#anyway i found a website where people would post? their art and stuff. and you could like make a remix of it. and edit it

[gorillaxyz]

ohhh i should draw my s/i with him using anime bases YESSSSSSSS

[motherofdragonflies]

The Elevator Game: A Choose Your Own Adventure Fic

Written by: @motherofdragonflies / bexgowen

Art by: @xfancyfranart

Rating: Explicit

Word count: 95,000

Tags/Warnings: Major Character Death, Choose Your Own Adventure Style, Psychological Horror, Canon Divergent, Post 15x03, Case Fic

Summary: 

The game is simple.

Get in an elevator, alone, and follow the rules. If you follow them correctly, the elevator will rise and when the doors open, they will open onto a world that is not your own.

When his brother goes missing after investigating the death of a teenage girl in a hotel in St. Louis, Dean Winchester is dismayed to discover it involved an internet legend called “the Elevator Game”.

He’s even more dismayed when Castiel—who walked away weeks ago and hasn’t been returning Dean’s calls—shows up, also looking for Sam.

Dean doesn’t want to work with Castiel, and Castiel doesn’t seem thrilled about working with him, either. Can they put their differences aside when  they discover that Sam disappeared after playing the Elevator Game? Will Dean and Castiel play the elevator game and travel to the Other World themselves? Will they find Sam before it's too late? 

The choice, dear reader, is yours. You are in control of the story.

But choose wisely, for once you play the Elevator Game, things may never be the same again.

Excerpt:

“Where did Ali hear about the game?” Sam’s voice asked. 

“She, uh, she loved scary stuff. Horror movies, urban legends, that kinda thing. I think she found it on reddit, in one of those scary story subreddits? I don’t know, I don’t…I don’t like that kind of thing. But, um, she was always talking about wanting to try it but you need a tall building and we’d never been anywhere anyway tall enough until…”

“Until that night. Did you tell the police?”

Lilah scoffed. “I told them. They didn’t believe me.”

“Lilah…what do you think happened?”

“I... I think…I think it worked.”

The audio file ended, and Dean sorted through the rest of the papers from the envelope Lilah had given him. The first page was a print out from a true crime subreddit: Dean recognised it as one that Sam checked constantly. His brother had highlighted a post on the page, one consisting of a single line that was posted four days after Alison and the others had disappeared:

Ali Bleaker played the elevator game.

Frowning, Dean turned to the next page and found that it was an article from a website called “The Ghost In My Machine”, titled “The Most Dangerous Games: The Elevator Game Revisited.”

Dean snorted at the title but read on:

"Some people know it as ‘Elevator To Another World’. For others, it’s the ‘Elevator to Hell’... But no matter the name, this peculiar…game, I suppose—although there’s nothing playful about it—it always said to have the same outcome, as long as you follow its rules to a T: By riding an elevator alone, visiting a handful of floors in a particular order as you go, you can transport yourself to another world entirely."

Dean stared at the words on the page.

Another world.

“Jesus, Sam, tell me you didn’t.”

Once upon a time, Dean might have dismissed the claim of ‘another world’ as something out of a science fiction story. But having visited several other worlds, Dean knew that alternate realities, multiverses—whatever you wanted to call them— were real. He doubted that something as simple as riding an elevator could take you to another world, but the idea wasn’t as far-fetched as he once would have believed it to be.

Snatching up his computer, Dean quickly pulled up the phone tracking site that he’d bookmarked and searched for the location of Sam’s phone. 

He was not at all surprised when the map showed Sam’s phone was at The Millennium Hotel, where Alison Bleaker had died.

Going up at @deancashorrorfest this October!

[smolsix]

im back im back and im looking at the footage in this massive post WEE HEE HEE!!

no fr it's a long post

i went onto the website and Low is the boy in a mask and Alone is a girl with the wrench.

starting w the trailer

you can see Low here by himself which is interesting, in single player it makes sense to have one character before you meet your AI companion but I wonder how this could work in multi

Low is also by himself here, before the next scene where he meets up with Alone. So Ig Low is travelling and ends up with Alone.

In the trailer when it shows the busted mirror you can hear the ticking noise that is so well known in LN II for the section where Mono transforms into a new Tall Man (no i still do not believe in the time travel theory and I will not debate it < 3)

A NOME!!! ON THE LEFT!! while it makes sense emotionally that they are here (they are so little nightmares after all), logically it does strike me as curious. It was The Lady who turns children into Nomes, so either this one is just here (i know there's at least one in LN II) or other people can have this power?

Also it's curious they're holding a paper, wonder what they've found? Wouldn't it be insane if it was another advert for The Maw haha (in all likelihood it's probably a map of some sort since their goal is to leave this place, but it can also just be part of the trailer and not gameplay just to give us a better look at the characters)

the little umbrellas fiNALLY made me realise why the art direction feels so different, it's very tim burton. little nightmares could be considered as such but different enough because it lacked a lot of the whimsical aspects of tim burton's designs, but these have some charm to them that is whimsy enough that it is set apart. Anyways, the umbrellas are cute and i am guessing they auto deploy rather than you being able to use them whenever. I wonder if they're visible at all on the character's designs? since both characters have matching ones, do they get them somewhere? make them? i am interested in where they got these haha

also i noticed a lot of netting for this region, i know it's a desert style location (the website even mentions a fair park section and i am BEYOND excited for that because i LOVE clowns and circus stuff)

this particular puzzle is shown a few times in the trailer so they must be quite proud of it (i mean it is cute and i like it haha). i am guessing this is part of the fairgrounds section, as it did feel out of place in the trailer but would make a lot of sense for a location like that (it is very colourful which is pretty new for the series)

Also Low has this cute lil anklet omg

there is an axe here! i wonder if it dislodges when you solve the puzzle. the eye motif is back as it should be, it's very LNcore of them. im guessing the green thing is a giant crayon? being a too small child in a location made for children is a fun concept and furthers with the theme of subverting childlike concepts into something a bit unnerving.

initially i thought these were guests, but looking at the area more closely and now that i know there's a fairgrounds, these are probably The Dwellers and this is probably the fairgrounds.

ofc, we have the sewer hands. they are self explanatory honestly. but i can't help but wonder how they function in game as an enemy. i can see their surprise jump scare factor, but as an active enemy to avoid it does have me wondering how they will work.

the fuses are back! and there's the roaches. you can see Alone with her wrench out here, wonder if it's part of her idle or run animation at all? it could also be because Low has the fuse so she has her wrench ready for whatever reason. I want to say she could possibly smash roaches, but there's so many here I think it'd be impossible

strange thing in the back there........ the gears are cool though, wonder what they're powering?

these shelves are much like the ones in LN 1 in the swaying gnome section of the DLC i mentioned before, it's cool they brought these back as they're very reminiscent of the first game in general. But the jar is very LN II of them.....

I know I keep making comparisons between I II and to III but I honestly do believe the studio is bringing back a lot of motifs, imagery, items, and assets on purpose specifically to feel familiar enough to the audience who has played the first two and might be uneasy about the somewhat new art direction.

also very LN II of them~~ but this could be a carriage like from the fairgrounds? So far the trailer seems to be going in order of locations, though, so who knows.

i wonder what location this could be? And why is Lone able to use mirrors like this, and why is he only doing so now? He also travelled here alone, so I'm super interested in his backstory.

so i was surprised to see the website explicitly call this a giant baby and not a doll when it is very obviously one. unless it is a giant baby wearing a doll head?

the left eye (our left) also clearly has the ability to petrify people, too. the baby itself is very worn down so it's either quite old, or has simply seen a lot of damage. im guessing at one point its other eye also functioned.

this is VERY interesting. these statues of petrified people are larger than the MCs meaning they were probably adults, so the baby really does target anyone probably. it's also strange as these people look... normal? there's nothing going on with them, they are simply petrified. it paints a picture where it's possible that at one point, the little nightmares world *was* normal, and something happened that warped the adults. it's possible the giant baby is man made itself, idk what it is but it feels that way to me. i dont think it was just... born like this.

literally no idea what this could be about. i know it looks like a trash dump but i can't tell for what if anything specific. why the table with jars neatly placed on it? why the giant machine? initially i thought it was like a machine that'd scoop things and then drop it, but it looks like a chute which means something or someone is filling it somehow.

if you watch the animation for this part Low is pulling Alone who stops him and then lets go before they look at you, it's probably a simple animation but it'd be interesting if it told us anything abt their dynamic.

and then from the additional gameplay footage:

we have the eyes returning < 33 tho they do look different-mostly the peep hole is more narrow giving it a more threatening look (pupils become smaller when someone is angry for example)

[the-nosy-neighbor]

Ok, i was looking for a new subject or thing to puzzle on (as well as check for new stuff, in case they get sneaky), and found the hooplah barnaby toy pipe ad. Oddly enough, the audio for this item doesn't have a transcript on the website. When we have seen that before, it has been for secret videos and things, for the most part. Even then, there are usually hidden subtitles. So, weird.

I listened to the ad, and have to wonder if it is just color. It is a funny thing to us that cigarette ads were ubitiquous in the past, when ads now are very limited in comparison. There are lots of laws now that control how and where ads for smoking can be run, and about cartoon character mascots. I believe there were internal documents leaked at some point about cartoon character mascots being targeted toward children, despite their denials of that fact.

Apparently, the much less regulated e-cig industry is back on that bullshit. I guess this makes this topical in a modern sense, especially once you consider that Barnaby's pipe is going to seem like a toy and the comparison to the e-cigs, which don't feel like smoking to some people.

There were still cigarette machines around when i was a kid. So, for that alone, it is a fun gag. It's almost like a smoker training program.

Anyway, went on the look at the wishbook, because i know i have missed things there. I found this:

"STRETCHED THIN" Eddie Dear. Stretched, overextended, need the rest, work too hard. This sentiment is all over the place with the latest update about Eddie, in particular. So much Eddie in this one. The real world item that this is related to would be Stretch Armstrong, which I may have mentioned before.

