#anyway the gaming industry needs unions

[neep-neep-neep]

im MAD

the nintendo wii had better water depicting ability than the nintendo switch!!!!!!!!!!!!1

the nintendo GAMECUB E HAS BETTER LOOKING WATER THAN THE NENTNIENDO BITCH

what is this nintendo??

what the hell is this?

what is this glowing blue goo?!!

this is the same river and pond in the original game on PS2!!!

yes the point of video games is pretty transparent water that splashes when you touch it there are no exceptions! why am i playing your game as a person afraid of the ocean if the water doesn't look and act like you kissed each droplet on the forehead and told them they can do anything

[shannonsketches]

ngl gang I finished both my dissociation fixation games and got a rejection letter for a job I was a shoe-in for after a month-long, three-pronged review/interview process and I am not having a great time

[theliterarywolf]

In the interest of fairness and seeing things from all sides, and all that other good wholesome stuff.

98% of the Actor/Writer union demands are perfectly reasonable. Two in particular I feel I have to side with the studios on (while acknowledging that their refusal to come to the table on anything makes them the unambiguous bad guys in the situation)

Writers: demanding a minimum number of writers on EVERY project just reeks of nepotism. "You have to give all my friends a job even if the project doesn't need them"

Actors: demanding hazard pay for wearing corsets. I've worn them, they're uncomfortable at worst.

See, here's someone actually presenting legitimate concerns with the strike demands that don't just read 'Hollywood is shite anyway, weh'

So while I do STRONGLY believe that the issue of Nepotism in mainstream media -- particularly Hollywood but this also includes other facets of the creative industries like the Western Book Industry and video games -- is an issue that will need to be addressed in the near future, when I read 'demanding a minimum number of writers' I see it less as 'I have to get all my friends jobs' and more 'Look, if you guys want an unrealistic turn-around on scripts and screenplays, we're going to need more people on the team'.

The corsets: I can't say anything on this one way or the other because while I have also worn corsets, I haven't had to be on a studio set for a full shooting day so I'm not sure if it's 100% unbearable or if there are ways to make it tolerable for an individual.

[beardedmrbean]

Wait I thought that First Nations is a proper term we use now to describe Native Americans?

Ugh

Also yeah the learning thing

It’s not like our education system is outdated as hell

Or being run by out of touch politicians

Perhaps you can find the link, but I heard that the public education system was changed in the 90’s for specifically to cater to neurotypical girls

Teachers unions are corrupted up the ass

But as I mentioned before that thanks to DNA ancestry test, we know black Americans of slave descent are 64% Yoruba

Yet despite one of the biggest gaming franchise Assassin’s Creed is based off pseudo surrounding it

And I’m not lying

The British Museum and the Smithsonian used assassin creed games for a Alexander the Great event and to visual the American Revolution in a sector

Imagine telling yourself 20 years ago that games would reach such levels?

Also when was dna ancestry known to the public

But anyways, one thing that perhaps other black Americans can help me with. Is that we when it comes to history, all we know about the old world is that we were enslaved

Keep in mind that I only learn about the Yoruba because of Hollywood fuck up

So imagine how HARD it’s going to explain community…who literary rates ain’t exactly the best

Okay there a saying I heard (paraphrasing) “If they ain’t going to teach you right. You think they’re going to treat you right?!”

Also perhaps in the evening as I notice something with a lot of stuff surrounding government in the 80’s-90’s media

I was trying to say the whole “Why we weren’t taught this in school” started with SJWs millennials in the early 2010’s

I’m just wondering how bad sjws critical thinking skills are when they never connected the dots that people who run the education system have their hands in the military industrial complex as well

Killary anyone?

It works, there's a screenshot floats round from a kids textbook that people try to pass of as HS talking about, well.

Every time it pops up we get dozens of people whining about the US education system until it's pointed out that, one it says "First Nations" which is the official way Canada says it (US is Native American) and two it says Quebec City in the bottom right center.

Outside of official things I don't think it matters which you use provided everyone knows what you're talking about.

Snopes actually covered this one, didn't need to but it was a opportunity to bash Europeans so they took it.

Perhaps you can find the link, but I heard that the public education system was changed in the 90’s for specifically to cater to neurotypical girls

I don't have a link on that one, nothing is turning up either but it is something that I've seen stated, also seen loads of studies showing that single sex classes turn out more capable students. Fairly well established that guys and girls learn differently so that makes sense.

The British Museum and the Smithsonian used assassin creed games for a Alexander the Great event and to visual the American Revolution in a sector. Imagine telling yourself 20 years ago that games would reach such levels?

That's rad, 20 years ago I'd have believed it, 30 jamin on my SNES not so much.

Also when was dna ancestry known to the public

Not sure, let's learn together

"Affordable" is the keyword there, general public wasn't doing them

But anyways, one thing that perhaps other black Americans can help me with. Is that we when it comes to history, all we know about the old world is that we were enslaved Keep in mind that I only learn about the Yoruba because of Hollywood fuck up So imagine how HARD it’s going to explain community…who literary rates ain’t exactly the best

Oakland’s rebellion against phonics set children back; let’s not repeat it

TL:DR; there was a structured phonics based curriculum that was increasing literacy rates rapidly in Oakland schools the teachers well.

Despite the obvious success of that curriculum, Weaver says teachers hated it. “This seems dehumanizing, this is colonizing, this is the man telling us what to do,” Weaver said. “So we fought tooth and nail as a teacher group to throw that out.” They succeeded, and Oakland children paid the price. Reading proficiency in the Oakland Unified School District abruptly decreased from 2014 to 2015, when the curriculum change was introduced. It hasn’t rebounded to pre-2015 levels. The district has a reading proficiency score of just 34%, well below the already stupidly low California state average of 51%.

🎉🎉🎉🎉Score a big win for decolonizing education🎉🎉🎉🎉

Also perhaps in the evening as I notice something with a lot of stuff surrounding government in the 80’s-90’s media I was trying to say the whole “Why we weren’t taught this in school” started with SJWs millennials in the early 2010’s

I said that several time actually, reading a random thing about WWI and came across the Ottoman Empire and couldn't remember learning a damn thing about them, WWI was Germany and Austria Hungary vs everyone else and for some reason this extended into Africa and the middle east but we're not going to worry too much about that.

