other humanoid animals with different abilities. I've heard that, of them, only the cat and bear are useful, which is not a shocker as video game logic goes (game devs think wolves straight up suck at everything lol). I didn't play a Norn during my stint with Guild Wars 2 - I played a male human. He's Nolan North, so he's obviously the only choice and also why I played the game as much as I did.

The Elder Scrolls Online - This disgraceful abomination of a "game" is terrible in every way and could not have been a bigger disappointment on the promise of an "Elder Scrolls but MMORPG" concept even from the very beginning. It was never good, it only ever got worse, and I am happy to say I abandoned it long ago (I am not happy to say I was playing it in early closed beta because of the promise of werewolves - and I played it far more than I should have, so I am not coming at this from ignorance). It is a game with designs so ugly and unremarkable that you want to quit and walk through the woods just to remind yourself beauty still exists in the world. ESO clearly had no idea what direction to take itself in from the moment it dropped, and it certainly was never created with the pretense of playing like an Elder Scrolls game but being massively multiplayer. It has no sense of mood or atmosphere whatsoever and possesses writing that will make you long for the riveting tales in other low-rent, low-thought MMORPGs. You can play as a hideous weird sad werewolf model that is absurdly small (most likely smaller than the race you are playing as, which means you actually shrink when you transform) and should have been left in beta, which functions like a worse awesome button werewolf than the ones in Skyrim, because you also suck gameplay-wise especially depending on the dev's mood with the meta. It is terrible, as is everything about the game. ESO also went out of its way to completely wreck all previous Elder Scrolls werewolf lore that was actually really good. Anyway, don't play this. Your time is worth more than that, even if you don't think it is.

That covers some of the best! Requisite apologies if I didn't include your favorite.

( Free Newsletter  — Patreon — Wulfgard — Werewolf Fact Masterlist — Twitter — Vampire Fact Masterlist — Amazon Author page )

[copperbadge]

Watching Twitter implode, as an outsider who has hated Twitter for an extremely long time, is absolutely fascinating. I had a twitter account, now deleted, which I checked about once a month and posted to every few years, usually in a vain attempt to acclimate myself to a system I felt was hostile to any method of communication I was capable of. For about a year now even checking my notifications has been pointless, since I was quoted in a tweet by some corporate account that the spambots got hold of; literally all I saw in my notifications for a very long time was ads for various things attached to my name, retweeting that fucking train quote.  

I understand the importance of twitter particularly in uplifting marginalized voices and chronicling major historical events in first-person witness accounts; I know people personally whose small businesses are absolutely fucked because they depended on twitter for almost all their PR and a vast portion of their sales, and that truly sucks. It’s easy to glibly say “and nothing of value was lost” but a lot of value is being lost. 

But I also just hated everything about trying to use twitter. I can understand its importance and still hate it. I also don’t like the Mountain Goats even though they are vitally important to the emotional stability of like, half the people I know. 

The upshot of this is that I eventually had only a dim understanding of the way twitter culture evolved, since I wouldn’t go near it with protective gear on. So I was absolutely dumbfounded to read articles about the Verification badge being put up for sale and to see people saying, “Well, if Twitter’s no longer trustworthy, why be there?”

It blew my mind to realize that in introducing verification in the first place, Twitter had given its entire userbase explicit permission to abandon critical thought when they saw that alluring blue bird. Because twitter verified people, it seems a huge number of users thought they didn’t need to question anything on the site and, because of the way most social media works, the site also quickly became a series of personal filter bubbles. 

It makes the last few years make sense, in a weird way -- it’s not just that a massive chunk of culture abandoned critical thought, it’s that they were told that was okay to do, every day, every time their eyes hit the site. And Twitter is structured to offer diminishing returns on a hard dopamine hit, so a lot of people were on it a lot. I’m not throwing stones -- I’m physiologically constantly a quart low on dopamine, so I’m on Tumblr for much the same reason. And I’m not saying that anyone who is Chronically On Twitter has no critical thinking skills. But I am saying that it appears the vast majority of people who let their online critical thinking skills go slack did so because Twitter said it was okay. Twitter said, we’ll do the questioning for you. 

(Watching Twitter implode as someone familiar with the psychology of D/s relationships is....also fascinating.) 

The coverage of the Lilly tweet in particular is interesting in relation to this because it doesn’t seem like anyone is asking who made the tweet. Perhaps there’s no way to find out, but I don’t even see threats or attempts. Eli Lilly is suing Twitter and doesn’t seem even inclined to ask about the human who did it; nobody at Twitter, to my knowledge, has vowed to find and punish the perpetrator, which is hilarious given what Musk clearly wants to do to the people mocking him personally. No major media outlets seem interested in reporting on people discussing the question, let alone asking the question themselves, which indicates to me that nobody’s gone looking. If people are asking, they are not asking loudly or visibly. 

