#but I am resisting adding it to my current list of unfinished projects

[emiline-northeto]

A Miss Bat/Mr Rowan-Webb headcanon/prompt:

When other methods of discovering Algernon’s whereabouts have been exhausted, Gwen tries reaching him by letter. She starts with spells associated with the modern post and works her way backward into those spells that were used in previous iterations of the postal system.

One of the spells almost works - the letter is returned to her heavily and mysteriously water-damaged.

Some of the letters disappear entirely - whether that means they reach him or not Gwen has no idea - the ones that truly disappear also become untraceable.

Through an interesting set of circumstances, one wayward letter ends up reuniting a different set of separated lovers.

When she has run out of spells to try, she doesn’t stop writing. Instead she takes the letters and keeps them first in a box, then, when they grow too numerous for the box, she ties them with ribbon and puts them in a drawer.

Every once in a while she takes one of the letters and sends it off via one of the spells that caused the letter it was attached to disappear completely, in hopes that some of them are reaching Algernon, wherever he is.

The collection of letters is one of the first things she shows him when he returns.

“I’ve been writing to you,” she says, flicking the drawer open with a smidge of magic. “You’ve been here,” she taps her heart, “all this time.”

His vision is suspiciously blurry. 

“And you,” he echoes thickly, reaching out one finger to the locket now around her neck once more, “have always been in mine.”

[pankopop]

Beware The Black Tiger

Is Sony’s devaluing of quality a wise business decision with the Switch on the horizon?

Console-wise, I’ve got a 3DS, a WiiU and a low-end Macbook that has trouble running Hyper Light Drifter. I am definitely lacking power, and I’m definitely lacking access to games that look fucking great.

Fromsoft games, Horizon Zero Dawn, Doom, Overwatch… I’m not gonna list everything I want, but… I want… those. I want those.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that I don’t own a PlayStation4. I’m more and more tempted to buy in, especially given the feeling that the current box consoles will find themselves in perpetual tweaking with no great leaps in price or performance.

More than anything, I feel like the WiiU has had a big part in getting these games into Sony’s repertoire.

To be honest, I loved the dual screen set-up. It was an extension of the DS and 3DS concept of multi-screen play – opening new possibilities for creatively rethinking inventory screens, worldmaps, and general UI/UX.

For an example of this, see Splatoon – you could glance down, see where you’re needed, and quicktravel to aid a strategically located teammate with a simple tap. It’s fluid, on the fly movement that defines the game. But this was specifically designed with the WiiU in mind; the dev team probably had far more information, time, and money than what’s realistic for most dev cycles.

The problem being if you develop for the WiiU, you’re kinda stuck. You either don’t utilize the gamepad, having the game look hastily “ported”, or you spend resources you might not have into restructuring your game and established UX.

My pet theory is that with these added pressures, games that were love letters to Nintendo were creatively stonewalled, and Sony inherited the bright, beautiful, innovative games that have made a good bunch of top ten lists. There could have been a couple more Shovel Knight-tier bangers on the WiiU, is what I’m saying.

I’m not trying to discount the amount of work and distinction that I’m sure the Sony brand has worked for, but they accommodated talent (perhaps a bit too flamboyantly in the case of No Man’s Sky, though).

This brings me to a bit of a concern that I have with the recent astoundingly bad shovelware that’s been showing up on the PlayStation Network recently. For those blessed with unfamiliarity of the term, shovelware refers games made with as little effort as possible in the hopes of any profit whatsoever. I am absolutely for Sony to open its doors where Nintendo has been closing them. But when the door is removed to the point where it’s no longer recognizable as a threshold, there might be problems. If your nicely furnished house becomes a garbage-filled squatter’s hovel, then not many people are gonna wanna pay $60 a year to hang at your place.

Games like Life of Black Tiger and Skylight Freerange... I mean, I don’t want to shit on them entirely. Who knows, dozens of hours might have been poured into them. I’m sure that maybe someone cared in the well being of maybe a few of these creative ventures.

But it doesn’t take a cynic to point out that ripped assets, unbearable jankiness and horrific user experience point to an unfinished product. And if these things are intentional, perhaps in the case of Skylight Freerange, it sure as shit isn’t communicated that way. Saying that, they did depict Halifax with scary accuracy.

Not only does this indicate a lack of quality control, it’s unhealthy for the industry. Allowing these games on PSN disrespects the fantastic games that might have been turned away in the past on the grounds of meeting nitpicky, but fair expectations.

It cheapens the amazing games that are on the PSN that took years of effort to truly bring something to the medium under Sony’s brand. For reference, Hyper Light Drifter is about $20. It took years to make, and granted that it was Kickstarted to godlike ascendency, it showed up to that campaign with a project that people wanted to have in their hands. On the other hand, we have Firefighters: The Simulation. This is a game that miraculously made it past the hilariously low standards of Steam’s Greenlight program, has unanimously poor feedback, and looks like a middling 2001 PC game you might find in a Staples somewhere.

It sells for $30 on PSN.

Now, monetary value isn’t an objective indicator of quality. $20 is a reasonable price for a game, it shouldn’t have to be $60 to be recognized as “good” (much to Hello Games’ detriment). And you can always like – y’know, not buy the thing what is bad. I have a feeling most people won’t buy the thing what is bad. Shovelware isn’t really fooling anyone on the PS4 when you have Bloodborne on the same machine.

The point I’m trying to make is that this is doing nothing but communicating Sony’s perspective on the recognition of quality. If a million dollar, multiyear labour of love is less viable than a two-day asset flip or something with no concern for the medium, why even make the effort in the first place? Should video game development require talent, expertise, work and investment at all? Sony’s answer might be turning toward a no.

This doesn’t only hurt the industry at large, but it’ll hurt Sony. We see it with Steam; saturating the curated library of games discourages consumers for fear of getting burned with a bad purchase and makes it difficult to find the gold flecks amid the sewer runoff. In turn, that discourages developers from doing the extra work in getting their products on your platform. If the PSN is no better than Steam in terms of quality control, prestige, and discoverability, then why not just gun for the path of least resistance?

If you take a quick look through Nintendo’s eShop, there’s a safe bet that if you buy something you don’t recognize, it’s going to be at least somewhat playable. It’s someone’s job to make sure that you feel safer spending your money in that shop. For aforementioned reasons, the eShop is limited, but at least it’s not a total crapshoot.

Thing is, the Switch is around the corner, providing a more concurrent platform language for the industry.

This shouldn’t be bad news for Sony, competitively speaking. But if Sony’s library becomes bloated with low quality games, then visibility won’t be guaranteed without a multimillion dollar advertising campaign. Feisty new talent with bright, profitable new ideas for the industry might see the Switch as a far more viable option for their quality of work. And we know that Nintendo doesn’t like to share all that much.

Time will tell what’s gonna happen with Sony. Up until now, they’ve had such a fantastic, well-curated library of games that won the platform this generation. But the total radio silence and lack of any response to the confusion in this sudden drop of quality might well be pointing to a future of cheapening quality for more profit.

Not really a viable position when most people have to spend a paycheck to be able to get into your house of ever-increasing slurry.

Images are Screenshots of Jim Sterling’s lackluster playthroughs of Life of Black Tiger, Skylight Freerange 2: Gachduine and Firefighters: The Simulation, respectively.