#bro spent hours perfecting this formula | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

teen-heart-throb-mr-hyde · 5 years ago

Text

Why Didn’t You Stop Me - Chapter One

bro i can’t believe i actually wrote this anyways im pretty proud. if you wanna read it on ao3 it’s right here

The rain was strange that night. It came infrequently, in short tapping sounds upon the bedroom window. Despite the rain’s strange quietness, it woke Emma.

She stared at the darkened ceiling of her room, feeling her stomach rise and fall with her slow, even breathing. She sighed. Drowsily, Emma pushed herself to sit upon the edge of her bed. Her bare feet touched the cold floor as she stood and hiked up her nightgown ever so slightly with slow fingers. Each step towards her bedroom’s window was passive and delicate in an attempt to stop the floorboards from creaking, which she achieved with some success. With her other hand, she reached to open the window. The whistle of the wind and the hum of a dreaming London always helped her sleep. Moonlight made her thin fingers turn white as she reached for the window’s latch when she paused. There was no rain.

Then a small rock bounced against her window.

Having been knocked out of her tired stupor, Emma rushes to the window and threw it open. She looked down. Standing just a few feet below, rearing back to throw another pebble, was her fiancé, and love of her life, Henry Jekyll.

“Henry!” She called, trying not to laugh. “What on earth are you doing down there?”

He jumped, clearly not expecting her to appear at that particular moment.

“I needed to speak with you!” He called back up.

Emma leaned on her windowsill, her head tilted in amusement. She felt like Juliet.

“Why didn’t you just come in?”

“I needed to speak with you privately.” Henry amended his last statement. “Just…get dressed and come down.”

A sigh escaped her lips. Not of frustration or distress, one of longing. The type of sigh you can only give when the one you care about above all does something incredibly ridiculous. The kind of sigh that can only lead to the utterance of one phrase.

“I love you.”

Emma only caught a glimpse of Henry’s face lighting up in pink and red before she pulled back inside. She dressed as quickly as she could manage, throwing on a pale blouse and simple blue skirt that swept across her feet. She barely put her hair up and rather scandalously, in her mind, didn’t bother with a corset. Besides, she was just meeting Henry. She was getting married to the man in six weeks. Only after a few minutes later, she appeared outside.

When Henry saw Emma, like a beautiful apparition in the moonlight, he rushed to her and caught her in an embrace. She ran a hand across his cheek, coaxing his lips to hers. His kiss felt like the first breath of autumn. Henry pulled away, unable to pull his mouth out of a smile.

“Emma,” He said. “I need your help with my experiment.”

She giggled, slightly perplexed.

“What do you mean?” She asked. “Your proposal was rejected, you don’t have a subject.”

“I know that.” Henry took a few steps from her. “But, I do have a subject.”

Emma placed her hands together. Her stomach knotted with dread.

“Henry, you’re frightening me. What do you mean you have a subject.”

“I’m going to use myself, Emma.” He looked back at her.

That’s what she was afraid he was going to say. She padded forward, clinging onto his arm.

“You can’t be serious…” She said. She rested her head on his shoulder in a fruitless pleading gesture.

“What else am I to do?” Henry pressed his hand over hers reassuringly. He kissed her gently on the cheek. “But I can’t do it myself, I need a witness. I need you.”

It took her a long time to speak again. Emma clung to Henry’s arm, letting the cold wind of the night pass over her skin. She held his arm a little tighter and took in a sharp breath like she was ready to plunge off a cliff into a raging ocean.

“I’ll do it, Henry,” Emma said. “But why come all this way to get me? Why not just get John or Poole to do it?”

Henry turned to look at her, gently taking her hands in his.

“Emma, I’m going to be spending the rest of my life with you.” He said. “If I am to become altered in some way by this, I need you to be there.”

“Oh, my darling, I doubt you’ll change that much. You’re already perfect in my eyes.”

***

The laboratory was never a place Emma was fond of. She would never tell Henry, of course. It was frigid and not particularly well lit and the surgical tools, strange apparatuses and now-empty animal cages that decorated the relatively small room gave her the creeps. Her least favorite aspect of the room, however, was how much time Henry spent toiling away inside. It wasn’t healthy, spending hours, sometimes entire days at a time locked within its confines. Emma supported Henry’s work, no matter what anyone said about it, it was the extreme lengths he went to complete it which worried her.

Emma watched, holding Henry’s journal and a pen at the ready, as he mixed his formula. The process involved several different liquids and powders, none of which Emma knew the name of, much less how to pronounce, all to produce five centiliters of blood-red fluid. Henry raised the hypodermic syringe the formula resided in aloft. He looked back at Emma.

“It’s a thing of beauty, isn’t it?” He asked.

“It’s a bit strange to me.” She said.

“No matter,” He said as he rolled up his left sleeve. There was something frantic in his voice. “This is the moment.”

Despite his visibly shaking fingers, in one swift movement, Henry plunged the straight iron of the syringe’s needle into the vein right in between the end of his forearm and the beginning of his bicep.

“Our moment.”

He injected the formula.

A pause. The air felt so cold that it burned. A single point of black ink bled into the white paper as Emma held the pen to its surface in anticipation.

“So,” She began. “How do you feel.”

Henry stood still. Very still. More still than Emma had ever seen him in fact. His eyes searched the room as his mind searched for the right words.

“Warm. Very warm.” He finally said. “Like there’s this heat spreading through my veins.”

Emma quickly wrote his statement down. Just as she finished, Henry stumbled back, catching himself on the table.

“Henry!”

“No, no, I’m fine.” He waved his hand, smiling a very strange smile. “Just a bit lightheaded.”

Emma watched with bemusement as Henry began to laugh. He placed his head his hand, his whole body shaking ever so slightly from this sudden onslaught of glee.

“A slight feeling of euphoria.” He could barely speak the words.

Delirious laughter echoed through the laboratory. Emma quickly stepped over to the table, putting the journal and pen aside, and grabbing her fiancé by the shoulders.

“Henry? Are you alright?”

As slowly as he lifted his head, his laughter died down. Yet Henry could not remove the grin from his face.

“No noticeable behavioral differences.” He barely managed to keep the laughter down once more.

Emma smiled and sighed, removing her hands from his shoulders and retrieving the journal again. She quickly wrote down the few coherent things he had mentioned.

“Now, the die is cast.” She said, flicking out one last letter.

“I suppose it is,” Henry said, placing his hands on his waist. “We just have to wait. But I’m right.”

Emma covered her hand with her mouth and smiled. She’d got him on one of his little monologues.

“I know I am.” He continued. “But only time can prove my theory now. Prove it to all those fools who didn’t believe me.”

His breathing was ragged.

“I’ll prove it to them. I’ll show them.” He thrust his hand forward as if gesturing to some unseen audience. His smile was full of pride. “I’ll show the world I—“

Henry’s hand dropped. His whole body seemed to go limp from some shock. He stumbled again, and again caught himself against the table. But worst of all, the pride was gone, he looked terrified.

“Henry?” Emma asked, somewhere between horror and good spirits. She felt her own feet stumbling backward. “Is something wrong?”

“Oh, God... What’s this?” He barely choked out. A question to the air. His chest rose and fell at an alarming speed with each hyperventilated breath.

Emma was shaking. She clutched the journal so tightly her knuckles turned white and her nails dug into the black leather of the cover.

“Emma,” He barely stammered. “Some-Something is happening, I can’t explain it!”

Henry’s head suddenly whipped downward. He clutched his face in his hand and desperately gripped to the table with the other. Before his face disappeared, Emma could’ve sworn there was a change in it. Some horrible, near undetectable change.

She couldn’t speak. She couldn’t move. She couldn’t look away.

“There’s something inside me!” He cried out. His voice was strangled. Each word was pushed from his throat with painful effort, and each word was louder and more frantic than the last.

“Emma, it’s driving me insane—“

Henry could barely finish that last word before his voice twisted from barely coherent words to loudest, most agonized scream Emma had ever heard. Both Henry and the journal clattered to the floor. He writhed, his whole body contorting in agony with each cry of anguish. Henry’s voice itself was contorted as well. It began to rasp, seeming to drop deeper as he cried out. Emma wanted to help him. More than anything she wanted to cover her ears and scream, loud enough to drown him out. But she couldn’t. She was paralyzed. Suddenly, Emma felt her eyes playing tricks on her.

Was Henry’s body changing?

She couldn’t bear it. She couldn’t bear to look at that horrible prodigy. Tears came bursting forth from Emma’s eyes as she shielded them with her shaking arms. Her mind was completely submerged in terror.

And then it all stopped.

No more crying out, no more desperate gasps, just silence. Silence and this ever so quiet ragged, rasping breathing.

Slowly, Emma lowered her arms, only to see Henry, no, someone like Henry, standing with his back turned to her. His back was near bent, hunched over the table, as the stared into the mirror just on the opposite side. Emma gasped, tripping backward. He suddenly straightened his posture. He heard her.

With a slow, sweeping movement, his claw-like hand pointed to the journal and pen on the floor. He flicked his wrist upward, wordlessly indicating for her to pick it up. She did, frantically flipping through the pages. The pen rattled in her hand.

“Midnight…” He said. His voice was too low, too deep, too gruff to be Henry’s. He rolled back shoulders. His shoulders were broader than Henry’s, too. “And all’s well.” He added a sing-song tone to his voice.

This creature that stood before Emma and his hands through his undone hair, laughing breathlessly. Calmly, he turned to face Emma, leering and looming over her like some abominable shadow. And finally, when she saw his face, another dagger of fear was driven through her heart.

His face was some gruesome parody of her beloved’s features. Limp strands of hair cast a shadow across his sunken cheekbones, pale lips and dark, merciless eyes. He looked down at his hands, stretching his fingers and savoring the sensation before finally, to her dismay, casting his gaze upon Emma again. His eyes searched for words again, a leering smile pulled his lips.

“Free.”

And once more, laughter echoed throughout the room.

#jekyll and hyde #dr jekyll and mr hyde #jekyll and hyde the musical #emma carew #henry jekyll #edward hyde #writing #kermit's writing #writblr

32 notes · View notes

spookyspemilyreid · 5 years ago

Text

Happy Anniversary “Meteora”! (March 25, 2003)❤️

Meteora is the second studio album by American rock band Linkin Park. It was released on March 25, 2003 through Warner Bros. Records, following Reanimation, a collaboration album which featured remixes of songs included on their 2000 debut studio album Hybrid Theory. The album was produced by the band alongside Don Gilmore. The title Meteora is taken from the Greek Orthodox monasteries sharing the same name. Meteora has a similar sound to Hybrid Theory, as described by critics, and the album took almost a year to be recorded. It is the first Linkin Park studio album to feature Dave Farrell after he rejoined the band in 2000.

Meteora debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, selling over 810,000 copies in its first week. Linkin Park released singles from Meteora for over a year, including "Somewhere I Belong", "Faint", "Numb", "From the Inside", and "Breaking the Habit". The song "Lying from You" was released as a promotional single. Meteora received generally positive reviews, although critics noted that the album's musical style was similar to its predecessor Hybrid Theory .

Meteora has sold over 27 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling albums of all time. It is certified 7x Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It was ranked number 36 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums of the 2000s. Some songs from the album were remixed with some of Jay-Z's songs for the EP Collision Course (2004). "Session" was nominated for Best Rock Instrumental Performance at the 46th Grammy Awards.

Initial writing for a second album dated back to early 2001, while still touring in support of Hybrid Theory. The band had written around eighty different demos during their Hybrid Theory World Tour and LP Underground Tour, within the span of just eight months. Rough song ideas written then would find its way to the final album; notably the intro for "Somewhere I Belong". Bennington recorded guitar notes for it, but found it too folk rock sounding. However, Shinoda and Joe Hahn reworked it, adding effects to it, and then played it backwards, molding it into something the band was happy with. As explained by Shinoda: "Since I reversed it, it was playing 4-3-2-1. The chord progression was reversed. Then I cut it into four pieces, and I played it 1-2-3-4. And that's why it has that sweeping sound.

In early 2002, after the touring, the writing continued in Mike's home studio, pre-production of the album began there. The band worked in pairs during the writing process, whereas Shinoda was always involved in all the songs. The recording of the songs mainly used Pro Tools, whereas the band used the traditional method of writing, in main studio. In June, pre-production terminated and the band headed for main production. The band finalized Don Gilmore as their producer. When Reanimation was released, the band had started to write the main content. Rob Bourdon spent eight hours a day in the studio for the recording of the album. By August, the band entered NRG Studios as Bennington also began writing songs with the band.

Linkin Park had finished versions of many songs before the actual recording process had begun, but they majorly wrote the finalized songs included in the track list in the studio. By October the drums were finalized and guitar parts were introduced by Brad in the control room of the studio. By the end of October, the bass parts were introduced. Don Gilmore himself being a bass player helped Farrell in his recording. The sampling part by Hahn was introduced just a month before the deadline, thereby Mike finished the recording of "Breaking the Habit" with strings arrangement by David Campbell; the song had been worked on by Shinoda for five or six years. The vocal production started in November. The mixing process as well as the album itself was finished in New York City.

Lyrically the album contains elements including depressing emotions, anger, and recovery. Explaining to MTV, Bennington said: "We don't talk about situations, we talk about the emotions behind the situations. Mike and I are two different people, so we can't sing about the same things, but we both know about frustration and anger and loneliness and love and happiness, and we can relate on that level." In the same interview, Shinoda explained it as: "What we really wanted to do was just push ourselves and push each other to really find new ways to be creative." He continued: "We wanted each sample that was in each song to be something that might perk your ear – something that you might not have ever heard before." In a promotional interview, Rob Bourdon stated: "We wanted a group of songs that would sit well together because we wanted to make a record that you could pop into your CD player and, from beginning to end, there would never be a spot where you start daydreaming." In titling the album, Mike said that "Meteora was a word that caught my attention because it sounded huge." Dave, Joe, and Chester elaborated that just like how Meteora, the rock formations in Greece, is very epic, dramatic, and has great energy, the band wanted the album to have that same feeling.

Genre-wise, the album is categorized as nu metal, rap metal, rap rock, and alternative rock.

The promotion for the album began well ahead before its release, as pictures of the band recording were distributed to the media. To support the album, there were many photo shoots of the band on October 29 at the Ambassador Hotel, where the band took a break from recording the album for two days, for designing the cover art of the album. "The Flem" and "Delta" helped the band for the art works, for the album as well as for the singles spawned by it. A TV commercial for the album was premiered on January 1, 2003. "Somewhere I Belong" was released as the first single, premiering on US radio on March 18, 2003. Being released only nine days before the album release, it influenced the album sales performance worldwide. The second single off the album was "Faint", released before the band started its world tour. The third single "Numb" was released when Linkin Park performed it live in Madrid. "From the Inside" was released as the fourth single off the album before the North American leg of the world tour. "Breaking the Habit" was released while the band was in Indonesia. The album was released with various limited edition content for promotional purposes.

There is a special edition of Meteora, which includes the "Making of Meteora" DVD documentary. The special-edition package was packaged in a blue tinted case with the blue Meteora cover that can be found in some parts of Asia, United States, and more commonly in India. An alternate Indian version contains an alternate DVD and alternative cover that is packaged in a slimline case with the disc in original packaging. The "Tour Edition" of Meteora is packaged in a two disc set. The second disc, which is a Video CD, has the music videos for "Somewhere I Belong", "Faint", "Numb", and "Breaking the Habit". The tour edition is packaged in a standard Compact Disc case, rather than their trademark digipak case. The album was also released on a very limited quantity of vinyl records (spread across two LPs) under Warner Brothers. These are coveted by collectors and fetch high prices at auction. In 2014, Linkin Park released a demo version of Shinoda singing the song, on their 14th annual fan club CD, LPU XIV.

The band promoted the album with their Meteora World Tour and various other supporting tours. The world tour was supported by Hoobastank, P.O.D. and Story of the Year. The band played shows at Pellissier Building and Wiltern Theatre on the day before the album release and on the release date. The shows were called "'Meteora' Release Show". The European leg was cancelled because Chester was having severe back and abdominal pains. As a result, half of the music video of "Numb" was shot in Los Angeles and the Czech Republic. The album was also promoted by the Projekt Revolution festival. A live album was released in support of the album titled Live in Texas. Linkin Park played various special shows worldwide, including "Reading Ireland", as well as performing during the Kerrang! Awards, "Livid", "X-103's Not So Silent Night", "The End's Deck The Hall Ball" and "KROQ Almost Acoustic X-Mas", in promotion of the album.