And don’t get me wrong, I don’t want us to find the person who tanked Eli Lilly stocks en route to reopening the discussion about price-gouging in the healthcare field. I wish there was a way to buy them a beer and/or a vial of insulin. But the fact that nobody seems to even be asking the question is weird -- until you remember it’s twitter, and nobody asks questions when it comes to twitter. Why would you? Twitter does the asking. 

And absolutely vitally -- where the fuck is Donald Trump? 

(Questions you never think you’ll ask.) 

Elon Musk promised to reinstate him; even if you claim staffing issues, he’s managed to kill all advertising on the site and switch off two-factor authentication, but he couldn’t flip the switch on Trump’s twitter account? Or personally offer him a new one under the aegis of the freest of speeches? Less than a day ago Trump was still trying to get the courts to give him his bluebird back. I don’t want him back on twitter, lord knows, but I’m perplexed that he’s not, because that was part of the package deal Musk was pitching. 

It’s almost like Musk knows what the bridge too far is. And nobody is asking about that either.

I hope people who come here from twitter find joy here. I hope the ship of twitter is righted so that my friends who love it can go back to it, so that the artists and writers I know can get back a vital tool for their creative self-support and the activists I know can regain a great tool for effective organizing. Twitter is a huge part of the cultural landscape and I hope it ends up okay, and I hope the staff still there can get some rest. 

But I also hope that this sharp cultural shock has been a reminder that letting someone else ask the questions means letting someone else control what answers you get.

[headspace-hotel]

I'm probably gonna regret attaching my name to this but I slept on it and I'm still really upset but now more coherent (so please delete this if it's unwelcome).

First of all I'm really sorry you're dealing w this shit. I hope you're taking care of yourself rn.

Second of all.... holy fuck Inneskeeper has handled this horribly. I'm trying to extend the benefit of the doubt and say he just needs time, we all do, but it's very hard when he's been acting as though a day is enough time for everyone to get over the fear he spread.

It's really upsetting to see him bring up both his schizophrenia and his career as reasons why he was upset without ever actually uttering the words "I'm sorry, I was wrong." without needing to read between the lines.

It's a really concerning trend I've noticed reappearing now that actual celebrities and just plain old popular users are becoming more open with their mental health, that "I was having a psychotic break/I was having a manic episode/I was blah-de-blah" somehow taking the place of an actual apology. As if explaining it means you no longer have to take action or responsibility.

Especially given he was bringing up his profession during all this. As a professional especially he has a responsibility. I know "this is tumblr" but this is TUMBLR. People don't fact-check. You have sway. Especially as a professional.

He could've made the post unrebloggable, but if he did I haven't seen it. He could've pinned a post that actually contained information/a retraction/a quick apology and explanation, instead we got "I'm taking a break". He edited the post, but given part of his defense was that reblog chains are uncontrollable an edit you would not see unless you clicked back to his blog is...

I'm really hoping that once he comes back he'll say something. Because I know parasocial relationship and all that but I really did respect him, as someone transgender and with some of my specific mental illnesses in a field I'm deeply interested in.

But now I'm just... tired. He spread that same cycle of panic and delusion to everyone who read that post. Here I was thinking that I just got my dog back from the vet and now she and everyone else I love was going to die, that the apocalypse was coming.

Until I did the googling he as an actual ecologist did not do. As if me taking a tumblr post and freaking is less acceptable than him taking a twitter post and freaking.

I don't want to cancel him or bully him. I don't doubt that he's gotten some ableist nonsense, because the internet sucks. But he really hurt a lot of people and did a lot of damage. All I want is him to plainly say "I'm sorry, I did it because [x/y/z] but it was still wrong and I hurt people. Here is some actual information. I'm going to log off." Without a billion asterisks.

And honestly maybe apologize for siccing people on you but frankly given how hard my opinion of him has tanked I'm not gonna hold my breath.

I'm fine. The block button is a wonderful thing.

My feelings are mixed. Yes, I see that it would be terrifying to have your mental illness warp your perception of an event, but...you're not the only mentally ill person on Earth, and it's no less terrifying to be triggered into an episode by false information.

I have been asked by several followers to trigger tag #unreality because that kind of thing really messes with them. And the post was framed in a particularly triggering way—encouraging conspiratorial thinking by saying that there's a "media blackout" and that the official sources are downplaying the severity.

The post is still circulating as of this morning, and the misleading version is still hitting people's dashes and suckering people in. Why would you not just make it unrebloggable?

I don't know. I really don't know what to think of the whole thing.

The Twitter OP makes me honestly furious, claiming that "the cops" "blew it up" when it was first responders putting their lives in danger to stop the burning train cars from exploding. It's so frustrating to see people acting like they're calling it a "controlled burn" to cover up idiotic mismanagement. The crews that responded to this accident at great potential risk to their lives don't deserve to be called cops and slandered for making the best decision they could have possibly made.

In general it's worrying how folks on social media are responding—by encouraging paranoia and mistrust by attributing malice or idiocy to the people trying to manage the accident.

Folks say "fuck cops" but they can't distinguish cops from firefighters and hazardous materials crews working to save lives. That's scary to me.