As gaps go, that one was a doozy, you thought skipping over some random activist that did something that kicked off some movement was bad wait till you hear about the Empire that existed in the middle east, Africa, and Europe that was nearly completely left out of my history lessons.

Leaving Uzbekistan out I get, but not a 700 year old empire that our founding fathers had positive diplomatic relationships with.

Positive part was it gave me a whole bunch of stuff to learn, all on my own, without some bureaucrat deciding what was and wasn't important.

I’m just wondering how bad sjws critical thinking skills are when they never connected the dots that people who run the education system have their hands in the military industrial complex as well. Killary anyone?

Wait till you find out who helped make it so student loans couldn't be discharged through bankruptcy (biden)

The federal department of education was the beginning of the end for the US educational system and federal student loans greased the slide we're riding down.

People get mad when i say they need to be phased out, but honestly it's one of the best ways to make college affordable again imho. Just be bumpy for a decade or so till schools realize they need to stick with classes that will allow people to make a living.

Other option is make schools secure the student loans not the fed, they want their investment back they need to make a good investment.

[jupitermelichios]

i see this take so often, i have genuinely lost any ability to tell if people are joking, or if they just really have never spent even 5 minutes researching how and where vfx actually gets made

yes, vfx artists in the USA should unionise. basically every profession should unionise. but that would not stop the use of vfx in movies. it probably wouldn't impact it at all, in fact

because 90%+ of it isn't done in the USA

cgi is the one aspect of film-making that can be very easily exported to another country without any impact on the film-making process. cgi artists don't need to be in the same country as the filming location, they don't need to work collaboratively with the other film-makers the way most jobs in the industry do. yes there is collaboration, but it's with the other vfx artists, or it's weekly meetings with the director, art director or studio to check what they're making is in line with the concept art. that can be done over zoom, or by phone with very little difficulty.

the bulk of vfx art isn't being done in the USA, even for the big US based houses, it's done in malaysia, korea, china, india

there's also a lot of freelancers, and non-contract employees, in the industry which makes labor organising harder, even if forming a union would uncomplicatedly fix the problem, rather than just pushing even more of the work overseas

again, I am not saying they shouldn't unionise, they should, (and so should vfx artists around the world, and so should the games industry which has a lot of crossover with movie vfx) but it's not the panacea y'all seem to think it is

(also, do not believe the internet when it tells you how much of modern movies are cgi, it's usually wildly wrong. I saw people on this hellsite angry that black panther 2 got a best costumes oscar nomination because 'all the costumes are cgi anyway'. literally none of the costumes in that movie were cgi, they were incredible works of art that very skilled craftsmen spent hundreds of hours of work on so that they'd move correctly both on land and underwater, and it fully deserved the nomination. there absolutely is an over realiance on cgi, but it's nothing like as bad as weirdos who refuse to use google want to tell you it is)

(also also the mcu has the symptoms of a lot of the big problems in hollywood right now, but it is the cause of none of them. that's not how creating art works. the problem is late stage capitalism and the studio system, and the mcu ending tomorrow would have 0 impact on either.)

CGI animators should unionize next. normally, their jobs would be too precarious to strike, since studios would replace them without a second thought, but if it's part of this larger general film strike, they might finally have meaningful power to better their working conditions

[cybermoonmoon]

(This story based on a notion by my dear radio pal Peter Cedric 'Rocky' Smith...no relation I know of. He mused what he would do if he woke up and it was the 1930′s again. So I put myself in his position. The trick is to protect the timeline...or try to...good grief!)

"Clips"

“Back and forth and forth and back.” Put another way...NYC the 125th Street subway platform. It's January 26th, 1937. The ‘A’ rain pulling in wakes me. I’m a science fiction fan so I know what’s happened. Fuck! I’m near 90 years in the past! Serious temporal disorientations. I wander my great grandmother’s hood for days maybe weeks. Think a speedball whiskey crash. FDR is President Dick Tracy is on da radio and it's the Great Bleeping Depression. Best time to appear. I can get lost in this chaos.

I end up in a Salvation Army soup kitchen. Looking for possibilities I tell them I went to a Negro college and could tutor. Tutors white only but with a lucky connection I get a half-time gig at the local library...as a porter. It’s 1937. With the job I get a small room. Do ganja recovery from my temporal displacement and make plans.

Winter passes. In summer I notice a small Harlem machine shop. Just the right size. I introduce myself to the owner. Seems a decent guy. I later hear he’s in the closet. I tell him its cool love is love and don’t worry about it. Anyway, I put an idea to him. A small item that everyone uses that he could very cheaply make. ...and sell. Desperate times so he's game. I show him my designs...paperclips. I was thinking Velcro but too game changing.

No copies from the future. Rather blends of types any of which ‘could’ have been designed in the 30′s. Strips of metal and cheap tools are all that's needed...history is safe. We haggle over details become partners...sort of and get to it. Business slow but they’re cheap look cool so catch on. Towards da Holidays orders is coming in through the ‘gawddamned’ windows to paraphrase Holden Caufield. Whose book I hope isn't butterflied away.

The machine shop is now our office/factory. Slowly we hire more help. I insist on gender equality. My pal thinks it nuts but goes along. Planting seeds. Orders from locals later direct to business. Sure there was problems. Corrupt cops, mob run unions 30's racism but fuck it life is fun. This as I become more accumulated to pre-digital industrial America.

1939 the Board of Education gives us commissions later bulk orders. This via the 'WPA'...google it. Orders from other City departments follow. Mayor Laguardia aka ‘The Little Flower” ...my grandma spoke well of him. Well, he’s throwing FDR’s cash around to help small businesses. First time the government ever really helped me, and I had to go near 90 years into the bleeping past to get it. Figures.

Which reminds me. I'm from the future which means I saw several post-war recessions. Lesson one: Don’t expand before ya ready. My pal wanted to open two large tooling and fabrication shops with a zillion employees. I talked him down to 15 and one medium shop. Smart because the bubble burst...we stayed in business and happily banged along issuing paychecks. An upside I saw the Great Harlem Artistic Rennaissance in person. I also organized the first poetry slam. ...I hoped history wouldn't notice.

Still, war is coming. This is a world with Hitler and Stalin running around loose. Did I mention our own Nazis and a powerful Klan? Anyway, in my only suit...double breasted like grandpa wore. I angle for federal orders. Thanks to patronizing liberalism...hey what works works. I get a few small nibbles Then all hell breaks loose. December 9th, 1941. War comes two days late thanks to my temporal shenanigans.