Meteora received generally positive reviews, although critics noted that the album's musical style was similar to its predecessor, Hybrid Theory (2000). The overall Metacritic score is 62. E! Online rated it A, and expected it to "shoot straight for the stars". Entertainment Weekly described it as "radio-friendly perfection". Dot Music described it as a "guaranteed source of ubiquitous radio hits". Rolling Stone said the band "squeezed the last remaining life out of this nearly extinct formula". Billboard Magazine described Meteora as "a ready-made crowdpleaser". The New Musical Express said it had "massive commercial appeal" but left the reviewer "underwhelmed".

AllMusic described the album as "nothing more and nothing less than a Hybrid Theory part 2.", but added that the band "has discipline and editing skills, keeping this record at a tight 36 minutes and 41 seconds, a move that makes it considerably more listenable than its peers... since they know where to focus their energy, something that many nu-metal bands simply do not." Sputnikmusic writer Damrod criticized the album as being too similar to Hybrid Theory, but praised the album's production quality and catchiness, stating "the songs just invade your brain".

Blender described it as "harder, denser, uglier", while Q described it as "less an artistic endeavor than an exercise in target marketing." Entertainment Weekly gave the album a B+, calling it a "thunderously hooky album that seamlessly blends the group's disparate sonic elements into radio-friendly perfection".

The song "Session" was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance in 2004.

In its first week, Meteora debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. The album sold at least 810,000 copies its first week of release. As of June 2014, the album has sold 6.2 million copies in the US, and over 27 million copies worldwide. The album was ranked number 36 on Billboard's Hot 200 Albums of the Decade.

#linkin park #meteora #march 25 #march 25th #3.25 #3.25.03 #3.25.2003 #march 25 2003 #march 25th 2003 #2003 #mike shinoda #brad delson #rob bourdon #joe hahn #dave phoenix farrell #chester bennington #2000s

10 notes · View notes

obsidianarchives · 5 years ago

Text

Slavery in Thedas: How BioWare Could Bring Nuance to Dragon Age

The Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), video gaming’s most prominent trade show, has dimmed its lights and shuttered its doors until next June. One game that was conspicuously absent was the highly anticipated fourth installment of the Dragon Age franchise from EA-owned BioWare. This isn’t so surprising since a Kotaku article detailed the turmoil going on at BioWare that led to a truly abysmal reception for its latest game: their first try at an online loot-and-shoot adventure, Anthem.

Still, I must admit that I have thought about Dragon Age every day since The Game Awards of December 2018. That’s when BioWare dropped a 65-second teaser and launched a hashtag that had me hooting triumphantly in my living room, #TheDreadWolfRises. I even wrote an article about who from the past games should appear in the next.

I have met some of my all-time favorite characters and gone on my most beloved adventures while traversing the carefully crafted world of Thedas (The Dragon Age Setting). A big part of that is due to the broader themes of how theocracy, colonization, and war affect the marginalized and enrich the powerful.

Creating worlds

of adventure, conflict and companionship

that inspire you to become the hero of your story.

The statement above is only one of the many messages on BioWare’s website that highlight how much they value story and characters in their games. This attitude has served BioWare well. Its last unqualified success, single player RPG Dragon Age Inquisition, earned a whopping 130 Game of the Year Awards in 2015 and had professional critics specifically praising its story.

Of course, not everyone has been impressed. BioWare frequently gets criticized by what I like to refer to as the “dude bro army” for daring to include PoVs that aren’t in lock step with the dominant culture. Read: “Y’all have too many queers, coloreds, and non-hot ladies in your games!” Back in 2011, the lead writer for the Dragon Age series at the time, David Gaider, wrote a response to one such gamer on their now-defunct message board that was so well crafted it garnered press. Gaider, an out gay man himself, challenged the notion that video games should cater to the fabled “straight male gamer” that all such close-minded dude bros evoke when complaining about diversity. As a bi Black woman gamer, this endears BioWare to me even more.

All is not perfect, however. In addition to sex and sexuality, racial oppression and hegemony are two frequently explored themes in Dragon Age games. There is an allegorical connection between the systemic and situational anti-elf sentiment found throughout Thedas and the anti-Black sentiment that runs rampant in our own world. The problem is that many of these experiences are written and crafted by folks who have never been on the receiving end of this kind of oppression. Although talent and empathy carry the stories surprisingly far, the devil is in the details.

In fact, the usual formula of giving players the freedom to choose how they want to act allows for just as much conquest, haughty disinterest in ethical decision making, and even slave profiteering as opportunities to fight those evils. (I try not to think of how many players across the globe regularly sell elves to slavers for a few in-game bucks while I’m murdering every slaver that the game will allow.)

This is why when another Kotaku article reported that a Dragon Age project set in Tevinter—the slave trade capital of Thedas—was scrapped, I didn’t share in the disappointment that bubbled throughout fandom. Quite frankly, I was relieved. I unfortunately don’t see BioWare being able to craft a story taking place in Tevinter in a way that won’t be chock full of obliviousness, microaggressions, and straight up triggers for Black players.

How can I think this way about one of my favorite game franchises of all time, you ask? Well, in Inquisition, it was not only possible, but extremely easy for someone playing as an elf to make a mistake and wipe out their entire clan while assigning missions on the war table. Because this process takes place over multiple in-game decisions and hours of gameplay, there was no way to go back and fix it. What’s more, no one even acknowledges that it happened in the game.

To be fair, the developers admitted that this was a problem, but saw it more as a design faux pas akin to other similar war table missions that went awry. To me, it resounded particularly loud to see an oppressed people who were frequently set upon by aggressive humans get extinguished like a flame all due to my actions. What’s more is that this is my Inquisitor’s family and the only society she’d known until the beginning of the game. To say it jettisoned me out of the heroic role play fantasy for a while would be an understatement.

Later in the “Jaws of Hakkon” mission, when it is revealed the first Inquisitor was also an elf but the chantry (church) scrubbed all records of this from history, the game similarly ignores the profound implications this would have for an elven Inquisitor. I have spent my whole adult life trying to sankofa (go back and fetch) all the history of my people that has been deliberately obscured or warped by a western school system. This connected to my life in a way that was never even partially explored in the game.

Other ways a few high ranking Black developers could have helped BioWare is with Dorian. Sure, he’s one of their most dynamic, fun, and charismatic characters in Inquisition. But he’s also an unrepentant slave owner who, even late in the game, vacillates between vacuously apologizing to Solas for Tevinter’s fabled domination of Elvhenan and encouraging the annoyed elf to enslave spirits to do his bidding.

And then there’s Vivienne, the one character designed as a Black woman. Look, I’m not suggesting that tough as nails, power enthusiast Vivienne should’ve dropped her unfriendly Black hottie status and held hands with everyone. But how much more nuanced and mindful would Vivienne’s characterization have been in the hands of a Black woman who has spent her academic and professional career modulating her voice and carefully curating her demeanor to avoid the scarlet letter of being dubbed “angry” or “difficult”? What made “The Iron Lady” into the cold, calculated defender of the status quo? The horrors and indignities she must have faced in the Ostwick Mage Circle that led her to create her impregnable persona are never even hinted at.

Furthermore, Vivienne is immediately and permanently pit against the most lovable character in the game, Cole. No one in the game seems to understand her position. She is a Circle mage that was taught to mistrust and fear demons before she was able to read. Of course she’s scared to death of Cole! Instead, the game just casts her as an irrational bigot and a danger to ‘innocent’ Cole, a being that even admits he is potentially quite dangerous.

And that's not to mention Sera's internalized elven racism and self-hatred that could have used more nuanced handling from someone of a community that deals with such things.

I just…Hire some Black writers and developers, BioWare.

That way when you explore these themes common to our experience there will be a level of authenticity Black players can appreciate and identify with immediately while non-Black players get to enjoy a narrative shaped by people with a deeper connection to the subject matter. Having multiple queer writers helped the sexuality content immensely; it’s time to do the same for the racial commentary.

Patrick Weekes, the current lead writer for the Dragon Age series is an immense talent. He wrote my favorite character in the entire franchise, The Iron Bull, and two others in my top 10, Cole and Solas. I have no doubt that he and his team will create an incredible yarn, but if BioWare wants to level up and reclaim their former glory after their last few games have struggled, leaving their brand a bit tarnished, they are going to have to evolve and invest in more diverse, authentic voices.

#dragon Age #games #Video Games

114 notes · View notes

themeatlife · 4 years ago

Text

the Meat Life Stay-At-Home Watchlist

Chronicling what I have watched or rewatched through the pandemic so far

The world has changed around us the last few months, particularly in the United States since March 11. With the lack of events to hit up, like most Americans I’ve been catching up on some watching through the various streaming services and my own digital copies of movies and shows.

I didn’t really think of keeping up with what I have been watching until just recently, but here is what I can remember hitting up so far since I’ve spent the majority of the time at home. Some are favorites that I would have watched anyway. Some were unfinished until I got a chance to get back to them. And others just became available.

Here’s what I remember of the watchlist:

The Office (Netfilx) This is a favorite of me and the wife. We watch this on the regular though. My wife uses The Office as her lullaby of sorts, putting it on in the evening as she gets ready for bed and is in bed to fall asleep. I did a post on the 15th anniversary, so I won’t really deep-dive.

Gossip Girl (Netflix) Another one that my wife rotates with The Office as her lullaby. The series is not bad, it’s basically The OC in Manhattan (both are created and developed by Josh Schwartz). It also takes on a new perspective when you think about star Penn Badgley is the creep in You. So Dan Humphrey gets this weird creeper Joe Goldberg vibe at times.

Parks and Recreation (Netflix) I never got into Parks and Rec on its original run. I was encouraged to check it out by some coworkers since I liked The Office. It is a great show, very funny, and poignant in a way. It feels like a throwback to when people could disagree politically and still get along. There is a lot less of that nowadays. We might need more Parks and Rec in real life. I started this right before the pandemic and finished around the beginning of things getting locked down.

Frozen II (Disney+) The sequel debuted on Disney+ early on in the quarantine period. My family enjoyed it. I thought it was entertaining, but I felt like it was weighted down a bit by the mythology explaining. It seemed too busy explaining a lot of things. Still an enjoyable movie, but the first is better.

Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness (Netflix) Intriguing. The series debuted early in the quarantine period and became a staple of stay-at-home viewing and a runaway hit. Lots of WTF moments. It was like the train wreck analogy to the Nth degree. But you can tell it was made in a way that leans in favor of Joe Exotic, making him look like a victim in the last couple episodes. Also gave way to memorable memes ever since.

The Rocketeer (Disney+) I haven’t watched this movie since I was a kid. Looking back, you can see a lot of The Rocketeer in Captain America - The First Avenger. Easy to see though, since they share the same director Joe Johnston. Prior to America’s involvement in World War II, a movie star Nazi goes after an experimental rocket pack developed by Howard Hughes. The rocket pack is retrieved by accident from a down on luck stunt pilot. Fun movie.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (Disney+) I should have watched the entire Skywalker saga leading up to it, but I figured I have a ton of time to do that later. This was a May the 4th watch. I haven’t watched the Skywalker saga finale since it was in theaters. It’s not a bad movie, I just feel it could have been a lot better with some modifications here and there. Also, I believe this was going to be the Leia movie. The Force Awakens was Han’s swan song, as was The Last Jedi for Luke. I feel like this would have been great for Leia but obviously they were limited due to the untimely death of Carrie Fisher. The scene where Ren/Ben speaks with Han after battling Rey would have hit harder with Leia instead of Han.

Trolls: World Tour (VOD) Cute kid movie. Was nice to hear a lot of familiar music. Sucks that rock was the villain in the first couple acts. Seeing it once was enough, though. Like the first Trolls, I am glad my kids enjoyed it but did not participate in excessive multiple viewings.

Onward (Disney+) Didn’t get a chance to catch this at the theater before they closed them down. Great movie, but gosh. Why does Pixar always pull at the heart strings like that? I was quietly crying to myself at the end. I’m glad we made our living room dark theater-style, otherwise my kids would have seen me all torn up.

Fast and Furious 5-7 (Fast Five - HBO, The Fast and the Furious 6/Furious 7 - Digital) I ended up not watching the entire series. There is a great trilogy within the series, 5-7 was that trilogy. Fast Five was the best of the FF franchise and where it perfected their movie formula. It was like an action Ocean’s Eleven with cars. 6 and 7 expanded on that formula, upping the humor and ridiculousness factor. 6 had the exits of the Han and Gisele characters (they found a way to tie in Tokyo Drift to the rest of the series, Gal Gadot was on her way to becoming Wonder Woman for DC). And 7 had that great ending with the tribute to Paul Walker to the sounds of Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth.

Toy Story 4 (Disney+) Another Pixar hit. Didn’t hit me quite as hard as Onward or Toy Story 3 did emotionally, thank goodness. I thought this story was over the way Toy Story 3 ended. But Pixar did a good job adapting to prolong these characters stories. It did feel like it was a bit of two and three combined looking back. Still very good, Pixar knows what it’s doing.

The Marvel Infinity Saga (Disney+/Netflix/Digital) Leading up to the one-year anniversary of the release of Avengers: Endgame, I went through and rewatched all 23 MCU movies. This time, I went in chronological story order by starting with Captain America - The First Avenger. I chronicled the order I watched in my last post. Even after viewing many of these movies multiple times, I’m still amazed at how much I enjoy them and the scope of what Marvel was able to achieve leading into the climax in Endgame.

Community (Netflix/Hulu) I loved Community on its initial run on NBC but never watched any of the episodes when it was on Yahoo for its sixth season. It has been great to rewatch the meta-humor and sitcom trope parodies. And since Ken Jeong and Joel McHale started their own podcast called The Darkest Timeline (half COVID-19, half Community pod), it has been a good companion viewing.

The Back to the Future Trilogy (Netflix) Recent add to Netflix for easy viewing, these movies have been a favorite of the Mitra boys since childhood. Upon viewing as an adult, there is some humor that I didn’t recognize as a kid that is hilarious to me now. It is also crazy how well this teen time-travel sci-fi comedy works. Some of the effects in Part 2 are dated and 2015 didn’t quite end up the way it did in the movies. But overall very enjoyable on the rewatch!

Extraction (Netflix) High budget action flick funded by Netflix? Written by the Russo Brothers? And staring Chris Hemsworth? I’m in! Directed by long-time stunt man and Russo Bros go-to stunt coordinator Sam Hargrave (you can tell the Russo influence). It has an awesome 15ish minute one-shot action/chase sequence that is top notch. Don’t think much about the plot or the controversy of cultural representation, just enjoy the action.

The Mighty Ducks Trilogy (HBO) Another childhood favorite of mine. Nevermind that the hockey itself isn’t accurate. This is about pure fun for an hour and a half at a time. Come for the hi-jinx, stay for the heart. Triple-deke, knuckle-puck, taking out the trash. And leave it out on the ice!

The Harry Potter Series (Blu-Ray/Digital) This was not a go-to for me until Linda made me watch the entire series. I guess when the first movie came out, it was too much of a kid movie for me (I was a high school senior at the time). But from the second movie onward, it felt like the storytelling and movie making got better and better. The Deathly Hallows was an epic ending, even if they did change the ending from the book. I didn’t watch the newer Fantastic Beasts movies along with this though, my wife did.

Westworld - Season 3 (HBO) Recently got HBO back, so I caught up on Westworld Season 3. I haven’t rewatched the previous seasons yet, but I may revisit it soon. Season 1 was spectacular, Season 2 was confusing as hell but still entertaining. Season 3 is somewhere in between, expanding on the ongoing storyline. It was more straight-forward because its storyline is in the “real-world.” For those of you that have watched, didn’t you think it was highly ironic that the Incite ball was basically the AT&T logo? (AT&T is the parent company for WarnerMedia and HBO)

The Last Dance (ESPN/ESPN+) The Michael Jordan docu-series has been a god-sent for sports fans devoid of live American sports for the past couple months. Is it Jordan-biased? Sure. But it is full of drama and intrigue and full of nostalgia. The NBA had commissioned a camera crew to follow the 1997-1998 Chicago Bulls on their run for their sixth NBA championship. Jordan owned the controlling rights to the footage and unlocked it after the 2016 NBA Finals. So this documentary was years in the making and with the pandemic the release date was moved up. Although it featured a lot of unseen footage, it also chronicled the years leading up to the 1998 Bulls title. The last 5 Sundays have been awesome.