I don't think we know enough yet to ascertain the causes of the accident, but I want to caution against looking for a specific party to blame as being at fault, because...these things can happen even when we do everything right. As long as we use these hazardous chemicals to make things, this is always a possibility.

And it's not necessarily a "preventable" failure of society that we make and use PVC, either. One of the causes of how widespread plastics are is that they are genuinely useful materials with properties that no other materials have. PVC pipe is what probably makes the plumbing in your house. Before PVC, there was copper, which is incredibly expensive, has a tendency to burst with temperature changes, and corrodes and reacts with various chemicals.

And the sad fact is, environmental disasters like this happen a lot. Many of them worse than this.

Not too far from where I live, there was a case where tons of radioactive waste were dumped into a municipal landfill. This radioactive waste was being handled by workers who didn't know what it was and had no protection. This was a case of malicious dodging of regulations. Mining coal creates radioactive and toxic waste that is constantly mismanaged. I was doing reports on local environmental news for my geology class a while back and many of the coal mines in Eastern Kentucky have a hundredfold violations of environmental and safety regulations, and companies usually dodge responsibility.

I hope this incident inspires people to think and talk about environmental regulations and rights of workers in the rail industry. What with the railroad strikes going on, I think it's worth considering that this is why we need to look out for the welfare of rail workers—you want the people handling the shipment of hazardous chemicals to be well rested and well protected.

[phoenixyfriend]

Hey do you ever see a journalist approach a story in the most wildly inappropriate way?

This isn't the worst case but it's Not Great: 10:34 in the BBC Global News Podcast, early hours March 6th, 2024. Link contains transcript of full episode, but the summary is this:

Israel is messing about with GPS technology, and it is affecting people in Lebanon. Some Lebanese people's GPS tech is so badly impacted that their phones are placing them in Israel, and so they are being shown Israeli dating profiles on apps like Tinder.

The local journalist being interviewed is very focused on how the GPS on her phone is being impacted, making many features useless, and mentions how a lot of Lebanese people are deleting their apps because they're upset about the apps showing them Israeli people, because the two countries are on the brink of war (and, understandably, the people of Lebanon are incredibly angry about what is happening in Gaza).

The BBC reporter, on the other hand, keeps trying to turn it into something... cutesy?

Unfortunately, they don't have the Lebanese journalist's name written anywhere (and the BBC reporters say her name three different ways, and I've tried like five spellings), and I can't find her online with various search terms, so I'll just be referring to her as LJ here.

LJ: Yeah, exactly. So it has the dating apps, but you can imagine that it's not just the dating apps, it's basically any application that uses the user's location. So for instance, when I was traveling in South Lebanon, the GPS was so bad that it would put me in Beirut, it would put me in the sea, it would put me in Israel. It has a very weird impact for like just Lebanese especially also because for Lebanese it is actually forbidden to have any kind of contacts with Israelis. BBC: Hang on, did you just say that in Lebanon you're not allowed to have contact with Israelis? LJ: Yeah, not even like talk to them. So not swipe on them. So that would be something completely forbidden because, no, Israel and but and Lebanon are on the brink of the war. BBC: But as you say, [LJ], what's absolutely fascinating here is that essentially two countries that are in a, a kind of very fragile tense state with each other. The citizens, if they happen to be using these apps, are getting exposure to the other side. They're seeing the interests, the photos of Israelis, Lebanese, the people that they're not really interested in or not meant to be interested in. LJ, sounding a little irritated: It's extremely, yeah, baffling and and surprising when you, when you find like so many Israeli profiles, it has triggered some theories in Lebanon that there might be moat spies trying to get information. I also saw people being quite angry at it and saying that they're not choosing the apps anymore 'cause there's no use in it. BBC, with a forced cheery 'work with me here' tone: I just wonder whether it does promote a bit of understanding. I mean, across the border you do basically see that the other people are not that different to you. They're just on an app trying to find somebody. LJ, audibly fed up: I think like some people have these very romantic ideas of forbidden love, but overall, I think would be still quite annoyed of, you know, seeing so many profiles that they're deemed as like belonging to the enemy.

Sir, literally what made you think that was a good idea?

[lycorim]

I know the culture is way past NFTs at this point (and thank god for that) but I thought I'd share the message that made me stop posting on DeviantART altogether.

The user is inactive now (wonder why) so I don't feel bad sharing their name uncensored.

It's shit like this that makes me hesitate posting my stuff anywhere - because for every person who asks and then backs off when rejected, how many are there who will just save the art and sell it without even trying to reach out? And it hasn't stopped with the death of NFTs (which, to be fair, the site did make actual moves to protect users from), because DeviantART has proved itself incapable of staying away from tech bro fads and alienating the real artists who made it a flourishing site in the past.

Now it's AI art - and enough of it to choke out genuine posts and make you wonder if any of what you see there is real. The number of times I have probably scrolled past a piece - a real piece of art that someone probably put hours of work in to - because DeviantART refuses to treat it any differently than some computer generated plagarism is staggering. And depressing.