Uncle Sam is kicking the crap out of that Nazi fuck Hitler and his pal Tojo. And is doing it with our flexible rust-less paperclips. Did I mention our Army is integrated we already have the fucking B-29 and the P-80 jet fighter...all these five years early. All because of the butterfly effect of cheap rust-less paper clips and two smart queer colored guys...one from the 21st century. Fuck da timeline...in for a penny in for a pound.” I finagled a meeting with that Einstein guy and tells him about microprocessors. Stay tuned.

[bluedilute]

Reposting this because I think people need a reminder of the layoffs. There were 1000+ layoffs at Blizzard this year alone, and that makes this an extremely important aspect to the story.

Mostly wanting to repost this because Twitter is freaking the fuck out, and I think people need a reminder that Twitter is always full of crazy people. There are more reasonable explanations than "Blizzard is transphobic" and "they give skins to Juno because she's hotter" that keeps spreading over there. The entire situation on there is the reason why I deleted the app off my phone, and it's staying off.

Twitter is an actual hellsite, especially after Elon Musk bought that shit, and I don't think we should be listening to most theories that come from there (also the crazy amount of sexualization of them there right now makes me super uncomfortable). I do like that the Overwatch Cavalry account is being salty about Juno getting a legendary before Venture. That's hilarious.

Also for those who read the reblogged post, keep in mind what I said in the 'Ventures release and layoffs' section, and that Juno having come out after them means she had a (kinda) more stable team, and therefore more planning. I'm assuming she was made as a saving grace for the layoffs since she was advertised way more than Venture was.

Anyways, long story short, the layoffs are still a huge problem right now. Do not listen to anything on Twitter. it's insanity over there, and the theories from the site are clouding everyones judgment. It's not transphobia. It's the layoffs.

PS: Tell your local game designer to unionize. If the animation industry can do it (and with massive amounts of support), the game design industry can do it too

So, the Venture community has been going crazy since the season 12 trailer, and pretty rightfully so. I've been very vocal about how upset I've been with all of this, but I'm trying to still remain positive (which is pretty hard to do in general because of all the negativity in the world) and I want what's best for everyone

With that, I wanted to talk about why I think Venture is gonna be okay and will be getting a lot more content than they have now in the future.

I have a LOT of thoughts about the topic (this post has like 20 paragraphs), so if you have the patience, please read below the cut!

Starting with the most important point,

Advocacy

There has been a lot of talk about Ventures' lack of content as of recent, especially on Twitter. We're all very loud about our love for Venture. We literally put them on a billboard in times square– twice– to show how much we love them.

All this talk and everyone asking for more content for Venture got to the point where Aaron Keller himself made a post addressing the buzz, saying they have a "really exciting skin" for season 14.

Obviously that's pretty far away, and everyone is really upset about having to wait that long for one skin, but it's at least something, and it's better than not knowing when they're getting their next skin.

As well as that, it takes about 4-6 months to make a skin, so at least they're getting to it fast(ish)

Advocating for our respective hero(es) can go a long way, and that's been shown recently. If we keep at it and be loud, we can get more of what we deserve.

It's of course unfair that they're only getting a skin then, and they should have had some already made. But there's an explanation for this,

Ventures' release & layoffs

Venture was created/released during the time when the layoffs were effecting the team the most, and they're currently still recovering from it. The team doesn't have the final say on what goes into the game, and the higher ups have made increasingly more cash-grab decisions since their release.

I also think the decision to have them release with barely anything was because they were deemed as 'controversial', being trans and non-binary, and they had to focus on heroes they knew would make more money. Despite that, I don't think it is directly rooted in transphobia within blizzard. If it was, and word got out, i'm sure they would be fired fast (blizzard has had to fire a lot of awful people through the years).

Overall, Venture got very unlucky with their release, and therefore got nothing when s10 went live. As of now, things seem to be getting better, and the team is trying their best to make better things for everyone, which brings me to my next point:

Other neglected heroes

It's no question that a lot of heroes have been swept aside as of recent, namely Illari, Ramattra, Lifeweaver, and Baptiste. Kiriko has also gotten a lot of skins, and everyone is sick of it.

But, in the last two seasons, these heroes have gotten more content. Such as Weaver getting a lifeguard skin, Illari and Ramattra getting new skins in the transformers collab, and the s12 battle pass with Illaris' thoth skin, Ramattras Poseidon recolor (it's at least something) and Baptiste getting a mummy skin in the battle pass. (I want to note that Bap getting a mummy skin doesn't mean Venture can't get one too!)

All of these heroes, and I think a couple more (Lúcio being one) getting more content leads me to believe that Venture will also be getting more stuff in the future. But about what's out now:

All-time cosmetics

This is where I get into stuff that might be a bit of a stretch. There isn't too much to say here either, but just hear me out for a second.

Firstly, Venture has gotten new interactions all 3 seasons they've been in the game, even in s12, while Valeria Rodriguez (their voice actor) has been on strike, which he is very vocal about participating in. They've also gotten a voice line in the battle bass every season, and this season they have 2 new sprays to come out soon (I think it's 2, might just be 1)

Second, the rework for their default victory pose. It's a small change, but actually looks a lot better than the old pose. Their stance looks more relaxed, yet confident. The old one just looks stiff and awkward. It looks like more care was put into the new pose, plus I don’t think they rework victory poses that often, especially the defaults.

As mentioned, they were developed when the layoffs happened, so they were probably rushed out a bit too. Hence the stiff pose.

They're not fully being forgotten about, and they get at least a little more stuff every season since their debut. With that I expect the number to go up more every time.

Junos' cinematic

Now I know it's really frustrating that Juno got a cinematic while Venture hasn't even gotten a real origin story, but I think this is actually a good thing!

There hasn't been a proper cinematic for overwatch in a while from what I know, and one being made could be a light in a dark tunnel. This is the game breathing again, and it could mean a brighter future for Venture, and other new/neglected heroes.

Conclusion

Overall, Venture has had a rough start with their debut, and with a lack of content for them, it makes people feel like they were just made for LGBTQ brownie points to be swept under the rug for the next Kiriko skin (which is unfortunately probably true in some way). But their fans and mains are very vocal, and with people who main other heroes, even 'popular' ones, speaking out about how unfair it is to us, it seems to be serving us well.

