#but like. i have SO many games from 2013 and earlier now that I can basically use my 3DS as a 3DS emulator lmao

[pagesofkenna]

re: chrono trigger... I can't recommend playing this oldie but good enough. But a bit of caution, i'd recommend it on the DS, if you can find it. If not, it is on steam and it works pretty well. I would recommend getting a controller rather than playing on your PC's keyboard. It's just easier and more true to the original controls.

The story is lovely, the turn based combat is one of the most enjoyable you could ever play - each character has their own skill sets and those skill sets also combine with your companion characters. You get single tech, which only you use and are unique to that character. Double techs, which are techs performed by two characters once they've both learned a certain spell or combat move.

so for instance, Chrono, whose element is lightening, learns Cyclone and Lucca, whose element is fire, learns flame toss - once they've both learned these separate spells they are able to perform Inferno together.

There's also triple techs which are the same thing but with your third character.

Last tip, it is so, so easy to speed through it and not level up much. Because the story is very engaging. Don't do it. Do your grinding. It sucks but you'll be glad in later battles because this is a nintendo hard game.

It also has fun game plus options (one of the first to do it) and a ton of alternate endings.

Please, give it a chance.

When I was a kid I gamed almost exclusively through emulators (we had an N64 and like two games I could play, everything else I played on the computer with an emulator) and Chrono Trigger was one of the games in our ROM library. I played maybe a couple hours, but I was a little kid and Pokemon was the only turn-based combat game I ever played all the way through because I liked the little monsters. I think at some point I realized this was kind of an important game from the era that I really should experience... I just never did

anyway, after Nintendo decided to shutter their support for the 3DS and the WiiU, I went through ROM libraries for both and downloaded a bunch of games onto both hacked devices. I don't have my 3DS readily on hand at the moment but I know I absolutely got Chrono Trigger, so... now it's just a matter of me actually putting aside the time to play it lol

I will also say, as much as I hate grinding, I've spent so much time wandering around Breath of the Wild doing little tasks (or grinding in recent Pokemon games) for the purpose of having something to do while bingeing a podcast, so I think I'm in a better place to tolerate grinding now that I was in the early 00s lol

[felassan]

Some snippets (compilation) from the comments section of [this recent video] by Mark Darrah on YouTube titled ’How 2017 Changed BioWare 1000 Ways’.

rest of post under cut due to length.

Mark Darrah: "BioWare seems to be rebuilding now. I guess we'll have to keep watching"

Mark Darrah: "BioWare and EA seem to be fully behind the next Mass Effect"

User: "I hope the next Mass Effect brings the studio back on track, I doubt they will have many chances left if that game fails. Judging by the people that are involved, they are definitely trying." Mark Darrah: "Seems like"

Mark Darrah: "I don’t know what is next for DA"

Mark Darrah: "A super rushed Joplin likely would have been deeply flawed"

User: "I often learn more about what was going on at Bioware from this channel than I did in 10 years working at Bioware 🙃" Mark Darrah: "oof" Aaryn Flynn: "I learned some things too!" Mark Darrah: "@ blind men touching an elephant"

Bryan Johnson: "Very interesting to hear your perspective since I definitely was not a high level person. Crazy how much they kept the Casey return, as a few of us knew about it a bit earlier because we wrote something to scrape the employee staff data as we were getting tired of not hearing about people leaving the company." Mark Darrah: "wow"

User: "The shenanigans you just described, combined with David Gaider's recent posts about his own treatment at this company solves the mystery as to why DA has ended up in the state it's in. Thank you for clarifying." Mark Darrah: "I wouldn’t put it all on 2017"

User: "As someone who adores Dragon Age, it seems EA doesn't understand RPG fantasy games and doesn't understand what they have with Dragon Age and probably never will." Mark Darrah: "Likely"

User: "I can tell you as strictly a fan that I FELT the 'pivot' as you called it, in 2017. Andromeda felt half old BioWare and half something I didn't recognize as the same language. Anthem was a completely different dialect. SOMETHING was obviously changing at BioWare..." Mark Darrah: "That said, Anthem had been in development a WHILE by 2017"

User: "The level of organizational disfunction at such a big company is astounding." Mark Darrah: "Very common"

User: "I truly wish EA cared more for fsntasy, because it definitely seems like sci-fi and sports is what the higher-ups drool over." Mark Darrah: "We'll see what the future has to bring but..."

User: "And in all that time, Star Wars the Old Republic was keeping up Bioware's slack. Now they don't have that option anymore." Mark Darrah: "It was. Though I'm not sure EA saw it that way"

User: "The infuriating part of all this is that nobody even got what they wanted. Especially EA. The behaviour of these execs would at least be explicable if it had led to commercial success, but it didn't. Why are business execs so uniquely bad at doing business? It's their only job." Mark Darrah: "Successful Live services make so much that the risk was seen as worth it"

Mark Darrah: "Montreal didn't work on Anthem, they were moved to a different EA studio"

Mark Darrah: "Quarter based isn’t great planning for gamedev"

User: "It was a big surprise that BioWare didn't crumble immediately like so many before (Westwood, Origin, Bullfrog, Mythic). It's fascinating to learn that it was because BioWare was put under EA Sports management who were in no position to meddle with the development of RPGs." Mark Darrah: "The EA sports thing happened a bit later... I want to say 2013 or something."

User: "I am still hopeful, despite everything that's happened, that we'll still see more Dragon Age at some point" Mark Darrah: "You never know. EA owns a LOT of IPs"

Mark Darrah: "It’s the nature of most corporations to focus on costs longer term than revenue. Which is an issue for things that take many years to do"

Mark Darrah: "Every game that ships is a miracle"

User: "I am an optimistic. I hope that DA will be back and that EA and Bioware ups realise what a gem Dragon age truly is." Mark Darrah: "Hopefully"

Mark Darrah: "There was a story about Andromeda threading the needle between colonialism and a refugee story and telling neither story fully but that never got discussed"

Mark Darrah: "I do think MEA could have repaired its rep if given more post launch time"

User: "This is so sad. I really hope these videos bring some kinda change, whether it be with EA or teach other developers/publishers about what not to do." Mark Darrah: "..."

User: "Veigulard is like a product of this turbulent development process and continuos change of scope without respect to the development team." Mark Darrah: "Veilguard is a story for another day... hopefully"

Mark Darrah: "SWTOR was always a mystery to me too. It seemed like they had a pretty clear "If we sped 1$ we get more than 1$ back" repeatable model but it wasn't valued."

User: "I guess my only question is, did Casey Hudson ever actually fought for the Joplin vision/to keep DA Singleplayer at all? It seems odd to me that EA allowed DA to go back to Singleplayer in early 2021, shortly after Hudson left. I mean, Anthem was his idea and it flopped. The Jason Schreier articles stated devs were calling the live service Morrison "Anthem with dragons", so I wonder if Hudson was actually in support of turning DA into an MMO. Not trying to find someone to blame for everything, but I'll just forever wonder if things would've been different with someone else at the top." Mark Darrah: "I don’t think he was. Simply living in the same environment we all were"

User: "What was your relationship with the higher-ups and your team like for the remainder of your time at Bioware?" Mark Darrah: ""Doing a job" probably describes my last 2-3 years"

User: "I hope there is smooth sailing for ME5 and the story will knock our socks off." Mark Darrah: "I am following Mass Effect for sure"

Mark Darrah: "Origin [Systems] was actually under the BioWare umbrella at one point if you can believe it"

Mark Darrah: "Ray [one of the BioWare co-founders] spent a lot of his capital resisting EA until he left."