So farm in this update we've had Eddie as Frankenstein the (previously a scarecrow), stretched-thin, and the focus of the commericals segment.

Oh, and the looks on the faces of the Wally and Frank pillows. Wally is smirking and has half closed eyes, which Clown has used before to indicate flirting or love feelings. But it is also a villian thing.

From tv tropes:

Snide, cynical, flirty, sleepy

(I haven't read all of this series yet, but they also have a theory about gender being expressed through eyeshadow color in cartoons.)

But they do list in the villains post that villains have "eyeshadow used heavily for villains or hypersexual characters." Given that we have no information about Wally being hypersexualized, could this feature have been given as a way of characterization?

This is an interesting look into the phenomenon. Examples:

Eye art by laurengigglez on deviantart

Early Wally had the coded eyelids:

(If you read the villains post, you will see this image features gender eyelids as well as villain eyelids, as the lightness of Julie's is in stark contrast to the bold colors, larger eyelids, and darker lashes of the two villains.)

Eddie has limited eyelids, except for in times of stress or high emotion.

As much attention is given to the eyes in this project, it is hard to believe that it is a stylistic choice, but all kinds of muppets have eyelids:

This is specifically for sleep. But Piggy gets eyelids for emotion--there is a whole wiki article about that. Sally could be a special case, but her character sheet makes her suspect

Frank is looking toward Wally with fear on his face. Eyes wide open, eyes are big and focused, it seems, on Wally. His arms are crossed, which seems normal for him, but definitely getting scared more than pissy.

AND Frank is standing between Wally and Eddie. He is much closer to Wally than he is to Eddie. This could be more fuel for the idea i have posted about before, where Frank is in opposition to Wally, while pretending things are totally fine. He has a secret thing of some kind with Eddie, obviously, whether romantic or conspiratorial. He looks afraid, though the eyes are slightly off.

My theory has been that Frank is being a double agent, while working with Eddie (and maybe a loving relationship with Eddie.) I have speculated that Frank is decommissioning puppets on his friends or just Eddie, and he sings his lullaby to versions of Eddie that have become too aware.

(Which is an honest metaphor for the marginalized person's experience of aging and learning to speak out about inequities and being pushed back into an "acceptable" role.)

Eddie, however, is looking somewhere else. It looks like it lines up with the top item on the list, maybe some of the numbers? I think it is arguable that Wally isn't focused on us, and Frank is not focused on him, but it is close enough to consider the possibility.

What is the significance of the idea "stretched thin" or the area Eddie is staring at? Are the eye positions and facial exoressions there for us to interpret the motives of the characters?

[lavolamp]

Too late to make a blog?

Hello. In a conversation with friends I decided to start using this Tumblr blog as a means of, well, blogging. I would use some website like Wordpress, Neocities or even Blogspot, because those tend to have features that make organizing blogs by tags a little easier, but I will admit I am a bit vain and don't want to feel like I'm screaming in to a void when I could instead reach out to the remains of Tumblr's userbase post-porn. This is absolutely the best website for it at the moment. And this would also make it easier for people to reach me for whatever reason. I kind of thought of blogs as outdated, because everybody's lives have become so consolidated in to websites like Twittex and Instagram and even this one that leave little room for larger scale personal thoughts and travels. I remember the Myspace or Geocities or Blogspot days where everyone had their own cute little website, and the internet was much smaller so it was easier to find people posting things that fit your interests. Nowadays things are just too huge, so apart of me thinks blogging might be a little ridiculous. But I think there is still a use for these, because I would ultimately like to use this blog to organize my thoughts on things and document my progress on my projects, mainly so that I don't just end up bothering my friends on Discord about stuff, because I'd feel bad. Maybe one of the goals of this blog is to find out if there is a reason to blog in 2024.

I suppose I should introduce myself. I've posted a few pieces of art on this blog before, so as you could guess I'm somewhat of an artist. The medium I primarily work with are comics, because not only are they a very accessible medium to work in but I also just have a deep appreciation for the medium. I'm working on many comics at any given time, but at the moment I'm focusing down on two. A comic made for the Webtoon platform and one that I would like to be published as a book. I'm more enthused about the book than the webtoon. Maybe I'll make a post about that later. Otherwise I'm big into cinema, animated cartoons and especially video games, and one of the two things I pretty much only think about is storytelling. Whenever I am not thinking about that and the other thing, everything in my life kind of feels like a dream. So I suppose this blog will primarily be focused on storytelling, but that's just a means about talking about my opinions on art in general. Otherwise, I think people would tend to describe me as very passionate in my beliefs, which is to say when I like something I really like it, and when I hate something I suddenly transform in to one of the world's leading professional haters. And I guess I'll make you know it. I'm bad about making impulse and useless purchases and I really like chocolate. Don't ask me how many video games I have on Steam or how many tubs of chocolate ice cream I've had stacked sitting in my room at some points.

Anyway, to kick things off I'd like to talk about the last thing I did, which is beat the game Alan Wake II from Remedy games. They've done a few things like the Max Payne games and the critically acclaimed Control, but the Alan Wake series in particular holds a special place in my heart. It was one of the first "triple a" games I ever played, because at that point I had mostly played Nintendo games on GBA, DS and Wii (I played Gamecube games too, don't worry) and adventure type games on my computer. Games outside of PC classics and Nintendo games were a new frontier for me. Earlier in 2010 I got an Xbox 360 in order to play Modern Warfare 2 with the other kids at school, in which afterwards I found out that they all had PS3's instead. But at least I could play Sonic and Sega All Stars Racing with Banjo Kazooie, whom I didn't even like or even ever had played his games but his design is fun so whatever. By the way, no spoilers for Alan Wake or it's sequel here aside from me saying how I felt about the ending.

The original Alan Wake game came out in mid May of 2010. I was about 11 at the time, but I was about to turn 12 as my birthday was at the end of the month. Around when the game came out I ended up catching a lot of press footage and playthroughs showing off the game, and I was just enchanted by it. It was a game that was really nothing like I'd ever seen before. It was dark, gritty, moody, realistic, and revolved around shooting but unlike other 360 games it had this incredibly unique and eerie vibe that pulled me in, and while I didn't really understand the story very much, I thought Alan was a really funny protagonist because he just kind of came across as a dick. Kid me's mind kind of rationalized it as Sonic but he's basically just in the real world. I also thought the main mechanic of the game was also really cool. I guess it sounds too convenient to be true, but I've always loved flashlights. It's a device that's just a beam you can turn on to dispel darkness. I feel like a detective. It's fun to wave them around and point at things, I always kind of thought of them like a really cool sword. I especially love the big ones because it feels like I'm holding a cannon in my hands.

But anyway, everything about the game was just really interesting to me, and in a way it also kind of made me feel a little more adult because of the graphics and tone. So with my birthday at the end of the month, you can imagine what I asked for. In the days leading up to my birthday, I was kind of obsessed with the game and I spoiled much of it for myself. But eventually my birthday came and I finally had the game in my hands! I've still got that copy next to me as I type this. It's in far better condition than my other 360 boxes too, cause my Sonic Unleashed box is in real bad condition. Maybe it's an object of power. Anyway, I played through the game, loved it, loved the twists, scares and turns, surprisingly hilarious characters and utterly beautiful music, and how unique of a protagonist Alan was. But then, I beat the game. I won't spoil the ending, but it's the kind of ending where I'm still not sure how it's designed to make you feel. It's basically a cliffhanger, (and while there eventually was DLC that continued the story I never got around to playing it and none of it really took the story anywhere) and it left a longing in me. I wanted more. I wanted to see what happened to Alan and the people in his life. But the game didn't provide any real closure. Afterwards I scoured the internet for answers, reading other people's theories and consuming all the lore in the game that I missed, obsessively trying to get a a straight answer, any kind of meaning. I desperately wanted someone to tell me anything so I could know how to feel. Nothing else before really left me like this! You know how a lot of people, especially in the past decade enjoy watching videos that explain the lore of their favourite games, like Dark Souls or Five Night's at Freddy's? That was me with this game. But it wasn't just for the sake of consuming content, I needed closure. But I couldn't find it. I guess like Alan I was left wandering in the darkness fruitlessly searching for a way out of this headspace this stupid game got me in. Sonic had fucking closure. I was happy I had the experience, but other games had closure!

By the way this is kind of irrelevant, but in case you're wondering why my parents would let me play games like this at a young age like that, I think my dad stopped caring after I had a little argument with him in 2008 when Super Smash Bros. Brawl came out and it had a T rating but then he saw the game was fine. Or maybe he just thought I could take it, or maybe he just didn't care. He let me play No More Heroes, which, for the uninitiated, is not a child's game.

Anyway, I eventually got bored of searching for answers and my interest in the game eventually faded into the background. As I grew older I didn't forget about the game. I still listened to the music from time to time, but it definitely became a second thought, and sometimes I felt it might have been because of the ending. Sometimes though, periodically, I would revisit the game. Watch the cutscenes, look at the ending again, try to formulate a theory. It was still a game I liked, but I couldn't kick the feeling of a giant blueballing. But as you grow up, you change, and experiences you just had become a nostalgic memory. I don't think you change as much as people say you do, I think it's more like you realize things about yourself as you're able to better articulate your feelings into words. As I grew up, and now I think I almost fully realize, is that I kind of love not knowing some things. Maybe not in like a, hell yeah I love not having answers kind of thing, but I find it's utterly intoxicating. Witnessing the rise of Dark Souls and Five Nights at Freddy's in the 2010s and also being able to think about storytelling on a deeper level, I realized something that seems kind of insane to me. Alan Wake is a video game with a definitive beginning and a definitive end. At some point, the game runs out of content to show you and you will have inevitably seen and done everything. But what if I told you there was a way to keep the game going even after it's exhausted it's digital limits?