Straight up, don't use DeviantART. If you're one of the few brave souls still trudging through their platform, leave it. It's not worth the risk. It went downhill when they deleted the "recent deviations" tab (like what the actual hell????) and got rid of their tiered organization structure in favor of exclusively tagging, and it is not a safe place for artists anymore. I think, genuinely, if tumblr wanted to play to is userbase and implement things like galleries or other art-focused features, it could just stake itself in as THE art platform (and it would be better than whatever the hell they're doing now).

[evanwevand]

"Uwuauauwuuwuauau pro Bright users victimize themselves and pretend that they suffered the same or even more than actual AB's grooming victims 😭😭😭😭😭😭🤧🤧🤧🤧🤧" NO ONE FUCKING SAYS THAT THEY SUFFERED MORE THAN ANYONE, but sometimes you should think twice before telling systems and fictiokins to shut up about their identity and "do it in private" since I don't think anyone would like if rewrite fictives were told the same. It's harassment and isolation in any way

Also, don't pretend to be "moral" now since this whole situation has been known since AT LEAST 2022 when Cimmerian posted his first video after AB was originally banned from the wiki explaining the reason, and it wasn't until Feb 2023 when y'all actually "did something about it" (aka deleting the list, aka literally fucking washing your hands on the topic after years of not doing anything, aka pretending to never had liked Bright while replacing his name with Shaw in all of your stuff)

If you "never liked Bright" you would had never used in first place (ah, yeah, he was a very popular character and using him would give you clout), or you would had stopped using 963 AT ALL with all of this stuff

Ahhhh, yes, forgot that apparently posting your shity oc or SCP oc won't give you attention, but if you apparently just slap a stone on it and call it "963 rewrite" or "bright rewrite" it magically gives you a lot of clout from the fandom and authors, even!

I'm pretty sure that if something happened to AB that made Bright a free character that anyone can own you all would be fighting for having him, because you don't really care about victims of anything, just about getting clout by following what the herd follows and likes and being morally superior in this downfalling fandom and pushing it on others, while fucking witch-hunting everyone that doesn't agree

And yes, of course being groomed is way worse than everyone hating on your favourite character, but getting harassed, pushed out of spaces that you considered your comfort fandom for years and having people gaslighting and denying your own identity is just as bad, maybe not worse but still something bad that should be empathised with. Because there are murders in the world that doesn't make bank robbers less criminals.

And please, just touch some grass. The filtering tags thing exits for some reason (I talk about this topic just once in a time whenever I see some of these anti people talking shit, can assure that I have way more of a life outside Tumblr and Internet in general and outside complaining about x random using a character I don't like)

[maletfwitch]

Check before you eat (Goggletann)

This is an old story by a deleted user named “Goggletann” i just wanna re upload it since it’s once of my faves, apologies if the pictures are low res/hard to read

I got so annoyed with they’re shit service that i just muted the chat and ended the conversation with the sales Representative and turned off my phone. What dicks…

I’ve been working my ass off for 2 entire years to save up for what people call the “magic pill”. Well, it comes in many variations, but the pill version is the most popular. A pop into your mouth and you just need to lie down somewhere while your body is automatically transformed. I dont know all the science stuff behind it but if you got the cash you can even add more stuff and customize your transformation. I got a small bonus before quiting my last job so i opted for a smooth golden tan option that will never fade. Sweet right!

2 days later 

Finally received their package. Got so excited that i just opened it immediately. There it was, my key to to instant stud hood. The magic pill right before my eyes. I got so engrossed that i hardly noticed the other smaller stuff that came with the package. A small pamphlet and a small bottle of god knows what. Must be one of their samples for some other product, plus who needs an instruction pamphlet? What so difficult about eating a pill? 

An Hour later

I invited Lance over to the beach for a tanning session with me before i poped my pill. I always felt that guy was a total lazy fuck. He always does things way too slowly. And he doesn;t seem to have a care in the world to the point where he just lazes around and hardly gets a full time job. What a lazy piece of shit seriously. I know he has always been envious of those fitness models and bodybuilders but because of his sheer laziness he hardly even makes a point to exercise. Maybe after seeing my transformation he might change his mind. And i would love seeing his green envious face. I’d probably chuckle alittle too.

 opened my box and unwraped the pill ready to swallow it with a bottle of water. It was surprisingly sweet. Not at all bitter as what i heard. 

“hey dude can i have that too? Need a sweet to suck on while we tann” Lance said in his usual slow voice.

I looked back at the box and noticed the small bottle. Looks like a sample tanning lotion.

“Sorry bro that was my last sweet. I got an expensive tanning lotion here though. It should be enough for one person. You can have it…” I replied

“awwww thanks man!” Lance grabbed the bottle and slowly spread the lotion all over his pasty white skin.

Thank god i gave him that bottle to distract him. God knows what other questions he’s gonna ask. I so wanna see his face when we wake up after the tann and he would have to watch me be the hunk he always wanted to be. 