User: "If Joplin and the DA team had gotten the manpower from the Montreal team and resources they required do you think Joplin could have avoided EA’s push toward live service? (Sorry for the double comment, issue with my connection for a second there)" Mark Darrah: "... Its hard to say. Those 2 things are honestly pretty tightly coupled"

User: "Did you talk to Casey about the Anthem situation? It seems like he just pushed Anthem without discussing it internally which is so strange to do" Mark Darrah: "There were conversations. Casey can be very convincing"

User: "I think they damaged the relationship with their consumers as well" Mark Darrah: "In 2017? Definitely stopping the MEA dlc didn’t help"

User: "Have you considered writing an unauthorized history of Bioware, Mark?" Mark Darrah: "I’ve thought about a book. Not sure if there is one in there…"

User: "my trust in Nexteffect is very low just like it's for Bioware overall nowadays, but I won't judge before the game is out." Mark Darrah: "Keep following the game. Hopefully it will be great"

Mark Darrah: "EA doesn't sell IP"

User: "It's always so weird to hear the two teams at BW were kinda against each other" Mark Darrah: "Its weird how much the teams saw the differences as opposed to the similarities"

Mark Darrah: "I’m not sure that a large corporation can NOT assimilate an acquisition. Even if it tries"

User: "I have zero expectations for the next Mass Effect game" Mark Darrah: "There is still blood left in that stone"

Mark Darrah: "DA2’s budget is pretty small"

Mark Darrah: "We are starting to see a pivot back but basically the math is: 1. A successful live service makes WAY more than a successful SP game. 2. So much more that even if only 30% of our bets work we are still better off. BUT. 30% of their bets have NOT worked. Its way lower than that"

User: "The year BioWare started being finally digested by EA." Mark Darrah: "Finished I'd say"

User: "Do you feel like the "little to gain, little to lose" attitude from EA happened with The Veilguard as well?" Mark Darrah: "It isn't the same situation I don't think"

User: "How close were we to just getting any Dragon Age release, ever? Do you think the 10 year wait between releases damaged marketability?" Mark Darrah: "Do you mean how close was Joplin to happening? Not very close. It never even entered true pre-production" User: "regarding Anthem’s live service status… were people moved from Austin (The Old Republic) to help with that? Because it would greatly explain the content drought in the game at the time." Mark Darrah: "A ton of Austin people were on Anthem and Anthem Live. Not sure if they were pulled off of SWTOR though"

User: "I don't think EA understand video game development..." Mark Darrah: "They understand very specific kinds of development"

User: "if I were at BioWare, I would have had no trust in EA to keep their word after they agreed to let Dragon Age become single player again in 2021." Mark Darrah: "different people in different chairs but yeah"

Mark Darrah: "Yeah I don’t think anyone was malicious"

User: "do I understand correctly then that actual work on what eventually became The Veilguard started in 2019, after Anthem?" Mark Darrah: "There are very thin threads that trail all the way back to 2015 but most work happened after 2019. REALLY most happened after 2021 when it went back to SP."

User: "It seems like the Dragon Age team and Mass Effect teams have resentment towards each other, but I rarely hear from Hudson discussing this. It’s mostly the Dragon Age team." Mark Darrah: "I think we all have different stances for sure"

User: "I'm sure they don't appreciate you telling the full truth." Mark Darrah: "There’s much more to it then this"

Mark Darrah: "That Anthem pitch was so good it lasted 7 years of Casey being gone"

User: "Execs lying to you numerous times, then lying to the Dragon Age staff about the nature of their relocation, only to have them crunch on Anthem, is horrendous." Mark Darrah: "I don’t think they were lying to me at the time. It just became untrue"

[source]

[catt-crossing]

Get to know your mutuals! :D tagged by @unsettlingcreature thank you husband <3

-What's the origin of your username? I decided to make my blog bee about animal crossing as that was super popular back in 2013 which is when i made my blog! Also, cat-crossing was already taken and tbh. I like my extra aesthetic t :3

OTP(s) + shipname: I don't have too many ships that are super important to me, aside from Yato and Hiyori from Noragami. So, Yatori or Hiyato? Both work though I think I like the first a little more.

Favourite colour: Ourple......specifically lavender/pastel shades, but I love all purple shades.

Song stuck in my head: None currently as I'm listening to music right now, and what's on is Behind These Hazel Eyes by Kelly Clarkson.

Weirdest habit/trait: I'm not actually sure atm. Most are just bad habits like food and sleep, etc.

Hobbies: Video games, drawing, watching anime/cartoons, reading, more I can't think of rn.

If you work, what's your profession? Cashier, cleaning, food prep/putting away food, handling deliveries, and doing bookkeeping. So, whatever you call that? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

If you could have any job you wish what would you have? I actually would love a job playing video games, it's my favourite hobby. So, technically, youtuber or twitch streamer? (Why does typing that out sound cringe 😔) However, I do eventually want to create some kind of story, I just don't know what media it would bee for exactly, like book, show, comic, etc. (Most likely start off as either a book or comic and then see where it goes from there??) So I guess also artist/writer?

Something you're good at: Paper origami stars and I guess video games, idk. Cleaning?? This is never a good question to ask me :')

Something you hate: Those dumbass live-action disney remakes. Yes, I just got an ad for snow white 🙄

Something you forget: To go to bed on time :/ Listen...I don't have enough free personal time just for me and it makes me feel insane so I'm taking every little minute I can get <3 Though I was planning to sleep earlier tonight, but, alas.............

Your love language: Quality time, you can fit every other one into that. I don't like the concept of love languages anyway, though.

Favourite movies/shows: Noragami, Bee and Puppycat,Adventure Time, Steven Universe, Castle In The Sky

Favourite food: Filet Mignon, and chicken nuggets :]

Favourite animal: Frogs, penguins, cats, pandas, slugs

What were you like as a child? Extremely quiet/"shy" (undiagnosed severe social anxiety teehee), I think I was nicies though. I usually tried to bee on my best beehaviour as adults beeing mad at you Was Scary (for reasons I'm not going into) <3 LOL

Favourite subject in school: English

Least favourite subject: Math, I think I genuinely have some trauma from it, but I'm not unpacking all of that here!

What's your best character trait? Uhhhh kindness and consideration, I guess? Idk ;w; I just try my best to bee both of those things always

What's your worst character trait? I don't know. I mean, I'm garbage at confrontation/standing up for myself, but that's also a majority of my social anxiety/anxiety in general's fault so like again idk. I don't like questions like these !

If you could change any detail of your life right now, what would it be? Can I say my financial situation 😔Cus having more money/having an increased income at the very least would help. Otherwise, MORE SPACE. My bedroom is essentially a fucking walk in closet :)

If you could travel in time, who would you like to meet? Anomalocaris, not joking. I love them. Honestly, maybee a relative from hundreds or even thousands of years ago? I just think it would bee neat. (I would elaborate more, but I'm sleepy)

Tagging: @firethekitty @serirei @effigyofowls @arbushq @otteritos @thebigjawpokemon @majormeilani @micechicken @pumpkinspice-unicorn @silverstarsabove @owlgirl18 @cuccosneverdie @lovelyangemon @bluephoenix9-8 @ominouslyqueer @sunshineinantartica and anyone else who sees this!! However, no pressure if you don't want to <3 :D

[gallapiech]

🖤 ART TAG 🖤

Thank you @doshiart for creating this tag game! & thank you @kiennilove for tagging me as well :)

How did you start drawing? What year was it that you become more seriously and consciously interested in it?

Skipping the childhood story as well (LOL) I'd say 5th grade? maybe 4th? I guess that's still childhood... ugh ok it was early ok!