The Princess Bride (Disney+) I haven’t watched this movie since I was a kid. It wasn’t one of my recurring watches back then. So this was actually my second viewing of this movie ever. I found it quite enjoyable. It was cheesy, but fun, and a good family watch. One of the many older titles available on Disney+.

Scoob (VOD) My kids had some of the older Scooby Doo episodes on DVD and watched them when they were younger. This was a fun revisit for them and for us as parents. It was actually cool seeing a lot of the Hanna-Barbera characters in one movie. We watched this shortly after finishing Community, and my kids recognized Ken Jeong’s voice as Dynomutt. My daughter hilariously shouted “Senor Chang!” when she recognized him.

The Indiana Jones Series (Netflix) I introduced my son to Indiana Jones a few months ago watching Raiders of the Lost Ark. He loved it. He lost a little bit of interest during the Temple of Doom, I think the character Short Round lost it for him (character hasn’t aged well). The Last Crusade reclaimed his interest. Harrison Ford was at his natural apex playing Indiana Jones. I did not watch the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I didn’t feel the need to revisit that installment, while it was enjoyable the alien ending ruined the lead up to it.

The Dark Knight Trilogy (Batman Begins/The Dark Knight - Hulu, The Dark Knight Rises - Digital) Every few years I try to revisit this series. It is the best thing DC has ever put out cinematically. While Begins and Rises is more comic book, TDK is a straight crime drama set in the world of Batman. My favorite is Rises, but the absolute best comic book movie remains The Dark Knight, even with the advent of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Jurassic Park/Jurassic World Series (Jurassic Park/The Lost World: Jurassic Park - Blu-Ray, Jurassic World - Digital, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom - Cinemax) The original Jurassic Park is such a great movie. Rewatching, it’s crazy how well the effects for the dinosaurs hold up. Steven Spielberg, Stan Winston, and ILM did a great job mixing animatronic and CGI dino effects that stand the test of time. The Lost World was enjoyable but not as good as the original. I skipped JP III, such a bad movie. Jurassic World was a good way to reboot the series, basically a remake of the original but incorporating a lot of references to it. I just finished Fallen Kingdom today. Although Fallen Kingdom was entertaining, it fails to recapture some of the magic of JP and JW.

I’m not sure what I will hit up next. I might hit some Keanu Reeves movies like Speed, the Matrix Trilogy, and/or the John Wick Trilogy. Maybe Top Gun. Maybe rewatch Friends or How I Met Your Mother. Maybe something on HBO Max when it comes out like The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Maybe Terminator. Possibilities are endless, at least until some American sports return.

2 notes · View notes

multiplegamestyles-blog · 6 years ago

Text

5 Game Design Tips to Help You.

Game design is hard. It takes a lot of time, planning and is, essentially, the core of a game. I mean, within game design you have visuals, graphics, level design, soundtrack, the objectives. There’s really a lot into it.

1 - Making a Game Feel Alive

To make a game feel alive is kinda easy, but people seem to keep forgetting about it. There are a lot of ways to make a scene feel alive, and I’ll cover some of them.

Make Nature Feel Natural

That should be an obvious one, but if you didn’t think of that, here it goes. You could make trees bend to the wind, grass shake when the player steps on it, birds that fly away when the player gets close to them, and much more. There’s really no limits to creativity.

Air Particles

Look around. Look at a window, where there’s light coming in. There’s a chance that you’ll notice some dust or something like that floating around. Your game should have that too. It doesn’t need to be crazy, it’s just a subtle effect.

Interaction

Don’t you love to blow those old crates to pieces? And to cut that grass and get a bit of XP? Or to get a hidden item by interacting with a tree? Or even to walk by and see that grass waving at your touch? So, if those things are in other games, why aren’t them in yours?

An Example in a Video

Blackthornprod explains everything I told really well. I recommend you to watch his video.

youtube

2 - Mechanics and Challenges

A level should be fun to play. It doesn’t matter if your game is based on cubes. Visuals don’t make great games, at least not all alone, even if it helps to sell a game. Always remember that.

Now, what makes a game great? Well, a lot of things can help, that’s for sure. Two of them are Mechanics and Challenges. If a game has great Mechanics, but poorly designed challenges, making it too easy or too boring for the player to surpass the game, the game will fail to entertain and, most importantly, to sell.

But that doesn’t mean that both of them need to be perfect. That’s because, by having poor mechanics and great challenges, challenges that make a great use of those mechanics, a player can and will get entertained.

Creativity and patience are the masters here. If you don’t feel creative enough to create a complex and fun mechanic, that’s no problem. You just need the creativity and patience to figure out how to make a simple mechanic fun to use, in interesting and unique ways.

An Example:

Let’s take a look at Super Mario Odyssey. It’s a great game, no doubts about that. But, let’s take a look at the core mechanic of the game; the mechanic that is the center, the root where the game’s tree grew around: the hat throw. Yes, you beat the game throwing hats. Mario’s hat. Doesn’t that sound silly? But what if I told you that you can control enemies when you throw your hat at them and that you can use their abilities? Now it sounds a lot more interesting, right?

3 - Polishing

Polishing is a damn important thing. The more you polish, the better your game will get. The better the game, more players will get entertained and hooked at it. Simple math, ain’t it? But, how does one polish a game? What is polishing after all?

Well, polishing is nothing more than tracking and solving problems. To find something that can be improved and improve it to its greatest level.

Example:

As an example, I’ll use my game, Land Of Enchantments. I’ve made a lot of trees for it, but that’s when I first started the project. I didn’t have a clue on which would be the visual style of my game, so I kept experimenting. Recently I’ve realized how ugly they are and I made an upgrade to them:

I found something that could be improved and I did it. If I were to examine every bit and pit of Land Of Enchantments, I’m really sure that, with time, the game would look like an AAA title. And that’s something that anyone can do.

Now, of course, experience counts, but if you never try you’ll never improve your skills, right? How long do you think I spent polishing this post you’re reading?

4 - Designing a Great Level

Well, there’s no secret formula to it. All I can say for sure is that you need to experiment and put people to play your game and test it out.

But I’ll try to help by giving some steps to follow and maybe improve or worsen the results. Be careful.

Choose the Mechanics

First of all, pick all of the mechanics that you want the player to learn and/or use. You’ll develop the level around those. Also, pick some already used ones for consistency’s sake.

Plan

Always plan everything you are putting in your game. Never add something just because you feel it is cool, you can end up with hours thrown away. Level designing is no exception.

Grab a piece of paper and make a sketch, even if a rough one, just to idealize what you want to do. Design the level around those mechanics you’ve chosen. Make them the foundation of your building. Then, weight the pros and cons of everything you’ve added in.

By doing that you’ll find things that probably wouldn’t have worked out so well, and you’ll be aware of things that may harm your game. You’ll also know what works and learn some things that may be used somewhere else. Who knows?

Sketch and Test

Make a simplified version of the level, with little to no detailing. You’ll want people to test that. Think of it as an Alpha version of the level. By putting people to test it you’ll learn what’s way too hard to accomplish, what’s too easy, things that should be more obvious for the player, etc.

Finally, Make it Awesome

Once you’ve made all of the adjustments and the sketch is already working, then go for it. Now you have nothing to lose but time making sure that every bit of that level feels like it’s got some bit of life to it.

Music

The music is one of the most important things when it comes to games. A song can drive the player’s emotions to everywhere you want to. A note off and you can bet that the overall feeling changes. Analyze the level once more, and then think of what do you want the player to feel. Make a theme for that level. Make a more intense version of the same for when the player faces an enemy. No song or long pauses can lead to tension in a really dark game.

But pay attention to the music, and please, be careful. The wrong soundtrack can ruin a game.

5 - Story

Stories don’t really sell games when the game is not good. If you’re making a bad game, I’m sorry bro, but no great story will sell it. Well, maybe it will, but the odds are that it won’t work.

With that said, I believe that Story is the second major part of a game, with the first being the Mechanics and Challenges. A game doesn’t need a good story to sell and be fun, but a game can’t sell only telling stories.

I can’t tell you how to write a good story. That depends on your ideas. I can give you a few tips, of course, but you should adapt those to your game.

Make a core concept, make sure to add a few climax moments, and an evil villain always supports a good story.

Conclusion

These were my five tips to help you with Game Design. I may say that I had no clue whatsoever on what I would write when I first started this post. Just like with any other human, I may be wrong. I can really be wrong. So, don’t take my words for granted. You’ve listened to what I think, and you should listen to what other developers have to say too.

Do you want a pro tip? Ask. Ask how did Notch come up with the idea for Minecraft. Ask to Rare how did they make those grass shaders they use on Kameo: Elements of Power. But, more important than asking, you should listen, because people always have something to teach.

Here’s another really good YouTube channel: Game Dev Underground. He really knows what he’s talking about.

That’s it guys, I really do hope you found something useful here and that you’ve learned something new. Follow me on Twitter so that you can vote on what I’ll write in my next post. Bye!

#gamedev #gamedesign #game #games #pc games #tips #strategies & tips

11 notes · View notes

uclaradio · 6 years ago

Text

Interview with SpaceGodApollo (11/2/18)

Interview occurred on “No Pulp Radio Show” with DJ Odyssey, Ishaan Pota and Lily Frankel

This interview has been edited and transcribed for concision with some questions edited for clarity by Lily Frankel

DJO: So for those who don’t know you are, like where are you from?

SGA: Oh shit, alright, so I was born in Houston. And then honestly my childhood roots were all based in Pasadena, my grandparents, and like my sister and shit. And then, uh, shit, after that, that’s when I started living with my dad, uh, in Missouri City. And uh, yeah, shit was kind of rough in the beginning though, cause when my parents got a divorce, I didn’t see my dad for like, four years. So I was with my grandparents and like shit was always rough over there cuz like my family, like, they kind of fucked up. And there’s some shit I had to go through and I had to see and it fucking sucks, but if I didn’t go through that shit I wouldn’t be where I am today, representing my grandparents the way I am today.

DJO: Would you say music is kind of like an escape for you?

SGA: Definitely, man. I think music, for anyone that’s like depressed out there and they don’t have an outlet where they can seek help, it’s like, music is something that can be personal to them, and only them. And they can carry that with them for life. And it’s like, there’s artists that have affected me, that are going to affect me for life. And I’m always going to be so grateful that... God put them along my path, because it truly did help me and guide me as a person.

DJO: So when did you decide that being an artist is what you wanted to do as a career?

SGA: Damn, man. I remember when I was like 11, 12, I started DJing, and I wanted to make like dubstep because skrillex was hype. And I made like a badass, like, remix of Ellie Goulding, her cover of “High for This” by the weekend. That shit was fire, bruh [laughs]. And I was like 12. And I actually got it up on youtube right now, to this day, but uh, shit after that I was like uh, no, what am I doing, I’m young as hell [laughs], like I’m trippin’ thinking I’m finna be some kind of DJ. And then uh, I started getting really into RNB Music, and I really really started getting into like, just vocalists in general, that shit, it just amazed me how some people’s voices could be so powerful that it can affect millions and millions of people. And that shit really inspired me and it made me want to do something in my life that would benefit, like, more than I could ever imagine. And It was probably around like eighth grade, freshman year that I was like, yo, like, I want to be involved in music. I’m not sure how yet? But I’m going to start trying. And I spent a good ten to like, twelve months, just writing every single day song, song, song after song. I missed days of school cause I kept getting in trouble just sitting on my phone with earbuds, like writing lyrics because I was fucking addicted. And uh, I’d miss school and like, literally the whole eight hours of school that’d be going on? I’d be in my room just going off writing and writing and writing perfecting my craft. Studying wordplay, rhyme schemes, all the cadences, everything. And eventually I was like, yo, like, I’d never sing in front of nobody but when I was young my sister used to get singing lessons? And so I would always, you know, that’s my sister, I looked up to her, I would want to hang out with her and see her do her shit. And uh [laughs] I actually learned a lot from it. I would go, like, my own private, when I’m in my room, like really young, I’m talking like five or six? And I would take what she would learn from her instructor and like apply it to myself, but in secret, for so many years. And uh, shit, that’s when I met Christian, freshman year, like first day of school, and like, we just became boys. He tells me he wants to be a photographer, I’m like bro, like, I kinda want to be like, some kind of artist, whether it be singing or rapping, I don’t know yet. And then he was like bet [laughing], I’ll be your photographer, let’s do it. And I was like... It just naturally came together.

DJO: So my next question is, with the music scene so saturated with new up and coming artists, what do you do to separate yourself from everybody else?

SGA: Listen to all types of different music and find a way to respect it, and each its own. Like I will pull up, like, 40s, songs, from like, the war. And sad songs that were like, made to be sad, and try to understand what attracts people to sad songs. And it’s like, when it comes to me, I feel like every song I’ve put off out the jump has been extremely different from the other. And I feel like for me it’s all been, like, just how I’m feeling in the moment, how I’m feeling in my life. I take time dropping my tracks because I want to live different chapters of my life before I put out something that’s like, my baby, you know. That baby is developing while I’m developing as a person too. And it’s like, forever evolving. But then it’s also just like my sound is just like, forever evolving. I’ve got songs coming out like, if you want to find something that sounds like that, there’s only one place you can go. And it’s like, that’s what I’m trying to make the gold-standard for all my shit. Every song, I want it to be unique and where it’s one of a kind.

Ishaan: Who are some artists today that you draw inspiration from?

SGA: Artists today I draw inspiration from, man. Alright, like, no particular order, but like: of course, Kendrick Lamar, King Kendrick pulls true to me and a lot of like where my... my work ethic comes from, I see his wordplay and I’m like, man, this guy is a monster, he’s a freaking beast, he’s not from here [laughs]. Like, how can I compete with that. And I’m like, the only way I can compete with that is focusing on myself, keeping to myself and working fucking hard. But along with Kendrick Lamar, shit, I got, Future. Young Thug. Travis Scott of course. Shit, he went to, we went to the same school, uh, knew him way back, my sister was tight with him way back. And uh, one of the big things, also, about, you know, staying lengthy, is like, I could have been that person, you know, knowing his siblings and stuff, and been like, hey, please show Travis Scott my music, we went to the same high school, we’re friends, blah blah blah. But it’s like, I ain’t ever do that. I ain’t ever tell my parents about my music, I ain’t ever tell my sister about my music. I wanted this to be something that I accomplish on my own. And it would really make me feel complete in my life and everything and it’s something I love and want to do forever. And uh, Travis Scott definitely showed me that music can definitely be more than a hook and a verse. You know, he showed me the future and the way sounds are evolving, and you know, the way softwares and things like that, midis, are evolving, shit can get ridiculous [laughs] in the future. And it’s like, I just want to become one of the greatest artists of all time, that’s definitely the ultimate goal.

Lily: Do you think that, for you, that comes from lyrics?

SGA: For me? I think a lot of it—I feel like it’s all one big, not necessarily formula, but everything has to like, it has to fit, it has to make sense. It’s like, if I’m going to have a beat that sounds like it’s retro, it sounds like I’m taking you back to a different time, I’m going to rap in a way, or sing in a way, that’s from that time. I’m going to pay homage to that and respect it, and also put my own swagger to it and my own... my own generational sound to it and really make it my own. And like I’ve done covers of songs by like, Billie Eilish, and I’ve like completely altered them and changed them and made them completely different.

DJO: So you’re performing at Complex Con this year. How did that even go down? How did the booking go down, what are the details behind that if you can elaborate?