I implore you to keep your voices heard, and advocate for a better game, and better treatment of your heroes. And we can help (at least start) to make overwatch a better game

As a treat, here's some Venture pics I've gathered the last few months

Bonus section if you wanna read it

If not, have a great day or night!

Final thoughts

I genuinely wish I didn't care about this game as much as I do, I feel like a sweaty looser defending it all for one character.

I've seen games, great games, time and time again become cash-grabs and drags as the people who make them become blinded by stardom. This happened with FNAF, fall guys, Hello neighbor (that game has always sucked, but the stardom blindness is there) and so many others. Weirdly enough I've had dreams about games completely changing, all in one patch. Seeing it happen in real time is disheartening.

Overwatch is a pretty special game. It has great lore, amazing art direction, and one of the most diverse casts I've ever seen, especially for a AAA game.

I only kinda played after being recommended the game by a friend, and i never really clicked with any of the characters I tried (I just stuck with Cassidy cause he's a cowboy and I thought it was funny)

Venture is the first character I played and immediately clicked with, and they're incredibly relatable to me on top of that. They're a huge nerd who's extremely passionate about their craft, they're goofy and optimistic, and being trans myself, learning they were trans too made me feel seen.

Them being treated like this while also being the only trans hero feels really disrespectful, and blizzard shouldn't get away with that. As of now, I'm glad we're all very vocal about it not being fair to any of us.

I'm an aspiring game designer, and I have a dream to make my own game one day. This whole situation has inspired me to get my shit together so I can go to college and get my game design degree. I hope to be able to save games like this, and give them a better chance. It's a big dream, but I believe I can do it with help from the right people

I genuinely want what's best for the world of overwatch, and especially all the characters who've been neglected over the years. There are always gonna be people who are fans of every hero they make for the game, and if they keep making more, they should know at this point to make content for that character. Playing favorites does nothing but harm the game, and most often makes the mains of the favored heroes arrogant and self-important (at least in my experience, specifically with kiriko mains)

Anyways, with all my thoughts out there for the internet to see, thank you for reading this really long rant! It took me a long time to write this, lol. I'm very passionate about game design, and Venture has definitely fueled that fire. Have a great day or night!

[partenopae]

you know on one hand i do like some of the stances cdpr has taken like for example the free next gen upgrade but i HATE the way they portray themselves as these rebels going against the grain unlike all Those Other AAA companies when at the end of the day they still treat their workers like shit lol

[bestworstcase]

Honestly I think you’re putting more thought into arrowfell’s story then the writers did

i wonder who this anon could possibly be from 🤔🤔🤔

anyway

1. my analytical approach begins with the presumption that what i see in the text is real and tilts heavily into DOTA. there are exceptions—when a narrative is structurally unsound and collapses i do enjoy dissecting it with an eye towards what went wrong—but in general i do not care to read any text to interrogate its writer(s)’s competency.

2. there are things about rwby that i am absolutely putting more thought into than the actual writers, like plate tectonics on remnant and how the grimm might change the math on the relative advantages of sedentary agriculture vs pastoral nomadism, for example, because i think about excessively granular worldbuilding the way shippers think about their faves kissing. my actual analysis, on the other hand, is always grounded in intuitive responses to the text; almost everything i’ve said about arrowfell is articulations of things i thought while playing the game, plus some time to digest and arrange those thoughts into something resembling a coherent order. which is to say i’m not exactly doing deep reconstructive work here; i’m picking up things the story itself put down.

3. anti-faunus bigotry is rampant in both atlas and mantle, and seems to be especially vicious in the dust industry in particular; civil organizations that arise within these societies will naturally reflect that, and in the case of labor unions specifically there is in the real world a long and well-documented history of union racism on both the individual and systemic scale. characters do not exist to be sanitized ideologically pure avatars for leftist politics, they’re characters, and i appreciate the narrative acknowledgement and representation of how complicated and widespread and difficult a problem bigotry really is, how there is never a clean, perfect divide between the ‘good’ people and the ‘bad’ because a person being marginalized along one axis doesn’t mean they can’t or won’t be bigoted along another. again insofar as the narrative has a responsibility for its messaging, painting fifestone in an overtly sympathetic light while also sharply condemning his cruelty toward the faunus accomplishes that. (not to mention the existence in rwby proper of robyn hill, an activist firebrand who explicitly stands for the faunus too.)

4. it bears pointing out that the nature of fifestone’s semblance demands that he perform whenever he uses it to extract a specific emotion; he couldn’t get fear out of explaining the situation and politely asking permission to drain somebody’s feelings even if he wanted to, because it’s very evident that the donor or victim needs to actually feel the emotion he’s trying to draw out. i think taking his threatening, cruel demeanor when he steals the faunus miner’s terror of him at face value as what he’s like is… reductive at best, because it’s almost certainly behavior calculated to provoke intense terror and his desperation and frustration with the situation he was in are palpable in the cutscene after he’s apprehended. which is why my overall read on his attitude toward the faunus is indifference rather than virulent bigotry

[my-mt-heart]

(This is mostly addressed to various commenters and anons, not actually MT, just to be clear I'm not trying to yell at you!)

I'm usually a fandom lurker, but man, some of y'all are infantilizing Mel and Angela as powerless damsels in distress and it is... yikes.

If AMC screwed Mel over, it WILL leak. There is no world where her agency lets AMC paint her as a demanding, inconsistent leading lady who quit an announced show, post-contract, for something as vague as she "needed a break."

It's obvious that "needed a break" isn't the whole story, but it's also 100% in keeping with Mel's history to stay quiet and vague about her personal life. I really hope I'm wrong, but my bet is a medical situation for her or someone close to her. It would explain why AMC is talking about Carol's return but with zero concrete details, and it explains why they aren't burning bridges with Mel after she blew up an announced project (which is a big fucking deal and does not actually happen often on this level of production).

On that note, you all are nuts if you think AMC would burn that development money, piss off fans who were excited about the spinoff, and make vast changes in location and story (plus probably scrambling to get other talent and crew on board) so late in the game just to save Norman a few transatlantic flights. Sure, Norman would have the clout to demand a specific location during contract negotiations. The period of time where he had enough power to make demands like that was long gone by the time Mel left the project. (And yes, this 100% would have been addressed before signing or announcing anything, he and Mel are union so AMC is on the hook for significant travel, housing, and other compensation if it makes them film outside of LA or NY.)