When you felt the urge to share your art with other people? When did you start posting your drawings on social media?

I think right before I got my art tablet, so 2013-ish? I'd post my crappy anime drawings on a facebook roleplaying group. (you will erase this information from your mind.)

Your first/earliest drawing. What were your impressions of it back then and what are your feelings now?

Yea no way I can find my first traditional drawing, but here's a pretty early one my aunt sent me like a week ago! 🤣

Here's my first digital drawing though! It's so nothing. But I remember it taking me ages LOL

Your first fanart ever

Oh my god, I wouldn't know...

Your first gallavich fanart

skull emoji

From January I believe... This was mostly just me sketching trying to find out how to stylize them (Still haven't figured that out. lmao)

When you had bad days and things didn't work out, what inspired you to keep trying?

I'm in too deep. I have no other qualities.

Show your old piece that you strongly dislike and tell why.

omg... way too many to choose from. sorry. LOOOL

Show your old piece that you very like and tell why. What's the difference with the previous?

I was deep in the danganronpa trenches for years, and I feel like I was extra locked in when I drew fanart of oomf's oc hehe. [2019?]

Show your old piece that you were very proud of back then.

actually its still kinda fire tbh. [2017?]

Do you do any practice sketches or warm-ups before you draw something big?

not reallly? I sometimes do make thumbnails for bigger illustrations though!

Sketch vs Final. Show your process.

I have a habit of already showing my process a lot ehehe, dont think ive shown this one though!

Your most recent drawing.

my last like 5 drawings have been top secret 😭

Give yourself some praise! Look at what improved in your art!

uuuuhhh

Any advice you'd give to your earlier self?

Invest into bitcoin. Also stop being stubborn about using references I guess.

Set a goal for yourself for the coming year.

Keep experimenting and learning I guess! No pressure though!

Tagging @deathclassic @deedala @spookygingerr @lingy910y @heymrspatel !

[satureja13]

Beltane - Part 3 It all starts -> here (incl prequel)

After a (more or less) fun day at the beach, they went over to Porto Azzurro. And while Noxee and Saiwa dress the Boys up for the festivities...

... and took silly photos, (Omg I so wish we had better poses for photos. The ones we have are so stupid. Almost all of them are unusable -.-)

the other group sets up the stage. And Greg is having a talk with Kiyoshi. Probably about Jack ö.Ö'

And then it's time for Ji Ho's Siren's Song. They all agreed so he can put them under a little spell. Now they are able to enjoy their time together even though they have so many issues. At least for a few hours.

They were all enchanted. Ji Ho's voice is so wonderful. And Saiwa is more determined than ever to work so hard to get back together with Jeb. He is so beautiful and amazing. And Jack was able to think a bit clearer about the things Greg and Noxee said. He's still shocked that he'd never be able to completely get rid of Kiyoshi. But maybe they just have to hang around each other and don't have to be a couple? It's fated mates after all, not fated lovers. Hahaha omg Jack! ^^'

Ji Ho and Jeb performed 'Gente di Mare'. A song from Umberto Tozzi. 'Gente di mare che se ne va dove gli pare dove non sa. gente corsara che non c'è più gente lontana che porta nel cuore questo grande fratello blu. Al di là del mare, c'è qualcuno che c'è qualcuno che non sa niente di te.'

Translation (not by me): 'People of the sea, who leave it behind Going to where they like, they don’t know where Buccaneer people who are no more Faraway people carrying in their hearts This big blue brother At the other side of the sea, there’s someone who There’s someone who knows nothing about you'

And after the concerto it's finally time for dinner! They eat at the boat ristorante! Such a beautiful day!

Thanks to Ji Ho's song, they enjoy their meal together (to Jack's great joy there's Pizza! But he's still lost in thoughts.)

Haha and the way Kiyoshi looks at him! I wish I knew what Greg had said to him earlier!

Of course Noxee and Saiwa wanted to take some fashion shoots for their store, Strawberry Cake Fashion.

They took a stroll through the town to find some awesome places to take the photos. (Vlad wears the suit he wore in our Heidi special and Ji Ho one of the outfits Saiwa picked for him for the prom in the very beginning!)

The others have new outfits. They look so good!

There is also a club boat! Arturo is here too! 🐊 They danced to the songs of our 'Summer at Tartosa' playlist. You can find it on Spotify or youtube.

I don't know if it's wise to start a fire on a wooden boat but I couldn't stop Jack 'the pyromaniac'. It's also one of the Beltane traditions so ... Vlad is mixing the drinks. He's still so awkward around Ji Ho and being still under the spell, he rather stays away from him to not do something stupid.

Ji Ho is tired. The ride with the TukTuk was exhausting and the Siren's Song drained him, as always. But he's happy. He's the most sensible of them and their quarrels affect him the most. He hates living apart from the others.

From the Beginning  ~  Underwater Love ~  Latest 🕹️ 'Therapy Game' from the beginning ▶️ here 📚 Previous Chapters: Chapters: 1-6 ~ 7-12 ~ 13-16 ~ 17-22 ~ 23-28

[fourtharbiter]

October 5th, 2013.

Ten years ago today, the first formal Grindstone event happened on the Balmung server in Final Fantasy XIV. The game had only relaunched as A Realm Reborn a month and change earlier, but already the roleplaying community was coming together to establish, well, a community.

Originally started by the Eorzea Free Trade Company as a more low-key place for roleplay, there were only two rules if you wanted to participate: No killing, no magic. At the time, the community at large didn't really have a ton of lore to go on; Everything was new and exciting and not everybody had the means to level everything all at once. The ceiling for what people wanted to express in the play space was so high you couldn't really see it from the ground, and that's exactly where the Grindstone was designed to exist.

Let the High Mages have their omnipotence and unimaginable power. We just wanted to fight.

...I say "we" as if I was there from the beginning. I wasn't. I only heard about it some time later, and to demonstrate how immature I was as a roleplayer at the time, I thought the idea was kind of absurd on its face. Rolling dice to see if you succeed? That's entirely random! It's unfair! That means... GASP! I might LOSE to someone I feel I shouldn't! It's a mentality that I (and many others who got a better grasp of what the point of the event was) would grow out of. It wasn't about winning. It was about the writing.

Within the first year there was the expected churn of organizing and hosting an event; Volatility between players and factions, the fact that a weekly schedule in primetime meant your Saturdays were locked down if you wanted to stay consistent, real life getting involved and forcing absences or changes. Sigyn Shieldbreaker gave way to Sindl Arahan. Sindl gave way to a loose coalition of people familiar with the rules. For a brief period of time, the future of the event was uncertain. That's when I figured "Hell, I can do this."

Ta-da.

I have a lot of extremely fond memories at the Grindstone. I've got a lot of not-so-fond memories, too. More than that, so do a laundry list of other people. The Grindstone means a lot to me, but the fact that it also means so much to other people is really what makes me proud of what the event has achieved over the years. Strangers met and became friends. Sometimes more than that (I would still like an invite to the wedding when it happens). Stories were etched, characters were developed. People who had no idea what roleplaying was about walked by, saw a crowd and hung out. Every night was anyone's night, and everyone has a story to tell.

A fishing rod. A frying pan. Arrows tipped with paint. Someone fighting with hair brushes. Impossible come-from-behind victories. That time someone fighting for the first time winning the whole show. The several dozen times that happened, in fact. The time that one guy wrote "attaks with all his mite" and nearly won the night. That hand that got cut off. That lady who emoted giving birth on the sidelines. That kid who kept trying to fight. "FOOOOOORE!"