You probably know where this is going, but I realized that it wasn't the fact that Alan Wake had an ending with a ton of closure that kept it going in my mind, it was the that it left a ton of things unanswered! There are so many pieces of media I've played, or watched where it just ends, and while I enjoy them I never really paid a second thought to them afterwards. They just fade. But Alan was a light that continued to burn bright in my mind. This feeling of longing that I had after beating it, in a way that's better than just a happy ending. Other works of fiction have used this to their advantage. I don't think it's any coincidence any time David Lynch gets his hands on Twin Peaks, which Alan Wake is teetering very close on being a ripoff of sometimes, it ends on things that leave you with a billion more questions than you came in with. Sam Lake and Lynch understand the power of planting a seed in your head. Because that not only lets the work of art live far past it's expiration, but that's where the imagination also flourishes. There are so many other people who come up with theories trying to interpret these works of art, and because of this I don't think they'll ever truly die. Now, I don't think every piece of art should do this, because I will admit, most of the time it is nice to just have a neat bow placed on something. But like every device in a story, it is merely a tool that is waiting for the right time to be used. Even in stories with closure we can use this to keep things going, the possibilities are never ending. It's so exciting to think about.

But like I said, as time passes other things take precedent. Other works of art and stuff, so these things, even Alan Wake will eventually fade in to the background. The game if I recall sold well and became a cult classic through word of mouth. Even some of my normie friends know about the game. But I never really thought it would continue. Mainly because of the open ended nature of the ending and the fact it isn't an uber popular game that exists in a gaming environment where the maximum amount of money needs to be pumped in to every game in order to make the maximum amount of money back, which is why to my absolute jaw dropping, during the Game Awards 2021, a fucking Alan Wake II was announced. When the trailer first came on, I had my suspicions it might be Alan Wake II, because even in my faded memory I could still recall the layout of the main town in the game. And then he showed up, it was fucking Alan Wake. Rocking a beard and looking very conspicuously a lot more like John Wick, but still, it was him. The title dropped and I couldn't believe it. It was actually happening. Now, this was already kind of insane year for me in games. Because it just so happened not one, but THREE other games I liked a ton as a kid got sequels I thought were utterly impossible earlier that year. In the same week no less, Psychonauts 2 and No More Heroes 3 came out! And then a couple of months later, a Metroid 5! Hell, Mega Man 11 also came out in 2018. What the hell was going on? Why are all these old ass games that I thought were just made for me getting sequels? Now, of all times? I guess nostalgia plays a big part in getting these made, but it's still kinda weird. Hell, even Shadow the Hedgehog is getting his own fucking game this year. If a Portal 3 happened, I think that might just be a sign of the end times. But, regardless, because of this, I also have to wonder if, just like starting a blog in 2024, if it's just kind of too late to make sequels to these kinds of games.

Admittedly, I don't think about this topic a ton, because at heart I'm a consumer of media and much of the time I like to see things I like get continued, but the adventures of Alan Wake is a weird one. This is a game that opened me up to the idea of never getting closure, but here we are with a sequel. It could either do two things, give us closure and kill the vibe or continue not giving us answers and leave us feeling the exact same way the original game did.

Because I'll finally cut to the chase, I think Alan Wake 2 is pretty much a perfect video game. The new survival horror gameplay that is apparently just ripping off Resident Evil 2 now was great, the puzzles were great, the scares were legitimately good, the music was still amazing, the game was funnier and had even more quirky characters and moments than the first one, and the story was very well thought out! I would recommend it instantly. Despite all the differences from the original game in gameplay, tone and even featuring a new protagonist, it still felt like a perfect followup. But I beat the game, got to the ending...and to what I suppose is not justified shock, I felt exactly the same completing Alan Wake 2 as I did completing Alan Wake 1 all those years ago. I feel a longing. Maybe not as painful, but it's still there. But for the record, I think this is a really cool thing, I think that just proves Sam Lake and the team at Remedy haven't lost it, that they can make a game that feels just like the original. But....is that even a good thing? It makes me feel good, on some kind of dopamine level to think that they haven't lost it, but do we actually want those exact same vibes? Is it healthy? Playing the game, I was ready for something different, something new, but instead I kind of just got exactly what I paid for...I got more Alan Wake. Like, you feel me, right? It's intoxicating to have a perfect recreation of those same feelings, but I'm also really conflicted here. From a consumer point of view, it's great that we just got more of what we like. And in a lot of cases, this is what a "good" sequel is considered to be. But here's my thing about that; I've never felt like that is sustainable. Assume a franchise keeps going forever with the same vibes, eventually it's just going to get stuck in it's own tropes and formulas and themes. You need to introduce new elements to the story to keep things exciting, I think that's just how it is. Some people might tell you that it's possible to do something new with a franchise while sticking to all the same things, but I think that's total bullshit.

Eventually, you will hit a wall where there isn't a new topic to be explored without introducing some kind of tonal shift or alien plot element. I think that's just how stories fundamentally work. Everything is a runner that eventually runs out of track to run when it reaches the end. Why do you think so many sequels to things end up so repetitious? I think many creatives at heart are aware of this, and in today's environment of nostalgia and IP centric mania we have people attempting to do new things with certain franchises, but sometimes that just ends up pissing old head consumers of those things off! But we're not allowed to make anything new so what else are we to do?? Everything these days like fucking Star Wars or Batman needs to be beholden to it's own internal logic and rules and established characters and themes to work, but if you don't do anything new it's just not interesting! But if you be different you'll just make people mad! It pleases nobody! Hell, an example is Psychonauts 2. I've seen several people complain about Psychonauts 2 (one of my all time favourite games for the record) because of the tonal shifts from the first game (granted, a few other things too, like not focusing on the previous game's characters more, but that's also another thing that contributes to my argument). It's an incredible game that I believe is a true work of art, but would it have just been better if it were a new IP rather than a sequel? Maybe so. I think it manages to build upon the established lore, themes and rules of the first game magnificently while still retaining the same twisted sense of humor, but for some people, they just wanted a goofy cartoon game with interesting looking levels and instead got a careful examination of several individual's deeply held personal trauma. It's just a like, a different thing!

We don't need new IPs...no, new worlds, NOT because of new characters, or even new storylines. We need them because we need new rules for stories to function under. We need them in order to elicit new, different feelings in us.

I'm conflicted. I think having the same vibes as the original thing is truly intoxicating, but I worry that it's not healthy. I worry that this definition of a "good" sequel just creates a negative trend where we just can't allow anything new to be done with established franchises. If we will just hit a point where any change is instantly disagreeable on the basis of not fitting some perceived version of the original product. Like, it gets even more insane when everyone just has their own version of something in their head, it all depends on taste. I could probably go on about what I think makes a sensible evolution of something, or if we should even respect the notion of evolution in favor of a new creation, but this post is already excessively long so I think the easiest way to put it is that I think we just need a healthy balance of the old and the new In both established series and new series, and in what the big slop corporations feed us. I look forward to the day this trend of sequels pass and companies seek out new stuff again. Despite my complicated feelings on Alan Wake 2, I think it is almost an exception to this, because I feel it is a true work of art that came from a place of passion and hard work. It thoughtfully takes elements from the original game and expands upon them in ways that are fresh and interesting while also introducing crazy new elements that make it feel fresh! But I guess this sentiment could also vary from person to person depending on what the work of art is.

The point is, Play Alan Wake and Alan Wake 2!

and uhh, Alan Wake's American Nightmare. You can play it, I think it's cool too. Anyway, as a reward for getting to the end of this post, here's an old sketch of the main character from the comic book I'm working on meeting Alan Wake. Your reward is more reading.

[xbittersweetnightshadex]

Now Entering a New Era

❝There exists an abandoned post from the beginning of this year – one that lamented on a great deal of things I have experienced in this life, that mourned the way the world once was and acknowledged the robotic wasteland we reluctantly occupy today. It was authentic and raw, but my resilience would hardly let me work on the piece for more than a few moments at a time without returning to the projects I’d promised myself I’d complete before the year is through. And while the aforementioned topics are still worth talking about, I would like to save them for another time and another post and, instead, take a moment to celebrate some of the successes that have come from that resilience. But first, a little history.

Where to begin… I started running my own show quite a long time ago, driven by a passion for creation I’ve had my entire life. During college, while wrestling with a lot of health issues and processing a lot of trauma, I started offering freelance art and design services online. It went as well as it can in a saturated market. To supplement, I found a passion in fragrance – candles, soaps, incense, oils – which overlapped just the right amount with my pre-existing passion for the metaphysical. That went even more well than freelance had, and before I knew it, I was making a little extra from my two favorite hobbies that I could put on top of my income from the job I was working at the time. I had thought about it then, going all-in on it, making it official. But then there was more trauma that seemed to hit back-to-back. A broken heart. Death. Abuse. Abandonment. A stalker. A pandemic. More death. And that’s just scratching the surface, but on top of it all, our entire social sphere shifted. Beauty was scrubbed from existence in favor of profit and function. Algorithms changed in favor of corporations. All that great stuff.

My progress came to a complete halt. My social media and websites stopped receiving traffic. No traffic meant no gigs, no sales. Many of the people I knew had become completely unrecognizable. I fell off the radar. I alienated myself. I found a new job, one I hated that I had hoped would bring me the acceptance from my loved ones that it ultimately did not. Still, I did it – the life thing everyone expects you to do. I worked hard, like I always had, despite what some people in my life may have you think. I have always worked hard at everything in my life, because my life had always been hard. It still often is. I aged prematurely only to find out that adults are a made-up concept that give children a sense of comfort that someone has it figured out when no one really does. I’ve made my mistakes, too, but it’s learning from them that makes you more “adult”, I guess. Not everyone does that.

Then in this robotic cycle of working, cooking, cleaning, existing, as I felt the last of my authenticity slipping away like sand praying for better friction during high tide, I stopped and asked why it had to be the way it is. What happened? Where had everything good gone? More importantly, can we get it back? Truthfully, I still don’t fully know the answer to all of those questions, but I know it starts like everything else does: Slowly, at first (then later, if you’re lucky, all at once). I also know it won’t change at all if we do nothing and keep pretending that this is normal, fulfilling, and how things have always been. A topic for another time.