SGA: Yeah, basically, this past year, like, my dad, uh... He had gone to a Jamba Juice and like, in the nearest town center, and he had heard my song playing in Jamba Juice. But he didn’t know it was me. But he liked the song. And so he had the workers, cause he goes there, he’s like a daily person, and so he had asked the workers, like, what song is this? I’ve never heard this on the radio. And they were like, oh, it’s this guy named Ricky Apollo, he graduated from Elkins recently—my school—and he’s like twenty-something, but he makes really cool music. And my dad was like, Ricky Apollo? And I’m sure he like was like, that voice sounds familiar, there was no autotune or nothing. And just so everyone knows, it was my song “Feel.” It was actually my second song I had ever written... yeah, ever written, ever released, ever. And uh, thankfully, by like, the graciousness of God, XXXtentacion had found that song before everyone, and he had reposted it, and that’s when I got, like, my first little spark of exposure. [...] So my dad had asked about how that song, where that song came from. And he calls me and he’s like [affects a slightly older, higher-pitched voice], “hey do you know, uh, who Ricky Apollo is?” he goes, “is that you?” And I’m like, “yeah.” And then he’s like, your song is... you make music?” And I’m like, “yeah.” And he’s like, “it’s playing in Jamba Juice.” And I was like, “really? That’s cool.” And he was like, “what? Are you joking?” And I’m like, “nah.” [laughing] “I guess you had to find out sooner or later.” And then he immediately told my sister. And my sister freaked out because, you know, like I said, when she was younger she always wanted like, to sing, and she wanted to be a singer. And she’s a fucking incredible singer. And I’ll never be at her level [laughing], but uh, no yeah, her vocals are... she’s blessed for real. Like she’s... if you think my voice is good, it’s like... her shit’s on steroids. Like she could do opera. But uh, so my sister found out about it and whatnot. And of course, she’s my sister and she loves me, and as much as I wanted to do it alone, she was like let me help you. I want to be a part of this, I want to do this together. Because I feel like [voice breaks]... our whole life it’s like... It’s really just been me and her... And like... for her to like, feel that way? And want to help? It means like, it means everything, you know. And so she, actually, her boyfriend is a DJ. And uh, he performed at Voodoo just last weekend. His name’s Swaylo. SwayloNights on Instagram, shoutout him. Shoutout my sister, Lizzie Aguirre. So they’re actually both managing me at the moment. So Noah, who is my sister’s boyfriend, the DJ, he has a friend who is the event coordinator at Complex. And so he was like, hey man, this kid’s got a lotta talent. And I want to help him so badly and I want to reach out to as many people as I can, is there anything you can do. And the guy was like, yeah, I’ll check it out and see what I can do. And he listened to it, he got back to him. He said, yo, this is crazy, I’m gonna let the higher-ups get a listen to it. And uh, play him, like these songs, that, you know, I had chosen that I wanted them to listen to? And uh, they had all loved it, and they were like, yo, we have an open slot, let’s fly him out here, let’s get him the hotel, let’s get him the whole package, let’s feed him. And I’m so grateful for that man, it’s crazy. I remember he was like I’m gonna get back to you in a week, I don’t know if it’s for certain.

DJO: Yo that must have been the longest week.

SGA: Oh my god, you have no idea man, I was like, I was hitting the sauna and the sweat room like every fuckin day, just trying to keep my cool, tryna stay relaxed, I was like, it was definitely going to be, I knew it was going to be the biggest moment for me, and I knew it could definitely jumpstart. literally. Everything. And there’s endless possibilities, but uh, yeah, that’s really how it all came together. And after that, it’s like, I’ve got Forbes in my email, because they’re like, dude, you’re young as hell, how did you get on this line-up, and it’s like, we wanna know more about you. And it’s like, they wanna talk too. And it’s gonna be after my performance, and I’m the first one? Starting the weekend? Of all of Complex Con? And, oh my god, am I so ready, to fucking set everyone’s mind ablaze, bro. I want everyone to be hype as fuck and get ready to fucking rage all weekend, get fucked up, and have an amazing time that you won’t remember.

Can you walk us through your creative process?

SGA: Yeah, so, definitely, see when it comes down to my creative process, it’s like, okay, I’m driving a four hour drive from Austin to Houston, like whatever, like I’m bouncing around, and it’s like all of a sudden [snaps] shit just hits me, out of nowhere, a concept, and I’ll quickly take out my phone, open my notes, write a concept, it’s like, this is the type of song I want to put together. [...] And then, uh, later I’ll go home and reflect on that, or maybe I’ll spend two months, like just living life, and then I’ll come back to that and be like damn, I really want to talk about that now. And then I’ll just go to writing, for hours on hours, days on days, and then when it finally comes down to a studio sesh, Imma get like five, six hours for that one song, and I’m gonna fully, uh, invest myself into making that song fucking incredible in the best way I can possibly make it. [...] When I get like in the studio it’s really all about like, we’re all gonna be there, you know my engineer, Matthew O’Neil, he’s a huge part of the creative process. Me and him, we really, we have a like, unspoken chemistry that we just... we don’t even need to talk about, it’s just laughable at this point. We bounce off of each other’s ideas like, like at the speed of light, it’s crazy. I’ll just be in the booth, I don’t have to exit for like eight hours, we just, we know what we’re talking about, we know what we want to do, and when it’s time to experiment, it’s like, I really let him show me, and like show me what we can do with pro tools and stuff like that. And I’ve taken the time to have studio sessions where I simply just learn about the plug-ins and like learn about shit I can try to experiment later, you know, and like sit on and think about. And I feel like that’s really important, I feel like a lot of people think they can just write a verse and a hook, go to a studio and record it and that’s it, but then it’s like, you realize you just made a very boring song, you know. And I feel like, my music, I try to have a different dynamic, a more exciting dynamic, it’s like, Imma keep the same core vibe the whole time, but I’m gonna keep you on your toes with what’s about to happen next, whether the beat’s gonna get chopped and screwed, fuckin Houston style, or like, shit, we’re gonna come in with a like a choir of like my voice, or I’m all of a sudden gonna hit a falsetto, that you have no idea I can even hit that range, and it’s like, it’s really, I really like surprising people and I feel like that’s why, all my releases, I’ve always released it like boom [snaps]. Surprise. Something completely different. And they’re like damn, like, people will be like, oh, make more RNB, make more—do something jazzy, do something trap. And I’m like alright, I’m gonna mesh it all together. I’m gonna get a jazz beat, I’m gonna sing it in RNB, but then my words are gonna be about the trap [laughter]. And then I’ll take that from like, real-life experience, like obviously my parents don’t know this but like I’ve been trappin for a minute. And like that’s how we gotta make a lot of shit happen. Because I can’t be working a 9-5 and think I’m gonna be fucking inspired to make some music that’s gonna touch people’s soul. I’m not gonna do that sitting behind a fucking counter, scanning barcodes. I’m gonna do that from being out, with my friends, experiencing life, experiencing adventures, taking trips and like, going, getting one-way tickets to fucking LA for Complex Con.

How do you stay centered? Because the life of an artist, it has so many ups and downs and unpredictabilities, what do you do to center yourself and just keep sane, and keep the team sane? SGA: Shit, man. [laughs.] When it comes to keeping the team sane, you gotta be more insane than everyone else combined. You have to be able to deal with your own demons and your own negative thoughts extremely well, by yourself, in order to take care of other people, I feel like. I feel like—and that also transitions to relationships. It’s like, I can’t take care... of another girl... if I’m not right with myself. And it’s like, if I’m not good, and if I’m not in a good mental state, and I can’t even get myself in control, if my girl is hurting or she’s going through some shit, how can I be there for her if I can’t be there for myself. So I feel like a lot of keeping the team sane is really just like me keeping my composure when shit get crazy, and when shit get wild, when like, things go south, whatever, I really like, you gotta be a leader sometimes, you gotta be like a red power ranger. [DJO laughs.] Like you got the whole team, you got the whole team, but like, you gotta, you gotta, you gotta have some guidance in there.

DJO: Just turned nineteen, so for you to already kinda be encompassing this leadership quality, and just being like hey, I’m grounded, I’m centered, and you know, because, I understand the team kinda feeds off that.

SGA: Honestly, it’s like, as much as it sucks, that like, cause like I fuckin, honestly, honest to God, like I fucking hate my childhood, but if it wasn’t for my childhood, and me and my sister just being, like, by ourselves, going through our shit, it really helped us mature a lot faster, and I feel like that’s why I didn’t fuck with a lot of people in high school, and even in middle school, because I just had, I’ve seen a whole fucked up world that these kids at the time hadn’t seen. And I was, like, different in the head, but like, you know, obviously, like, I wasn’t going to make a big deal about it, it was just, Ima just keep to myself and worry about myself and my fam and making sure my sister’s good, my momma’s good, my dad’s good, my friends are good. Everyone. You know.

DJO: If you feel comfortable sharing, like, what’s one of the most fucked up things you’ve seen. Or, the most fucked up thing you saw.

SGA: Shit. One of the most fucked up things I’ve seen, is... my uncle, coming home, one day, uh, to my grandparents' crib, and like, I got other uncles there, at the time, and like, they.... You know, they, they, they could be fiends back then and they would be fightin, over like crack, because one of them would be like selling crack or have crack and [takes a deep breath] they fuckin, they get fucked up, and then they fight each other over it and then my grandparents tried to get involved, get them out of it, and they’re like in their fucking late eighties, nineties, and, and then, my uncle, beat my grandmother.... [voice breaks] and my grandfather, you know, like..... right in front of me, and it’s like... when you’re that young, and [crying] you care about those people, that shit hits different. And that’s when I would, have to, realize I can’t do anything. And then uh... I’ve never talked about this [laughs weakly]. [A moment of quiet. His friend rubs his shoulder.]

DJO: I mean, we could stop if it’s getting a little bit too deep, man.

SGA [his voice is quiet. He’s still crying. His friend is still rubbing his shoulder.]: Nah, it’s cool, it’s just... it’s just hard to dig back. I try so hard to like.... not think about it, but... it’s tough. And like that uncle, he’s, you know, he’s rotting in jail [crying], and... you know, he’s my uncle, but... he’s made his choices, and so, you know? [Exhales.] He’s got to pay for that shit I guess, bro. Nonetheless, like.... just gotta keep moving forward. Keep doing what we’re doing.

L: You talked about earlier, a little bit, meditation on the plane and spirituality, that kind of stuff, do you think that’s something that’s helped you and translated into your music at all?

SGA: Yeah, just like I’ve said, you know my sister, you know, she lived through the same fucked up shit, and so she’s actually a fuckin professional yogi, like, instructor. And she’s very spiritual and she found her own way to cope with what she goes through, through her lane, and I found mine, and I feel like we really help each other as a [voice breaks] family, and it’s... and keep each other strong, and she really showed me how to [voice breaks] keep my sanity, and keep myself... together, even though I have so many regrets... growing up, but. [Takes a breath.] Yeah, on the plane I really just had to get in touch spiritually and realize that... I’m doing this all for a greater purpose, personally. And it’s like... I feel like the reason that I could give a fuck about fame or fortune is like why I try so hard. It’s cause like, it’s really, it’s really for everyone around me. [Crying.] And I got so much love for the people around me. Real talk. I’d kill—I’d kill for my people.

DJO: So let’s get on a little bit lighter note, why don’t we talk about the track we just played for the people [“Hol’ Up”]? What was the process going behind that track? I remember when we were in the living room, we were talking about how it was one of your favorite tracks to develop.

SGA: One of my favorite tracks I’ve ever made, man. Uh, this producer, out in like... uh, I think he’s Norwegian... hit me up, like, didn’t even know English, like, talking through google translate, and he’s like, yo, I heard your shit, and like, it’s crazy. Check it—I do old school rap beats, I don’t know if you’ll like it, but fuck with it. And so I’m like, dude, I love old school rap, and I’ve always wanted to go down that lane, it’s just no producers right now, that I can get in touch with, are doing it well. And he sent me this beat and I knew, like, the way it had me moving? With no lyrics? I just knew, like, if I felt that way about it, I-I don’t have to write shit. Ima go in there and Ima go off my vibe and how I feel and when people hear it they’re gonna feel what I’m feeling and feel how I was in the booth. And when I had booked that session, me and Matt were like, let’s fuck around, let’s just re-spark the inspiration, let’s get back into, like, our hard-core work ethic, and we get like a 10-hour studio session, and we just... get a couple beats, put them together, free-style for hours, and we had put together like a 16-minute long freestyle. And it’s like, between my closest friends—it was never released, but between my closest friends, they still tell me to this day, like, drop it. And I think, uh, it’ll be something that’ll go on Soundcloud like years from now, just as something to look back on. And uh, cause that was my way of just like furthering, learning more about myself and my voice, and trying to hit extremes, in a completely, like... when you’re just high as hell, and a beat will literally move every fucking nerve in your body and it will just come so naturally. And so after I had literally done that for hours, like eight hours, and I’m like, damn, like, I’m tired as hell, let’s just chill bro, I’ve got this nice-ass old-school beat, let’s throw it on. And so Matt throws it on, immediately he’s like—he loves old school rap—and he was like, yo, like, this is fire, go get in that booth. And I was like bet, let’s get it. And then uh, we honestly knocked it out in probably like 25 minutes flat. Like, no autotune, ran through that shit. I had one thing written, and it was “hol’ up, wait, let me go out to your estate.” And we just ... ran that hoe. And that, I feel like that’s why it was so amazing to me, cause I thought like, I was so exhausted and like done for the day, nothing would come out, and it’s like—I had made the best song to me that I had ever—it was the most rewarding song to me, honestly. I feel like it was just: the ad-libs were perfect, my melodies were perfect, the vibe was perfect, and to me—it made me happy. And if it’s like, it makes me happy? I know if I can get the exposure, and get it out to millions of people, a good portion of them will like it too. And that’s all I need, to like, you know, want to keep going.

Listen to the full interview here and check out “Hol’ Up” and other SpaceGodApollo tracks on Soundcloud and Spotify!

#spacegodapollo #space #music #apollo #ucla radio #soundcloud #new music #college radio #interview #student media

1 note · View note

newsiegirlscout · 7 years ago

Text

Last One Chosen

Yup. Yup, we’re doing this now. I’ve got a pack of Coke, a few hours of sleep, and a favorite character, so, I present to you...Melvin fluff! (Partially inspired by @slytherin-unite‘s art over here..so give her a hand!)

Melvin Sneedly had never been the Team Captain of any game. Well, or one of the first chosen. In fact, it was usually reluctance that came with him being chosen at all to play in any team sport. Children gave him weird looks when he wrote out the drag equations on his forearms to swing the baseball bat at the perfect moment, or when he calculated the best trajectory for volleyball, usually succeeding with the perfect angle, though failing to gain significant force.

It was for that reason that he was typically the last chosen in Gym class or on the playground, sometimes earning a rough shove, punch, or knee to the gut when the yard duty’s back was turned. Once, that Kipper had shattered his glasses, and he’d been forced to go home early and miss Professor Gaylord’s neuroelectrophysiology demonstration just-just because he was brilliant...

He absently cupped a flower, recognizable as a sample of lycoris sprengeri, in his hand, stroking its soft petals for no more than a moment before he crushed it in his palm.

When he’d signed up for Science camp, it was supposed to be an invigorating experience to learn more about the principals of fields he didn’t know as much about, maybe do something productive with all the extra time where only delinquents were allowed to attend school. Instead, they dedicated maybe 43.436% of their time to education, and spent the remaining 56.564% on silly activities like fishing, toasting marshmallows, and physical past-times like soccer, which none other than George and Harold got to be Team Captains for.

Adjusting his glasses, he scooted forward on the grass, careful not to get verdant stains on his automatically-matched crisp white socks and listened to the calls, his gaze flickering back and forth as if a ping-pong match had unfolded.

“James McCall.”

“Abigail Bevin.”

“Rebecca Nguyen.”

“Maverick Schleisch..”

“Chris Osten.”

“Mac Turtledove.”

“Melvin Sneedly.”

Harold gestured to his position and smiled, and almost instinctively, Melvin sat up and glanced behind him. When it became apparent that no duplicate names had been placed in his cabin, he got to his feet uneasily.

“Aww, bro, you took Melvin? No fair!” George sighed from the other end of the field, still beaming.

Melvin trotted to the left team, his palms sweating, waiting for someone to tell him he had made a mistake somehow. Instead, the boy held up his palm in the social symbol Jerome Howitz students often used to greet one another, the typical response being to slap one’s hand against their’s. The blond squinted at him like anyone would a blown circuit board, baffled at his apparently-misdemeaning conduct.

“You...haven’t ever gotten a high-five before, have you?”

Melvin flushed slightly and scraped the toe of his sandal against the playing field behind him, arching his spine marginally in defense.

“Not everyone specializes in social rites, Harold Hutchins.”

“Fist bumps?”

“Intelligent people tend to have less friends than the average person. Therefore, being a straight gold-star student, my best friend is a hamster.”

“Uhh....Namaste?”

“Socializing is a waste of time that could be better dedicated to research.”

“Okay, um...have you heard that entropy isn’t what it used to be?”

At first, he remained confused. After a second, his face lit up and a short chuckle bubbled from his throat.

“There we are! You understand physics and stuff, how about playing offense?” Harold said, beaming with evident pride and tossing him the appropriate uniform color.

Melvin slipped it over his head and gave a thumbs up, merging into the lineup, forever grateful not to have been chosen last.