If you attended the Grindstone at any point of the years, at least one of those probably just touched a memory. That's the thing I keep thinking about as we're on the cusp of this event turning ten years old. Ten! The Grindstone's seen three US presidents, five English Prime Ministers, outlasted the Confederacy by twofold! Children who were not yet conceived when the first fights happened are now old enough for you to talk to and have a conversation with.

The list of names involved both in front of the curtain and behind it is entirely too long to name, or even recall. At least for me. I'm incredibly proud that folks have volunteered their time and their nights and their energy and efforts to make sure the Grindstone exists and will continue to do so. I'm happy that so many people, even if they only showed up once and didn't really like it, at least got to experience it. They got to take something away from it. The Grindstone got dropped into the middle of an extremely large lake and boy did we make some ripples.

Today is October 5th. It's not a date many people could recall many details about, but for me it's always going to be special, even if I wasn't actually there the first night. I hope that everyone who got to experience the Grindstone in their own way feels that way, too. That sometime when the air is just right and someone notices it's a Saturday night, that they can just know that the Grindstone is happening in the same place it always has been.

Everyone night is anyone's night. This coming Saturday, it's everyone's night.

[kinopioa]

It's fascinating seeing people go "I miss the wild west era of the internet" and then learn they were born in 2003

Like fuck off. By the time you're 6 it was dead. The cutoff is around 06/7, and even that's debateable to have ended earlier

If we're being brutally honest-

1993-1998: True Wild West. Not much could happen due to limited tech, but it was completely unmonitored. I'm honestly surprised to find archives of old chats on Google

1998: The Coppa act is established, further taking effect in 2000. This made people aware that kids can access the internet. Teens barely gave a shit, though it made corporations more aware of them, and how to consider them for a market. It also unfortunately promoted age fraud to access barred login sites

1999-2005/6: User oriented era. This is when a lot of custom sites, blogs, and forums popped up, as well as many image hosting sites that are sadly defunct now. Google being a popular search engine further encouraged discovering these user made sites. Contrary to popular belief, user sites were mostly made and "moderated" by edgy kids and teens, so you WILL see the opinion of a 14yr old. Incidentally, due to domains being expensive, a lot of these teen made forums and personal sites died extremely fast, ignoring raids, doxxing, and flamewars

Video sharing while possible also was really crappy for quality...except for

User created flash games and anims enabled a massive spread of content. Newgrounds was a popular hosting spot. Shame Flash died

Outside that, we least we got bbphp as a solid forum template be popularized after many other ones died. For those less tech savvy, in 2003

We got social media. This was the main goto till smartphones and Twitter got popularized after 2006, and still was going strong until mid 2010s. Despite older netiquette of being encouraged to not post anything indentifiable about yourself, many users expressed themselves with music tastes and eventual personal blogs

2005/6: YouTube is released, as well as Dailymotion. Bootlegged Newgrounds anims popped up for uploads, but also shared tv show clips