The cringiest part of all of this is when people try to make Angela Kang out as a hapless victim of the big, bad lead actor and/or studio. It's easy for the fandom to see the actors every week and think they make the entire show, but the industry looks at Angela and sees a potential Shonda Rhimes. She 100% had more power over the spinoff's story and location than Norman. He could not have forced her out any more than she could have forced him out.

Anyway. I'm not going to try to pull industry credentials since no one will believe the random internet stranger anyway, but I had to get this off my chest. I think maybe we're all so heartbroken that we *feel* like an injustice has been done, and some people found a way to see it as an injustice. I really thought it was just going to be a couple of the rabid Diane Kruger haters, but man, it seems like everyone has gone nuts with speculation, harassing the cast and crew "demanding answers." It's bumming me out almost as much as the spinoff changes, honestly.

(I will also start with the disclaimer that none of my responses are spewing anger at you directly)

1.Could be an eventual possibility? Most actors/actresses who get screwed over don't come out and say so until much later, right? Unless she signed something that prevents her from doing so or if new terms are going to be arranged (i.e. Carol returning at some point). I guess it depends on what we're thinking in terms of being screwed over. Just because it isn't an explicit or conscious effort doesn't mean it isn't happening. Also, maybe she won't be the leak herself. For example, and I'm not saying I do, but one could count some of the crew gossip as a leak despite certain embellishments.

2. I hope you're wrong too. One because I obviously don't want Melissa/her loved ones to be suffering any physical ailment, but also...though AMC might not be saying anything definitive, NR literally is. He's saying in interviews that Daryl and Carol will "definitely" come back together. Obviously that's above his paygrade and I don't take it as gospel, but if he already "definitely" knows that's not possible for MMB, I would find his insistence otherwise troubling. It sets her up to "blow things up" again for fans and it makes him look like a bad friend who’s only using her to take the heat off himself.

3. I think we're in agreement that Norman did not push Mel out due to demanding a location change. Like you said, none of that would have been decided last minute anyway, though for reasons I'll explain below, it's worth mentioning that Europe couldn't have been the original plan when they first signed on whenever that happened or when it was first announced back in 2020.

4. Are people holding Norman accountable for Angela's exit too? I haven't seen that anywhere. You're right that Angela has far more power over story and location than the actors, but she does not outrank Gimple or anyone at AMC. If she did, the Caryl spinoff would have remained a lighthearted (presumably cross country) road show instead of morphing into outrunning variant walkers in France. You will never convince me that’s what Angela wanted her show to become. 

Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems like what you're responding to mainly is some people's perception of Norman's responsibility in all this. For me and many other Carylers, the injustice is institutional. For one thing, the announcement of the Caryl spinoff may have been a dream come true in and of itself, but what really sparked excitement was the idea of that lighthearted road show because it promised light at the end of the tunnel for two characters who have had long, grueling journeys. We talked about it for two years, getting our hopes up. Little did we know the concept we all loved was being changed. 

AMC and co. may pretend that Europe was always the plan, but absolutely nothing about it lines up with what was initially said in interviews about the project or even what was implied onscreen. However early on after the announcement and press junkets, it changed. To something that in fact does not honor their emotional arc or even fit into the canon of the walking dead that we know. Yes, fine, [insert business reason here]. But as someone who is both in the industry and a big fan of the show/characters, that doesn't reduce the feeling of being strung along, lied to, and robbed of a story I was looking forward to, nor should it.

But even bigger than that, Caryl Abroad took all the hard work, thought, and care that a female showrunner put into developing what was supposed to be her show and put it in the hands of someone who consciously or not wants a male driven story to maintain a male audience. As for Angela's and Mel's exits, everything is speculative, but how can you not speculate when there are so many different narratives being put out there -- location, break, creative decision -- instead of one consistent explanation, however it needs to be phrased to give Melissa the privacy she's entitled to.

Chalk it up to misdirected anger/heartbreak if you want, but the way I see it, it ought to be acknowledged how bad it looks to not only lose two extremely vital women on the project, but to then replace them with two men. To then put all the responsibility on the women everywhere in the media and to do so without any sincere show of compassion or understanding i.e. "We know this was a really difficult decision for her, we love working with her, we're sorry we won't be able to this time around, but we understand why she needs this time." To then manipulate the fans into thinking it was our fault for expecting the road show we were promised. To jump to the defense of their male star after YEARS of ignoring the hate Melissa and other women received. 

I am deeply sorry for all the stress Norman, Melissa, and Angela have been put under for all of this and I would never demand answers to anything personal I'm not entitled to. But I am not sorry for having questions or believing in the possibility that a studio could make terrible decisions resulting in their actors, EPs, and fans getting screwed over (again, to whatever degree).

[finhascandles]

In addition to this, we gotta remember unlike movies or tv shows, game development is particular kind of hell which is basically running on duct tapes and hope.

Any kind of quirks or animation added, the developers will have to figure out hundreds of bugs that will follow. Some ideas work, some don't, entire levels are scrapped and discarded because it just doesn't flow with the gameplay. Add to that the crunch and abuse they endure from executives, managers, the entire gaming culture, it's nothing short of a miracle games even come out.

On 20's coal miner hours some workers have to deal with the corners will be cut, the shortest route will be taken. If the industry practices were more humane, less cruel, perhaps more elegant solution could've been achieved but these are the hands we're dealt with and it did work in some way.