We both looked up at the sky and realised the sun was coming out.   

“Time for a tann and hopefully a new body” I yelled to Lance still unaware of my plot. 

30 Minutes Later

The tanning session was so relaxing that i just dozed off. Looking down at my own body i realized it was still the same so I reached for my phone beside me still with my eyes closed and placed it above my face to check with the Chovonic Sales person why its taking so damm long. And i realized I had missed one msg before i ended my last conversation with them.

[chalicedefinite]

I have been on this tag since day one and the majority of the posts and blogs I've seen adore Louis. Pointing out canonical traits like him actively lying in Canon books and now the show as well is not being hateful or disrespectful. Saying episode 5 and the whole tale infact being revisited is Not fans of lestat being apologists. It is what Anne Rice canonically did with the Vampire Lestat and the books that followed. Louis is loved widely in this tag. Lestat is being hated on as a result of the villainous portrayal in season 1 which again Canonically is a tale (not a true one) being told both in books and in the show. A lot of people however took it too far with the lestat hate and started calling anyone who liked him names and then people starting to fight back and the rest is how we got to here. If there is no understanding to fans of both characters the two most loved characters in the show -who at the end of the series canonically end up together- then what the hell is the point of being in this Fandom in the first place? Please don't take this as a personal attack it wasn't meant as one but as another person's experience and thoughts of the fandom so far.

I’m going to be honest I find this very hard to believe that it was only just about liking Lestat.

I’ve gotten more hate and vitriol from Lestat fans ever since I’ve joined this fandom. I’ve never talked bad about his character and I make it very clear on my blog that I love him and that he’s my favorite character both in the show and in the books. And yet, because I calmly engaged with a popular blog’s theory about episode 5; everyday I wake up to hate in my inbox that I have to delete. Lestat fans have been nothing but disrespectful to me for no reason.

Im a Lestat fan myself and I talk about how much I love him all the time it seems and I haven’t been once called a racist. I’ve had anons accusing me of hating Lestat but never ones accusing me of racism. This is the second time someone has told me that Lestat fans are bullied for liking him when all I’ve seen and experienced thus far is the exact opposite which begs the question: Is it really because you like Lestat or is it something deeper that other people picked up on but not you yourself? 3. How is anyone’s rational response as a human to someone calling them racist for liking Lestat is to deny the systemic oppression of black people? This is the main thing that doesn’t make a lick of sense to me. How did we go from, “Users were attacked for liking Lestat” to “So a bunch of blogs are now starting to agree with and talk about how reverse racism is real.” I’ve gotten attacked for liking characters before and my reaction to that is blocking whoever is causing trouble and ignoring them. I got harassed to hell and back in the Voltron fandom for defending and liking Allura and never at any point was I thinking about how affirmative action is the real systematic evil plaguing society. If this kind of thinking was always in the back of certain people’s head as they were analyzing the show then it’s safe to say that people weren’t mad at them just because they liked Lestat. You can not properly analyze a show where a black man talks about how he was systematically oppressed for being black when you don’t even believe in systemic oppression yourself. How can you sit down and watch this show where Louis is constantly being put down by the white people around him, where he has to pretend to be his husband’s chauffeur, where you see white people burning a black neighborhood, where Louis and Claudia cant even sit next to Lestat and have to sit at the back of the bus and come out of it thinking that reverse racism exists in our society? Louis is the age of a lot of black people’s great grandfather, what he went through was not that long ago and the society he lives is still alive today.

4. What purpose would it serve narratively to have Louis and Claudia lie about episode 5? I’m leaving this question here because the last time I tried to have this discussion it led to anons hounding me.

[vermutandherring]

Hello, I'm sorry for the schedule and the inconvenience. I'm new to riding mods, and I downloaded the club and I don't have most of the CCs. I don't know if you could give me some or tell me where to find them, I would really appreciate it. Greetings

Hello ✨

The algorithm for downloading buildings is always the same. I'll try to explain as detailed as possible for other players as well:

1. Download the archive, double click it and replace all the content you see to the desktop.

2. Go into the directory where you have your Sims 4 installed. Usually it has next location: C:\Users\[User Name]\Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4

3. Place all files from downloaded "Tray" folder into the folder with the same name in the opened directory.

4. Replace all included mods from downloaded "Mods" folder into the folder with the same name in the opened directory.

- I INSTALLED THE MODS BUT THE BUILDING LOOKS EMPTY AND COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. WHERE ARE THE REST OF THE MODS?

-Let's see the content of the downloaded archive:

• Tray - is the folder with building itself. • Eq. Club CC - mods for the building

- Eq. Club CC List - a document with links to mods that must be downloaded to make the building look the same as in the screenshots.

-These are the mods you missing and the reason why your downloaded building looks empty. It's not enough to just toss this Word file into your Mods folder. This is the list of mods you must download manually. If you follow instructions, it is very easy (but time consuming) to do.

-WHY CAN'T YOU JUST ADD ALL MODS WITHIN THE ARCHIVE?