Fun thing, before mid 2010s, users can only upload at max 15min of video

Similarly around 2005, Reddit similarly sparked up. More modern image hosting sites spurred around 2007/8

~~~

But regardless, the public internet already changed massively after 2000. Web 2.0 was already a term from 1999 that described the change, with it being redefined for it occuring around 2004. I think one thing not noticed, the development of this tech mostly happened in the UK, due to general smaller population and faster telocommunication services compared to the US at the time. This similar impacted the type of audience that used this

I see people longing for a freer internet, and I agree online corporate control is shitty. But the dretches of humanity has severely stunted user diversity and interest, same with over prioritizing skill over general good collaboration and behavior. The modern tech bro absolutely not giving a shit for the userbase or societal problems and being very selfish can unfortunately be traced here. Same for rsmpant political misinformation being unmoderated, and early 90s fandom woes still having a negative impact on some franchises

I see dumbass self censoring like "unalive" on sites, and it's not even enforced. It's just stupid assumption that advertisors care so much

Which brings the question, why are we trying to heavily get into monetizing expression? I genuinely feel Ytube enabling users to do so is exactly why user content got obnoxious after 2013 when it got popular. Unfortunately it's way too late to undo that. Many rely on the monetizing

Though I find it funny when people ignore just...making their own site to bypass the censorship. bbphp again is open source, and there are many other online web creation tools. I can't even say the rise of tech illiteracy is why, tech illiterate people aren't the ones complaining of sites crapping out

Anyway, if you miss pre algorithm search engines results leading to you finding random shit, try this;

Unfortunately the reducing of child safe sites is another convo

[yuseirra]

Hello~ I have something to say because there's been something that's been on my mind, leaving me very depressed and concerned for the past couple months. I've been trying my best to be cheerful and uplifting but it's hurting me so much I just can't stand it...I have to be true to myself and let it all out, I feel like a stone's being pushed onto my chest, and I won't feel better without addressing it somewhere, so please pardon me, okay?

I'd been drawing a lot of project moon's fanworks earlier, remember how there's been an incident regarding limbus company and the artist being fired and whatnot? and then there's this stuff going about how fingers are drawn in maplestory, I have no idea about the details but something happened in arknights?? too? I don't play that game but still, well I'd been seeing a lot of these stuff happen for the past couple of months and since I come from a country where that's directly being taken place, I saw a lot of it happen firsthand except for some recent ones, it made me to go terminate my twitter which I had for a decade (I think I had it since 2013 or 2014. not that it matters now anyway, but I miss my friends I had there so much.)

I'm really hurt. It pains me so much to see people dig up a tweet someone's made several years ago using some kind of data crawler or archive and decide to get the mass to bring down a person over it, a person has many sides, how can you determine how exactly someone's feeling about something? and how can it lead to things like death threats, how can people be so eager to make someone "pay", I understand that people can be frustrated over some things, but where's the limit of these things? I felt so threatened and scared and upset, nothing bad's happened to me in person. All I've experienced is kindness and I am very grateful about it, but I can't say I'm not affected. Seeing a lot of things going around secondhand's been enough to put me through a lot of stress.

Some of my videos regarding projmoon's works had been very popular, you may have seen them if you're in the fandom! I used to be very proud of it. Now I'm upset and scared and I am pained, why can't I be as proud of them as I used to be, I put all my love into it back then. It's a terrible feeling. I have mixed feelings about having it up on my channel.. there's a part of me who love my works a lot.. and is happy about it having been able to give a lot of people joy. People have been enjoying it, and they've all been so kind about it. And then there's another part of me wishing I never made it in the first place because it really hurts and I'm reminded of these incidents whenever I see them. Which is such a pity, since I did a really great job with those. I'm still getting new comments with people telling me they are so impressed and all I could think about now is the.. all the, I don't know what to call all that..,

I'm scared that people might come after me and accuse of me being someone I am not, try to dig up my old tweets and find me problematic for doing something unfavorable for the fandom(not that I've said or done anything harmful in the past, I'm sure of that..I've ALWAYS tried my best to spread love when I could. I am confident about that.) maybe I'm being full of myself. Maybe people don't care about me or my works as much and I'll be okay but I have no idea how things will play out. I've been holding out till now, no one can say I didn't try..the fact that I've been keeping my works up there, I've been trying very hard to be strong in my own way (but at the same time I also felt like a coward for remaining in the status quo)

earlier I saw yt recommending me that library of ruina is getting a switch edition and I get reminded of all these stuff, I can't bear it. It hurts me so much. I've been holding this all in by myself since last july, maybe I'll have to take the videos down to make me feel better, but I'm not sure if I'll be safe that way. I deleted my twitter and now it comes to this, I won't delete my tumblr though. I love my experience as yuseirra and I'm happy for all I've received. I wish I could continue feeling that way, I want to believe in people, I want to care for them, and I don't want to think people will try to come after me and hurt me over the choices I make. So let me be strong, whatever I do, I'll do my best to be that way.

Thank you very much!! Lots of love!!

[fireleaptfromhousetohouse]

Old-style Paedoing, Before It Got Such A Bad Name

Epistemic status: understanding the recent past, which I wasn’t around for, mainly through the lens of comedies, rumour, and scuttlebutt

The story goes that it was an open secret for many years that Sir Jimmy Savile, knight of the realm, was a horrible sex pervert before it all came to light and he was declared a posthumous monster. And this is true - but the specifics are rather vague.

A lot of sources (or, as they are now, brave prescient voices) were bang-on certain he was into some kind of sex crime, but weren’t sure exactly what. Viz simply painted him as a man whose (unspecified) confessional was worth hearing. An early Mitchell and Webb bit came in on some shocking report midway through, leaving the actual deeds as a noodle incident but quite clear they were appalling: ‘you think you know a guy, and then he goes and does something like that.’ Even Johnny Rotten, back in ‘78, went no further than charging him with ‘seediness’ and saying ‘I know some rumours’ in an edgy-kid stream-of-consciousness about all the people he’d like to kill, where he displays a bit too much knowledge about what does and doesn’t constitute libel.

The general charge, if any, seemed to be necrophilia. Lee and Herring’s bit where they dressed as Savile ended with the punchline ‘bagsy I take him to the morgue’. One of Irvine Welsh’s earlier novellas has a Cornish Savile-alike wantonly indulging in any corpse he had access to - Welsh’s version is a more general TV personality rather than specifically a children’s entertainer, probably for fear of litigation. This was no idle fear, Savile was well-known for taking such insinuations courtside, and of course he did sue when Chris Morris falsely announced his death on Radio 1, with the coda ‘the patients [at Savile hunting ground Stoke-Mandeville Hospital] are far from mourning...The majority, if not all of them, are extremely relieved that he’s now dead, although I suspect that some of them will be sorry that he didn't suffer a great deal more’.

Interestingly, Lee and Herring - as they’ve stated publicly - weren’t brave prescient voices. Hanging around Television Centre in their mid-twenties, they’d become aware of this - to them, absurd - rumour that Savile troubled the corpses. They decided that if nothing else it was game for a laugh, presumably with a BBC lawyer standing nervously in the wings and demanding they not get too specific.

Until Savile’s death, this remained a rather murky Soviet truth, and Savile himself remained a respected public figure. Within the third millennium, even as Chris Morris was being castigated for the Paedogeddon special of Brass Eye, BBC brightly-coloured-blobs children’s show The Tweenies had one of its blobs dress up as Savile as a bit of lighthearted fun - in an edition of the show which was, unwisely, repeated in 2013.

(Side note: the same tabloids which threw an ape over the obviously satirical Paedogeddon regularly ran pictures of topless 16-year-olds, until a change in the law in 2003 forced them to stop.)

It’s all out now, of course, but like the sun is one of those things people are wary of looking at directly for fear of the damage it could do. Savile made full abuse of his position as a public figure, to the point that he himself admitted to the necrophilia in idle conversation. Even by the loose standards of the British constabulary they admit there were over 200 actionable complaints made against Savile over the years.

The crux is this - Savile having committed all these beyond-the-pale acts becomes a very convenient way to paper over the point at which, in the broader consciousness, paedophilia went from ‘crime’ to ‘unforgivable, lowest-circle-of-hell crime’ in the vein of necrophilia. Because it was far more acceptable not too long ago, as many legendary musicians can attest. Gary Glitter generally just seemed shocked people were suddenly taking it so seriously - as did Jeffrey Epstein. 