***********************************

As a seventeen-year-old graduate of Jerome Howitz High School, Melvin Sneedly framed his certificate, slipped it into its cardboard sleeve, and stacked it carefully in the appropriate box, allowing it to seal itself and hop onto the track down the stairs, giving a smile when it rolled down the stairs, across the living room, and onto the front porch of his house

“You ready to get this show on the road, Sport?” his father said, ruffling his hair. In response, he pulled a fine-tooth comb out of his shirt pocket and tugged it through his auburn locks, giving a slight nod.

“In a second..just gotta grab one more thing, and then I’ll be right there.”

In a formulaic fashion, he unfastened his prize photograph from where it hung above his bed, wrapping it carefully in one of his spare dress shirts and placing it between the textbooks in his backpack. Depicted were him, George, and Harold posing for their graduation, each wearing an identical grin and splattered in silly string. Throwing the weight of his bookbag across his shoulders, Melvin walked to his father’s car, stepped in, and cleaned his glasses.

Before long, the sun had set, and he watched the golden clouds roll down to the horizon calmly, one hand caressing the photograph in his lap.

Yep. It really had been one wild ride with those two.

Cheers to a half-dozen more.

#fanfiction #ficlet #captain underpants #cu #melvin sneedly #george beard #harold hutchins #coke like coca-cola #lycoris sprengeri #i hope nobody calls me out on the fact that #ahaha #lycoris is native to China #no ships please #aaa this was so much fun

61 notes · View notes

submitabug · 8 years ago

Link

This article is from 2013, but it’s worth remembering as to how we got to where we are now.

“Nintendo was slandered as a kids platform, not a leading light. Xbox put machismo, ultra-violence and chimpboys with backwards caps in the spotlight. Wedge, wedge, wedge.

“Gamers were handed a pre-packaged group identity via the propaganda machine of a mega corporation.

“It represented a time in my life as a developer that I'm not overly proud about living.”

Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not blaming Microsoft for things like Gamergate. I’m just pointing out that corporate manufactured culture greased the skids to help such hate manifest itself more easily.

Actually, just go read his whole blog post. It’s worth it if you want to understand how the sausage is made. If you don’t want to, or don’t have the time, I’ve added some quotes below.

You got the sense the pre-Xbox, 'gamers as bros' was a smaller subculture within the nerdy, whimsical hobby of games. Over two console generations, a highly cynical marketing team spent billions with no hope of immediate payback to shift the market. In an act of brilliant jujitsu, Nintendo was slandered as a kids platform, their historical strength turned against them. Xbox put machismo, ultra-violence and chimpboys with backwards caps in the paid spotlight. Wedge, wedge, wedge. Gamers were handed a pre-packaged group identity via the propaganda machine of a mega corporation. For those raised post-Xbox, Microsoft was an unquestioned Mecca of modern gaming culture. Dude. They made Halo.

Emphasis mine. Nintendo didn’t do themselves any favors with their historically rocky relationship with most third part developers, though.

There is a form to modern console games. If you've played the recent Bioshock Infinite, you can see the full glory of the vision. These are great games, especially if you know and appreciate the immense skill that goes into their creation. Each element serves a business purpose.

First there is a world rendered in lush 3D. This justifies the hardware.

Next are intermittent dollops of plot. These are voice acted because it is a quality signal. They feature intricately modeled characters on a virtual stage. This gives the arc narrative momentum and lets you know you've finished something meaningful.

Filling out the gaps in the 7-12 hours ride are moments of rote game play with all possible feedback knobs tuned to 11. Blood, brains, impact. Innovation is located at 11.2. This makes you feel something visceral.

Each element of this form is refined to a most perfect formula. There are crate-raised critics who make subtle distinctions between the 52 historical shades of grey. There are documents and research. If you are a creative working at or within a publisher, your higher purpose is to judge games based off their adherence to the form. The game is a product and consistency, much like that found in McDonalds fries, results in repeat purchases. As a publisher designer, you are someone with taste.

You police the act of creation. It is a job. It is a set of orders that come from above. It is your childhood dream.

Again, emphasis is my own. Anyone in a gaming fandom can probably remember when this change happened to their favorite small dev studio. (While I myself am thinking of EA, my first thought is Origin, not Bioware. Which I think is a topic for another post..)

As part of my personal journey, I've found that I'm driven by ideals that fit poorly with a highly gated console monoculture: What if games can connect people? What if they can improve the world? What if they bring happiness and joy to our lives?

These are important questions, and I’m glad one man took a stand enough to change his career to find the answers himself.

#xbox #microsoft #bro culture

0 notes

danaaxlove · 5 years ago

Text

After 2016’s Suicide Squad, audiences had mixed reactions to the Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey trailer, (or should I say Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey now that the title’s changed). Some people loved it. Some people hated it. As for me, I decided to spring up two pigtails, spray them pink and blue, dot a heart onto my cheekbone, and head out like a giddy six-year-old, excited to see Margot Robbie bring one of my favorite crazy characters back to the screen. Boy, was I in for a surprise. But before I jump into that, here’s a quick film production recap.

“Do you know what a harlequin is? A harlequin’s role is to serve. It’s nothing without a master. No one gives two shits who we are, beyond that.”

Birds of Prey was initially announced in May 2016, ahead of the release of Suicide Squad, with Warner Bros stating that it was a spinoff film focusing on Harley Quinn and a couple of other female DC Comics heroes and villains, such as Batgirl and the Birds of Prey. Margot Robbie spent three years working on Birds of Prey and continued to present it to Warner Bros. until the studio felt the project was at the point it could be made. After a bunch of tugging and pulling and scrapping and editing, Warner Bros. and DC Films finalized a deal in April 2018, with Cathy Yan set to direct, making her the first female Asian director to direct a superhero film. Robbie was also confirmed to be producing the film under her LuckyChap Entertainment banner, as part of a first look deal she has with the studio. With all of that preproduction information out of the way, you may be wondering what Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey is about.

“I’m the one they should be scared of! Not you, not Mr J! Because I’m Harley Fucking Quinn!”

Directed by Cathy Yan, Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey portrays the return of Harley Quinn,

The squad.

(Margot Robbie), after her devastating breakup with the Joker. Upon the break-up, Harley is submerged in grief and struggles to move on with her life. However, the post-breakup blues are quickly subdued when Harley finds out that her breakup with the Joker places her as a red alert target for those she’s wronged during her time with Mr. J., especially narcissistic crime boss, Black Mask, (Ewan McGregor). And things only get more complicated when she crosses paths with pickpocketing kid, Cassandra Cain, (Ella Jay Basco), Huntress, (Mary-Elizabeth Winstead), Black Canary, (Jurnee Smollett-Bell), and Renee Montoya, (Rosie Perez). Will Harley transcend this web of complications and prove to herself that she’s something more than just the Joker’s arm-candy? And does this cluster-bar of interesting characters coupled along with lessons learned from Suicide Squad guarantee this film being an A+ show? Dissection time!

“Here’s the deal, Quinn. You need me!”

That iconic smile. 😀

When I replay the events of the film while typing this article, the first factor that appears in my mind is story. I have mixed feelings about the story. On one hand, it’s fun, entertaining, and an action-packed frenzy, much like our lovely leading lady. But on the other, it’s just that and nothing deeper. It follows a typical action movie formula with no improvisational ingredients added to our bland elixir. There aren’t any unexpected, gruesome obstacles that raise the stakes for our main characters and causes our hearts to pound along with the raising tension of the film. And there aren’t any moments that elicit any empathy from us or leave us in awe. It’s predictable and quite linear—very A-to-B. Yan could’ve created an unpredictable storyline to match Harley’s unpredictable, quirky personality, (aside from the visually pleasing manic colors painting the film). But maybe she wanted to play it safe after Suicide Squad? So I don’t blame her. Nevertheless, this may also be a good thing for someone who knows exactly what they want. If you want to just want to kick back, relax, and have the film serve as a spoonful of entertainment rather than a syringe of seriousness—by all means, go ahead. Heck, the characters also added onto that entertainment factor.

“YOU KILLED MY SANDWICH!”

Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn: flawless. Robbie is back in portraying the lovable,

Awaiting her breakfast sandwich.

makeup-caked psycho–and what a sweet goody bag treat it is. She completely satisfied my expectations in regards to how Harley would act in her own adventure, in real-life, etc. Robbie is perfect, and I hope she’ll return to whatever films Harley Quinn is needed in. Ewan McGregor as Blackface: entertaining and amusing. It was my first time seeing McGregor play a villain, and there wasn’t an awkward barrier that kept us from immersing ourselves into the film, like it sometimes happens with other actors. I’ve read from other reviews that some people considered McGregor to be too ‘cartoony,’ but I didn’t think that at all. Mary-Elizabeth Winstead was also fantabulous, (cute reference to the title. See what I did there? Har, har, har). But having said that, some of the characters could’ve still been improved. One big aspect of improvement that stuck out to me was the chemistry between the characters. Frankly, there could’ve been more of it. With Wonder Woman or Guardians of the Galaxy for example, (yes, I know I shouldn’t compare DC to Marvel), the characters were immensely entertaining by either being emotionally invested with each other and to the audience, bantering nonstop, etc. In Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey, Harley’s personality obviously shines through, but a majority of the characters are just kinda there in the movie with Harley. It would’ve been nice if they had been more animated or vivacious in their personalities, (aside from McGregor and Winstead). You only feel the chemistry between the characters towards the end of the movie, leaving the viewer feel a bit cheated. And because of that, the various characters’ background stories get swept under the rug as cliched, rather than fulfilling their potential of being engrossing and enchanted with personality. But having described the areas the film could’ve improved in, it’s not that bad, especially when compared to other bombing reviews.

“Get ready, ladies.”

Move over, Lady and the Tramp. We’ve got a new pair of lovers.

I recall someone in IMDB’s reviews calling Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey “an Antifa film,” (I know—hilarious and dramatic). Another as being “a DC chick flick” and “Deadpool 2 knock-off.” But I completely disagree with those. Sure, it’s not what it could’ve been. But that doesn’t mean that it’s bad. I’m still glad that it was made. It’s fun, entertaining, and great for those looking for just that.

Genre: Action/Crime

Rating: R.

Time: 1 Hour, 49 minutes

Final Verdict: B

PS: In case y’all were curious as to how my “giddy six-year-old” Harley Quinn fangirl looked like the day I went–here ya go! Enjoy the goodies, haha.

Here's a little Valentine's treat for you guys! Dana's Film Review: Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey (2020). Check it out! #harleyquinn #birdsofprey #harleyquinnbirdsofprey #margotrobbie #film #critic #filmcritic #huntress #blackmask After 2016’s Suicide Squad, audiences had mixed reactions to the Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey…

0 notes

williamsjoan · 6 years ago

Text

DualShockers’ Game of the Year 2018 Staff Lists — Travis’ Top 10

As 2018 comes to a close, DualShockers and our staff are reflecting on this year’s batch of games and what were their personal highlights within the last year. Unlike the official Game of the Year 2018 awards for DualShockers, there are little-to-no-rules on our individual Top 10 posts. For instance, any game — not just 2018 releases — can be considered.

Ah, the end of the year. What’s not to love? The holiday weight gain, arguing about politics with your family members, getting invited to a loud New Year’s Eve party that you really don’t want to attend. Of course, who could forget the piece de resistance of our year-end traditions: the end of year lists.

Yes, the lists. The good, the bad, the best, the worst, the favorites, the least favorites, the this, the that. Lists are all terrific, subjective noise; they’re inflammatory by nature, they inspire debate, they create a narrative.

A lot of people blame the proliferation of list culture on BuzzFeed, which I find unfair. We love lists! We’ve always loved lists! Who could forget God’s famous listicle, titled, “The 10 Commandments?” I can’t believe “Thou Shall Not Murder” wasn’t number one. Talk about getting robbed!

You know who else loved lists? King Hammurabi of the First Babylonian Dynasty. Code of Hammurabi? Now there’s a great list. “An eye for an eye?” An absolute all-time classic. Old Hammurabi, an absolute madman. Complete legend! Don’t even get me started on ol’ Saint Nicholas. Did you see who made it on the nice list this year?

I contemplated whether or not I was going to make a year-end list for a while. Unlike literally all of my DualShockers colleagues, I don’t own a PlayStation 4, and thus, didn’t really play a lot of the capital-B Biggest games of the year.

So here’s the deal–I’m going to list my ten favorite games of the year out of the games I’ve played. Despite playing a lot of older games for the first time this year, I’m limiting the games on my list to games that were released in 2018, or games that released a substantial update this year.

Lastly, if you think I’m snubbing God of War, Marvel’s Spider-Man, or Red Dead Redemption 2 in some weird attempt to be controversial, you’re wrong, pal. I simply haven’t played them and have absolutely no business evaluating them. Now, without further ado, here are my favorite games of the year.

10. Enter the Gungeon

Enter the Gungeon was my first roguelike. It was the game that inspired me to jump headfirst into the genre and brought me countless hours of exploring, shooting, and most importantly, dying. This year’s Advanced Gungeons & Draguns DLC brought a ton of great additions to the game and has worked to make every run feel effortlessly unique. Seriously, I have logged over fifty hours in Enter the Gungeon and I’m still constantly uncovering new things. I can’t recommend this game highly enough, especially for Nintendo Switch owners.

9. Halo: The Master Chief Collection

For many people, Halo: The Master Chief Collection was a great disappointment. Upon its launch, the game’s ramshackle online infrastructure effortlessly undermined its glorious promise. After all, who wouldn’t want to revisit those original Halo games on today’s Xbox Live?

While Halo 4 and Halo 5 have brought more modern (*cough* Call of Duty-esque) sensibilities to the franchise, the original Halo trilogy offered a unique FPS experience. Thankfully, as a result of 343’s 2018 update campaign, players can finally experience those games’ online matchmaking without janky connectivity issues. As it stands, The Master Chief Collection is not just playable, it’s ridiculously fun.

Check out the DualShockers review of Halo: The Master Chief Collection.

8. PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds

2018’s “Fix PUBG” campaign and the new addition of Vikendi, the game’s snow-themed map, have kept me hooked on the classic battle royale game. Upon booting up PUBG, I don’t even have the various optimization problems that caused me to lambast the game in the past. You can read my exhaustive thoughts on the game here.

Check out the DualShockers review of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds on PS4 and PC.

7. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Similar to most Nintendo fans, putting Super Smash Bros. Ultimate on my end-of-the-year list was a no-brainer. The game’s new characters are fantastic, its quality-of-life updates are palatable, and most importantly, I don’t have a reason to keep my Wii U plugged in anymore. What more can I say, it’s Smash; it’s the tried-and-true formula made better than ever.

Check out the DualShockers review of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

6. Dead Cells

Dead Cells showed me how innovative a roguelike could be. Everything about this game felt so utterly satisfying. Additionally, the game’s upgrades make it considerably easy for fans new to the genre to hit the ground running and make good progress. I would recommend this game to just about any gamer looking for a challenge.

Check out the DualShockers review of Dead Cells.

5. Super Sportsmatchen

Super Sportsmatchen essentially flew under everyone’s radar. Evoking old NES titles like Stadium Events, the game is a fantastic party game for those looking to duke it out with one another in sports-themed minigames. Above all, Super Sportsmatchen is perfect for those that don’t feel like committing to a game of Super Mario Party, or those looking for some fun on a budget.

04. Joggernauts

Joggernauts is a beautiful, wacky, couch co-op game that will make your friends get mad at you. The game is simple– each player is a different color and only they can run into a creature of that color. Players take turns switching to the front to defeat enemies, collect keys, and complete other platforming challenges. It’s ridiculously fun and extremely challenging if you play with several people.

Check out the DualShockers review of Joggernauts.

3. Minit

Minit was the first game I reviewed at DualShockers and it remains one of my favorites of the year. Minit didn’t just challenge the way I thought about game design, it challenged the way I thought about time. In a world of oversized, bloated AAA games, Minit is a refreshing breath of fresh air.

2. Mario Tennis Aces

Mario Tennis Aces is going to be the next Mario Kart: Double Dash. People bought it when it came out, enjoyed it for a month, said “yes, this new Mario Tennis title is fun,” and will forget about it until the next one comes out. However, like Mario Kart: Double Dash, Mario Tennis Aces includes a treasure trove of interesting mechanics that transcend the tennis formula and will remain evergreen for years to come.

At the end of the day, as many others have already stated, Mario Tennis Aces is more of a fighting game than a sports game. Like all competitive fighting games, its meta is continually evolving, new content is regularly being added, and its die-hard fans are looking forward to the future. I hope this game sticks around for as long as possible.