-I explained this in the Document itself:

So what do you have to do with all these links?

Just follow the links, download required mods and like any other CC place them in your The Sims 4 Mods folder.

You may also come across the following lines:

...you need [number] files or ...you need next files

Some mods are part of sets. For example, the link directs you to a set of 10 items, of which I only used 1 or 2 for this lot. It means that you need to download the whole set, but get only the files I specified from it. The rest of the archive can be deleted.

HOW TO ORGANIZE MODS FOLDER

Sometimes I can use up to 2 GB of mods per building. But I also understand that you already may have some mods, especially if you download my other buildings. For this I recommend either make standalone folder for my buildings in general and put there everything you download from my archives; or create new folder for this exact building and place required CC in there. When you get bored of this building - you can delete this folder instead of searching all the CC you don't need anymore.

It's also useful in case if you experience any problems after downloading my buildings. It can happen due to outdated/broken mods or the lot itself (I always test my buildings, but updates can break anything).

If you did everything right, your building should look the same as mine. But I do not rule out the fact that sometimes I forget to specify some mods due to inattention (credit 2 GB of mods is still very time-consuming and incredibly boring).

Hope it helps 👋

[sophietv]

The Great War and the "second" war

Ok, now that I opened Pandora's box of writing my thoughts down, I don’t seem to be able to stop… 

That being said, I keep seeing antis, especially on Twitter, claiming how The Great War does not mean anything about LSK since it was the first world war, but there was a second after.

So the argument here is that they might have survived that first war (weirdly no one seems to know which events it might be about) but they did not survive the second one (this one is supposed to be 2019 and the failed coming out).

This is gonna be a long post, so if you just want to have my input on what those two wars are about, it's at the end.

At first, I just thought this argument was funny, especially since no one is able to explain what fight (war) this song refers to if it’s not the events of 2019.

But then it got me thinking that if people are seeing this connection about two wars, it was probably not accidental.

So, if there are two World Wars, what is The Great War talking about?

I do believe that The Great War is talking about the events of 2019. There’s many things that point to this.

The Great War is sampled on Only The Young. It’s the same drum beat, especially in the intro.

I think it is meant to set the time the song took place (2019) and the reason behind this great war : The political climate, the results of the elections. As many suspect might have played a role on her not being able to come out.

But the lyrics also points toward 2019: 

The most telling is : “Somewhere in the haze, got a sense I’d been betrayed”

This clearly points to the betrayal accusation that is looming over Karlie since 2019 and that Swifties use to hate on her.

There’s an amazing post about this. I encourage you to go read it as it will help you understand where I am coming from for the rest of the analysis.

Perez Hilton posted a Youtube Video saying how Taylor and Karlie are no longer close because of Scooter Braun, based on absolutly nothing. Ashley Avignone and Claire Winter liked the Taylor Swift Updates post about it.

Therefore lauching every Swifties and their mothers on Karlie.

This tweet and the video are still up, but the original post shared by Taylor Swift Updates and liked by Taylor's friend no longer exists.

(I highly suggest you read the post about debunking all of this!)

Perez Hilton liked a bunch of tweets this very year about how his claim that Karlie had betrayed Taylor was unfounded and basically not true.

This is just one exemple, there's MANY (and he confirmed in the comments of some that he does not just like them automatically because his name is in the post).

He even liked one of mine saying he was in his redemption era, liking post debunking his rumor about Karlie...

All of this plays in those lyrics:

“And maybe it’s the past that’s talkin’, screamin’ from the crypt. Telling me to punish you for things you never did. So I justified it.” 

Perez posting those rumors and having her friends “confirm” it by liking the post.

“Spineless in my tomb of silence, tore your banner down took the battle underground”

Her not doing anything at the time (at least at first) to stop those rumors.

“Looked up at me with honor and truth, broken and blue, so I called off the troops.”

The Taylor Swift Updates post being deleted. Her friends are still showing support to Karlie on SM (again, if you have not read the debunk post, it’s really good!).

Frozen ground pointing at 2019:

In The Great War, there’s also the lyric: “Soldier down on that icy ground, looked up at me with honor and truth, broken and blue”. 

Taylor has used the frozen imagery to talk about the Master Heist in Folklore and Evermore.

Hoax: “My win less fight, this has frozen my ground”. 

In the Long Pond Studio Session, when she talks about Hoax she says that it’s about multiple things: A relationship and the true meaning of love for her (staying when the other person is having a difficult time), a person that betrayed her and that she saw like family (Scott Borchetta) and a work thing that really hurt (The Master Heist).

The Win Less Fight is the attempt to come out that has frozen her ground (her past work).

It’s Time To Go: “He’s got my past frozen behind glass, but I got me”

Again, referencing having her past work stolen from her as being frozen.

Right Where You Left Me: “Did you ever hear about the girl who got frozen, time went on for everybody else she won’t know it”.

Once again, she is talking about her and how she got frozen in time by the master heist.

The Lakes: "A red rose grew up, out of ice frozen ground. With no one around to tweet it”.

