#but I felt like I had to say it

[illogicallylogicalthoughts]

That 12 year old sat down and made something they earnestly, honestly wanted somebody else to see, and they made it because it was something they wanted to see and do.

Flaw, contradiction, inexperience and all, this was something somebody, somewhere, somewhy, wanted me to see.

AI and generative chat bots do not want me to see them or what they make.

The only thing behind them are a series of corporate incentives and code directives.

I talk to it, a server buzzes somewhere, sets our world on fire just a little bit more, the server tracks the foot traffic, website owners pocket the cash, and it spits out a line of text at me, over, and over, and over again.

It's not even that it's soulless. It's cutting out the middle man.

Artists are inconvenient to the industry beyond what they produce. You have to pay them. This, to a person running a company, is unconscionable. They want to make money. They don't want to hear about wants, needs, unions, worker's rights, healthy workspaces. They want money.

Any and call corners that can be cut on the path to not having to put up with that, will.

That twelve year old remains more true to the spirit of writing than any kind of AI or learning machine could ever be, but the people trying to pawn AI off to you don't care, they're just trying to make a mint off of all the CEO's across the world attempting to strangle their workforces out of the industry so they don't have to pay anybody.

AI is consumerism incarnate because it's not made to make anything. It is made to replace. The people behind AI desperately want artists to shut up and be quiet because they want this market, this source of unending cash that they've imagined exists somehow, to become real, so they market it as Art made easy and accessible! You can do it yourself now!

Art is desirable. Not the work and genuine rigor behind it, but the popularity.

People see the numbers, the talk, the engagement, and think that what gives artists the ability to create is some kind of nameless eighth quality you have to be born and imbued with in the crib and after that crucial moment, you can never learn how to ever do it, ever, so they don't learn.

They don't try. They don't put themselves out there. They don't want to do something new. They don't want to create something because they want to share it, to talk about it, to engage with somebody through it.

They don't see it as a craft, something you have to dedicate time to, apply yourself to, learn how to do.

It's a business major's viewpoint. It's not something made to engage with and communicate concepts through. It's a product.

People fire up the website, throw a couple of keywords in a box, stare into the generated slop mish mash of stolen mixed assets, maybe throw a couple of settings over it in Photoshop, nod their heads and say, there, art!

Because, to them, art doesn't mean anything beyond a kind of ephemeral concept that people do sometimes, it means thing you make if you want people to look at you and give you money for.

It's the same people who flock to NFT's and cryptocurrency. It's the same people who cannot engage with and genuinely think of art because they're so emotionally divorced from the concept of creation by the kind of stripped-bare outlook capitalism encourages that it just doesn't click.

It's the same people who get indignant when you confront them when they steal your art. How dare you! I'm just like you! I input a keyword or two, pour my blood sweat and tears out over pressing a single button and smear some lighting layers over it in an image editor, and you say I stole this?

Because they think artists are insignificant. They don't see the people behind what they consume, because they only consume.

It's all they know.

They don't want to create, and they don't want to learn, because they're so far away from the process, so ignorant of what actually goes in to any given piece of art, that they just see it somebody throwing a couple of colors together in a visually pleasing way.

It's the kind of fundamentally incurious nihilism that's been bred so hard into corporate America, and it sickens me to my core.

That twelve year old writing wattpad zero punctuation plothole OOC fic will always be better than character AI, and I love them for it, because they want to make and create and they want ME to see it, and they aren't trying to butcher an entire class of people or kill the planet to do it.

Actually that no punctuation plot hole ooc wattpad fanfic written by that 12 year old will ALWAYS be better than character ai. And I love that 12 year old btw

[aether-friskets]

thinking about how disappointed i was with bloober team's attempt at a blair witch game... i think a big part comes down to not fully understanding what makes the original movie work?

i feel like it's kind of tricky to adapt that idea into an enjoyable game? since a big part of it is the interaction between the characters, how they lose hope and fight amongst themselves, but they keep trying anyway. And they see things that we as the audience don't always see, because we are not an omnipresence in the story. we're just watching these people's final days from what they managed to capture.

That doesnt fully do it justice, but i guess my point is that it's something that leaves gaps for your brain to fill, imagining what they might've seen that you didnt, or what actually killed them in the end. Technically we can't even be sure it's supernatural, although based on the things that do seem to be happening, like somehow going in circles when walking in a straight line, it seems plausible.

but even that aside, i think it's kind of more about them and how they react to/deal with the situation than the actual hypothetical "blair witch"? it's like, the horror of knowing they're going to die from the first minute in, and then actually seeing that descent into terror and uncertainty over the course of several days. you can't help but feel horrified on their behalf, and hoping that they'll get out but knowing that their fate is already sealed. or at least, i think that's how i tend to feel about it.

So... how do you actually translate that concept into a game that's fun and scary to play? My best idea off the top of my head would be putting you directly in the shoes of someone in that situation, although unlike bloober's blair witch game, i think it'd be interesting if there was more of a presence of other characters. yknow, so you could play off the character dynamics and show that shift in feeling over time, you gotta make the player care about these people and about wanting to get out of there but slowly take away any hope that they ever will. throw scary shit at them, yeah, but you gotta be tactful. hell, you can have other characters encounter things before the player does, building up an idea that there's *something* out there before you actually show them anything.

but even then I'm not 100% sure how to make it fun and interesting from a gameplay perspective, i guess people can enjoy walking sim-type games, but theres a part of me that longs for the idea that it could have more than that going on. anyway, i know something like that won't ever happen, but i can still imagine.