1. Monster Hunter: World

Like a lot of people in North America, Monster Hunter World was my first taste of the franchise. Upon initially booting the game up I stopped playing it and wanted to return it. Unfamiliar with animation-locked combat systems and put-off by the game’s cluttered UI, Monster Hunter: World was initially too much for me.

One afternoon I decided to give it one last shot before selling it and oh boy, am I glad that I did. I spent the earliest weekends of the year sipping coffee and hunting monsters from the comfort of my living room. The game demanded a lot of me, forced me to learn, and I’m all the better for it.

Check out the other DualShockers’ staff Top 10 lists and our official Game of the Year Awards:

December 17: DualShockers Game of the Year Awards 2018 December 18: Lou Contaldi, Editor in Chief // Logan Moore, Reviews Editor December 19: Ryan Meitzler, Features Editor // Tomas Franzese, News Editor December 20: Reinhold Hoffmann, Community Manager December 21: Scott Meaney, Community Director // Ben Bayliss, Staff Writer December 22: Ben Walker, Staff Writer // Chris Compendio, Staff Writer December 23: Grant Huff, Staff Writer December 26: Jordan Boyd, Staff Writer December 27: Max Roberts, Staff Writer // Michael Ruiz, Staff Writer December 28: Rachael Fiddis, Staff Writer December 29: Steven Santana, Staff Writer // Tanner Pierce, Staff Writer December 30: Iyane Agossah, Staff Writer // Travis Verbil, Staff Writer // Zack Potter, Staff Writer

The post DualShockers’ Game of the Year 2018 Staff Lists — Travis’ Top 10 by Travis Verbil appeared first on DualShockers.

DualShockers’ Game of the Year 2018 Staff Lists — Travis’ Top 10 published first on https://timloewe.tumblr.com/

0 notes

recentnews18-blog · 6 years ago

Photo

New Post has been published on https://shovelnews.com/battlefield-vs-single-player-stories-are-the-right-way-to-do-war-games/

Battlefield V's single-player stories are the right way to do war games

youtube

Part of The Verge holiday 2018 gaming guide

Fighting Nazis is timely again, and yet Battlefield’s return to World War II feels ill-advised. Endless war has taken a toll on this series, and the generals need a new strategy.

I’ll start with some praise. Despite its flaws, Battlefield V is a breathtakingly cinematic game, and it has all of the relentless chaos that fans expect. In my experience playing a press preview of the game, there were only a few bugs (mostly funny ones, like corpses wobbling in midair), and the game retains the series’s recent level of polish. Control inputs feel tight and fluid, everything looks really nice, and the user interface is better than ever, which are all real accomplishments. Battlefield V is an unquestionably well-crafted object.

But as I was thinking about this review, I could not escape a strange feeling. I’ve now been playing Battlefield since 2002. I’ve spent thousands of hours playing these games: it’s a weird fact that’s difficult to reconcile with my personal identity as an adult. A past self decided to love these games, and now I’m cursed by my mastery of them. At this point, it’s hard to tell whether I’m playing for enjoyment or routine.

It’s at least comforting to play the same game over and over, as the movements become rote. It’s nice when the body and a task become the same thing. (I think this is how games like Battlefield become so abstract: after a while, you’re not holding a gun or fighting Nazis; you’re just responding to patterns and using your limbs effectively.) But this familiarity can also be alienating. A few hours into my multiplayer tour, as the rest of the world faded to the background, I had a genuine out-of-body experience. It was like watching a phantom version of a younger self charging an enemy flag. The sameness of it all made me feel like a passenger. My Battlefield exploits now read more like The Myth of Sisyphus than a medal of honor citation.

Despite my optimism for big changes to the series, developer DICE bluffed its hand. The game’s “Grand Operations” mode strings together multiday battles that are supposed to have continuity, but the consequences of winning or losing a match are minor, like adding a little bit of time to the next round. You have to squint to see how Grand Operations differs from the 16-year-old Conquest mode, and other modes like Breakthrough and Domination don’t offer meaningfully different experiences. Battlefield V’s multiplayer is essentially a lot of the same chaos: capture a point, drive a tank, fly a plane, die, repeat. Character customization and progression are tedious and don’t add much to the experience, though I wholeheartedly welcome EA’s confident turn toward inclusiveness. Ultimately, Battlefield is still rock-paper-scissors with explosions — something with exciting moments, but no sense of accomplishment. At least they’re really nice explosions.

As multiplayer shooters are rapidly evolving with the emergence of differentiated battle royale games, Battlefield is no longer an FPS bellwether. I’ve been playing another recently released WWII game, Post Scriptum, which is made by a team of people who, incidentally, started as Battlefield 2 modders. If Battlefield V is a glistening statue, Post Scriptum is a pile of rocks. It’s buggy, clunky, and only for people with the patience for an early access game that might never be finished. It’s also one of the most memorable shooters I’ve played in a while, with moments that I want to run to tell my friends about.

youtube

Post Scriptum is a shooter that lets you do things other than shooting, which I think ought to be the future of every multiplayer game with guns. Its clever trick is using the stakes and atmosphere of a war game to make the non-shooting activities feel genuinely rewarding. Lately, I’ve been obsessed with playing Post Scriptum as Euro Truck Simulator: World War II. As a logistics truck driver, I can ferry supplies to the front line while getting shot at, which lets me be a part of the deadly spectacle of a large-scale battle without killing people. Playing music out of my truck over the game’s local chat is met with laughs and appreciation. It’s something I simply can’t find in a Battlefield game. It’s weird. It’s fun. It makes me smile. I just wish it was made by the artists at DICE.

And then there’s Battlefield V’s single-player campaign, which really surprised me. The “War Stories” format, introduced in 2016’s Battlefield 1, is the smartest attempt at single-player storytelling in war games that I’ve seen. I just wish DICE had made more of them. There are only three war stories to play in Battlefield V, with a fourth coming in December. (Battlefield 1 had six.) Each story takes about an hour to complete, and while they’re hampered by forgettable action sequences, laughable NPC intelligence, and formulaic set pieces, the format still feels like something with great potential.

Instead of playing an untouchable hero who inexplicably massacres hordes of enemies like in so many other shooters, these short stories allow you to be a vulnerable part of war’s death machine, which feels more authentic than getting the costumes right. Battlefield V’s opening sequence achieves this feeling to stunning effect. When you start the game, you jump between characters in rapid succession, often taking the place of someone who just killed you and continuing the fight from their perspective. The opening whisks you from a nighttime raid to a desert ambush and huge aerial battle. I wish the entire game had been like this.

The War Stories format also cleverly echoes the intangible experience of hearing real war stories told, which often walk the line between real historical accounts and tales stretched tall by time. I was impressed by one Battlefield V story about two brothers from West Africa who were sent to France to fight for a colonial power whose land they had never seen. After native French soldiers took their guns and handed them shovels, they had to overcome the racism of their allies before being allowed to achieve glory in battle — only to see themselves erased from history in the story’s epilogue. It’s a tight and powerful single-player story that’s wrapped in the modern context of a veteran reflecting on his long-secret contribution to history. I wanted more like it.

The “Tirailleur” story could have been the model for a deeply felt war game that elevates neglected heroes into popular historical canon. We’ve had decades of interactive Clint Eastwood movies, and so I appreciate DICE’s attempt to break away from tried-and-true narratives, even if it’s clumsy about expressing them in gameplay. I just wish these stories were the centerpiece of a more complete game, not a context wrapper for multiplayer deathmatches.

If the next Battlefield game only has a collection of untold war stories, I don’t think I’ll miss its multiplayer spectacle. After 16 years, I’m ready for my own war story to end and for others to begin.

Battlefield V is available now on PS4, PC, and Xbox One.

The Verge holiday 2018 gaming guide

September 9

Donut County is a game about swallowing Los Angeles and realizing you’re an asshole

Dragon Quest XI review (PS4, PC)

Dragon Quest’s creator doesn’t want to stop working anytime soon

Marvel’s Spider-Man review (PS4)

Shadow of the Tomb Raider review (PS4, Xbox, PC)

Destiny 2: Forsaken review (PS4, Xbox, PC)

Nintendo Labo Vehicle Kit review (Switch)

Nintendo’s new Xenoblade expansion eases players into the daunting world of RPGs

Life is Strange 2 review (PS4, Xbox, PC)

October 9

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey review (PS4, Xbox, PC)

Super Mario Party review (Switch)

428: Shibuya Scramble is the best crime book you’ll ever read on your PS4

The World Ends With You review (Switch)

Return of the Obra Dinn review (PC)

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 review (PS4, Xbox, PC)

Red Dead Redemption 2 review (PS4, Xbox)

Red Dead Redemption 2 improves some of my favorite parts of The Witcher 3

This queer horror game forces you to literally tear yourself apart

November 9

With Diablo III and Dark Souls for Switch, you never have to leave the dungeon

Déraciné review (PSVR)

Tetris Effect review (PS4, PSVR)

Tetsuya Mizuguchi’s trippy new take on Tetris will put you in the zone

Tetris Effect is perfect for people overwhelmed by modern video games

Hitman 2 review (PS4, Xbox, PC)

How Hitman 2’s developers turned its gigantic levels into ever-evolving playgrounds

Sean Bean is excited to see how he dies in Hitman 2

Fallout 76 journal: an ongoing exploration of post-apocalyptic West Virginia

November, continued 3

Pokémon: Let’s Go review (Switch)

Pokémon: Let’s Go is the perfect way to introduce kids to the series

Pokémon: Let’s Go is a ‘starting point for the next 20 years of Pokémon’

December 1

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s single-player mode shines on the Switch

Source: https://www.theverge.com/2018/11/20/18103432/battlefield-v-review-single-player-battle-gameplay-combat-story-video-game

0 notes

healthnotion · 6 years ago

Text

Know Your Limits: The Law of Grandiosity

Editor’s note: This is an excerpt from Robert Greene’s new book, The Laws of Human Nature.

We humans have a deep need to think highly of ourselves. If that opinion of our goodness, greatness, and brilliance diverges enough from reality, we become grandiose. We imagine our superiority. Often, a small measure of success will elevate our natural grandiosity to even more dangerous levels. Our high self-opinion has now been confirmed by events. We forget the role that luck may have played in the success, or the contributions of others. We imagine we have the golden touch. Losing contact with reality, we make irrational decisions. That is why our success often does not last. Look for the signs of elevated grandiosity in yourself and in others—overbearing certainty in the positive outcome of your plans; excessive touchiness if criticized; a disdain for any form of authority. Counteract the pull of grandiosity by maintaining a realistic assessment of yourself and your limits. Tie any feelings of greatness to your work, your achievements, and your contributions to society.

The Success Delusion

By the summer of 1984, Michael Eisner (b. 1942), President of Paramount Pictures, could no longer ignore the restlessness that had been plaguing him for months. He was impatient to move on to a bigger stage and shake the foundations of Hollywood. This restlessness had been the story of his life. He had begun his career at ABC, and never settling too comfortably within one department, after nine years of various promotions he had risen to the position of head of primetime programming. But television began to seem so small and constricting to him. He needed a larger, grander stage. In 1976 Barry Diller—a former boss at ABC and now a chairman of Paramount Pictures—offered him the job to head Paramount’s film studio, and he jumped at the chance.

Paramount had long been in the doldrums, but working with Diller, Eisner transformed it into the hottest studio in Hollywood, with a string of remarkably successful films—Saturday Night Fever, Grease, Flashdance, and Terms of Endearment. Although Diller certainly played a part in this turnaround, Eisner saw himself as the main driving force behind the studio’s success. After all, he had invented a surefire formula for creating profitable films.

The formula depended on keeping costs down, an obsession of his. To do so, a film had to begin with a great concept, one that was original, easy to summarize, and dramatic. Executives could hire the most expensive writers, directors and actors for a film, but if the underlying concept was weak, all the money in the world would be wasted. Films with a strong concept, however, would market themselves. A studio could churn these relatively inexpensive films out in volume, and even if they were only moderate hits, they would ensure a steady flow of income. This thinking went against the grain of the blockbuster mentality of the late 1970s, but who could argue with the undeniable profits Eisner had generated for Paramount? Eisner immortalized this formula in a memo that soon spread around Hollywood and became gospel.

But after so many years of sharing the limelight with Diller at Paramount, trying to please corporate CEOs, and pushing back against marketing directors and finance people, Eisner had had enough. If only he could run his own studio, unfettered. With the formula he had created and with his relentless ambition he could forge the greatest and most profitable entertainment empire in the world. He was tired of other people piggybacking on his ideas and success. Operating on top and alone, he could control the show and take all the credit.

As Eisner contemplated this next and critical move in his career that summer of ’84, he finally settled upon the perfect target for his ambitions—the Walt Disney Corporation. At first glance, this would seem a puzzling choice. Since the death of Walt Disney in 1966, the Walt Disney film studio seemed frozen in time, getting weirder with each passing year. The place operated more like a stodgy men’s club. Many executives stopped working after lunch and spent their afternoons in card games, or would lounge about in the steam room on site. Hardly anyone was ever fired. The studio produced one animated film about every four years, and in 1983 produced a meager three live-action films. They had not had a single hit film since The Love Bug in 1966. The Disney lot in Burbank almost seemed like a ghost town. The actor Tom Hanks who worked on the lot in 1983 described it as “a greyhound bus station in the 1950s.”

Given its dilapidated condition, however, this would be the perfect place for Eisner to work his magic. The studio and the corporation could only move up. Its board members were desperate to turn it around and avoid a hostile takeover. Eisner could dictate the terms of his leadership position. Presenting himself to Roy Disney (Walt’s nephew and the largest shareholder in Disney stock) as the company’s savior, he laid out a detailed and inspiring plan for a dramatic turnaround (greater than Paramount’s), and Roy was won over. With Roy’s blessing the board approved the choice, and in September 1984 Eisner was named chairman and CEO of the Walt Disney Corporation. Frank Wells, the former head of Warner Bros., was named president and Chief Operating Officer. Wells would focus on the business side. In all matters Eisner was the boss, Wells there to help and serve him.

Eisner wasted no time. He let go of over a thousand employees and began filling the executive ranks with Paramount people, most notably Jeffrey Katzenberg (b. 1950) who had worked as Eisner’s right hand man at Paramount, and was now named chairman of Walt Disney studios. Katzenberg could be abrasive and downright rude, but no one in Hollywood was more efficient or worked harder. He simply got things done.

Within months Disney began to churn out a remarkable series of hits, adhering to Eisner’s formula. Fifteen of their first seventeen films generated profits (Down and Out in Beverly Hills, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, et al), a run of success almost unheard of for any studio in Hollywood.

One day, as he explored the Burbank lot with Wells, they entered the Disney library and discovered hundreds of cartoons from the golden era that had never been shown. There on endless shelves were stored all of the great Disney classic animated hits. Eisner’s eyes lit up at the sight of this treasure. He could reissue all of these cartoons and animated films on video (the home video market was in the midst of exploding) and it would be pure profit. Based on these cartoons, the company could create stores to market the various Disney characters. Disney was a virtual goldmine waiting to be exploited, and Eisner would make the most of this.

Soon the stores opened, the videos sold like crazy, the film hits kept pumping the company with profit, and Disney’s stock price soared. It had replaced Paramount as the hottest film studio in town. Wanting to cultivate a more public presence, Eisner decided to revive the old Wonderful World of Disney, an hour-long television show from the 50s and 60s hosted by Walt Disney himself. This time Eisner would be the host. He was not a natural in front of the camera, but he felt audiences would grow to like him. He could be comforting to children, like Walt himself. In fact, he began to feel the two of them were somehow magically connected, as if he were more than just the head of the corporation, but rather the natural son and successor to Walt Disney himself.

Despite all his success, however, the old restlessness returned. He needed a new venture, a bigger challenge, and soon he found it. The Disney Corporation had plans to create a new theme park in Europe. The last one to open, Tokyo Disneyland in 1983, was a success. Those in charge of theme parks had settled upon two potential sites for the new Disneyland—one near Barcelona, Spain, the other near Paris. Although the Barcelona site made more economic sense, since the weather there was much better, Eisner chose the French site. This was going to be more than a theme park. This was going to be a cultural statement. He would hire the best architects in the world. Unlike the usual fiberglass castles at the other theme parks, at Euro Disney—as it came to be known—the castles would be built out of pink stone and feature handcrafted stained-glass windows with scenes from various fairy tales. It would be a place even snobby French elites would be excited to visit. Eisner loved architecture, and here he could be a modern-day Medici.