Louis Theroux’s rather regretful pair of documentaries about Savile has the man himself being quite blase about his attitude to underage girls - as were the girls themselves, some of whom, while young at the time, were by their own account quite aware what might be on the cards. Does this make them culpable? Of course not, they were children. But there are those who would disagree. At the time, many would have and did disagree - including, quite likely, serving police constables. The Rotherham grooming gang, so beloved a talking point of those who just want to have a go at Pakistanis in general, were enabled top to bottom by a police force who considered their victims to be ‘slags’.

[scarecrowmax]

misc. tag game...

Thank you for the tag @the-cinnamontography-is-amazing <3

a band you don’t like that many others do:

not technically a band but taylor swift. i just never really liked her music and i find her so overplayed that it's actually gotten to the point i get annoyed when i hear it played.

a childhood memory that you remember vividly:

one day i came home from school after we got to visit the school library and i borrowed the bailey school kids book about cupids and so when i got home i laid down on my top bunk and read the whole book and finished just in time for dinner and i was so proud of myself for finishing it so fast until i remembered it was gonna be a full week before we got to go back to the library

least favorite animal and why:

i don't necessarily have a least favorite animal but i guess small dogs? i just find them weirdly unnerving and so often they're so loud and badly trained and not washed often enough so they smell and i just don't really like them

hot fandom take:

just because someone/something is popular in the fandom it doesn't mean it/they're good. sometimes people or concepts just suck either in general or for your experience and it's fine to not interact/block/not consume that content if it isn't doing it for you.

do you wear any jewelry, if so, what’s your favorite piece:

i wear a ring on each hand every day and i wear earrings and necklaces sometimes too. i love my rings, my hands feel naked without them honestly, but my current favorite piece is probably a necklace i made out of a broken ring. it was an adjustable one and one side snapped off so i snapped off the other side, added a jump ring through an open part of it and added a chain. it's a spider holding a skull. its super fun and very different to a lot of my other pieces.

a movie others liked but you didn’t:

i'm not really a fan of the original evil dead trilogy. like the concept is cool but the humor, the stop motion animation, and a lot of the deadite makeup is just not really my taste. i do love the 2013 movie though. big fan of that one.

three things you love about yourself:

i've learned to be just okay at things and still have fun doing them, i have really pretty eyes, the fact i make a lot of things be it food or crafts or fandom stuff i just like making things

a place you hope to visit in the future and why:

i'd love to visit somewhere outside the us sometime because i never have before

an actor that gets on your nerves and why:

there's several and honestly it's either their energy or they did some fucked up shit and im tired of people talking about them. im not gonna name names though.

things you’re excited for in the nearby future?:

i'm gonna see a band I really like on the 17th of next month and it's gonna be so great because it's a small venue so I'll almost assuredly have a great view. plus tickets with service fees were $17.50 a piece which rocks. im spending more on gas to see them than on tickets which i find funny.

least favorite ship in a fandom you’re in:

i have zero interest in naming names here, i'll keep that in my exclude tags lists on ao3

what’s the most toxic fandom you’ve been in?:

i don't think i'm actually in any. i don't interact with shit like that because i'm in fandoms to have fun and enjoy shit so i stay out of drama and will block people who suck and then forget they exist

list three things you find beautiful about life:

people care about each other even when we don't know each other, there's a million little joys to be found in life, you can meet someone and have a great time together at an event and never speak again but you'll remember them fondly and do it over and over again.

any dreams for the future?

uhhhh, not really? I've never been a big dreamer. i'm a day by day girlie from way back

how are you really feeling today?

not too bad, i was good earlier but i played a couple video games too long earlier and now my ability to focus my eyes is a little screwy and I've got a bit of a headache

tag you're it if you're up for it @rossmccallsqueen @fromcrossroadstoking @tvserie-s-world

[thewolfruns]

get to know the author!

name : lucia

pronouns :  she/her

preference of communication : i like a tumblr im at first, but then it's discord once we know one another/are mutuals. i'm super adhd/working/a mom, so it's easy for me to lose track thinking i've responded to messages that really i just read and then replied in my head to. so don't be afraid to double message me.

most active muse :  hmmm, i'm not sure who is most active? maybe blanca, since she's a newer one and i'm trying to figure her out.

experience / how many years : oh, gosh. well, i've sort of rped earlier than tumblr, but it was a long time ago. i'd say i started on tumblr in maybe 2013? 2012? i ran a game of thrones fashion blog lmao and an rp hit me up for a promo. i was like, this seems cool and joined. then i joined hellstate in 2015, which was a zombie rp and where i met velouria! we've been writing together ever since both in groups and indie.

best experience : i miss group rp a lot sometimes, because of the shared universe and like community there. i think hellstate was my best experience and like 2015 hellstate was peak. there's so much like shared lore and it's really fun when a group works. velouria has had quite a few amazing brainchildren we've built together, so maybe another fave would be southboundhq, which deserved so much more time! now we work on verses and that's p great. aside from that, i've really been enjoying this account since i started fresh. i've got quite a few people to write with who seem both interested in worldbuilding/their own muses and in mine as well. so thank you all!

rp pet peeves : oh, gosh. weird vocabulary fads? like eyes being called hues. there's nothing really wrong with it, but it makes me laugh at how things like that really catch on in the rpc. when folks don't have much to add in plotting conversations and it feels sort of like you're the only one keeping the conversation going. i feel too awkward! i can't do it!

fluff, angst, or smut : oh, gosh, angst. i don't write smut and i'm not really super into fluff either? unless it's like a little meme answer or drabble, which can be a nice refresher. but i'm here for the horror and drama okay.

plots or memes : i like a loose plot, but i'm very go with the flow. it's more exciting though to have an idea where we're going with something. i think that's why my open starters are so long lmao because i need to paint a clear picture of where it's going.

long or short replies : i like a short reply for when i'm trying to break out of a writer's block or, like right now, dusting off my writing cap. they almost always turn into much longer replies though. i can't stop myself. i want like 87 paragraphs and i have no chill.

time to write : has to be nighttime, babies. i have a pretty great couple hours like 8 nights a month where i can really get to writing. it's always after my kiddo goes to sleep and my spouse is working (unless we're like parallel playing and he's gaming or cooking or something, then i get a little more time).

are you like your muses : oh, there's definitely aspects of myself in most of my muses. or people i know. or i write muses to work through certain things (i.e. neve has a lot of job similarities/family history for working through some trauma, nadja has some old punk rock memories and sort of an amalgamation of old friends and my mom, miguel has sort of similar personality to my partner, etc.) i sort of just steal elements from myself or people i know and mold them together into someone new. but i don't think i share like an overall personality with any of them.

tagged by: @missmvrder

tagging: @someotherdog , @wynterlanding , @mutatedangels , @peachyuus , @mctionsick , @aliasmultimuse , and anybody else! tagging folks gives me anxiety lmao. i hate leaving people out.

[jasper-rolls]

Media Roundup (January 2024)

i started doing a thing on twitter in 2022 where i make a short review of the stuff i'm checking out. i've stopped doing it on twitter because twitter sucks, and started on bluesky instead, but i also realized i could translate it to tumblr, and why haven't i done that before because this is the OG, man, can't forget my roots.

so without further ado, STUFF I LOOKED AT THIS JANUARY!!

MARIO KART WII

I'm using tilt controls! The pain is neverending!

what an awful time. i really remembered enjoying this as a kid, but i'm baffled at how. no game in the series has been this bad in being a total crapshoot whether you win or not. even in 100cc, the game was absolutely exploding my fucking spot for the crime of being in like...5th place. the item balancing on this game is completely broken in the AI's favour, and combined with the wonkiness of the tilt controls, made for a genuinely miserable experience.

Ambient 2: The Plateaux of Mirror - Harold Budd and Brian Eno

so, a bit more of the same as the first album of the series, but i'm happy to go along with a bit more of the same considering they were basically establishing the genre here. a relaxing soundscape you can chill out to

best tracks: "An Arc of Doves", "Among Fields of Crystal"

The Great Gatsby (2013)

i think i just stan for baz luhrmann. love too meld modern music with art deco aesthetics and depict the rise and fall of an era of glorious decadence. hey is it gay to be uncomfortably obsessed with a guy you knew for all of one summer

Ambient 3: Day of Radiance - Laraaji

i think maybe my favourite of the series thus far, taking ambient from a traditional instruments direction rather than the pillowy electronic notes of the other entries. it results in a unique soundscape that i don't think you get in a lot of other places - it feels like meditating in a temple.

best tracks: "The Dance #1", "Meditation #1"

Chapterhouse Dune - Frank Herbert