Anyway, I kept working – because that’s what you do, I’m told – but I also started working on a couple of other things. I started trying to pick myself back up again, trying to be social again, trying to reignite the spark inside me that had gone out. It’s been a lot more work than the proverbial “work” we’re encouraged to do, but this year, after a lot of introspection, something seems to have switched back on within me. I’ve stopped caring as much about what other people think, because I can see what other people’s thoughts have done for the world we live in right now. I’ve started moving things around, taking a lot of risks I otherwise wouldn’t have, and as of now, I am officially the owner of my own business.

And actually, one of things I wanted to ask today was for the help of friends, family, and strangers who would like to help me offset some the start-up costs. Licenses and legal fees, initial inventory and manufacturing needs, marketing and advertisement, packaging and samples, and much more that I’m sure I am not thinking about at the moment. My goal is at least $5,000 to put into my business account to cover anything that isn’t made up in sales and subscriptions by the end of this year. If you’d like to contribute in any amount, you can do so here.

It’s extremely appreciated, but not required, and not really the point of this update. The point is to celebrate where I am today. I’m not where I want to be quite yet, but I’m somewhere meaningful. Just yesterday, I finished a big project for my YouTube channels. I’m in the process of writing three books. I’m working on new artwork for my websites, for prints in my art shop, for an oracle deck I’d like to publish. This year, I learned the basics of Greek and front-end development and WordPress. I learned how to belly dance, how to do splits. I’ve made so many things – art, literature, beautiful but functional designs. I’m learning how to do handstands and accounting and painting with acrylic gouache. I’m still struggling with time management, but I’m getting there. I’m going out more. I’m doing my best to live life at a time when doing so is difficult for just about everyone. And it may not be as exciting as getting accepted into Harvard or as comfortable as a desk job, but it’s fulfilling and it’s fun and it matters because it clears the path for a different direction for the world than the direction it is going right now.

Life is hard. This current cultural climate is harder. I don’t plan to make it more difficult on myself. I plan to change the world for the better – alone, if I have to. I’ve always had unattainable utopian visions for this place. As of now, I’m acting on them. Come my next update post, I’ll have a lot more to share – a new and revised checklist, as well. Until then, lots of love and all that jazz.❞

🖤 This post is also available on my blog. 🖤

[lilyfreshwater]

hiii i noticed in one of your posts you mentioned that you were premed and i wanted to ask you for some advice!! im an incoming premed freshman (majoring in biochem but im debating on switching to neuro) and im kinda nervous lol. do you have any tips on how to stay on top of things and balance classes with clinical work and research? thank u <3

omg omg omg IVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS OPPORTUNITY ok so i have a ton of advice but i'll try to be brief

1) im putting this paragraph first because this is the most important advice i can give you. like seriously if you listen to nothing else listen to this:

you can't know everything

this isn't high school where you just have to memorize where the 50 states are on a map. this is college where you have to know the entire krebs cycle after it's only been explained once and that's like only 10% of the info on the exam. so the best thing you can do for yourself is accept when you've hit a plateau and move onto something else. for example, say you've got a bio exam and a psych exam coming up. it takes you 20 hours of genuine study time to master 93% of the the material in bio. it would take another 20 for you to get to 95%. but with that other 20 hours, you could master 96% of the material for psych. your brain wants to say "well i'll just spend 60 hours studying then" but believe me i know from experience that you can't do that without serious harm to you mental and physical health. it's so so SO much better to study the 40 hours and accept a 93 on bio and a 96 in psych. and then you can use the extra 20 to get more sleep, hang out with friends, volunteer, work in a research lab, or he'll study for another subject. you will love college and being a premed so much more if you do that

2) im a neuro major so ur an anon after my own heart. idk what the major is like at ur school but at mine it's really flexible and has a lot of cool opportunities attached to it so i would definitely reccomend it. the cool thing is tho you're just starting out so, provided you don't have to swap to a different school (engineering, arts and sciences, etc.), then you can definitely take time to figure out what you want. i came into college wanting to do neuro and bio double, switched to a single major in a completely different area, and then added on a neuro major recently so the most important thing at this point is to keep your options open

3) time management depends a lot on the school you attend. i attend a fairly good university, so i spend a shit ton of time studying and don't have as much time left over for volunteering/research. luckily med schools generally account for that stuff, so just keep that in mind if you're getting a little bit of imposter syndrome. anyway, the best advice i can give you right now is to just get involved. don't assume that because you're a freshman that people won't value your input or enthusiasm

4) organization is your best friend. i use an app/website called "my study life" to track my homework and classes and have found it to be super helpful, but there are tons of other homework apps out there. it's also worth having an up to date calendar for any non-curricular things you need to keep track of, like volunteering. i just use the reminders app and make sure it's synced across my devices. you can't manage your time if you don't know what assignments you have to do or what you have scheduled that day

5) keep your priorities straight. what matters most to you will change from month to month, so making sure you're confident in what you're prioritizing and why is huge. for example, say you have finals in 4 weeks. if you want to start studying 2 weeks prior to your exams, put in extra effort and time with your research/volunteering in the 2 weeks prior to that and make sure your supervisors/primary investigators know that you won't be able to dedicate as much time during finals. you should still keep up with your responsibilities, but you need to dedicate the majority of your energy to finals because unfortunately grades do matter here.

6) it's ok to take breaks, it's ok to take a lighter semester, it's ok to hang out with friends, and it's ok to fuck up. everyone has to figure this shit out and there will be lots of things that look like failures but are actually blessings in disguise. for example: i got a C+ in gen chen and a B in bio my freshman year. some people would have retaken the class but i kept going, and in the process i learned a lot about myself and my study habits. i also learned that the purpose of weed out classes isn't to sort out the students who don't do well in classes, it's to sort out the people who will stop after failure. so i took that C+, new study habits, and new perspectives with me through my other tough science classes during my next two years and turned my grades around. now what started as a "death sentence" for most pre meds is an awesome cinderella story of perseverance that i can reflect on during my application cycle (all of those skills will also help me in med school too!)

i hope this was helpful and if you want anymore advice my inbox/dms are always open!

[bugeyedfreaks]

Hey there!! I've lurked on your PPG blog for so long and always loved everything about it: the fantastic art you make and reblog, your jokes and observations, your critiques of the awful reboot, and especially the way you truly "get" the og show and just love its weird quirkiness that most people overlook! I was too shy to like your posts or send any asks for a long time, but I'm a long time fan of your blog and I'm so glad you're still around :)

Anyway all my rambling aside, I wanted to share some rare, possibly unofficial PPG merch I found a while ago!

They're actually charms/pins you put through the holes of Crocs shoes to display them as you walk around, if you can believe it haha! I don't own Crocs nor plan on getting them, but I was so surprised and delighted when I saw these at a random little stall in the middle of a walkway at a mall near me that I couldn't help buying them. :) They're about an inch tall and really high quality too. I'm not sure what they're made out of but it's rather rubber-like and pretty thick! I have no clue if these or any of the other, more-modern-pop-culture charms they were selling were actually official, but if so it's interesting (and a pleasant surprise!) they used the og art style for them when so much merch uses the reboot art style (or a mix of both, which is even worse somehow).

I quite like the poses they picked for these too! I definitely recognize Bubbles' and Buttercup's being movie-era/post-season-4-era promo art, but Blossom's is a mystery to me! The style looks more like season-1-to-4 I think (just look how different her head:body ratio is compared to her sisters' lol), and I don't recognize the pose at all (but I *love* it, so much action/movement in it!) both of which surprised me! If you happen to know where it's from I'd love to know!

!!!!! Awwwwwwww, you're way too sweet! 💖 I am so glad that you decided to unlurk and send me a message. I appreciate you and your many kind words!

And ooooooooh, the famous Crocs Jibbitz. It’s entirely possible that they could be official since, as you know from reading my rants about this sort of thing, whoever’s running the brand does allow manufacturers to go hog wild with using different eras of OG art. Buuuut if you bought them from one of the kinds of mall kiosks I'm imagining, and because Bubbles' one arm is miscolored, I would assume they're probably not legit... which is okay, I am 100% all for good quality bootlegs here. 😂 I swore that I had a better version, but this is the best I could find in my files:

...so it IS official art from somewhere, at least, and I swear I've seen it used on merch and stuff before. I reversed image searched for it and all I got was a link to this wiki page. There are pics with Bubbles and Buttercup that also have that shadow behind them, and yeah, they're definitely the S1-S4 designs (Bubbles is just ripped straight from that iconic pic of the three of them). Maybe these particular ones were images used on one of the CN websites at some point? No idea. It's definitely gotta be stock art from that era though.

[northwest-cryptid]

i totally get the reasoning on your post and it seems really true, but then why do you think it generated the penises? or do you think they are not penises and we are simply seeing objects in the AI goop

I just wanna really quickly point out that this is EXACTLY the sort of questions I'm looking to answer and educate people on, so genuinely; thank you so much for asking.

I'm going to open with saying that while I don't know for certain, given that there's a ton of factors we can't possibly know without actually getting in touch with the person who generated the image; I will do my best to answer this with as much detail as possible.

So my best guess is that, simply put we're just seeing things. It's likely that, given the objects around the object in question; they simply told it to create objects.

A lot of objects that we see in Overwatch (such as the handles of hammers/swords and such) could easily be misshapen by AI to appear like a penis, especially when as pointed out by the commenter we sort of do associate Overwatch with porn/NSFW material.

My best reasoning for this is simply that it's unlikely the AI in question would generate a sort of one off occurrence without any other sort of "hint" or "evidence" of what kind of checkpoint it's running.

To put it simply, a lot of people have this idea that an AI itself "learns" things; that's not quite the case. In reality the AI is sort of a shell for a brain of sorts. That "brain" is called a Checkpoint, the checkpoint or sometimes called a "model" is essentially a point of reference for what words mean. That is the thing that learns, and when the AI needs to generate something it essentially references what the Checkpoint says something looks like.