I know Bethesda has the (well deserved) reputation of creating their games out of hacked together duct-tape-laden spaghetti code on an ancient quirky engine but I feel like FromSoft deserves their fair mention too. Bonfires aren't objects, they're a visual mesh with an invisible NPC standing on top of it that you "talk to" when you want to sit. Tons of enemies are just two NPCs glued on top of one another because they didn't know how to make an enemy have more than one attack that can fire off at a time. Winter lanterns' frenzy buildup attack comes from an invisible guy sitting on their heads shooting you with an invisible gun. Djura doesn't shoot you with his gatling gun, he just sits there doing nothing (with his cape sitting right around his ears due to how the game renders cloth physics from far away) because the actual NPC shooting you is the gun itself. Lothric and Lorian aren't two separate NPCs holding onto each other, they're one NPC with a second, invisible NPC glued to its back that takes damage on behalf of Lothric. Why? Because they couldn't figure out how to make one NPC ride on another one. They straight up went "We couldn't figure out how to make one NPC ride another, so we combined two NPCs into one and then glued another one to its back, simple." Really it's amazing how much of FromSoft's game design is just "we put an invisible guy here to do things because we couldn't figure out how to make the visible guy do it"

Even Elden Ring for all its advancements in mounts and whatnot has hilarious behind the scenes quirks. When Radahn does his meteor attack he doesn't track you, he teleports his horse underneath you and then aims at the horse

[ziskandra]

10. How do you decide what to write?

12. Are there any tropes you used to dislike but have grown on you?

17. What highly specific AU do you want to read or write even though you might be the only person to appreciate it?

10. How do you decide what to write?

It's usually the AO3 matching algorithm that chooses for me, given that most of my fics have been for fanwork exchanges! 😌

A less tongue-in-cheek answer: when considering the pairings and tropes I'll offer for an exchange, I’ll usually look for one of the following: - inspiring requests for fandoms I've written recently - open-ended prompts that would fit with something I already wanted to write - old fandoms of mine I would enjoy reviewing (when I have enough time on my plate to do so)

Even when I’m not doing exchanges, most of my other fics have been created for some challenge or request or prompt. I usually just need something to spark an idea, and if the first little bit of fuel is provided by someone else, the creativity process feels a little less lonely.

Conversely, it’s very rare for me to spontaneously write a fic because I felt the desperate need to share a story! I recall only three periods of my life when this has happened: when I first discovered fanfic as a kid (so many weird HP AUs…), when Mass Effect: Andromeda came out and I finished the game in two days in some sort of fugue state (writing near 10k of Rydam fanfic in a week), and … now with the Meresino. Two cakes and all that, but I think there’s a part of me that’s uncomfortable with writing something unless I know it’s not been written before? And I can’t guarantee that unless it’s a very small pairing or very new lol. Much to think about!!

12. Are there any tropes you used to dislike but have grown on you?

I don't really strongly disliked any tropes, but I never really understood the appeal of omegaverse until I read some excellent Ace Attorney ones that dug more into the gender roles and worldbuilding tropes of the genre — after I took that plunge with some trusted authors I was like oh I get it now. It’s still not something I seek out frequently, but I don’t automatically discount it now!

17. What highly specific AU do you want to read or write even though you might be the only person to appreciate it?

I know I’ve told you and others on twitter about this before but Meresino train controller AU. I have a lot of the characters’ respective roles planned out and a few different arcs I think it would be fun to explore.

Meredith is a train controller and Orsino is a signaller, of course. They both think the network would fall apart without them, and they’re right, but they also are yet to truly appreciate just how vital they are to each other’s roles.

Basically, train controllers have more responsibility when it comes to managing liability: making sure the signallers under their direction are given the information needed to do their jobs, and responding to emergency situations. BUT at the end of the day, it’s actually the signaller at the controls, and they need each other, even though they might hate each other times. … There’s a lot of tension, both sexual and otherwise!

(There’s even rumours that in other countries the signaller and train controller roles have been combined but Meredith’s just like ‘sounds fake but okay’)

Anyway, in terms of supporting characters, there’s Hawke, the beleaguered union organiser who used to work in the aviation industry. She’s dating Anders, who is doing a lot of grassroots organising around improving the transport system (and hence doesn't loop Hawke into his plans because he doesn't want to undermine the work she does in the union). Cullen is one of the department's current union delegates and is basically being punted back and forth by management and Hawke like a football. He is very out of his depth but by he is trying his best! Anyway, it's chaotic and everyone is trying so hard but they all have very different definitions of success, and what sacrifices they're willing to make to achieve it. And Kirkwall is a mess, like usual. Some days, the city's rail network is brought down by errant dragons. Some days, it's brought down by a nug nibbling through essential wiring.

Questions for Fic Writers

[jeff-from-marketing]

Wow so uh, some shit has been going down in the TTRPG space lately. I didn’t exactly intend for this to become a TTRPG blog, but oh well that’s what brain has decided and I’m not one to argue against it. Wouldn’t go well anyway.

I do however want to talk about “holy shit Paizo are absolute fucking mad lads and I respect the shit out of them.”

Let me get one thing clear: I trust any company about as far as I can throw them. Often times, if given the chance and the choice, most companies will gladly stab you in the back if it means a few extra coins in their pocket. Hell, Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro have shown that perfectly fine this month and a bit. But I would also be lying if I said I didn’t have trust in Paizo, because as far as I have seen and as far as I can tell, they do basically everything right and everything I could ever hope for in the TTRPG space.

Everything a player needs to play the game is available for free by Paizo on sources like Archives of Nethys, which reduces the barrier of entry to basically nothing and heavily encourages the “try before you buy” mentality that more of every industry needs to adopt more of. They have really solid and respectful representation of so many people across so many different walks of life, as well as do a lot to actually look after their players and ensure that everyone has a good time. Hell they even became a union without a fight. And this is to say nothing of their community outreach, how well they encourage third party creators to make stuff, the actual quality of their works, etc. etc. If anything my biggest complaint is that it’s hard to find their books in local game stores, which isn’t really much of a complaint.

But the announcement of the ORC? Holy shit. I was not expecting that. 

I was absolutely expecting Paizo to have something in their back pocket. A “break glass in case of Wizards of the Coast” plan if you will. Something to ensure that they can stay afloat, and maybe even fight WotC in court or something. Comments they’ve made in the past have suggested such things anyway. Paizo did that and so much more. Seriously I cannot do the whole thing enough justice, I really recommend reading it for yourself. The fact that Paizo have effectively said “we waited for your response Wizards, we were there when the original OGL was forged, we have not forgotten. So we’re making our own OGL, with blackjack and hookers” and came out with the Open RPG Creative License (or ORC License, which I just find is a delightful name). Then in that same post, openly and publicly stating that they are ready to legally fight Wizards of the Coast is one hell of a move. Not to mention the not insignificant number of other sizeable members that are behind the creation of this new ORC, and Paizo’s plan to not own the license so there’s no chance of history repeating itself. It’s as if Paizo saw everything that’s happening now, and was like “right, make this even more watertight and so that none of this can ever happen to it.” 