As the years went by, the costs for Euro Disney mounted. Letting go of his usual obsession with the bottom line, Eisner felt that if he built it right the crowds would come and the park would eventually pay for itself. But when it finally opened as planned in 1992, it quickly became clear that Eisner had not understood French tastes and vacation habits. They were not so willing to wait on line for rides, particularly in bad weather. As in the other theme parks no beer or wine was served on the premises, and that seemed like sacrilege to the French. The hotel rooms were too expensive for a family to stay there more than a day. And despite all the attention to detail, the pink stone castles still looked like kitschy versions of the originals.

Attendance was only half of what Eisner had anticipated. The debts Disney had incurred in the construction had ballooned, and the money coming in from visitors could not even service the interest on these debts. It was shaping up to be a disaster, the first ever in his glorious career. As he finally came to terms with this reality, he decided that Frank Wells was to blame. It was his job to oversee the financial health of the project and he had failed him. Whereas before he had only had the highest things to say about their working relationship, now he complained endlessly about his second-in-command, and contemplated firing him.

In the middle of this growing debacle, Eisner felt a new threat on the horizon—Jeffrey Katzenberg. He had once referred to Katzenberg as his golden retriever—so loyal and hardworking. It was Katzenberg who had overseen the string of early hits for the studio, including the biggest hit of all, Beauty and the Beast, the film that had initiated the renaissance of Disney’s animation department. But something about Katzenberg was making him increasingly nervous. Perhaps it was the memo that Katzenberg had written in 1990, in which he dissected the string of flops Disney had recently produced in live action. “Since 1984, we have slowly drifted away from our original vision of how to run a business,” he wrote. Katzenberg criticized the studio’s decision to go for bigger budgeted films such as Dick Tracy, trying to make “event movies.” Disney had fallen for “the blockbuster mentality,” and had lost its soul in the process.

The memo made Eisner uncomfortable. Dick Tracy was Eisner’s own pet project. Was Katzenberg indirectly criticizing his boss? When he thought about it, it seemed like this was a clear imitation of his own infamous memo at Paramount, in which he had advocated for less expensive, high-concept films. Now it occurred to him that Katzenberg saw himself as the next Eisner. Maybe he was angling to take his job, to subtly undermine his authority. This began to eat away at him. Why was Katzenberg now cutting him out of story meetings?

The animation department soon became the primary generator of profits for the studio, with new hits such as Aladdin, and now The Lion King, which had been Katzenberg’s baby—he had come up with the story idea and developed it from start to finish. Magazine articles now began to feature Katzenberg as if he were the creative genius behind Disney’s resurgence in the genre. What about Roy Disney, the vice chairman of animation? What about Eisner himself who was in charge of everything? To Eisner, Katzenberg was now playing the media, building himself up. An executive had reported to Eisner that Katzenberg was going around saying, “I’m the Walt Disney of today.” Suspicion soon turned into hatred. Eisner could not stand to be around him.

Then in March of 1994, Frank Wells was killed in a helicopter accident while on a skiing trip. To reassure shareholders and Wall Street, Eisner soon announced that he would take over Wells’ position as president. But suddenly here was Katzenberg pestering him with phone calls and memos, reminding Eisner that he had promised him the president’s job if Wells had ever left the company. How insensitive, so soon after the tragedy. He stopped returning Katzenberg’s phone calls.

Finally in August 1994 Eisner fired Jeffrey Katzenberg, shocking almost everyone in Hollywood. He had fired the most successful studio executive in town. The Lion King had become one of the most profitable films in Hollywood history. It was Katzenberg who was behind Disney’s acquisition of Miramax, considered a great coup with the ensuing success of Pulp Fiction. It seemed like madness on his part, but Eisner did not care. Finally freed of Katzenberg’s shadow, he could relax and now take Disney to the next level, on his own and with no more distractions.

To prove he had not lost his touch, he soon dazzled the entertainment world by engineering Disney’s purchase of ABC. The sheer audacity of this coup once again made him the center of attention. Now he was forging an entertainment empire beyond what anyone had ever attempted or imagined. This move, however, created a problem for him. The company had virtually doubled in size. It was too complex, too big for one man. Only a year earlier he had had open-heart surgery, and he could not handle the added stress.

He needed another Frank Wells, and his thoughts soon turned to his old friend Michael Ovitz, one of the founders and the head of Creative Artists Agency. Ovitz was the greatest dealmaker in Hollywood history, perhaps the most powerful man in town. Together they could dominate the field. Many within the business warned him against this hire—Ovitz was not like Frank Wells, he was not a finance guy or a master of detail. He ignored such advice. People were being too conventional in their thinking. He decided to lure Ovitz away from CAA with a very lucrative package and offer him the title of President. He assured Ovitz in several discussions that although Ovitz would be second in command, they would eventually run the company as co-leaders.

In a phone call Ovitz finally agreed to all of the terms, but the moment Eisner hung up, he realized he had made the biggest mistake of his life. What had he been thinking? How would two such larger-than-life men ever get along? Ovitz was power hungry. This would be the Katzenberg problem times two. It was too late, however. He had gotten the board’s approval for the hire. His own reputation, his decision-making process as a CEO, was at stake. He would have to make it work.

He quickly decided upon a strategy—he would narrow Ovitz’ responsibilities, keep a tight leash on him, and make him prove himself as president. By doing so he could earn Eisner’s trust and get more power. From day one he wanted to signal to Ovitz who was boss. Instead of moving him into Frank Wells’ old office on the sixth floor at the Disney headquarters, next to Eisner’s, Eisner put him in a rather unimpressive office on the fifth floor. Ovitz liked to spread money around with gifts and lavish parties to charm people; Eisner had his team monitor every penny that Ovitz spent on such things, and watch his every move. Was Ovitz contacting other executives behind Eisner’s back? He would not nurture another Katzenberg at his breast.

Soon the following dynamic developed: Ovitz would approach him with some potential deal, and Eisner would not discourage him from exploring it. But once it came time to agree to the deal, Eisner would give a firm “no.” Slowly word spread through the industry that Ovitz had lost his touch and could no longer close a deal. Ovitz began to panic. He wanted desperately to prove he had been worthy of the choice. He offered to move to New York to help manage ABC, since the merger of the two companies was not working out so smoothly, but Eisner said no. He told his lieutenants to keep their distance from Ovitz. He was not a man to be trusted—he was the son of a liquor salesman in the San Fernando Valley, and like his father Ovitz was just a smooth salesman. He was addicted to attention from the media. From within the company, Ovitz had become completely isolated.

As the months dragged on in this saga, Ovitz could see what was happening and he complained bitterly to Eisner. He had left his agency for Disney; he had staked his reputation on what he would do as president, and Eisner was destroying his reputation. Nobody respected him any longer in the business. His treatment of Ovitz was downright sadistic. In Eisner’s mind, however, he had failed the test he had laid out; he had not proven himself to be patient; he was no Frank Wells. In December of 1996, after a mere fourteen months on the job, Ovitz was fired, taking with him an enormous severance package. It was a dizzying and rapid fall from grace.

Finally liberated from this great mistake, Eisner began to consolidate power within the company. ABC was not doing so well. He would have to intervene and take some control. He began to attend programming meetings; he talked of his own golden days at ABC, and of the great shows he had created there such as Laverne and Shirley and Happy Days. ABC needed to go back to that earlier philosophy and create high-concept shows for the family.

As the Internet began to take off, Eisner had to get involved but in a big way. He nixed the purchase of Yahoo, pushed by his executives. Instead, Disney would start its own Internet portal called Go. Over the years he had learned the lesson—it was always best to design and run your own show. Disney would dominate the Internet. He had proven himself a turnaround genius twice before, and with Disney now in a slump he would do it a third time.

Soon, however, a wave of disasters hit the corporation, one after another. After being fired, Katzenberg had sued Disney for the bonus—based on performance—he was due by his contract. When he had been president, Ovitz had tried to settle the suit before it went to court and had gotten Katzenberg to agree to $90 million, but at the last minute Eisner had nixed this, certain he did not owe Katzenberg anything. In 2001 the judge ruled in Katzenberg’s favor, and they had to settle for a whopping price of $280 million. Disney had poured vast resources into the creation of Go and it was a terrific flop that had to be shut down. The costs from Euro Disney were still bleeding the company. Disney had a partnership with Pixar, and together they had produced such hits as Toy Story. But now the CEO of Pixar, Steve Jobs, made it clear he would never work with Disney again, deeply resenting Eisner’s micromanaging. ABC was underperforming. The movies Disney produced were mostly not just flops but expensive flops, culminating in the biggest one of all, the film Pearl Harbor, which opened in May of 2001.

Suddenly it seemed that Roy Disney had lost faith in him. The stock price was plummeting. He told Eisner it would be best for him to resign. What ingratitude, what hubris! He, Eisner, was the man who had singlehandedly brought the company back from the dead. He had saved Roy from disaster and made him a fortune, Roy who had been considered Walt’s idiot nephew. And now, in his darkest hour he was going to betray Eisner? He had never felt more enraged. He quickly struck back, forcing Roy to resign from the board. This only seemed to embolden Roy. He organized a shareholder revolt known as Save Disney, and in March of 2004 the shareholders voted a stinging rebuke of Eisner’s leadership.

Soon the board decided to strip Eisner of his position as chairman of the board. The empire he had forged was falling apart. In September of 2005, with hardly an ally to lean on, and feeling alone and betrayed, Eisner officially resigned from Disney. How did it all unravel so quickly? They would come to miss him, he told friends, and he meant all of Hollywood; there would never be another like him.

Interpretation: We can say that at a certain point in his career Michael Eisner succumbed to a form of delusion or madness, his thinking so divorced from reality that he made decisions with disastrous consequences. Let us follow the progress of this delusion as it emerged and took over his mind.

At the beginning of his career at ABC, young Eisner had a solid grasp on reality. He was fiercely practical. He understood and exploited to the maximum his strengths—his ambitious and competitive nature, his intense work ethic, his keen sense for the entertainment tastes of the average American. Eisner had a quick mind and the ability to encourage others to think creatively. Leaning on these strengths, he rose quickly up the ladder. He possessed a high degree of confidence in his talents, and the series of promotions he received at ABC confirmed this self-opinion. He could afford to be a little cocky, because he had learned a lot on the job and his skills as a programmer had improved immensely. He was on a fast track towards the top, which he achieved at the age of 34 by being named head of prime time programming at ABC.

As a person of high ambition, he soon felt that the world of television was somewhat constricting. There were limits to the kinds of entertainment he could program. The film world offered something looser, greater, and more glamorous. It was natural then for him to accept the position at Paramount. But at Paramount something occurred that began the subtle process of the unbalancing of his mind. Because the stage was bigger and he was the head of the studio, he began to receive attention from the media and the public. He was featured on the cover of magazines as the hottest film executive in Hollywood. This was qualitatively different than the attention and satisfaction that came from the promotions at ABC. Now he had millions of people admiring him. How could their opinions be wrong? To them he was a genius, a new kind of hero altering the landscape of the studio system.

This was intoxicating. It inevitably elevated his estimation of his skills. But it came with a great danger. The success that Eisner had at Paramount was not completely of his own doing. When he had arrived at the studio, several films were already in pre-production, including Saturday Night Fever, that would spark the turnaround. Barry Diller was the perfect foil to Eisner. He would argue with him endlessly about his ideas, forcing Eisner to sharpen them. But puffed up by the attention he was receiving, he had to imagine that he deserved such accolades strictly from his own efforts, and so naturally he subtracted from his success the elements of good timing and the contributions of others. Now his mind was subtly divorcing itself from reality. Instead of rigorously focusing on the audience and how to entertain people, he started to increasingly focus on himself, believing in the myth of his greatness as promulgated by others. He imagined he had the golden touch.

At Disney the pattern repeated and grew more intense. He basked in the glow of his amazing success there, quickly forgetting the incredible good luck he had had in inheriting the Disney library at the time of the explosion of home video and family entertainment. He discounted the critical role that Wells had played in balancing him out. With his sense of grandeur growing, he faced a dilemma. He had become addicted to the attention that came from creating a splash, doing something big. He could not content himself with simple success and rising profits. He had to add to the myth to keep it alive. Euro Disney would be the answer. He would show the world he was not some corporate executive, but rather a Renaissance man.

In building the park, he refused to listen to experienced advisors who recommended the Barcelona site, and who advocated a modest theme park to keep the costs down. He did not pay attention to French culture, but directed everything from Burbank. He operated under the belief that his skills as the head of a film studio could be transferred to theme parks and architecture. He was wildly overestimating his creative powers, and now his decisions revealed a large enough detachment from reality to qualify as delusional. Once this mental imbalance takes hold it can only get worse, because to come back down to earth is to admit that one’s earlier high self-opinion was wrong, and the human animal will almost never admit that. Instead, the tendency is to blame others for every failure or setback.

In the grips now of his delusion, he made his most serious mistake of all—the firing of Jeffrey Katzenberg. The Disney system depended on a steady flow of new animated hits, which fed the stores and theme parks with new characters, merchandise, rides, and avenues for publicity. Katzenberg clearly had developed the knack for creating such hits, exemplified by the unprecedented success of The Lion King. Firing him put the entire assembly line at risk. Who would take over? Certainly not Roy Disney or Eisner himself? Furthermore, he had to know that Katzenberg would take his skills elsewhere, which he did when he co-founded a new studio, Dreamworks. There he churned out more animated hits. The new studio drove up the price for skilled animators, vastly increasing the costs for producing an animated film and threatening Disney’s entire profit system. But instead of a firm grip on this reality, Eisner was more focused on the competition for attention. Katzenberg’s rise threatened his elevated self-opinion, and he had to sacrifice profit and practicality to soothe his ego.

The downward spiral had begun. The acquisition of ABC, under the belief that bigger is better, revealed his growing detachment from reality. Television was a dying business model in the age of new media. It was not a realistic business decision, but a play for publicity. He had created an entertainment behemoth, a blob without any clear identity. The hiring and firing of Ovitz revealed an even further level of delusion. People had become mere instruments for him to use. Ovitz was considered the most feared and powerful man in Hollywood. Unconsciously he had the desire to humiliate Ovitz. If he had the power to make Ovitz beg for crumbs, he must be the most powerful man in Hollywood.

Soon all of the problems that stemmed from his delusionary thought process began to cascade—the continually rising costs of Euro Disney, the Katzenberg bonus, the lack of hits in both film divisions, the continual drain on resources from ABC, the Ovitz severance package. The board members could no longer ignore the falling stock price. The firing of Katzenberg and Ovitz made Eisner the most hated man in Hollywood, and as his fortunes fell, all of his enemies came out of the woodwork to hasten his destruction. His fall from power was fast and spectacular.

Understand: the story of Michael Eisner is much closer to you than you think. His fate could easily be yours, albeit most likely on a smaller scale. The reason is simple: we humans possess a weakness that is latent in us all, and will push us into the delusionary process without us ever being aware of the dynamic. The weakness stems from our natural tendency to overestimate our skills. We normally have a self-opinion that is somewhat elevated in relation to reality. We have a deep need to feel ourselves superior to others in something—intelligence, beauty, charm, popularity, or saintliness. This can be a positive. A degree of confidence impels us to take on challenges, to push past our supposed limits, and to learn in the process. But once we experience success on any level—increased attention from an individual or group, a promotion, funding for a project—that confidence will tend to rise too quickly, and there will be an ever–growing discrepancy between our self-opinion and reality.

Any success that we have in life inevitably depends on some good luck, timing, the contributions of others, the teachers who helped us along the way, the whims of the public in need of something new. Our tendency is to forget all of this and imagine that any success stems from our superior self. We begin to assume we can handle new challenges well before we are ready. After all, people have confirmed our greatness with their attention and we want to keep it coming. We imagine we have the golden touch, and that we can now magically transfer our skills to some other medium or field. Without realizing it, we become more attuned to our ego and our fantasies than to the people we work for and our audience. We grow distant from those who are helping us, seeing them as tools to be used. And with any failures that occur we tend to blame others. Success has an irresistible pull to it that tends to cloud our minds.

Your task is the following: after any kind of success, analyze the components. See the element of luck that is inevitably there, as well as the role that other people played in your good fortune, including mentors. This will neutralize the tendency to inflate your powers. Remind yourself that with success comes complacency, as attention becomes more important than the work, and old strategies are repeated. With success you must raise your vigilance. Wipe the slate clean with each new project, starting from zero. Try to pay less attention to the applause as it grows louder. See the limits to what you can accomplish and embrace them, working with what you have. Don’t believe bigger is better; consolidating and concentrating your forces is often the wiser choice. Be wary of offending with your growing sense of superiority—you will need your allies. Compensate for the drug-like effect of success by keeping your feet planted firmly on the ground. The power you will build up in this slow and organic way will be more real and lasting. Remember: the gods are merciless with those who fly too high on the wings of grandiosity, and they will make you pay the price.