The lakes talks about her not belonging and wanting to escape with her muse. A red rose, means love and passion.

Meaning that in all of this, love grew up out of the public eye...

In Evermore she also alludes to the cold and the winter while looking back on the events of 2019 (this would take a whole other post to go through all of this) : “And I was catching my breath. Barefoot in the wildest winter catching my death”.

Even in Only The Young: "It keeps me awake, the look on your face, the moment you heard the news. Screaming inside and FROZEN in time, you did all that you could do"

She might be talking about more than just the elections right there...

Another thing that for me screams of 2019 : “Your finger on my hairpin trigger”.

To me this sounds like her relationship with Karlie was one big reason for her wanting to come out in 2019. 

How since the start of her relationship with Karlie she has been more loud about her queerness and how Karlie was the catalyst of her wanting to come out.

This relationship makes her want to drop “hairpins” as she references too in Right Where You Left Me : “I swear you could hear a hairpin drop, right when I felt the moment stopped.”

This checks out when you look back on her discography, social media posts, interviews and everything. Taylor has started being louder and dropping hairpins in conjunction with her relationship with Karlie.

What does it mean for Kaylor?

The song clearly depicts how they made it through those events:

“I vowed, I would always be yours, ‘cause we survived the great war”. 

Which was even more solidified by Taylor singing “I WILL always be yours” when she played it as a surprise song.

But there’s also other interesting detail about that song:

“My hand was the one you reached for all throughout the great war”

Meaning Karlie was there all this time. 

Also: “That was the night I nearly lost you. I really thought I lost you.”

Meaning Taylor did not lose Karlie. She thought she did, thought she might. But as she is saying in the song, it was not the case. 

But why is it about World War 1 AKA The Great War when we know there’s a World War 2?

Here’s what I think it means.

The Great War is about the events of 2019 : her wanting to come out and not being able to because of the Master Heist.

In her song The Archer, which is about the fear of coming out and how she is ready for it (pun not intended).

She starts the song with “Combat, I’m ready for combat”. (singular). 

The combat here is her coming out and the possible backlash it can have.

She sadly was not able to come out in 2019.

But since August 2019 and her BBC1 performance, Taylor has changed the lyrics a bit.

In her live performance of BBC1 (Septembre 2019)

Live in Paris (Septembre 2019)

You can clearly hear “Combats, I’m ready for combats”.

Even during the Eras Tour you can hear her using plural in the song.

The singular combat of coming out in 2019 has transformed into multiple ones, her having to re-record her first six albums for one plus whatever other challenges arose in 2019 that we don’t know about.

So World War 2 might be in that case her future coming out.

Whenever that might be.

And the song saying: “We will never go back”

Meaning that whatever happens, they’ll face it together this time.

[diabolikpersonals]

I am not certain yet that I want to call out specific blogs (last time I did that it got WEIRD) but it has been a while since we've had a discussion about reposting art as a fandom, and someone asked me to comment :')

I've been in the fandom long enough to see art reposting cause plenty of problems, and I've also been a victim of it myself, so I hope I can help someone understand.

So, fanartists, right? You might not be aware if you're not an artist yourself, but a lot of artists dislike it when you take their work and post it somewhere else. Plenty will have something like "DO NOT REPOST" written right there on their page. Even if they don't, that does not mean that they allow reposts.

There are plenty of reasons why an artist might feel this way, but to name a few common reasons, it could be an issue of credit or publicity: imagine you put hours of work into a piece of art, but another account posts it and they're the one who gains interactions, followers, etc. Even if that account mentions you as the artist, people aren't necessarily going to seek out the original artist. They're probably going to interact with the repost that's right in front of them. Can you imagine that feeling? Like, "Why is this person building a social media presence based on my work, and the work of other artists?" Interactions aside, it's really frustrating when you put a ton of effort into something and you're not recognized for it.

To name another reason, an artist might only want their work to be published in one particular place. This is often the case for me too, actually; I only want my dialovers fanart on tumblr, and I never post it on my twitter account, because I don't want it there. Another medium but still relevant: I don't want my youtube videos exported to other sites because if a lot of people view those reposts, I lose money that I would've gotten if they had just watched my video. Maybe there's a certain type of user that you don't want your work to be exposed to, or maybe you just don't like a site and you don't want your work there. This is something an artist should be able to decide for themself, and it's not right for you to put their art in places they didn't consent to putting it.

It's a case-by-case basis, of course, because different artists have different feelings about it, but generally, you need to obtain permission from an artist before taking their work and publishing it yourself. You can just ask! It's totally normal to ask. Worst they can say is no. Plenty of artists do allow reposts, and if they say that they allow reposts, then go for it!! But if they don't have "reposting is ok" written anywhere, and if you didn't ask permission......then that's not okay. You need to respect artists a little more than that.