What this means is that if we are to believe that the AI (Checkpoint) associates Overwatch with porn, it should have some kind of stylistic choice we can see in the art that would reflect that, outside of a one off penis in the corner of a bunch of stuff, which if I'm being honest; upon closer inspection doesn't even really look that much like a penis...

I mean, I understand where you're coming from if you think it looks that way but I think that's more on your own human brain if I'm being perfectly honest with you. Like yea I can see it too but I don't think that's what the AI was going for if I'm being real here.

Anyways I wanted to test my theory here, so I went to Civitai, a website for sharing checkpoints and the like; and found two checkpoints to compare the original against.

They are both highly rated at 4.8 rating though I will openly admit that the NSFW checkpoints has 34,000+ downloads while the seemingly SFW checkpoint only seems to have around 3,100+ so yes I understand that rating isn't exactly equal but never the less they're both highly rated checkpoints with thousands of downloads, of course the NSFW one is more popular; for our testing purposes that doesn't really matter.

Now I want to say this up front; as both of these checkpoints are actually merges (meaning they're made up of a bunch of smaller checkpoints merged together into a big one) it would be nearly impossible for me to source everything back and make sure everything is ethically sourced. I do not condone using unethically sourced checkpoints and only generated these images for the sake of example and education. Both checkpoints were deleted shortly after running these generations.

The first was Animerge, a seemingly safe for work checkpoint; and the second was Grapefruit, a NSFW checkpoint that also focused on anime.

I ran the original overwatch image that we are discussing through the controlnet canny system as a reference for both of these images and ONLY gave the AI the prompt "Overwatch" as to not create any sort of bias.

I gotta say as much as the results speak for themselves, I'll explain for those who don't really get it (that's fine no worries).

I feel like you can tell without me even telling you that the image on the left was generated by the SFW checkpoint, and the one on the right by the NSFW checkpoint. Not only do we see something more heavily resembling the original image on the left, but we see specifically that it left the man in the image intact. Where as with the image on the right, we can see this man got himself a bit of plastic surgery in the ass to basically become "thick Mercy" and we can additionally see the robot on the left became a wannabe D.Va with the lady on the right becoming something of a Tracer character from the looks of it, given a wider butt, and generally more pronounced shape. In fact the NSFW checkpoint almost entirely deleted the background, with only a few of the foreground debris being left behind but heavily altered.

So hey why is that? If all I prompted was Overwatch then that's all it had to go off of right? Well yes, exactly; the only thing either of these checkpoints has was Overwatch. Yet that which was trained on specifically NSFW images incorporated those features of anatomy into the image, likewise the SFW model seems to have latched onto Overwatch's general sci-fi vibe using the white, blue, yellow color scheme the game is sort of known for.

See this is what I mean when I say, I think we're projecting a bit onto the AI's thoughts here. First of all an AI can't actually "think" per se, so all that association stuff doesn't really make sense, it's going off tags not off what we as humans think of first when someone says overwatch. Most tags or color schemes or common traits around overwatch honestly probably aren't NSFW in nature. We just tend to latch onto the NSFW art/media around the game because it's what's well known to people.

So interestingly enough I really wanted to see if I could get the Grapefruit checkpoint to make something closer to the original, and after a few attempts this was the closest I got. You can clearly notice that the anatomy is STILL effected! The overly pronounced butts, and the fact it REALLY wants this guy to be Tracer giving him her hair and general color scheme.

We can also see that the oh so famous "penis" has become just another object in the pile of vaguely phallic shape. In fact, if we compare the butt of the original to the new butts the change in shape is REALLY obvious.

If we want to believe that the AI associated Overwatch with porn inherently, and that the checkpoint trained on pornographic material "on the internet, where the porn is" then we should see that reflected in how it handles the anatomy of these characters and we just don't.

Technically speaking there's a system called "inpaint" which allows you to specifically alter parts of an AI generated image using a different checkpoint, meaning it's possible theoretically for someone to paint over the characters with inpaint, and select a different; safe for work checkpoint that still has innocent virgin eyes untainted by "The Internet, You Know; Where The Porn Is™." However given how absolutely lazy the overall image is, I honestly can't bring myself to say that's what happened. Especially because at that point they could have simply painted over the penis and removed it. If they somehow didn't notice the penis shape, despite it's prominence; a penis still wouldn't have just been generated without the checkpoint specifically being aware of, and typically learning on porn; and there's no reason why it would appear there and have no semblance of NSFW material elsewhere if such a checkpoint was used.

the tl;dr of this is that while sure it's TECHNICALLY possible it's an AI generated penis; I HIGHLY doubt that's actually true. Simply put that's just not how AI works, and for that to be how the image came to be they'd have to have taken some weirdly specific precautions and care to un-NSFW the two characters and surrounding environment but specifically ignore/not see/leave the penis for some reason. I can't, in sound mind; convince myself that was the case.

So while I may not exactly know what it's meant to be 100%, or why it was created I cannot with any level of certainty say it is actually what people say it is. I think we're just all projecting what we find funny, or what we personally associate with Overwatch.

After all, have you considered the fact that given the prompt of "overwatch" it specifically is trying to generate the women in the cast? If we believe that it really associated overwatch with pornography; it doesn't make sense that a penis of all things would be the image it chooses to create to represent that. Not when even across multiple image generations it's consistently trying to make the man into either Mercy or Tracer, and if it's given no image prompting to go off of, it simply creates some kind of tracer lookalike, you know; like a tracer who accidentally fell in some acid and her face is melting off, but I digress. I just can't bring myself to believe that any of the claim is actually true given my knowledge of how AI works, that being said; I think it's incredibly funny that it made some kind of dumb phallic shape because the people who generated it were too lazy to even think about having an actual artist touch up the picture in the slightest and fix the GLARING problems with it.

When I said, "if the commenter is some form of authority on the matter I'd love for them to tell me which AI it was, or what website it's trained on." That was genuine, because you know; with that information you'd likely actually be able to get to the bottom of this.

At the end of the day, AI can't REALLY think for itself, it doesn't know how to learn anything a person doesn't directly teach it. So unless it was shown a penis, and taught what a penis was specifically; it wouldn't be able to generate a "penis" but it could generate something that resembles something that could be a penis if you squint at it and have the thought on your brain.

Genuinely hope that is a satisfactory answer to such a question.

[junniorstarbreak]

Blog Update Cause it 2024 !!

Hello everyone! Maybe you guys have forgotten that you were following me lol, since I have been inactive and sporadic here. Social media has changed so hard ever since the purge and the pandemic, but it 2024 so it is time I just reclaim myself and my dreams and goals...

And to give everyone a proper explanation of what that entails and what my plans would be moving forward, in fact this post is to help me come clean with my feelings and experiences so I can accept them and move on, that doesn't mean this will be my last post on this account, but more so that I want to create a cleaner slate for me to get stuff done~

For starters when I started this blog I did it because of an old fandom friend, we became close due to our love for Steven Universe, she became like a beacon, a mentor figure to how to interact online with people, as you can tell from that I'm pretty much part of the OG 2014 era of Tumblr, that boom where Superwholock and the Homestuck fandom where at their peak, witnessed Undertale's humble demo beginnings and how when it released in full it became a viral sensation, something that only tumblr had the power to do, which has been hard to replicate on a social media such as twitter and even harder everywhere else. (Which is why I think games like Omori didn't generate enough traction in comparison)

Tumblr got me through my darkest times after 2013 when I unfortunately got abused by my principal and I had lost all sense of direction, it became a place of comfort and happiness, better than facebook, and more flexible than twitter, I was living and having fun and discovering more about myself, exploring me as a person and my interests, it was my fave go to website during my university years while I grew artistically and got the chance to come out of my shell and meet new friends.

It was an inspiring place with so much to discover, seeing cool peeps, cool fan art, memes, people of so many walks of life and stories whether outlandish or truthful, you could easily interact with people and discover new fandoms and have so much fun, I got to meet nice people, cool artists, inspiring fellas, and precious friends I'll never forget.

I began my tumblr with the idea of joining fandoms and post art, but obviously I was a newbie in those regards, I developed this hyperfixation of keeping up with my dash (do people still call it that?) and always scroll down to the very last post of the day before, while I juggled my academic life and my working life (since I had to pay for my Uni) somehow I focused more on just laughing and reblogging anything I found cool, which meant my first Tumblr became a reblogging personal space, which meant my art posts would get swamped (even tho I had an art tag) so I pretty much gave up on the idea of having an art blog since I didn't have much time for art anyways, and I had to be more focused in my academic life than on being active here or making stuff to post.

In a way tho, that made me feel invisible and made me develop the usual worries such as wanting to go viral, having thousands of notes, being noticed, having a popular post, having thousands of followers, being noticed by cool people or artists, being ACTIVE, having fun with EVERYONE, being recognized in a fandom, being part of something, never feeling enough, making cool projects and getting opportunities... those insecurities led to anxieties, and those anxieties were demoralizing and paralyzing...

As the years went by though, my friend left the internet, wherever she is, I wish her well on her journey, I am thankful for the time together; meanwhile I was dealing with the pressure and stress of my final years of Uni, and also that dreaded feeling of worthlessness and anxiety of feeling far away from my original plans and goals, I felt low... compared to peers or people in the industries I wanna be a part of, which made me feel even worst and stuck, when I finally graduated I felt aimless and without structure, then I got a job at an unfortunalte TOXIC Publicity Agency...

Agencies are as draining and demanding as the worst places to work, enter at 8:00 am and go home till 10:00 pm... yep big NOPE... a draining job like that just made me feel worst about myself, about my art skills, about me as a person, while you had younger peeps becoming viral artists or activists, I felt I was sinking into constant panic and worry thinking this was my life now for years to come, without aspiring to be anything else... it worsen the clinical depression I was experiencing, It's a life I have no plans to return to, I know better now, but oh boy, that was 2019 so... you know what happens next 2020 and... the pandemic was not kind to me, mental breakdowns and borderline suicidal, I WAS A WRECK, and it took some time to heal from those scars of loss, tragedy, abuse, trauma... always overworking without realizing I was straying away from my dreams... always comparing myself to others who I've never met (sometimes I still do) and not trying to rise above the drowning sinkhole I was in...