I gotta say, I respect the fuck out of Paizo for that. The absolute audacity to slap down Wizards, come out with their own license with blackjack and hookers, and futurerpoof to ensure this can’t happen again. 

The question now is simply: where does this leave Wizards of the Coast? 

Now I’ll admit, I’m no legal or marketing expert... ignore the Tumblr handle real quick. But I can’t see this possibly ending well for them, at least not with the D&D division. This whole situation has caused the biggest backlash I think I have ever seen to something like this. Such is the case that several major news outlets and even non-TTRPG based content creators such as Linus Tech Tips or Moist Critical are covering this and going “my dude, what are you doing?” Coupled with the backlash being such that they’ve had to completely cancel announcements relating to the OGL, and now the campaign to mass unsubscribe from services like D&D Beyond...

Thing is, even if they do in fact perform a 180 and cancel all OGL 1.1 plans, that’s still a net loss for Wizards of the Coast/Hasbro. They’ve shown their hand now, they’ve shown that they are a bad faith actor that cannot be trusted, so why would anyone willingly enter any deal with them? Why would anyone trust that they won’t continue trying to undermine the OGL? And now with the ORC, why would anyone not go for that instead? Even if this somehow does result in some short term monetary gain for Wizards, they’ve lost the one resource that is incredibly difficult to renew: good will. A resource that Paizo and other companies are now drowning in. That can only do harm to D&D in the long term. Leaks show that they’re banking on the community just simply forgetting and moving on. Were this the gaming industry, I’d say that’s a safe bet. This isn’t the gaming industry. I’ve found that people in the TTRPG space have long memories and harbour deep grudges. This is certainly something that’s going in The Book.

Personally? I’m excited for the whole thing. I’ve been saying for a while that D&D’s soft monopoly is hard to beat; that the brand name of Dungeons & Dragons is incredibly powerful and often analogous with TTRPGs themselves. But they may have just undone that monopoly themselves. I don’t expect D&D to just shrivel up and die, it’s still a very big name after all. I do, however, expect other systems to gain a surge of popularity following recent events, and that much is even already starting to happen. I do hope that other systems will get the light of day they deserve, and that it’ll now be easier to convince those new to the hobby to try other systems. 

With this latest announcement, I think the future is starting to look quite bright for TTRPGs. 

[puttingherinhistory]

“ Madison, who works a customer service job at an airport spa, has an employee handbook that says “makeup should be well maintained” and “hands and nails must be well manicured.” She says the few men she works with just ignore these guidelines “because they’re meant for women but [it] doesn’t explicitly say that.” Her wages ($13.25 per hour + 15% retail commission) do not include additional pay to purchase manicures or makeup. During her interview, her now-boss commented on how nice her makeup looked and how well her shoes matched her purse—comments that make her feel like she needs to keep up that kind of appearance even though she already has the job. 

It’s well known that a persistent wage gap exists for women workers in the United States, a gap that becomes even wider when race, industry, age and geography are taken into account. But less frequently discussed is the often silent expectation around appearance imposed on women workers, which has its own financial costs—known as the “grooming gap.” The grooming gap refers to the set of social norms regarding grooming and appearance for women, including the time women workers must spend to conform to these norms and the material consequences it has on their lives. 

We’ve all heard the common advice to “look the part” at work. For men, that can often just mean business casual clothing and a short haircut. For women, it can mean hours spent each week on makeup, hair styling and curating an outfit that’s both attractive and professional. 

The rules are usually unspoken; even when employers do not explicitly require workers to wear makeup, for example, women workers often feel required to wear it anyway. 

They’re not wrong: Sociologists Jaclyn Wong and Andrew Penner found that physically attractive workers have higher incomes than average-looking workers, but that this relationship is eliminated when controlling for grooming in women. In other words, if you purchase the right clothes, makeup and haircut, higher wages are more within reach. It’s true that men need to abide by certain grooming rules, too, but they are less complex, less expensive and less time consuming. Men’s haircuts, for example, often cost much less than women’s haircuts—regardless of hair length. The grooming gap essentially constitutes a pay cut catch-22: If women don’t conform, they are paid less; if they do conform, they’re expected to use those higher wages on beauty products and grooming regimens. 

Grooming costs for women can be extremely expensive; the global beauty industry, valued at $532 billion worldwide, directs aggressive advertising toward women to convince them they need to purchase a whole host of products to have a chance at being beautiful, well-liked or successful. The industry relies on maintaining impossible expectations around women’s looks so it can continue to rake in enormous profits. One 2017 study found the average woman puts $8 worth of product on her face each day; another found the average woman spends up to $225,000 on skincare and makeup during her lifetime. And then there’s the “pink tax”: Studies confirm that, 42% of the time, products marketed to women are more expensive than comparable products targeted to men. 

The grooming gap also results in a loss of free time: 55 minutes each day for the average woman, the equivalent of two full weeks each year. Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFACWA), says that, in her industry—a workforce that is 79.3% women—the expectation around appearance literally “interrupts your sleep”: Flight attendants get minimal rest between flights, and that rest time is further shrunk because they are expected to appear “perfectly coifed” before their next flight. Nelson says that all of her grooming tasks took 30–40 minutes each day (more than two hours in a five-day work week). Madison agrees: it takes her 45 minutes to do her makeup and style her hair before her 7 a.m. shift—and she wakes up at 5 a.m. to get it all done. Prior to this job, Madison says she worked at the beauty department at Target, where she spent $200 on products every other week. 

Restaurant and hospitality workers are perhaps hardest hit by the grooming gap, as they rely on tips to survive. When I was a barista in 2010–2011, the only official dress code rule was to wear closed-toed shoes, for safety. Still, I knew I had to show up looking pretty to pay the rent; I made less than $10 an hour and I needed the tips.

Katie, 36, a veteran bartender and server in Fort Smith, Ark., says at her current job, it’s “understood” she should wear makeup. At a previous restaurant, a manager even told her and her coworkers they would “make better tips if [they] wore makeup.”

“Based on my own appearance—weight fluctuations, makeup versus no makeup, jewelry versus no jewelry—there’s a definite difference,” Katie says. She adds that she was passed over for the most lucrative bartending shifts at her previous job after overhearing her managers say they wanted “cuter girls” to bartend instead.