(well, technically i suppose nothing would stop me from hypothetically making a game like that and just not attaching it to the blair witch ip, but for all my thoughts i dunno if i would have the skill to make a game like that good, lol)

[inkskinned]

it's extremely critical that you see the photo of the perp walk for luigi mangione as being propaganda. i've seen so many people wave it off and instead fawn over his looks. and trust me, i know it ended up being kind of pathetic and weird - but please don't brush it off as a "modelling opportunity" for him. it's a fucking terrifying message the police are sending.

i want to make a few comparisons here, in case you're not from the US or familiar with why the perp walk thing is something to pay attention to. just to set the groundwork for why this is a purposeful, unusual, and cruel act by the nyc police - for why this is not a common occurrence and for why that matters.

the prosecution alleges the show of force is due to the charge of "terrorism." for comparison, in june 2015, tsarnaev was found guilty for the boston marathon bombing, which killed 3 people and injured hundreds. his actions are considered to be an act of domestic terrorism. i have spent the last hour looking through google for pictures of similar to mangione's perp walk - and so far, i have found zero. i also just do not personally remember a moment like that, despite living in boston at the time.

they allege that luigi is a stone-cold killer who carried out a longterm plan, making him particularly dangerous. again for comparison: in nyc, recently cory martin was found guilty of the killing of brandy odom. the murder was planned and premeditated to steal insurance money. and yet no staged perp walk. why didn't her life matter enough for a "show of force"?

but mangione gets paraded by a veritable army of police officers as if he is a rabid animal. for a single citizen who allegedly killed one other single citizen, the "largest perp walk ever" occurs.

so what is the "strong message" that the mayor and the police were trying to send here? the mayor speaks as if mangione is already convicted of terrorism. there is a very thin number of people who feel threatened by the CEO's death. none of us felt like mangione needs to be under massive armed guard.

the message is that you shouldn't resist. they are trying to "make an example" of him - that if you behave badly and kill a single rich person, you'll be treated as if you killed hundreds of people. you will be treated worse than a man who was found guilty of terrorism. you will be considered guilty without trial. the message is that the rich are a protected class, and you cannot touch them without massive punishment. they are trying to prevent a revolution by showing dominance and force against you.

the message is that the police are a puppet of the wealthy and that the law is not equally applied across class disparity. it is "some are more equal than others." it is "one life is more precious than another."

the show of force wasn't for luigi. it was for us. it was a warning. they are trying to remind us who is really in control.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Happy one year anniversary to In Stars and Time!

[hinamie]

subject, specimen, spectacle;

should i say that you're dead?

[chloesimaginationthings]

FNAF movie Vanessa’s thoughts when meeting Abby..

[idolomantises]

I was gonna say I’m glad tumblr became a lot more of a civil website with less petty discourse but its also the website where people unironically call feminists terfs and tone police women who criticize men so you win some you lose some I guess lol

[bigfatbreak]

Birds of a Feather previous / next

[technically-human]

Edwin after the confession is a menace

Bonus Charles being normal about it:

[remxedmoon]

see?

everything’s fine.

(greyscale + extras below!!)

so! this was SUPPOSED to be a bonnie drawing. but for some reason i just Can’t draw bonnie to save my life today. and i needed to draw something simple to make myself less frustrated!! and by simple i mean this took me almost 3 hours and i had to redraw it because i didn’t like how the lineart turned out the first time!! oops!! at least it turned out cute🩶. and i got to play around with my textured brush!

also as a bonus, my terrible first attempt + the sketch!! that i apparently accidentally deleted at some point? so this is a screenshot from the timelapse. i dont know what happened to it…

[itsdefinitely]

[randomminty]

Five billion octopath 2 scribbles i feel sick

[bizarrelittlemew]

Stede facing the crew after finding out about their (attempted) murder of Ed

[benevolenterrancy]

("Always. Continuously. With increasing apprehension, and decreasing hope. I will love you if I never see you again, and I will love you if I see you every Tuesday. I will love you as a corpse loves the beak of the vulture. I will love you no matter what happens to you, and no matter how I discover what happens to you, and no matter what happens to me as I discover this." -- paraphrased from The Beatrice Letters, Lemony Snicket)

[lesbianshadowheart]

dont get me wrong cuz I DO appreciate Larian continuing to work on the game and trying to fix issues etc but like. mr Larian PLEASE stop responding to fan feedback. Theres like 2 million people playing this game ofc some of them will say character x should be nicer or cuter or do a little dance but that doesnt mean u gotta do it. you dont gotta call neil newbon or whoever up like come to the studio we need to rerecord everything bc a person on reddit said theyd like it better. You’ve worked on these characters for over 4 years and you are allowed to stand by your creation. None of what I said applies to Wyll’s underdevelopment btw but you all know that

[chloesimaginationthings]

The Mikes and Vanessas celebrate 10 years of FNAF!