is it weird to say that i find this thematically a fine end to the series despite the cliffhanger? it feels like frank herbert managed to make a summation of the dune philosophy in this. also probably the best a book has ever passed the bechdel test. women do be politically manipulating

The Get Down

feels like an actual crime that this never ended up getting a season 2. so fantastically good with the soundtrack to end all soundtracks, and gave me an appreciation for hip-hop that i'd not really had prior to now. this show is amazing at getting you to understand the art, Capital A Art of mixing and scratching. the magic is real

Pokémon Emerald

there are some mild hitches in the user experience (please shed the fucking item limit, and also three water HMs is too fucking many) but overall i think this is where these games start to solidify into something truly great. the way the world design and main path encouraged backtracking to discover new stuff in old places was really nice compared to the previous gens where you just went to a place, did all the stuff and then left forever. additionally, there's some unique locales - water heavy it may be but you ain't getting a city in the trees in johto. along with a fairly involved story all things considered, and a difficulty curve that doesn't blow your dick off, its a great time

Elvis (2022)

i'll kind of never not love baz's OTT style and off the wall music choices, and austin butler is a fantastic elvis, but this fudges the details too much for me to truly jive with it i think

Scott Pilgrim - Bryan Lee O'Malley

really should have read this earlier than i did - almost my entire conception of this series was via the movie, and while i loved it at the time, it just ends up doing such an injustice to the original story. multiple times i found myself yelling "WHY WASN'T THIS IN THE MOVIE", ramona gets such a shaft in the film than how deeply she's developed here. what a fantastic series

Ambient 4: On Land - Brian Eno

a darker take on ambient. it's nice to know that even this early in the genre eno was exploring its boundaries. i think 3 remains the favourite, but this was an interesting experiment

best track: "The Lost Day"

Tales of Destiny

i think partly this is because i played the remake of phantasia which came out after this, but it feels stiff and awkward to play - not unbearable, but they're still working out the kinks. plot was interesting to start but ended up kinnnd of generic in the end. i would say it needed more time in the oven to take true advantage of its story, but it turns out the english PSX version cut out like...half the fucking content from the OG, so i guess i'll have to play the director's cut remake to find out whether this game truly shines

---------

and that's it for now. see you at the end of feb

[pkmnprideflags]

Rambling about the Pokémon timeline

No flag edit today, folks. Last night I casually visited Bulbapedia and had my entire brain exploded, so I'm gonna make a rambly post about how Pokémon characters now have (somewhat) official birth years.

Putting it under the cut because it's like very long. Also, this post may be edited several times as I see new info.

For those unaware of the Pokémon timeline, here is the info that we knew for several years (if you want to know more, here's the Bulbapedia page I'm getting this from):

RBGY/FRLG and RSE/ORAS take place at the same time. (Note: ORAS is excluded from most of these timelines due to inconsistencies and multiverse stuff, but I'm keeping it here because why not.)

GSC/HGSS takes place three years after the above games, and at the same time as DPP/BDSP.

There is an unspecified time jump between the Johto/Sinnoh games and Black & White.

B2W2 takes place two years after BW, and at the same time as XY.

SM/USUM takes place two years after BW/XY.

LGPE's canonicity is under fierce debate due to timeline issues. In that game, Red/Leaf (or Green, whatever they're calling her now) and Blue have already completed their journeys, but a line of Sabrina's dialogue alludes to her meeting a strong Trainer in three years. This is an allusion to the Johto protagonist, implying that LGPE takes place not long after RGBY. However, Mina appears in that game. Her listed age in concept art is 3-6 years younger than she is in SM, which is long after the original Kanto games. (My personal headcanon to fix this: Lillie goes on an adventure in Kanto offscreen at the end of SM. However, Sabrina's dialogue heavily implies she's talking about Ethan/Kris/Lyra and not Lillie.)

Sword and Shield take place an unspecified amount of time after the Alola games (Silvally's SwSh Pokedex entry mentions there being many of that Pokémon, but at the end of SM there were only three in existence).

Legends: Arceus takes place no later than 300 years before DPP/BDSP.

For years, this was all we had, and the unspecified gap between the Johto-Sinnoh and Unova games was all we had. However, Bulbapedia found an obscure book from 1996 that offers a solution.

The Pocket Monsters Encyclopedia was a Japanese-only illustrated Pokémon guidebook published when Red & Green first came out. Though it's old, a lot of its information still fits with current Poke-canon. (For example, the book mentions Nidorans being able to breed but their later evolutions being unable, when the breeding mechanic still didn't exist.)

The book holds a lot of weird and interesting lore, but the tidbit relevant to the timeline mystery is that it states that Porygon was created one year before the events of Red & Green. This is relevant because Porygon's SM dex entry says that it was created 20 years ago. If we take that as an exact figure (which it might not be, but whatever, let's jump to conclusions), then that means SM takes place 19 years after RGBY/FRLG. Do some quick math, and you get that there are 12 years between the events in Johto-Sinnoh and BW. Hurrah!

However, if we're now taking this book as canon, there's something important we can't overlook. This book explicitly states that Red & Green take place in 1996, and Porygon was invented in 1995. This may not sound revolutionary, as games usually take place around the time they're published, but this means we now have year dates for the entire series:

Red/Leaf's journey and the Hoenn games take place in 1996

The Johto & Sinnoh games take place in 1999

Black & White take place in 2011

Black 2, White 2, X, and Y take place in 2013

The Alola games take place in 2015

At minimum, Sword & Shield take place in 2016

If we're using Mina's age as our indicator of canon, Let's Go takes place between 2009 and 2012

Legends Arceus takes place no earlier than 1699

Using this timeline, we can estimate the birth years and current ages of any Pokemon characters with confirmed ages. And I'm a timeline nerd who loves this kinda stuff, so Let's Hecking Go.

Red & Blue (and presumably Leaf) were said to be 11 in the Japanese manuals for the Gen I games and 10 in the European releases. This would mean they were born in 1985-86. If we count Let's Go as canon, then they were between the ages of 23 and 27 in those games. They look too old for that, but LG's art style makes everyone look way younger than they are, so who knows. And finally, in their appearances in Sun & Moon, our boys are 29-30 years old. We stan millennial kings. Imagine them hanging out with 11-year-old Hau and being confused about Vines

ORAS says in those Pokenav news report things [I forgot what they're called lol] that Brendan/May is 12 and Wally is 10. This means that MC was born in 1984 and would be 31 by the events of Sun & Moon. Wally should have been born in 1986 and would be 29...except he appears in the Alola Battle Tree still looking like a kid. Uh...maybe that was a past alternate universe him? A Hoopa did it???

There's another characters whose age is confirmed in ORAS: Steven Stone. He says in that game that he is 25. This would mean that he was born in 1971, and is 44 years old by Sun & Moon. Nintendo pls give us middle age steven

The Johto & Sinnoh characters have no specific canon ages, but the default age for Pokémon protags and rivals is 10-12, so we'll go with that. These kids were probably born between 1987 and '89, and would be between 26 and 28 by SM.

Hilbert/Hilda, Cheren, and Bianca are 14-15 years old during their adventure. They were born in 1997-98 and are at least 18-19 in modern canon. Our first Gen Z members of the cast.

N is 20 during BW. He was born in 1991 and would be at least 24 in current canon.

Nate/Rosa, Hugh, Serena/Calem, and the Kalos rivals have no specified age, but since the previous Unova protags were older, I'll calculate an age range of 10-15 for them. In that case, they were born between 1998-2003, and by Alolan times would be 12-17.

(Note: for a while there was a statement going around Bulbapedia that the Japanese versions of XY state that the protag is 17-18; however, that info has since been removed. I don't speak Japanese so I can't verify that, but if it's true, then the Kalos gang gets bumped up to 1995-6, and would be 19-20.)

Selene, Elio, Hau, and Lillie are canonically 11, so they were born in 2004. Gladion's exact age is unknown, but he's older than his sister, so I'd guess 2001-2003.

Due to SwSh's dubious place in the timeline and the protags/rivals not having canon ages, I'm just gonna leave that alone.

Chase/Elaine and Trace have no canon ages, but look to be on the younger side of 10-12; I'd guess they were born sometime from 1997-2002.

The protag of LA is estimated to be about 15. We don't know what world/time the protag comes from, so we can't say anything for them. However, if their rival is assumed to be the same age, then they must have been born about no later than 1684.

Edit: I found a few more characters with confirmed ages. Professor Birch is 35 in ORAS; this means he was born in 1961 and would be 54 by SM/USUM.

Professor Rowan is 60 during Lucas/Dawn's journey. He was born in 1939 and is 76 by the Alola games. Hopefully he's retired by now (although idk what kind of retirement fund system Sinnoh's government has. does the Pokémon world even have governments? it seems like 10-year-old children are allowed to wander with no supervision. but also there's a police force, so somebody has to be controlling them...what even IS the Pokémon world anyway?).

Cyrus is 27 during his shenanigans with Team Galactic (apparently he's a lot older than he looks!). He was born in 1972 and...well, I'm pretty sure he dies so this doesn't matter, but he would be 43. Also, Steven is older than Cyrus. Let that sink in.