Because you know what artists do when they don't feel respected? When their boundaries are crossed, and people post their work without permission?? A lot of times, they delete their stuff, they move their work someplace else to try and evade reposters, and sometimes they stop drawing for a fandom altogether. If you've been in the dialovers fandom for a long time, this has absolutely happened multiple times, whether or not you were aware of it. If you know which repost acc we're discussing here, you might've seen some of their posts say something like "artist is no longer active." And it blows my mind, because I was there when they became inactive, and more than one of them because inactive because people reposted their art! So, besides being disrespectful, it also leads to less dialovers fanart.

But anyway, most of you reading this probably don't repost art, so the more useful thing I can tell you is that I hope you can support artists by interacting with them rather than repost accounts. If you see a repost acc and like the art you see, and if you want to see more of it, seek out the artist's original account instead.

unfollow art repost accounts. seek out and follow artists instead. they are out there. they are awesome. change da world… my final message. Goodb ye.

[princess-of-the-corner]

Toontown Rewritten Recap: January 2003 (Selfie Saga)

Okay so, whenever something happens in the real world, I’m gonna use the ACTUAL date. Otherwise, I’ll use the in-universe date. That's  gonna be relevant here in a second.

January 15, 2014

Sir Max’s real world counterpart/”actor”, Joey was interviewed for an article about Toontown Rewritten, and Sir Max posted a few of the questions and answers in the news blog. Click here to see them.

January 16, 2003

Sir Max snapped some photos of butterflies and mused about how interesting photography is thanks to how sights can change from day to day, especially in the tooniverse.

Especially when it comes to bugs that need to get squashed (not the butterflies).

On a related note, this update came with two bugfixes, and a new sound effect: taking screenshots now made a camera shutter sound.

January 17, 2003

Sir Max added a new camera angle (Front) and used it to take selfies. He then decided to add two more camera angles (Left and Right) to take better pictures.

He had done nothing but take selfies with these new camera angles for the past day.

He wanted people to get excited about these new snapshots, just not “angry mob” excited (unless it was related to those robots some of the players had been talking about). He even asked for feedback on how they could help toons make better photos and videos.

In terms of gameplay:

Hitting F3 would now hide the GUI for better pictures, but it was suggested that players turn the GUI back on before going back to gameplay.

Also, dog noses no longer appeared in camera from the first person POV.

January 18, 2003

Sir Max started off the blog post by listing off the three main milestones of development for Alpha. The first was the loading system (completed in 2002). Second was the Estates (done). Third and final was the battle system (still not implemented, as Toontown is a peaceful and happy place).

But yeah, the Estates have been completed. Each Toon is getting a house and some land around it, plus neighboring homes for close friends and family (read: the five other toons a player can make on their account).

However, furniture hadn’t yet been implemented, nor was the Cattlelog players could order from. In short, all of the houses are completely empty. Plus, the fishing ponds hadn’t been filled yet either. Essentially, it’s just an empty place where toons can chat with their friends.

(The fact that, much like in Toontown Online, Estates don’t have any music in Toontown Rewritten just made them kinda eerier, actually.)

In other news, a “Snapshots” page was added to the Shticker Book, allowing toons to store all the screenshots they’re taking. Sir Max has been filling his up pretty quickly! You can rename and delete your snapshots from here, and there’s even a button to open the folder in your file browser!

But yeah, the next few updates would be dedicated to the Estates.

January 19, 2003

45 minutes passed the normal news blog posting time, Muddy Paws made a post asking where in the name of Walt Sir Max had disappeared to.

In-game, portable holes could now teleport their users to their friends’ estates. Plus, when you left your own estate, your friends would be kicked out after 15 seconds instead of 5.

Aside from that, not much happened on this day.

January 20, 2003

Hawkheart revealed where Sir Max had disappeared to. He had basically been zipping all over Toontown (from the rooftops, to the mountain visible from Acorn Acres, to several underwater locales), and taking selfies. 452 selfies since the Silly Saturday Update that added the new camera angles.

They had found him half frozen in the Brrrgh.

Hawkheart then turned the news blog post into a PSA about selfie addiction.

January 21, 2003

Sir Max came back from Selfies Anonymous a changed toon, completely cured of his selfie addiction.

As soon as the others leave, Sir Max reveals the truth, he didn’t sit in on a single meeting. He broke out after 3 minutes.

How did he get away with that? Selfie Support Groups don’t have cameras of any kind on their premises, including security cameras, allowing Sir Max to have a cardboard cut out of himself sit in on the meetings while he left to do literally anything else.

He then went on to show off some of the selfies he took:

1.      Underwater at Donald’s Dock (he nearly drowned).

2.      On top of the roof of the home of Hawkheart’s friend, Spyro.

3.      At the peak of the mountain visible from Acorn Acres. He got frostbite, but didn’t pass out until he got to the Brrrgh after several hours.

And he still had 449 more selfies to show off!

He was cut off by the patchnotes. The only relevant here bit is that fishes were introduced to the Fishing Ponds at the Estates, meaning that all species could FINALLY be caught.

-

Rip because this was doubled (I edited it to have just a single so people don’t go ??? like I did lmao)

Fuckin Selfies Anonymous though!!