“Existence alone had never been enough for him; he had always wanted more. Perhaps it was only from the force of his desires that he had regarded himself as a man to whom more was permitted than to others.” —Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment

Keys to Human Nature

Let us say that you have a project to realize, or an individual or group of people you wish to persuade to do something. We could describe a realistic attitude towards reaching such goals in the following way: getting what you want is rarely easy. Success will depend on a lot of effort and some luck. To make your project work you will probably have to jettison your previous strategy—circumstances are always changing and you need to keep an open mind. The people you are trying to reach never respond exactly as you might have imagined or hoped. In fact, people will generally surprise and frustrate you in their reactions. They have their own needs, experiences, and particular psychology that are different from your own. To impress your targets, you will have to focus on them and their spirit. If you fail to accomplish what you want, you will have to examine carefully what you did wrong, and strive to learn from the experience.

You can think of the project or task ahead of you as a block of marble you must sculpt into something precise and beautiful. The block is much larger than you and the material is quite resistant, but the task is not impossible. With enough effort, focus, and resiliency you can slowly carve it into what you need. You must begin, however, with a proper sense of proportion—goals are hard to reach, people are resistant, and you have limits to what you can do. With such a realistic attitude, you can summon up the requisite patience and get to work.

Imagine, however, that your brain has succumbed to a psychological disease that affects your perception of size and proportion. Instead of seeing the task you are facing as rather large and the material resistant, under the influence of this disease you perceive the block of marble as relatively small and malleable. Losing your sense of proportion, you believe it won’t take long to fashion the block into the image you have in your mind of the finished product. You imagine that the people you are trying to reach are not naturally resistant, but quite predictable. You know how they’ll respond to your great idea—they’ll love it. In fact, they need you and your work more than you need them. They should seek you out. The emphasis is not on what you need to do to succeed, but on what you feel you deserve. You can foresee a lot of attention coming your way with this project, but if you fail other people must be to blame because you have gifts, your cause is the right one, and only those who are malicious or envious could stand in your way.

We can call this psychological disease grandiosity. As you feel its effects, the normal realistic proportions are reversed—your self becomes larger and greater than anything else around it. That is the lens through which you view the task and the people you need to reach. This is not merely deep narcissism in which everything must revolve around you. This is seeing yourself as enlarged (the etymology of the word “grandiosity” meaning big and great), as superior, and worthy of not only attention, but of being adored. It is a feeling of not being merely human, but godlike.

You may think of powerful, egotistical leaders in the public eye as the ones who contract such a disease, but you would be very wrong in that assumption. Certainly we find many influential people with high-grade versions of grandiosity, such as Michael Eisner, where the attention and accolades they receive create a more intense enlargement of the self. But there is a low-grade, everyday version of the disease that is common to almost all of us because it is a trait embedded in human nature. It stems from our deep need to feel important, esteemed by people, and superior to others in something.

You are rarely aware of your own grandiosity because by its nature it alters your perception of reality and makes it hard to have an accurate assessment of yourself. And so you are unaware of the problems it might be causing you at this very moment. Your low-grade grandiosity will cause you to overestimate your own skills and abilities, and to underestimate the obstacles that you face. And so you will take on tasks that are beyond your actual capacity. You will feel certain that people will respond to your idea in a particular way, and when they don’t you will become upset and blame others.

You may become restless and suddenly make a career change, not realizing that grandiosity is at the root—your present work is not confirming your greatness and superiority, because to be truly great would require more years of training and the development of new skills. Better to quit and be lured by the possibilities a new career offers, allowing you to entertain fantasies of greatness. In this way, you never quite master anything. You may have dozens of great ideas that you never attempt to execute, because that would cause you to confront the reality of your actual skill level. Without being aware of it, you might become ever so slightly passive—you expect other people to understand you, give you what you want, treat you well. Instead of earning their praise, you feel entitled to it.

In all of these cases, your low-grade grandiosity will prevent you from learning from your mistakes and developing yourself, because you begin with the assumption that you are already large and great, and it is too difficult to admit otherwise.

Your task as a student of human nature is threefold: first, you must understand the phenomenon of grandiosity itself, why it is so embedded in human nature, and why you will find many more grandiose people in the world today than ever before. Second, you need to recognize the signs of grandiosity and how to manage the people who display them. And third and most important, you must see the signs of the disease in yourself and learn how not only to control your grandiose tendencies, but also how to channel this energy into something productive.

According to the renowned psychoanalyst Heinz Kohut (1913-1981), grandiosity has its roots in the earliest years of our life. In our first months, most of us bonded completely with our mother. We had no sense of a separate identity. She met our every need. We came to believe that the breast that gave us food was actually a part of ourselves. We were omnipotent—all we had to do was feel hungry or feel any need, and the mother was there to meet it as if we had magical powers to control her. But then slowly we had to go through a second phase of life in which we were forced to confront the reality—our mother was a separate being who had other people to attend to. We were not omnipotent but rather weak, quite small, and dependent. This realization was painful and the source of much of our acting out—we had a deep need to assert ourselves, to show we were not so helpless, and to fantasize about powers we did not possess. (Children will often imagine the ability to see through walls, to fly, and to read people’s minds, and that is why they are drawn to stories of superheroes.)

As we get older we may not be physically small any more, but our sense of insignificance only gets worse. We come to realize we are not only one person in a larger family, school, or city, but of an entire globe filled with billions of people. Our lives are relatively short. We have limited skills and brainpower. There is so much we cannot control, particularly with our careers and global trends. The idea that we will die and be quickly forgotten, swallowed up in eternity is quite intolerable. We want to feel significant in some way, to protest against our natural smallness, to expand our sense of self. What we experienced at the age of three or four unconsciously haunts us our entire lives. We alternate between moments of sensing our smallness and trying to deny it. This makes us prone to finding ways to imagine our superiority.

Some children do not go through that second phase in early childhood in which they must confront their relative smallness, and these children are more vulnerable to deeper forms of grandiosity later in life. They are the pampered, spoiled ones. The mother and the father continue to make such children feel like they are the center of the universe, shielding them from the pain of confronting the reality. Their every wish becomes a command. If ever attempts are made to instill the slightest amount of discipline, the parents are met with a tantrum. Furthermore, such children come to disdain any form of authority. Compared to themselves and what they can get, the father figure seems rather weak.

This early pampering marks them for life. They need to be adored. They become masters at manipulating others to pamper them and shower them with attention. They naturally feel greater than anyone above them. If they have any talent, they might rise quite far, as their sense of being born with a crown on their head becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Unlike others, they never really alternate between feelings of smallness and greatness; they only know the latter. Certainly Eisner came from such a background, as he had a mother who met his every need, completed his homework for him, and sheltered him from his cold and sometimes cruel father.

In the past, we humans were able to channel our grandiose needs into religion. In ancient times, our sense of smallness was not just something bred into us by the many years we spent dependent on our parents; it also came from our weakness in relation to the hostile powers in nature. Gods and spirits represented these elemental powers of nature that dwarfed our own. By worshipping them we could gain their protection. Connected to something much larger than ourselves, we felt enlarged in the process. After all, the gods or God cared about the fate of our tribe or city; they cared about our individual soul, a sign of our own significance. We did not merely die and disappear. Many centuries later, in a similar manner, we channeled this energy into worshipping leaders who represented a great cause and promoted a future utopia, such as Napoleon Bonaparte and the French Revolution, or Mao Zedong and Communism.

Today, in the Western world, religions and great causes have lost their binding power; we find it hard to believe in them and to satisfy our grandiose energy through identification with a greater power. The need to feel larger and significant, however, does not simply disappear; it is stronger than ever. And absent any other channels, people will tend to direct this energy towards themselves. They will find a way to expand their sense of self, to feel great and superior. Although rarely conscious of this, what they are choosing to idealize and worship is the self. Because of this, we find more and more grandiose individuals among us.

Other factors have also contributed to increases in grandiosity. First, we find more people who experienced pampering attention in their childhood than ever in the past. Feeling like they were once the center of the universe becomes a hard thing to shake. They come to believe that anything they do or produce should be seen as precious and worthy of attention. Second, we find increasing numbers of people who have little or no respect for authority or experts of any kind, no matter the level of training and experience of these experts, which they themselves lack. “Why should their opinion be any more valid than my own?” they might tell themselves. “Nobody’s really that great; people with power are just more privileged.” “My writing and music are just as legitimate and worthy as anyone else’s.” Without a sense of anyone rightly being above them and deserving authority, they can position themselves among the highest.

Third, the powers that come from technology give us the impression that everything in life can be as fast and simple as the information we can glean online. It instills the belief that we no longer have to spend years learning a skill; instead, through a few tricks and with a few hours a week of practice we can become proficient at anything. Similarly people believe that their skills can easily be transferred—“my ability to write means I can also direct a film.” But more than anything it is social media that spreads the grandiose virus. Through social media we have almost limitless powers to expand our presence, to create the illusion that we have the attention and even adoration of thousands or millions of people. We can possess the fame and ubiquity of the kings and queens in the past, or even of the gods themselves.

With all of these elements combined, it is harder than ever for any of us to maintain a realistic attitude and a proportionate sense of self.

In looking at the people around you, you must realize that their grandiosity (and yours) can come in many different forms. Most commonly people will try to satisfy the need by gaining social prestige. People may claim they are interested in the work itself or in contributing to humanity, but deep down what is often really motivating them is the desire to have attention, to have their high self–opinion confirmed by others who admire them, to feel powerful and inflated. If they are talented, such types can get the attention they need for several years or longer, but inevitably, as in the story of Eisner, their need for accolades will lure them into overreaching.

If people are disappointed in their careers yet still believe they are great and unrecognized, they may turn to various compensations—drugs, alcohol, sex with as many partners as possible, shopping, a superior mocking attitude, etc. Those with unsatisfied grandiosity will often become filled with manic energy—one moment telling everyone about the great screenplays they will write or the many women they will seduce, and the next moment falling into depression as reality intrudes.

People still tend to idealize leaders and worship them, and you must see this as a form of grandiosity. By believing someone else will make everything great, followers can feel something of this greatness. Their minds can soar along with the rhetoric of the leader. They can feel superior to those who are not believers. On a more personal level, people will often idealize those they love, elevating them to god or goddess status, and by extension feeling some of this power reflected back on them.

In the world today, you will also notice the prevalence of negative forms of grandiosity. Many people feel the need to disguise their grandiose urges not only to others but also to themselves. They will frequently make a show of their humility—they are not interested in power or feeling important, or so they say. They are happy with their small lot in life. They do not want a lot of possessions, do not own a car, and disdain status. But you will notice they have a need to display this humility in a public manner. It is grandiose humility—their way to get attention and to feel morally superior.

A variation on this is the grandiose victim—they have suffered a lot and been the victim numerous times. Although they may like to frame it as being simply unlucky and unfortunate, you will notice that they often have a tendency to fall for the worst types in intimate relationships, or put themselves in circumstances in which they are certain to fail and suffer. In essence, they are compelled to create the drama that will turn them into a victim. As it turns out, any relationship with them will have to revolve around their needs; they have suffered too much in the past to attend to your needs. They are the center of the universe. Feeling and expressing their misfortune gives them their sense of importance, of being superior in suffering.

You can measure the levels of grandiosity in people in several simple ways. For instance, notice how people respond to criticism of themselves or their work. It’s normal for any of us to feel defensive and a bit upset when criticized. But some people become enraged and hysterical, because we have called into doubt their sense of greatness. You can be sure that such a person has high levels of grandiosity. Similarly, such types might conceal their rage behind a martyred, pained expression meant to make you feel guilty. The emphasis is not on the criticism itself and what they need to learn, but on their sense of grievance.

If people are successful, notice how they act in more private moments. Are they able to relax and laugh at themselves, letting go of their public mask, or have they so over-identified with their powerful public image that it carries over into their private life? In the latter case, they have come to believe in their own myth and are in the grips of powerful grandiosity.

Grandiose people are generally big talkers. They take credit for anything that is even tangential to their work; they invent past successes. They talk of their prescience, how they foresaw certain trends or predicted certain events, none of which can be verified. All such talk should make you doubly dubious. If people in the public eye suddenly say something that gets them into trouble for being insensitive, you can ascribe that to their potent grandiosity. They are so attuned to their own great opinions that they assume everyone else will interpret them in the right spirit and agree with them.

Higher grandiose types generally display low levels of empathy. They are not good listeners. When the attention is not on them they have a faraway look in their eyes and their fingers twitch with impatience. Only when the spotlight is on them do they become animated. They tend to see people as extensions of themselves—tools to be used in their schemes, sources of attention. Finally, they have non-verbal behavior that can only be described as grandiose. Their gestures are big and dramatic. At a meeting, they take up a lot of personal space. Their voice tends to be louder than others, and they speak at a fast pace, giving no one else time to interrupt.

With those who exhibit moderate amounts of grandiosity, you should be indulgent. Almost all of us alternate between periods in which we feel superior and great and others in which we come back down to earth. Look for such moments of realism in people as signs of normalcy. But for those whose self-opinion is so high they cannot allow for any doubts, it is best to avoid relationships or entanglements with them. In intimate relationships, they will tend to demand adoring one-sided attention. If they are employees, business partners, or bosses, they will oversell their skills. Their levels of confidence will distract you from the deficiencies in their ideas, work habits, and character. If you cannot avoid such a relationship, be aware of their tendency to feel certain about the success of their ideas, and maintain your skepticism. Look at the ideas themselves and don’t get caught up in their seductive self-belief. Don’t entertain the illusion that you can confront them and try to bring them down to earth; you may trigger a rage response.

If such types happen to be your rivals, consider yourself lucky. They are easy to taunt and bait into overreactions. Casting doubts on their greatness will make them apoplectic and doubly irrational.

Finally, you will need to manage your own grandiose tendencies. Grandiosity has some positive and productive uses. The exuberance and high self-belief that comes from it can be channeled into your work and help inspire you. But in general it would be best for you to accept your limitations, and work with what you have, rather than fantasize about godlike powers you can never attain. The greatest protection you can have against grandiosity is to maintain a realistic attitude. You know what subjects and activities you are naturally attracted to. You cannot be skilled at everything. You need to play to your strengths and not imagine you can be great at whatever you put your mind to. You must have a thorough understanding of your energy levels, of how far you can reasonably push yourself, and how this changes with age. And you must have a solid grasp on your social position—your allies, the people with whom you have the greatest rapport, the natural audience for your work. You cannot please everyone.

This self-awareness has a physical component to it that you must be sensitive to. When you are doing activities that mesh with your natural inclinations, you feel ease in the effort. You learn faster. You have more energy and you can withstand the tedium that comes with learning anything important. When you take on too much, more than you can handle, you not only feel exhausted, but also irritable and nervous. You are prone to headaches. When you have success in life, you will naturally feel a touch of fear, as if the good fortune could disappear. You sense with this fear the dangers that can come from rising too high (almost like vertigo) and feeling too superior. Your anxiety is telling you to come back down to earth. You want to listen to your body as it signals to you when you are working against your strengths.

In knowing yourself, you accept your limits. You are simply one person among many in the world, and not naturally superior to anyone. You are not a god or an angel, but a flawed human like the rest of us. You accept the fact that you cannot control the people around you and no strategy is ever foolproof. Human nature is too unpredictable. With this self-knowledge and acceptance of limits you will have a sense of proportion. You will search for greatness in your work. And when you feel the pull to think more highly of yourself than is reasonable, this self–knowledge will serve as a gravity mechanism pulling you back down and directing you towards the actions and decisions that will best serve your particular nature.

Being realistic and pragmatic is what makes us humans so powerful. It is how we overcame our physical weakness in a hostile environment so many thousands of years ago, and learned to work with others and form powerful communities and tools for survival. Although we have veered away from this pragmatism as we no longer have to rely on our wits to survive, it is in fact our true nature as the preeminent social animal on the planet. In becoming more realistic, you are simply becoming more human.

___________________

The above was adapted from The Laws of Human Nature by Robert Greene. The Laws of Human Nature was six years in the making and is the culmination of Robert’s life study of power, psychology, and history.

The post Know Your Limits: The Law of Grandiosity appeared first on The Art of Manliness.

Know Your Limits: The Law of Grandiosity published first on https://mensproblem.tumblr.com

0 notes