So... I became so envious and jealous of others success, and became more recluse and shut down, I felt alienated, and alone, hopeless and done... the worst

To this day I still gotta work through my negative feelings, since I still feel excluded from the circles I wanna be a part of, from art communities, from fandoms, maybe because I don't like this thing everyone else is liking, specially people who I look up to enjoying and vibing with a thing together but me being invisible and in the background unable to achieve the same, but... I know that's on me and not on people who have never met me (parasocialism can damn you) so... that's why I am taking the time to write this long post, I kept postponing it over and over again, but it is time I finally take this step for my sake, and the sake of my dreams.

I was inspired to finally start a new chapter in my life and career by the support of new people I've met, a much more forgiving family, and by an AMAZING psychiatrist that has helped me improve my mental state so let me ramble a bit just to finish.

I recently finished Hirogaru Sky! Pretty Cure (By recently I mean February, but you know I was postponing this post for months now) and honestly even though I have been a massive magical girl nerd for years, I never got to finish a Pretty Cure season before, this is legit my first time doing so and I don't regret it, because it a season with the important message on how to be truthfully strong, and having the fortitude of moving on regardless of how painful it can be, and an episode that spoke to me was when Sora felt like she couldn't be an hero anymore, and returned to her homeland to just live a normal life, later on she found the drive to become an hero again, and her dad said a phrase that still rings true "Even if your dream shatters, or you lose it... it will come back to you"... ever since, I felt the need to finally take that step that scares me and gives me anxiety... an that is, to say goodbye to the past and start anew, make a new space for myself, a new tumblr, new accounts, new name... new me, make a clean place that is just for my art, the things I love, the things I enjoy, the things I wanna talk about, an active place surrounded by people who will love my stuff and who will support my projects.

Because even if I don't get into an industry that doesn't mean I have to stop creating, I don't wanna be invisible and just reblog all the time, I wanna MAKE, I wanna CREATE, I want to post art and share my love and experience with others in a better place that actually feels mine, where I can start from scratch and defeat those negative feelings, I don't need to be viral or make a hit game or anything like that, I just need to enjoy life and grow as a person while I work towards my dreams and ambitions, because, I don't want to be scared anymore, I want to just take that first step and no longer make excuses not to, I wanna be reborn and do better for myself...

As for these old tumblr? It gonna remain as a personal space for reblogs and what not, I don't think it needs to be deleted or deactivated but I am sure it will get ocassional use and not constant as I'll be focusing on my life plans~

Thank you so much for reading till the end, it is quite the lenghty post but, I had these feelings in my chest for years and finally have the bravery to free them into the world.

I also want to recommend BUCCHIGIRI?! underrated anime😤 it had to compete with Dungeon Meshi for attention, but boy is it worth a watch, specially if you anime like DBZ, it pumps you with adrenaline and the story is a heartfelt endeavor of growth and how to deal with your inner demons!

So what are my next steps? well... I am planning to watch Wonderful Precure and probs Kaiju No.8 plenty of shows I wanna watch and enjoy honestly~

Anyways, here is my new tumblr link!

Sure, it a work in progress, but I am ready to make it my new home and become a better me now :3

[spikeinthepunch]

i forget i had a phase where i had considered getting into ARPGs on deviantart ("art RPG" for those unaware, basically a system of drawing characters with light RP elements, usually earning you a in-universe/game currency to do more/get more of a character/breed/etc)

i was in the depths of wcrp, and i wasnt super into the idea of juggling rping *and* drawing-- that was one thing that made me step back from one i was in. some of these groups were not really... rp groups, they were art groups first. the narrative focused rps i did with wcrp were about writing and forming a large world and story- with no currency or anything to progress. nothing but participating in rp was recquired. most of the arpgs do have lore and all that but the ones i saw were more about making art to get more ocs and other kinds of upgrades etc. because art could earn stuff, and so could rp posts. rp posts earning something kind of made it feel more like homework to me in the end.

regardless while i stepped away from looking at arpgs like that, there was another section of arpgs which was far more about original species or the even less rp focused ones-- things like horse breeding, dog breeding etc with focus on genes, show potential etc. some of these groups still encourage storytelling or others do it on their own, but they arent often "rp" groups in the same way as wcrp or even the other arpg groups not focused on breeding. people also would collect these animals into their own kennels or stables, giving them proper show names etc and becing known for their animals by that name. some even being more sought out with their history.

the thing is, i had a weird introduction to these breeding focused groups. i was aware of it with some fantasy original species, but when i was....looking for mods for dogs in sims 3 i opened up a door i never expected to dive into lol. i was looking for mods for better customization of dog sims. well, i found a shit ton from players of sims 3 who had made their own kennel websites showing off their show dogs, what dogs were available for breeding/their pups, their family history, etc etc..... in turn these sites ofte had resources for the markings/cc/etc used to make these dogs look good, along with more sliders for changing their shape. (sadly this kind of scene did not seem to exist for cats. they also definitely existed for horses too, if not more.)

uh anyways how did this lead me to arpgs??? well it happened when some of the links i followed started heading to deviantart again, and i found that some people in the dog show arpgs would unitize sims 3 renders of their dogs. drawing over them, etc! the dogs and horse people did this and i thought, you know maybe itd be cool to get into it i used sims 3 for that stuff.

anyways. i never got into it, at the time i was far too busy. but every so often i see art from the people i followed for it, and i just love seeing it. i love seeing how deep these people have gone into their original breed's information and all that. i did lightly make my own dog breed in sims 3 as a test but, never got far into it....

oh uh, other fun fact about sims 3 renders? in 2019 before all of this, i was in the sso community on instagram and was gonna try rping on their, and quite a lot of people actually used sim 3 for their horse photos instead of sso, in order to have more accurate interpretations of their horses.

i guess this is my post or random niche community facts.

[havethetouch]

FYI older art uploads in ze future

Idk how much far I go back with my uploads but like I prolly go for a bit maybe even early 2000s so lots of art uploads from way back lie ahead xd I still love most of them dearly and I think it's important to keep old art around in galleries or somewhere people can still get to it because those are where I come from, those are where my style developed from bit by bit those are where many of my OCs came from too and idk I wanna share that with people. I want you to see from where I started roughly (roughly because the really old stuff is harder for me to find I started uploading stuff to the internet when i was like.. uh 14/15, I would need to find, re-scann and also erase my deadname from a lot of stuff, bc back then I did not have a nifty signature that nobody can possible read) when I began uploading my stuff to the internet and how things just slowly but surley geared mostly towards ladies and hair and wings and details and my love for thicc lineart. Funny side note on the line art though? My very first OC artworks were made with a fountain pen from school with black ink in it and a broad tip, so my lines were naturally broad due to the nature of my pen. (which I also used for writing, in school, bc I was still in school back then and it feels like forever ago while I am writing this fuck XD) Sometime soon though I found thin liners that did not smudge with copics like my ink did so I entered the dubious zone of touch does thin lines forever, then goes back to his roots and makes it thicc. Anyway... what I'm trying to say is, I think it's nice to see an artists journey, and I love it to pieces when I can catch glimpses of peoples old art and see were they came from/started out from. So yeah imma slowly go through my stuff and bring old stuff back online. I used to have a gallery (on DA) that went all the way back almost to the beginnings but I changed accounts in 2011/12 to my new artist handle (back then in ye olden days name changes were not yet a thing on DA) and while the younger account still exists I have everything thrown into storage because fuck DA. I keep my "archive" there until they get funny ideas like deleting accounts of inactive users or whatever. But it's no longer public and like I said only goes back to 2011/12 anyway so yah. Like i said i do not know how much of the really old stuff is gonna come back online but I'd like to bring some of it back. Guess Imma go tag my art posts with the years they were made in too for filtering purposes xd But just fyi I also have a FurAffinity account were I am basically also try to do something similar and have a whole folder structure dedicated to years of creation for the very same purpose. Just in case that's more convenient for some of you but I am in no way caught up with uploads there either. Nb4 it comes up: I am currently too lazy for a personal website were I could go chronological madness. Mainly bc I know myself I would fucking take forever to just design a layout and get super anal about everything else and loose patience long before uploading anything so I am doing the responsible thing and not do that. At least not anytime soon. I have my projects planned out for 2023 already with some pockets for arttrades 'n stuff I am booked out XD

[crossfoxbuns]

404, AI, and the Fall of Google

404 Media is a damn good website. This independent news outlet is fun by 4 very talented people and they cover tech news in a bold way, that larger organizations can't or won't do, and in a sustainable way in a world where newspapers are failing left, right, and center.

They recently made a move that seems weird and counter-intuitive: requiring your email address to read their articles going forward. They explain their reasoning in a recent post:

"We are unwilling to sit idly by and let AI endlessly scrape and repackage our work, or clueless media executives drive companies we have worked for into the ground, and are trying to strike a balance where we can monetize our work in a way that is not annoying and allows us to make enough revenue to continue to do the work we do. ...... We are unwilling to gamble our livelihoods or our company’s future on the idea that we can build a successful business model by focusing exclusively on collecting a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a penny every time someone clicks one of our articles."

DALL-E and other image-generating AI doesn't concern me. It's more in the faces of the general public, so it's going to get regulated and controlled, it's only a matter of time. Art has a certain feeling and humanity to it that AI can't understand or replicate anyway. And if you really need that extra specific stock photo for your project, there's responsible and ethical ways to use AI for that, thanks to the efforts of Getty Images and others.

The AI I'm concerned about most is plain old GPT and other text generators. They are so good at producing stuff that is just barely skimming on the pond of shit that it works for SEO reasons. Truth is optional. It's safe to assume now that in most web searches, there's more AI-generated garbage and accidental misinformation than actual true and useful information. AI articles scraping content from real news outlets as well as each other creates a massive game of telephone, where you never know what part of the chain you're reading.