Multi-billion dollar industries also market fad diets and anti-aging products to women. Both Katie and Jeeva, 24, a bartender and member of UNITE HERE, the union representing hospitality, hotel and airport workers, worry about aging. “As you get older, as a female bartender, your tips can go down,” Jeeva says. Katie says she “hope[s] to leave [the service industry] in the next 10 years, before I get too ugly.”

The grooming gap’s effects are compounded for women of color. According to Restaurant Opportunity Center, restaurant owners look for workers who are “clean-cut, [have] good hygiene or a professional appearance, all potential code words for race.” For instance, Black women spent $473 million on relaxers, weaves and other hair care in 2017, in part because of racist ideas that natural Black hair is not professional or attractive. Black workers annually spend nine times more on hair and beauty products than other workers. 

For transgender women, too, there can be an added layer of work, stress and self-consciousness. Autumn, who transitioned while at her current publishing job in Washington, D.C., says she quickly realized how much time and energy it takes to perform femininity for work. She used to spend 20 minutes to get ready in the morning, but now takes at least 45 minutes. Autumn adds, “I have to do things that cis women don’t have to… [but] it’s gotten easier with time and practice,” like tucking and dealing with facial hair. Because she presents extremely femme, Autumn says she hasn’t dealt with enforcement around her appearance, but other women workers around the country have been disciplined and even fired for appearing insufficiently feminine. Women workers have sued—and won—over gender discrimination that manifests as attractiveness discrimination.

Nat, a trans woman who works at a union in the Washington, D.C., area, says, “I didn’t feel like I was allowed to be a woman if I liked masculine things. It delayed any kind of self-reflection” about gender and identity “for such a long time.”

At work and in the world, all women—cis and trans—feel the pressure to conform to normative standards of femininity and attractiveness. But the solution to this problem isn’t to throw away all the eyeshadow or take out a new line of credit for weekly manicures. The solution is to organize together.”

Continued in the link to the article, but uh

TL;DR: There’s a significant wage gap between women who conform to traditional feminine beauty standards by, for example wearing makeup and heels and using a lot of hair and beauty products, and the women who don’t. Meaning women are financially punished for not conforming to femininity or beauty standards. The gap is worse for women of color and trans women because there’s higher beauty standards for women of color and trans women.

And when women do get those higher wages by playing the game and conforming to beauty standards and femininity, they have to spend 2x-3x+ more on grooming and their appearance than their male colleagues, so those high wages just disappear and go right back into keeping up their looks, making it difficult if not impossible to keep up financially with men, this isn’t even mentioning how much more time women lose each day to having to keep up their “professional” appearance compared to male colleagues.

[fridge-reviews]

The Best Games of 2022

Welcome to the my personal list of games I enjoyed this year. That’s right it’s my list, feel free to disagree with me but it won’t change anything. Anyway here are the rules;

1. These are games that I’ve played and reviewed this year. 2. The only order to this list is the order in which I reviewed them, its not a top 10, these all feature because of how good I consider them to be. 3. The games don’t have to have been released this year.

With that all said, lets get into it.

Psychonauts 2

This was a long awaited sequel for me, I loved the original (and lacked the tech to play the VR one) and loved this one even more. Everything the first had this iterated on and improved. Great characters, wonderful humour and I love the art style.

A Hat in Time

Yet more platforming goodness. I enjoyed my time with this so much I introduced it to my nephew (and I don't usually do that because he makes any game I do that with insufferable). Bright, colourful and full of character.

Horizon Zero Dawn: Complete Edition

I really enjoyed my time with this game and I'm waiting as patiently as I can for the sequel to finally land on PC. This game ticked boxes I didn't even know I had. Hunting mechanical dinosaurs (and other creatures) it turns out really is my jam.

Death's Door

A recursive game... I like that as a term and its a term that fits this game perfectly. This was a game that I liked the look of and loved the feel of playing. The combat is meaty but manageable as long as you don't allow yourself to be swarmed.

Iratus: Lord of the Dead

It looks and plays similiarly to Darkest Dungeon in a lot of ways, but not so much so there isn't anything unique about it. However the ability to enhance your units by adding body parts that you harvest from successful combats gives this game a unique feeling. Go on play it, be the bad guy.

Wandersong

This was such a feel good game, I believe I said this game felt like a Cartoon Holiday Special and I stand by that statement. It's saccharine sweet at time but sometimes thats exactly what you need.

The Outer Worlds

I do love a nice chunky RPG sometimes, one where you can really get your teeth into the mechanics and fiddle with numbers etc. The Outer Worlds gave me exactly what I wanted. I would suggest investing in the DLC's though, they're very unique and entertaining... perhaps more so than the base game.

Oxenfree

Play this game. PLAY IT. It's not overly long and the mystery is great. That's all I can say. So...

PLAY IT.

Dusk

Screenshots do not do this game justice. This game is frenetic and and a joy to control. It seems boomer shooters are back and are taking no prisoners.

A Plague Tale: Innocence

This game is just so damned good, its gorgeous and grotesque to look at. The story... well it's interesting. We'll see if the sequel can match what the original did. Stealth your way to victory and stay in the light!

—————————————————————————————————— I'm so glad that unions are rising within the games industry. This can only lead to good things, sure the games may take longer but the talent used to create them will now finally have some real protection from their corporate masters. With luck more and more of these unions will spring up and really affect some long lasting change for the better.

[the-woman-upstairs]

It’s depressing that none of this is really surprising. And what grinds my gears is how fucking cowardly Disney, Marvel Studios in particular, is in letting the actors go out and express support for VFX artists instead of having the real people responsible for all this abuse in the first place (executives, committees, Kevin Feige himself) answer for it.

Because the actors are not relevant in this conversation, it’s the production houses who make these absurd demands and go along with this broken system in the film industry to create broken artists. I mean, my god, the amount of stress and pressure on artists that are so undervalued by virtually everyone because VFX are so misunderstand or taken for granted is horrific.

And look, like anything else in film, VFX are a tool and are used pretty ubiquitously across the film industry. Any tool can be mishandled but can also be used to create truly stunning works of art. But when one tool is favored because the others are unionized and (for the most part) protect their artists, then we have a problem.

Anyway, this whole article is worth a read because it gets into just how much needs to change and pretty much confirms what I either already knew or saw coming thanks to following the crunch abuse scandals in the video game industry.