Other random timeline stuff we can pin down with this (only including events that happened during times I can reasonably do math for):

The Kalos war and creation of the Ultimate Weapon happened 3000 years before XY, so roughly 987 Poke-BCE. (I assume they must have some Common Era equivalent. Does Jesus exist in the Pokémon world to create this distinction. Did Christ die for our Pokesins?)

The Darkest Day storm in Galar occurred a few years after that.

The Draconid peoples' homes were turned into Meteor Falls in roughly 4 CE.

In roughly 496 CE, the language used in the Ruins of Alph was created.

Rayquaza went Mega for the first time in 996.

Xerneas and Yveltal went dormant in 1213.

Bell Tower and Brass Tower were created in 1299.

Magearna was created in 1515.

Brass Tower burned to the ground and the legendary dogs were created in 1849. (As I'm typing this, I'm realizing that LA takes place before this and yet features Hisuian forms of the dogs. Maybe their Hisuian forms were the Pokémon they were before Ho-oh changed them?)

Professor Rowan's visit to Kanto was in 1995.

What is the point of this information? I dunno, really. Like I said, I'm a timeline nerd and I like to have all this stuff laid out. If you wanna use it for an actual practical purpose, feel free, but do credit me, because I think I'm the first person to lay all this out.

[icemankazansky]

☝️ T h i s ☝️

YES PLEASE. I realize a lot of you don't understand what the world was like without smart phones, but in the scope of things, they are very new. I did not get a smart phone until 2013, after I graduate from graduate school. Okay? I didn't get my first cell phone full stop until I started high school, and it just made phone calls. Okay? And I am really not that old.

The thing is, the phone thing can be really great in terms of problem solving when you're writing a story. If someone is lost, they cannot Google the address or pull up GPS. They're going to have to ask for directions or figure it out themselves. People do not have communication access to ANYONE 24/7, not even their families or partners. We used to play "phone tag," which was not an actual game but this thing where you would call someone, miss them (bc they weren't home to pick up the landline phone), they would call you back, miss you, etc. This is AMAZING for plot building. Do you know how many plots could be solved in like 10 minutes if all the characters had smart phones? The next time you're watching an old movie (by which I mean like from earlier than 2010), think about that.

There's a couple things I want to show you. OP, I hope you're cool with me expanding your post, because apparently that's what's happening now.

This is a phone directory, commonly known as the Yellow Pages the way tissues are known as Kleenex.

It has two sections: the white pages with the phone numbers and addresses of residents, and the yellow pages with the phone numbers and addresses of businesses.

Notice the logo to the right of the words YELLOW PAGES on the spine. Their slogan was "let your fingers do the walking," because you no longer had to physically go from locale to locale to find something; you could find their number and address in the Yellow Pages. (Also the type is small, and as you can see there's a lot of entries, so you had to slide your finger down the page to keep your place.)

Yellow Pages were free. You'd get a new one on your doorstep every year. They were in businesses. They were in phone booths, tethered to the booth by a steel cable. (See the first gif in the original post.) Libraries had directories from other cities and all around the world.

You know voicemail? Not in the 1980s you didn't. These are answering machines:

This is a separate machine from your landline telephone that you would connect and would pick up calls if you didn't answer the phone. For some reason, many of them came in wood paneling please don't ask me why. You would record an outgoing message that would play when the machine picked up, and then it would beep and people could leave their message. Most machines played all of this out loud while it was recording, so you could "screen calls" by listening to the message being left, and decide if you wanted to pick up when you heard the speaker and their message. (Because guess what: No caller ID, either.) If you picked up and spoke while the tape was still engaged, it would also record YOU until you went over the allotted time. If you can't think of how that can make a fun plot point, there's nothing I can do to help you, I'm sorry.

Answering machines had to be plugged in, and they recorded on cassette tapes. These are cassette tapes:

They also played music or audiobooks, etc. By the mid-'80s, cassettes were outselling vinyl, for many reasons including their portability. Lots of people still had and played vinyl regularly in their houses or businesses in the '80s, but cars had cassette decks, and there were portable cassette players you could take with you other places. This is a personal cassette player, a Walkman:

and this is a boom box, which played the music out loud so you could share it with others:

Both of them ran on batteries, the alkaline kind that you put in a flashlight or remote.

That concludes this chapter of my talk on Ancient Technology. I was going to expand on the condom thing but I literally do not have the strength atm. But please know that OP is 100% right, and it's a Very Big Deal.

Maybe it's just me being an actual 80s baby, but this is something you might want to consider when writing og Top Gun fic:

there were no mobile phones in the 80s, no texting, only landlines and blissful in not knowing what was going on while being on the go

mid to end of the 80s was the height of the HIV/AIDS crisis, so let them wrap it up

[thewertsearch]

This panel contains some pretty useful information. We know it's April in the present, and the snow here would suggest it’s between November and January. In other words, 3-5 months is what this comic considers 'months, but not many.' 

In other-other words, the Vagabond's timeframe is probably about 3-5 years in the future - about 2013.

GG: did you get johns present yet? TT: I just opened it this very moment. What a stunning coincidence you would ask about it now. I am stunned. GG: yeah i know!!

GG isn't even trying to hide it, and Rose is so used to having a seer friend that she's getting sarcastic about it. These kids lead weird lives, don't they? The more I see, the less surprised I am that they're taking Sburb in stride.

TT: I suppose I'll take a stab at learning the craft. TT: It's the least I can do in response to the subtle dig concealed in his gesture. TT: He often tells me I "need a new hobby" when I make perfectly reasonable analytical remarks.

Dang it Rose, he's not your mom! Don't start a sincerity war with John, he'll just prank you until you give up!

GG: i just mailed it too so it is sure to get there on time GG: mail takes a while to get anywhere from here!!!

I originally thought GG was the closest to John, but it sounds like they're not even in the country. Rose, for her part, isn't sure where they are. Once again, GG seems to be living the least typical suburban life of all these kids.

GG: did you have a pet a long time ago that died? TT: Yes. GG: ok well how did you feel about your cat, did you love him a lot? TT: "ok well", I didn't mention it was a cat, or that it was a male. Let's pretend I'm surprised and you're embarrassed and move on.

OK, sorry, I’ll give GG a little credit. They actually ARE trying to hide it, a little. They're just SO sincere that it's laughable.

GG: what if someone told you you could play a game that would bring him back to life?

Oh my god, Rose did this all for her kitty, didn’t she? 'My feelings are lukewarm' my ass, you’re calling down the apocalypse to bring him back! 

Anyway, let’s talk about the fact that GG apparently set all of this in motion? The kids’ Sburb game is happening because of them! I have to assume GG has some sort of plan here. 

What did your clairvoyance see, GG? Is this entire Sburb game a a precog’s gambit, averting some greater potential threat? I’ve been down that road before, and it takes you to some weird places. Yeah, you can tell people the meteor strikes you caused saved a greater number of people in the long term, but you still got a ton of people killed by meteors. 

Maybe they’re not thinking it through to that extent - they clearly don’t have much control over their power. It could be that GG really did just see Rose reviving Jaspers in-game and nothing else, and is giving what they think is a hot tip. 

But... well, they said they’d never heard of Sburb earlier, and that’s pretty clearly not true, so there’s something going on here that GG’s ‘sincerity’ is masking. 

What even is is your deal, GG? Can we 'psyche' into your PoV anytime soon? Please?

[rinkara]

I watched the 4 hour documentary about the intellivision amico last night and today I'm having what I can only describe as a millenial crisis because I simply cannot hate tommy tallarico despite the numerous acts of extreme cringe and dishonesty he has committed daily for many years. I feel honest empathy for this man. I can only imagine how he must feel to be compelled to lie ALL THE TIME about EVERYTHING and also say yes to literally any request from anyone so they will like him. to be unable to ignore any criticism and do shit like go on some 14 year olds channel just to convince him he is a cool guy. and I also believe he really does care deeply about video games and video game music. he cared so much he fucking hyperfixated on a console that has the goofiest design concept of all time and tried to drag it out of the grave because he had good memories of it. I watched a video games live SDCC highlight video earlier where he was doing the CRINGIEST crowd work and then went and played guitar in a medley from one of my fave video game soundtracks of all time. he said "I love the chrono cross and the chrono trigger" in JULY 2013 and I have not forgotten this line TO THIS DAY. to people of a certain age I think he really was a hero in some way, and that's why he got away with it for so long. no one wanted him to be wrong. even now I still wish he had just STOPPED FUCKING UP and let himself be a goofy guy who made some cool contributions to video games instead of being driven to clown himself into the very core of the earth. he will never recover. and I feel bad for him. DON'T WATCH THE 4 HOUR AMICO VIDEO YOU'LL NEVER FEEL NORMAL AGAIN