Thanks to this, Google, Bing, Duck, Ecosia, it doesn't matter - search engines have become garbage.

Social media is a whole other cesspool of a different flavor, I covered that in other posts in the past.

As a creator

So as someone who would like to grow an audience online, things look real bleak. Granted, I don't know what I'd want to grow an audience for - just that a platform would be good to have. Most likely it'll be art/commission related or writing/story-telling related. Something creative. Whatever it is, it's something I specifically don't want AI getting its grubby little tendrils on.

I haven't got much of an audience, I can count the people who read this stuff on one hand (thank you, by the way! <3). But if I want that to grow, I need to think discoverability. And as I think these thoughts, things seem pretty familiar.

Back in the 90s, search engines existed, but they just weren't good yet. Social media didn't exist at all. It was all email, forums, blogrolls (ask your parents), and word of mouth. The internet wasn't so much the place where "everything happens" and more like the place where "you found your people." There was a little adventurous feeling whenever you discovered a new website, like an island in the ocean. Mostly it had nothing on it, or it was definitely "not my type" of island, but sometimes you struck gold and found a big island with a whole neighborhood of awesome people there, and those moments were what made (still make) the internet great.

Now, it's less like an ocean. It's more like a dense, heavily paved city, where every building is full of robots and the billboards are all fake news stories, and the very foundation the city is built on are SEO practices that Google themselves have no reason to make better. Instead of discovering islands, you find these little hole-in-the-wall delis and clubs and shops. They may be small, crowded on all sides by the robots, and the rent sucks, but they're genuine. They are real people running real businesses, and they're so hard to find nowadays.

As someone looking to carve out a space for themselves in a world like this, it's easy to feel like hiring the robots is the way to go. Cramming your site full of SEO crud and slapping your logo on every bit of merch imaginable. Making something, or having robots make something, hoping for a hundredth of a hundredth of a hundredth will give you a penny each.

No, 404 is making the right move here. The AI SEO spaghetti has filled the entire world. The ocean used to mean no-one is there, now it's just fake people. Discoverability has not changed. If anything, the strategies from the 90s seem to have only gotten better.

Abandon the search engine. They are useless for helping people find you. This lets your site load faster, be more direct. Your website is your home, invite people in and show them a good time. They will remember you and tell their friends. Keep a list of links: "These websites are good too!" Keep an email list. They're free to start - once you have enough of an audience where it costs something, you should be able to cover those costs.

As we rebuild an internet that works for US, we're carving out a network of tunnels beneath SEO City. We are the underground, the speakeasy, the secret club. Never mind all that meaningless noise up there on the surface.

Thanks for making it through this little soapbox rant of mine. As I post more of my creative stuff, expect to see some of it in the wild, but most of it behind a wall of some sort. Email, telegram channel, I dunno. Wherever it ends up, I'll see you real people there.

You brave little anarchists, you. <3

[audreydoeskaren]

Thank you for posting a review on the book Evolution & Revolution Chinese Dress 1700s - 1990s. It’s so disappointing how the book potentially could’ve been good. What are your favorite books on Chinese fashion history?

Hi, great that you found the review useful! To be completely honest, I haven't really read any books on Chinese fashion before I started this blog, because I mostly used online resources like museums' websites, archaeology reports and other blogs. I actually started this blog in the hopes that people might recommend me some books😅 And I only ever read about the Ming, Qing and republican era so my knowledge is very limited.

Anyway, here are some books people recommended to me that I found great, some that I'm currently reading and some I know to be objectively good:

Ming Dynasty

Q版大明衣冠图志 (2011) 董进著

A classic made by the popular fashion history blogger 撷芳主人 (real name Dong Jin), this book is the ultimate compilation of Ming Dynasty looks illustrated by the most adorable drawings. It has basically everything you need to know about Ming Dynasty garments from informal civilian fashion and theater costumes to the most formal court dress and military uniforms. My only quibble with this book is that it doesn’t specify the decade/year each look is from, giving the false impression that everything could be worn throughout the Ming Dynasty (I heard that he did specify some eras in the new version? I don’t have it so I’m not sure). You can follow the author on Weibo where he regularly posts stuff about the Ming Dynasty, or check out other books and articles written by him. Even if you don’t have the book, you could probably find images of individual entries on the internet. Unfortunately all of it is in Chinese and no English version is available :(

华夏衣冠 中国古代服饰文化 (2016) 孙机著

More of a collection of essays Sun Ji wrote on historical Chinese clothing from a variety of eras, I got it for the chapters on Ming Dynasty xiapei 霞帔 and headwear. Professional, academic language that is still easy to read, plenty of references and neatly traced line drawings of artifacts. Useful diagrams on the structure of 狄髻 diji. However if I remember correctly, Sun had some beef with Dong Jin on the terminology of parts of diji, not sure if that was ever resolved; here’s an article about that. Also only in Chinese (that I know of).

Qing Dynasty

Chinese Reverse Glass Painting 1720-1820 (2020) by Thierry Audric

This is the book form transcript of a dissertation given by the author in 2016. It's more Chinese painting than Chinese fashion but has a lot of wonderful images of 18th century export paintings (with dates even), which depicted fashion realistically. I love 18th century export art in general, they're really beautiful and unusual so I would recommend everybody to check them out. I love this because Chinese oil painting outside of a court context (and all other forms of art that were not literati painting e.g. woodblock print, lithograph, pen and ink illustration) gets very little attention from Chinese art historians. This book could be downloaded for free in pdf form the publisher Peter Lang.

A Fashionable Century: Textile Artistry and Commerce in the Late Qing (2020) by Rachel Silberstein

This book focuses on the 19th century and has some interesting insights on the impact of commercial workshops on Qing fashion, which is a welcome break from the “dragon robes” and women’s domestic work stereotyped in most literature on the Qing. It has rich descriptions of the decoration patterns and fabrics used in the 19th century, accompanied by paintings and photographs. It did kind of fall into the trap of “the late Ming continued into the early Qing” and just dismissed the 18th century altogether, which is a shame. Silberstein’s dating of several prints also appears somewhat incorrect, but it’s still a very useful analysis of the 19th century nonetheless. I read this for free on JSTOR through my university login.

Cinderella’s Sisters: A Revisionist History of Footbinding (2005) by Dorothy Ko

This book is absolutely epic and an undeniable classic on the subject. Ko masterfully avoids all the surface level problematic takes on footbinding and offers an extremely nuanced, extremely well researched overview on the history of footbinding in the Ming, Qing and republican eras, the reasons for its popularity and demise, with a most interesting analysis of the problems with the way people in the republican era went about the abolition of it. The book is more heavy on the social analysis side but also contains a lot of factual description of the process of footbinding, styles popular in different eras etc. I just love how she approaches the topic in the most factual and non-emotionally charged way possible, which is refreshing considering the sheer volume of literature on footbinding that is just brainless condemnation without any nuance, a lot of which also unconsciously perpetuate misogynistic ideas rather than combat them. I don’t know of a way to read this for free, I bought it from Amazon.

Every Step a Lotus (2001) by Dorothy Ko

I haven’t read this yet but apparently it works well as a supplement to Cinderella’s Sisters. Also on footbinding.

China Trade Painting 1750s to 1880s (2014) by Jack S C Lee / 中国外销画 1750s - 1880s 李世庄著

Another book on export art, focusing more on the established painters. Lee digs a bit more into the painters’ experiences and biographies, with big portions on George Chinnery and Lam Qua, but also includes plenty of portraits and scenery paintings depicting men’s clothing and the architecture of the studios at the Guangzhou factories (十三行). It’s great because the paintings included were super realistic and well made with accurate proportions and anatomy----the quality on a par with those produced by the European academies----so they contemplate conventional Chinese portraits made in the same era in showing how the clothing fits on the body. Again I bought this book second hand from Amazon.

----

I don’t know of any reliable books for republican era fashion because for some reasons most discourse on it is centered around the glorification and mystification of the cheongsam... Fortunately, due to the abundance of extant originals and photographs, books are largely not necessary for the research of republican era fashion :3

There are some other books and articles that were recommended to me but I haven’t yet read: x, x

@fouryearsofshades also made a post recently recommending books and it covers other time periods as well.

If anyone knows any other books on the Ming, Qing or republican era please tell me regardless of good or bad. I need to read more😅

[ganbreedings]

HOW TO IDENTIFY AN IMAGE FROM MIDJOURNEY, DALLE-2, OR STABLEDIFFUSION & WHY YOU SHOULDN’T CLAIM IT AS YOUR OWN

people are pieces of shit and pretend that their “art” is actually theirs and not from AI. i like AI and find it fascinating and as someone with any inkling of a following, i want to let people know of this.

i am not affiliated with any of the AIs i talk/post about and i am not being sponsored by any of these to put down one and prop up another. i am trying to spread information on how this works and why it’s not okay to claim AI “art” as one’s own.

all images used in this post were either generated by me or were publicly available.

---

WHY SHOULD PEOPLE NOT USE AI TO CREATE THEIR “ART”?

the way AI pictures such as the ones from these websites and apps is by taking images from around the web to combine into one image based on prompts. this is accomplished by finding images attached to descriptions and putting them in a GAN; i have more information on that here. 

so essentially, by generating new images, you are ultimately taking someone else’s work and smashing it all together to create something new, most likely without permission.

this is also how artbreeder works, which was more evident in its old name of “ganbreeder” (which contains “GAN”).

since this is technically at the end of the day someone else’s work, this is also why they shouldn’t be sold as NFTs (not to mention the complete lack of effort put into them; you just come up with a prompt and type it in and the ai does the work. at least with stuff like bored apes someone had to draw all of the initial variables individually so an AI could mash them all into a single image with no rhyme or reason).

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HOW TO IDENTIFY AI-GENERATED IMAGES FROM MIDJOURNEY

midjourney images have a very specific look; they tend to look very painted with sort of... muted colors a lot of the time. youtube channel SolarProphet has many videos that feature midjourney. they all tend to look like paintings and i’ve found that the AI very much likes to make portraits with a character front-and-center.

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HOW TO IDENTIFY IMAGES FROM DALLE-2

dalle-2 images can be harder to identify because the AI is very advanced with many data points.

it is able to generate images with multiple art styles, but also may generate things that look like photographs.

the best way i can describe dalle-2 images is just looking... off. if you look carefully, something will look wrong. in the picture below the top eyes are mismatched, etc. something would be subtly off. you have to look carefully.

in this one: one of the eyes looks smudged and the spoon handle doesn’t seem to be leading to anything.

dalle-2 can also generate rather convincing clipart at times, but they also may have something off about them. this picture of a frog looks normal at first glance, but if you look carefully, you can see that it’s missing a toe, coloring on the far arm is wonky, the lineart on 2 of its fingers is bulging out, there is an extra line on the top shirt pocket that cuts off a yellow band, the legs are oddly shaped, etc.

yes, some artists may draw like this, but most likely they would keep proportions consistent, no? (saying this as an artist myself btw)

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HOW TO IDENTIFY IMAGES FROM STABLEDIFFUSION

stablediffusion is a lot like dalle-2. due to lack of resources i can’t really give the best answers on it. it is much more customizable than either midjourney or dalle-2. the web apps can go up to 150 steps on dreamstudio and 50 on the huggingface website, which affects quality (unlike midjourney and dalle-2 where the number of steps is fixed (to my knowledge, anyway)). 

my computer struggles to run stablediffusion locally due to my graphics card (i CAN run it but it basically eats all my memory). i also don’t know how many steps midjourney and dalle-2 use to make their images, so i can’t make pictures with exactly the same amount of steps to compare it all to.

i got these using both web apps and as you can tell, they are off and not quite right, though i expect with more steps, they would be better. i expect the way of telling that they are AI generated is similar to dalle-2?

---

it’s hard to explain how i personally tell when an image is generated by ai, and of course my method is not foolproof and it will never be. humans are imperfect creatures, after all. these are just patterns i’ve noticed personally.

[hopeshoodie]

Ok so in light of the Independent article (see my tag #fusebox layoffs for more info), I’ve been trying to piece together the sequence of events that lead to FB Going to Shit™. 

All of the below is based on articles, tweets from the staff, and dates from screenshots. Especially with the Matchmaker stuff, I’m using the dates I personally accessed the stories- that might not be accurate to when they were actually released to an international audience, just when my phone updated the app. In hindsight, I’m not a great person to do this because I have a shit memory and don’t keep receipts, so if you have any corrections PLEASE lmk either in the dms or replies. 

In sum, the timeline appears to be:

1. Key players left Fusebox in early 2020. 

The one that people are probably most familiar with is David Gallopim, one of the artists who helped define the S2’s distinct style, leaving sometime before March 2020. He seemed to indicate that there was conflict over the new art style of S3, and released assets he’d designed of Harry in his own style (notably way prettier than Harry looks in-game). 

But probably more important to the direction of the company, Michael Othen, one of the co-founders and former CEO, left in July of 2020 (I had thought it was earlier in the year but according to LinkedIn it was July). It’s much more unclear why he left, but it’s notable because he was a huge force in making the game inclusive of LGBTQ characters. 

So all in all, not a great sign when employees who had a huge hand in creating the content and direction of a game that defined its success jump ship. Especially after the game was seemingly hitting its stride, with the host of Love Island (the TV show) doing a sponsored Let’s Play of S3 and projects in the works like Boat Party and CMM.

2. It seems like Fusebox‘s CEO/executives hired new management, either in 2020 or early 2021. Employees complain that the executives don’t understand what it takes to make a game and are pulling the studio in the wrong direction. It’s unclear if the newly hired execs had experience. 

Wil Stephens, the CEO/founder, has been with FB since its inception but also appears to have only founded game distribution ventures and not worked in any development or employment capacity. If that’s the case, maybe the complaints about lack of experience/knowledge about the mechanics of making games work are about him. If not, then some of the newly hired execs would likely be to blame. 

Paul Virapen, COO, was brought on in November of 2020. He’s worked with Disney’s gaming division, Big Pixel studios, Wooga. The quality of that experience is dubious since he headed up the ‘let’s make apps for Apple watches, it’ll be the next big thing’ department… Lol. Notably also, all of his roles had been in the executive/managerial realm, not the development teams, so the complains might have been about him. THIS IS SPECULATION, but I’m willing to bet that Virapen was a if not THE driving force in switching Fusebox’s focus entirely to matchmaker. All the studios he’s worked with have primarily produced and promoted Match 3 games, and he has a background working with big studios that produce games for large international audiences, not small studios making narrative games for limited audiences.

A new Manager of Finances, Ruth Erskine, was brought on in December of 2020

Rob Goddard, a new producer, was brought in January of 2021

Several key operations positions were filled by existing employees being promoted to management- 2 as far as I can tell. But as a whole it seems like December 2020 was a huge shift in leadership for the upper management while a lot of the other teams expanded but kept their old players as well.

3. At some point in late 2020- mid 2021, the executive team made the decision to switch LITG’s focus from a narrative pass-based game to a Match 3 incorporating romance narrative cut scenes. In early 2021, Fusebox teased more content to come while releasing S3 (seemingly referring to Matchmaker and not S4). In the interim between S3 endings and Boat Party’s release they put out an interview confirming the new game will be Match 3 but did seem to indicate that the plan at that time was for Matchmaker to be a side project with a different development team and not replace the main game. Notably, the LITG writers and artists were reassured that their roles will continue to exist (according to the independent article) as they’re working on S4.

3. In September of 2020, Matchmaker became briefly available in the US. That’s when I first downloaded it, at least. It would be added/removed from the google play store multiple times before having a unilateral release in July of 2021. 

Throughout 2020, Matchmaker is available to Asian audiences solely with LITG S1 getting rolled out in incremental updates. 

Eventually, Beanie Quinn is released (March 2021)

LA Noir is released (May 2021)

Seduction Games is released (late May or June 2021- I got the update and played it June 3rd, but hadn’t opened the app for a month or so. It might have come out before then, which is unfortunate for this timeline since it’s so inextricably linked to the open letter and layoff dates)

LITG S2 is released (only like 20 levels of it) the same month- June 19th for me. Notably, all of these stories are only released to an international audience, with the UK and USA still not having access to the app.

4. At the same time, Fusebox’s internal affairs are pretty quiet from 2020-2021, at least on social media. 

S3 comes out in 2020, Boat Party comes out later in the year and finishes in 2021. Post S3 in October of 2021, a survey goes out gauging player interest in new art styles and representation, which was pretty in keeping with past actions and seemed promising for S4. 

Boat Party features a promising cross promotion implementing irl brands into the game. It’s unclear if enough money was made from this on FB or the sponsor’s end to make that strategy viable, but that might’ve impacted management’s outlook for the profitability of LITG.  

Fusebox teases more content for the summer on Instagram, and then follows up and confirms it’ll be a proper season.

5. More key players leave in early 2021

Ed Sibley is still listed as Narrative Direction on LinkedIn, but he’s not credited as a writer on Season 4 (he was on 3,2,and 1) and started work with NetSpeak games in May of 2021, so we can assume he left around then or at least transitioned away from Fusebox then.

Fred Francis, another writer who had been on the team since S1, turns in his resignation ‘weeks’ before the layoffs were announced in late June. So we can assume he made his exit sometime early June or late May.

6. Prior to the release of Seduction games in May/June, staff expressed concern about the biphobia in Seduction Games. No sources have given a specific time when this took place. They were reassured that the problem would be corrected prior to release, but then the story was released as is to an international audience in June. The article released by the Independent is unclear- there might have been discussion prior to the open letter where staff expressed concerns and then were reassured before the game going live. OR the open letter might have been the first expression of concern by the staff. I tend to think the former, and the open letter was a response to Matchmaker going live with Seduction Games anyways, but I have no proof for that. On May 24th, 31 employees sent an open letter of concern regarding the problematic content in Matchmaker. This letter isn’t public, so we don’t know the scope of the employees' concerns or who the employees were.

7. To resolve the situation, a meeting between the staff and at least the COO (likely more than just him though) was held sometime after May 24th. Allegedly, Virapen was disrespectful to the employees who had questions, refused to answer, and ended the meeting early before any resolution was had by closing his laptop and leaving the room. At least 4 HR complaints were made in the wake of that meeting, we do not know the nature of those complaints. 

8. Some time mid-July (maybe July 26th? A writer tweeted about their job ending soon on that date), employees were made aware that the LITG app would move into ‘sunset mode’. It’s unclear what was communicated, but it seems as though S4 will be heavily delayed or cancelled altogether and no future seasons would be made. Writers begin to post about looking for work on Twitter

9. June 30th- The majority of Fusebox writing staff announce on twitter they’re out of work. In addition to the entire writing staff, unity engineers and producers are also let go.

10. July 5th - Fusebox executives respond to an article by MCVUK with a statement asserting they were “consulting with [their] employees on a proposed change to its business model” that would focus on producing Matchmaker content. They also expounded that the move was to secure “cash injections and and continued support from respected investors across the media and gaming industry”

11. July 6th- Fusebox announces that S4 will be delayed from the summer release date and that there is no fixed release date. 

12. August 2nd- three jobs are posted to Fusebox’s careers page on their website, one being Head of Narrative Content. In the job listing, it specifies that they’ll be maintaining existing properties as well as new ones, and that because of the co-development model (re:fusebox outsourcing Matchmaker to another studio) the new Narrative Lead must collaborate with external content creators.

Hopefully posting this timeline gives players a better understanding of how radically Fusebox has changed in the course of 2021 (and how royally they screwed over the people who made LITG what it is). Again, please let me know if you have receipts showing dates are different or things to add.